Garth Ranzz (Pre-Zero Hour)

{{DC Database:Character Template
 * Image                  = Lightning Lad 02.jpg
 * RealName               = Garth Ranzz
 * MainAlias              = Lightning Lad
 * Aliases                = Lightning Boy; Lightning Man
 * Identity               = Public
 * AlienRace              = Winathian
 * Alignment              = Good
 * Affiliation            = Legion of Super-Heroes
 * Relatives              = Luc Ranzz (father, deceased), Perla Ranzz (mother, deceased), Ayla Ranzz (twin sister); Mekt Ranzz (brother); Imra Ardeen (wife, deceased); Graym Ranzz (son); Garridan Ranzz (son); Dacey Ranzz (daughter); Doritt Ranzz (daughter)
 * Universe               = Earth-One; Pre-Zero Hour
 * BaseOfOperations       = 30th Century, Metropolis, Legion Headquarters


 * Gender                 = Male
 * Height                 = 6'2"
 * Weight                 = 190 lbs
 * Eyes                   = Blue
 * Hair                   = Red
 * UnusualFeatures        =


 * Citizenship            = United Planets
 * MaritalStatus          = Widowed
 * Occupation             = Legionnaire


 * Creators               = Otto Binder; Al Plastino
 * First                  = Adventure Comics Vol 1 247


 * Quotation              = We need to get on this, Kal. We need to bring whoever did this to justice. Remember what I always said about justice? You gotta strike hard and strike fas--
 * Speaker                = Lightning Lad
 * QuoteSource            = Action Comics Vol 1 864


 * Overview               =  Garth Ranzz, also known as Lightning Lad, is one of the members founders of the Legion of Super-Heroes
 * HistoryText            =

Early Life
Garth Ranzz was born the second of three children on the planet Winath. When he was fourteen years old, Garth and his brother Mekt and twin-sister Ayla, attended a party on an alien planet. Returning home, their shuttlecraft malfunctioned and they crashed on the planet Korbal. They discovered that their ship had run out of power and that its engines needed to be recharged. Garth lured a herd of Lightning Beasts towards the craft hoping to use their electrical discharges to repower the ship. The animals' energy bursts struck the teens however and not the ship, imbuing all three of them with the ability to generate electricity. Garth, Ayla and Mekt used their powers to recharge the ship's engines and return home.

Foundation of the Legion
A short time later, Mekt Ranzz mysteriously disappeared into the galactic underworld, and Garth set out to try to find him. He boarded a shuttle en route to the planet Earth, whereupon he met Rokk Krinn of Braal and Imra Ardeen of Titan. Also on the shuttle was R.J. Brande – a wealthy industrialist who claimed to be the third richest man in the galaxy. Garth and Rokk immediately bonded with one another, but Imra felt that the two of them were little more than childish boys. When the shuttle reached Earth, an assassin attempted to murder Brande, but Garth, Rokk and Imra used their respective powers to save the older man's life. -

Brande was so impressed with the teens' bravery, that he petitioned the United Planets to form a Legion of Super-Heroes – an ever-growing cosmic team inspired by the exploits of 20th century teen super-heroes Superboy and Supergirl. Garth Ranzz became a charter member of the team using the name Lightning Boy. Eventually they would travel backwards in time to the 20th Century to met Superboy and Supergirl and welcome them into their ranks. - - By this point, Garth had stopped using the name Lightning Boy and became known as Lightning Lad – a code name that he would maintain throughout most of his career.

The Death of Lightning Lad
Disaster struck the young Legionnaire down only a short time later. Imra Ardeen (now known as Saturn Girl) learned of the pressing threat of a villain known as Zaryan the Conqueror. She also knew a Legionnaire was fated to die in combat against Zaryan. As team leader, Saturn Girl was unwilling to allow any other Legionnaire to die, so she suspended everyone on the team, in the hopes that she would be the one to fall before Zaryan's might. Lightning Lad ignored his suspension however and fought with Zaryan. Although he succeeded in destroying the villain's ship, Zaryan managed to fire a freeze-blast that killed the young Legionnaire. - Shortly thereafter, Garth's sister Ayla adopted the name Lightning Lass and took her brother's place on the team.

Mon-El, a fellow Legionnaire only recently freed from exile in the Phantom Zone, discovered a way to bring Garth back to life. The plan involved going to Lightning World and channeling the power of a massive lightning bolt into a specially designed Daxamite rod that would resurrect the fallen Legionnaire. However, such a plan would come at great cost, as whoever was holding the lightning rod at the point of impact would be killed.

The Legion decided that the plan was worth the risk and they brought Garth's body to Lightning World. Rather than let a single hero volunteer to sacrifice themselves, they instead allowed fate to decide for them. Each Legionnaire present held an identical lightning rod, prepared to give their lives for Garth if need be. Saturn Girl, once again decided to sacrifice herself for the sake of Garth Ranzz. She replaced her rod with one made of Duralim, a highly conductive metal, increasing her chances of being struck down rather than another Legionnaire. Saturn Girl never had the opportunity to risk her own life however. At the last minute, Chameleon Boy's pet, Proty, morphed into the form of Saturn Girl and used her Duralim rod in the ritual. A giant bolt of lightning struck the rod, resurrecting Lightning Lad, but at the cost of Proty's life.

Lightning Lad rejoined the Legion as a full-time member. Unfortunately, due to Legion bylaws which prohibited members with similar powers from being on the team together, Ayla Ranzz' spot on the roster was now forfeit. Ayla managed to stay in the Legion however, as her powers altered only a short time later.

Further Adventures and Marriage
Never a stranger to tragedy, Garth experienced his next great loss only a few short years later. Picking up a distress call from a passing cargo ship, Lightning Lad investigated the scene and came into conflict with a giant creature colloquially known as the Super-Moby Dick of Space. Fighting the mineral-eating monstrosity, Lightning Lad fired his electric bolts at the creature, but they reflected off it, transforming into a poisonous current that struck Garth in the arm. Returning to the Legion Clubhouse, Garth was forced to amputate his arm to stave off further infection. He replaced the missing limb with a cybernetic prosthetic, which greatly amplified his electrical discharge powers. Consumed with a need for revenge, Lightning Lad tracked down the Super-Moby Dick and blasted it with 100 times the amount of power normally at his disposal. The power blast reduced the creature in size, rendering it harmless.

It was during this time that Garth and Imra Ardeen grew closer together and eventually fell in love. On one mission, the two were forced to stage a faux wedding and retire from the Legion, enabling three Murran alien spies to take their place under the names Blackout Boy, Magnetic Kid and Size Lad. Garth and Imra knew of the spies' presence and agreed to the plan in order to draw them out. Although the mission was a success, both Garth and Imra were upset that their marriage was not real.

Over time, Lightning Lad came under the thrall of Prince Evillo and forced to join his Devil's Dozen. Garth regained control of his mind, and rebelled against Evillo. One of Evillo's scientists, Dr. Zan Orbal, used his scientific wizardry to restore Lightning Lad's missing arm.

As they grew older, Garth and Imra married in earnest and gave birth to twin children. What neither of them realized at the time however, was that the galactic despot Darkseid had taken one of their twins at birth and performed experiments on him, transforming him into a mutated aberration. Darkseid then shunted the mutated child back in time five years where he became the Fatal Five member known as Validus. It was years before Garth and Imra ever learned the truth about their missing son. Their second child however, Graym Ranzz proved to be a healthy baby boy, and Garth and Imra retired from active service to raise their son.

They both returned to the Legion however and continued to fight up against threats such as the Fatal Five, Computo, Darkseid and the Legion of Super-Villains.

Crisis on Infinite Earths
Although the Legion survived the Crisis mostly unscathed, the Time Trapper took advantage of the chaos to isolate and weaken the Legion, making them believe her fellow Superboy wasn't the the real one and forget about her recently fallen member Supergirl. Even so, the Legion endured.

Five Year Gap
However, during the "Five Year Gap", Earth's government became hostile to the Legion, and Garth became incapacitated from the Validus plague which ravaged his native Winath. Disillusioned by the government and feeling needed more at home, his wife resigned from the Legion. Garth and Imra returned to Winath and took over running a Winathian Lightning Ring plantation, which became quite prosperous. Using their new-found wealth, Imra and Garth replaced their super-heroism with simple but necessary helping of others, feeding a galaxy suffering more from hunger than from super-villains. When the Legion re-formed in 2994, the Ranzzes helped them out, but did not rejoin. Instead, they enlarged their family with the birth of daughters Dacey and Dorritt.

Zero Hour
Garth's final adventure with the Legion involved the Time Trapper, the conclusion of which resulted in the destruction of the Legion of Super-Heroes timeline in a cosmic crisis brought back by a Hal Jordan mind-controlled by Parallax.

Post-Infinite Crisis
Nevertheless, the events other Crisis unleashed by Superboy Prime and Alex Luthor restored the Legion with a slightly altered history as evidenced by the trip of six Legionnaires to the time present. Once again, Garth, Imra and Rokk formed a super-hero team backed by RJ Brande and travelled back to the past to induct Superboy. They also recruited the next Superboy, and Garth talked Brainiac-5 into inducting Supergirl into the team when the Kryptonian girl landed in the 30th century.

Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes
Unfortunately, xenophobia started spreading through the galaxy because of manipulations of the Time Traper and the efforts of Earth-Man. The Legion agreed the future was becoming too dangerous for Superboy and they would not visit him again after the war against the Anti-Monitor.

The witch hunt led by Earth-Man and sponsored by the Earth Government forced the Legion's founding members to go underground. Imra and Garth's children also went missing during that period. As a result of it, Garth became very short-tempered and snappy for a while. It was when Superman returned and rejoined the Legion that their situation started to look up.

Once Earth-Man was taken down, Lightning Lad took Superman back his own time personally. As they were whiling away in the Fortress of Solitude, recalling old times when they were two teenagers hanging out and getting into trouble together, Batman showed up to tell them two Legionnaires had been found dead in Gotham. Garth took his friends' bodies back to the future while wondering who was trying to destroy the Legion this time.

Legion of 3 Worlds
Earth-Man had been defeated, but tension between the Legion and the United Planets was still high. The UP Government looked to shut the Legion down, and Garth was sick of dealing with them putting his friends down and then crawling back every time a super-villain struck the UP.

Superboy-Prime ending up in the 30th century and freeing the Legion of Super-Villains forced the Legion to recall Superman and bring two Legions of different timelines to her own universe. Imra found herself teaming up with two different Saturn Girls.

Garth teamed up with the two other incarnations of him, Live Wire and the other Lightning Lad to save the 30th Century from Superboy-Prime.

During the final battle in Vanishing Point, Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl combined their powers to summon Legionnaires of every time and universe and with their assistance defeating the Time Trapper for good.


 * Powers                 =
 * : Lightning Lad can absorb electrical energy into his body and rechannel it for offensive purposes. His body functions as a natural insulator, and he cannot be harmed from the effects of his own powers.
 * : Lightning Lad can generate and control fields of electrical energy. He can channel this energy through his hands and project it as a super-heated discharge with properties similar to that of lightning. Unlike true lightning, Garth can manipulate these electric discharges in non-terrestrial environments such as outer space. Although the speed and voltage of his electric discharges has never been measured, it can be assumed that their affects are similar to that of a bolt of lightning. A bolt of lightning can travel at a speed of 100000 mph (160934 km/h), and can reach temperatures approaching 28000 °C (60000 °F), hot enough to fuse soil or sand into glass channels.
 * : When he first joined the Leigon of Super-Heroes, Garth could only produce electro-static effects by clapping his hands together, but with time and practice, he was able to hone his skill until he could fire bolts of lightning from his hands.
 * : At one point in his career, Lightning Lad's arm was amputated and replaced with a robotic limb. This appendage increased the magnitude of Lightning Lad's powers 100 fold and he was able to use it against the Super-Moby Dick of Space and Prince Evillo's Devil's Dozen. Upon the restoration of his natural arm, Lightning Lad discarded the robotic prosthetic.
 * Abilities              =
 * Weaknesses             =
 * Weaknesses             =


 * Equipment              =
 * Legion Flight Ring
 * Transportation         =
 * Weapons                =

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 * Notes                  =
 * Garth's last pre-Zero Hour appearance was in Legion of Super-Heroes v.4 #61
 * Trivia                 =
 * In his first appearance, Garth went by the code-name Lightning Boy.
 * Garth is older than his twin sister Ayla.
 * Recommended            =
 * Links                  =
 * Lightning Lad at Supermanica
 * Garth Ranzz article at Memory Beta, the licensed Star Trek publication Wikia.