Celebrate the Fourth of July with These Explosive Comic Book Characters

Happy Fourth of July!Today we celebrate the 240th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with longstanding traditions celebrated by almost every community across the United States.There will be parades, celebrations, people wearing really tacky flag t-shirts, and of course fireworks.Over 200 million of fireworks will be lit on the Fourth of July, ranging from backyard bottle rockets to massive pyrotechnic displays that whole cities can enjoy.Comic book have their own characters, capable of putting on quite a show with their explosive powers.Here’s some of our favorite explosive characters in comics:

Boom Boom

Tabitha Smith has the mutant power to generate small orbs of pure energy, which detonate with concussive force after a short delay.  Tabitha can control both the size and the time delay of her “time bombs”, so she can use them as either a distraction or as a direct attack. Tabitha has had plenty of different aliases ranging from Time Bomb to Boom Boom to Meltdown.  She’s also joined several different superhero teams, including the X-Terminators X-Force and Nextwave. Tabitha comes from a sketchy background, having run away from home when her powers developed and joining up with the villains Beyonder and the Vanisher before eventually joining up with X-Factor.  However, she’s also loyal to her friends, especially her former teammates from X-Force.  

Jubilee

A mainstay of the popular 1990s X-Men: The Animated Series, Jubilee literally has the ability to create fireworks from her hands.  Well, they’re technically energy plasmoids, but they look like fireworks, sound like fireworks and everyone (including Jubilee) calls them fireworks.  Jubilee first appeared during the X-Men’s “Outback era” and followed the team back to their secret Australian base after they rescued her from a group of mutant hunters.  She became Wolverine’s unofficial sidekick for a while, but eventually joined Generation X and eventually fell off the X-Men’s active roster. Jubilee’s life recently took a strange turn after she lost her powers during M-Day.  Jubilee became a vampire and adopted a baby named Shogo.  Even though she’s technically not a mutant anymore, her vampiric abilities allow her to keep helping the X-Men while raising her toddler son. 

Nitro

Nitro is a literal human explosion, with the ability to self-destruct and reform his body at will.  Nitro was an early Captain Marvel villain, and exposed the Kree superhero to the nerve gas that gave Mar-Vell his fatal cancer. After killing Captain Marvel, Nitro bounced around fighting the likes of Spider-Man, Iron Man and Daredevil.  Nitro eventually gained notoriety as the catalyst for the superhuman Civil War.  During a fight with the New Warriors, Nitro exploded outside a school in Stamford, Connecticut, killing several of the New Mutants and hundreds of children.  Congress passed the Superhuman Registration Act in response to the disaster, putting Captain America and Iron Man on different sides of the law. 

Superman

Although Superman’s not exactly known for causing explosions, his newest ability is definitely a light show. Superman recently discovered he can emit a “super flare”, unleashing all the energy in his body in a single explosive blast. While the super flare is Superman’s most powerful attack, it also comes with severe side effects. As the super flare uses up all the energy in Superman’s body, it essentially leaves him powerless until his body can store more energy. Unfortunately, repeated use of the super flare coupled with several traumatic battles led to Superman’s recent death and replacement with the “Post-Crisis” Superman from the pre-New 52 era of comics.  It’s unknown if this new/old Superman can use the super flare, but if he can, let’s hope he uses the ability a little more sparingly. 

Gambit

The third (and final) mutant on our list, Gambit can convert an object’s potential energy into kinetic energy, causing them to explode when he releases him. Gambit’s powers work best on smaller objects as they take less time to charge, especially those that he can then throw at enemies.  The larger the charged object, the larger the explosion, although his powers only work on inorganic objects. As a cool Cajun thief, Gambit prefers charge up playing cards and throw them at enemies, which explode with the force of a grenade.  He also frequently uses a bo staff in battle, which he can charge to speed up its force and kinetic power.  Getting hit with Gambit’s staff won’t cause you to explode, but it will leave you senseless for a few days.   

Plastique

Plastique is a DC supervillain with the ability to generate explosions from her fingertips. Originally introduced as an adversary for Firestorm, Plastique was a Quebecois terrorist working to separate Quebec from the rest of Canada.  After attempting a suicide bombing in New York City, Plastique was drafted into the Suicide Squad and eventually reformed, probably because Quebecois separatism is one of the lamer political movements to become fanatical over. Plastique fell in love with and married Captain Atom, but they divorced and she returned to a life of crime.  Recently, a future version of Plastique had a doomed romance with Terry McGinnis (Batman Beyond) during his trip to the past to stop Brother Eye from taking over the world. 

The Human Bomb

As his name suggests, the Human Bomb is a bomb waiting to happen.  With the ability to explode anything he comes into contact with, the Human Bomb wears a specialized containment suit to prevent any inadvertent explosions.  The Human Bomb was originally a WWII era Quality Comics superhero that got folded into the DC Universe when DC purchased Quality in the 1950s.  The Human Bomb joined the Freedom Fighters, a team of other ex-Quality WWII era heroes that infrequently made appearances from the 1970s until the present day.  The first Human Bomb (Roy Lincoln) perished with the rest of the Freedom Fighters during Infinite Crisis, but he was replaced by an even more powerful version (Andy Franklin) in the aftermath of that event.  DC briefly introduced a third Human Bomb named Michael Taylor in the New 52, but he and the rest of the Freedom Fighters have yet to make a substantive appearance.