Andromeda (DC Comics)
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Laurel Gand, codenamed Andromeda, is a fictional character, a superheroine in the future of the DC Comics universe, and a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. She was initially created as a replacement for Supergirl in post-Crisis Legion continuity, but is very different from her. She was also inspired by elements of Superman's supposed descendant Laurel Kent (who, in post-Crisis, pre-Zero Hour continuity, was revealed to be a Manhunter android).
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[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Pre-Zero Hour
In the Glorithverse continuity, Andromeda essentially replaced Supergirl in continuity. Wherever Kara had made an appearance, now Laurel was there instead. She was erased from history following the Zero Hour reboot.
[edit] Post-Zero Hour Reboot
Laurel Gand spent most of her life in a White Triangle community, being indoctrinated in the "horrors" of interspecies co-operation 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 II, 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.
After the events of Infinite Crisis, Andromeda, (as well as Earth-247, the home of the Post-Zero Hour Legion), was erased from continuity.
[edit] 1001 Years Later
Laurel has yet to make an appearance in the new version of the Legion. Considering that Kara Zor-El, the character Andromeda was created to replace is now back in continuity, it remains to be seen whether or not Laurel Gand will be retconned out of it.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Andromeda in other media
Andromeda appears with Legion of Super-Heroes in Justice League Adventures (the comic book adaptation of the modern Justice League animated series) #28. She is shown as girlfriend of Brainiac 5.
In Superman: The Animated Series, she made a cameo appearance in the episode "New Kids In Town".
Whether or not Andromeda will have a role in the upcoming Legion animated series remains to be seen. Not only is a young Superman a team member in the series, but in one of the final episodes of Justice League Unlimited, Supergirl is shown not only meeting but joining the Legion (though the Legion series may be separate from the DC animated universe that JLU was included in, much like The Batman, especially considering the differences in the Brainiac 5 character).
