| Living Lightning | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Avengers West Coast #63 (October, 1990) |
| Created by | Dann Thomas (co-writer) Roy Thomas (co-writer) Paul Ryan (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Miguel Santos |
| Team affiliations | Pacific Overlords West Coast Avengers Secret Avengers (Civil War) TheRangers |
| Notable aliases | Lightning, Relampago Vivo |
| Abilities | Skilled street fighter Flight at sub-light speeds Electrical manipulation |
Living Lightning (Miguel Santos) is afictional superhero appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. He first appeared inAvengers West Coast #63, published in October, 1990.[1] The character was created by writersDann Thomas andRoy Thomas and artistPaul Ryan.
He started out trying to clear the name of his father, Carlos Santos, by investigating the Legion of the Living Lightning. During his investigations, a machine accidentally gave him the power to not only control lightning but also to turn into its human embodiment. He became a member of theAvengers West Coast and served with them duringOperation: Galactic Storm. During theCivil War he sided withCaptain America who was against super hero registration. At the end of the Civil War, Living Lighting joined the 50 states initiative, becoming a member ofTexas-based super-team, TheRangers that also includeFirebird, Fifty-One,Red Wolf,Shooting Star andTexas Twister.
Thomas spoke on his personal blog on the creation of the character stating,
"I don't know if Miguel Santos, the Living Lightning was the first Hispanic super-hero at Marvel or not; that wasn't the idea when I came up with him, but he was certainly one of the first, at least. Having lived at that time in Los Angeles since mid-1976, I thought it was about time.
The name was taken fromStan Lee (who else?), who way back in the late-60sTALES TO ASTONISH had made up the Legion of the Living Lightning as one of the many "secret empire"-type groups running around in those days, drawn in that case byMarie Severin. Later, when writing THOR, I liked the phrase "living lightning" so much that I had him often refer to himself as the "lord of the living lightning." But eventually, I decided I wanted that name solidly affixed to a super-hero... an electrical echo of theHuman Torch, of course. (Back when I was 10-12, something like that, I had written and drawn a few stories, or at least pages, about a similar hero I called Shockman, or occasionally Shockwave... I drew him, so far as I could, to LOOK like an electric version of the Torch. So this was just reviving that idea 40 or so years later.)
Dann and I worked him out, since, as a Los Angeleno, she had gone to school (and later worked with) numerous Hispanics. And our neighbor across the street was named Santos... so we took the last name from that. Dann spoke a little Spanish, and I had learned a tiny bit when gearing up for a month-long drive through Mexico in 1964... and we decided that, like some folks we'd both run into and read about in THE L.A. TIMES, he would speak mostly English, with some Spanish words tossed in for flavor. That was only one, and perhaps not perfect, way to approach LL's speech pattern, but we did the best we could. If others came up with more "authentic" speech patterns later, fine... that was up to them.
The first story with the Living Lightning (whom I tied in with the Legion of Living Lightning, partly to acknowledge the name's ultimate source) was drawn byPaul Ryan inAVENGERS WEST COAST #63... but, while Paul was a splendid artist, I was unhappy with the way LL looked in that story. I had wanted a real "crackle" to him... his human figure far less "contained" by his electrical aura than, say, the Torch's was by his flame aura. I wanted the electricity to look as if it were constantly seeking to escape the bonds of the human figure, so that as he flew his legs basically disappeared into aMighty-Mouse-like trail of electrical crackle. That look was achieved perfectly with Canadian artist Dave Ross drew him, starting in AVENGERS WEST COAST #74."[2]
Living Lightning first appeared in the story "When Lives the Lightning" inAvengers West Coast #63 (October, 1990), written byDann Thomas andRoy Thomas, and illustrated byPaul Ryan.[3] From 1991 to 1994, he began as an enemy of Avengers West Coast inAvengers West Coast #71–73 then became a member of the team and has made nineteen other appearances in this series with #74–80, #82, #84–90, #92, #96, #100, #102 and two inAvengers West Coast Annual #7–8.
In 1992, as an Avenger, he appeared in other titles of the crossoverOperation: Galactic Storm withThe Avengers #345, #347,Captain America #401,Quasar #33,Thor #445–446 andWonder Man vol.2 #8–9.
During the same year, Miguel Santos played a role in the comic book limited seriesInfinity War with #1–3, 6 and several tie-ins. In 1993, he appeared in the sequel,Infinity Crusade with #1, #3–5 and the tie-inWeb of Spider-Man with #104, #106.
In 1998, Living Lightning appeared inThe Avengers #1–3.[4]
In 2005, he made a brief appearance inGLA #2 written byDan Slott, in which Living Lightning is revealed to begay.
From 2006 to 2008, Miguel Santos played a role in the events ofCivil War. He appeared inCivil War #4–6,The Amazing Spider-Man #537,Civil War: Battle Damage Report #1,Civil War: Front Line #11 andCivil War Chronicles #6. Living Lightning has been identified as one of the 142 registered superheroes who appear on the cover of the comic bookAvengers: The Initiative #1.[5] The character became a member of theRangers and appeared in the issues #2 (July 2007) and #19 (January 2009) of this series.
In 2009, he made two appearances in the seriesAvengers Unconquered with the episodes #4 and #6. This series is a part of Marvel UK's 'Collectors' Edition' line. It is published byPanini Comics and reprints Marvel Comics from the United States.
In 2012, writerChris Yost chose the Texas team the Rangers to come into conflict withHouston's new superheroScarlet Spider in the story "The Second Master" inScarlet Spider #7–9.[6][7] In an interview withComic Book Resources, at a question about the antagonists in the story, Chris Yost answered "You'll also be seeing a well known super-hero group from the American southwest named – wait for it – The Rangers! Texas Twister! Shooting Star! Red Wolf! Living Lightning! Firebird! Even a new hero or two! And spoiler alert – Scarlet Spider will fight them."[8]
Living Lightning was featured as a main character during the 2018 storyline "No Surrender" inAvengers #675-690.
Living Lightning has also been depicted in two alternative universes with "What If the Avengers Lost Operation Galactic Storm?",What If...? #55–56 (1993) and with a brief appearance in "What if the Scarlet Witch Hadn't Acted Alone?",What If? Avengers Disassembled (2006).
The character has entries inThe Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Master Edition #28 (1990), inThe Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Avengers 2005 and also inThe Marvel Encyclopedia (2006).
Miguel Santos was born inEast Los Angeles, California. Miguel's father, Carlos, was a member of an extremist group calledthe Legion of the Living Lightning. In a misguided attempt by the Legion to gain control of theHulk, the group battled him. The Legion was thus destroyed, and Carlos was killed.[9][10]
Hoping to salvage his father's name, high school student Miguel broke into the Legion's headquarters to learn more about their work. While exploring, Miguel unwittingly turned on one of the Legion's machines and was transformed into a being of living energy. Initially, a confused Miguel clashed with theWest Coast Avengers and was apparently killed during the conflict.[11] Later, he turned up alive and was captured by the villain,Doctor Demonicus, and was coerced to join thePacific Overlords.[12] After a brief, unwilling foray into crime, Miguel aided theAvengers West Coast, and then joined the team.[13] During his tenure with the Avengers West Coast, he teamed with heroes such as theFantastic Four,Doctor Strange,Darkhawk, andSpider-Man. He battled villains such asArkon andThundra,[14] the secondHangman, theNight Shift,Satannish,Death Web,[15][16]Professor Power, and theMagus.[17][18] Alongside theAvengers, he participated in theKree/Shi'ar War.[19][20] He eventually decided to become an Avengers reservist while attending college.[21] While he occasionally serves with the team, Miguel gave up active membership to concentrate on his studies.
For a time, Miguel and his fellow Avenger Quasar manned a deep-space monitoring station. Their powers enabled them to travel back and forth to Earth without difficulty. Miguel took advantage of the isolation to study.[22]
TheGreat Lakes Avengers (GLA) invited Miguel Santos in order to recruit him in their team. During the meeting, he turned them down, explaining that he'd attended thinking the team's acronym GLA referred to theGay/Lesbian Alliance. With his explanation, he inadvertently revealed that he was gay to GLA memberFlatman.[23][24]
During theCivil War storyline, Miguel joinedCaptain America's Secret Avengers as one of twenty new members who opposed theSuperhuman Registration Act. He worked with the team out of a series ofsafe houses set up byNick Fury. He was part of the final battle between the two main sides. After Captain America surrendered to the authorities, Living Lightning became an Initiative recruit,[25] joining theTexas Rangers.[26]
During theSecret Invasion storyline, Living Lightning was with the Rangers when they,3-D Man, andAnt-Man III were fighting a Skrull that was posing as Lobo.[27][28][29]
After theDark Reign storyline, Living Lightning was doingprivate security work for the Avengers; notably protecting the family ofAvengers Academy student Striker.[30]
Living Lightning was with the Rangers when they come into conflict withKaine aliasScarlet Spider inHouston,[7][31][32] then they joined forces with him to battle a monster made of pure energy.[33] He has since left the Rangers and was inducted in the FBI, where he goes on several undercover missions.[34]
During theAvengers: No Surrender story arc, Santos was the one responsible for making the Grandmaster back down and surrender the Avengers he had captured as part of the latest game through a daring bluff; by provoking the Grandmaster into a game of poker, Santos subsequently raised the stakes of the game until he reached a point where the stakes were that the loser would have all memory of their accomplishments wiped from the memories of all who knew of them, prompting Grandmaster to fold as he could not bear to lose everything like that whereas Santos accepted that being an Avenger meant doing the right thing because it was the right thing to do rather than because you would be remembered for it.[35]
During his tenure in the West Coast Avengers, Miguel dated women. Later, though, Miguel was approached by members of theGreat Lakes Avengers, who hoped to recruit them for their team. When he heard the team's acronym (GLA), Miguel mistook them for theGay/Lesbian Alliance and inadvertently revealed that he was gay to GLA memberFlatman.[36][37]
WriterDan Slott commented in aninterview about his decision to out Living Lightning: "He's gay. Get over it. Previous girlfriends?Beards. Or relationships that just didn't work—because Miguel hadn't come to terms yet with who he really is. Miguel is a gay superhero and a wonderful role model."[36]
Living Lightning gained superhuman powers when he absorbed energy from an experimental lightning weapon. Living Lightning has the ability to transform his body into electrical plasma, in which form he can fly at sub-light speed, generate electrical power as shocks or bolts, and surround himself with a protective electrical force field. He has the ability to control his body while composed of electrical plasma, at which time his mind exists only in astral form.
In his true form, Living Lightning is just that, a sentient electrical force with no mass. In this form, he can fly, reaching sub-light speeds, withstanding the vacuum of space, and is impervious to most physical and energy attacks. He also possesses the ability to fire and manipulate bursts of electricity and electrical fields of varying intensities in his solid form, however, he must wear a special containment suit to retain a solid form.
Miguel has knowledge of basic street-fighting techniques. He is bilingual in Spanish and English.