Friday, November 29, 2019

Who's Who: Worldsmith

Worldsmith
by Russell & Siskoid


Real Name: Unknown
Super-Power(s): Unspecified mental powers, which at least seemed to include the ability to change a planet's surface to stone, earth or water
Planet of Origin: Planet
Relationship to Legion: Enemy

Legion Log
The alien architect calling himself Worldsmith faced the Legion when he attempted to terraform Braal, the homeworld of Cosmic Boy and Magnetic Kid. Worldsmith claimed to be working on a commission from an unnamed individual to alter the physical features of Braal. In doing so, however, Worldsmith endangered some of the inhabitants. The Legion therefore attempted to shut him down.

Worldsmith apparently had some innate psionic powers, but depended more on his advanced digging and material-reformulating machinery in his work. When the Legion disrupted his schedule and destroyed his machinery, he eventually left Braal rather than risk total destruction of his assets.

We never learned anything more about Worldsmith, including his origin, his actual abilities, who had hired him to terraform Braal, or whether he continued his career after his skirmish with the Legion.

The Worldsmith never reappeared, except as one of the strangely-chosen Legion-related cards in a UK's Weetabix collectable card promotion in 1978, along with such luminaries as the Ressource Raiders and the Galactic Co-ordinator.

After Infinite Crisis, Worldsmith's original history has presumably been more or less restored.

Important Worldsmith stories:

Superboy/Legion of Super-Heroes #236
(reprinted in Superboy/the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 1)
Worldsmith wants to terraform Braal

Weetabix collectable cards (1978)

The Worldsmith card

7 comments:

  1. Back during 5YL, I thought this guy should have shown up as part of a long-term project to rebuild Earth.

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  2. I hated the design of this guy so much... he’s so 60s Underground Comix and his nose just should not have made it past the Comic Code.

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    1. He looks like if Boss Tweed made a deal with Satan to gain demonic powers.

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    2. My dad thought he looked like Richard Nixon.

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    3. Wasn't there a different Legion villain who looked even more like Nixon (IE: Caucasian with no horns.)

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    4. Yes, Chronos, the Atom villain.

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    5. Conversely, I love the design of Chronos any time he shows up.

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