Invisible Kid

Lyle Norg is a fictional character, a comic book superhero in the DC Comics universe, and a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th and 31st centuries. He was the first to assume the name Invisible Kid.

Lyle Norg

The first Invisible Kid was Lyle Norg, an early member of the Legion who gained his powers from a chemical serum he invented. He first appeared in Action Comics #267. His scientific aptitude meant he got along well with the super-intelligent Brainiac 5. His abilities made him a valuable asset to the Legion Espionage Squad, of which he was a permanent member. Norg also served one term as Legion Leader. He was killed by the monster Validus of the Fatal Five in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #203 (July/August 1974).

Many years later, during the "Five Year Gap" following the Magic Wars, Earth fell under the covert control of the Dominators, and withdrew from the United Planets. A few years later, the members of the Dominators' highly classified "Batch SW6" escaped captivity. Originally, Batch SW6 appeared to be a group of teenage Legionnaire clones, created from samples apparently taken just prior to Ferro Lad's death at the hands of the Sun-Eater (Since Lyle was Legion leader at that time, the members of Batch SW6 were led by the teenage Lyle). Later, they were revealed to be time-paradox duplicates, every bit as legitimate as their older counterparts. After Earth was destroyed in a disaster reminiscent of the destruction of Krypton over a millennium earlier,^[1] a few dozen surviving cities and their inhabitants reconstituted their world as New Earth. The SW6 Legionnaires - including their version of Invisible Kid - remained.

Reboot

Following the Zero Hour Legion reboot, Lyle Norg was still alive and serving with the Legion. As well as a brilliant chemist, he was also a professional spy at a very young age. He invented the invisibility serum while in Earthgov Intelligence's spy school. Rather than his scientific aptitude resulting in his getting on well with Brainiac 5, they had more of a rivalry going on. While Querl was more intelligent, Lyle had more imagination, being quicker to see unexpected applications for discoveries.

He was the de facto leader of the Legion Espionage Squad, consisting of himself, Chameleon, Apparition, Triad, & Shrinking Violet and was instrumental in bringing down the corrupt administration of United Planets President Chu.

Lyle served one term as Legion Leader; during his tenure, this version of the Legion defeated Mordru in their first and only battle with the sorcerer.

According to The Definitive Guide to The Characters of the DC Universe (2004), he was in a homosexual relationship with Condo Arlik. This, however, was never stated explicitly in the comic book itself and a follow up creative team never went through with this storyline.

"Threeboot" Continuity (2004-2009)

Lyle Norg is a genius with a skill for xenochemistry who was used by his father to develop an invisibility serum. His Science Police officer father used to bring him alien cell samples nearly every night to experiment with. By the time he had successfully created a serum, he discovered that his father promised to hand over Lyle’s research to the Science Police all along. So he injected the only existing serum into himself and lied about it before contacting Brainiac 5 for help. Brainy invited Lyle to join the Legion. Eventually his father discovered the truth and tried to get Lyle to quit and hand over the serum. After the Legion was outlawed, Lyle reneged and produced a blood sample for his father to use. The sample was encoded with a monitoring virus allowing Legion access to the United Planets systemworks. Because of his relationship to Brainiac 5 his teammates have snarlingly nicknamed him “Brainiac 6.”

When Lyle betrayed Cosmic Boy's trust by revealing to Brainiac 5 that several members had broken into Brainy's lab, he lied to the team by blaming everything on Shrinking Violet. He and Violet, who prefers the moniker Atom Girl, have since made a deal to continue the ruse, but his teammates still have a hard time trusting him. When Supergirl mysteriously appeared in the 31st Century, Lyle, along with half the male Legionnaires vied for her attention. However, Lyle convinced Cosmic Boy that he did not have a crush on Supergirl in order to remove the competition for her affections. He recently had his arm torn off when his flight ring exploded, and was given an alien arm to replace it by a member of the Wanderers. He is left in Metropolis, the doctors reproducing his DNA to give him another arm.

His arm apparently healed, he returns to the active roster to save a young Tritonian mutant, Gazelle, for whom he carries a torch from then on.^[2] During an invasion of aliens hailing from cyberspace, a small squad of legionnaires, including him and the recently appointed Gazelle, are digitized and sent into their homebase: Invisible Lad has a customized avatar issued by Brainac 5, with a bulkier and more handsome physique that greatly impresses Gazelle (who, despite being saved by him, had never seen his face due to his invisibility powers). However, his idealized body is shown to be a trojan horse able to give Brainiac 5 complete mastery over the alien, digital universe. Invisible Kid, Gazelle and the other legionnaries spend some time trapped in cyberspace, while Brainiac 5 restores their physical bodies, damaged in a skirmish between the Coluan and some physical avatars of the invading aliens: in that week, Invisible Kid admits his feelings for Gazelle who happily reciprocates. Upon returning to the physical world, they both witness Brainiac 5 and Nura Nal exchanging their nuptial vows and inviting them to their marriage.^[3]

Post-Infinite Crisis (2007- )

The events of the Infinite Crisis miniseries have apparently restored a close analogue of the Pre-Crisis Legion to continuity, as seen in "The Lightning Saga" story arc in Justice League of America and Justice Society of America, and in the "Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes" story arc in Action Comics. Lyle is depicted as a member of this version of the team in Justice Society of America (vol. 3) #5 (June 2007), and Action Comics #858 (Late December 2007). However, this incarnation of the Legion shares roughly the same history as the original Legion up to the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths.^[4] Therefore, this version of Lyle is presumably deceased.

Equipment

As a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes he is provided a Legion Flight Ring. It allows him to fly and protects him from the vacuum of space and other dangerous environments.

Jacques Foccart

The second Invisible Kid was Jacques Foccart, a native of Earth from what was once the francophone African nation Côte d'Ivoire. Following Brainiac 5's advice, Jacques drank Lyle Norg's serum and gained the original Kid's powers (and later developed the ability to teleport) in order to save Earth from Computo, who had taken over the mind of his younger sister Danielle. He first appeared in Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #1 (1982). He later served as President of Earth, and as co-leader of the Legion along with an adult Cosmic Boy. His sister Danielle joined the SW6 Legionnaires, having acquired the ability to communicate with computers. With deliberate irony, she adopted the name Computo.

References

1. ↑ Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 4) #38, Late December 1992.
2. ↑ Legion of Super-Heroes #38 (March 2008)
3. ↑ Legion of Super-Heroes #50 (March 2009)
4. ↑ IGN: Superman/Green Lantern interview

External links

• Invisible Kid at the Comic Book DB
• Invisible Kid at Legion of Super-Heroes fan site
• A Hero History of Invisible Kid
• Gay League Profile: Lyle Norg