There are weird comic book characters and then there are really stupid comic book characters and Arm-Fall-Off-Boy probably falls into the latter of these two descriptions. Arm-Fall-Off-Boy’s first appearance was in Secret Origins Vol. 2 #46, in December 1989 in a story based on a fan parody, this came as a bit of a surprise to me as in my mind the character was a throwback to the late 1960’s silliness of DC comics. The characters powers are pretty much as you would expect from his name, he can detach his own limbs and use them as weapons – well I did say he is a pretty stupid character.
Above the splash page from the"Sercret Origins" tale that introduced Arm-Fall-Off Boy to an unsuspecting world. The only thing more surprising than a comic character with these powers was the fact that DC hired Superman legend Curt Swan to illustrated this tale.
Despite the silliness of the character, DC did give Floyd Belkin aka Arm-Fall-Off-Boy a second outing in the pages of “The Legion of Superheroes in the 31st Century “(splash page above at header) which featured tales based on the Warner Bros animated cartoon series of the same name.This was actually a really fun comic expertly illustrated by Shawn McManus as can be seen from the opening page above.
Despite the abusurdity of the character Arm Fall-Off Boy has even been used in movies where his name was changed to TDK (The Detachable Kid) played by Nathan Fillion, a member of the Suicide Squad. And in comics in an attempt to make him more believable, the character was reintroduced as Splitter.
Above the cover to "Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century" Despite my misgivings of the character I actually enjoyed both this comic and Secret Origins # 46.
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The Legion of Super-Heroes seemed to be a playground for exuberant if offbeat creations. The Legion of Substitute Heroes is of course comprised of wacky types. My favorite of them has always been the seemingly useless Stone Boy.
ReplyDeleteArm-Fall-Off Boy Might well have been the inspiration for Gary Kato's Mr. Jigsaw.
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I also like Stone Boy he was certainly a character that could have been put to better use Yeah the Legion certainly had some offbeat characters like Color Kid, Matter Eating Lad etc. I had a great Legion of Substitute Heroes one off by Keith Giffen with all these characters that I will need to look out. Ahh Mr Jigsaw I forgot about him I read one of his stories in an E-Man comic very similar to AFB.
ReplyDeleteThere was also a version of Captain Marvel by M.F. Enterprises who, when he yelled 'Split!', could detach his head, limbs and hands, and reattach them when he yelled 'Xam!' Unsurprisingly, he wasn't around for long.
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