Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Flight Ring physics

Here's a tidbit I've been curious about -- those flight rings seem to be near indestructable considering what they must go through (think about whose hands they're on). When M'onel hits something (or LeVIathan since she doesn't have that Kryptonian / Daxamite "aura") or when Wildfire lets loose with the energy blasts, those rings are right on their fingers taking the full brunt of it yet remain unscathed.

Has anyone ever destroyed their own ring through the use of their powers, or are they in fact indestructable? (has that been established?) Or is it one of those comic book conventions we should just shut up and accept?

Can't recall any ever being destroyed.

They're made of Valorium - besides anti-gravity, what other powers might this element have? In the pre-boot, they were described as "psycho-sensitive", activated by willpower.

The rings not only have to be indestructible, they have to grow or shrink for Violet, go invisible for Lyle. I wonder if the anti-gravity properties are somehow affecting Star Boy.

Guess it's one of these "Trust Us - It's a Comic Book" things.

Comic book "science." In the immortal words of Hawkeye (Donald Sutherland), "Finest kind."

Back in the Adventure Shooter-Swan
days, I recall Ultra Boy and
Karate Kid had damaged their flight
rings...apparently, there IS indeed
a limit to just how much of a beating
they can take.

Colossal Boy once flew in his Giant Form
so the rings are capable of lifting
a LOT of weight!

I think the rings can duplicate, shrink,
grow, Etc..In general, they are able
to adapt to the wearer's powers.

Or is it that the Wearer's powers' affect
their rings?

Or Both? LoL

Weight perhaps, but not mass. Recall that soon after Blok joined the Legion it was shown that he needed three (!) flight rings in order to get airborn.

In Adventure Comics #305, when Mon-El attempts to join the Legion in his guise as Marvel Lad aka Legionniare Lemon, he creates the anti-gravity Element No. 152. Is this what was later referred to as Valorium? If so, Element No. 152 was a mixture of Gold (atomic weight 79), Silver (47) and Iron (26).

I'm not sure what leap of comic book logic bestows a mixture of these three elements with anti-gravity powers. But I guess the same leap could bestow upon them psycho-reactive powers as well as super-toughness.

Flight Rings were introduced in Adventure Comics #329 as Brainiac 5's invention, although no mention is made of their properties or what makes them work, beyond "will power."

IIRC, Brainy invented Valorium in the postboot, but it was Lyle who applied the material to make Flight Rings.

I imagine that if the rings were made of an alloy containing Interton, that would make them near enough to indestructable.

FWIW: Inertron is not a Legion invention. I have seen old Buck Rogers (or was it Flash Gordon ?) strips from the 30's that feature a super tough substance of the same name.

Interestingly, Buck Roger's inertron originally had anti-gravity properties as well.

And, in a reverse of what happened with the Legion, Rogers & Co. originally used inertron "jumping belts", then switched to rocket flight belts. I think it was probably because the artist wanted something that looked cooler.