Dragonwing

Little is known about Dragonwing's origins. She once mentioned that she "stole her fire from the Imperial Dragon's horde," which suggests her powers were not inborn. (Legion vol. 7 #7) She first appeared in a new wave of Legion Academy members hoping to one day join the Legion. She could hardly have predicted how soon that dream would come true. (Legion vol. 6 #6)

From the start, the fiery girl befriended Chemical Kid and the two leaned towards rebellion. One night they went out "joyriding," defying the Academy's curfew and breaking into a store to charge things to the Kid's father's account. Upon returning, they were caught and punished, to train with Duplicate Damsel and Night Girl. (Adventure Comics #523) They were also grounded, but it didn't stop them from helping Chemical Kid investigate his father's empty bank account back on the planet Phlon. They were ambushed by the Legion's old enemy, the Black Mace, and a new foe, Alchemical Girl. (#524-525)

They succeeded on Phlon but fell short again back home when Dragonwing and her classmates followed their teachers to Legion headquarters. There they faced the evil Cosmic King, who easily disabled all of them save Variable Lad, who sacrificed his life to defeat the villain. (#529)

Under unknown circumstances, Dragonwing and three of her classmates were awarded full Legion membership when the team was decimated by the lost of seven Legionnaires. Dragonwing and Chemical Kid were quickly tapped for an away mission to the watchworld of Panoptes. As part of the mission, they were asked by Chameleon Boy to pretend to be lovers; Dragonwing seemed game thought Chemical Kid was repulsed. They held their own as well as the veteran Legionnaires, but found that their foe was an all-powerful Daxamite. (Legion vol. 7 #1)

Notes

Dragonwing's co-creator, Phil Jimenez, had this to say about her look to CBR: "Probably my favorite to draw is Dragonwing, mostly because she's so complicated. Although my colorist hates her because of that."

And to Newsarama:

"She's one of my favorites to draw. Her costume is an amalgam of a couple of ideas. She was definitely pulled from fashion sources. I wanted to give her a clear plastic cape, not unlike one of the characters from Blade Runner, the only that Joanna Cassidy plays.

"In my head, in order to elaborate on that idea, I thought I wanted there to be something digital on the cape. And so the idea was that this plastic cape was not simply there for covering but it was also decoration, like all clothing is, and the dragon was supposed to be this other digital display that constantly moves throughout the fold of the plastic fabric.

"We’re still trying to perfect that in color. I think we got closer in Adventure #523, because the interesting fact about plastic is what makes it look like plastic is the way it catches and reflects light, and so I had a lot of conversations with the colorist about that. And then we’re trying to treat her color a little bit. I added specific color palettes for each character, and so hopefully will see more of those tweaks in the issues themselves.

…

"When I was designing Dragonwing, I was looking at Asian dragons, and there was one specific image where I just loved the color palette, which was sort of rich red blue and green, and I said, oh, that’s it. Those are her colors. And her hair is sort of crazy, spiky hair, but I wanted it to be much more vibrantly red, so she would always pop in a crowd. But yes, I always design teams and costumes thinking about their color palette."

Powers

Dragonwing possesses a scorching fire breath.

Appearances + References

» FEATURED APPEARANCES:  

• Adventure Comics #523-529

» SERIES:

• Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 7, current (2011-)

» SEE ALSO: