Lightning Lord
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| Lightning Lord | |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Superman (1st series) #147 (August 1961) |
| Created by | Jerry Siegel (writer) Curt Swan (artist) |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Mekt Ranzz |
| Place of origin | Winath |
| Team affiliations | Legion of Super-Villains Wanderers |
| Abilities | Electrical generation and direction |
Lightning Lord is a fictional supervillain published by DC Comics. He debuted in Superman (1st series) #147 (August 1961), and was created by Jerry Siegel and Curt Swan.
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[edit] Pre-Zero Hour
Lightning Lord (real name Mekt Ranzz) is a founding member of the Legion of Super-Villains.
A single birth on a planet where twin births are the norm, Lightning Lord developed an anti-social personality in response to his circumstance of not having a twin sibling. When the spacecraft which he was travelling in along with his younger brother and sister (Legion of Super-Heroes members Lightning Lad and Lightning Lass) ran into electrical difficulties, the Ranzz siblings were forced to land their craft on the planetoid Korbal. In an attempt to lure the local lightning beasts to recharge their battery, they were charged with electrical energy themselves, giving them the power to generate lighting. Given his newfound ability, Lightning Lord decided to turn to a life of crime.
He has an adversarial but protective relationship with his siblings, and during any given encounter will usually attempt to get one of them (usually his sister) to join him in his life of crime.
[edit] Post-Zero Hour
Following the Zero Hour "Legion reboot", Lightning Lord was relatively unchanged, although he now hated his siblings and there was no Legion of Super-Villains.
In the Legion Worlds miniseries it was revealed that he was rehabilitated and working on his parents' farm.
In Superman/Batman "Absolute Power", Lightning Lord, Cosmic King and Saturn Queen all appear married as the substitute parents of Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne in an alternate timeline which they constructed.
[edit] One Year Later
Following the most recent Legion reboot, Mekt shows up as a leader of a group of "black ops" superheroes called The Wanderers. He recruits his sister, Karate Kid, Ultra Boy, Star Boy, and Mon-El to fight an incoming invasion of Dominators. His anti-social personality was replaced and instead he is suicidal (it is implied the crash on Korbal was deliberate). He has lightning powers, but does not use the alter ego of Lightning Lord.
It was recently revealed that Mekt was part of a cult on Winath which worships the nature spirit Validus, also known as the Lord of Lightning, as local superstition has it that singletons are the children of Validus. This cult sent him to Korbel to gain the power of the lightning beasts as part of a prophecy. However, when his siblings also gained powers, the cult rejected him, as the prophecy did not mention this.
In Final Crisis, he was among the supervillains in Superman-Prime's Legion of Super-Villains.
[edit] Other media
He also appears in the Legion of Super Heroes animated series. His first appearance was in the episode "Champions": having a rivalry with his brother, he competed against him in an Olympic-type competition and unknowingly makes a deal with the Fatal Five to win it. He did not exhibit any powers, but had them in his second appearance in "Lightning Storm," alongside the Light Speed Vanguard, a group of for-profit heroes and the series' incarnation of the Legion of Super Villains. He is voiced by James Arnold Taylor. Interestingly, he is always referred to as Mekt in the show, and never as "Lightning Lord".
In the second season, taking place two years after the first, the Vanguard has returned and now calls itself the Legion of Super Villains. However, Mekt was not among them. In "Chained Lightning," he was seen with Imperiex. It was also revealed that he and Garth got their powers during an attack by Lightning Beasts. After helping his brother bring his sister back to life, he decides to give up his life of crime and turn himself in.
