WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Infinite Frontier: Secret Files #5 by Stephanie Phillips, Joshua Williamson, Phil Hester, Ande Parks, Nick Filardi and Tom Napolitano, on sale now.
The DEO's continuing investigation into the new Infinite Frontier era has revealed some surprising new details about the DC Universe's heroes and villains. One of those characters was Captain Boomerang, a long-time enemy of the Flash, who retained his mutations following the events of Perpetua's takeover of the DC Multiverse.
And now, Boomerang can transform into a hulking monster capable of growing bones spurs out of his back that he can pluck and use as boomerangs. While it might be odd, his new set of powers mimics those belonging to the X-Men character, Marrow, who could produce bones outside of her body and use them as weapons.
Boomerang acquired these abilities simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. After Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs took over the world, Earth was completely redesigned, becoming an apocalyptic wasteland of nightmares. One of these was the Arkham Wastelands, the site of Captain Atom's death at the hands of the Batman Who Laughs. The fallout of this event left the land completely irradiated, killing or mutating anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves within the blast zone's radius.
One of these unfortunate individuals was Captain Boomerang. He was discovered by Harley Quinn in Dark Knights: Death Metal Guidebook #1 by Chip Zdarsky, Khary Randolph and Dave Sharpe. She was patrolling the area when she stumbled across her teammate from the Suicide Squad. But what should have been a reunion of colleagues turned into an attempted murder when Boomerang, driven mad by the radiation, attacked Harley. Fortunately, she was saved by the timely intervention of a mutated hyena who killed Boomerang.
But now he's back and in the custody of DEO Director Bones. The restructuring of reality has revived Boomerang and apparently allowed him to retain his latent mutation. Bones forced Boomerang to transform by exposing him to poison gas. The stress triggered the latent abilities and Boomerang returned to his mutant appearance.
And the ability to create bone boomerangs was also there. But this power is similar to the mutant hero Marrow from Marvel Comics. Marrow debuted in Cable #15 by Jeph Loeb and David Brewer. As a mutant, Marrow had the ability of accelerated bone growth. She could control and manipulate her bones, turning them into weapons she could wield in melee or launch them for ranged attacks. She was even capable of altering their durability to make them last longer in combat.
Boomerang's new powers seem to be somewhat similar. He can grow bones out of his body and use them as weapons, but he has yet to display the versatility of Marrow's other abilities. This may be made up for by his increased size and strength. It is also highly likely that due to the frenzied state he is in upon using these powers, that the concentration required for more versatile power use is out of the question. He's only had two opportunities to show these powers off thus far, and both times were used to make boomerangs.
However, it's seems like Boomerang has acquired and retained metahuman abilities that can be triggered by stress. He has, in effect, become a DC version of the Hulk. Boomerang could end up becoming their guinea pig as they try to understand how the multiverse has changed in light of Wonder Woman's restoration of the past. Moving forward, Boomerang could become an important piece in helping the world understand what was brought back to the DC multiverse following its near annihilation.