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Name: Proty II |
Home
Planet: Planet of the
Antares system |
Super-Powers:
Shape-changing & telepathy |
Member
Since: 2964 |
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Origin | Super-Powers | Personal
Data | Membership
Record

Legion of
Super-Pets | Membership
Many
years ago, a super-scientific race called the Llorn
colonized a planet of the great sun Antares. They
discovered simple but friendly creatures and the two
peace-loving races lived together in harmony. Later, a
passing star altered the planet's orbit. This, combined
with increased sunspot activity in their sun, caused
terrible storms which forced the Llorn colony
underground. When conditions worsened, and landquakes
began, the Llorn were forced to abandon their colony and
return to their own world. Before leaving, they made
provisions for the survival of their native friends and
used an evolution ray, which altered their bodies into
protoplasmic blobs and transformed them into
shape-shifting proteans that could adapt to any form
necessary to meet the weirdly changing climate (Adventure
Comics No. 334).
After the first Proty sacrificed his life to
revive Lightning Lad (Adventure
Comics no. 312/1), his friend Proty
II volunteered to take his place as Chameleon Boy's new
pet (Jimmy Olsen
No. 72/1).
First
Appearance: Jimmy
Olsen No. 72/1 (written by Jerry
Siegel, drawn by Curt Swan)
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Proty II can mimic any
shape or form he "sees". At first when he
imitated a human he could not speak vocally for himself (Jimmy
Olsen No. 72/1), or he would mouth
the words while really "speaking"
telepathically (Adventure Comics
No. 317 "The Legion Outpost"). Through frequent
experimentation, Proty has learned to imitate the human
tongue and diaphragm so perfectly that he can now talk
(322, 325 "The Legion Outpost").
Proty's body is
similar to an amoeba's in that he can subdivide into
multiple parts, each posessing the ability to transform
into a different shape; these parts can then recombine
into the original whole (Superman
No. 165/1, 167 "Metropolis Mailbag"). Also, if
Proty loses a small portion of his protoplasmic body, he
does not feel pain and will survive - though that much
less massively (Adventure Comics
No. 341).
Proteans
do not have to breathe air (Adventure
Comics No. 312/1).
Limitations
and Weaknesses: While Proty can imitate Superboy,
he cannot duplicate the Boy of Steel's super-powers.
Cancelite can freeze him in one form (Adventure
Comics No. 326, 334). When not in
the form of a bird, Proty must fly by wearing a flying
belt (322) or by keeping a flight-ring with him (Superman
No. 165/1).
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Physical Description: In his natural state, Proty
resembles a knee-high yellowish-white blob.
Personality: Proty II is highly
intelligent, able to outsmart the Legionnaires (Adventure
Comics No. 322), and devise complex
puzzles quickly, earning praise from Saturn Girl, who
called him a "protoplasmic genius" (323).
Still, despite his great intellect, or perhaps because of
it, he likes the simple life of just being taken care of
as a pet.
He has a great
sense of humor and likes to make jokes (Adventure
Comics No. 341) and imitate people,
objects and creatures to mimic and fool humans (342).
Despite his great intelligence, Proty is quite young and
childlike given the long life span of a Protean - adult
Proteans are roughly a dozen times more massive than he
is. Proty never plays up to strangers and likes to be
carried (334).
Skills:
Computer
data entry (Adventure Comics No.
364). He is also good at contructing things that look
complicated but don't actually do anything (322).
Interests: Proty is interested in
making puzzles and pulling pranks.
Previous
Occupations:
None
Nicknames:
None
Relationships:
Proty
II is quite attached to Chameleon Boy, his
"master", and, being telepathic, has a great
affinity for Saturn Girl (Adventure
Comics No. 323, 334). Proty also
likes to be near Brainiac 5 (340) and has helped
Supergirl conduct scientific experiments (326). He also
gets along really well with all his teammates in the
Legion of Super-Pets. Proty II was also friends with his
predecessor, Proty I (Jimmy Olsen
No. 72/1).
Known
Relatives: His
family lives back on his home world.
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Application: With all Legionnaires
being kept busy in the effort to defeat the Time Trapper,
the Super-Pets were enlisted to stand guard in the
clubhouse. Saturn Girl made the Super-Pets temporarily
telepathic so they could communicate with each other
while on duty. Seeing them at the special table Superboy
had made for them, Chameleon Boy's friend Proty II
decided that he, also being a super-pet, would like to
join their Legion. The other animals were doubtful as,
compared to their super-strength he was "just a
blob", but pledged that he could join if he passed a
series of tests given to him by each of them in turn.
Induction: Comet gave Proty II his
first test: to impersonate Superboy and carry out the
next mission assigned to him. Proty passed, using his
ingenuity and shape-changing powers to get some of the
rare element Vorium the Legionnaires needed for their
efforts.
Streaky's test was
for him to join Saturn Girl on a mission, without letting
her learn his identity. Proty II impersonated his master,
Chameleon Boy, a big black jellyfish, and even himself
while rescuing Saturn Girl and destroying a
remote-controlled electronic eye that was spying on the
Legion.
Beppo's test for
Proty was to keep the Legionnaires out of their clubhouse
for one hour, which Proty accomplished by building a
strange-looking machine and playing dead beside it,
making it seem that incomprehensible scientific traps
were set in the clubhouse.
Krypto gave him
one final test: to track him down, no matter where he hid
on earth, within two hours. With the aid of a flying
belt, Proty pursued the super-dog using his power and his
wits, eventually saving Krypto from Green Kryptonite and
an attacking shark.
When the
Super-Pets saw Krypto return to the clubhouse with a
muddy blob in his mouth, they assumed that Proty had
failed despite the persistent courage he had had shown in
the other tests. But then the dog revealed himself to
really be the heroic shape-changer, with a still
kryptonite-weakened Krypto disguised in a covering of
sea-ooze. Finally, the Super-Pets were proud to welcome
Proty II into their Legion (Adventure
Comics No. 322).

Positions
Held:
None
Aliases
Used: None,
other than disguising himself as various people from time
to time.
Career
Highlights:
Adventure
Comics No. 320 (May 1964) "The
Revenge of the Knave from Krypton"
Dev-Em hid
Proty II in the cape he loaned Superboy so that when
Molock the Merciless was abount to spring a lead box
containing gold-K on him, Proty switched places with
the kryptonite and helped Superboy defeat the Cosmic
Spy Ring.
Adventure
Comics No. 323 (Aug.1964) "The
Eight Impossible Missions"
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When the Legionnaires had a
difficult time choosing the method to use for the
leadership election of term 3, Proty II devised a
clever puzzle with tests for seven Legionnaires -
Saturn Girl, Ultra Boy, Phantom Girl, Element Lad, Pete Ross, Brainiac 5 and Jimmy
Olsen. Changing
himself into a "Bizarro" and calling
himself Ytorp, it was Saturn
Girl who solved the anagram puzzle and became the
leader for a second term. |
Adventure Comics
No. 334 (July 1965) "The Unknown Legionnaire"
Proty II
returned to his home world in the system of Antares
and alerted the Legionnaires to the ambush by his
fellow Proteans, who were duped by Dr. Norm Eldor
into revealing the location of the powerful Llorn
weapon.
Adventure
Comics No. 337 (Oct.
1965) "The
Weddings That Wrecked the Legion"
The Legion of
Super-Heroes planted a trap for some villains by
inticing them to try out for membership in the team.
They were able to figure out which candidates were
spies because Proty II was able to detect which of
them were shielding their thoughts - as only
untrustworthy applicants would do.
Adventure
Comics No. 341 (Feb. 1966)
"Colossal Boy's One-Man War"
In order to
distract Computo and free the captive Legionnaires,
Superboy created a plan for Proty to carry out. As
the "Weirdo Legionnaire", Proty II's
insults and bravado (provided by Superboy via
super-ventriloquism) shook Computo's confidence and
forced him into "analysis mode" with the
intention of finding a weakness in his mysterious
opponent. Thus distracted, Colossal Boy was left free
to rescue Star Boy and Sun Boy.
Adventure
Comics No. 342 (Mar. 1966) "The
Legionnaire Who Killed"
As part of his
defense in the trial of Star Boy, Superboy took Proty
II with him to the Interplanetary Zoo to see the
Saturnian scorpion beast. He then asked Proty to
change into the deadly animal's shape and enter the
clubhouse, trying to entice someone to attempt to
kill it in self-defense. However, as Proty's claws
did not drip acid like a real scorpion beast's would,
Brainiac 5 was not fooled.
Adventure
Comics No. 343 (Apr.1966) "The
Evil Hand of the Luck Lords"
After noticing
that the Super-Pets had all touched Proty disguised
as a Durlan jinx-stone that seemed to be causing the
Legion bad luck, yet were not affected by it, the
Legionnaires took them along to investigate the
unlucky world of Thaun. When the Luck Lords overcame
the super-heroes with their jinxes, the captive
Saturn Girl called the super-animals from the cruiser
with her thought-casting power, and they came to the
rescue.
Adventure
Comics No. 364 (Jan. 1968)
"The Revolt of the Super-Pets"
After an
argument with the Legionnaires over a mission, the
Super-Pets walked out on them and were soon picked up
by a Thanlian whose people idolized the
super-animals. They were taken to Thanl and given a
headquarters of their own. The Legionnaires followed
them to Thanl and pleaded with them to return home,
after which a brawl ensued and the Legion were forced
away. Rikkor Rost, the head Thanlian, manipulated
Comet and Proty II into infiltrating the Legion ranks
as Biron the Bowman and Blockade Boy II. The
Legionnaires had deliberately let them into the
Legion so they could use the computers to discover
for themselves that the Thanlians were really
space-pirates using them for protection. Speeding
back to Thanl, the human and animal Legions lit into
the Thanlians, overthrowing their corrupt high
council.
Adventure
Comics No. 375/376 (Dec. 1968/Jan.
1969) "The King of the Legion" / "The
Execution of Chameleon Boy"
Proty II,
disguised as an instrument box, tagged along with
Chameleon Boy on his mission to hunt down Psyche of
the super-group the Wanderers, after the team had
been turned evil by the radiation of a space-cloud.
When she used her power over emotions to turn
Bouncing Boy against them, Proty leapt to Chameleon
Boy's defense. He duplicated Chameleon Boy's form,
and she shot at him. Proty was injured badly enough
to "lock him" into his current form, but he
had managed to distract Psyche long enough for the
real Legionnaire to slap her senseless, stopping her
spell of hate.
Adventure
Comics No. 380 (May 1969) "The
Legion's Space Odyssey"
When Dream
Girl foresaw several Legionnaires being killed by a
ray-blast directed at the headquarters, Superboy and
Mon-El enlisted the Super-Pets aid in keeping then
away from Earth until the ray had destroyed robot
doubles of them instead.
Proty II and
Streaky worked together to slow the Legionnaires down
on their route back to Earth. On a world almost
entirely covered with water, Proty pretended to be a
Legion cruiser and then Superboy on nearby islands;
when the Legionnaires approached, Streaky used his
super-speed to whisk him away.
Action
Comics No. 390 (July 1970)
"The Tyrant and the Traitor"
Proty II was
an integral part of the Espionage Squad's mission to
liberate the planet Lahum from the conquering
President Peralla and the Dark Circle-backed
revolutionary Diol Masrin. After the squad took over
the ship of a group of interstella gunrunners,
Chameleon Boy took the place of their captain and
instructed Proty to take the shape of a gun. When
Masrin's lieutenant, Chavak, came onboard to inspect
the guns they had brought, he picked up the
Proty-gun, who ensnared him in tentacles. After
Chameleon Boy disguised himself as Chavek, Proty took
his place as the ship's captain and flew the
gunrunners' ship, with the real Chavak still onboard,
back to the other Legionnaires.
For
information concerning Proty II after 2969, click here.
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Legion of
Super-Pets | Membership
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