| “ | It's hope. You see, I understand what it is to be different, Mr. Rice. But different can be good. | ” |
— Mister Bones to Todd in "Chapter Seven: Infinity Inc. Part One"
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Mister Bones is a minor character in The CW series, Stargirl.
He is the Head Director of The Helix Institute For Youth Rehabilitation, who was born with translucent skin and a cyanide touch as a result of experiments done to his mother during pregnancy. He runs Helix for those like him, who are outcasts to the world, giving them a place to feel safe and control their powers. Mister Bones decides to visit the quaint town of Blue Valley to witness the coexistence of superheroes and villains.
Biography
Mister Bones' mother was subjected to experiments while pregnant, which caused her unborn child to mutate. Everything Bones comes into direct contact with instantly perishes, including his mother. The experiments also gave him translucent skin. Nurse Louise Love rescued him from the people who did this to him, but there was nothing that could be done. Together, they created The Helix Institute For Youth Rehabilitation where they help those like him, troubled yet special youth, learn to live a life of isolation.[1]
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He and Nurse Love located a boy with unspeakable power, Todd Rice. They arranged for him to be brought to Helix by two police officers after being caught breaking and entering a restaurant in Civic City. Nurse Love familiarized the boy with the institute and her knowledge of his father being Alan Scott. Todd asks what Helix is, and from around a corner, Mister Bones emerges to say it's hope. He relates to Todd's situation of being different, but assured him that different can be good. They then begin "treatments" for his uncontrollable powers.[2]
Series
Season 2
One day, Nurse Louise Love calls Mister Bones to inform him that Todd's twin sister, Jennie, had visited Helix in search for her brother. She doesn't think Jennie or her friends would return, as she lied to Jennie that he had left.[3]
Mister Bones decides to visit Blue Valley.
A few weeks later, Nurse Louise Love stands in The Helix Institute as she reveals to a mysterious patron that Green Lantern's daughter, Jennie is looking for her brother in Milwaukee. Love reveals Jennie has friends like her in Blue Valley, Nebraska. The town somehow has a collection of heroes and villains that co-exist. The man, Mister Bones, bears translucent skin and steampunk clothing, admits the town sounds intriguing. He thinks it's time to visit Blue Valley for himself.[4]
Season 3
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Mister Bones joins Nurse Louise Love from behind a pane of glass in Helix, watching Todd lay on a metal table, groaning and shaking in pain as a bright white light shines down on him. As the light quivers and shakes while pulsing, Bones points out that it's been six months and he's only gotten worse. He orders her to be more aggressive with the treatment before they lose control. Love reaches out to the dial, hesitating for a second, before turning it up. The light buzzes louder as it pulses deeper, causing Todd to grunt and shake as he screams.
Courtney, Jennie, Shade, and Pat break into Helix to free Todd, believing him to be in danger. They interrupt Todd's procedure and Jennie's contact with her brother causes a blast of light and dark energy that ripples through the institute.[2]
Jennie is taken to a containment cell which she tries to escape by using her powers. The energy bounces off the door and fills the room, dissipating. A voice over the PA system, belonging to Mister Bones, informs Jennie that her powers won't work here. This room is designed for her protection and theirs. The walls are coated with an energy defusing polymer to assist in power control and suppression. Jennie is angry as she yells for whoever the hell he is, to open the door. The man insists he's a friend, an ally to both her and her brother. He only wants what's best for both of them. She wants to be let out of here. He's sorry, but she and Todd can never be together again. The speaker crackles as he turns off the PA system.
Bones then watches as Todd restarts his procedures in a newly set-up room, writhing in pain on the table. He holds Shade's tattered hat while watching Todd.
Courtney stands in Love's office, locked inside. She sees a camera in the corner of the room watching her. She stands and asks if he's been watching them. In their town, their school, their homes. She defiantly paces the room, telling him that he's picked the wrong people to do this to. They're going to find him if they haven't already. Starman, the Justice Society of America, all of their friends. They'll be coming for them, for her. She pauses and shakily admits that she's not helpless without her staff. The PA system clicks on and the man's voice admits he doesn't believe she's helpless without the staff, which is the point. She can set the staff aside, just as Yolanda can put her Wildcat suit away, Rick the hourglass, and Beth her goggles. She's not like Jennie and her brother, or him. Courtney doesn't even know who he is.
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The door opens and Mister Bones walks into the room, revealing himself to her. She assumes he's trying to scare her, which he'll have to try harder to do. He assures her that his appearance is not a choice he can make. His mother was subjected to experiments while pregnant with him. Beyond his flesh being transparents, he was born with what these doctors called a cyanide touch. He removes his gloves to show his translucent skin. He touches a plan and it hisses as it wilts into a brown dead plant. Anything he comes into contact with dies, which included his mother. Nurse Love rescued him from the people who did this. But there was nothing to be done. Courtney's sorry, she really is, but he cuts her off before she can continue. He's just as cursed as Jennie and Todd, unlike Courtney and her friends. They were born this way. Here at Helix, they help those like them learn to live a life of isolation. Courtney is perturbed that he teaches them how to hide from the world. He helps their patients survive the only way they can - alone. When Jennie's ring was infected by the shadows, it connected her to Todd, and his power became instabled. If they cannot suppress Todd's power, he will destroy all of them.
Bones hears the thunder and the building shakes as if from an earthquake. He thinks Jennie's still too close to Todd. He needs to take her far from here. Courtney squares her shoulder - maybe she wasn't born like Jennie or Todd or him, but she knows what it's like to lose family, to feel so flawed she must have pushed them away. She's carried that curse too. But Jennie and Todd are meant to be together. She saw Jennie's powers reacting to his hurting. She's the light he needs, not those lamps. She moves around the desk to stand in front of Bones, who listens to her. She explains that her power, and Jennie's, it all reacts to how they feel. That's why she thinks Todd's connection with Jennie is the only thing that can save him. Bones turns away as he thinks over her plea. This might also be the one thing that brings Pat home. She knows what he's doing her and she understands why, she does, but life isn't about living in isolation. It can't be. Because if they're alone, what's the point of anything. Bones turns back to her and warns that if she's wrong, they all die. Courtney looks at him with a serious yet understanding expression.
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Courtney is proven right, as Jennie helps Todd gain control of his powers and brings Pat and Shade back from The Shadowlands. In the morning, Mister Bones goes to calm their other patients as they don't usually have nights with this much excitement. Nurse Love seds the others, including Todd, on their way. Bones returns to an office where he watches his visitors leave from his window, leaning against it while deep in thought. Love emerges and he muses that Courtney Whitmore might have been right. Isolation might not be the answer these kids need. He wonders if maybe Helix should form a team of their own.[1]
Personality
Mister Bones is a man, born of tragedy, with the soul intent of helping those like him. Despite the horrors of his past that would've easily turned someone against Humanity, he uses his experience to help those with powers that the world rejected, and takes great care of his patients at The Helix Institute For Youth Rehabilitation. Though his methods of therapy appear to be immoral, it is all with the intent aide the young youths. The patients themselves are even allowed to leave if they so wished, but choose not to, as they see Bones as their only friend in their struggles to control their powers and the institute he runs as the only place that can provide them sanctuary in a world that would otherwise reject and(/or) be destroyed by them. He is even willing to change the very foundation of which Helix was built upon for years, if it meant it would help the teenagers under his charge.
Even though he is set in his ways, he is not above hearing someone out on how he could improve his methods. Despite nurturing his patients in isolation for years, he more than willing gave Courtney Whitmore the opportunity to prove that there was a better way to help the teenagers he was responsible for. When she proved correct in how to aide Todd Rice, Bones started to think of new techniques that didn't involve how he was brought up to introduce to Helix.
Physical Appearance
Mister Bones has a translucent head and is seen wearing a coat over his suit and tie identical to that of a 1940's army general.
Appearances
| Stargirl | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | |||||||||||||
| Season 2 | ★ | ||||||||||||
| Season 3 | ★ | ★ |
Powers
| “ | Beyond my flesh being transparent, I was born with a cyanide touch, these doctors call it. | ” |
— Mister Bones to Courtney Whitmore in "Chapter Eight: Infinity Inc. Part Two"
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Mister Bones's touch killing a plant.
- Cyanide Touch: Due to Mister Bones's mother being a subject for experiments, he was born with a translucent skin and the power to disintegrate everything he comes into contact with. After his birth, his mother died after having direct contact with him. Decades later, he disintegrated Nurse Louise Love's plant to demonstrate to Courtney Whitmore the deadly nature of his abilities. The acid he generates is extremely dangerous and depending on what it touches, it can either cause it to melt or deteriorate.
Abilities
Weaknesses
- Lack of Touch: Because of his powers, Bones cannot physically touch anyone, or anything, without his gloves.
Notes and Trivia
Comic Comparisons
- In the comics, Mister Bones was born with transparent skin and organs, an acidic touch, and a deadly cyanide sweat as a result of a doctor who injected an experimental mutagenic drug into the fetuses of six pregnant women. This resulted in the women, including Bones' mother, to give birth to metahuman children.
- He forms a friendship with Beth Chapel after she gives him an artificial leg in the hospital.
- Though a villain at first and a member of the Helix, a group of the other metahuman children experimented on by Dr. Love, Mister Bones became an ally to Infinity Inc. He became friendly with Skyman, who he ultimately killed after Harlequin manipulated Solomon Grundy into forcing Bones to touch Skyman with his acidic touch.