Let There Be Light: The Ray (Raymond Terrill) Appreciation

[FluffySheep]

I've only just got round to reading The Ray's Rebirth. It's really got me intrigued to read more and find out more about him. I still don't fully understand his powers but I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with them. I really enjoyed The Atom's Rebirth issue, and I thought Vixen's was OK, and this was closer to The Atom's in terms of enjoyment for me. Also, it might only be a small thing, but I really liked the lettering used for Ray in this issue too.

[Kit Walker]

I've only just got round to reading The Ray's Rebirth. It's really got me intrigued to read more and find out more about him. I still don't fully understand his powers but I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with them. I really enjoyed The Atom's Rebirth issue, and I thought Vixen's was OK, and this was closer to The Atom's in terms of enjoyment for me. Also, it might only be a small thing, but I really liked the lettering used for Ray in this issue too.

From the excellent Cosmic Teams website, the creator of which wrote a great guidebook to Quality Comics (the Golden Age company that created and published the original version of The Ray, as well as Plastic Man and Blackhawk among others):

The Ray could absorb light, heat and electromagnetic energies from outside sources, discharge these energies from his body, and modulate their intensities. The beams could be as harmless as regular light, or used as destructive laser blasts. He once used a “magni-ray” to allow him to take photographs with a miniature camera. The Ray was “charged” by the presence of light and could fly at super speeds.

His powers were not internally produced. If light was removed, he might fall from the sky until it was restored. The Ray could turn his body into immaterial light energy or conversely, create objects made of solid light. He once created a giant solid construct of himself. A similar application of power could be used to imprison him. Despite his fantastic powers, Happy often chose to fight his battles with his physical prowess. If he was not concentrating on his powers, he could revert to normal and be knocked out.

Ray Terrill inherited the same powers as his father. He requires the occasional “recharging” of his light powers from an external source. In the dark, he becomes powerless.

[alton]

I'm looking at the release dates for The Ray mini-series with Lucian Gates, and the first one was released December 2011, shortly after New 52 had started. I'm presuming not much promotion and low sales did the whole Freedom Fighter effort thing in. This was a few months after 52 new titles had been released onto the market after all. Did the Freedom Fighter stuff even see a trade release, or is it just the floppies?

The post Nu52 Lucien Gates mini you have is a mini arc I totally missed. The Freedom Fighter runs before Nu52 were trade backed at approximately 6-8 issues each. As far as the 3 minis before Nu52 I don't know if they ever got to trade. If not maybe now with the new interest in The Ray. These were literally selling in the 4-6 thousand copy range at the time but were not lousy books by any means.

[twincast]

To be a bit pedantic, light and heat are electromagnetic energy.

And to the best of my knowledge the Quality Comics character only had the very basic powers of absorbed light granting the abilities to fly and emit light beams at various intensities (including destructive "energy blasts"), whereas the Modern Age versions of both Happy and young Ray logically expanded upon the above by being able to bend light, i.e. invisibility and illusions, and added the most iconic of light powers, that is Lantern-like "hard light" constructs, as well as light energy (super-)healing that made them invulnerable in their light forms.

[jbmasta]

The post Nu52 Lucien Gates mini you have is a mini arc I totally missed. The Freedom Fighter runs before Nu52 were trade backed at approximately 6-8 issues each. As far as the 3 minis before Nu52 I don't know if they ever got to trade. If not maybe now with the new interest in The Ray. These were literally selling in the 4-6 thousand copy range at the time but were not lousy books by any means.

It's probable that hype around Brightest Day, Flashpoint and the start of New 52 overshadowed any of this. There are a couple of minis at the moment I'm only half aware of, Hawkman and Captain Atom, because of this forum and seeing them on the shelf at my LCS. The lower selling minis don't get much promotion anyway. Just how much marketing did Telos get, or Doomed, both post-Convergence? I wouldn't be surprised if you hadn't heard of them. Lost Army and Edge of Oblivion were tied to Green Lantern, and took the place of the Green Lantern Corps title for a year, so that would account for more interest, but out of sight out of mind is a bad state for any comic.

[FluffySheep]

From the excellent Cosmic Teams website, the creator of which wrote a great guidebook to Quality Comics (the Golden Age company that created and published the original version of The Ray, as well as Plastic Man and Blackhawk among others):

Thanks for that. That definitely makes things clearer. I wonder if Ray's mother knows what powers he has and what he can do, rather than being simply allergic to light, and that's why she's "kept him in the dark" his whole life?

[PyroTwilight]

Thanks for that. That definitely makes things clearer. I wonder if Ray's mother knows what powers he has and what he can do, rather than being simply allergic to light, and that's why she's "kept him in the dark" his whole life?

Honestly I've worked on the assumption that that isn't even his mother. She seemed more like a woman trapped doing her job and hating it like she was a special agent assigned to Ray. That's certainly my view at least.

And yeah I'm certainly working on the view she absolutely knew what he could do. Maybe she's a member of ARGUS or similar. So I've assumed.

[FluffySheep]

Honestly I've worked on the assumption that that isn't even his mother. She seemed more like a woman trapped doing her job and hating it like she was a special agent assigned to Ray. That's certainly my view at least.

And yeah I'm certainly working on the view she absolutely knew what he could do. Maybe she's a member of ARGUS or similar. So I've assumed.

That's a good shout. Hopefully when JLA launches it'll focus enough on the individuals of the team so we find out more about them. Even though The Ray has only had the Rebirth issue, I'd be on board for a solo series. I felt the same way after reading The Atom Rebirth issue too.

[Zero Hunter]

What I like is that this Rebirth version of the Ray's origin is not radically different from his old pre-flashpoint origin. That is how you do a Rebirth. You tweak things instead of totally changing things. I think that was why the Nu52 Ray was pretty much DOA was because it had almost nothing to do with previous versions.

[alton]

It's probable that hype around Brightest Day, Flashpoint and the start of New 52 overshadowed any of this. There are a couple of minis at the moment I'm only half aware of, Hawkman and Captain Atom, because of this forum and seeing them on the shelf at my LCS. The lower selling minis don't get much promotion anyway. Just how much marketing did Telos get, or Doomed, both post-Convergence? I wouldn't be surprised if you hadn't heard of them. Lost Army and Edge of Oblivion were tied to Green Lantern, and took the place of the Green Lantern Corps title for a year, so that would account for more interest, but out of sight out of mind is a bad state for any comic.

I almost skipped Lost Army and Edge but was able to back track them and am glad I did. The current Death of Hawkman with Adam Strange is right up my alley and Fall and Rise of CA seems to have started off well. The one disappointment was the cancellation of Telos which made it a mini with him being erased from existence or some such thing. With some of the other cosmics on board it was the first time some of them had been around. When Telos went away the chance of seeing some of the others disappeared as well.

[J. D. Guy]

The one disappointment was the cancellation of Telos which made it a mini with him being erased from existence or some such thing. With some of the other cosmics on board it was the first time some of them had been around. When Telos went away the chance of seeing some of the others disappeared as well.

The other non-Lantern Cosmics getting time to shine was cool, but I'm disappointed from Telos's cancellation because it means we don't get a proper end to his story and character.

[HandofPrometheus]

What I like is that this Rebirth version of the Ray's origin is not radically different from his old pre-flashpoint origin. That is how you do a Rebirth. You tweak things instead of totally changing things. I think that was why the Nu52 Ray was pretty much DOA was because it had almost nothing to do with previous versions.

Yep this is the best way of reintroducing someone instead of giving them an origin that's worst than the first one.

[Starchild]

What I like is that this Rebirth version of the Ray's origin is not radically different from his old pre-flashpoint origin. That is how you do a Rebirth. You tweak things instead of totally changing things. I think that was why the Nu52 Ray was pretty much DOA was because it had almost nothing to do with previous versions.

Yeah but nothing is tweaked. There's nothing fresh about his origin, it's the same thing we've read before. I can't fault fans for liking things that are repetitive though.

[HandofPrometheus]

Ray showed up in the Rebirth issue today although he didn't really do anything significant we got see his costume without his power effect

20170208_224438.jpg

[Midnighter]

Yeah but nothing is tweaked. There's nothing fresh about his origin, it's the same thing we've read before. I can't fault fans for liking things that are repetitive though.

Why does anything need to be tweaked? If it ain't broke don't fix it.