Chameleon Boy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Chameleon | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Chameleon Boy (Reep Daggle) is a DC Comics superhero, a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the thirtieth century. He has the power to shapeshift. He is from the planet Durla, where everyone has the power to change their physical form. He has orange skin, pointed ears and antennae, and has no hair in his usual humanoid form. In pre-Zero Hour continuity he was the son of Legion financer R. J. Brande who was revealed to be a Durlan who had become frozen in human form after contracting a disease. Reep did not learn that Brande (his name originally revealed to be Ren Daggle, but later altered after the Crisis storyline) was his father for many years. Reep was also an exceptional detective; his deductive prowess coupled with his shape-shifting abilities led to his being named the permanent head of the Legion's Espionage Squad.
Chameleon Boy was sentenced to the prison world in the 1980s for his espionage activities against the Khunds, which almost led to war. He was released after his heroics against Darkseid in the Great Darkness Saga. During his incarceration, he was forced to wear binders on his antennae that cancelled out his shape-shifting powers, although he regained them a few months later. Following the dissolution of the Legion after volume 3, "Cham" became in volume 4 the primary force behind the reassembly of the Legion.
Post-Zero Hour, Reep was known simply as 'Chameleon' and was not related to R. J. Brande. This time, he was the son of Durla's spiritual leader and heir to that title. Originally he did not speak Interlac (the universal language of the 30th century) and Invisible Kid had to translate. After learning the language, he feigned continued difficulty as a part of a sting operation against President Chu, organised by Invisible Kid's Espionage Squad. Once this was completed he abandoned the ruse. He was the secret admirer of Spark, and they later began a relationship.
In the reimagining/reboot of the Legion that occurred in 2005, the character was still referred to as Chameleon, but is now portrayed as a completely androgynous, non-gender specific creature. Chameleon still has the power to change into any form at will, but the character's revised origin has yet to be revealed, although Jeyra Entinn, a female Titanian and telepath, squeezed out of his mind the image of a chilhood ambigously descripted as filled with prejudices, which left him driven to achieve results as a detective and a Legionnaire as a way to achieve a better image for all Durlans. He is still a master detective, and proficient not only in Interlac but in many aspects of life in the United Planets. He's currently able to mimic only the superficial appaerance of people or animals, though duplicating most metahuman abilities is beyond his capacity; purely physical powers, however, are in his grasp (for example he can gain the sense smell of a dog and the infrared vision of an exotic beast, but not the heat vision or the superstrength of Superman).
[edit] Elseworlds and other versions of Chameleon Boy
Chameleon Boy appeared in the Amalgam Comics book Spider-Boy Team-Up. He was merged with Spider-Man's first costumed villain, also named Chameleon to form the character Chameleon. He was a member of the Legion Of Galactic Guardians 2099.
[edit] Other media
Chameleon appeared in an episode of the Superman animated series with Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy titled "New Kids in Town". He was voiced by Jason Priestley. He later appeared in an episode of Justice League Unlimited titled "Far From Home".
