Laurel Gand

The Original Laurel Gand (Glorith Reality)

Laurel Gand is a direct descendant of Del Gand, the older brother of the great 20th-century hero Valor (originally Mon-El). Her parents worked on an asteroid on the rim of the Daxam star system, operating one of the electro-towers that defended Daxam from invasion. Laurel lived with them, and was taught how to activate the tower if it ever became necessary.Then, when she was nine years old, the unthinkable happened: Zaryan, the great Khund conqueror, slipped an operative of his own into the Daxamite defense web, and had him admit a Khund force onto Ricklef II, the asteroid inhabited by the Gands. Everyone was slaughtered—except for Laurel. But rather than panic, Laurel slipped into the secondary override room, and re-activated the defenses. The Khund fleet was decimated, and Zaryan humiliated. Laurel became a hero to all of Daxam, and a hated enemy of the Khunds.

After a Khund attempt on her life, Laurel was shipped off to Earth for her own safety, where she would take an anti-lead serum (as lead is poisonous to Daxamites) and she would be in full possession of her Daxamite powers –super-strength, speed, invulnerability, heightened senses, heat vision and flight. She stayed disguised as "Leala Linder" in an orphanage until late 2973, when she was visited by the three female members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Saturn Girl, Phantom Girl and Triad, and invited to a Legion tryout. There she met and fell in love with Brainiac 5, who saved her life after she encountered a vein of lead during her initiation. She and Brainy joined the Legion together, and the two remained romantically linked throughout almost their entire Legion careers. Laurel felt very close to Mon-El when he joined the Legion, but her attatchment to him was more familial than romantic.

Slowly but surely, though, their romance unraveled. Brainiac began feeling pressured to apply his intellect more strongly, at the expense of his emotions. Laurel tried to be understanding, but, as much as she loved him, the neglect became too much. When Daxam's population was killed by Glorith in 2988, both Brainy and Laurel were part of a conspiracy assembled to avenge the deed. Laurel proved to be important on that mission, and it was deemed a success by the conspirators. But it was a failure in another way. When Brainy decided to leave the Legion despite his being acquitted of insubordination charges without even consulting Laurel, she shut him out of her life.

Her love life took a different direction in 2990, when she resigned from the Legion to help fight the encroaching Khund armies. She found companionship in Rond Vidar, the Darkstar of Earth's sector and a long time friend of the Legion. Eventually, this became love, and the two have a daughter, named Lauren after Laurel's late mother. When Rond was captured by Mordru, she tried to rescue him, bringing herself into contact with other members of the re-forming Legion. Laurel joined this team and made her peace with Brainy, with whom she once again dealt with on a daily basis. Her time in the revamped team was short-lived. After going underground, Laurel was instrumental in stopping the Khunds from destroying Weber's World. She took a bomb-blast head-on, and was killed. (#59)

SW6 Andromeda

Laurel Gand's duplicate in the SW6 Legion took the name Andromeda. As a girl, Laurel was still in love with Brainiac 5, and, thanks to a conversation with her older counterpart, hopes to avoid the mistakes that led to that breakup. Right after the funeral of her older counterpart, Andromeda came, at the behest of R. J. Brande to help pull the pocket dimension's Earth into her home dimension, and she made it most of the way... but disappeared due to Zero Hour just as she was finishing.

Notes

There has been fan speculation about whether Laurel Gand ever assumed any codenames. First, there is her origin story from Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 4 #9 (July 1990). In the scene where she is inducted to the Legion, leader Cosmic Boy gives her a bouquet of tiger roses. It's an odd moment that seems to suggest some extra meaning. There are numerous references online to her using the name "Tiger Rose," however, this name never appears in any DC story or text.

Second, when the Legion went "on the run" (Legion vol. 4 #54, 1994), team members all took new aliases —  except Laurel. In that issue, Mysa says to Laurel: "Wait, er… 'Thelma' …" This is not a convincing case for an official new codename, and like the one above, it never appeared again (despite similar online references).

Tom and Mary Bierbaum on Laurel Gand: "Tragedy and loneliness robbed her of a normal adolescence and she's determined to make up for it. She personifies zest for life. She loves being a super-hero and doesn't do anything half-way." —Interlac (2000)

Tom Bierbaum wrote about Laurel's creation:

"We tried to give Laurel an origin that contained elements of the Supergirl history but that were clearly her own. While this seemed like the obvious way to go, we probably would have done ourselves a big favor by just doing a completely new story. Editor Michael Eury and Keith weren't very pleased when our script included countless references to the early Supergirl appearances as reference for the artist. Michael and Keith didn't want the story to look like a juvenile comic of the late '50s/early '60s, nor did Michael relish xeroxing countless panels out of old issues."

Powers

Laruel has the natural abilities of Daxamites under a yellow sun: super-speed, super-strength, laser vision, flight and invulnerability. She could fly interstellar distances. Her top speed was around the range of Earth's escape velocity. She has also demonstrated the ability to fly between star systems and had no requirement for breathing.

Appearances + References