DC Database
Register
Advertisement

Laurel Gand, also known as Andromeda, was a Daxamite member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, with all the powers of Superman.

She was introduced to the team during their initial draft but later had to leave due to her conflicting relationship with the White Triangle.

Laurel Gand spent most of her life in a White Triangle community, being indoctrinated in the "horrors" of interspecies cooperation before the Triangle's political clout led her to become the Daxamite representative in the Legion. Away from Daxam's red sun, she gained powers similar to Superman's, but the race-wide hypersensitivity of Daxamites to lead that meant even minuscule amounts could prove fatal even to a powered-up Daxamite, forcing her to wear a transuit at all times. This did not trouble her since it meant she never had to actually touch any non-Daxamites.

Her Triangle-derived beliefs hampered her effectiveness as a Legionnaire, thanks to her reluctance to physically engage with any enemies, but the real problems started after she let several Triangle members go after a mugging, shortly after which they beat and almost killed Triad. Angered more for their defiance of her than for the beating, when she was ordered away to prevent the Composite Man gaining her powers, she flew after them. Immediately, they tore her transuit and directly exposed her to lead, and she barely managed to turn them over to the Science Police before crashing through the walls of Legion HQ.

While Brainiac 5 worked on devising an anti-lead serum, he confronted her about her beliefs, and after discovering the serum Vril Dox, his direct ancestor, had created for Valor and tailoring it to her genetic structure to allow it to work properly on her (much to her surprise, as she had been taught that all members of the same race were identical), he forced her to confront the fact that he wasn't her inferior before giving her the serum. While this was happening, however, Shrinking Violet discovered a White Triangle necklace in her room and connected it to the group which had assaulted Triad and destroyed Trom, telling the rest of the team.

Confined to quarters after an unsuccessful attempt by Cosmic Boy to have her removed from the team, she used her super-senses to see Ambassador Roxxas gloating, but he managed to bully her into giving him the anti-lead serum. Taking it himself and giving it to four other Daxamites, they proceeded to cause mass destruction on Earth. When Andromeda herself confronted Roxxas over what he was doing and had made her do, she was almost defeated when Violet began thrashing around in his head, before coming out and telling Andromeda to take him down. As she pummelled him repeatedly, he destroyed the covering of an "atomic furnace", and both were thought to have died in the resulting inferno (causing Brainiac 5 severe depression). Only Cosmic Boy was told that she had survived and voluntarily exiled herself to Planet Hell.

Later, she was brought out of this exile by Live Wire after Cosmic Boy had told him where she was as part of a way to build up a "Legion Rescue Squad", and she was awed by Valor, himself being another member. However, she declined to rejoin the Legion after the Squad had served its purpose, preferring to head off into deep space.

Although Andromeda was erased from history along with the Legion and her entire future because of the Infinite Crisis,[1] she reappears as a regular member of the Legion during Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds.[2] She appears to be an acting member of the Legion again, alongside Legionnaires who would never have otherwise been chronologically teammates with her, such as the second Kid Quantum.[3]

Powers

  • Daxamite Physiology: Under the effects of a yellow sun, Andromeda possesses powers that are common to all Daxamites.
    • Superhuman Strength: Andromeda is able to lift over 100 tons with minimal effort and when strained is capable of lifting far more than this. The upper limits of her strength have never been revealed, however, given her build it is reasonable to assume that her strength would slightly surpass that of even Supergirl.
    • Superhuman Speed: Laurel also has speed which has only been seen to be surpassed by an individual connected to the Speed Force, meaning that she can easily run many times faster than the speed of sound.
    • Invulnerability: Andromeda is completely invulnerable to any conventional means of injury. While under a yellow sun her body generates a bio-electric aura around her that acts as a sort of "force field". This aura will shield her from any attempts at harming her. Unlike Superman, to Andromeda, Kryptonite is just a glowing green rock. Also unlike Superman, Andromeda is vulnerable to the element lead. Other than lead the only thing capable of causing Andromeda harm is someone as strong or stronger than she is.
    • Flight: Whilst being a member of the Legion affords Andromeda the use of a Flight Ring, she has the ability to fly without the aid of it, at velocity's approaching the speed of light.
    • Arctic Breath: Andromeda is able to super compress air within her lungs and expel it with enough force to send an opponent flying or freeze them where they stand, solely dependent on which action she desires. This also affords Andromeda the ability to hold her breath for slightly over 2 hours.
    • Super-Hearing: Andromeda can hear almost anything while within the atmosphere of a planet. From a cricket's heartbeat in Beijing to a cry for help on the other side of the city, Andromeda's hearing can detect locate and home in on anything she is listening for.
    • Enhanced Vision: Laurel's eyes are capable of allowing her to see across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. In addition, she can micro-focus her vision to see individual strands of DNA or macro-focus it to see over the horizon. She also possesses the ability to see through walls just like Superman's X-Ray Vision and just like Superman's X-Ray vision she is incapable of seeing through lead.
    • Heat Vision: Andromeda can also fire beams of energy from her eyes similar to that of Superman heat-vision. The extent of these beams power hasn't been defined however 12 Daximites were able to reduce the entire surface of the planet Trom to smoldering ash in a matter of minutes, with their combined use of this power.

Weaknesses

  • Vulnerability to Lead: Like all Daxamites, lead is fatally poisonous to Andromeda. Protracted exposure to lead will prove fatal, however, even minimal exposure will make her sick and eventually kill her as well. While lead is not present on her home-world of Daxam, Andromeda had to wear a "trans-suit" when she came to Earth to prevent the naturally occurring lead from poisoning her. This weakness was eventually remedied with a serum developed by Brainiac 5 of the Legion, thus making Andromeda completely invulnerable to anything other than someone as strong as or stronger than her.

Equipment

  • Legion Flight Ring: All Legionnaires were presented with a flight ring that enabled them to defy gravity and sustain movement through the air by aerodynamically generating force.


  • Andromeda is the Post-Zero Hour version of Laurel Gand from Pre-Zero Hour continuity. The character Laurel was originally created to be an analog to Supergirl from Pre-Crisis continuity. While Andromeda doesn't fit that bill exactly, her character is drawn along the same lines. Likewise to both previous incarnations, she has at least some degree of potential romantic entanglement with Brainy.
  • In JSA Classified #2 Power Girl's confronted by Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy, who tells her that she is the grown up Andromeda. Sent back in time by the White Witch, to combat Mordru. And that her amnesia and false origins, a side-effect of time travel. However, this is later revealed to be a lie generated by the Psycho-Pirate.

Related

Footnotes



Legion of Super-Heroes II 07
DC Rebirth Logo

Legion of Super-Heroes member
This character is or was a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes from the 30th/31st Century, in any one of their various continuities. Including but not limited to, Original Legion, the Reboot Legion, Prime Legion and the Post-Rebirth Legion.
This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Legion of Super-Heroes members" category.

Advertisement