The Death of Lightning Lad is a Legion of Super-Heroes seminal storyline published in Adventure Comics #304-5, 308 and 312 (January-September, 1963). The story was penned by Jerry Siegel and Edmond Hamilton and illustrated by John Forte. The story was revisited and expanded by Paul Levitz in Adventure Comics #520 (November, 2010).
Saturn Girl (Imra Ardeen) learns the planet Mernl's computers have foretold one Legionnaire will die as fighting an interplanetary overlord called Zaryan the Conqueror. Imra refuses to let any of her teammates die, so she destroys the warning message and subtly goads the Legionnaires into electing her leader. She then finds excuses to bench the whole Legion for almost one month, and leaves to face Zaryan's forces.
However, Lightning Lad (Garth Ranzz) is warned from Imra's intentions, so he goes ahead and engages Zaryan before Imra can do so. The prophecy comes true, and Garth stops Zaryan at the cost of his own life. The Legion wipe out the remainder Zaryan's forces, but it is too late to save their friend. The Legionnaires put Garth in a special casket, mourn his loss and try to go on with their lives.
And still, they cannot help wondering whether there may be some way to bring Lightning Lad back to life.
The story was reprinted for the first time in Adventure Comics #403, as well as different trade collections.
Tropes:
- Aliens Speaking English: Justified. The message from Mernl was written in English by aliens who knew the language, so the Legionnaires could understand it.
- All Your Powers Combined: Saturn Girl temporarily copies the powers of all Legionnaires minus Superboy and Supergirl, who were not around.
- As You Know: When Colossal Boy mentions the Legion was rewarded by defeating Zaryan's mooks, Matter-Eater Lad says "I'm Matter-Eater Lad, a new member! Who is "Zaryan the Conqueror"??" in order to: inform new readers who is the newest Legionnaire; and give the characters one excuse to explain who the newest villain is.
- Back from the Dead: Lightning Lad is ultimately brought back to life, but at the cost of Proty's life.
- Backup Twin: When Lightning Lad dies, his twin sister Ayla poses as him to try to replace him. Once she is found out, Ayla joins the Legion officially as Lightning Lass.
- Band of Brothers: When Lightning Lad dies, the Legion scour the galaxy to find a way to revive him. When they find a method which requires someone sacrificing their life to give it to Garth, six Legionnaires volunteer. Several years later, during The Lightning Saga, Superman tells the story to the Justice League and Justice Society, who are appalled at the thought of children risking their lives like that. Superman replies any Legionnaire would readily give their life for any of their teammates.Geo-Force: "That is not only ridiculous, Superman, it is insane."
Superman: "Our devotion to each other was unexplainable."
Batman: "You were kids."
Superman: "No, Batman. We were Legion." - Belated Love Epiphany: Issue #520 establishes that Saturn Girl realized what she was in love with Lightning Lad when he was dying in her arms.Saturn Girl: Is there a bigger fool than a woman who realizes she's in love as she watches her man die?
- Complexity Addiction: Lightning Lass tries to honor her deceased twin brother by impersonating him. As pondering over her actions several years later, Ayla admits she cannot figure out why she tried to pass herself off as her brother to join the Legion instead of introducing herself to the team and requesting admittance.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: As the Legion is hunting down the remains of Zaryan's army, Superboy, Supergirl and Ultra Boy spot a fleeing squad of warships. The trio tear through the Zaryan ships as if they were made of paper, completely shrugging their missiles and giant laser beams off.
- Deus Exit Machina: Saturn Girl has to abruptly leave the Clubhouse to deal with a sudden emergency on her own, right in the middle of an audition; hence, she is not around to tell their teammates that applicant "Lemon" is Mon-El in disguise, playing a prank on them.
- Disguised in Drag: Ayla Ranzz wears her twin brother's clothes to impersonate him. Unfortunately, she forgets cover her Adam's apple-less throat, and her ruse is exposed.
- Due to the Dead: All Legionnaires attend Garth's funeral, even those who are living in the 20th century (Superboy), questing in the remote past (Supergirl) and stuck into the Phantom Zone (Mon-El). After the funeral, Garth's transparent coffin is put to rest in a crypt, surrounded by electric bolts produced by a perpetual-motion device.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Zaryan the Conqueror thought he could get rid of the Legion's interference by bribing them, and he did not expect to be turned down.
- Exty Years from Publication: This storyline was published in 1963 and is set in the year 2963.
- First Law of Resurrection: The storyline starts with Garth pulling off a heroic sacrifice and ends with his resurrection eight issues later. Given that he is one of the three founders and leaders of the team, and previously published story Action Comics #292 featured an adult Lightning Lad, many fans were not surprised when he came back from the dead.
- Gendered Outfit: Garth wears black trunks and orange leggings whereas his sister Ayla wears a blue short skirt.
- Half-Identical Twins: Lightning Lass easily poses as her dead brother for one mission, but was revealed because she didn't have an Adam's Apple.
- The Hero Dies: Lightning Lad dies at the beginning of the history in order to save Saturn Girl. At the end, Proty sacrifices itself to bring him back to life.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Saturn Girl intends to sacrifice herself to save her teammates from Zaryan, but Lightning Lad gets himself killed to save her life. Later, six Legionnaires volunteer to give up their lives in order to bring Garth back to life, but Proty replaces Saturn Girl and gets itself killed to protect her and revive Garth.
- Hijacked Destiny: Saturn Girl attempts to fulfill the Mernlian prophecy by grounding hear teammates and then getting herself killed as fighting Zaryan, but Lightning Lad interferes, engages Zaryan and dies so Imra stays alive.
- Hologram Projection Imperfection: Doble subversion. A holographic three-headed monster looks lifelike enough to fool Triplicate Girl until Saturn Girl reveals it's a three-dimensional projection, whereupon it looks like a 3D semi-transparent bluish image.
- Initiation Ceremony: "Marvel Lad" must perform three super-feats in order to become a Legionnaire.
- Killed Off for Real: Although Lightning Lad is resurrected, Proty remains dead (unless you count its reappearance in the Five Years Later era…which, as far as Legion fans are concerned, never happened).
- Last Request: As he is dying, Garth requests to be taken to the Legion's clubhouse so he can die surrounded by his teammates.
- Latex Perfection: Mon-El dons a full-face mask as disguising himself as "Legionnaire Lemon". Neither of his friends realizes what he is wearing a mask.
- Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: As training, Triplicate Girl ponders where she is from and how her powers work.Triplicate Girl: (thinking) A... A hydra-headed m-monster!... Luckily, I'm from the planet Cargg, where a triple sun gave everyone on my world the power to split into three bodies!
- Mind over Manners: Saturn Girl needs to be chosen leader in order to bench the whole team, so she telepathically "nudges" all Legionnaires into voting for her. Later, Lori Lemaris reads Supergirl's mind without asking permissiong only because she is wondering where the Girl of Steel is going.
- More Expendable Than You: Mon-El reveals a process that can revive a person, but it requires that person to be struck with a powerful bolt of lightning, which will kill the person struck but revive the dead. Saturn Girl, blaming herself for Lightning Lad's fate, plots to use a special metal that attracts electricity more so she can revive the fallen Legionnaire, but Chameleon Boy's pet, the shapeshifting Proty, decides otherwise and lures Saturn Girl away, taking her place and sacrificing itself.
- Mutual Kill: At the same time that Garth's lightning bolts destroy Zaryan's flagship, he is hit by a freezing ray shot by the warship.
- My Sibling Will Live Through Me: When Garth is killed, his previously unmentioned twin sister Ayla with the same powers shows up at Legion headquarters and pretends to be her brother, back from the dead, until the deception is exposed and she joins the Legion under her own identity.
- Pietà Plagiarism: Saturn Girl cradles Lightning Lad's body as he is dying after being hit by Zaryan's ship's freezing ray.
- Planet Eater: The Sun Eater is a giant, green-furred humanoid being who attempts to devour the Sun.
- Poor Communication Kills: After Lightning Lad has been buried, Brainiac 5 bitterly wonders why his teammates chose to kill themselves instead of asking him to find a solution.
- Powers as Programs: Saturn Girl is able to copy the Legionnaires' powers by instructing them to use their powers while wearing medallions made of spectrium.
- The Prophecy: The Mernlian prophecy stating that one Legionnaire will be killed off as fighting Zaryan kicks off the plot.
- Rule of Three: In issue #305, the Legion interviews three applicants: Antennae Boy, Dynamo Kid and "Marvel Lad". The latter must past three initiation tests to become a full-fledged Legionnaire.
- Scene Cover: The cover for issue #312, wherein six Legionnaires set out to bring Lightning Lad back, is one of the most iconic ones in the Legion's history.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: After Garth's death, R.J. Brande -billionaire industrialist and the Legion's main backer- strong-arms the United Planets organization into letting the Legion handle the army of Zaryan by reminding them how many of their projects he has personally funded.
- Sdrawkcab Name: Wanting to play a prank on his friends, Mon-El dons a mask and introduces himself as a Legionnaire applicant named "Lemon".
- Shrine to the Fallen: The Legionnaires place a statue of Lightning Lad in their base to honor their fallen teammate.
- Smug Super: As he is posing as "Marvel Lad", Lar Gand presents himself as a big-ego show-off, boasting about being greater than Superboy and Mon-El, and not hesitating to call himself a "Legionnaire" before even beginning his trial.
- Spanner in the Works: Saturn Girl's plan to sacrifice herself fails because she did not think Mon-El would read the Mernl's warning before she destroyed it and warn Lightning Lad.
- Spotting the Thread:
- When Lemon introduces himself and shows off his very familiar powerset, the Legionnaires wonder whether they are being pranked by Superboy, but he proves to be invulnerable to Kryptonite. However, Brainiac 5 realizes "Lemon" is an anagram of "Mon-El".
- When Lightning Lad seems to revive, Sun Boy notices the back of his neck is not tanned and he lacks his Adam's apple, whereupon he figures out Lightning Lad is being impersonated by his twin sister.
- Surveillance as the Plot Demands: It is not explained how the Legion's space monitor can show events ranging from a Sun-Eater plunging into the Sun to monsters rampaging in random planets.
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: After the funeral the Legion holds an audition to replace Garth. The first applicant, Antennae Boy, can pick up radio broadcasts from anywhere and anywhen, but his giant ears emit an unbearable noise which cannot be turned off. The second applicant, Dynamo Kid, is really a fraud with no powers who intended to infiltrate the Legion and write a scoop. The third applicant, "Lemon", is absolutely perfect...and he is already a Legionnaire in disguise who was playing a prank on his friends.
- A Villain Named "Z__rg": Zaryan the Conqueror attempts to take over the galaxy.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: After Garth's demise, Antennae Boy applies for Legion membership. His grotesque ears can pick up radio broadcasts from stations anywhere and anywhen on Earth, but they also produce an extremely grating noise which he does not know how to turn off. Cosmic Boy unceremoniously tells him to get out.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Since the Mernlian computer-generated prophecy cannot be wrong, Imra decides to manipulate events so she will be the one who dies.
- Zeerust:
- In the year 2963, newspapers come out in microfilm format.
- The Legion uses a ridiculously complex analogue wall clock.
- Zero-Approval Gambit: Saturn Girl tries to pull this off by cheating in the leader election, secretly copying their abilities, and then suspending all of the Legionnaires for ridiculous reasons. That way, once Zaryan invades, she'll have all of their powers as a one woman Legion and will have pissed off her teammates so they won't want to help. It fails when Lightning Lad finds out what she was trying to do and goes to help, dying in battle against Zaryan so Saturn Girl doesn't.
