Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! If Tenzil's powers *had* to be revamped...

I'd suggest having him temporarily take on some of the properties of whatever matter he consumes.

I always thought he should have 'super nutrition'-- meaning that some substances Tenzil ate would make him stronger, faster, smarter, etc. Of course this would only last until digestion works its...er... magic.

I vote for super bowel movements.

Tenz

how about making it more like Calorie Queen and he gains an amount of super strength with what he eats but he burns the calories up he loses his strength so it's temperary.

But the Legion already has plenty of super-strong members. And if we're just going to give Tenz Cal's schtick, we might as well make Cal a Legionnaire instead.

I think allowing him to ingest matter and then take on its properties would be unique and diverse ability. Let him eat rubber and the become super-strechable, eat steel and then become strong and durable, eat the Miracle Machine and become virtually omnipotent...

That's kind of what I was going for, EDE-- but I think it'd be more interesting if some of the things he eats yield results that aren't necessarily what you'd expect. For instance, eating rubber might make him stretchable, but eating chewing gum would give him TK (or turn him pink and give him the ability to cling to the bottom of tables ).

Hmm... maybe there could one substance he eats that has wild and unpredictable effects, like Red Kryptonite!

"Wowza! I accidentally ate ketchup again! I wonder what it will do to me this time? Will I become a woman, a super-gorilla, lose my memory... I never can guess it's effects!"

My yeeeeeears old idea for boosting Tenzil's powers without outright changing them was to establish that he (and all Bismollians) had "invulnerable innards" to explain his being able to digest steel and stuff.

So like, his bones would be unbrekable, and his organs would be unpuncture-able and whatnot.

This would make him invulnerable with a price. A sword or death-ray or whatever would actually hurt his outer flesh but would not cut or burn through because everything inside is invulnerable.

So in battle you might have a death-ray-zapped Tenzil hobbling around with a flesh wound, but otherwise fine. Except for the burning sensation, of course.

The postboot team instead decided to give him acid spit, which I like a lot less because it might impede Tenzilnova's kissyface action.

The idea of there being a substance that causes Red-K-like changes for Bismollians has me all a-giggle. I bet Keith Giffen would be mad he didn't think of it first!

That could be the coolest addition to the Matter-Eater Lad mythos since Kito*!

*Who the heck is Kito, you ask? Well, stay tuned to the Bits forum to find out!

Matter-Eater Lad has a mythos? Kewl!!

Have you ever wondered how much the Tooth Fairy has to pay out for a Bismollian tooth? I have, often.

I always thought Tenzil could be made to "power-up" by ingesting matter, then transfer this extra energy by touch to others, temporarily amplifying the powers of the receiver. This would make him a human 'Dynamo Boy'.

Naturally, he would retain normal Bismollian abilities...

PS - I'm sick of the Patriots always winning the super bowel

I know it wouldn't be popular, but if they "had to" revamp M-E Lad, I think he should be a non-humanoid with an unhingable jaw (maybe with little T-Rex type arms even). He'd be a really intimidating creature with a huge maw who you'd be afraid might *eat you!*

MLLASH,

I also thought of the invulnerable digestive tract, but did not flesh (pardon the oun) it out more than that. I also thought of the acid digestive juices.

Here's a few possibilities:
Pig-out Kid
The Iron Belly
Mr. Appetite
Never-Late-For-Dinner Boy
The Trash Compacter
Clean-Up-Our-Mess Lad

Bet you could make a hell of a haggis out of a bismollian.

Agreed, though like Quislet, Esq. it seems to me that this would probably be limited to his actual eatin' and digestin' bits. Not that that couldn't save his life pretty frequently--bullets piercing his abdomen only to rebound off his stomach, and so on.

And there's all sorts of tricks he'd be able to do if his mouth and digestive tract have the strength/speed/invulnerability to eat anything up to inertron:

Bullet-catching/deflection with his teeth,
Ultra-sonic attacks via tooth-grinding,
The ability to spit through battleship armor at 1,000 yards,
The ability to suck a basketball through a garden hose (essential to romance),
A recent meal of metal/rock + tonsil-tickling = shotgun hurl!

One "all-over" power it'd make sense for him to have is invulnerability or resistance to acids, toxins, etc...since he can't properly consume such things if he has to worry about killing himself with a stray dribble.

No biggie provided he can control its secretion...and who wouldn't risk the occasional dissolved tongue for a few minutes of bliss with Tenz?

One last thought--he already has the power to identify the composition of various substances by taste, but he doesn't use it nearly as often as he ought. He could be the Legion's foremost chemical analysis device, distinguishing carbon-14 from carbon-13 with the greatest of ease thanks to his training under Bismoll's finest gourmets.

Hey, that could always be one of his Red Bismollite (i.e. ketchup)-induced alternate forms. "TENZIL CONSUME!"

Hmm... his super-tastetesting power would make for a natural teamup with Element Lad...

What if he took on the psycho-emotional aspects of what he ate? Eat an ice cube, turn into a frigid punk. Eat a pot of paste, become emotionally clingy. Um...I'm out of examples.

Eat jagged metal, become really edgy?

Actually Drake i kinda like this idea.

Although I like Tenzil the idea of a M-E lad seems to be just a little too silver age to make it through to todays audience.

As Earth has a number of creatures who can do the jaw unhinging thing, most noticeably the snake family maybe instead of sensor snake we could have tenzil snake?

Now retreats to await the bashing from Tenzil fans

or all fans of decency everywhere.

Actually I was quite happy with the chef/attorney/lothario Tenzil. He surely had the powers of super persuasion.

Gods help us if he EVER gets an upset stomach!

Hmm, well, i haven't read the entire thread, so if someone has already mentioned this, i apologize, but...

What if, instead of actually chowing down, he simply absorbes mass from something he touches.

Example: in a fight, he touches a steal girder, and it starts to be physically absorbed into his body. He can only absorb so much mass before his body has to "off gas", I guess you could say. Like scuba divers that have to off gas excessive nitrogen their blood stream absorbs.

(Yes, i am aware of the jokes on the "off gassing", lol.)