Superboy #195
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeSuperboy #195 (June 1973) is the debut issue of ERG-1 — the character who would become Wildfire — one of the most enduring and beloved Legionnaires of the Bronze Age. The backup story 'The One-Shot Hero!' does more than introduce a new face: it formalizes one of the Legion's defining institutional rules, that every member must possess a genuinely unique superpower, a principle that would govern Legion membership storytelling for over a decade. The issue also sits at a pivotal editorial hinge point: the Bates–Cockrum creative partnership was rapidly transforming the Legion from an occasional backup strip into the dominant feature of its own comic, and Wildfire's introduction was a key catalyst — just two issues later, the Legion would seize co-star billing on the book's cover. Wildfire's tragic concept — a young engineer who sacrificed his physical humanity to become living anti-energy, rejected despite his power, yet still willing to lay down his existence to save others — gave the Legion one of its most emotionally complex characters, a template for self-sacrifice storytelling that writers returned to for decades.
In "The One-Shot Hero!", a young man named ERG-1, known as Wildfire, steps forward seeking admission to the Legion of Super-Heroes. He claims to have gained his powers through a catastrophic accident involving anti-matter, but his ability to only temporarily mimic the powers of others leads the Legion to reject him. When a crisis on a distant planet puts three Legionnaires in mortal danger, Wildfire must make a desperate choice—using his final, ultimate energy to save them, at the cost of his own life.
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By mid-1973, the Legion of Super-Heroes had been under the editorial stewardship of Murray Boltinoff and was running as a backup feature in Superboy after being displaced from Adventure Comics years earlier. Dave Cockrum had taken over as Legion penciler with Superboy #184 (April 1972), bringing a sleek, futuristic energy to the team and redesigning many Legionnaires' costumes along the way; his collaboration with writer Cary Bates quickly amplified the feature's readership pull. Cockrum had originally conceived the Wildfire character under the name 'Starfire,' but DC editorial blocked that name due to a planned Teen Titans character, leading Bates and Cockrum to rechristened him — first as ERG-1 (Energy Release Generator), with 'Wildfire' only formally adopted in Superboy #202 (June 1974). Murphy Anderson served as inker over Cockrum's pencils for the Legion story, and the cover was drawn by Nick Cardy, who held that assignment across the book's key Bronze Age run from issues #182 through #198.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of ERG-1 (Drake Burroughs), who later takes the code name Wildfire, in the backup story 'The One-Shot Hero!' — written by Cary Bates, penciled by Dave Cockrum, inked by Murphy Anderson.
- ERG-1's concept: a Metropolis University student transformed into sentient anti-matter energy after a propulsion-system accident, his essence sustained inside a containment suit built by Professor Vultan.
- The story formally establishes the Legion's 'unique power' membership rule — ERG-1 is rejected because his demonstrated abilities duplicate those of existing members, even though he holds back a secret 'one-shot' power.
- In the same story, ERG-1 apparently sacrifices himself to save Colossal Boy and other Legionnaires on the planet Manna-5, expelling all his energy and being presumed dead — a narrative that set up his return and full membership in Superboy #202.
- Cover date June 1973; published by National Periodical Publications (DC Comics); edited by Murray Boltinoff; cover art by Nick Cardy, who held the cover assignment on Superboy for issues #182–198 and #200–206.
- The issue contains two stories: the lead Superboy/Smallville tale 'The Rock 'n' Roll Riddle of Smallville!' (also written by Cary Bates, reprinted in Best of DC #15), and the Legion backup 'The One-Shot Hero!' (reprinted in Best of DC #33 and Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 10, and later in DC Finest: Legion of Super-Heroes: Zap Goes the Legion).
- Wildfire was immediately popular with readers; soon after his introduction he was elected Legion leader in a reader-participation vote held by the Superboy editorial office — the in-story resolution being that the Legion needed a full-time leader rather than the part-time Superboy.
- The character Wildfire (as 'Impulse') was later echoed by Dave Cockrum when he designed the Marvel Imperial Guard for X-Men #107 (1977), underscoring how deeply Cockrum's Legion creations influenced comics history beyond DC.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Superman #19/1973 (1973), Superboy #9/1973 (1973), Superboy #1/1974 (1974), Superman #1/1974 (1974), All Star Adventure Comic #88 (1974), Superman Poche #4 (1976), The Best of DC #15 (1981), The Best of DC #33 (1983), Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #343 (1987), The Legion of Super-Heroes Archives #10 (2000), Showcase Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes #5 (2015), DC Finest: Legion of Super-Heroes: Zap Goes the Legion #[nn] (2025)
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