Posted in: Comics, DC Comics, Superman | Tagged: dc comics, lia nelson, Lightray, superman, the authority

Lia Nelson, The New Authority's Lightray From DC Comics

Yesterday, Bleeding Cool posted a preview of the upcoming series by Grant Morrison and Mikel Janin, which seemed to name its speedster for the first time as Lia Nelson, a new version of Lightray. Cut and pasted below.

Created by Dan Jurgens, Todd Dezago and Gary Frank in DC Comics alternate universe series Tangent Comics: Flash in 1997, Lia Nelson is an actress and supermodel model – and also a being of light and speed, becoming her Earth's Flash. She is able to control, manipulate and generate light, and her appearance, as well as access light energy directly, and move at lightspeed.

She's also turned up in Infinite Crisis, The Kingdom, Countdown, and a recent appearance in The Flash among other multidimensional speedsters.

On her world, Lia Nelson is the second most recognized person on the planet, next to The Atom or Superman. A celebrity from the time of her birth, her parents were the first astronauts to go on the Jupiter Mission. After becoming the Flash and joining the Secret Six, she could never decide whether or not she was a celebrity or a hero.

Lightray as a character was created by Jack Kirby for the New Gods in 1971, a godly being of super strength and speed, able to manipulate light into solid forms. This appears to be a brand new incarnation of the character.

As for being a member of The Authority? She was shown to manipulate Jay Garrick to do what she needed and overthrew the Harvey Dent Superman. So that seems to fit. Might it also suggest that the Superman of the series might also be a slightly younger version of the Kingdom version of the character?

SUPERMAN AND THE AUTHORITY #1
Story by Grant Morrison
Art by Mikel Janin
Covers by Mikel Jani­n, Bryan Hitch, Jen Bartel.
Sometimes even Superman finds a task almost impossible. Sometimes even the Last Son of Krypton needs to enlist help. Some tasks require methods and heroes that don't scream "Justice League." So Clark Kent, the Metropolis Marvel, seeks out Manchester Black, the most dastardly of rogues, to form an all-new Authority tasked with taking care of some business on the sly. Not only will Black know the right candidates for the team, but if Superman can make him behave himself and act in service of the greater good, then he'll prove literally anyone can be a hero! They'll have to move quickly, however, as the Ultra-Humanite forms his own team to take out the Man of Steel. This new limited series helps launch an all-new Superman status quo, setting up story elements that reverberate across both Action Comics and Superman: Son of Kal-El in the months to come. 40 pages, $4.99, available on July 20.

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