James Cullen

This page is for the original Kid Quantum, James Cullen

For the current Kid Quantum, see: Jazmin Cullen

Origin

Kid Quantum was a retcon created after the start of the Glorithverse and Five Years Later storyline. He was retroactively slipped into Legion history following his introduction. James Cullen was created after the villainous Glorith attempted to enslave the Protean people of Antares II, wanting an army of shape-shifters to do her bidding. The Protean who had betrayed this information to Glorith feared for its people and told them what was to happen. To protect themselves from enslavement, the Proteans decided to pool all their minds into a single form. This would leave their bodies primal husks that Glorith wouldn't be able to control. The collective body shape-shifted into a humanoid form and was then smuggled off-world so Glorith would never find it. Seven Proteans who kept their intellect as a failsafe hid among the zombified bodies of their people with the goal to retrieve the host body once the threat of Glorith had passed.

Creation

Kid Quantum was created by Tom Bierbaum , Mary Bierbaum and David A. Williams

Character Evolution

Original Continuity: New Earth

This host body took the name James Cullen and pretended to be a sentient from the planet Xanthu. Deciding to hide in plain sight, James adopted a belt laced with Llorn technology that allowed the wearer to suspend time and applied to become a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. James was accepted despite his artificial power and became the ninth member of the team, becoming a friend to Chameleon Boy in a short amount of time due to the fact Cham was also a shape-shifter. Keeping his true origin a secret from the Legion, James took the name Kid Quantum. To ensure his trail as the Soul of the Antares people remained safe even if his identity as James Cullen was revealed, Kid Quantum faked his own death swiftly so that anyone looking for him would find a dead end. The Legion mourned his loss and required all future members to have natural super-powers as a result.

Reboot: Earth-247

James Cullen was an actual flesh and blood entity. He was born on Xanthu and had a younger sister. The Xanthu government, seeking for heroes to protect it, discovered James had latent abilities and a belt was developed to help access them. James' stasis field belt allowed him to become a true hero for his people and he took the codename Kid Quantum. Alongside Atmos and Star Boy, he was in the running for Xanthu's planetary champion when he was suddenly drafted to travel to Earth and represent Xanthu in the Legion of Super-Heroes. James was furious at the decision and drug his feet on the team's first mission against the villain Tangleweb. Getting cocky after ensnaring the villain in a stasis field, Kid Quantum approached the arachnid to boast. He didn't notice that his belt was shorting out and the field was dropped, the creature ambushing James and snapping his neck.

Despite the fact he only served as a Legionnaire for one day, Kid Quantum left a legacy. His death was the reason the Legion adapted a rule that all members have at least one innate super-power. While his funeral was actually bombed by terrorists, the Legion still looked favorably upon him and he had a permanent statue in the Legion's memorial hall. James' sister, Jazmin, continued his legacy by internalizing their latent stasis field powers and becoming the heroine Kid Quantum II.

Major Story Arcs

Original Continuity: New Earth

James as Rouvin

After several years of drifting, James eventually hid on the backwater world of Yel as a panhandler of gold named Rouvin. He lived alone in the wilderness in a cabin, spending his free time drafting a precise treaty between the United Planets and Antares II that would recognize the Proteans as sentience and give them the protection against people like Glorith that they previously never had. Only after the completion of the treaty would he look for his seven remaining sentient brothers and restore the Proteans. However, before he could finish, James was hunted down by billionnaire R.J. Brande who had been reached out to by the remaining Proteans to find the Soul of Antares. Hot on Brande's own trail though was the villain Hunter and Legionnaire Chameleon Boy. James was met by R.J. and Chameleon Boy and all three were captured, trapped in stasis fields by Brande's rival, Leland McCauley. McCauley learned of James' true nature and kept him locked away on Antares II in a bid to restore the Proteans and then make them his own slave.

Legionnaires

The plan was foiled by a team of Legionnaires who accidentally crash-landed on Antares II, discovering the former Kid Quantum and freeing him. There, he revealed his true purpose at last to the heroes and prepared to meet his death after being drained of his life essence. His fellow Proteans, in an ultimate act of forgiveness, begin to merge their adaptable bodies with James who was no longer able to shift back to normal due to his years in that form. The Proteans both restore James to health and somehow manage to imbue him with natural stasis field powers. Feeling at last free and that his people were safe, James elected to follow the Legionnaires back to Earth and rejoin with Cham on his new team of heroes. Kid Quantum served with the Legionnaires only a short time, before Zero Hour ended this reality. Kid Quantum was one of many heroes blinked out of existence in the events leading to the timeline's collapse.

Powers and Abilities

Kid Quantum possessed a stasis field belt, which enabled him to target small areas with a stasis field that would slow time within to a near-stop. These fields could only be sustained as long as James kept the belt powered. If the belt were to short-circuit, James would be powerless.

In the Five Years Later, James was actually the avatar of the shape-shifting Proteans who merged together. They had shape-shifting abilities and also possessed the Protean ability of telepathy to communicate while apart, though merged as James these traits were locked away. When the whole of the Protean people merged together to revive the James persona, his stasis field powers were now internal hand his belt was no long necessary.

Equipment

As a member of the SW6 Legionnaires, Kid Quantum possessed a Legion Flight Ring. The ring gave its wearer the ability to fly, the speed and range of which was determined by the wearer's willpower. It also acted as a long-range communicator (enabling constant vocal contact with other Legionnaires, even across vast distances of space), a signal device, and a navigational compass, all powered by a micro-computer built inside the ring.

The Earth-247 Kid Quantum also had a utility belt with a Legion transuit for a space suit.

Other Versions

Other Media