She’s comics first woman to lead a super team. She’s self-sacrificing and willing to do what she must for her team. She’s dealt with Darkseid and won. She’s Saturn Girl! So what does she do and how did she come to be? Is she from Saturn? Let’s find out!
Imra Ardeen is from the 30th century and was born and raised on Titan, the largest moon that orbits Saturn. Titanians are telepaths and Imra is the most powerful among them. She decided to use this skill to join Earth’s Science Police force but the flight there would change her life forever. An assassination attempt on a billionaire would have Imra teaming up with two young me to save his life and stop the plot. Success and learning that the two men she teamed up with were Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy, she would help found the Legion of Super-Heroes as Saturn Girl.
Being inspired to create this team by the legendary Superman from long ago, Imra and her fellow founder would go back in time to visit a young Clark Kent to assist him in realizing his destiny and saving him from possible paradox. Back to the future present, Imra would discover that one of her fellow Legionnaires (now a large organization with members from all over the universe) would die. Since this was during an election for new leadership, Imra used her powers to get herself voted in so she could take the hit to save the others. When the time came though, Lightning Lad sacrificed himself to save Imra.
Distraught, Imra was dedicated to find a way to revive him, unfortunately this would involve the need for someone else to die to bring him back. Ready to do what she’d originally set out to do, Imra was again stopped from sacrificing herself as Chameleon Boy’s pet Proty, took her place to bring back Lightning Lad. Imra’s self-sacrificing nature for the greater good inspires those around her, even the pets of her friends and teammates.
Having Lightning Lad back after believing him dead and gone, Imra rethinks her feelings for him and realizes she will take him up on his offer of going on date. After 10 years of being together the two would be married and retire from Legion service as were the rules at the time. This wasn’t to last due to a war looming and all Legionnaires getting called back into service to help. Imra would prove so instrumental in the victory that the Legion would rewrite their rules so that she and Lightning Lad didn’t have to be forced into retirement once things settled down.
Adventuring would continue until Imra was pregnant where she and Lighting Lad would retire to be parents. Unbeknownst to them, Darkseid had taken an interest in her pregnancy and he’d discovered it was twins and orchestrated an elaborate plot to hide the existence of one of the children from them so he could raise it as his own. This child would be raised to attack the Legion and when Imra discovered this she would fight back and get Darkseid to return to her her child as a newborn baby so she could raise him safely.
Coming out of retirement once more, she would do so alone as Lightning Lad enjoyed being a househusband and father. Imra would fight deadly threats to the galaxy for some time before the government began to resent the Legion. When Lightning Lad got ill, she resigned from the Legion seeing it being an entity she was no longer familiar with. She and Lightning Lad (Garth) would start a farm on a distant planet that turned out to be quite successful. They would help the galaxy in a new way, by growing enough food to help the hungry. The Legion would call in from time to time asking for Imra to rejoin, she had found a new life with her husband and ever growing family on their farm.
The events of Zero Hour would rewrite some parts of Imra and the Legion’s history. Here she and her fellow founders had a love triangle (oh yaaaay) and Imra was left comatose after a battle. Being left in a child-like state, it would be Garth who’d help get her back to her original mindset.
She’d take on the role of leading the Legion again soon enough. This time getting lost in space with many teammates and unnerving them when she’d use her telepathy to get them to do things to help them get back home. Garth would die on this adventure and the entire team was unstable in their teamwork. The villain Universo would use this to trap Imra in a false reality where things were better for her and her friends, Garth was still alive. When she realized what was being done to her, she locked Universo in an illusion when she was broken free. She would find a resurrected Garth in a crystal body and the two would try to reconcile what they’d lost.
Another reboot would occur and now Imra could not speak due to the evolution of the Titanians that made them strictly telepathic. She was also emotionally distant from others. This was to keep her insecurities in check. She would date Garth but then have an affair with Ultra Boy. This series existed.
There you have it folks! Saturn Girl and the whole cast of the Legion of Superheroes have some of the best names in comics. They also have such strange powers after a while you gotta love them. See you next time!
Suggested Reading
Adventure Comics #247
Legion of Super-Heroes
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
