The Ray

Profile image by Alex Garcia (Pen and inks) and David Stepp (Colors)
Personal information
Real Name: Langford "Happy" Terrill
Residence: New York City
Occupation: Newspaper Reporter, Adventurer
First Appearance (Golden Age): Smash Comics #14 (September 1940)
First Appearance (Post-Golden Age): Justice League of America #107 (October 1973)
Character History
Little is known of the life of Langford "Happy" Terrill before he became a newspaper reporter in New York City in the 1940's. In the fall of 1940, Terrill became aware of an experiment by Professor Leo Styne, a physicist attempting to understand the cosmic forces bombarding the higher levels of Earth's atmosphere. Convincing Styne to let him cover the launch of his experimental balloon, Terrill joined Styne and a group of convicts floating into the stratosphere and when an airlock is exposed during a cosmic storm, Terrill volunteers to close it to save the crew. It is later revealed that one of the men aboard, the engineer named Amos Cliff, had sabotaged the balloon for unknown reasons (Black Lightning #12 in Cancelled Comics Cavalcade). Terrill struggles with Cliff and the attempts to repair the damage but the storm develops quickly and Terrill is bombarded by it's energy, causing his body to transform. He becomes a being that can travel on beams of light and returns to Earth as The Ray!
Meanwhile back on Earth, Styne shares the news of his journey with the papers attracting the attention of the crooked munitions dealer Anton Rox. Rox and his men track Styne to his laboratory and shoot Styne, stealing information from his lab. The Ray arrives in a beam of a beam and finds Styne wounded but alive. He think he recognize Terrill but the Ray tells him Terrill is dead and takes off after Roxx. Appearing out of the headlights of Rox's car, the Ray uses fisticuffs and projections of electromagnetic force to make short work of Rox's henchmen while Rox himself takes flight in an airplane. Once more the Ray uses his electromagnetic powers, this time pulling the plane down to the ground, where he thrashes Rox and hands he and him men over to the authorities. The forumale stolen from Styne is then returned (Smash Comics #14).
In the months the followed, the Ray operated as a fairly independent agent, engaging such foes the deformed Cadava the Crumbler (Smash Comics #15). the mystic criminal Bela Jat (Smash Comics #16) and the criminal minstrel Stradivous (Smash Comics #17). By December, the Ray had resumed his life as Happy Terrill, through circumstances that are as yet unrevealed. In the Spring of 1941, a case took him to Asia where his flight was shot-down across the Pacific and he and the other survivors landed on island occupied by the pirate minions of Captain Blue. In so doing, he encounters a kid named Jackie (late Bud) that he adopts as a cub reporter and sidekick (Smash Comics #21).

As the world slid into the Second World War, Terrill's reporting duties became more international in nature. He broke up a spy ring in Puerto Rico (Smash Comics #28), captures Monsieur Le Rat in Syria (Smash Comics #31), thwarts Nazis after an ancient prophecy in Greece (Smash Comics #32) and is captured as a POW by the Japanese. much to their eventual dismay (Smash Comics #33). He later helps the Hungarian resistance in Budapest (Smash Comics #34), battles a mongol Khan in Moscow (Smash Comics #35) and aids Allied pilots at risk of being ambushed in Norway (Smash Comics #37).
In 1942, the Ray became part of a second group of heroes recruited by Uncle Sam, the living spirit of America, to travel to the parallel world of Earth-X where forces of probability favored Nazi victories. There they found the Baron Blitzkrieg of Earth-Two attempting to exploit events there and engage in a running battle with their foe. All the heroes are ultimately captured and chained to a wall in one of the Baron's redoubts while he gloats in victory. In the end, Hourman -who had been part of the first team of Sam's "Freedom Fighters" - appears and the Red Bee - who had been part of the second team believed killed when the Freedom Fighters first arrived - is also revealed to be alive but is killed by the Baron when he tries to take him alone. His death enrages the Freedom Fighters allowing Uncle Sam to break his chains and thrash the Baron but the Nazi warlord manages to escape taking 3 henchmen from Earth-X with him. The shift of three beings from Earth-X means that three of Earth-Two's heroes must remain behind. The Ray, along with Sam and the Black Condor, elects to be on of them as the others go back to their home dimension (All-Star Squadron #31-35). He later briefly returns to Earth-Two to aid Sam in recruiting a much larger force of heroes to Earth-X via a one-time dimensional rift that would allow so many beings to change earths (All-Star Squadron #50). Once that moment passed, the Ray was relegated to Earth-X and his activities there for the next 30 years remain unrecorded.
In the early 1970's, a malfunction in the transmatter cubes of the JLA and JSA was caused by an over-eager Red Tornado and resulted in several members of both teams to appear on Earth-X. When they are attacked by Nazi forces, the Freedom Fighters - including the Ray - intervene and manage to get them all to safety. The Freedom Fighters reveal that after years of erosions of freedom under Nazi pressure, the Axis finally invented a mind-control device that subjugated the entire populace in the late 1960's. Using Dr. Fate's magic, the heroes identify three locations control the device in Paris, Japan and Mt. Rushmore. The Ray join the Human Bomb, Dr. Fate and the Batman in Paris and manage to destroy one device and the remaining heroes destroy the other two. When the mind control does not abate, the JLA and JSA accuse the Freedom Fighters of deceit and a grand melee begins. In the confusion, the Red Tornado follows a signal to an orbiting satellite and finds the true source of the control, a machine that assumed sentience and even subjugated it's Nazi masters. The Tornado manages to destroy it, freeing the world and allowing the heroes of Earths One and Two to return home (Justice League of America #107-108)
In the aftermath, peace ensued as the world began to rebuild, the Freedom Fighters became listless. They decided to spend time on Earth-One and arrived in New York in 1976. Initially recognized as heroes, they were followed by an old foe - the Silver Ghost - who undermined their public image. They were considered criminals for most of their time on Earth-One (Freedom Fighters #1-15) and in 1978, were the target of a select group from the Secret Society of Super-Villains hired by the Silver Ghost. In a series of targeting battles, Quakemaster and Killer Moth of the Society managed to defeat the Ray, dropping him from the sky and leaving him for dead in an alley. (Secret Society of Super-Villains #15, unpublished #16 and 17 from Cancelled Comics Cavalcade). The Freedom Fighters eventually prevailed but the Ray, frustrated by their reception and his role in the group, decide to go his own way. He was targeted by a foe who recognized him known as the Dark but the nature of their relationship and the outcome of that encounter have not been revealed (Black Lightning #11 and unpublished #12 from Cancelled Comics Cavalcade).
At some point, the Ray rejoined the Freedom Fighters and they returned to Earth-X. The Ray was next seen in 1983 when the Freedom Fighters travel to Earth-One to prevent the theft of the US. Constitution, a demoralizing act that helped the Nazi's psychological warfare on Earth-X when they accomplished the same feat. The Earth-One version is saved and neo-Nazi's defeated with the help of Superman (DC Comics Presents #62). The Ray is next seen battling alongside the heroes of several Earths against for the forces of the Anti-Monitor (Crisis on Infinite Earths LS). The Ray was presumably on Earth-X when that timeline was sealed off from view at the end of Crisis and thus the fate of Happy Terrill originally from Earth-Two remains unrecorded.
Powers and Abilities
The Ray's body was altered in as-yet-unknown ways by exposure to cosmic
radiation in the upper levels of the stratosphere. Among the changes
that occurred are the ability to fuse himself with any light source and
travel at light speed along it's trajectory and to convert that light energy into concussive or electromagnetic energy. He is able to fly, either by becoming to light to fall or using the energy of transformed light to propel himself. In human form, he is an above average hand-to-hand combatant though whether he had formal training is not known.
Weaknesses and Limitations
The Ray could be weakened by separating from a light source that he could use to empower himself. In human form, he was mortal and could be injured or subdued as such.

Multiversity
Pre-Crisis Earth-0
In the post-Crisis Timeline, the history of the Ray up until 1942 and
his transition to Earth-X are thought to be somewhat similar to his
Earth-Two counterpart. New wrinkles include that Styne was acolyte of
Dr. Caldwell Dayzl and that the accident was designed to test theories
of the organization known as RONOL (Research On the Nature Of Light).
RONOL believed that a sentient light being posed a threat to future
Earth and wanted to be prepared when this light entity arrived.
Exposing the balloon's passengers to light would cause them, in theory,
to have light-based changed in their DNA that would make them compatible
to communicate with the entity. (Revealed in the The Ray LS).
Sometime
in the 1950's, Terrill discovered the truth behind his origins. He
married and had a son named Joshua who inherited some of his powers but
was unstable and killed his own mother, forcing Terrill to place him in
suspended animation in 1954 (The Ray Vol. 2 #17-20). After a brief
period of retirement, the Ray re-emerged in the 70's and rejoined his
former Freedom Fighter colleagues in casework likely very similar to
happened on Earth-One.

Afterwards he retired and again and re-married. He and Nadine Terrill
produced a son, Ray, who crackled with light energy even in the crib.
He took the baby to his brother to raise as a foster son and hide him
from scrutiny, telling Nadine that the child had died. Ray Terrill was told his was allergic to light and grew
up being literally kept in the dark to prevent the activation of his powers. When his adoptive father died, he revealed the truth to Ray, leading the young Terrill to expose himself to light and activate his powers. He later became a hero known as the Ray himself, tho he developed a conflicted relationship with his true father (The Ray #1).
Returning to activity to mentor/manipulate his son's heroic career, the Ray eventually rejoined a latter-day version of the Freedom Fighters. When his son is injured, Terrill sought out an old colleague Neon the Unknown for more power. Finding Neon evolved and removed from humanity, Terrill samples the waters of Neon's mystic oasis himself, becoming an evolved light being himself and adopted the code-name Neon (Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters Vol. 2 #1-8). The later activities of Langford Terrill in this timeline are unrecorded.
Prime Earth
Langford Terrill is known to be active in the Prime Earth timeline (The Flash #769-770) but little of his history has been recorded.
Earth-22
The Ray is active in this timeline and participate in the final battle with Dynaman in Washington DC in the 1950's (The Golden Age). He survives and eventually fathers a son named Ray who assumes his code-name in the early 21st century. The junior Ray is part of Superman's Justice League and survives the nuclear assault on the metahuman gulag by the United Nations. He later plays a role in cleaning up the radioactivity caused by the attack (Kingdom Come LS). The fate of the original Ray in this timeline is unknown.
Golden Age Appearances of The Ray
Post-Golden Age Appearances
Issue |
Comment |
Reprinted in |
Moves to Earth-X |
|
|
Recruits other heroes to Earth-X |
Crisis on Infinite Earths Deluxe Companion #1 |
|
Black Lightning #11 |
Leaves Freedom Fighters |
|
Black Lighting #12 (unpublished) |
New origin details |
Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #1 |
|
Crisis on Infinite Earths HC, Crisis on Infinite Earths TPB, Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths HC, Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths HC |
|
Helps save the Constitution on Earth-One |
|
|
Freedom Fighters #1-15 |
With the Freedom Fighters on Earth-One |
|
First Silver Age Appearance, with the JLA, JSA and the Freedom Fighters
|
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 3 TPB, Showcase Presents: The Justice League of America #6, Justice League of America: The Bronze Age Omnibus #1 |
|
Targeted by the Silver Ghost with the rest of the Freedom Fighters |
Secret Society of Super-Villains HC Vol. 2 |
|
Secret Society of Super-Villains #16 amd 17 (Unpublished) |
Vs the Silver Ghost and his allies in the Secret Society |
Secret Society of Super-Villains HC Vol. 2, Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #2 |