10 Utterly Ridiculous Comic Book Characters
5. Bouncing Boy
Possibly the Grandfather of ridiculous characters, Chuck Taine, also known as Bouncing Boy, was created by Jerry Seigel and Jim Mooney for Action Comics #276. A hapless delivery boy on 30th Century Earth, instead of delivering his bosses’ super-plastic formula, he went to the sports arena. Taine drank the formula, thinking it was a soda, and gained the ability to super-inflate his body and bounce around like a ball. He applied for the Legion of Super-Heroes and was initially rejected but when he proved effective against an electrical villain, he was inducted.
Bouncing Boy spent as much time without his powers as he did with them. At one point, he proposed and married fellow Legionnaire Duo Damsel and the pair retired due to a rule that members could not be married. At another de-powered interval, he and Luornu took up the jobs as headmasters of the Legion Academy.
In the continuity after Zero Hour, Chuck is given the middle name “Foster” and he has no powers. He is instead an engineer that created a vehicle called “Bouncing Boy” and smashed everything in its path. Oddly the name “Charles Foster Taine” is a play on “Charles Foster Kane”, the lead character in the film “Citizen Kane.” But the name is the only connection. They share no character traits or even similar looks.