Origin
Anthony Rodriguez was an orphan living on the streets of Suicide Slum with his friends Tommy Thompkins, Gabby and Scrapper. He was the smart guy of the group, and lived in a shack with the other members of the Newsboy Legion. They attempted to support themselves by selling newspapers, hence the name. When this failed in supporting the boys, they occasionally turned to petty crime. He and his friends were eventually taken under the guardianship of Officer Jim Harper, who was secretly the superhero the Guardian.
Creation
Anthony was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
Character Evolution
Anthony was the smartest member of the Legion, and noted for his polysyllabic vocabulary- hence his nickname “Big Words”. When he grew up, he attended university where he majored in science, a subject that he unsurprisingly excelled at. After graduating from university he got work at Project Cadmus, as did the rest of the original Legion. He eventually got married, and had a child who resembled him almost identically, and who was later revealed to be an identical clone who had been created by Project Cadmus. Eventually he, his friends and the clones parted ways with Cadmus because of the changes being made to the project. He was killed alongside the members of the original Legion by Codename: Assassin.