Snapper Carr

Snapper Carr
Snapper Carr, art by George Pérez
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	The Brave and the Bold #28 (February–March 1960)
Created by	Gardner Fox (writer) Mike Sekowsky (artist)
In-story information
Full name	Lucas "Snapper" Carr
Team affiliations	Justice League Blasters Young Justice Checkmate
Abilities	Teleportation

Lucas "Snapper" Carr is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character, whose fictional nickname is almost always used by other characters in favor of his given name, was created by Gardner Fox (writer) and Mike Sekowsky (penciller), and made his first appearance in The Brave and the Bold in February 1960. From 1960 to 1969, Snapper Carr appeared as a supporting character to the Justice League of America, a superhero team. The character occasionally appeared in comics featuring the Justice League from 1969 to 1989, when the Invasion! limited-series comic book gave him superpowers. He was associated with a new superhero team, The Blasters, in various comics until 1993, when he lost his powers and became a main character in the Hourman comic book. After the cancellation of Hourman in April 2001, he became a main character in the Young Justice comic book beginning in December 2001. Young Justice was cancelled in May 2003, and he became associated with the governmental organization Checkmate, a role revealed when the character played a small but important role in the 2007-2008 limited series comic book 52 Aftermath: The Four Horsemen. The character made major appearances in Final Crisis: Resist in December 2008 and Justice League of America 80-Page Giant in November 2009.

In 1959, after the successful revival of Flash and Green Lantern, DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz decided to update the Justice Society of America using a new group of heroes under the name Justice League of America (JLA). According to Schwartz, DC Comics Executive Editor Whitney Ellsworth not only insisted that a teenager be a member of the Justice League but also that this teenager be hip. Ellsworth wanted the new superhero team to tap into the emerging and economically powerful youth culture, and specifically told Schwartz to have the character emulate the hip-talking, leather jacket-wearing, finger-snapping "Kookie" Kookson character on the popular television series 77 Sunset Strip. The teenager had to be a "civilian" (e.g., non-superhero). A hip version of an existing teenage superhero, such as Robin, Supergirl, or existing teenage "civilian" such as Jimmy Olsen was ruled out, as these characters would tend to over-emphasize the hero with whom they were already associated. To preserve the "team" nature of the new comic book, therefore, a "neutral" civilian character had to be created.