THE RAY

 

Real-world Perspective

 

 

You’d be forgiven if you thought the Ray, like DC’s Dr. Light, was purely light-based in his powers, but the Ray actually used quite a few electromagnetic powers you’d expect to see from Magneto or Electro during his brief career. He could stop the motors of fighter planes with “magneto beams” (and given that he was superhero during WW2, he didn’t much care about the Japanese airmen plummeting to their doom), pick up and throw goons with magnetic rays (coin toss on whether or not these were “magneto beams”), destroy fortified beachheads with “electric cocktails,” burn through mines with heat rays, and once picked up and hurled a man into oblivion, explicitly into oblivion, by tossing him into a wad of mysterious energy.

 

But the Ray using electromagnetic powers honestly isn’t much of a stretch. Light is just the result of an electron moving down an orbit. If you can toss out light beams, it’s because you can make an electron move, and once you can make an electron move, you aren’t fare from tossing electric bolts. Really, Dr. Light should return her PhD. Imagine getting your powerset mogged by a reporter!

 

The Ray was largely a retread of Quality’s earlier Neon the Unknown. Like the Ray, Neon had a vast array of electromagnetic powers at his disposal, he even did the Ray’s characteristic “travel on a beam of light” trick in his first appearance, but the Ray was thematically more focused than Neon. The Ray was on-brand with his costume, a golden suit with a head-fin made him look like an art deco Apollo, and while he would sometimes throw out “magneto beams” or ‘waves of strange energy,” he typically stuck to fighting with light. The Ray also had a sidekick, a little orphan named Bud, who he picked up in his 7th appearance.

 

But though the Ray was likely an attempt to make a better Neon, he would have a similar lack of success. Neon would make 16 appearances before getting canned, the Ray only 20. On the whole, I found Neon to be the more fun read, and Neon wasn’t all that good to begin with. Neon wasn’t shy about throwing out his weirdo beams, but the Ray was oddly reticent with his powers as well as more inconsistent. It was clear from the beginning what Neon could do–anything he wanted. He was a hero in the Stardust/Specter/Miss America vein where his appeal was watching him play god against helpless villains. But the Ray sometimes needed a source of light to work his powers and other times he could just create light at will. Sometimes he needed there to be a ray of light for him to fly on, other times he just flew. But that being said, whoever they got to do the art for the Ray (credited only as “E. Lectron”) was pretty good. The Ray had some of the best hand-to-hand fight scenes in Quality’s library. They were very dynamic. Limbs would break the panels and you could feel the energy in the Ray’s contrapposto. But they shouldn’t have put E. Lectron on a ray-blasting character, they should have put him on a two-fisted type like Manhunter.

 

The Ray’s 20 appearances are mostly a ho-hum affair. In Smash Comics 14, reporter Happy Terrill (yes, that’s his name, and there’s no indication in the old comics that it’s supposed to be a diminutive of something like Harold. His name is simply Happy) accompanies a scientist on an upper-atmospheric adventure and gets hit with cosmic radiation, meaning that the Ray beat the Fantastic Four to their origin by decades. This cosmic storm, however, would be retconned in Smash 15 into a “lightning bolt.” His origin, which you can see in the above pic, was also strange in that it seemed to imply that Happy Terrill didn’t survive the cosmic storm, that the Ray was some sort of being born from his demise. The Ray “rose from” Happy, as if he was a new being. Of course, it would be clarified in the following issue that the Ray and Happy Terrill was one and the same, but the suggestion that the Ray was Happy’s ghost, subtle body, or clone was very interesting to me, and I expanded on that idea with my own take on the Ray in Power of Stardust.

 

Smash 15 features a bizarre ending in which the Ray becomes a giant and repairs a city with his “strange forces” (they had that right). Never again would the Ray turn into a giant or repair a city with strange forces.

 

In Smash 16, the Ray fights Bela Jat, his first supervillain and a typical example of the evil Indian wizard archetype. They were everywhere in the golden age. If a character was a mystic character, it was a certainty they would fight at least one of them. Bela Jat has the power to turn himself into ectoplasm, but don’t let that mislead you into thinking their confrontation was interesting. In Smash 17, the Ray fights another golden age archetype–the Pied Piper. For some reason, musical supervillains, often based on the Pied Piper if not outright called the Pied Piper, were common in the golden age.

 

In Smash 18, the Ray demonstrates another one-off power, the power to “observe actions from far away.” Presumably, this had to do with the Ray using his control over light to dramatically increase what he can observe. Imagine if you could touch the beam of a flashlight and know instantly what’s going on at the other end. But this power, like the Ray’s “strange forces,” wouldn’t be seen again.

 

In Smash 19, the Ray uses a handheld “Magni-Ray” and camera to lift fingerprints too dull to be taken by conventional methods. The idea of the Ray using technological gadgets to augment his powers is cool, but this would be the only time the Ray would use such a gadget, though he would make use of one more light-themed gadget before his run was over. There’s also an interesting scene where the Ray and a police officer cross over to an island prison via a bridge made out of a beam of light. Shades of The Killing Joke? Maybe Alan Moore read Smash Comics. He was a pretty big comics buff.

 

Before Smash 19, the Ray would sometimes go without his head-fin. It wasn’t too uncommon for golden age characters to change their looks early on in their career. Just think about Superman and Batman and how their looks would change within a year of their first appearances. But come Smash 19, the head-fin was set in stone. It was for the best. The fin goes a long way to making the Ray stand out from the crowd. It’s such a unique look that Timely once had a hero named the Fin after his head-fin.

 

In Smash 21, the Ray would encounter his arch-foe, your standard half-mad U-boat captain named Captain Blue (it should have been Kapitan Blau) whose henchmen looked eerily like Man-at-Arms from Masters of the Universe. Captain Blue would become the Ray’s arch-foe more or less by default. He was the only member of the Ray’s limited rouges gallery who appeared twice (though the second time in Smash 22 was entirely a dream sequence) and he was the villain the Ray fought when he acquired his sidekick, a young orphan named Bud.

 

Bud and Happy. The guy with the nickname for a name would take a sidekick with a nickname for a name, wouldn’t he?

 

Bud was typical of sidekicks of the time. He was plucky, resourceful, and rescued the Ray about as often as the Ray rescued him. In Smash 23, the Ray gives Bud a ring that shoots a beam of  light which can not only blind bad guys but summon the Ray. It was typical of the time for heroes to hand out rings to their followers, and not just in the comics. The Shadow gave away a ring with compliments of his radio show’s sponsor, Blue Coal, and if you joined Superman’s fan-club, the Supermen of America, you’d get a nifty Superman ring with your membership certificate. The Ray was following a well-established trend, though his ring never made the jump to real-life.

 

Two common plots of golden age comics are the circus adventure and the steam boat adventure. Before television, circuses were big entertainment draws, so it was only natural they made a lot of appearances in comics, and while the prevailing deep South stereotype of today is the inbred cannibal mutant (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, Deliverance) back in the 40’s the stereotype was either smooth riverboat gamblers or genteel steamboat captains. While these plots were common, it was uncommon to see them smashed together, as was the case with the Ray’s adventure in Smash 24, where the action starts in a circus and ends on a steamboat.

 

Smash 27 has what’s perhaps the best Ray story. In it, the Ray investigates Nazi saboteurs taking out American VIP’s with a secret tank armed with a disintegrator ray. The Ray had a cool underground battle with a Nazi drilling machine and, of course, the disintegrator tank. If you only read one Ray story, read this one, it’s got cool machines and cool action. From Smash 27 onward, the Ray would increasingly ramp up operations against the Axis. If you’re into superhero-vs-soldier action, then start reading at Smash 27 and keep going. And keep and eye out for Smash 33 when you do so. The Ray takes down an entire squadron of fighters by blinding them in that one and also takes down an entire fortified beachhead, good action.

 

Overall, the Ray was a flash-in-the-pan, but his brief run provides a nice digestible taste of the golden age for those interested in experiencing it. It features quite a few of the cliches–sidekicks, inconsistent powersets, superhero-on-soldier violence, and two-fisted action. I don’t recommend the Ray for first time readers of the golden age, its overall very dull, but if the golden age is something you’re interested in, then the Ray is a time capsule of the period, warts and all.

 

The Eternal Universe History

 

 

In 1940, reporter Happy Terrill was invited to take part in Professor Styne’s scientific investigation of the upper-atmosphere in a region known as the thermosphere. When a cosmic storm broke, Happy was struck by strange energies which transformed him into a superhuman with the ability to generate and control the electromagnetic spectrum. Specifically, his powers were based in moving electrons in their orbits, an act which generated light in its most basic form.

 

Happy found that he magnetize objects, project energy, generate beams of destructive force, render light solid, sense the presence of light and teleport to it (he would later discover that he could pull this trick through a photonic variation of quantum tunneling), observe objects within miles so long as light fell upon them, fly through the air, and various other strange and wonderful powers.

Happy was slightly afraid of his powers, at first. He was, by nature, timid, and he feared what would happen if he ever pushed the limits of his powers. When it came to fighting, he copied what other superheroes did, namely punching bad guys. Nowadays, he hardly throws a punch, and defeats his opponents by blasting at them from a distance, but back in 1940, he would punch often, blast rarely. It took Happy some time to figure out all that he could do. At first, he didn’t think he could fly on his own power, because he had never attempted to do so, and had to “ride” on beams of light to get around. But Happy would gradually uncover the breadth of his abilities, even augmenting them with gadgets like his magni-ray, which could reveal what objects looked like in the past by “rewinding” light like a record. Happy was no super genius, but he learned all he could about electromagnetism, and applied what he learned to better himself.

 

Calling himself the Ray, Happy was empowered just in time to fight the Axis, which had been granted near-infinite resources by the necromancer Master Man, who used the Axis as a tool to claim the world for his master, the Dark One.

 

The Ray would fight the Axis independently and alongside other heroes. He joined the assault superteam codenamed Smash, which included himself, Wildfire, Magno, Neon the Unknown, and the Human Bomb. He became best friends with Magno, who was nearly as soft spoken and lost as the Ray himself among so many gung-ho types, and dated Wildfire, but their romance would be a short one. He was a man of letters, an introverted intellectual more comfortable relaying his thoughts through a letter than face-to-face, and she was as wild and carefree as her namesake. He would lose her to Neon, who was a career soldier of the French Foreign Legion before he drank a pool that gave him Neonic powers. On his own, the Ray would encounter and defeat Bela Jat, one of Master Man’s disciples, and the mad U-boat commander Kapitan Blau. It was while fighting Kapitan Blau that the Ray met a war oprhan named Bud who he would adopt as his son

 

After Master Man and the Axis were defeated in 1945, the various superteams disbanded, though USA (Uncle Sam’s Army) formed as an informal association of superheroes, essentially Uncle Sam’s list of useful helpers to be called upon as needed.  The Ray was recruited by the FBI, who wished to make use of his ability to observe events far beyond his visual range to spy on communist forces. While a member of the FBI, he met their top agent, Plastic Man, as well as the Phantom Lady. Always luckless in love, and always attracted to tempestuous women, he attempted a relationship with Phantom Lady, only to be shot down. In 1948, he would leave the FBI after higher-ups tried to convince him to use his powers to spy on American civilians.

 

In 1950, the CIA and FBI merged into the NBI (National Bureau of Investigations). The NBI was a corrupt organization and ran the country from the shadows beneath the notice of the superheroes. Fearful that superhumans would upend all centralized governments, they began to plot a way to cull the superhuman population while growing their own power. They expanded the United States G Project, a superagent program that produced the superhero G-2, and turned it into a small army of brainwashed assassins and saboteurs, many of whom were once superheroes or supervillains.

 

1955 was a highly eventful year. Due to the corruption of the NBI, spirits of Freedom such as Uncle Sam, USA, and Miss America found themselves called away by the spirit of Freedom to less oppressive worlds beyond the stars. The public panicked with their departure, as the three were some of the strongest superhumans on the planet and were viewed as guarantors of American safety against the USSR. The NBI seized upon this fear and used it as a pretense to seize more and more power. Superhumans were forced to register with the NBI as agents. Those that did not were hunted down by those that did as subversives. The Ray was one such hunted man, and spent most of 1955 hiding in the thermosphere where he took scientific readings for old associates of Professor Styne

 

Later on in 1955, the NBI deployed the G Project to assassinate several American superheroes under the cover of Communist agents with the aim of spurring the superhero community into invading the USSR. Victims included the Destroying Devil, the Raven, and the Spider Witch Various superheroes within the intelligence community were also targeted out of fear that they would uncover the NBI”s corruption. G-2 was targeted, but managed to elude his assassins. Black X was killed, but not before killing G-5 and G-7. His ghost would go on to protect G-2 from further assassination attempts.

 

The Ray was the target of an assassination. NBI agents held a grudge over him leaving the FBI and wanted to snuff him out. An antimatter missile was fired at him while the Ray was he was up in the thermosphere. The Ray was blown apart, but within seconds he rebuilt his body from out of light itself. That was when he realized that he wasn’t like Magno, that he wasn’t simply a man that controlled energy, he was a man that was energy. He was one of his world’s immortals, like Plastic Man and Wildfire. After learning of his immortality, he quit trying to pursue romantic relationships, feeling that it would be unfair to marry a woman he would outlive.

 

When NBI’s various false flag murders failed to get America’s superheroes to invade the USSR (and thereby shift blame for the cost of the war to the superhumans instead of the federal government), the NBI deployed nuclear weapons against Wonder Boy. Wonder Boy would survive, but San Francisco would not.

 

Believing that the USSR had deployed atomic weapons against America and convinced by a NBI report that they intended to do so again, several superheroes invaded the USSR, including the Ray, in 1956. The United States would then use the superhero invasion as a pretense for formally declaring war against the USSR.

 

The atomic war of 1956 was bloody, but brief. the Ray had a peaceful, constructive role in the conflict in contrast to his role in WW2. He and his friends Magno and Neon combined their powers to not only smother the explosions of nuclear weapons but purge environments that were already hit of radiation. Because of their actions, countless lives were saved.

 

Bud, now 19, joined the war effort as a member of the prestigious Blackhawks, a mercenary group that fought on the side of the Allies during WW2. He would become an ace fighter pilot, but ever concerned for his young ward’s safety, the Ray would join the Blackhawks after the war started to wind down under the pretense of being an engineering consultant, but really it was to keep an eye on Bud. This would lead to a falling out between the two, as Bud hated being watched over.

 

When the war ended in 1957, the NBI turned on the very heroes that helped them win the conflict and rescended the amnesty they promised them. The Ray found himself once again a hunted man. But G-2 rallied him and other superheroes under the banner of truth, and together, they exposed the NBI before the American public. The NBI would be dismantled and rebuilt under the leadership of FBI agent Eel O’Brian, Plastic Man.

 

In 1968, Master Man, disguised as the philosopher Socrates, led an army of ghosts assembled from various afterlives in an invasion of the Earth. His ghost army believed that they would become the benevolent rulers of the mankind and guide mankind as parents rear children. They believed that mankind would not survive another atomic war and that the only way to prevent another atomic war was by possessing every single man, woman, and child on the planet so that they could act as “obligate consciences.” This all was, of course, mere pretense for Master Man to claim the Earth for his the Dark One. The Ray participated in the war as a spy by using his powers to turn himself into pure light. In such a form, he passed as a ghost, and was able to infiltrate the ranks of Master Man’s army.

 

In 1977, Vitons from the year 3000 traveled back in time to abduct Neon. These Vitons were descendants of the Vril-Ya, a race which left the Earth before mankind evolved, leaving behind a subterranean offshoot and various springs of power, one of which served as the power source for Neon. By the year 3000, all Neonic power was concentrated within Neon, leaving the Vitons without any of their own. In abducting Neon, they sought to use him as a power source to restore their race to their lost glory. The Ray would be among the superheroes to chase the Vitons across time and space to rescue Neon. During the chase, the Ray met himself from the year 3000 and found that he had become a godlike being responsible for the creation of several galaxies.

 

During the Viton conflict, Magno would sacrifice himself to disable a Viton starcastle. As one of his closest friends, the Ray was a pallbearer at his funeral. Magno’s mantle would be taken up by his sidekick Davey.

 

In 1985, cosmic upheaval in a distant multiverse echoed within the multiverse of the Eternal Universe. Taking advantage of the chaos, two upstart spirits in the Lands of the Gods named Palamabron and Rintrah stole the Pyros Heart, the source of Wildfire’s patron King Fire’s power. In an effort to restore cosmic order, the gods summoned the Earth’s energy powered heroes, the Ray, Wildfire, the second Magno, and Neon, to use their sensitivity to sources of energy to track down and apprehend Palambron and Rintrah. As their search took them across the multiverse, the gods also summoned summoned energy powered heroes from other Earths to assist the team including a man whose best friend dressed like a cat, a mortal with the power of the Norse god Thor, a man actually named Ray, the Lightning family, and an alternate version of Magno. The Ray was instrumental in resolving the theft. Ever a man of words, he was able to negotiate the peaceful return of the Pyros Heart in exchange for clemency on behalf of Rintrah and Palambron. The two spirits only wanted the Pyros Heart to empower the inhabitants of a cold and desolate universe, and the the gathered heroes offered up their own powers in exchange for the Pyros Heart. Though separately, the heroes were relatively weak compared to the infinite power of the Pyros Heart, together, they augmented their energy output to the point that they could power a universe and still have enough left over to take home–along with a little extra. The Ray returned to Earth strengthened by his experience. Vastly more powerful than he had ever been, he was now able to match the likes of Uncle Sam and Merlin.

 

In 1999, Bud passed away from old age. Never did the Ray ever feel so old. Feeling that he was a man out of time, he left for the stars, but not before handing the NBI a way to contact him if there ever was a need–a quantum based photo-pulser which would send a faster-than-light signal across the universe. In 2020, the pulser was activated to call the Ray back to Earth so that he could subdue and mentor the berserk descendent of Magno, Jack Dalton. He continues to mentor Jack, seeing him as another Bud.

 

 

Sentinels of the Multiverse Cards

 

Player Cards

 

 

Power: Glowing Brighter

 

Reveal the top card of your deck. If it’s an ongoing, put it in play. If it’s a one-shot, put it under this card.

 

Defeat: To the acid baths!

 

–One player may play a card from his or her trash.

–One player may play a card.

–Environment cards are not drawn this turn.

 

 

Variant: Bud, Children’s Crusade Universe

 

Unlock conditions: Win a game with Bud’s Ring in play.

 

Power: Youthful Energy

 

Reveal and play the top card of your deck. Deal a target 1 radiant damage.

 

In the Children’s Crusade universe, superpowers only occur in the young, and the children that would have been sidekicks to adult superheroes in other universes are forced into the roles of their mentors. Without superhero mentors, these superpowered children end up manipulated by the war department who fear their power. The Children’s Crusade universe is largely a tragic universe. The war department uses the superkids they can psychologically beat into shape and discard those they cannot through “accidents.”

 

Bud, who had the photoelectric powers of the Ray, was directed by the war department to illuminate “enemy bases” so that bombers could perform nighttime raids. When he learned that he had illuminated civilian targets, his trust in adults shattered. He fled to outer space, though he never went  too far from Earth as he feared becoming lost in space forever. Decades later, during the climax of the Children’s Crusade story, he is summoned to Earth by an enormous flare to save the world from being destroyed as a consequence of two of his old friends fighting each other.

 

Defeat: Disillusioned Departure

 

–Destroy an ongoing or environment card.

–Reveal the top three cards of the environment deck. Put two on the bottom of the deck and place the third on top.

–Deal a target 3 radiant damage.

 

On-Goings

 

Earthbound Brawling

 

 

Whenever the Ray deals radiant damage, deal a target 1 melee damage.

 

It took awhile for me to learn to keep my distance. Brawling was how the older superheroes dealt with the baddies and being young and nervous I just followed what they did.

 

Sight of Light

 

 

Limited

 

At the beginning of your turn, reveal and replace the top card of each deck.

 

POWER: Reveal the top two cards of one deck. Replace them in any order.

 

What can I see? Everywhere. Everything. Light is just the movement of electrons, it doesn’t have to be visible. It is a scientific fact that there is light in darkness.

 

Aural Control

 

 

Limited

 

Increase radiant, electric, and energy damage to villain targets by 1. Decrease radiant, electric, and energy damage to hero targets by 1.

 

You may use another power during your turn.

 

The world is never empty for me, never quiet. I can look at the smallest speck of nothing and hear a thunderstorm of electron motion. I am blessed. Even when I am alone, I am blessed.

 

Electromagnetic Absorption 

 

 

Limited

 

Whenever the Ray is dealt radiant, electric, or energy damage, prevent that damage and heal Ray equal to the damage prevented.

 

You may use another power during your turn.

 

POWER: You may redirect damage to the Ray until the beginning of your next turn.

 

I think it was only around 1955 that I figured out I didn’t need to eat anymore. I wouldn’t figure out what that meant until the 70’s.

 

Reconstructive Energies

 

 

At the end of your turn, one player may choose one equipment from their trash and put it into play.

 

POWER: One player may play one card from their trash.

 

I didn’t dare use my powers on men like I did on objects. With buildings, you can melt them down and build them back up like clay. It’s fine It’s fixed. You can’t do that with a body.

 

Bursting Radiance

 

 

At the end of your turn, deal all villain targets 1 radiant damage.

 

POWER: Deal all targets 1 radiant damage.

 

Don’t even draw on me. If you can see me, I can burn you.

 

Emerge From Light 

 

 

Whenever radiant damage is dealt, deal a target 1 radiant damage.

 

I’m not quite sure where I go when I’m between where I left and the light source. I don’t think its a dark place, though, wherever it might be.

 

Equipment

 

Bud’s Ring

 

 

2 Health

 

When Bud’s Ring is played, place it in another player’s play area. That player is now the Ray’s buddy. At the end of that player’s turn, they deal 1 radiant damage to a target.

 

POWER: The Ray can use a power or play a card.

 

He was a good kid. He grew up to be a great man. I still miss him.

 

Magni-Ray

 

 

Whenever a player becomes the target of radiant damage, they may draw a card.

 

I’m no Professor Styne, but I figured out a few things. My magni-ray combines with my natural power to rewind time, in a sense. It reveals what light has seen.

 

One-Shots

 

Photonic Power

 

 

Destroy an ongoing or device. If a card is destroyed this way, deal a target 3 projectile damage.

 

The cosmic radiation changed me. I could do more than shoot light out of my hands, but I had no way of knowing how extreme the changes were back in 1940.

 

Electric Cocktail

 

 

Deal 1 target 2 radiant damage. Deal 1 target 2 electric damage. Deal 1 target 2 energy damage.

 

Did you know I actually gave a few Germans cancer? I knew so little about what I could do back then. I just wished for things to break and the light broke them. I was so envious of Wildfire. Fire was a pet to her. Light was a puzzle box to me.

 

Magneto Beam

 

 

Deal a target 2 electrical damage. All damage dealt to that target is increased by 1 and is irreducible until the start of your next turn.

 

Magno taught me this trick. He told me, if you can stop an electron from moving, then stopping any motion is just a matter of repeating that feat enough times.

 

Blinding Flash

 

 

Deal all non-hero targets 1 radiant damage. Prevent all damage targets dealt damage in this way would deal until the start of your next turn.

 

The zero fighters, of course, worse aviation goggles to protect from sunlight. But I glow brighter than the sun.

 

Shielding Blast

 

 

Deal a target 2 energy damage. Decrease damage dealt to hero targets by 2 until the start of your next turn.

 

They say the Japanese worship a sun goddess named Amaterasu. Ironic.

 

Creative Flash

 

 

Deal 3 targets 1 radiant damage. Play the top card of your deck.

 

As Bud would say, I tend to have bright ideas.

 

Hurl Into Oblivion

 

 

Deal 1 target 1 radiant damage. Then, deal that target X radiant damage where X equals the number of your on-goings.

 

We all killed during the war. Some of us lived long enough to regret it.