Human Bomb

Human Bomb
The Human Bomb (center) on the cover of Freedom Fighters #1 (April, 1976) artist Ernie Chan
Publication information
Publisher	Quality Comics, later DC Comics
First appearance	(Lincoln) Police Comics #1 (August 1941) (Franklin) Crisis Aftermath: The Battle For Blüdhaven #1 (June 2006)
Created by	(Lincoln) Paul Gustavson (creator) (Franklin) Justin Gray (writer) Jimmy Palmiotti (writer) Dan Jurgens (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	- Roy Lincoln - Andy Franklin
Team affiliations	(Both) Freedom Fighters (Lincoln) All-Star Squadron Black Lantern Corps (Franklin) S.H.A.D.E.
Abilities	Talented chemist Fine hand to hand combatant Biochemical explosion generation Prolonged lifespan

The Human Bomb is a fictional superhero published by DC Comics. He first appeared in Police Comics #1 (August 1941), and was created by writer and artist Paul Gustavson.

The Human Bomb was first published by Quality Comics in the 1940s, and decades later by DC Comics after it acquired Quality's characters. Police Comics #1 also featured the first appearances of Plastic Man and the Phantom Lady, among others.

Roy Lincoln was originally a scientist working with his father on a special explosive chemical called "27-QRX." However, when Nazi spies invaded his lab and killed his father, he resorted to ingesting the chemical to prevent it from falling into their hands. As a result, Lincoln gained the ability to cause explosions in any object he came into contact with, particularly through his hands; the only way to control it was to always wear special asbestos gloves (which were subsequently retconned into "Fibro-wax" gloves after the human health hazards of asbestos were discovered). Donning a containment suit to prevent any accidental explosions, Lincoln became the "Human Bomb," removing his gloves only to expose his explosive powers against Nazi and Japanese enemies, as well as ordinary criminals. He later gained enough control over his powers to be able to remove the containment suit, though the gloves were always necessary.

A Human Bomb feature continued in Police Comics through issue 58, published in September, 1946. During that run, he was given a comic relief sidekick named "Hustace Throckmorton," who acquired a power like the Human Bomb's (though instead centered in his feet) after receiving an emergency blood transfusion from the superhero. Throckmorton was then briefly replaced by three youngsters who were collectively called "the Bombardiers."

After Quality Comics went out of business in 1956, DC Comics acquired the rights to the Human Bomb as well as the other Quality Comics properties. The Human Bomb remained unpublished until he and several other former Quality properties were re-launched in Justice League of America #107 (October, 1973) as the Freedom Fighters. As was done with many other characters DC had acquired from other publishers or that were holdovers from Golden Age titles, the Freedom Fighters were located on a parallel world, in this case called "Earth-X" on which Nazi Germany won World War II. The team were featured in their own series for fifteen issues (1976-1978), in which the team temporarily left Earth-X for "Earth-1" (where most DC titles were set). The Human Bomb was then an occasional guest star of All-Star Squadron, a superhero team title that was set on "Earth-2", the locale for DC's WWII-era superheroes, at a time prior to when he and the other Freedom Fighters were supposed to have left for Earth-X.