Let’s raise a glass to Snapper Carr, an absolute tour de force in Justice League of America history. He saved the world because he did yard work without being asked. In his 1960 debut, Starro the Conqueror puts an entire town under mind control. Snapper is fine. He had spent the afternoon spreading lime across his parents’ lawn and was still wearing enough of it to block the psychic rays. He thought he was doing his parents a favor, getting the lawn peachy keen. Instead, he stumbled upon an interplanetary defense system available by the bag at any local hardware store. America had not yet reached the moon, but it had already weaponized lawn care.

The Justice League figures out that lime is Starro’s weakness and dumps it on him. That’s it. Earth keeps its free will, the Carrs get a better lawn, and Snapper is made the League’s teenage mascot. Unpaid, naturally. Snapper had no powers. He was available at no cost, which apparently mattered more. He received no uniform, only a belt-buckle pager and the expectation that he answer it. For all its talk of justice, the League ran on free labor. It was 1960. Teenagers were cheap, lawns were sacred, and liability had yet to be invented.

Snapper also snaps his fingers whenever he gets excited. Hence, Snapper. This counted as character development in the Silver Age. Give the kid one irritating habit, name him after it, and let him loiter around the Secret Sanctuary. Batman had money. Superman had the sun. Wonder Woman had the gods. Snapper Carr had a bag of lime and the confidence to provide his own applause. Know your history.