WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Superman and the Authority #3, on sale now from DC Comics.
The Man of Steel has been building a whole new team in Superman and the Authority. Assembling heroes and villains alike to take on the injustices he failed to throughout his long and storied career, before his son took over as Superman. Among the Authority's newest members are new interpretations of some familiar characters. With one of these characters having a multiverse connection, Earth-0 may now have its own version of a very unique Flash straight from the multiverse, specifically the Flash of the Tangent Universe.
With Enchantress finally on the team, the Man of Steel tasks her and Apollo with tracking down their next recruit, Lightray, in Superman and the Authority #3 by Grant Morrison, Mikel Janín, Travel Foreman, Jordie Bellaire, Alex Sinclair and Steve Wands.
Superman asks his two new teammates to go after a woman named Lia Nelson. A quick internet search leaves Enchantress unimpressed, which leads Midnighter to ask why they need her. Seeing the heavy-hitters the Man of Steel has recruited thus far, who seem like more than enough on their own sometimes, it comes as a good question. Superman explains that Lia is connected to the "bigger picture" he previously mentioned. Though we don't know an awful lot about who this Lia is, we know about who the original was.
Created by Dan Jurgens, Todd Dezago and Gary Frank, Lia Nelson hails from DC's Tangent Comics imprint. These comics created a new universe that reimagined DC's characters in completely new and outlandish ways, with the characters' names being the only thing to connect them to what came before. Lia was Tangent's Flash and, instead of being powered by the Speed Force, she was made of and powered by light. Beyond that, she had no secret identity, since the Flash was a celebrity.
Tangent's Lia first became famous because of her parents, the first astronauts to travel to Jupiter. In Superman and the Authority #3 however, her origins are altered somewhat. Instead of Jupiter, it's Mars. A flashback to 2001 on a base on Mars' surface, retells the events of Lia's birth, which is seemingly the source of her powers.
Her parents and her powers rocketed her to celebrity status both here and in the Tangent Universe. Instead of becoming the Flash on Earth-0 though, she instead takes on the name Lightray, a name also held by one of the New Gods of New Genesis. The publicity piece shown in this issue suggests that Lia is also from a parallel world and possesses all the powers of the rainbow, like her Tangent self -- but there are doubts as to whether they're one and the same. For one, her powers in action look more like regular speedsters than light-based travel.
As the issue shows the real Lia Nelson, the character is completely turned on her head. Tangent's Flash was a happy-go-lucky girl who rarely faced anything truly life-threatening. Her bright demeanor lightened the lives of all those on Tangent's Earth and, overall, she looked like she enjoyed her life. Superman and the Authority's Lia Nelson on the other hand definitely does not.
The happy person who came before is completely absent here, replaced by someone depressed, burdened by the responsibility of her celebrity status and staying positive in an altogether depressing world. She's even shown contemplating taking her own life. Though this may be the work of Eclipso, who haunts her Hollywood home, some of her concerns must come from within.
Though it's still too early to tell, there are a lot of similarities between Tangent's Lia Nelson and the one seen here. It's a realist reimagining of a quirky lighthearted character for today's troubled world. However, the question of who exactly she is remains up in the air, although the strange circumstances of her Earth-0 birth could suggest she may very well be another version of Tangent's Flash.