The Lightning Saga: Lightning Lad
This is obstinately a summary/review of Justice League of America #8, except it’s not as the issue isn’t particularly interesting. Basically everyone is being set up by having their cool moments before it’s revealed that at the end that everyone it being split into two teams, the JLA led by Dinah (which is neat) and the JSA led by Pee Gee. So as this just happens to be the start of Pride Month I thought I take an opportunity to talk about a character I find interesting.
But first let’s get our required Pee Gee content out of the way. In a two page spread we have the two teams interacting and in a rare interaction Pee Gee is flexing to friggin Batman how she’s picked up a rare book by the military architect Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, he made fancy earthwork around castles and such like. Bruce would like the book but Kara insists it’s not for sale! Now not only is it rare that writers remember that Karen Starr is a successful company CEO with money to spare, but that she’d actually be interested in collecting rare books. Really it seems a little out of characters, most time we see Pee Gee’s home she lives quite comfortably but not extragently, and often her place is a massive mess. It’s not necessarily wrong but it just feels a little off for her, but not enough to suggest that she’s ruined forever!
We also get a brief scene with one Dolores Winter, back in the 50s because time travel, and it gives me a chance to talk about the antics of the Ultra Humanite. The character is probably one the first true super villains for Superman, appearing in Action Comic #13 back in 1939! His first appearance wasn’t impressive, running a taxi scam in Metropolis, but he manages to fool Superman with his science based traps. He appears for three more issues over the year before his apparent death and something amazing happening! And weirdly this “death” isn’t even because of the most famous of Superman’s villains, Lex Luthor, who looks very similiar to the Ultra Humanite, as he appears almost straight after the next part of the tale.
Basically in Action Comics #20 we’re introduced to Dolores Winters a famous movie actor who agrees to give Clark an interview after he (in his civilian identity) saves her from certain death! But shock, horror, the next morning she doesn’t know who he is, and because Golden Age comics have no concept of long drawn out storytelling we quickly learn that it’s the Ultra Humanities brains in Dolores body. Shenanigans happen and her plan to steal money from all of DOlores rich friends and aquanites fail and she appears to die, not coming back for quite sometime and will then be in the White Ape body most people now know them from. (And has faced Pee Gee multiple time making this a completely legit tangent!)
Now I’m not naive enough to think that this is Siegel & Shuster being progressive and commenting on Trans people, as much I’m sure they were for the time, but it’s interesting that no one seems to judge or comment on Ultra Humanite change of body, more at her schemes to get rich off of the others and placing them in danger. It’s an interesting idea that I’m surprised that no one has gone back to use this to explore theme’s and idea that this just opens up!
Should we count Ultra Humanite as a Trans Icon? Heck no! She flat out a villain and we have characters like Coagula and Victoria October, with more being added all the time, but it’s interesting to think about all the implications of Dolores.