DC Exploration: Snowflame

 

Who is he?

Snowflame is a villain who fought the New Guardians in the 80s. Stefan was a Colombian Drug Lord who had metahuman abilities unleashed whenever he did cocaine. Brought into fits of manic high by the drug and taking the identity of Snowflame, he essentially worshipped the Cocaine as a deity, considering himself the living instrument of his will. For his insane over the top presentation Snowflame became a rather beloved obscure character.

More recently Snowflame has been brought back to fight against the likes of Catwoman and Peacemaker on separate occasions. There he has shown himself to be much cleverer and more subtle then previously established, having faked his death at the end of his encounter with the New Guardians and organizing the local supervillains together. However when he uses cocaine he regains his insanely over the top egomaniac persona.  

How Strong is He?

So this depends whether Snowflame has inhaled cocaine recently. Without it, Stefan is a pretty normal Drug Lord physically though it is implied he somehow escaped a several meters tall angry jungle cat. With it Snowflame's power begins to rise dramatically. It's very clear however he is on a metahuman level. He was able to easily beat the New Guardians in his confrontation with them, the New Guardians being supposedly the next step in evolution with metahuman tier feats even in the same issues they fight Snowflame such as Gloss closing a large rift in the ground  and the entire team withstanding a barrage of bullets from Snowflame's men. During their fight, relatively early on Ram hits him with a blow Snowflame would "send any normal man reeling" with Snowflame tanking it. He was also presented as a physical powerhouse to the likes of Catwoman and Peacemarker, both of whom are in the upper human range for a DC Human. Combined with his metahuman abilities, it's clear that Snowflame is meant to be at least a Low Metahuman Threat. 

His maximum extent has never really been seen as he has only fought relatively brief fights, but the first fight against the New Guardians puts special emphasis on his power level rising during the fight, so whether his maximum extent is any degree higher is unknown. As a Low Metahuman Tier Enemy, Snowflame is on roughly the power level of the strongest non-empowered humans and most of their strongest rogues, shown pretty directly in his fight with Catwoman. Given his ability to grow signicantly stronger with all the prior feats being early into his fights, as well as his reputation drawing many of the local supervillains, I would assume he would be particularly strong even someone of his ranking. It might be notable Snowflame has never been "fairly" defeated. The New Guardians after a significant struggle knocked him into a shed full of combustible chemicals that exploded, which was revealed to be a scheme to convince them he had died. Catwoman used a chemical compound that acted as an antidote and Peacemaker poisoned Snowflame's cocaine supply. 

What are his Powers?

After taking cocaine, Snowflame's physical stats are boosted to levels that are considered superhuman within the DC Universe. In the original comic he states that the level of this increase is contacted to his excitement level and that the rush of battle was getting him more excited nad stronger, something demonstrated by him being impressed by Ram's first blow, but then a series of many blows later being tanked by Snowflame. This explicitly applies to his speed as well shown by his text bubbles losing the spaces between words to express him talking at super speed. As another physical enhancement, Snowflame in his cocaine-addled state is stated to "feel no pain."

Snowflame also generates "psychokinetic white flames." These are constantly around him as an aura when on cocaine with it seeming to get more intense as he gets more existence. He can also shoot these out as a torrent of flame. These flames aren't extinguished by water. Beyond that Snowflame's touch or presence can cause contact highs, simulating the effects of being on cocaine. He's also able to control the minds of people who are actually on Cocaine. Snowflame's powers were able to work even on characters with mental defenses like the Floronic Man (Who is essentially evil Swamp Thing.) Snowflame claims to have advanced senses but this may be referring to his enhanced reaction speed based on his statement "I burn with thought--Accelerated thought generated by my fantastically heightened mental senses!"

What are his Weaknesses?

Snowflame's most obvious weakness is also what caused him to become so beloved. Namely that to use his power he has to take in a lot of cocaine and goes absolutely ballistic into an egomaniac power trip talking about the divinity of cocaine and considering himself its divine instrument. As such he's not exactly the most composed and rational fighter. 

Also his body is for the most part fairly conventional and he has been beaten by biological manipulation twice. Similarly Gloss was able to heal the Floronic Man of his contact high by siphoning the cocaine out of his body. If someone did that to Snowflame or if an antidote is applied like Catwoman did, Snowflame reverts to a fairly normal human.

In conclusion, Snowflame is a Low Meta Tier threat enemy, who may be able to rise higher if his combat excitement rises high enough. He was clearly stronger than the New Guardians though some of them definitely got strongh enough to beat him after their combat including Gloss and Extraño. 

He would do best against opponents who are close range fighters and rely on their wits and skills to fight as not only would his aura make it difficult for them to fight properly but unless they're very strong, they would have trouble doing damage to him. Snowflame would be a monster against someone like Tim Drake or Midnighter for instance, especially Tim who probably doesn't have the physical strength to harm Snowflame. 

His biggest weakness would be against characters who are long range fighters/and or have biological based abilities, especially ones who employ stealth to hit him before he's geared up. Someone like Green Arrow could handle Snowflame pretty easily by shooting him with tranquilizer arrows from a distance and someone like Bloodwork would not only likely be able to resist Snowflame by turning into a form made of pure blood could halt the blood carrying the Cocaine through Snowflame's body basically neutralizing or killing him by halting the blood flow to his brain. 

A character who would have an interesting matchup against Snowflame would be Bane. Bane's large experience with venom would probably give him some resistance through experience with Snowflame's contact high powers. Outside of that Bane has the advantage of far greater skill and intelligence than Snowflame but Snowflame would have the advantages of pyrokinesis, pain immunity, and growing stronger during battle so it would depend on Bane being able to defeat him quickly.