Tusker
2986 - Horace Lafeaugh is born on Earth.
3000 - 14-year-old Horace Lafeaugh is subjected to an antique ‘Mutogen Ray', granting him the ability to grow massive tusks. He tries out for the Legion of Super-Heroes as ‘Tusk Boy’, but is rejected when Imra Ardeen discovers his penchant for violence.
3002 - 16-year-old Horace Lafeaugh finds and deliberately subjects himself to the Mutogen Ray, mutating into a monster, becoming the nemesis of Chuck Foster.
3005 - 19-year-old Horace Lafeaugh is approached by Kirt Neidrigh to join the Justice League of Earth.
3007 - 21-year-old Horace Lafeaugh and Justice League of Earth go public and stage a coup to control Earth's population. They fight Legion of Super-Heroes.
Tusker's Comic HistoryFor some reason, I thought that back in Tusker's original appearance in Adventure Comics #331 from 1965 he went by Tusk Boy, but no, he was "The Tusker". This is the issue when Dynamo Boy has taken over the Legion and is trying to recruit new members he can exploit to turn the team evil, the same issue where fellow future JLE member Golden Boy first appeared. Tusker at least makes a decent first impression, before totally beefing it by not being able to retract his tusks correctly.
Tusker actually does make another appearance later on, in the extremely silly Legion of Substitute Heroes one-shot by Keith Giffen from 1985, where he and Eyeful Ethel tried to earn their way onto the Legion of Super-Villains, but Horace runs afoul of Pulsar Stargrave and manages to get his fangs disintegrated. |
Our Tusker StoryYou can absolutely see the thought process that went into the updated design of Tusker. For the lineup to look good together they clearly needed a big monster on the team, and looking through the catalog of rejected Legion members Tusker does jump out as someone who could become one. It makes sense. I still really like this particular character update quite a bit, because the classic Tusker is a pretty goofy character, and I don't think we actually need to lose that even when he becomes a big scary monster. He can still be kind of a bumbler.
We did of course need to create an origin for his powers, and we decided to make it a fairly simple one, suggesting that he was affected by a mysterious antique "mutogen ray" weapon. The implication, we hope, is that it might be an artifact from some modern-day mad scientist, but we can leave that open. We also added the idea that, since Bouncing Boy is going to spend the 5 year gap when the Legion is disbanded becoming the premier hero of Earth, that Tusker can absolutely be one of his major nemesis. |