Chunk (DC)

Chunk is a male comic character who features in DC Comics.

Biography

Origin

Chester P. Runk was a maverick physicist and engineer had no living relatives. Chester was a child prodigy and an M.I.T. graduate, but he also had serious psychological problems. According to Cyborg, at the age of twenty-four, Runk had developed a matter transmitting machine, a primitive long range teleportation device. Due to a lack of sensible safety procedures on Runk's part, his machine imploded and became a part of his body after his first test of its long range teleportation capabilities. The accident made him superstrong and resilient, and gave him the power to teleport anywhere he wished on Earth and off. He was also forced to physically absorb forty-seven times his own weight in superdense matter like diamonds, just to keep the machine from eating him or collapsing him down to a dimension lower than the one he had access to. Chester had become a human black hole. Runk came to the Flash's (Wally West) attention during a crime spree where he was seen literally eating diamonds to feed the machine. He was also seen stealing expensive high tech research equipment. Chunk appears to have been diagnosed as mentally unstable before the accident, and had been seeing a therapist named Jarret Parker for years.

Chester could access a local pocket dimension he called the Void, a barren rocky waste that is home to strange prehistoric creatures. He had sent many people there over the three year period since his accident, the first being Jarret Parker Ph.D., his former psychiatrist, and Karin Preus, a woman who had rejected his advances. Many dozens of innocent bystanders, many who were guilty only of annoying Chunk, were stranded and forced to eke a living out of the Void's severe landscape, by learning how to hunt the lizards, insects and giant winged reptiles that make their homes in the canyons. Some grew food using the guano of the winged reptiles to cultivate seeds taken from some of the many cars Chunk had taken. Unfortunately, a majority of the victims Chunk sent into the void were murderers, sadists and criminals. Some of the roving bands of criminals had even turned to cannibalism. Chester brought Wally there at the end of their second fight where he joined up with a group of decent-minded survivors. Wally soon convinced Chunk that he would be hailed for his scientific discovery if he would just send all his victims back to Earth. Chester revealed to Wally that he could not control himself when he left the Void; the partially formed singularity simply threw him out whenever it got hungry. Chester agreed to do so, and further police investigations declared him innocent of any charges.

He was unable to bring all of his victims back right away, though he never stopped trying. Finally, they all returned to Earth in Flash Vol.2 #20 during a going away party thrown by The Rogues for Captain Cold. Wally West had been invited as a gag by the Trickster, and he arrived with Chunk. Unfortunately, the victims destroyed the hotel ballroom where the party was being held, nearly instigating a riot in the process. Wally and The Rogues were able to assist the police in subduing the mob before they got out of hand. Afterwards, a team of scientists approaches Chunk, asking to study the Void. Chunk sends one of the scientists there (humorously, the scientist was unprepared). As the scientist shifts through several dimensions, including the one Wally was in, one with razor-sharp spikes, and even one with no air, he returns back to Earth relatively unharmed. He comments that there seemed to be a great interdimensional cataclysm, and Chunk's powers give him access to the remains.

"Chunk" later worked as a Waste Removal Specialist because he believed "everyone has something they’d like to disappear". He was close friends with Wally West, and for a while employed Wally’s mother as his secretary. Due to the wealth rolling in from his new business, he was able to buy Wally’s former mansion, and moved into it along with a great deal of distantly related relatives. During this time, Chester is confronted with one of the few things he cannot remove, a large tumor from the brain of a very sick woman. Against her explanations of offering money, Chester explains that since he cannot actually see the tumor, he cannot remove it. The woman leaves, but not without help, a friendly visitor offers to give her a ride home. Chester later came to be engaged to Wally’s ex-girlfriend Connie Noleski. At some point during this period, he was allied with Amanda Waller's ad-hoc team of Shadow Fighters, a diverse group brought together to fight Eclipso. Armed, he would join the final battle and even confront Eclipso face to face. During Blacksmith's campaign to take over the Twin Cities, a rogue named Plunder shot Chunk with the only thing that could hurt him, a bullet laced with White Dwarf Matter (the substance Atom uses to shrink). The bullet wound shot opened up a vortex within his body, which sucked in everything around him, including people and light. The Central City Police Department called the KCPD in order to enlist the Flash's help, but he also ends up being sucked into the vortex. The situation was resolved when Wally recovered the bullet from the vortex in Chunk's body, Chunk quickly recovered from his wound.

During the alien invasion of Cuba, Chunk accompanied Wally on his mission to fight Durlans. However, Wally left him out in the jungle, adding to the feeling of being used and mistreated by his friend. (The Flash v2 #21)

After Wally's devastating trek across the country that left transformed him into a strange Porcupine Man, Jerry McGee called Chunk and asked him to join them in Swainsville, New Mexico, to help out. Wally's essence had been transported to another energy level, and Chunk used his powers to free him. (The Flash v2 #27)

Chunk and Linda Park threw Flash III a welcome party after the hero returned from the time-stream. (Justice League America v1 #0)

Roland, a fan of Chunk, wrote him an e-mail asking him to save his town of Manchester, Alabama from a flood, and offered to do yardwork if he helped. Chunk waived his usual fee and absorbed the water threatening the town and sending it to another dimension, figuring on making a profit later by selling the water to communities caught in a drought. (Impulse v1 #38)

Chunk was shot in the chest by Plunder after attending a theatre opening with Connie. The bullet was made of white dwarf star matter, and caused Chunk’s powers to go haywire. He started absorbing everything around him, people, buildings even light, until Flash removed the bullet from his body. Chunk was sent to S.T.A.R. Labs for treatment. (The Flash v2 #177)

After recovering from his injuries, Chunk came to pay off S.T.A.R. Labs bills for their new children’s hospital out of gratitude. Chunk and Connie got engaged and planned to start a family as soon as they were married. (The Flash v2 #195)

Post-Flashpoint

Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.

Overview

Powers and abilities

Chester has the ability to absorb matter and expel it into a pocket dimension called the Void. Chunk could unconsciously manipulate local gravimetric fields and draw matter towards him.

He has also exhibited superstrength and limited invulnerability, and was able to easily survive being struck by a small commuter van, and then used his bare hands to rip off its doors. He's immune to most physical attacks; any weapons used against him are absorbed by his body. The only ballistic projectiles that have been shown to hurt Chunk are bullets coated or laced with White Dwarf Star material, the same substance that allows the Atom to shrink.

Notes

• Chunk was created by Mike Baron and Jackson Guice where he made his first appearance in The Flash v2 #9 (February, 1988)

Alternate Versions

• In The Flash Annual v2 #4 (1991), an alternate future version of the character was shown where Chunk appeared to be working at S.T.A.R. Labs with Flash ally Tina McGee. He was aged and thinned by and finally killed by super-criminals in order to force cooperation from his colleagues when he was invited as a special guest to a Flash-Day celebration.

In other media

Television

• In Justice League Unlimited, the character himself did not appear in the DC Animated Universe television series though a similar concept was introduced in the episode "The Greatest Story Never Told". A character named Dr. Daniel Brown who because of an explosion in a high energy lab was turned into a walking black hole. Booster Gold and Dr. Tracy Simmons collapsed the hole in his chest with a gravity inhibitor collar. Everything that had been consumed, including Booster Gold and Skeets, was ejected.

Appearances

• The Flash v2: (1988)

External Links

• DC Database Entry

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