Mr. Bones

MR. BONES

Real Name: None

Class: Human mutate

Occupation: None

Group Affiliation: D.E.O., formerly Helix, Infinity, Inc.

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Director Bones

Base of Operations: New York, formerly Los Angeles, California

First Appearance: Infinity, Inc. #16 (July, 1985)

Powers: Mr. Bones' skin and muscle were transparent, giving him the appearance of a living skeleton. He possessed superhuman strength, and had a poison touch, the result of a cyanide compound produced by his skin. Mr. Bones had no control over this power, and any living creature coming in contact with him would soon die.

History: (Infinity, Inc. #16-18)-The insane gynecologist Dr. Love secretly injected six pregnant women with an experimental chemical. The children born to these women were all mutants, and Dr. Love abducted them to conceal his illegal experimentation. The six children were raised for nearly twenty years in Bakersfield, California, and they had no contact with the outside world except television and radio. The children were given names relating to either their appearance or powers. Mr. Bones grew up to be a cynical smart aleck with little use for love or affection. He also developed the annoying habits of chain-smoking and speaking entirely in rhyme. When Dr. Love died the children were inspired by old TV clips of the Justice Society of America to become a super-team named Helix. Unfortunately they had no means of financial support, so the team focused on robbing people to make money. Mr. Bones decided to kidnap the heroine Fury II on a whim, resulting in a drawn out battle between Helix and Infinity, Inc.

Helix took on another one of Dr. Love's experiments as an ally, the shark-like Carcharo. The alliance ended badly after Carcharo bit off Mr. Bones' leg. Infinity, Inc. brought Helix into custody, and attended their trial to insure they would not be treated too harshly for their misguided actions. The members of Helix were sentenced to a psychiatric hospital, except for Mr. Bones, who was released into the custody of Infinity, Inc.

(Infinity, Inc. #51, 52)-Mr. Bones attempted to prove himself by accompanying Infinity, Inc. on several adventures. Injustice, Unlimited decided to use Mr. Bones as a pawn in assassinating team leader Skyman. Harlequin III and a mind controlled Solomon Grundy knocked him out and used his cyanide touch to kill Skyman, and Mr. Bones soon found himself wanted for murder. He ran away to Helix, but they rejected him. Mr. Bones would eventually exonerate himself and be admitted into Infinity, Inc., but without a leader they felt incomplete, and soon went their separate ways.

(JSA Secret Files #2 (fb, BTS)) - Bones dropped out of sight for a while. When he reappeared a mysterious benefactor had made him Director Bones of the D.E.O.

(Martian Manhunter II #6) - Director Bones was displeased that Martian Manhunter was able to infiltrate the D.E.O. in his Jim Tully identity and gave Chase the job of uncovering every one of Manhunter’s human identities.

(Martian Manhunter II #10) - Chase found a complete list of Martian Manhunter’s human identities, a peace offering he gave to Karen Smith before she died. Bones was pleased with Chase, and wanted a way to make Manhunter work for the D.E.O. whether or not he wanted to.

(JSA #6) - Director Bones watched the JSA’s press conference announcing their reformation on a television in his limo. He declared it was about time they came back. Bones perused the D.E.O. files he had on the current JSA members, and determined to make them a proposal at a later date.

(Martian Manhunter II #17) - The D.E.O. started tailing Martian Manhunter’s various identities, and Chase set up a meeting between Manhunter and Bones. Bones wanted Manhunter to work for the D.E.O., using his shapeshifting powers to uncover the secret identities of other metahumans, but Manhunter turned him down. In retaliation Bones had Chase call a press conference exposing Manhunter’s secret identities. Bones made her do the conference for plausible deniability sake, and he was right to do so because there was huge fallout because Manhunter helped so many in his secret identities.

(JSA #11, 12) - Bones needed someone to take out Kobra, who recently took over D.E.O. owned Blackhawk Island for his own evil purposes. Bones briefed the JSA on Kobra’s latest terrorist activity; threatening to incinerate every major capital city unless NATO handed over their heads of state to him, and the JSA agreed to storm Blackhawk Island. The JSA succeeded in capturing Kobra, but Bones was a bit annoyed at all the damage they did to Blackhawk Island during the fight. The JSA were equally annoyed that Bones had a less than altruistic reason for sending them after Kobra.

(JSA #21) - Bones and Atom-Smasher had a meeting at the grave of Skyman. Bones rightly suspected that Atom-Smasher had a hand in the death of Extant, and wanted him to fess up. Atom-Smasher simply told him he did what he felt he needed to do.

(JSA Secret Files #2) - Bones walked in on Chase and other D.E.O. agents discussing rumors about Bone’s past as a supervillain. He pulled Chase out of the conversation so she could update him on her progress gathering information about Hawkgirl and the recently resurrected Hawkman I. Bones received a phone call from a superior, the man who made him director of the D.E.O. His benefactor wanted to make sure he was still keeping tabs on the JSA, and told him the D.E.O. would be calling for the JSA’s assistance once again. Bones admitted he felt bad about manipulating the JSA, but his benefactor reminded him that he was the one Bones owed a debt to for forgiving his checkered past, not the JSA.

(Martian Manhunter II #36) - Bones called Chase to warn her that Dr. Trapp had escaped prison and was gunning for her.

(JSA #45) - Bones sat in on the trial of Kobra for terrorist crimes. Hundreds of Kobra cultists were swarming the district court building where Kobra was being tried. Under Kobra’s orders the cultists threatened to activate bombs implanted in their bodies, killing themselves. Rather than allow the bloodshed the judge and Director Bones of the D.E.O. agreed to let Kobra go free for the time being.

(Green Arrow III #22) - Bones found Count Vertigo battling a robot simulacra of Green Arrow, and warned him to drop his grudge against the hero or face reassignment in Task Force X. Vertigo didn't listen to him, and resigned after another meeting with the hero.

(JSA #52) - Bones monitored a visit between Green Lantern Alan Scott and his son Obsidian, who was in D.E.O. custody.

(JSA All-Stars #7) - After Mr. Terrific had a physical encounter with D.E.O. agents that were spying on him he broke into Director Bones office and demanded an explanation. Bones reminded him that it was the D.E.O.’s duty to collects as much information as possible about superhumans, and they were especially interested in Terrific because he led the JSA, which had become one of Earth’s mightiest superteams. To show Terrific just how much he knew about him, Bones revealed that Terrific’s wife was pregnant when she died.

(Enginehead #5, 6) - Bones and the DEO were tracking new unpredictable metahuman Enginehead, who continually slipped away from them. Enginehead, trying to fix the flaw in humanity, took a woman whose car accident he'd caused and rebuilt her as a cyborg. The DEO picked her up, and Bones tried to intimidate her into helping them find Enginehead. She initially agreed to help, but then decided she wanted to confront her "creator" herself and flew off, to the DEO agent's consternation. Bones sent the Metal Men and JLA to battle Enginehead, who ended up sacrificing part of himself to build Irontown, a new kind of engine and home for the disaffected of the world

(52 / WWIII Part Three: Hell Is For Heroes #1) - <Week 5, Day 6> Kate Spencer had to defend Damon Matthews from charges that he'd raided evidence lockers. The main evidence was that his badge was used to gain entry, but Kate couldn't admit it was her that was responsible, having used the lockers to assemble her Manhunter persona. She called in a favor from Director Bones, and when she faced federal prosecutor Andrew Bates she kept Damon from getting charged, but he lost his job. She quit as a sign of solidarity, and told Damon that Bones had set them up with a law firm; they'd be defense attorneys bringing justice to the superhuman community from a new angle.

Comments: Created by Roy Thomas & Todd McFarlane

In the pre-Crisis DC Universe Mr. Bones lived on Earth-2.

Mr. Bones received profiles in Who's Who Update '87 #4 and Who's Who in the DC Universe #6. Director Bones received a profile in JSA Secret Files #2.