Flambe was a fire-wielding enemy of Rocket.
History
The fiery menace known as Flambe was once an ordinary employee at a Burger Barn restaurant located on Paris Island, Dakota City's poorest, most dangerous neighborhood. His life was changed forever on the night of what should have been a normal graveyard shift at the Burger Barn. His commute from Dakota proper to Paris Island required him to cross the Tenth Avenue Bridge. When he neared the Paris Island side of the bridge, he saw a huge number of police officers running toward him. Thinking he was in trouble, the employee ducked behind a bridge trestle to avoid the police. He then realized what the cops were fleeing when he was enveloped by a strange green gas that killed everyone it touched. Miraculously, the employee was unharmed and promptly ran to the Burger Barn, where he could sort out what had happened.
When the employee arrived at the Burger Barn, he found it was deserted, having just missed the end of his shift. After all the weirdness he had seen, the employee wanted to leave Dakota immediately and then raided the cash register for "vacation funds." Unfortunately, the restaurant's manager, Matty, was working in his office after hours and caught the employee red-handed. Pulling out his gun, Matty ordered the employee to return the stolen cash, marched him to the kitchen, and then shoved his left hand into the still hot grease of the deep fryer. The employee shrieked in pain as he was thrown out by Matty, who swore to kill him if they ever crossed paths again.
The employee spent the next week in intensive care at a local hospital, recovering from his injuries and piecing together what happened that fateful night. From news reports and hearsay, the employee learned that he had witnessed the Big Bang. Upon release from the hospital, he discovered that he was also a Bang Baby, who could turn his body into "living grease" as well as mentally control fire. His bizarre powers were due to the Quantum Juice in his bloodstream combining with the burning grease that injured his hand. The employee now realized that he had the power to get whatever he wanted, and what he wanted most was revenge against Matty. Befitting his new abilities, he renamed himself Flambe.
After spending a year honing his powers, Flambe boldly returned to the Burger Barn to confront a surprised Matty. Drawing his gun, Matty order Flambe to leave, but the latter instead taunted his former boss. Furious, Matty fired several shots into Flambe, whose grease-like form harmlessly absorbed the bullets. Flambe then thanked Matty for playing an unwitting role in his transformation into a Bang Baby. With that, Flambe changed his left hand into grease, set it on fire, and proceeded to burn down the Burger Barn, not caring about the innocent customers he was endangering.
Among the customers were Darnice and Raquel Ervin. While Darnice helped the other customers and Matty escape the burning restaurant, Raquel donned her Rocket costume and then went into battle against Flambe. However, the fight quickly proved a stalemate since Rocket's kinetic energy blasts were ineffective against Flambe's liquid form while she proved to fast and nimble to be hit by his fiery blasts. This changed when Flambe was set on fire after accidentally backing into a shorting electrical outlet that he damaged during his rampage. Flambe initially panicked since he had never set his entire body on fire and thus believed he was going to be completely consumed by the flames. However, he then realized the flames were not harming him and thus used his new power to press his attack against Rocket. Things got worse for Rocket when she set off the Burger Barn's sprinkler system in hopes of dousing Flambe's fire. Instead because they were fueled by Flambe's grease-based form, the flames grew more intense when exposed to the water and Rocket soon found herself trapped in a section of the Burger Barn not on fire.
Gloating, Flambe asked Rocket if she had any last words before her death, but he then was distracted by a returning Darnice, who hit him with a blast from a fire extinguisher. Flambe's fire was not only doused, but the intense cold from the extinguisher rendered his grease-like body immobile. Darnice and Rocket then left the frozen Flambe to be picked up by the Dakota Police.[1]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Body Conversion-Grease: Flambe possesses the superhuman ability to convert his body into grease by mental command. The grease functions identically to, and appears to be, normal flesh. However, he can convert all or parts of his body into animated grease at will. His brain has attained subliminal awareness of all droplets of his body. Through conscious effort, he can affect the degree of molecular cohesion between the numerous adjoining surfaces of his droplets and thus cause locomotion of discrete volumes, down to the individual droplets.
- Density Control: His radically mutagenically altered body composition enables him to compact or loosen the droplets of grease that make up his form. Consequently, he can disperse his body so that he becomes invulnerable to physical attacks. A favorite tactic of Flambe is making himself slightly dispersed when an opponent punches him, and then making himself solid again, entrapping his opponent's appendage.
- Metamorphosis: He can shape his grease-state body into any continuous shape he can imagine. He can also stretch, deform, expand, flatten or compress some or all portions of his body at will. In his fluid state, he can ooze through even the smallest openings.
- Regeneration: Flambe maintains mental control of the droplets of which his body is composed so that he can reform his scattered droplets unless a substantial portion of his body mass has been isolated.
- Energy Resistance: Because Flambe is composed of living grease, he will ignite if exposed to fire. Strangely, his body is not consumed by the flame, suggesting a psionic ability to shield himself from the full damaging effects of the fire. (see explanation below)
- Pyrokinesis: Flambe also has the psionic ability to cause any fire, however small, to grow in size and intensity. The degree of concentration required is directly proportional to the size, power, and heat intensity of the flame. Flambe has to be able to see the flame in order to take control of it (Flambe cannot affect flames that are not within his vicinity, but which he sees on television.)
Flambe cannot create fire himself though he can cause an already existing fire to grow tremendously. For this reason, he carries a cigarette lighter in order to ignite a portion of his grease-like body, usually a hand, thereby creating fire that he can manipulate. Furthermore, the fire being fueled by Flambe's own body prevents it from being extinguished by conventional means. For example, trying to douse an ignited Flambe with water will cause his flames to scatter in all directions, thus imperiling his opponents instead of himself.
It is speculated that Flambe's pyrokinesis renders him invulnerable to any fire under his control. If true, this would account for why his grease-state form is not consumed when exposed to fire.
Weaknesses
- Power Limitation: As previously noted, Flambe cannot create fire, only control it.
- Vulnerability: Like a grease fire, an ignited Flambe is vulnerable to fire extinguishers. Besides extinguishing his flames, these devices often are fueled by cold substances like compressed nitrogen that can solidify his grease-like form, thus immobilizing him.
Related
- Appearances of Flambe (Dakotaverse)
- 1 Images featuring Flambe (Dakotaverse)
- Quotations by or about Flambe (Dakotaverse)
- Character Gallery: Flambe (Dakotaverse)
Footnotes