WANTED: Earth-Two's Most Dangerous Super-Villains

The Lightning Bug

Personal information

Name: Unknown

Residence: Usually Mobile
Occupation: Professional Criminal
First Appearance (Golden Age): Sensation Comics #77  (April 1948)

Character History

Nothing is known of the background of the criminal known as the Lightning Bug prior to her first recorded appearance in the Spring of 1948.  An intensely beautiful redhead, the vixen used her beauty to trick prominent individuals to accept the gift a "free radio", including the gullible Maximillian O'Leary with one targeted at Sargon the Sorcerer.   The radio, charged with "Z-rays" turned itself on once in Sargon's presence and dared him to change the station.  When he did, he was shocked senseless and could not release the radio, which flew through the air, taking Sargon with it.

Arriving at a hidden laboratory, the architect of this effect identified herself as the Lightning Bug and supervised Sargon being bound into a giant vaccum tube.  She states that she feared Sargon's interference in her master plan, to explode the other radios he placed into the hands of wealthy, killing them so she could loot their homes.  Confident Sargon will asphyxiate in the vaccuum, the Lightning Bug departs in her customized bug-mobile for the home of her first victim. 

Left behind, her henchmen are less confident in waiting on Sargon to die, resolve to execute him themselves.  Reviving, Sargon touches the tube, lifting it out of their gunfire and smashing it on the floor, freeing himself.  Defeating the two hoods, he uses the Ruby of Life to compel them to fly to the location of the Lightning Bug.  Arriving, he finds she has just murdered her first victim with an exploding radio and is looting their home.  Using the first two thugs as bludgeons, he clobbers the remaining members of the gang while Lightning Bug flees.  She vows to set off all the remaining radios at once, killing several, but Sargon magically coverts a pistol into a pair of scissors and clip her antennae, severing his link with radios. After she is carted off to jail, Sargon visits to taunt her but she predicts a swift escape and eventual revenge (Sensation Comics #76).

The ultimate fate of the Lightning Bug on Earth-Two is unknown.
lightning bug inks Color

Powers and Abilities

The Lightning Bug was by all appearances an expert in radio electronics and explosives.  Whether she invented her technology, inherited it or stole it is not clear.  She was sufficiently resourced to hire a gang and design/acquire the exotic Lightning Bug-themed vehicle she used in her crimes.  The source of these resources is unknown.

Weaknesses and Limitations

Seperated from her technology, the Lightning Bug had no super-powers and was likely a below average hand-to-hand combatant.

Multiversity Villains

Multiversity

No evidence of the Lightning Bug's existence has been documented in any time line other than Earth-Two.



 

Appearances

Issue

Comment

Reprinted in

Sensation Comics #76

1st appearance,  vs. Sargon  the Sorcerer