First of all, let's explore the origin. Ayla was first admitted to the Legion as Lightning Lass. When Lightning Lad returned, they shared the same powers. This did not seem to be an issue at the time. However, Edmond Hamilton must have thought it was, so he creates a story where Dream Girl thinks the Legionnaires are going to die and Lightning Lass is one of them. So in a weird case of semantics, Dream Girl thinks that if she changes Ayla's powers, she won't die, because she is no longer Lightning Lass. Ayla thinks her powers were taken away, not changed. So a week after the supposed incident occurs, Ayla discovers her new powers to make things "super-light" (because there is nothing extraordinary about making objects lightweight) and changes her name to Light Lass. Turns out, Dream Girl changed her powers for nothing but Ayla is unfazed as she can now lift the clubhouse. Light Lass keeps the alliteration of her original codename, despite it being somewhat confusing to describe her powers.
In this story, we see her lift the clubhouse; however, later, she needed the boys to lift things for her. I get that females during this time frame were supposed to be weaker than male characters but allowing her to approximate superstrength would not have been a bad thing. Although I don't think the clubhouse was made to be lifted.
Ayla basically remains with these powers for the next 20 years. I want to make a distinction here that her powers are simply to negate gravity. She is seen to "float" object or put them into a zero-g environment. It's not quite clear how they move with her though. I assume that an artist started to draw an actual visible field and then the idea stuck.
Now, many fans of her will say that her powers were useful, like the time a wall that Ultra Boy was holding started to fall, she used her powers to allow him to scoot away. The reality is that she could still not affect any inertia on an object, just the force of gravy. In the depths of space, though, she would have no effect because there is no gravity to counteract. She has been seen using her ability to incapacitate foes by floating them in the air, but that only works if her opponent can't fly. And it's not a Win if they have any ranged abilities that can take her out.
When she tried to use her power on Blok, he was somehow able to counteract it and drain her dry. Useless! Not sure why a writer didn't have Dream Girl step in again and change Ayla's powers to something new. A friend once suggested that she should be able to combine her powers with some of the properties of her flight ring to simulate telekinesis. That could actually help explain how she can float objects alone with her...or even out the door!
Prior to the Great Darkness Saga, Levitz set up some drama, eventually breaking up Ayla and Timber Wolf and having her leave the Legion. I never heard anything as to why Levitz brought her back and returned her lightning powers.
She retained her lightning powers through the Baxter series and the five year gap. Folks who enjoyed Light Lass were treated to a return during the 5YL era where a younger version from the SW6 Legion became Gossamer. Oddly though, at one point, she and Star Boy use their powers on some flying rocks, he causes his to go do, hers goes up. Since they were in space, not sure how that works.
During the Reboot, we have a brief flirtation with the zero-g ability but that is thankfully brief.
Enter the Threeboot.
This version of the Legion had Light Lass as a member. We never got much back story on her and Garth, no origin to her powers. Mark Waid was behind this version and he has always been a good one for super-hero pseduo-science. He was the one that created the idea of the Speed Force and here, he seems to think pretty highly of Light Lass. Waid knows that gravity is one of the four universal forces. He has Brainiac 5 marvel at her powers because she changes the laws of physics with her powers. In one story, Waid has her create a giant zero-g field that starts causing objects to float all around. This is in order to locate their opponent who appeared to be invisible. (Pre-COIE Light Lass only seemed to be able to affect a small area).
When Jim Shooter takes over, he has Brainiac 5 use a machine to tap into Star Boy and Light Lass's powers in order to rebalance our solar system because a planet sized object moved in and it's gravity began to affect the rest of the planets. It was good to see a bit of science being applied to her powers. But it doesn't end there.
In Legion of Three World, Geoff Johns uses her even better. At this point, she appears to actually have anti-gravity powers. Now, I want to stop here and consider anti-gravity. We know what gravity is, right? Naturally, everything falls to the center of the Earth. Well, here he has Ayla do something truly remarkable. She is able to lift a Kryptonian Chrysalis buried underneath the Fortress of Solitude and rise it to the surface. She caused the object to move away from the center of the Earth. This is quite remarkable. The chrysalis chamber is big but we have never see Light Lass use her powers exactly like that. While there may have been a depiction of her raising an opponent into the upper atmosphere pre-COIE, I always attributed that to the writer not knowing what her powers really were. As her powers are causing an object to go against gravity or using gravity in a negative direction, I consider that anti-gravity. Remember what I said earlier about inertia? She was able to put enough force behind the chrysalis to overcome its inertia AND raise it up through the ground. Also in Lo3W, she uses her power on XS who is running so fast they don't want her to become a quantum singularity due to relativity. If someone could write Light Lass like this consistently, I might actually enjoy her!
But could we take it a step even further? All objects that have mass, have gravity. Now, there are scientific formulas between mass and distance. What if she could alter all of that? I have some ideas on Star Boy that I may save for a post on him. But my idea for Light Lass would be to have her manipulate gravitons in such a way to create a true opposite of gravity. (A graviton, if it exists, would be its own anti-particle so there is no such thing as anti-gravitons) She would be able to move them into a null-field or simply repel an object from her center of gravity. Think of this type of situation: a space craft out of control is plummeting towards the planet. Light Lass is able to first negate the gravity to stop it's acceleration, but then she is able to slowly manipulate anti-gravity to apply a force against the space craft to slow its velocity and bring it safely down.
What if, since gravity has been shown to bend light towards it, she can bend light away, possibly reflecting energy attacks back to their origin? Maybe she could create a deflection shield to bend projectiles and light away from her.
How far could we take our ideas? I postulate that her powers originate from the manipulation of Dark Energy, which theoretically modifies the laws of gravity at various scales. Since Dark Energy is not fully understood, there is some room for artistic license. Perhaps she is able to create her own form of FTL travel? Is she able to create white holes that burst into radiation and matter? Yeah, I know, that's crazy stuff there, thinking Light Lass could create a universe.
I'm not sure most writers want to tangle with physics so keeping Ayla with lightning powers is probably the safer bet. Then again, the internet is full of knowledge. You really didn't think I knew that stuff about gravitons, did you?
I far prefer Light Lass over Lightning Lass, and you've outlined why. Her powers are more original, and potentially much greater. I'd love to see a fully realized Light Lass.
ReplyDeleteThat's the idea. Keep her as big a threat (or bigger) as Garth, with just a different power set. Thanks for the comment!
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