This image seems to capture pretty much the essence of M-E Lad. He first appearance shows him eating a ray guy with some corny dialog about how delicious it is. But much later, after he leaves the title, Keith Giffen used him in a Legion of Substitute Heroes special. After that, his appearances seem to take on a more comedic tone. We see this in the Five Years Later era between both the adult Tenzil and the SW6 Tenzil. Tenzil was a problematic character early onas his powers were more of a joke so writers didn't want to use him. He was written out by being drafted into politics on his home world, Bismoll. As in Pepto Bismol.
Now his powers were originally stated to be part of an evolved/meta gene trait as the food of Bismoll was gradually poisoned by microbes, inhabitants evolved ability to eat and digest any substance. When this sentence is read, you can't leave out the first part, "poisoned by microbes." This means two things to me: he was disease resistant and poison resistant. I never understood why writers did not explore that. I'm going to skip the evolution part for now. The second part of the sentence is a doozy though which is probably why writers did some crazy things with him.
Many times, we see Tenzil eat copious amounts of matter with no ill effect. The only time he got fat was due to a ray beam.
But he was shown to use his powers in strange ways.
Eating steam is odd because he would be inhaling it, unless his upper GI had the suction of a vacuum and he Hoovered it up. Digesting a stun beam with no ill-effects. Hmm. If we ignore the fact that someone would shoot him directly in his mouth-hole, he is not just a matter eater, but an energy eater. I mean, our bodies work by turning the food we eat into energy, but eating pure energy doesn't effect him one bit, nor the does it stun him. The last panel, he eats at superspeed. Really, he would have to or the process of him creating a tunnel big enough to craw through would take days, not just a matter of minutes in the story. This leads me to a conclusion about Bismollians: they are invulnerable. Now whether they have an energy aura or from just being tough as inertron, this has never been explored (obviously). But think about it. If we are to assume that Bismollians look like normal humans, with no evolutionary adaptations to their jaws, either in bite strength or the ability to unhinge, and they aren't breaking their teeth on everything, they must be virtually invulnerable. Even their insides would need to be tough to swallow sharp metal pieces.
I know what your saying, saliva is meant to lubricate food going down the esophagus. This is true, but he swallowed energy too. More on his slobber production later.
But the final panel ties this all together. Remember above iI stated how he eats a lot with no side effect? He would have to expel all this energy in some way. Time for a Bismollian physiology lesson. Here we go.
Bismollians must keep deodorant companies in business for all that radioactive schvitzing! But this has to be why Tenzil can eat so fast, his energy is devoted to super-speed. Maybe it's a mutation/adaptation in Tenzil's body that other Bismollians don't share, just as Calorie Queen's excess energy goes to super strength. Now as for the releasing of energy, an even better way to think of it is that it becomes their bio-aura, the same principle that goes into Superman's invulnerability. That's how things start to come together with powers and evolution.
So just giving 10 minutes consideration into Tenzil's biology, he is now invulnerable, resistant to disease and toxins, and has superspeed. He really isn't as useless as writers may have thought. And none of this directly contradicts what we have seen before. Ultra Boy was noted as being susceptible to certain types of radiation. Tenzil now has a leg up on him in certain conditions, and that would make him incredibly useful in Hazmat situations. If the hazardous material is so dangerous that requires immediate disposal, Tenzil can eat it. He wins the day.
Before I go, one last thing to touch upon: acid spit. This was an ability shown in the Reboot.
I believe this comes from some accounts of Bismollian abilities that their body developed enzymes to digest the poisoned food supplies. I'm OK with this added ability though. It does help to reinforce that his powers primarily are from his ability to consume mass quantities. It helps explain how he can chew threw walls which was a smooth surface. Just drool or throw some jail lube on it and it will start breaking down and cause an opening, allowing him to chew a bigger hole.
Honestly, I don't expect the next writer will use Tenzil. However, his personality is unlike other Legionnaires and can definitely stand out on a team, making for some good character moments.
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