Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Light Lass: Sooo much cooler than Lightning Lass

Well, she is.

I think I'd prefer to have gravity-negating powers over lightning-casting myself.

yeah, i'm there with you
for one, you could stop a criminal with a head rush, rather than all that fighting

then again, most of the subtler applications of power were ignored until Levitz/Giffen, no?

Spark's cooler than both

And if you MUST use the Light Lass codename, at least have a touch of logic about it (as in SB's Legion)

Light Lass is an airhead.

I always thought the Light Lass powers were much more interesting and versatile than the Lightning Lass powers. I never really could understand why Ayla was so keen on the lightning ones and hated the Light ones. (it was an 80s retcon of course, if Ayla had hated her light lass powers so much why did she make no attempt whatsoever to get her lightning powers back over all those years?)

That said, I liked that she eventually got the lightning powers back. It gave her story a very satisfying conclusion (even though it wasn't over yet!) I do wish she had had the anti gravity powers a bit longer though, because they are much more interesting!

Anyway, why not give Garth the Light Lass powers? Or even Mekt! Wouldn't you love to see the ruthless villain trying to strike fear into peoples' hearts with a superficially non lethal power?

(I say superfically because even though the light lass powers are traditionally thought of as 'soft' and less forceful, used with imagination it's a pretty powerful ability. Control of gravity itself is not a minor power!) That it has been portrayed as a 'weak' power is down to lack of imagination on the writers' part rather than it actually being weak! Quite the reverse in fact.

I prefer that LSH members have different powers anyway. Wasn't that a Legion by-law of some sort? I liked the Light Lass power. It adds variety, and gives a writer more to work with. Let Waid be creative. And who didn't love her in those short shorts?!?!?!?!? Sweet....

Light Lass had the best costume out of all the ones Ayla wore.

But I liked the SB's Legion "light" powers the best.

The SUBERBOY'S LEGION light power was not much different from, say Garth's or Dirk's. It used a form of energy (laser, instead of lightning or solar rays) as a weapon.

The Light Lass powers were unique, but never used effectively by writers, as others have said. This translated, unfortunately, into a "light" approach to Ayla's personality: subdued, no real identity of her own other than being Garth's twin and Brin's girlfriend.

It wasn't until Levitz shook things up by having Alya break up with Brin that she started to develop her own personality. Once she got her lightning powers back, she became aggressive and somewhat flamboyant (traits that were accentuated in the postboot).

I'd like to see her retain that aggressiveness and flamboyance with light powers. Nullifying gravity should be a lot of fun.

So when have Dirk or Garth had laser powers then?

Read my first paragraph again, CK. I didn't say they had laser powers. I said Ayla's laser powers were not much different from theirs.

But they're NOT light powers! They're [Anti-]GRAVITY powers! One works with photons, the other with gravitons.

And I thought the tack taken with them postboot - that Ayla hated the "soft" powers - made perfect sense given that she is agressive.

I actually think that V3 Lightning Lass was the most interesting version of Ayla Ranzz, even moreso than reboot Spark. However, I agree with those who think that with some imagination, the Light Lass powers could be quite a force to reckon with.

Ayla Ranzz, in whichever incarnation, is one of the cutest superheroines EVER! She proved that short haired girls can be hot, too! She's had a series of interesting costumes and varying personalities. I can't wait to see how she'll be re-imagined!

I agree. It did fit with her personality, and that was an effective bit of characterisation. However it wasn't consistently applied. The whole Ayla not liking the 'soft' power bit was actually first introduced by Levitz preboot, just before she got the lightning powers back. A remark about how she had always regretted having her power changed a couple of times and about how making things super lightweight wouldn't help etc.

This was of course further developed postboot. It's hard to imagine the postboot Ayla passively accepting Dream Girl changing her powers without even consulting the power changeree (is that a word?) first!

It might have been nice if Ayla's attitude towards her power change had been explored before Levitz but as has been said before, she was a cipher in the 70s and early 80s, just sister and girlfriend. But characterisation is an evolving thing and all that! With so many writers over the years it's a wonder that there's any consistency at all!

I always think that Ayla might have become more frustrated at her power change after the Great Darkness Saga. Remember when all the Legionnaires with 'point and shoot' powers shot everything they had at Darksied? Ayla was one of them. It's easy to imagine her dispairing in her thoughts of her lack of a 'hard' power in the Legion's darkest hour. You could speculate that that was one of the reasons why she left the Legion so abruptly afterwards!

I do think it might have been nice if another character had put the oppisite point of view about the anti gravity powers actually not being that 'soft' at all or Ayla trying to make lemonade from lemons by training to use her powers more effectively, but we never got that.

Maybe we might get something like that now! I do think she is a very interesting character regardless of what powers she has!

Seems to me you're arguing semantics. The rationale behind the name Light Lass was that she made things super-light weight. (A difference in meaning of the same word.) I'll grant you that it's a thin rationale for a name, but no more so than Cosmic Boy.

I don't disagree with you here. I just think it would be fun to see her be aggressive with gravity nullifying powers.

Yeah, what if Ayla decided to really hone in her power and do things like make someone's brain lightweight, within the skull? Or just the nerve centers? Maybe she could study with Imra to learn which parts of the brain she could effect in order to do some damage to baddies. I'm sure there are many other ways she could use that power more aggressively...

Since Ayla had regained her lightning powers long before I started reading the Legion I'm kinda ambivalent as to which power I preferred on *her*.

But chalk me up as another fan who would really like to see the 'Light Lass' powers given to *someone*. As others have mentioned, it is a cool power and a writer with a bit of imagination could really do wonders with it.

I also think its one of those powers (like shrinking and growing) that works best on a character that doesn't also have the opposite power (ie making things heavy). Writers get lazy when the characters get both of them. It happened to Vi (who suddenly seemed to lose her shrinking powers after gaining her growth ones) and it happened with Thom too after he started to make things heavy *and* light.

I think the most interesting powers are those with limits to them.

I have always thought the "Light" powers were cool. Certain Legion creators over the years used Ayla's gravity powers pretty well. I agree with everyone here about how those powers could be used more creatively---the "shooting lightning bolts" power---more powerful, but not exactly original.

Thing is tho... in effect, the anti-gravity powers are just low-grade TK, only able to move things up and down. And if you're going to go that way, better to get a proper telekinetic.

I'd like Ayla to have her anti-gravity powers, or at least something different than lightning powers. Something else else other than Garth's lightning, although whatever she has, I also hope she retains the aggressive attitude of V3.

Gossamer was one of the better things to come out of Legionnaires both in terms of looks and personality.

Having someone with a "limited" power such as gravity nullifying was what I likes about the legion. If you wanted to make things light you got Light lass, to make things heavy, star boy. If you wanted to make things hot you called in Sunboy, well you get the idea. To me this Legion worked better as a part of a group or team and the fact that they were not super powerful was part of the attraction.

I agree with Far about SW6 Ayla. One of the appeals I found about Gossamer specifically in that era was that she knew she just made things light weight and had to plan out when to use her powers. Several times she ended up using breezes or waited for the wind to shift so that she could make her powers offensive and more effective in a situation.

I can take my Ayla from any reality with either power, though generally I like to have my Legionnaires have different powers. I always write Ayla with the light-weight powers in whatever short-lived, unfinished fan fics I start and some of the reasons for my dislike for the super-strength members of the team is because they just make each other redundant (though a force to be reckoned with). Thus, I'd gladly take Ayla as Light Lass, though the rational for having the lightning powers to help symbolize the twin aspect of her and Garth isn't lost on me.

I think it's all about your options...Yeah, options!

If she ever used her powers really effectively, she could be. Otherwise, I like Lightning Lass much better. She was much more assertive with the lightning powers.