Origin
Blok is a silicon-based life-form from the planet Dryad with a naturally high density and strength. Carbon based humanoids had come to settle the planet, not realizing that the world was already inhabited by the silicon natives. Blok’s people watched the carbon humanoids for a time, and once they determined that they meant no harm, revealed themselves. The two species helped each other and shared the planet. An undetermined time later, Dryad’s core became unstable and eventually was destroyed. Blok and his friends misinterpreted the Legion of Super-Heroes’ rescue efforts and assumed the heroes had destroyed their world. They swore revenge.
Creation
Blok created by Gerry Conway and Joe Staton.
Character Evolution
Original Continuity: New Earth
In the late 30th Century, Blok first appeared as a member of the League of Super-Assassins. He was manipulated by The Dark Man, a clone of Tharok, into attacking the Legion of Super-Heroes. Blok, possibly the last of his silicon-based species, had been convinced by The Dark Man that the Legion was seeking to destroy his home-world, when in fact the Legionnaires were working to save it. When he learned that the Legionnaires were not his enemies, he turned on the Assassins and his former master, the Dark Man, and eventually joined the Legion. He knew very little of the rest of his race; it was not even clear to him whether his form was that of an adult or a child. His closest ally in the Legion was Timber Wolf and Blok formed a juvenile, protective relationship with the White Witch.
Retroboot: New Earth
The event known as Infinite Crisis brought together the Legions of all three continuities. Afterward, the current Legion of Super-Heroes has returned to being a close approximation of the original Pre-Crisis team prior to the Five Year Later. Earth Man and his Justice League were successful in creating a xenophobic culture on Earth. Earthgov began to secede from the United Planets, and the aliens on Earth were persecuted. Many Legionnaires were captured by the Justice League of Earth at this time, including Blok. He was later freed and aided his team until injuries and his deep loyalty to Mysa Nal, the Black Witch, led Blok to leave the team to reside on the Sorcerer’s World.
Major Story Arcs
Original Continuity: New Earth
Blok And White Witch
Blok was relatively slow to acclimate to life in the Legion, though he eventually forged a close bond with two of his teammates, Timber Wolf and the White Witch, the latter with whom he eventually fell in love. Blok spent a great deal of leisure time perusing the Legion’s voluminous archives, seemingly becoming the teams unofficial historian.
Blok’s Injures
Blok was seriously injured twice during his early Legion career. The first time was in battle with Darkseid during the Great Darkness Saga. At that time, his stone form lost the stone ridge “collar” around his neck. The second time was against the being known as Omen, when Blok’s body became pock-marked and lost some facial features, including his nose. His body’s form has fluctuated over time, whether this is normal for his species or not is unknown.
Five Years Later
Blok eventually chose to leave the Legion following the catastrophic Black Dawn affair. The increased scrutiny of Earthgov towards all Legion activities as well as the loss of his friends Timber Wolf and Wildfire drove Blok from human contact. He eventually found his way to the Puppet Planetoid, where he spent a few years in isolated contemplation. He was killed by Roxxas the Butcher, who took advantage of Blok’s slumber.
The Death Of Blok
In 2994, Blok’s former teammates Rokk Krinn and Reep Daggle began to reorganize the team, a move which immediately attracted the attention of the corrupt Earthgov. In order to discourage and demoralize the new effort, the alien Dominators hired Roxxas to kill Blok as a warning to his other teammates. Roxxas tracked Blok down to the Puppet Planetoid and carried out his mission with ruthless efficiency, delivering Blok’s dismembered corpse to the ranch home of Garth and Imra Ranzz on Winath. Far from demoralizing the other Legionnaires, however, Roxxas’s act galvanized them into action, and it was directly following their discovery of Blok’s murder than the Legion of Super-Heroes was officially reformed.
Near death, Blok had a dream where he was visited by Strata, the last female of Blok’s race. She confirmed Blok was the last male of his species and invited him to be one with his people again in the afterlife.
Retroboot: New Earth
Rock of the Black Witch
Upon Earth’s salvation from Earth-Man, Blok’s focus was to find his love interest, the White Witch. She had become prisoner of Mordru and the rescue mission was nearly foiled until the noble sacrifice of Green Lantern Rond Vidar allowed Blok, White Witch, and their teammates to escape.
During a battle with the Legion of Super-Villains, Blok sustained serious damage from Mordru’s shadow demons, nearly shattering his form. The White Witch got revenge by absorbing Mordru’s black magic essence and becoming the Black Witch. Black Witch took the throne of the Sorcerer’s World after, leaving Blok behind. Blok, suffering from his grave injuries, escaped from Brainiac 5’s care. He took a Legion cruiser to the Sorcerer’s World, where he and the Black Witch admitted their love for one another. When they touched, the Black Witch’s dark tendencies subsided and his stone shell became whole and smooth. He chose to remain with her on the Sorcerer’s World as her guardian.
Powers & Abilities
Super Strength
Blok’s abilities fluctuated during his career. Though his enormous size and rocky form suggested super-human strength and nigh-invulnerability, he did not demonstrate such abilities during his first appearance. Rather, he absorbed various sorts of energy attacks, being specifically immune to Light Lass‘s anti-gravity powers. (The strongman role among the Super-Assassins was filled by Titania.) In his second appearance, this was specifically stated to be an ability to increase his own mass. This power seemed not entirely under his control; when he joined the Legion, it was stated that three Legion Flight-Rings were required to lift him. (Why his teammate Colossal Boy, who could also increase his mass/size could make do with a single flight ring, but Blok could not, was never explained. It could be that he energy absorbing abilities dampened the effect of the flight ring).
Invulnerability
During Blok’s Legion tenure, it was stated definitely that he had massive super-human strength. Its relative limits were never made clear; he could not match the levels of pre-Crisis Kryptonians and Daxamites or Ultra Boy, but seemed stronger than Timber Wolf and, possibly, Colossal Boy. Contrarily, his durability was greater than that of the latter two heroes, though still not quite on Kryptonian levels. His recuperative abilities were likewise vague. In his earliest experiences, his body included a collar-like formation around his neck; this was destroyed during the Great Darkness Saga and never regrew, but he seemed unharmed by its lack. Over time, his earlier abilities to change his mass and absorb energy were de-emphasized in favor of his purely physical power. At one point, he began to mutate into a different form, larger than before and possessed of several protuberances which expelled energetic plasma from time to time. It was speculated that Blok’s earlier form had been an immature, possibly larval state, and the changes in his body were actually a metamorphosis like that of a butterfly. While Blok was extremely strong, and quite bright, he was not quick. His reaction time was secondary to many people, which often hampered his effectiveness.
Telepathy
He also demonstrated an ability to communicate telepathically, but this was limited to silicon-based life forms, which he never found.
Equipment
As a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Blok possesses a Legion Flight Ring. The ring gives its wearer the ability to fly, the speed and range of which is determined by the wearer’s willpower. It also acts as a long-range communicator (enabling constant vocal contact with other Legionnaires, even across vast distances of space), a signal device, and a navigational compass, all powered by a micro-computer built inside the ring.