Welcome to another entree of the Weekly Z-Lister. Today's obscure comic book character is Snowflame. Some super-powered characters get their abilities from radiation or magic or weapons, but this outstanding citizen goes a step further. He gets his powers by getting high.
First appearing in 1988's "New Guardians" Snowflame was the leader of a cocaine compound in Columbia. He had power, money, women, and ridiculous amounts of coke at his disposal. Not only did the forgettable New Guardians have to fight Snowflame's armed cartel members, but they had to battle this doped-up dictator as he used powers that'd make Cheech & Chong go clean. Snowflame had super strength, super speed, enhanced pain tolerance, control over the element of fire and the ability to get his foes high just by touching them. He acquired all these powers by snorting cocaine and became stronger the more he used. Sadly for those incited by this fascinating Z-Lister, he was thrown into a explosive shed by The New Guardians. Thanks, guys.
It was never known exactly how Snowflame received powers by inhaling cocaine, but I'm sure writer Steve Englehart's intention was to show young readers how bad drugs were. And in a post-Scarface world, one couldn't blame comic book writers to deter young people away from cinematically popularized drug. But, if I may theorize, wouldn't the personification of drugs be counter productive? Whether the personification is good or evil, having this character gain some supernatural gift simply by using a real life drug could just motivate young readers to believe the same could happen to them. Then again, this is a concept twenty-six years out of date. So while the cocaine-covered bullet was dodged by DC after this character's existence, it's interesting to look at how scared the country was of illegal drugs that we'd create a character based off of them.
For the sake of comedy, can Snowflame please reappear in a Batman book or something?
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