...with another Lady of the Legion, but I wasn't able to get the effect I wanted, and so I decided to just have her appear solo.
The reason I wanted to pair her with another Lady of the Legion is that in later years, the two of them ended up becoming romantically involved.
However, I've been sticking with a pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Legion roster - mostly because I didn't read many Legion stories after that - and it was pointed out to me that if it was "splitting hairs" to borrow concepts from later Legion stories if I wasn't also going to draw some of the Ladies from that period.
Now, I could argue that I'm the one drawing the goddamn pictures, so I'll draw whatever I goddamn please, but that seems unnecessarily hostile.
So anyway, this is my latest entry in the Ladies of the Legion series.
Lightning Lass is the twin sister of founding member Lightning Lad, who gained his identical electrical powers in the same accident that granted those powers to Lightning Lass (and to their older brother, who went on to become a villain and enemy to his siblings and the Legion).
At some point early in the Legion's history, Lightning Lad was killed in the line of duty. He died in such a way that the rest of the Legion held out hope that there might be a way to restore him to life, or that he might, somehow, miraculously return on his own.
Then, seemingly, the latter appeared to actually happen, and Lightning Lad returned.
It was soon revealed, however, that it was actually Lightning Lass in disguise. Why she couldn't just show up and say, "Hey, I'm Lightning Lad's sister. Mind if I become his replacement in the Legion in honor of his memory?" is a question that can only be found in the byzantine "logic" of the Silver Age.
But what's worth noting, though, is that, while later retellings of that particular story showed Ayla as having taken greater measures to make herself appear male, in the orginal story she was, apparently, masculine enough to pull it off without much effort (or, conversely, her brother was feminine enough).
Of course, in the Golden and Silver Age of comics, anyone could pretend to be anyone else successfully with minimal effort. That's why it's unfair to accuse Lois Lane and other friends of Superman for being dumb for not being able to figure out that Superman was Clark Kent. I mean, he wore glasses, and every guy with black hair looked exactly like every other guy with black hair.
In any case, after her ruse was discovered, Lightning Lass was welcomed into the Legion, but some time later Dream Girl had a vision that foretold the deaths of several Legionnaires if they went on a particular mission, so rather than, oh, I don't know, just saying, "Hey, guys, remember how I'm psychic and can see the future in my dreams? Well, do I ever have a dream to tell you about..." she engaged in some Three's Companyesque charade that prevented the Legionnaires in question from going on said mission (cf. my earlier comment about Silver Age "logic").
In the case of Lightning Lass, Dream Girl arranged for her to be injured in an explosion.
Yeah.
"Hmm...do I tell her she's going to die if she goes on this mission, or just blow shit up in her face so she can't go?"
As a result of the explosion, Lightning Lass found that her powers had changed. She could no longer generate electricity, but now found that she could nullify gravity. Thus she became Light Lass.
Which was just as well, as Lightning Lad was eventually brought back to life, and the Legion bylaws stated (a lot of these rules were made up as the series went along; again, Silver Age) that each Legionnaire must have at least one unique power not possessed by any other Legionnaire.
In later years, a battle with her older, evil brother restored her lightning powers, and she went back to being Lightning Lass.
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