LIGHTNING LASS

Real Name: Ayla Ranzz
Power: Making objects super-lightweight
Home Planet: Winath (aka Amarta)

The Origin of Lightning Lass

"Lightning Lad and Light Lass, the twin Legionnaires, were born on the far-off planet Amarta, to a family named Ranzz. The future Lightning Lad was christened Garth; his sister was called Ayla. Neither they nor their older brother, Mekt, had super-powers at birth. But one day, when the three were returning from a party on another world, their space-flier ran out of power near Korbal, a wild planet with no human inhabitants. Garth recalled that one of the chief life-forms on Korbal was the lightning-monsters, and the trio devised a scheme to get them to recharge the flier's energy cells. After landing, they rigged up an antenna on the ship; then they tried to get the monsters to discharge their bolts at it. But instead, they surrounded the three and bombarded them with lightning, which created an electrical field and endowed the three with the power to generate even greater lightning than the beasts. They first used this new ability to recharge the energy cells."

"Lightning Lad was the first Legionnaire to die in action, killed by a freeze ray while battling a villain called Zaryan. When Ayla heard of her brother's death, she disguised herself as him and pretended to have revived, so she could carry on his work in the Legion. Sun Boy discovered her impersonation when he noticed her neck was not tanned, proving her long hair had recently been cut. But she was inducted into the Legion as Lightning Lass. Later, Mon-El discovered a real way to revive Lightning Lad.

"It was to save the electrical twins and five other Legionnaires that Dream Girl first joined the Legion. Her ability to see the future had warned her that they would be killed in an explosion, so she determined to prevent this by getting them out of the Legion. She rigged a huge dynamo so it would destroy Lightning Lass' power - which naturally got her expelled. However, it was later learned that Dream Girl had used her scientific skills to give Ayla a different ability - the power to make objects super-lightweiight. So she was taken back into the Legion as Light Lass. As a result, she changed the emblem on her costume. She now took a lightweight symbol representing her new power - a feather."

Comments: It was Garth's idea to try to lure some lightning monsters to recharge their space-flyer's batteries (SB 147). The Ranzz twins decided to never reveal that Ayla had acquired the same power of super-lightning, lest evil men try to force her to help them in their crimes. After her brother's death, Ayla took her brother's crypt to Korbal. (AD 308).

To represent her new power, Light Lass originally changed the symbol on her costume to a cloud (AD 322), but to avoid confusion among Legion fans (AD 338 letter column) she changed it again to a feather (AD 327).
SUPER-POWER

Light Lass originally had the same super-lightning power as her brother Garth (see Lightning Lad entry for details on power) and was called Lightning Lass. Altered by Dream Girl, Ayla currently has the power to make people or objects super-lightweight (AD 317). She can use her power to make things light enough to lift with ease (AD 317, AD 323) or float (AD 318). Or she can make things super-light, causing them to hurl upwards from the ground, like a kind of reverse-gravity (AD 326, AD 347). She has used her power on people, buildings (AD 317) and spaceships (AD 318, AD 347).

Light Lass only radiates enough anti-gravity power to counter-act the weight of an object. For instance, she once made Element Lad's boots so super-light weight that he floated up to a mountain peak. Element Lad countered by transforming his boots into neutronium, the heaviest element in the universe, and he descended. Light Lass then had to use her power again to compensate for the added weight to send him back up again, the weight condition effectively "locked in" (AD 326).

She can use just enough power to lessen the impact of a falling object, but still have the object drift down to Earth (AD 359).

When the damaged pumps of the famous Reversed Waterfalls were too weak to force the water up over the cliff, Light Lass reduced the water's weight so the pumps could lift the lighter water over the cliff. She had to stay there until the damage was repaired (AD 336).

The effect of her power is only temporary and will wear off over time (AD 318) or if she chooses to do so she can cancel the effect of her rays at will (AD 363).

As weight is the result of gravity on a given mass, Light Lass's ability is to affect the pull between an object and the planet it is on. In other words, her weight-reducing rays affect gravimetric pull - she can either make a given mass weightless, as in zero-gravity, or she can make a given mass SUPER-weightless, as in the case of anti-gravity. Her weight-reducing rays are powerful enough to produce an anti-gravimetric force sufficient enough to send a spaceship hurtling out of Earth's atmosphere and into space (AD 347).

Light Lass's power cannot affect mass, only weight. Once, while in space, Cosmic Boy used his magnetic power to pull their lifeboat behind a meteor. Light Lass made his job easier when she used her power on the ship. While the craft was already weightless in space, she lessened the resistance by making it super-light weight in gravimetric relation to the meteor (AD 318).

Light Lass can use her power on objects of specific size, without having to actually see the object. For example, she once used her power to make all objects the size of Lana Lang's bio-ring within range become lighter than air and rise. Superboy's cape rose, but only because it contained the ring hidden in its pouch (AD 355).

Limitations and Weaknesses: The range of Light Lass's anti-weight rays is highly limited, less than a dozen meters. Once, when her powers were increased dramatically, her range was extended to an entire city block, and she felt powerful enough to raise an entire city.

Personal Data

Personality: Ayla is very caring (AD 327, AD 347), ladylike (AD 354) and feminine (AD 368). She gets along very well with children and enjoys playing games with them (AD 318). She has a natural eye for beauty and is interested in keeping her girlish figure trim (AD 326). She also enjoys decorative arts (AD 364, AD 368) and is a talented sculptor (AD 317). Ayla has been romantically involved with Timber Wolf since the day they first met in 2964 (AD 327). Before she met Brin, she had a mild crush on Sun Boy, attracted by his forceful and protective nature (touching her chest might have affected her as well!). Cosmic Boy is like a big brother to her (AD 317, AD 318). She is also friendly with Duo Damsel (AD 317, JO 76), Star Boy (AD 318) and Element Lad (AD 326).

Known Relatives: Garth Ranzz / Lightning Lad (twin brother), Mekt Ranzz / Lightning Lord (older brother), parents living on Winath.

LINKS:
http://hometown.aol.com/brainiacfive/lightninglass.html
http://members.shaw.ca/legion_roll_call/legionnaires/light_lass/
http://mirrorsmirror.tripod.com/spark.html
http://jerome.galica.free.fr/dc%20comics/legion/lightninglass/LightningLass.htm
http://www.computonet.com/saturngirl/lsh/ayla.html
http://www.sputnikdesignworks.com/johnsonlegion/lightninglass.html

LAST UPDATED 10/22/2004 01:11:58 PM