Tyroc (Character)

Publisher: DC Comics

Created by: Cary Bates and Mike Grell

1st appearance: Superboy #216 (April 1976)

Real Name: Troy Stewart

Alias: 1st Black Legionaire, Black Banshee

Team Affiliations: Legion of Super-Heroes

Legal Status: Marzal citizen with no criminal record

Height: 6’              Weight: 180 lbs

Eyes: Brown                  Hair: Black, shaved bald

Relatives: unknown

Skills and Abilities:  Trained in unarmed combat while and flight by the legion of superheroes.

Powers: Tyroc originally had a reality-warping Sonic power which produced different effects depending on intonation and pitch. Displayed powers include teleportation, pyrokinesis, create dimensional portals, force fields, transmute objects, freeze objects, and wind manipulation among others.

Recently he has been depicted as having a standard concussive sonic scream with echolocation as well.

Biography

Troy lived on the island nation of Marzol, off the coast of Africa. The island was caught in dimension flux and would appear and disappear over a number of years to and from the earth dimension. Tyroc was the only member of his people with powers so he was designated their champion. His name Tyroc is translated in his people’s language as “Scream of the devil”.

After fighting alongside the legion of superheroes he joined their ranks for a short time but duties to his people often pulled him away from active duty. Marzol was eventually destroyed and he found himself the sole survivor and joined Fellow Black Superhero Jacques Foccart to save the earth. When Jacques Foccart became earths new president he became the vice president.

Notes:  Jim Shooter, one of DC’s artists at the time called the depiction of Tyroc “pathetic and appalling” and co-creator Mike Grell described Tyroc’s segregationist backstory as “possibly the most racist concept I’ve ever heard in my life.” Grell was so disgusted by the concept and said “I gave him a silly costume. It was somewhere between Elvis’ Las Vegas costume and something you would imagine a pimp on the street corner wearing.