Chunk (comics)
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Chunk is an fictional supporting character in the DC Comics universe, and a supporting character from the Flash family of books. He first appeared in Flash v2, #9, February (1988), written by Mike Baron and drawn by Jackson Guice.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
Maverick physicist and engineer Chester P. Runk had no living relatives. Chester was a child prodigy and an M.I.T. graduate, but he also had serious psychological problems.[1] According to Cyborg, at the age of twenty-four, Runk had developed a matter transmitting machine, a primitive long range teleportation device. Due to a lack of sensible safety procedures on Runk's part, his machine imploded and became a part of his body after his first test of its long range teleportation capabilities. The accident made him superstrong and resilient, and gave him the power to teleport anywhere he wished on Earth and off. He was also forced to physically absorb forty-seven times his own weight in superdense matter like diamonds, just to keep the machine from eating him or collapsing him down to a dimension lower than the one he had access to. Chester had become a human black hole. Runk came to the Flash's (Wally West) attention during a crime spree where he was seen literally eating diamonds to feed the machine. He was also seen stealing expensive high tech research equipment. Chunk appears to have been diagnosed as mentally unstable before the accident, and had been seeing a therapist named Jarret Parker for years.[2]
[edit] The Void
Chester could access a local pocket dimension he called the Void, a barren rocky waste that is home to strange prehistoric creatures. He had sent many people there over the three year period since his accident, the first being Jarret Parker Ph.D., his former psychiatrist, and Karin Preus, a woman who had rejected his advances. Many dozens of innocent bystanders were left there and stranded forced to eke a living out of the Void's severe landscape, by learning how to hunt the lizards, insects and giant winged reptiles that make their homes in the canyons. And by using the guano of the winged reptiles to cultivate seeds taken from some of the many cars Chunk had taken. But a majority of the victims Chunk sent into the void were murderers, sadists and criminals. Some of the roving bands of criminals had even turned to cannibalism (as seen in Flash [2nd series] #10). Chester brought Wally there at the end of their second fight, and Wally convinced Chunk that he would be hailed for his scientific discovery if he would just send all his victims back to Earth. Chester revealed to Wally that he could not control himself when he left the Void; the partially formed singularity simply threw him out whenever it got hungry. Chester agreed to do so, and further police investigations declared him innocent of any charges.
Chunk Rules!!!
He was unable to bring all of his victims back right away, though he never stopped trying. Finally, they all returned to Earth in Flash Vol.2 #20 during a going away party thrown by The Rogues for Captain Cold. Wally West had been invited as a gag by The Trickster, and he arrived with Chunk. Unfortunately, the victims destroyed the hotel ballroom where the party was being held, nearly instigating a riot in the process. Wally and The Rogues were able to assist the police in subduing the mob before they got out of hand.
In a backup story in Flash Annual #2, a team of scientists approaches Chunk, asking to study the Void. Chunk sends one of the scientists there (humorously, the scientist was unprepared). As the scientist shifts through several dimensions, including the one Wally was in, one with razor-sharp spikes, and even one with no air, he returns back to Earth relatively unharmed. He comments that there seemed to be a great inderdimensional cataclysm, and Chunk's powers give him access to the remains. While this is a vague allusion to Crisis on Infinite Earths in which the DC Multiverse was destroyed, an official connection was never established.[3]
[edit] Waste Removal
"Chunk" later worked as a Waste Removal Specialist because he believed "everyone has something they’d like to disappear". He was close friends with Wally West, and for a while employed Wally’s mother as his secretary. Due to the wealth rolling in from his new business, he was able to buy Wally’s former mansion, and moved into it along with a great deal of distantly related relatives. Chester is engaged to Wally’s ex-girlfriend Connie Noleski.[4][5]
At some point during this period, he was allied with Amanda Waller's ad-hoc team of Shadow Fighters, a diverse group brought together to fight Eclipso.
During Blacksmith's campaign to take over the Twin Cities, a rogue named Plunder shot Chunk with the only thing that could hurt him, a bullet laced with White Dwarf Matter (the substance Atom uses to shrink). The bullet wound shot opened up a vortex within his body, which sucked in everything around him, including people and light. The Central City Police Department called the KCPD in order to enlist the Flash's help, but he also ends up being sucked into the vortex. The matter was resolved when Wally recovered the bullet from the vortex in Chunk's body, Chunk quickly recovered from his wound.[6]
[edit] Powers & Abilities
- Chester has the ability to absorb matter and expel it into a pocket dimension called the Void.
- He has also exhibited superstrength and limited invulnerabilty, and was able to easily survive being struck by a small commuter van, and then used his bare hands to rip off its doors.
- He's immune to most physical attacks; any weapons used against him are absorbed by his body.
- Chunk could unconsciously manipulate local gravimetric fields and draw matter towards him.
- The only ballistic projectiles that can actually hurt Chunk are bullets coated or laced with White Dwarf Star material, the same substance that allows the Atom to shrink.
[edit] Bibliography
- Flash v2, #9 - 11, 15, 21 - 25, 48, 49, 58 - 61, 87, 177
- Flash Annual #5
- Eclipso: The Darkness Within #2
- Eclipso #11 - 15
- Impulse #38
[edit] Resources
- Those who ride the lightning: Chunk Profile
- GCD Project: Flash vol. 2 #9
- DCU Guide: Chester P. Runk Profile
- DCU Guide: Chester P. Runk Chronology
- DCDatabase: Chunk
- DCU Guide: Flash vol. 2 #177
- DCU Guide: Eclipso - The Darkness Within #2
- DCU Guide: Eclipso #11
