Robby Reed was arguably the most powerful superhero of Earth-One, in so much as he had access to an immense variety of superhuman abilities at any time he needed it. Reed accidentally uncovered an ancient H-Dial in a cavern, which he deduced would grant him various powers when he dialed H-E-R-O. This led to dozens of adventures and scores of alter egos, each time he became someone different. Defending his home town of Littleville, Colorado, Robby would face various supervillains including his arch-enemy in Erick Bolton aka the Moon Man, who led a criminal organization known as Thunder. Given the location he lived, Robby never met more well-known superheroes, save one much later.
Despite defeating these cadre of crooks, the temptation toward criminality would tempt him. Robby didn't always use these gifts in the wisest manner, which led to as much trouble as what he had battled.
An individual on Earth-Two who matched the diversity of Robby's powerset was a man known only by two aliases, Burp the Twerp*, of the Super Son-of-a-Gun. The origin of his abilities, and his actual birthname, are unknown... although it does not seem he relies on a device like an H-Dial to manifest these metahuman attributes.
Unlike other mystery men of the 1940's, Burp kept mostly to himself while being preoccupied in some mundane misadventures. However, on at least two occasions, he encountered Plastic Man. And like Plastic Man, Twerp could contort his body into various shapes and likewise favored a red and black costume during his capers.
Robby had himself once device dialed himself into a clone of Plastic Man, a version of whom also lived on Earth-One and had similar tales as that of his Earth-Two counterpart. Shortly after this, the original Plastic Man came out of retirement and assisted Batman on several cases, reestablishing himself once more as both a superhero and a law enforcement officer.
As for Reed, after several successful tales, his situation started to turn dark. First, his evil side manifested when the pitch of a jet booster used by criminals affected him in his heroic personas. This led to partial amnesia, wherein he forgot he had possessed the H-Dial, and when he suddenly remembered his psychke was too fractured to wield the power without becoming corrupt. After this occasion, Robby attempted to resume his heroic activites, and while attempting to save Earth was forced to dial S-P-L-I-T on his H-Dial so he could be two places at once, which led to the creation of a superhero and a supervillain.
As for Burp the Twerp, he would later appear once more in the company of Plastic Man and Plas' partner Woozy Winks, having come to be obsessed with his fellow shape changer. Noticing that the Super Son-of-a-Gun was stalking his pal, Woozy confronted the creepy contortionist and discovered that... but for his lack of attention span... Burp was a serious threat to not only Plastic Man but all other costumed contemporaries. That said, Burp left the pair once proving his point.
In one tale, Burp sought to marry a woman he had been pursuing for quite some time. When she rejected him due to his appearance, he displayed the ability to change heads, though now having handsome features he found she still wasn't satisifed. Next, in his bag of tricks, he pulled out a more fit physical form, which she definitely approved of, and accepted his marriage proposal. However, the original head of Burp recognized this and reasssembled his old body oce more, realizing he was "too good for his own good". This occasion seems to indicate that perhaps he was an artificial life form, such as an adaptable android.
Between the occasion when Robby first turned evil and when he dialed S-P-L-I-T, after recovering from amnesia and regaining his dial, he encountered the actual Plastic Man while acting out some criminal tendencies once more. Plas fought Robby in various forms, including Robby as Plastic Man II once more. After defeated Reed, Plas took possession of the H-Dial to keep the lad from abusing its power. Robby somehow recoved the dial later on, perhaps after Plastic Man deposited it with the law enforcement agency he was working for. It was at this point, when he split himself in two, that he created two versions of himself. Unlike Burp's handsome and original bodies, each of which was still inherantly good, Reed's two bodies were diametrically opposed. One was good, and the other evil. The evil version disposed of the good version, but not before that good version created two new H-Dials with power limitations that would prevent their inheritors from turning evil. These two, Vicki Grant and Chris King, carried on a various superheroes, fighting the artifical supervillains created by Robby's evil Master persona.
Eventually, Reed regained his sanity and retired.
* Burp the Twerp was quite possibly the cartoon creation of Scribbly Jibbet, the doppelgänger of Robby Reed, tapping into the metaphysical energy in his newspaper's office to bring Burp to life.
Despite defeating these cadre of crooks, the temptation toward criminality would tempt him. Robby didn't always use these gifts in the wisest manner, which led to as much trouble as what he had battled.
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