Valor
| This article is about the Glorithverse Legionnaire. For the Reboot Legionnaire known as Valor in the 20th century, see M'Onel. For other versions of the character, see Lar Gand. |
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Valor is more than just a Legionnaire. He was the inspiration for the Legion's existence (specifically created by Glorith of Baaldur for that purpose). Without him, many of the Legionnaires might never have been born.
Biography
In the late twentieth century, the Dominators led an alliance of planetary armies against Earth, and along with them went six observers from Daxam, a planet which orbited a red sun. The Daxamites discovered on this trip to Earth that yellow sun radiation gave them powers of super strength, super speed, invulnerability, heightened senses, heat vision and flight. When the Dominator ship they were on was attacked by Earth's heroes, they ventured out to encounter Superman, and discovered a fatal allergy to lead, which is absent on their home planet. When Superman saved their lives by removing them from Earth's lead-laden atmosphere, they discovered the most important thing: who their true friends were. One of the Daxamites sacrificed his life to go back to the aliens' base on Earth and send a signal to Daxam to support Earth in the struggle. This man was Kel Gand.
The dead man's teenaged son, Lar, had always been interested in space exploration, but his father's act now inspired him specifically toward upholding galactic peace. To this end, he joined the L.E.G.I.O.N., whose leader, Vril Dox, concocted a serum to protect him from the effects of lead, and even allowed him to use his powers under a red sun. However, his disastrous performance on his first mission and his altruistic personality, which made him a poor follower of Dox's sometimes Machiavellian orders, led Dox to fire him. He went to Earth, the planet for which his father sacrificed his life, and acquired the name Valor in a super-hero career lasting several years. He then took to space once again.
It was during this period of his life that he became a legend. He happened upon a mysterious stranger (actually a time-travelling Ultra Boy on his Legion tryout mission) being attacked by a Dominator ship. The two of them beat the Dominators back, and discovered the reason for the attack into which the stranger stumbled: another Dominator, who opposed the high caste's plan for a second invasion of Earth. The stranger disappeared, but Valor resolved that an incident like the one that killed his father would never happen again. He flew to Elia, the Dominion homeworld, and tried a frontal assault to free Earthmen being held prisoner. But then he discovered that in addition to the hostages, there were experimental subjects in "mutation camps"...who he didn't know how to free from the machines that held them without threatening their lives. He changed tactics and contacted the Dominion underground, eventually helping them depose the tyrranical higher castes and free all the prisoners. While some of the prisoners wanted to go home, many were mutagenically altered, and thought they'd feel out of place on Earth. In addition, there was still the potential for reprisals against Earth by disgruntled Dominators. To solve both of these problems, Valor suggested that each group of prisoners with like powers populate one of several habitable worlds located strategically between Earth and the Dominion, to act as sentinels on Earth's behalf. The suggestion was accepted, and to this day, Braal, Zwen, Tharr and many others are known as the "Gandian worlds."
This spread Valor's fame far and wide, to the extent that three teenagers from the thirtieth century -- Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy came back in time to invite him to join the Legion of Super-Heroes, of which they were members. He accepted, and for a few months was visited periodically by Legionnaires who would take him to the future for an adventure. But then he was visited by someone else from the thirtieth century. This was Glorith of Baaldur, who seduced him and then tried to get him to join her in conquest. He refused, and in her fury, she imprisoned him in what he came to call the "Twilight Dimension," better known to residents of the thirtieth century as the Bgztl Buffer Zone. He remained there for almost one thousand years, able to see and hear everything that happened in the real world, but unable to affect anything. One thousand years of loneliness, of pure torture. Only his strong psyche was able to withstand it.
Then he got his lucky break. While passing from Earth to Bgztl, Legionnaire Phantom Girl spotted him, totally by chance. She notified the Legion, which searched for a way to free him of his confinement, and to protect him from the effects of lead (there was a temporary serum available, but the Legion was looking for a permanent one). The Legion discovered a way to free him, and did so temporarily when they were attacked by a robot from the past which knew the weaknesses of every current Legionnaire, but had to return him when the serum wore off. Finally, Brainiac 5 came up with a viable formula, and freed him secretly, to test the serum and play a prank on the other Legionnaires, when he applied to the Legion as "Marvel Lad." When the arrogant "Marvel Lad" was grudgingly accepted to the Legion, he pulled off his mask, revealing the secret. The Legion held a press conference to announce Valor's new thirtieth-century residency, and it was attended by many people who wished to treat him as a diety. He humbly declined, stressing that he was only a man, and they should look elsewhere for spiritual salvation. This only endeared him more to the public, and he quickly became the most popular Legionnaire.
Valor served well as a Legionnaire, and developed a romantic relationship with fellow Legionnaire Shadow Lass. But then disaster hit. Dream Girl foresaw his death, and, despite the Legion's attempts to keep a lid on it, the prediction was widely publicized. This attracted the notice of Eltro Gand, a descendant of Valor's brother, who secretly replaced him, and left him bound on an asteroid. When the predicted date of death hit, and Eltro still lived, he realized that his plan to force a different interpretation of the vision failed. He and the Legion found Valor near death -- they thought dead -- on that asteroid. Eltro, in his grief, flew to Legion headquarters and used the machine that restored Lightning Lad from death to revive Valor with his own life-force.
But Valor was not yet dead. And the machine did not work like the Legion thought it did. The machine actually transferred the donor's soul into the dead body...a fact unknown to the Legion, since Proty I, who revived Lightning Lad, kept his identity a secret...and Valor's memories were too much for Eltro's weak psyche to handle. This resulted in a chronically insecure Valor (although his judgement was still respected enough to get him voted Legion leader twice), who had a tendency toward depression, and this would lead to madness when the subject of the Twilight Dimension was broached. The cause of the weakness wasn't discovered until Valor was critically injured by Glorith in the conspiracy to avenge Daxam's destruction. He wasn't expected to survive, but the injury, which was too much for the psyche of Eltro Gand to handle, put Lar Gand's suppressed mind back in charge. With his mental stamina and the support of Shadow Lass, he rallied his way back to health, and resigned from the Legion to explore the far reaches of space with Shady, now his wife. He has helped the Legion on many occasions since, and was instrumental in the liberation of Earth from the Dominators.
Later, he witnessed some odd time-changes, which included the restoration of Daxam's population and Dev-Em's sanity. He, Shady and Dev-Em met up with the Legionnaires on Weber's World to consult with them about it...and possibly helped Jo Nah in his quest to find Phantom Girl, who has been revealed to be not dead, but lost in time.
But they couldn't stay long. R.J. Brande, the Legion's financier, discovered that New Earth was unstable, and needed their help bringing the Earth from Superboy's pocket dimension to the real universe. They did so, but Zero Hour then hit, causing them to disappear. However, Valor and Shady escaped that fate by concentrating on their love for one another, using it as an anchor to stay real. The time problems affected him, though, and his mind began to "remember" a whole series of personal histories that never happened. He and Shady came to the Legion's rescue in their war against Glorith and Mordru. But during that fight, Shady was too badly injured to hang on further, and she disappeared. Valor, his job done, followed her.
SW6
The Valor of Batch SW6 never had the near-death experience, and his mind remained as strong as ever. He also never met Shadow Lass, so was romantically unattatched despite the crush which Duo Damsel nursed on him. He was sent back in time to figure out the real story behind Batch SW6's existence, but his departure was followed by an explosion, and he was lost to the thirtieth century.
Somehow, he was transported to the late twentieth century, to watch his younger self die at Glorith's hands...and for the sake of the time-stream's stability, consented to re-live the life he remembered, where he would be "patched" into that position by the time-travelling Linear Men. How he could exist when he "died" in the twentieth century is a paradox which increased the turmoil in time leading to Zero Hour. But in the increasingly-unstable timeline, he rapidly attempted to free Dominion captives and spent time in the twilight dimension, and he who grew up to become the Legionnaire. His personal history, though, became somewhat muddled, and not all incidents in his past were exactly the same as what he remembered before Glorith interfered.
Powers and abilities
Great super-strength, the ability to fly unaided, to move in space without breathing apparatus and at superluminal speed, heat vision, telescopic vision and super-hearing.
He also has considerable knowledge gleaned from his thousand-year watch.
