Yeeees, I’m not sure what this has to do with her powers being caused by an accident, however. The whole point of this train of conversation is ‘no, Night Girl’s origin would not have kept her out if her powers weren’t limited’.
Oh, and just for the heck of it, an attempt at a comprehensive list of pre-Zero Hour Legionnaires, all pre-ZH eras both regular Legion and SW6 Legion, who would be disqualified by a ‘natural power’ (assumed to be mutation or racial trait):
Lightning Lad (Accident)
Sun Boy (Accident)
Lightning Lass (Accident)
Collossal Boy (Accident)
Wildfire (Accident)
Bouncing Boy (Accident)
Night Girl (Scientific change)
Fire Lad (Accident)
Sensor Girl (Mystical change)
White Witch (Training)
Computo (Accident)
Ultra Boy (Accident)
Karate Kid (Training)
Shadow Lass (Mystical change)
Invisible Kid (Scientific change)
Catspaw (Scientific change)
Timber Wolf (Scientific change)
Devlin O’Ryan (Accident)
Color Kid (Accident)
Chlorophil Kid (Accident)
Which of course raises the question of how Brainiac 5 got to keep his Legion membership since he doesn’t have a superpower other than his gadgets. I guess they just kept him around to keep an eye on him.
Lightning Lad: Hey Brainy, we were talking and we realized that you don’t have a superpower… (sees Brainiac 5 working on a new Computo)… uh… other than uh… super-intelligence! Yes, that’s it! Super-intelligence! Keep up the good work! And we need more flight rings when you get a minute.
There was also ‘too dangerous a limitation’ - which is what got Night Girl.
Also, while it was why they were rejected, Polar Boy and Fire Lad didn’t really demonstrate a lack of control of their powers, IMO. Polar Boy just got a little over-enthusiastic and demonstrated his power level, not his control, and they didn’t give him a chance to prove he could control it. And Fire Lad showed good control and good sense of what to direct it at, but they still declined him because he had the potential to cause problems if he screwed up. On the other hand, IIRC, in some later stories, Fire Lad was shown to have a minor problem with control.
Honestly, Infectious Lass, and Color Kid were the only main-team Subbies (the Subbies had an auxillary, which contained heroes with even lamer powers - Double Header and Antenna Lad) that really deserved to be declined. Infectious Lass did have a major control problem (until after the 5 year gap), and Color Kid’s powers WERE lame (except under a handful of very specific circumstances).
He, like Karate Kid, while not having a superpower in the classical sense, had a non-power of such a level it became a de-facto superpower - Karate Kid’s skill level with his Super Karate allowed him to go toe-to-toe with Superboy (although Supes did win the fight, it was still impressive), and Brainiac 5’s 12th Level Intelligence is so far above even a standard Coluan that it’s essentially the same as having a superpower.
I should have clarified my notation - I was only using Scientific Change for deliberate changes, which is why I have Chuck listed as an Accident, since he didn’t intend to drink the elasticising formula.
As I stated in the rest of my post, the clause that Legionnaires had to have a ‘naturally occurring power’ had nothing to do with how they got their power. It had to be a super-power (or super-ability in the case of Brainaic-5) generated from their physical body and not derived from a technological or magical device. Whether they recieved the power from a freak accident or mutation did not matter. What was important that they did not rely on a device or weapon as their primary super-power.
The only reason that Lightning Lass might have been precluded from joining the Legion was that her power was exactly the same as her brother’s, who had already been a Legionnaire. When he was dead, that wasn’t a problem.
#2 I’m acquainted with Merry Man, Akward Man, The Blimp, Dumb Bunny and White feather. I assumed that being printed by DC, everybody else in the thread was familiar with them as well.
BTW Dumb Bunny has an inteligent sister who appeared in Foglio’s Angel And The Ape.
Which, again, was the whole point of the thread of conversation we were having.
kurilla posted that if the rule was that you couldn’t have powers caused by anything but an accident of birth, Ayla would have been disqualified by Dream Girl changing her powers.
I clarified that if that had been the case she would have been disqualified before her powers were changed because her powers were caused by the same accident as Garth’s.
The fact that that isn’t the case is taken as read because they were both in the Legion. A point I also made directly in my post before kurilla’s.
On the chance that we’re arguing terminology, I’ll point out that the word used in all versions of the Legion Constitution that I’ve been able to find, is ‘genuine’, not ‘natural’, and in at least one version of the constitution, the rule against extrinsic powers is spelled out separately.
Night Girl’s home planet was Kathoon, incidentally. Her father subjected her to a “vitalizing ray” that gave her superhuman strength, supposedly nearing that of Superboy or Mon-El.
That brings back memories. I had the comic where she tried out. I hadn’t read it yet and didn’t know who she was but looked at her and guessed her power would be to make people sick. When I read the comic and found out that was her power I was really proud of myself for having guessed right. I bragged to the older neighbor kid who was the comic expert and he mocked me because it was obvious that was going to be her power. Fuck you older comic geek neighbor. I guessed it!
Fuck you older comic geek neighbor. I guessed it!