Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes The Ayla Appreciation Thread

'Cause she's awesome:

Indeed she is!

Ayla is second only to Tasmia as my favorite female Legionnaire. She's bold, brassy, and bisexual. What's not to love?

I was always less than impressed by that Who's Who entry. It always looked as though Ayla needs a hip replacement.

ME TOO! It's a disappointment compared to all the other Who's Who entries. Especially because it's Ayla and not a part of history.

I like how it tried to incorporate the explosion, the classic age and Light Lass era.

Ayla, along with Tinya and Tasmia, is one of my favorite Legion ladies! Go Ayla, first Legionnaire to break the ironclad 'the first person I date will be the one I marry' rule!

Also, joining Star Boy and Sensor Girl and Tyroc in the elite group of Legionnaires who have totally changed their powers!

and ... short shorts!

Some of my favourite Ayla moments were in the TMK/5YG run.

She has a real love for the Legion, it's history and it's craft, not to mention Vi.

In a nice touch that's Brin's claw behind Ayla in the poster, showing the relationship they once had.

The outfit in the Lightle picture is pretty cool. I don't recall her ever wearing that.

It's the uniform they tried to get the team to wear during the TMK/5YG run. Possibly in the Khundian war, as that would have been around the same time?

I can't hate the Who's Who pic because it's June Brigman and Power Pack cemented my love for her art forever

Ayla as Light Lass was along with Jeckie one of my least favourite characters in the Legion. It always struck me that she had a potentially awesome power, but was only ever written as a damsel in distress. She makes a much better Lightning Lass IMO, and 5YL really did amazing things for her character and her importance to the team.

Ah Power Pack. There was something a little magical about the start of that series.

I can;t say I'm a huge fan of the constantly doe eyed Ayla following Brin around. She even asks herself why she loves him. I always thought the moment shared by Brin and Imra on the asteroid was far too tame to damage a relationship as much as it did.

I think I’m one of the few that liked her Anti-gravity powers. They showed her using it really well in three-boot throwing around boulders like superman!

Even better but only in for a second was Alan Davis’s Superboy’s Legion version of her with Light powers instead of Anti-Gravity. Makes sense too if you think of it as concentrated Lightning!

I didn't get far in the threeboot (about an issue). Would she use her power, throw the boulder and then turn her power back off when she wanted it to drop?

Right. She almost had super strength the way it was used.

I'll need to look that up. I do have at least some of the issues now, picked up cheaply.

Here's one from a memorable back up story drawn by Norm Breyfogle. Not only does it show you exactly where the Brin/Ayla relationship stands, but in Breyfogle's art, you see a number of different power effects for Ayla.

Another favourite

That doesn't make sense - think what would happen if you threw an expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam™) boulder. It wouldn't go very far before the air resistance killed any momentum.

PS: *cough*. Okay, I just flatted the colouring - I'll fix that later when I get the time, but jus'for fun... (not actually the only 21CL Spark sketch I've got )

SW6 Gossamer had to wait for the wind to shift direction before her power let her "blow away" some droids.

But Threeboot Light Lass in issue 4 was able to use her powers to literally make the floor soar up into the sky. Chameleon had to hold onto Brainiac 5 and Saturn Girl to prevent them from being cast off into the atmosphere.

Yeah, she didn't just 'make things light,' she gave them negative weight so that they flew up into the sky, and even seemed to give them more negative weight than they had positive weight, as parts of buildings were tearing themselves off and 'falling up,' and, being that this was Colu, I'm gonna assume these buildings were up to code...

It wasn't mentioned in the comic, but I would assume that these items would have eventually ignited from air friction, and been leaving blazing trails behind them until they rocketed up into space, in a reverse version of 'burning up on re-entry.'

(That is, unless her power had a range limit or time limit, and they regained their normal weight after getting X distance away from her, or X seconds or minutes later...)

Still, in the Threeboot, her power was explicitly listed as 'anti-gravity' and not just 'makes stuff lighter.'

The bit later in the Shooter & Manapul era where she and Thom, with a ton of mechanical help, rebalance the gravitational forces *of the entire solar system,* was pretty darn awesome.

Anti-gravity is an awesome power. Using it, she should totally be able to fly under her own power (transforming her 'falling' momentum into forward motion the same way the rest of us do, by leaning slightly...).

Threeboot had it's faults but that was not one of them. She was kick ass in that. Brainy, I felt, thought she and Star Boy were two of the most powerful on the team because they both controlled gravity. One of the most powerful things in the universe.

thothkins lifts cup of tea, to put gravity in it's place.

I shall dig out my pitiful few threeboot issues for a look. I've always gone along with Ayla's powers being similar in source to Thom's.

The Threeboot had it's warts, but Ayla and Nura, in particular, really got a nice upgrade. Jeckie, too, although it came with too much unlikable characterization change, IMO.

I do like that, no matter the continuity, Ayla has never been one of the Legion ladies who got 'updated' by making her a martial artist. One size does not fit all, and not everyone has to get the Psylocke treatment to be badass.

Ayla is one of the few Legion ladies who doesn't need to get physical at all to take down an opponent.

I do dislike the Light Lass moniker though. It makes me think she should be throwing photons and lasers around instead of cancelling the effects of gravity

It never occurred to me to think of it differently until that Superboy mini. I was so used to connecting her with those powers. Light Lass? Yeah, she'll make things lighter. What else would she do?