Hero History: Quislet

Or – “Finally, We Find Out What The Deal Is With “That Little Spaceship Guy!”

The Legion of Super-Heroes, throughout the decades, has taken influence from a lot of sources, and often those influences have had as much in common with Star Trek and it’s ilk as it has had with the Justice League or the Avengers.  Certainly the 30th century setting of the team has allowed the Legion to have had more non-human members (Blok, Tellus, Gates, even Dawnstar and Wildfire are quite obviously NOT your average super-goober) than any other super-team, and today’s entrant is one of the most inhuman of all.  Gates may not have been a humanoid, but at least he’s a SOLID.  Of all the Legionnaires, he/she/it brought a truly alien viewpoint to the team, along with an awesome sense of fun and a genuine humor seldom seen since Bouncing Boy and Matter-Eater Lad left the team so many years ago.  Though short in tenure, and small in stature, today’s Legionnaire entrant nonetheless made a mark on the team (and a marked change in one of the most tenured LSHers) that could not be ignored…  This, then, is your Major Spoilers Hero History of  of Teall…  Quislet!

The story of Quislet begins, as they say, ‘in media res,’ during the period of time immediately after the great war with the Legion of Super-Villains.  With Karate Kid dead, and Ultra Boy, Element Lad, Shrinking Violet, Chameleon Boy and Phantom Girl in another dimension, the Legion goes on a recruiting drive, as young heroes from across the galaxies descend upon Metropolis in the hopes of making it into the big leagues.  Some of the recruits come with baggage, (Polar Boy with his years of Legion idolization, Sensor Girl with the support of Saturn Girl) some were familiar faces from the Legion academy (Tellus and Magnetic Kid both came from the ranks of the Montauk Point facilities) but in the midst of all these familiar types came a dark horse candidate…

This is probably the most unusual membership drive the team has ever run (at least in my memory) as most of the Legionnaires are allowed to watch the candidates in action, monitoring their powers and progress, allowing the experienced LSHers to have a good idea what the newbies had to offer.  But none of the Kids and Lads and Lasses quite know what to make of the little “guy” in the tiny spacecraft…

In his first actual mission in our dimension, Quislet quickly takes a lead role against Ontiir, the former leader of the Dark Circle.  Utilizing his extranormal abilities (Quislet can somehow animate matter from our dimension using his own energies) Quis manages to easily engage one of the most dangerous foes of the Legion, a creature who once faced Dev-Em, who was at the time a rogue from Krypton.  More than that, Quislet has something that many Legionnaires notably lack: a strong handle on the trash talk.

Quislet’s dual display of power and bravado turn the tide, and cause even the relatively staid membership of the Legion to vote him in, alongside several others, making them the biggest group of Legion applicants since Jim Shooter wrote Adventure Comics…  And aren’t they a handsome quintet?

Of course, after this brief bit of pomp and circumstance, the new LSH members had to get straight to business, immediately becoming part of mission squads.  On their first actual mission, the five tyros worked together to try and figure out why certain Science Police officers were, to quote Steven, ‘wacky in the wicky woo.’  Quislet quickly establishes his irreverant personality and his straight-shooting way of cutting right to the heart of the matter…

Moreover, when the rookies are caught unawares by a gas attack, only Quislet’s strange alien nature leaves him unaffected and able to act…

Quislet’s battle prowess is a dichotomy, as he falls in the category of Legionnaires who (as Jim Shooter might have it) just point and shoot their powers, but with his animation powers, Quislet is perfectly willing to wade and and crack skulls alongside his more physical teammates as well. 

Quislet also has an impeccable sense of style, personalizing his creations with his symbol (which seems also to be his name, we find out later.)  For all his heroic actions, the creature from Teall isn’t afraid to engage in a little self-promotion…  In fact, he engages in it regularly, and with a glee usually reserved for professional wrestlers and computer hackers.

Heh.  It’s even funnier if you imagine his voice being done by Frank Welker, in the style of Wheelie from ‘Transformers – The Movie.’  Of couse, this does undermine a little bit of his heroic nature, but it’s too funny not to share.  Quislet’s powers also make him uniquely suited to handle crises that might end up being fatal for his teammates, including a bit of impromptu rewiring…

“He pooped right into my computer!”  Boy, the last time I heard that was in college… and the smell didn’t go away for several weeks.  Quislet’s strange nature and tendency towards blunt and brutal analysis of others’ flaws tend to isolate him a bit, but the Legion does have ANOTHER sharp-tongued energy being in their ranks, and it’s only natural that he be the one tasked with trying to figure out the secrets of Quislet.  Enter Wildfire!

The ever-brilliant Christopher Bird made the assessment that all Wildfire dialogue is better when imagined in the voice of Will Smith…  Now, imagine Will Smith arguing with a squeaky voiced scale-model of the Starship Enterprise, and you have some idea of the brilliant ‘Mutt and Jeff’ pairing that the LSH inadvertently created.  Moreover, our man Drake hasn’t a whole lot of patience for Quislet’s frippery.

Wildfire watches, somewhat impressed, as Quislet manages to make quite the showing for himself, showing off his skill as a pilot/acrobat, as well as his quick reflexes, and his ability to animate things and blow ’em up real good.  The Q-man has, as you might suspect, little patience for the strictures and rigor of scientific testing, preferring to go and have himself a little fun.

Finally, after jumping through hoops both literal and figurative, Quislet’s patience is at an end…

Heh.  You have to admire a character iconoclastic enough to test the patience of Wildfire, the Legion’s original outspoken rebel.  Though a bit abrasive, Quislet nonetheless manages to find his place in the Legion, fitting in (sorta kinda) with the weird pink primates (and Blok.)  Strangely, though the alien natures of characters like Tellus and Blok make them stand apart, there’s something incredibly human and likeable about the the little guy in the tin can, especially when the team finally gets some much-deserved downtime.

Soon after, Quislet found himself picked as part of a delegation to Tellus’ home planet of Hykraius, a world entirely encircled by an ocean of methane.  Where some of the Legionnaires couldn’t deal with the strangeness of a liquid atmosphere, it’s all the same to Quislet, who busts robot skulls as though he flies through an atmosphere of purple Windes every day of his life…

Finding the cause of the trouble to be former Legion of Super-Villains member Zymyr, Quislet watches as his teammates are systematically taken out of action.  Zymyr’s super-robots even manage to destroy Wildfire, absorbing his anti-energy form (presumably under the assumption that it can be dispersed.)

But when Quislet leaps to the rescue, the two energy-based LSHers a somewhat surprised to find the corporeal beings compatible.  Possessing the robot that absorbed Wildfire, Quislet realizes that he’s not alone…

The robot is quickly destroyed by their competing energies, but Wildfire finds himself haunted by the experience.  Quislet’s strange radiation has an odd effect on his own post-nuclear self, and Wildfire ends up asking his new teammate for a favor..  Unfortunately, this requires doing something no Legionanire has EVER succeeded in: visiting Quislet’s room.

Having succeeded in turning his quarters into a pocket dimension replicating some of the properties of his home dimension, Quislet decides to do his new friend a favor, and effortlessly does what years of technology, magic, even the mind of Braniac 5 couldn’t perform…

…he creates Wildfire a body!  A real, solid, mostly human body, something that Mr. Burroughs has wanted every day since that generator exploded.  Quislet and Wildfire become something akin to friends after this interaction, and when Quislet finally tells the story of his REAL origins, it’s Wildfire who gets the whole story.  See, Quislet isn’t really a dimensional astronaut.  At least, he wasn’t supposed to be one.  No, Quislet is something even more interesting:  a political dissident.  When the law enforcement officers of Teall finally track down the creature that stole their experiment spacecraft, the drag him back home, only to find Wildfire hot (no pun intended) on their trail!

Quislet, it turns out, is guilty of the most heinous crime that the group mind of Teall can imagine: independent thought.  , like many of his Legionnaire comrades, is even unique amongst his own people.  Wildfire is horrified to watch as the hivemind descends on his little pal…

The mind of Teall is angry about Quislet stealing their ship, but he managed to do something even worse upon his return, bringing an alien to their sacred space.  Quislet’s bacon is saved as the beings of Teall find the existence of Wildfire to be a total sacrilege, and the punishment of their own will have to wait until they’ve absorbed the thing from another world.

Quislet manages to use the distraction to his advantage, covertly recreating the ship that will allow him to return to the thrid dimension, while Wildfire finally gets the whole story of  and his exit from the mind of Teall.

The Teallians (Teallites?) finally overwhelm Wildfire’s Legion training, and prepare to absorb and destroy Drake’s essence, when  takes his cue to strike!  He quickly busts Wildfire free, and the two Legionnaires exercise the better part of valor back towards the portal to Earth.

Now seemingly stuck in his home dimension forever, doomed to a life of sameness, forced to think and act and exist in lockstep with all the others (Quislet comes from Western Kansas?)  has to show his true Legionnaire nature and exercise a power that no one on Teall had ever-faced: the little white lie.

Having made his way back into dat mean ol’ briar patch his mothership,  channels the courage of a Legionnaire, and combines it with his own natural cleverness, to outwit the entire hive mind! 

Poop-a-doop!  Heh…  The little guy manages to race through the collapsar, arriving back at Legion headquarters only a few moments after Wildfire.  And even after going through the ordeal of a lifetime, facing the scorn of his entire people, being forcibly alienated from his home forever, Quislet manages to put a brave face on things and remember how to have fun…

Still, in his time with the Legion of Super Heroes, Quislet managed to raise more than a few eyebrows.  His close friendship with Wildfire notwithstanding, ‘s caustic nature could get a rise out of even the calmest of Legionnaires…

The Legion had been through some seriously dark times in their history, but some of the darkest were yet to come.  One of their earliest and nastiest foes, the Emerald Empress, once again returned to menace the team.  Taking out the team’s heaviest hitters, the Empress made one fatal misstep, one enormous mistake:  She underestimated Quislet.

When in doubt, never underestimate the power of excessive force, faithful Spoilerites.  The Emerald Eye of Ekron, the mystical artifact that overwhelmed the likes of Mon-El, Lobo, even Tom Welling himself, defeated quickly and decisively by the little guy from Teall!  Nice…  Unfortunately, the Empress manages to rally a counterattack, destroying ‘s ship, his only means of existing in the Legion’s strange third dimensional world…

Even on his way out, ‘s overwhelming thought was to remind his partners that it’s not always doom and gloom.  Though perhaps not the easiest Legionnaire to wrap your mind around, Quislet nonetheless brought some important and unique assets to the party.  Though an alien, he was among the most human of all the Legionnaires.  His quick wit, playfulness, and overall fun nature helped to keep his comrades from getting too dark and gritty.  His confidence (bordering on arrogance) in his abilities was second to none, and Quislet remined ever ready to crack a joke, have a party, or blow some $#!+ up.   may not have been the most popular Legionnaire, nor did he have the longest tenure, but his contribution to the team cannot be overlooked, proving once and for all that it’s not the size of the hero in the fight that counts, but instead the size of the fight in the hero.

**If you’ve enjoyed this Hero History, you might want to ‘Read All About It’ at your Local Major Spoilers! Our previous Major Spoilers Hero Histories include:

Andromeda
Blok
Bouncing Boy
Brainiac 5
Chameleon Boy
Chemical King
Colossal Boy
Dawnstar
Dream Girl
Element Lad
Ferro Lad
Gates
Invisible Kid
Invisible Kid II
Karate Kid
Kid Quantum
Kinetix
Kent Shakespeare
Lightning Lass
Magnetic Kid
Matter-Eater Lad
Mon-El
Sensor Girl
Shadow Lass
Shrinking Violet
Star Boy
Supergirl
Sun Boy
Tellus
Thunder
Timber Wolf
Triplicate Girl
Tyroc
Ultra Boy
The White Witch
Wildfire
XS

Or you can just click “Hero History” in the “What We Are Writing About” section on the main page… Collect ’em all!  As this week’s entrant was only in one iteration of the team, so is next week’s.  Thought Dirk Morgna was never a hero during the rebooted Legion, the team still needed a pyrokinetic…  A little bit hero, a little bit villain, but never dull, join us for an in-depth look at…  Inferno!