Wildfire (comics)

Wildfire
Drawn by Greg LaRocque and Mike DeCarlo in Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 3) #37.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #195 (June 1973)
Created by	Cary Bates (writer) Dave Cockrum (artist)]
In-story information
Alter ego	Drake Burroughs
Species	Metahuman
Place of origin	Earth (31st century)
Team affiliations	Legion of Super-Heroes
Notable aliases	ERG-1, NRG
Abilities	Composed of "anti-energy"; super strength, flight, energy blasts and manipulation, minor object conjuration

Wildfire is a fictional DC Comics superhero. Created by Cary Bates and Dave Cockrum, the character debuted in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #195 (June 1973). The story is set in a fictional universe's 30th and 31st centuries.

Wildfire was immediately popular with readers. At that time, the editors of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes held periodic elections in which readers could choose the Legion's leader. Soon after his introduction, Wildfire was elected to that post. In-story, Wildfire actually lost the election to Superboy, but as no candidate had received a majority of the votes, the membership decided that the Legion needed a member who was available full-time rather than the time travelling, part-time Kryptonian member.

Wildfire was originally Drake Burroughs, an astroengineer. While he was working on a new propulsion system, the unit's safety valve snapped and discharged a blast of anti-matter energy. Burroughs was engulfed instantly but somehow his consciousness survived and Burroughs found himself transformed into a being of pure anti-energy.

Fortunately, his colleagues had on hand a containment suit that could be used to keep Drake's anti-energy from dispersing. Once confined to a specific area, Drake's energy form stabilized and became self-regenerating. He again possessed a semblance of humanoid form; however, he had no mouth, eyes, nose, or ears, but rather a blank metallic faceplate, and lacked the senses of taste and smell. Drake also had vast super-powers, comparable in scale, though not specific expression, to those of a Kryptonian or Daxamite. Some of his powers included super-strength, near-invulnerability, flight at faster-than-light speeds, various enhanced vision powers including x-ray, the ability to create simple, pseudo-solid energy constructs like a Green Lantern (though not nearly as elaborate), the ability to absorb outside energy sources, and the ability to change size from giant to homunculus to normal. Most potent of his abilities was the power to fire energy blasts. He was reluctant to use that ability because of an accident in which he nearly killed his former girlfriend.