Staggium

{{DC Database:Item Template
 * Image                  = Staggium 001.jpg
 * OfficialName           = Staggium
 * Aliases                = Lafargium
 * Model                  =
 * Version                =


 * Universe               = Earth-One
 * LeadDesigner           = T. T. Trumbull
 * AdditionalDesigners    = Simon Stagg
 * PlaceOfCreation        = Space Station Alpha
 * PlaceOfDestruction     = Grand Canyon
 * Origin                 =


 * Dimensions             =
 * Weight                 =
 * Creators               = Bob Haney; Ramona Fradon
 * First                  = Metamorpho Vol 1 3


 * HistoryText            = Staggium was the name given to two seemingly different materials. Both were named after Simon Stagg ; first for flattery and secondly for egomania.  The first material was created by T. T. Turnbull and it weakened Metamorpho.  The second's creation was contested by Simon Stagg and Rene Lafarge; and gave it birth to a strangling creature when X-rayed.

Who Stole the U.S.A.
Industrialist T. T. Turnbull built a Hall of Elements in the Grand Canyon, containing all the elements, "plus one" which he called Staggium in order to flatter Simon Stagg and have him bring Metamorpho to his lair - Space Station Alpha. The element was refined from a meteorite, and weakened Metamorpho in a similar way to the Orb of Ra. For that reason, Turnbull created the Thunderbird Robot with wings made of pure Staggium, and almost destroyed Metamorpho with it.

The Strangler from the Stars
Years after Simon first encountered Turnbull's Staggium, Stagg synthesized a novel material that he also named "Staggium" in his own honor. When presented with the International Chemistry Prize at the Science Congress, Rene Lafarge jumped up and falsely claimed to have made the same element which he called Lafargium.

The presenter required both Staggium and Lafargium to be "Carbon-14 tested" to establish age; and to fool the test, Lafarge secretly X-rayed his sample. Lafarge's sample had, like Turnbull's before him, come from a meteorite that he had refined, but its cosmic origin meant that X-rays caused a green strangling creature escaped from it, killing a number of people until Metamorpho fired it back into space. This second material, while homicidal, had no deleterious effects on Metamorpho.


 * CurrentOwner           =
 * PreviousOwners         =

}}
 * Notes                  = * It is not possible to "Carbon-14 Test" a pure element that does not contain organic carbon; nor fool the test with X-Rays.
 * Trivia                 = * In 1965, there were 102 named elements; which could have made Turnbull's Staggium either element 102 or element 104 and higher.
 * By 1975, there were 106 named elements; which could have made Stagg's Staggium element 107 or higher.
 * Links                  =