Element Lad

Element Lad (Jan Arrah) is a fictional character in the 30th and 31st centuries of the DC Comics Universe, a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. A native of the planet Trom, he has the power to transmute chemical elements.

Fictional character biography

Pre-Zero Hour

Element Lad first appears in Adventure Comics (vol. 1) #307 (1963). In this first story he is briefly known as "Mystery Lad" as the Legionnaires try to guess his superpower. Jan is the last survivor of Trom; with all of the planet's natives sharing Jan's abilities, the other Trommites had been massacred by the space pirate Roxxas for refusing to transmute valuable elements for him. Jan had only survived this genocide because he had been in space at the time.

With the aid of the Legion, Roxxas is brought to justice and Jan joins the Legion, using the codename Element Lad. He is a member of the Legion for many years, serving terms as leader and deputy leader. He is eventually linked romantically to Shvaughn Erin, the Science Police's Legion liaison, who herself first appeared in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #241 (July 1978).