Who's This? Sun Boy's maker.
The facts: An expert on radioactive gold. Dr. Zaxton Regulus got revenge on Dirk Morgna for interrupting his experiment by throwing him in a reactor which turned the young man into Sun Boy (as presented in Adventure Comics #348 (September 1966). So THAT was a cock-up. He actually bid his time until he could show up in a gold flame-powered armor (in that same issue, provoking the origin story). Regulus would appear in about a dozen more issues of Legion stuff, as well as Crisis and Legion of 3 Worlds, as well as half a dozen in the Reboot era despite the fact that Dirk, though encountering a similar fate, didn't join the team as Sun Boy.
How you could have heard of him: Regulus is the brightest object in the constellation Leo and one of the brightest stars in the night sky, so that's why the name might sound familiar. For non-astronomers, you're fresh out of luck.
Example story: Superboy #160 (October 1972) "Attack of the Sun-Scavenger" by Cary Bates and Dave Cockrum
It's Sun Boy's 11th birthday, which puts a new spin on the whole "only under 18s can join", because are we talking about teens in Earth years, biological years, or SOLA-years? Suddenly, it makes sense all these buff and buxom heroes look so adult. But that's not what we're here for. Where's Dr. Regulus? Would you believe he jumps out of a cake rare Arguvian sculpture meant for Sun Boy's collection?
Not the most alert bunch of Legionnaires - did someone spike the birthday punch, or what? Since his last appearance, Regulus has gone from radioactive gold weapons to actual Sun Boy powers, and I don't know that he really IS more powerful than Dirk is, but his willingness to go all out with the heat certainly makes him more dangerous. Of course, he's still vulnerable to wonky science.
I'll buy that a heat beam could be reflected by a mirror (a 30th-Century hard-to-melt mirror), but the art makes it look like flames, so it's harder to accept. Nevertheless, that gives the Legion enough of a breather to seize the initiative.
Love the smoke effect, but what happened? Sun Boy, not yet as conceited as he would become under Paul Levitz, can't believe just one of his blows could knock Regulus out. The old scientist reveals his powers came at the cost of fatal side-effects, so he begs the Legionnaires to honor his dying request - to be shot into the Arion star (does the Lord of Atlantis know about this?) where his ashes can burn forever. Sounds reasonable. Sun Boy tells his friends Regulus is his responsibility and that he'll attend to his cremation alone. But once his coffin is close enough to the star...
The Arion star was the source of his powers! Oh nooooo! He goes there to recharge every few weeks, and his attack on the Legion was just a ploy to get back after being stranded on Earth. And this close to the star, his powers are hyper-charged. Sun Boy doesn't stand a chance. Except that the two other coffins, which were supposed to be filled with necro-crystals (the equivalent of flowers in the 30C), actually contain Shadow Lass and Lightning Lad! And Regulus wasn't particularly ready for them.
Looks like he was using the star's energy as it was coming in, because blacking him out cuts him off immediately. Another gut punch and Regulus is out like a light. And how did the Legionnaires know to come as back-up? They did a bit of research and found Arion was an artificial star created BY Regulus (sheesh, dude is making stars and he's wasting his time on petty supervillainy?!).
There are so many Legionnaires, it's hard for a solo supervillain to leave a mark. Regulus is quite a focused and low-powered villain to be named in the same breath as Mordru or the Time Trapper. It's his personal connection to Sun Boy that has given him staying power, but one does get the sense that he can only really face a very small contingent of superheroes to be at all a threat.
Who's Next? A professional atheist.
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