CAPTAIN BOOMERANG (George "Digger" Harkness)
Created By: John Broome & Carmine Infantino
First Appearance: Flash #117 (Dec. 1960)
Role: Comic Relief, Gimmick Villain
PL 9 (111)
STRENGTH 2
STAMINA 3
AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 7
DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 4
AWARENESS 2
PRESENCE 1
Skills:
Acrobatics 2 (+6)
Athletics 6 (+8)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+9)
Deception 7 (+8)
Expertise (Science) 4 (+8)
Expertise (Criminal) 3 (+7)
Intimidation 3 (+4)
Perception 4 (+6)
Ranged Combat (Boomerangs) 3 (+13)
Sleight of Hand 2 (+6)
Stealth 2 (+6)
Technology 4 (+8)
Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Equipment 5 (Fancy Boomerangs), Improved Aim, Improved Critical (Boomerangs) 2, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Smash, Inventor, Precise Attack (Ranged/Cover), Quick Draw, Ranged Attack 6, Ultimate Aim
Equipment:
"Exploding Boomerangs" Blast 8 (Feats: Homing, Ricochet 3) (Extras: Area- 15ft. Burst +1/2) (Diminished Range -1) (23) -- (25)
- AE: "Bladed Boomerangs" Blast 5 (Feats: Homing, Ricochet 3, Penetrating 3, Variable 2- Electrified/Sharp/Blunt) (Extras: Multiattack) (Diminished Range -1) (23)
Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Boomerangs +13 (+5 Ranged Damage, DC 20)
Exploding Boomerangs +8 Area (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +4
Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +4
Complications:
Motivation (Greed)
Total: Abilities: 54 / Skills: 42--21 / Advantages: 22 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 14 (111)
-Digger's a funny lil' character in comic book history. Just another Goofy Flash Villain (where his mastery of boomerangs somehow includes keeping a TIME MACHINE BOOMERANG in his arsenal), he ended up getting a huge chunk of his characterization in
Suicide Squad. He was depicted as kind of a lazy ne'er-do-well who often screwed up- his antics include helping a teammate get killed because she embarrassed him (he didn't give Mindboggler a warning that a baddie was aiming a gun at her), dressing up as Mirror Master and committing crimes on the side, and trying to run away from a dozen different battles. He got so bad that the team actually pulled off a huge Con on him, forcing his "Mirror Master" guise to help them fight a "Zombie Horde" while Boomerang was ALSO supposed to be on the mission, to the point where he has to Fred Flintstone his ass all over the place trying to make it work, only for the team to reveal themselves when he's basically pissing his pants with fear. Great stuff.
-Digger Harkness is the son of an American soldier and an Australian woman, growing up in an abusive household and turning to crime when audiences heckled his boomerang-themed performances. He would become one of the many "Flash Rogues", using outlandish Boomerangs that went from the usual gimmicked weapons (explosives, razors) to the insane (time machines; boomerangs that could go into space). Though a competent bad guy in
The Flash, he was depicted as an incompetent, racist (referring to Bronze Tiger as an "abbo"- slang for aborigine... which he was not), generally-weird guy who couldn't be trusted to do anything. And his slang was totally nuts- calling women "bikes", and saying things that were either true Aussie terminology, or just Jon Ostrander having a laugh.
-Honestly... I don't see why they kept him around, unless they were hoping he'd get killed on a mission and thus couldn't tell on the rest of the team (which is something he would totally do). Waller eventually had him dumped on a deserted island for his many misdeeds, only picking him up a year later when she re-formed the defunct Squad (Boomer was, naturally, in the process of building a giant boomerang to fly himself back to the mainland).
-While on another version of the Squad in Superboy's book, he was shot through the hands by Deadshot, and reappeared later with cybernetic ones. After a few more adventures with the Rogues (including getting Neron interested in the group), he grew fat and lazy, and was killed in
Infinite Crisis after Jean Loring (the real killer) had him go after Tim Drake's father, in order to win his reputation back- Digger killed Drake with a boomerang, but was fatally shot in return. Digger's rep had fallen so far by this point that Loring assumed that he would naturally fail.
-Digger's son Owen becomes the new Captain Boomerang, and briefly makes a go of it as a villain before DC just weirded out and killed him off during
Blackest Night, as a Black Lantern Digger returns from the dead, tricks Owen into killing people (Captain Cold is disgusted; "the Rogues don't kill women or children"; and shoves Owen into the pit with Digger), and tears out his heart. By the end of the story, Digger is curiously chosen as one of many dead super-people resurrected by the "white light". At this point, he has Energy Boomerangs that he generates from his own body. He eventually lost this near the end of the pre-"Nu52" continuity, being jailed by Tim "Red Robin" Drake for the murder of his father.
-His
JLU appearance was great, and he was of course the Comic Relief of his team (alongside Deadshot's Deadpan Snarkiness), nearly screwing up the mission by being stingy before going through the JLU Satellite's metal detector ("seventy-five cents is seventy-five cents. I'm supposed to throw away money?"), and generally being perturbed by everything (Flagg was too serious, Deadshot & Plastique were too eager to cause damage).
-His stats are largely unimpressive, as he never showed too many Gimmick Boomerangs. He's a PL 9 Blaster-type guy, using Equipment like Batman, instead of the Device-stuff that many other Gimmick-Users would have. He's a pest to The Flash, and a liability to the Suicide Squad- in that book, nearly every other member of the team had his measure. The only "Good Showing" I've seen of him was a
Robin appearance where he allies with The Riddler, and impresses Tim by knocking down every single one of his Batarangs in one go- naturally, Captain BOOMERANG is a superior ranged fighter with them.