Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! The Ranzzes, Winath, the founding, and more? (#25 spoilers)

It's good to see Mekt, of course, and this storyline has potential to fill in some blanks.

(I'm taking Mekt's story at face value, with some reading between the lines -- that he's willing to torture or kill to stop the Dominators.)

If Winath is twin-centric as before, outcast solo Mekt would be a logical black ops recruit.

Mekt has family, though, and they'd wonder what happened to him if he disappeared. There must have been some cover story -- perhaps that he was a criminal? Remember, Trip sounded non-plussed when she mentioned him on the Legion tour, although she'd probably never met him.

Maybe he was, in fact, a criminal?

Ayla may have been surprised to see him, but she wasn't shocked as one would be to see a supposedly dead brother.

In previous versions, Garth met the other two founders while looking for Mekt. If this is true again, maybe we'll finally get a least a piece of that story.

Mekt picked Ayla, but not Garth. It could be a power thing. Presuming Mekt's a lightning wielder (we haven't seen him zap anything yet, have we?) he might not want another. But that's probably not it, huh?

By the by, why was Ayla calling Garth her jackass brother? It seemed like a casual sibling insult rather than a big ol' deal, but I keep thinking I'm missing or forgetting something.

Well, no, not yet. But...

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">http://www.legionworld.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=004448

It sure looks like Mekt is throwing lightning bolts on the cover of issue 27</span></span>

Oops, I've edited my original post to say "he might NOT want another"

I've seen what's in the spoiler link. On the other hand...remember what happened to Ayla in the LSV War? Perhaps that scenario's not all that likely to reoccur here, but I'm not gonna count the zaps until they're zapped.

Has there been any mention of how the Ranzzes got their powers this time?

Not yet.

Hasn't Mekt always been closer (or something) to Ayla, historically, whereas there was more rivalry with Garth? At this point, it could be he just wants to avoid a pissing contest. He could also consider Ayla's power to be important, as did Brainy - Mekt also grabbed Star Boy, who Brainy deemed potentially very powerful. Tromium makes a good point in CtR about how Mekt would appeal to Star Boy. Mekt could want him, not just because Thom would be willing to join, but because his power is formidable.

I was assuming Mekt had lightning powers, but the cover could be illustrating a flashback story; he and Garth could have encountered the Dominators previously - and his powers could have changed or even been lost. Maybe the Dominators worked him over.

Ayla doesn't look entirely thrilled to see him this time - I suspect this isn't the first time they've met since he returned from the wars. Maybe he went back to Winath with post-traumatic stress and horrific tales from the front line. He no doubt returned a changed man. He could well have been a criminal before recruitment - or apprehended, charged and given the choice of prison or military service.

Ayla called Garth a jackass - but he, in the issue in which we meet Brin, seemed a bit protective of her. So perhaps this is in response to his campaign for leader activities.

Mekt has always "coveted" Ayla. To him, Ayla was who should have been his twin. I think he even said that (or thought it) at one time during one of the boots. This line of thinking, belief, psychosis, whatever, has made Mekt think that Ayla is more sympathetic to him.

Why he has always thought this way, though, I don't know. I think most other Winathian pairings seen throughout the different series have always been identical, or at least same sex, twins. Maybe as young children Ayla took more to him than Garth did. She just saw him as an older version of her twin where Garth couldn't relate because he was another male and he knew his twin was female.

Then again it could simply be brothers hating brothers. I know I grew up in continuous warfare with my younger brother.

Louie Anderson said it, "Older brothers invented terrorism."

Perhaps Mekt picked Ayla because he wanted to create more stife. Having Garth and Ayla at each other's throats keeps them out of any upcoming conflict.

Identical twins, as Winathians are, IIRC, supposed to be, are always the same gender, except in the case of hormonal fluctuations or deficiencies causing one of the pair to *express* as the opposite gender (too much or not enough testosterone or estrogen and the innie becomes an outie or vice-versa).

Regardless of the science involved, which the creators of Garth and Ayla probably didn't know anyway, Winathian twins seem to always be same-sex and identical, making Garth and Ayla, twins of the opposite sex, as much 'freaks' (by Winathian standards) as Mekt, the single-born.

This could have given the Ranzz kids a reason to band together in self-defense as kids, all of them in some way being 'different.'

Every other Winathian in their school / whatever has an identical twin brother or sister, exactly like them. Ayla and Garth automatically have a huge gulf between them, and the whole family be, by Winathian standards, dysfunctional or 'broken.'

One possibility, Garth took to Mekt as the 'brother he should have had' and dissed Ayla, his actual twin who didn't actually look like him (note that this boot version of Mekt looks a lot more like Garth, with the orange hair). Cue kids growing up, interpersonal strife and their being nobody in the universe that can piss you off / make you feel betrayed like a sibling, and Mekt and Garth have a falling out, perhaps even over the treatment of odd-duck Ayla, whom Mekt can identify with, having been the odd man out before.

In this situation, Garth and Mekt would have a built-in reason to not get along, and Mekt and Ayla, both the 'freaks' of the Ranzz family, would have a built-in reason to stick together and have each others backs, even when they don't agree.

Even if Garth always was a perfect sibling to Ayla, she might have harbored more sympathy for odd-man-out Mekt, and bad feelings could have cropped up as a result. (Garth perhaps feeling that he wasn't 'enough brother for her' or something since she was hanging out with Mekt all the time.)

Any chance Garth and Mekt are the twins this time around? Mekt is tired of always being compared to Garth, and he found sympathy from his little sister?

Mekt was always shown as having red hair originally in every boot. His hair was turned white later on, as a result of a duel with Garth in both boots I believe. I predict the same will happen again by this story's end.

The only exception is that awful story drawn by Mike Grell which showed Garth and Mekt as the twins and Mekt's hair white since birth, while Ayla's was blond, but we all know that story was fraught with errors.

Maybe somehow twins of the opposite sex can be "identical" on Winath in the 30th century. When Ayla first appeared she was said to be a girl double of Garth and wore no mask or disguise of any kind to impersonate him except to cut her hair. Of course this was probably a result of her creators not understanding the differences between fraternal and identical twins as Set said.

Mekt's relationship with Ayla has not always been portrayed consistently either. In the story where the original Mekt gets his white hair, he blasts Ayla with his lightning and shows no remorse or concern for doing so. In fact, I think he tries to kill her.

I think the rivalry between Mekt and Garth can be traced back to their adult Legion duels. Such sibling rivalry is not unusual, nor is it consistent between multiple siblings, so it's not that surprising that Mekt favors Ayla.

I expect Mekt is older; he mentions the Wanderers being formed 10 years earlier and, even though he joined their final mission, the time required for him to be recruited, trained, sent off and returned would probably put him beyond Garth's age.

Maybe the whole Winath twin thing is out this time around. They could all three be singles.

In the #15 Who's Who tour, Trip said:

"Light Lass...can negate the pull of gravity. She'a also the only Legionnaire with a twin. She has an older brother too, but the less said about him, the better.

Lightning Lad, the twin. A walking electrical dynamo. Of all the Legionnaires, he's logged the least time on Earth. Says he prefers to explore, but my suspicion is that he's searching for something."

PS to Trip: there are two Legionnaires with twins.

Actually, in the Legionnaires' origins mini-series from the last boot, the one on Lighntning Lass (or Spark) clearly showed some mixed sex twins, although I'm not stating that this is common in Winathian society. Just adding Moy's visual take into the mix for discussion.

Hmmm, In the preboot origin of the Legion Foundation, Didn't Garth get on the shuttle to Earth (also carrying Rokk, Imra and RJ Brande)because he was going to search for his brother Mekt on Earth? What if his exploration in this series is a remix of this.

Maybe he had some inkling of his brother's involvement with the UP spy operation. That's why he hooked up with the mute hussy (to try to get access to the mother's files). I'd also guess he eventually convinced Saturn Girl to help him with this. (I'm guessin they get a new spin-off miniseries where they sneak into her Mom's office look at some files and then hit the outer rim in a Mystery Machine... of Space along with a couple of cute little Proties and solve problems of young folk they run to on the road.)

Maybe he's been telling Ayla all the nasty things he's found out about big brother. One of the jackass traits i guess.

Or maybe Ayla has somethin' goin' on under the hood.

Doesn't Ayla say, "He's my and Garth's older brother" or something similar in this issue?

Well the tactic was to divide and conquer...

I'm wondering now if the Ranzz origin story will be connected to the Dominators.

Ayala was the first - in issue #1 - to mention the Dominators and comment on their technology.

Now we have Mekt, black ops Dominator hunter, recruiting a new super-hero team to oppose them. Maybe his hatred for the Dominators goes deeper than we know.

It would create an interesting dynamic if Mekt wasn't a single-born, but did have a twin, and, because of the whole Dominator thing, doesn't any longer. It would be one possible explantion for his dislike of them, for Ayla's sympathy and for Garth's antagonism (if Garth blames Mekt for somehow pulling his twin into a dangerous life and getting him killed off).

I also thought that Garth and Ayla might not be the twins. But in the letter column story, Trip refers to Ayla as the only Legionnaire who has a twin, and then refers to Garth as the twin. That seems like a conclusive demonstration that Garth and Ayla are indeed twins.