Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Powers, an in-depth discussion

Ok, to start with, I'm working on powers for my roleplaying game for both Legionnaires, villains, and henchmen alike. I would like to get some solid discussion on powers, detailed explanations of perhaps how they work (accurate as per comics and not completely theorized as I'm trying to stay as close to the comics as possible). If you know an issue # for an example your citing, please list it. It helps my efforts considerably and makes it a lot more fun to go back and read the situation and thus put some punch in the rule writing.

To start the discussion off, I'd like to ask what powers come to an end once they person falls unconscious? Does everything fall to the ground when Light Lass goes unconscious? Does Phantom Girl materialize? If Saturn Girl creates a mental barrier to protect others does it end when she falls? Do Shrinking Violet and Colossal Boy automatically return to their standard humanoid-size once they go unconscious? Ferro Lad lose his Invulnerability? Does Chameleon Boy revert back to his original form (what is his original form)?

Going by memory alone, Ferro Lad was unconscious and all sliced up (Legion World #5 or #6?) and he remained in iron form or he would have bled to death. Phantom Girl was stabbed in immaterial form and remained unconscious while Chameleon Boy turned phantom and removed the "ghost" knife. I think there have been times when Colossal Boy was unconscious and both remained giant and reverted back to human size. Violet has been shown on a few covers as unconscious and small.

Since Phantom Girl isn't from our dimension in the first place, why would she shift entirely into ours by default? I don't have a reference on hand, but I seem to recall her remaining in whatever dimensional state she's in.

Likewise, I recall Colossal Boy getting knocked out and crashing to the ground at full size.

On one such cover, she's actually Yera, showing that Durlans don't have to exert effort to maintain a form.

Saturn Girl is tough. I would think that if she were mind linking a group of Legionnaires, the link would disappear if she got taken out. In Legion Lost her illusion of Apparition disappeared when she let her guard down, but then when she was fully incapacitated her mind went into over drive and she created a stronger illusion of Legion rescuers. Like total concentration while she was unconscious. The mental suggestions that she gave Superboy to forget future events in his life when he returned to the past stayed in place 24/7. It seems like the only thing that could make them go away was active intervention on her part to remove them.

Element Lad - In previous boots his changes to elemental structure were permanent. 3boot they were time limited (to an hour, I believe). The time limit would stay in place regardless of his consciousness.

Chemical King - Again depends on how the power is being used. If he used his catalyst powers to change a liquid to a vapor and then passed out the vapor would remain. If he were using his powers to slow radiation and got knocked out the radiation would continue to spread.

Dawnstar was sometimes shown being knocked out to prevent her from tracking someone. Most notably by Ultra Boy in S/LSH #239. I seem to recall Saturn Girl going into her unconscious mind to try to retrieve coordinates for something she already tracked. I can't think of the reference though.

I'm pretty sure that Shadow Lass's shadows and Projectra's illusions would disappear if they were knocked out.

This is going to be tricky writing powers they way they are appearing in the comics. I'm sure as I delve into it I will find a lot of contradictions from one writer to the next, perhaps even within the same author. In such cases, I'll go with what's better for the game or happened more frequently, but all in all, its a Legion game and therefore should mirror the comics. If you happen to know comic issue refereces off the top of your head please post it as it makes my work easier and more fun because I tend to read the surrounding events, thus putting some punch behind the rule writing.

Some of the character's who are not clear-cut such as Saturn Girl could take a die roll penalty or use what I call a power surge to create different effects with their powers. The situation you explain above Jerry, about how her illusion of rescuing Legionnaires arrived could become possible by applying one of these rules. It would not be the norm, but if the character established it so that their subconcious mind would continue to work even after they collapsed. The player takes the appropriate penalty to try and do this or as I said, applies the power surge just in case.

Element Lad sounds easy enough, as a general rule, I'm going with pre-boot so his effects would remain in place.

I've always had a hard time understanding Chemical Kings power. He really didn't seem to appear that much before he died. I think I have everything he was in except the issue of his death.

Saturn Girl retrieving thoughts from an unconscious person seems to me a pretty simple thing for a telepath to do, no problems there.

I agree on Shadow Lass and Princess Projectra as well. Unless we find evidence to the contrary, their effects would disappear once they go unconscious. I think they would remain in place once cast, I doubt Shadow Lass would have to concentrate to keep it there, I think she could go on to fight or create another field of darkness without losing the previous one.

Can Princess Projectra get more than one illusion going at the same time? Do her illusions encompass all five senses or only sight? I'm thinking as advanced as they were to be, all five but I'd really like to get some evidence.

Ok, I would have thought that his iron form would have ended (from a logical point of view). Writing it differently doesn't create a problem for me as I want to get the gae as right as possible. If I was going off the top of my head I would have written that it ended. Its good to be corrected. I've assumed that his ability to turn his body to iron was essentially a form of invulnerability which was a couple of notches down from Superboy's. What do you think, how tough is it compared to Supes? Am I correct in allowing it to fall under invulnerability, just essentially adding the body to iron part?

I fondly recall the issue your speaking of with Phantom Girl and you are correct, she remained dematerialized. They were fighting Soljer from the issue #210. More importantly, this brings up a bigger question about Cham though. In the story he is pictured turning into a Phantom and pulling the knife out of her stomach. In some stories her could only assume the shape in others he's assumed shape, mobility, and other basic physical abilities. Yet in other stories, he like the one above, he seems to be able to duplicate powers of the creature he took the form of. Is there a clear cut ruling on his power I'm missing or is this one of those "works like we need it to in order to tell a good story things"?

I could simulate the discrepancy for Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet retaining/losing their modified size once they go unconscious by allowing the character a preferance and having them make some sort of Psyche check using their subconscious mind. If the player wanted to remain small or large they could if they made the difficult role, if they failed, they revert back to normal. This allows both features in order to ring true to the stories as well as make the power more flexible for the game.

Would Phantom Girl logically stay in the last assumed state or return to her natural state? On Bgztl I assume they are in a solid form normally? Can we narrow this down? Your idea of the last assumed state I like though as a way to treat the power. Can we find more examples of her falling unconscious or something similar?

Durlans not having to exert any effort after falling unconscious is nice to know. I would have missed that. Do we have evidence to the contrary as well? It seems to me that a writer would go either way with this one, essentially what the liked or what was more convenient.

If I recall correctly, in the current Legion of 3 Worlds they show Brande returning back to Durlan form right? This one's kinda in Limbo as an example though because we really aren't even sure if it was Brande in the first place, much less a Durlan. Kinda need to get to the end of the story first.

Exactly what does a Durlan look like in their natural form anyway? Do they look like Cham and Yera or is this an assumed shape of theirs to make them more pleasing to others?

Yeah. My most recent reading of the first Threeboot stuff, there's some dialogue with Cham and Colossal Boy (I think ?) where he says point-blank that he can't assume the attributes of whatever shape he's changed into. Which directly contradicts some earlier stories. And those earlier stories contradict some stories before that.

In the cartoon, there's a line where he tells Wolf: "I don't just change form, I change my body chemistry--" which is one of those indicators that obviously writers will go with whatever level of power they need to enhance the plot at any given moment.

What're you gonna' do ?

Personally I'd just define it by whichever version you think would make for the most satisfying game. Why not ?

Ummm... Yes. Again, it seems to depend on which incarnation and who's doing the script.

Yeah, Chemical King's powers were never clearly defined. I mention the "slowing radiation" thing because it is how he was using his powers when he died. He was also shown doing this in A DC Special issue that came out around the time of his death. In the special he actually did pass out while performing this trick. Phantom Girl was inside a power sphere. Brainy theorized that the radiation was so strong that it would have killed her even in her immaterial form if Condo didn't slow it. As soon as he passed out, Brainy made Phantom Girl get out of the sphere.

Throw my arms up in the air, shake my fist, and say "You damn dirty writer!" Actually, I'm apt to go with the most frequently occurring depiction of preboot or that which had the most impact. I might be able to give him a power surge which allows a hit and miss effort with duplicating certain abilities. I think I need more references and and issue #'s to really decide.


Arrggg....now I start pounding my fists into the dirt.

Since my Chemical King skills are lacking, can you or other people give me a list of different things he could do with his power? They don't have to be things we saw in the comics but ways that it would work overall. Throw in a bit of science to help me understand.

I was going to do that when I first started writing fic again, then I decided that I'd rather get carpal tunnel from... uh, actually writing.

I mean, if you go back far enough (thinking of the guides to powers that Jim Gallagher has on his page), Durlans were once defined as so powerful that they could spot other shape-shifters in disguise wherever they went. At some point somebody must've decided that would make the character TOO powerful-- because I don't recall seeing it at all during my time as a Legion reader. Not that I have a steel-trap memory or anything.

He can start, stop, accelerate, slow or completely change chemical reactions.

A chemical reaction traditionally involves changes that involve the motion of electrons in the forming or breaking of chemical bonds, but can also be applied to the transformations of one element to another (up and down the scale, not nearly so easily as Element Lad could do it) or to nuclear reactions.

He could cause any substance to corrode, as if targeted by a powerful acid, or even make the substance acidic itself, and destructive to it's surroundings.

He could make any substance oxidize / burst into flame much more rapidly than it naturally would, or prevent it from doing so (making himself or someone else fireproof, for instance). The presence of oxygen (or another volatile gas, such as methane) would be all he would need to cause someone to burst into flame, or an item to rapidly rust away into nothingness.

He could affect the human or alien body in practically countless ways, causing a person to age, starve, suffocate, or suffer the effects of countless toxic byproducts that the body can secrete in tiny harmless quantities (only he'd be accelerating the process a thousandfold, causing the person's body to create incapacitating or lethal quantities of that chemical).

Any compound, even one as simple as water (H20), he could cause to break down into it's components. Alternately, he could combine elements into a compound, so that if there is hydrogen and oxygen gas in the surrounding atmosphere, he could cause it to combine into water. (Technically, Element Lad shouldn't be able to pull a stunt like this. His power has been shown to affect complex compounds before, but is supposed to affect elements, not compounds.)

Chemical King has been shown to boost his strength 'hundreds of times' but has stated that he could only maintain this 'for seconds' before burning out his body's energy reserves. This is more superhero stuff than science stuff, 'though.

By affecting brain chemistry, Chemical King should be able to put people to sleep, induce hallucinations (although he would have no control over what those images where, unlike Saturn Girl or Princess Projectra), induce heightened emotional states (fear, arousal, anger), or supress same (calming or pacifying people). He would be able to block or incite sensations of pain or pleasure as well, which might make him handy in a combat situation (suppressing fear and pain, manipulating the metabolisms of the wounded so that they don't bleed to death or go into shock, etc.) and in the bedroom. Chemical changes can assist in making someone suggestible, put them into a dream-like state, block the formation of short term memories or enhance and sharpen focus and clarity.

Physically, he could purge someone of fatigue toxins and give them a 'second wind,' or 'take the wind out of them' by flooding their muscles with fatigue toxins and dropping them weak-kneed to the floor (or blocking their body's ability to process energy stored chemically in fat tissue or the blood's ability to bond with oxygen for immediate energy, or the nerves ability to chemically transfer signals from brain to limb, etc., etc.) The list of ways in which Chemical King could drop a person to the floor, paralyzed, fatigued, suffocating, starved, nauseated, wracked with crippling pain, etc. is as long as the list of things that can happen to someone...

Less adversarially, he could also help people survive longer without food and water, or even survive longer without oxygen. He could slow bleeding and prevent shock. He could accelerate the flood of endorphins to allow a wounded person to ignore pain and continue functioning. He could prevent tissue necrosis from occuring by increasing the efficiency of damaged oxygen transporting vessels in the area, or just causing the cut off cells to use less oxygen and thus 'die slower,' until the damage is repaired.

He couldn't *heal someone,* but his powers could make it so that someone who would be fatally injured and unable to be saved would fall into a state of suspended animation and be able to be repaired hours, perhaps even *day* later, at a more convenient time. Obviously, if their head is blown off, there isn't much any amount of chemical control could do, but a missing heart or damaged lungs wouldn't stop him from saving the persons brain from oxygen death, and give 31st century medicine ample time to patch up the body. He'd have to 'maintain' the effect, however, which means that he might have to use his own powers to stay awake and watch over the person, to keep those chemical reactions from accelerating back to their normal speed, and the person from dying.

Many chemical reactions produce energy, in the form of heat, and by causing such a reaction, perhaps by transforming a section of floorplate into an element one position lower on the elemental table by stripping off electrons, he could cause a sudden wash of heat, perhaps even extreme heat. He'd probably be more efficient at generating heat by increasing the effects of oxidation on the surrounding area, causing everything to 'rust so fast' that it ignites into flame. There are also endothermic (heat-absorbing) chemical reactions (mixing citric acid and sodium bicarbonate, for example), which would allow Chemical King to create areas of cold, although, as with most of his powers that could duplicate the power of another Legionnaire, nothing nearly so elaborate as what Polar Boy could do.

Some exothermic reactions also release energy in the form of light (like those glow-sticks they use at raves) or sound, or even explosively, and Chemical King would be able to cause an energy-producing chemical reaction in almost anything, even turning a wall into an explosive agent. Note that he wouldn't actually be *transforming* the wall into explosive material, he'd simply be altering the exact rate at which an explosion would occur. The iron doesn't turn into dynamite, it remains iron, but temporarily is as explosive as dynamite.

Most of these effects would consume or alter the composition of the materials affected, others would not, and it's kind of a grab-bag as to which is which. Energy producing effects, such as creating heat, are more likely to 'burn up' the materials used. Explosive effects obviously also tend to destroy the materials 'made explosive.'

In theory, a heat-absorbing reaction could cause material to grow or be attracted to an area, and *perhaps* Chemical King could create an 'ice slick' in this manner, by creating a heat-absorbing reaction in the floor that attracts water vapor to it, which is then frozen into an icy coating over the super-cold floor. That's a bit of a stretch, but in comic book logic, it works fine.

Processes like photosynthesis or the energy storage capacity of a car battery are chemically based, and by waving his hands around and using comic-book physics, he could allow himself or others to draw energy from sunlight, or convert internally stored chemical energy into electrical currents to shock people. (Since internal chemical energy is mostly stored in fat cells, Bouncing Boy would be the most effective at playing Electric Eel Lad...)

The possibilities for his powers are pretty much limitless, and he makes a pretty good fill-in for many other Legionnaires in a pinch.

Although he shouldn't have been able to do that slowing-atomic-radiation trick. Because that's not a chemical reaction; it's a nuclear reaction. (Similarly, he shouldn't be able to unmix lemonade!)

Wow, thanks Set, that's a lot of information to digest. Not sure how I'm going to write up the power. I've got the Marvel Game, DC Game, and Hero System 5th edition revised to work with as well. I'm trying to list the different ways a power can be used without duplicating essentially the outcome.

Example: Shadow Lass, so far I've broken her power down three ways.

1. Create a darkness cloud
2. Project a ray of darkness (like to affect just one person)
3. Dark vision

If you could break up Chemical King's power into different ways (which essentially don't overlap one another) how would you do it?

Now I'm going to try and tackle Saturn Girl. She's been shown using her powers in a lot more ways than someone like Shadow Lass, which makes the power worth more in the game as it is more flexible, not to mention I consider Telepathy in general to be more powerful than Darkness Generation.

Can we start compiling a list of different ways Imra could or has used her power sort of like I have mentioned Shadow Lass' above? So far I have:

Read Mind, Telepathic Communication, and Link Minds.

I may be mistaken on this, but hasn't Saturn Girl been seen creating illusions? Essentially, the target thinks they see something that isn't really there. If I'm correct, how does this differ from Princess Projectra's power? I've assumed that PP illusions include sight, sound, smell, and taste but not touch. If Imra can do the same thing (may be harder for her to succeed though) what's the difference?

Control Chemical Reactions, which he can use to;

1) Incapacitate another person by inhibiting chemical reactions in their body

2) Destroy an object by accelerating chemical reactions

3) Nullify the effects of a damaging force by inhibiting chemical reactions

4) Allow another person to function despite debilitating conditions by suppressing or enhancing the appropriate chemical reactions within the body

5) Enhance his own or anothers mundane abilities (strength, reaction times, possibly even intellect!)

Each of these bigger bullet point items could generally be done in a plethora of ways. To incapacitate someone, he could suffocate, paralyze, wrack with pain, starve, age, etc. the person. To nullify or weaken a destructive force, he might create a heat-absorbing chemical reaction to block Sun Boy's heat beams, or a heat-producing chemical reaction to melt Polar Boy's ice walls, etc.

There's other stuff, but limiting it to these five basic abilities might make it easier to play him in a game.

It seems that Projectra is creating holograms. Her illusions are composed of actual light, sound, etc. As such, everyone present would see these images, and cameras would record them normally. (Note that Threeboot Projectra appears to create psychic illusions as well, not holograms, which means that her power is essentially the same as Imra's, but highly specialized.)

Imra is manipulating the mind(s) of her targets so that they believe they are seeing / feeling / etc. whatever she is making them believe is present. Imra's 'illusions' would not appear on a camera, and someone that Imra doesn't know is present wouldn't see anything at all, just the victim of the illusion freaking out for no apparent reason. (So if someone is hiding nearby, and Imra hasn't noticed him, or if someone has slightly more powerful mental resistance than her primary target, her 'illusion' will be completely non-existent to them. This gives her an advantage that can use her psychic powers to make a person see and hear something completely unknown to others in the room, perhaps allowing one member of a criminal gang to overhear his boss saying that he's going to kill him, while his boss is *really* saying that he trusts him completely!)

One aspect of Projectra's power is that she can duplicate Shadow Lasses power with the tiniest fraction of her own. Unlike Shadow Lass, whose power is terribly obvious to all concerned (hey, the lights went out!), Projectra can obscure your vision without you ever knowing that she's done so, as she subtly moves everything around and you end up shooting your friends, thinking that they are the Legionnaires. She rarely has been shown using her powers this effectively, which is one reason why she's never been shown so dramatically overshadowing (pun intended) Shady. Also, unlike Shady, she can 'blind' your senses of hearing, scent, etc. as well. While Shady turning out the lights wouldn't protect her from someone with senses like Timber Wolf at all, as he could track her position with his other senses, Projectra could blind, or deceive, them all. (As could Imra, because she'd be targetting his mind, not his senses. Imra wins at this, because she doesn't even have to *know* what senses you have. She just has to tell your brain what it is 'perceiving.')

Imra also has some degree of mind control power - she's been shown to control other people (or animals and robots if you want to go extremely old school) in addition to controlling perceptions. She usually limits this to paralysis, but it also plays into memory manipulation and such.

Thanks set, that was a very helpful post. I'd like to thank you once again for referring me to this site, it has been so helpful. It's nice to get these opinions and information and have them stored here at the site so I can go back and extract them, not to mention all the other things the site provides.

Hypno Lad, you answered one of the questions that has been in the forefront of my mind. Yesterday and today I'm working out the mechanics for Imra's power as well as those with similar abilities. I was wondering about establishing contact with animals or robots. One of the gaming sources I have mentions these as well and I didn't know where Imra was in regard to this issue. Getting that to work from a game mechanic point of view will be easy. Also, you mentioned paralysis. I take it she has been seen doing this as well then? How about causing similar actions, such as making someone falling asleep, getting up and leaving a guard post, that sort of thing?

I would say at this stage, Imra will turn out to be one of the most powerful characters in the game because her ability is so flexible. I'm developing a rating system based on ability scores, my overall feel for the powers potenial, as well as how many actual variations a given character has in which their power can be used. This is where Imra really shines, she's been shown using it in so many different ways that it really boosts up her overall score.

She should be able to do either of these things, as well as erase memories, implant false memories, etc. (although some of these effects might require time or concentration, limiting her to perform memory alteration on unconscious or already-defeated foes or full-blown mind control with extreme concentration, preventing her from doing anything else and allowing for the dramatic chance for her to be interrupted and the target to snap out of it).

In the Universo Project, she faces down Universo at the end, alone, and he's got both Mon-El and Ultra Boy serving him as personal bodyguards. She apologizes to the two of them for not having time to free them from the mind control, and just knocks the two of them unconscious instantly with her telepathy. Universo freaks and says, 'The two strongest men in the galaxy and you just look at them and they fall down?'

I don't remember the issue, but many years earlier (pink bikini / Farrah hair age, IIRC), she was shown assisting in a planetary evacuation by telepathically communicating with people over the entire planet, saying that she was not only telling them where to go, but also calming them... Yikes!

There seemed to be a power-upping trend for awhile, and Shadow Lass was shown blotting out a star with her darkness powers, Element Lad was shown altering Earth's atmosphere in a single use of his power, etc. Depending on how you want your game system to function, it's possible that these planet-affecting scales might not be appropriate, and there have been other interpretations where the Legionnaires powers weren't nearly so far-reaching or potent.

Set, let me know if you ever locate these stories, I'd love to read them. I might have them in my collection. I haven't read everything in them yet.

As for the game, Yikes, I could make such global/universal effects with the powers but in doing so I'm guessing I'd regret it. I'd hope to come up with a mechanic that would allow something like these situations to work (assuming the players were clever enough to think of them) without upsetting the balance of day by day games. Off and on, we have seen a Legionnaire do something so "incredible" and it would be nice to leave that door open in the game without it being the norm. Things like that are what people talk about 20 years later in a RPG. If they are everyday then they aren't special moments. I most lkely will come up with a mechanic I like down the road. I do want to avoid the "spend a point to do something incredible" feature as that's gotten kind of old with Luck Points in Top Secret/S.I. and on a lesser scale, Action Points with D&D. I'd like to be more original and something that sits really well for a super-hero game or more specifically Legion.

Mutants and Masterminds has the notion of Extra Effort, which can be done using a Hero Point (similar to a Luck or Action point), but also can be done with strain, causing a Fatigued condition. That sort of mechanic better suits, IMO, the dramatic use of power seen in television shows or whatever, where the hero strains or gets a nosebleed or passes out after doing something that they normally couldn't do.

Wow is right!
Chemical King would have been a fantastic Legionnaire is someone with Set's kind of understanding had written him.
Such a waste!

As far as Shady goes, her powers depend a lot on which boot and when in the boot you find her.
Oriinally she projected a 'dark field' that blocked light, both for individuals and larger areas (cloud).

When the girl legionnaires powers were temporarily increased, she said she could plunge the entire planet into darkness or blot out the sun!

In Adventure, when 4 of the legionnaires were hiding from Mordru in Smallville, she cast shadows around the other three who were living in other homes around town, to keep Mordru's magic shadows from finding them.

Later, but still in the early years, her power blocked all forms of energy, to one degree or another (she used it as a shield during the Science Astroid story to protect against a generator's radiation, for example.)

It also muffled sounds as shown in the famous love scene when she cloaked Lar and herself when he was so mentally tortured.

Later, before and during the Zero Hour stories, she could project a form of blindness directly into the brain that didn't even look like darkness ~ she could do that POST boot, too, as Umbra.

The example there would be in the Legion's fight with Mordru.
She used her power then, also, to contain/bandage one of the Radiation Boys injuries, keeping the radiation from leaking out of his body.

In L.E.G.I.O.N., two of her ancestresses were shown.
Lyrissa's powers were pretty limited, dark vision and a dark sphere.
Her daughter had much stronger powers.
The first part came from the ancestrial cave, the right of passage and her genetic strengths.
The second part was added to her as a infant by the Coluan tyrants (Pulsar Stargrave), and was the use of a dark energy that could be used offensively to batter and kill.

The post boot Umbra could use both of those powers.
She crashed her powers through a space craft, destroying it in one story.
She could also fine tune her power and use it for sculpture to amuse friends (Lar).

In the Legionnaire spotlight story, we saw her childhood.
When her mother was killed, the shadowpower burst forth from her and killed all of the spiderbeings that had killed her.
So more than Lyddea Darkstar and Umbra carried the Coluan form of dark energy as well as the Talokian legacy.

In that issue, she had the ability to effect all computer/communication fibreoptics too,and stopped the spaceship/troopers cold, that were sent to 'first contact' Talok VIII during her lifetime.

During a crossover, we found that her power was connected to the Dark realm the way Shade the Changing Man's is/was.
I think of the Dark realm as similar to the Dreaming, which Nura has been connected to.
Their powers are more than shadows and prophesy.
They're part of other realities.

During the DnA era, they wrote about how connected she really was to her ancestors (a living phantom type reality).
Lightle illustrated the issue where her connection to the Shadow realm and Talok come to a head on her planet.
The shadows are out of control and everyone is terrorized when someone takes over for the missing planetary champion who had no right to (or rite to.)
Umbra had to take back the shadows.
During that time, she cast a constant, ancester shaped shadow about her.

At that point, if she were to become unconscious, her control OVER the Shadows might be lost, resulting in ?!
Rather than dispelling, that is.

Her fighting powers post and 3boot have been shown to be second only to KK, too.

I'll look up some of the issues numbers and volumes when I get home and report back if you like.

Shady isn't just about dark clouds and not seeing.
Her powers have always had a lot more depth and breadth than that.

After all, she's the only Legionnaire who is also a hereditary planetary champion who's line and title goes back thousands of years.

I think the above description really gets to the heart of something I've thought about for a while: the nature of Phantom Girl's power.

I really think that a lot of writers have missed the boat (and, I suspect, the original intention) by portraying her power as a simple extension of her code name... literally that she can "change into a phantom". I've always thought that a more accurate description would be that she, as a native of a 4th dimensional world, is merely moving in a spatial direction that we 3rd dimensional types are incapable of, and giving the appearance of incorporeality. I could go into a long dissertation on dimensionality, but, thankfully, someone has already gone to great lengths to do just that with regard to PG. You should check out this great essay:

HERE .

After reading that, give another thought to Cham and the"phantom dagger." Did he really "duplicate" her powers or, as a highly skilled shape-shifter, is he, too, able to assume a 4th dimensional shape? If so, is that the limit of his power or is it possible that he could even assume dimensional shapes beyond that? Boggles the mind, really.