Saturn Girl
	Name: Imra Ardeen Home Planet: Titan (largest moon of Saturn) Super-Power: Super thought-casting Member Since: 2962 Charter Member

Origin | Super-Power | Personal Data | Membership Record

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Saturn Girl comes from Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, where everyone has E.S.P. powers (Adventure Comics No. 350 "The Legion Outpost", 365 "The Origin and Powers of the Legion of Super-Heroes"). The scientists of Saturn, who are experts in telepathy, taught her how to read minds and also cast her mental commands anywhere (247).

Imra Ardeen journeyed to Earth with the intention of joining the Science Police Academy. She boarded the shuttle leaving Titan, along with R.J. Brande, which then docked with the space-liner that was carrying Garth Ranzz and Rokk Krinn en route to Earth. Later, Imra detected the hostile thoughts of assassins drawing guns on Mr. Brande. Alterting the others, whose capabilities she may have sensed, Garth quickly blasted one assassin's gun out of his hand with a lightning bolt, while Rokk used his magnetic power to disarm the other. So impressed was R. J. Brande, richest man in the universe, that he suggested the three form a crime-fighting combo, and that he would underwrite all their expenses. Imra knew this crime-fighting experience would be even better than if she had joined the S.P. Academy, and so the Legion of Super-Heroes was born. As it turned out, as a Legionnaire, Saturn Girl was deputized as a full-fledged officer of the Science Police anyway, with full authority to make arrests (Superboy No. 147).

First Appearance: Adventure Comics No. 247 (written by Otto Binder, drawn by Al Plastino)

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Saturn Girl can read people's minds, either by consciously willing to do so, or by mentally picking up on stray thoughts that are laced with strong emotion (Superboy No. 147). By matching the frequency of her brainwaves to others, she can effectively set up a two-way connection for telepathic communication (Adventure Comics No. 345). Saturn Girl can also tune in to radio messages that are traveling through space (267).

Using her telepathy she can send messages into the minds of others, sounding like her own voice inside people's heads (Action Comics No. 276, Adventure Comics No. 345, 357), or place knowledge of certain things into people's minds (314). Using a combination of these methods, she can interpret unknown alien languages (313). She can even transmit conscious and subconscious information from one brain to another. In this way, she has ensured Chameleon Boy of perfect impersonations (Action Comics No. 390/2).

Saturnians can absorb knowledge in a short time, telepathically, and so graduate school quicker and are ready to go to work earlier than Earth people (Action Comics No. 390/2). Saturn Girl's trained mind gives her greater access to her own memories for detailed recall of events and backgrounds on people she has met (Adventure Comics No. 315).

While her ability to contact people through telepathy has a range (Adventure Comics No. 309), usually limited to the planet she is on or short distances through outer-space, if a strong enough thought-summons is sent out directed specifically at her, she can intercept it across a distance of millions of miles through space (357). She can also send or receive telepathic messages to or from the Phantom Zone (300, Superman No. 156).

By sending out telepathic waves through space Saturn Girl can sense for the presence of a particular person, or detect psychic impressions and thoughts on specific subjects (Adventure Comics No. 307, 309, 333, 339). These waves also work while traveling through the time-barrier (314). She can mentally ferret out shape-changers through their thoughts (375). She can get psychic impressions of great disasters striking on another part of the planet (316), or detect booby traps (363). She has also used her mental emanations to disgnose ailments in others, as when she scanned Mon-El's phantom body in the Zone, and figured out what chemical elements would counter-act his lead poisoning (304).

Saturn Girl can use her power to influence people by placing strong suggestions into their minds (Adventure Comics No. 304, Action Comics No. 390/2). She can also send images which only telepathic minds can see (Adventure Comics No. 334). By thought-casting messages of reassurance, Saturn Girl can keep crowds from panicking (359). By concentrating mightily, she can even place an image she is thinking of directly into the visual area of a person's brain, making them hallunicate and see things that aren't really there (267). She also once used her telepathic control to make Princess Projectra think she had lost her illusion power by making her not see the illusion she was casting (Action Comics No. 392/2). She can also tie-in her mind to the nervous system of another body in order to control their movements (Superman No. 147). She has used her telepathy to monitor the actions of a person, clairvoyantly seeing events through their eyes (Adventure Comics No. 350, 364).

Saturn Girl can control up to half a dozen minds at one time (Adventure Comics No. 267, 349), and can induce sleep in a large crowd of people whose wills are already weakened (354). Once, when her power was "beefed up", she was able to locate and command twice as many people as normal (368). She can also use her power to undo super-hypnotic spells that someone else has placed on a person (336, 354).

Saturn Girl frequently uses her E.S.P. power on animals. By radiating a powerful thought-beam she can control beasts by hypnotic mental command (Adventure Comics No. 293, Jimmy Olsen No. 76), even at a distance of miles away or deep underwater (Adventure Comics No. 247). By concentrating her thought-casting power, she can make animals temporarily telepathic so they can communicate with each other (322, 364, Superman No. 176).

Her power of telepathic command also works on electronic brains, such as those found in robots (Adventure Comics No. 247).

Saturn Girl is able to shield her mind against the extra sensory intrusion of another (337).

She is able to pick up telepathic emanations from objects that were once in contact with a person. This use of E.S.P. is known as psychometry (Action Comics No. 285).

She can flash stunning mental bolts at people which she must aim at the subject. She can resist illusions and visions only if she makes a conscious effort to, but she does not have enough power to defend and attack at the same time. If she overtaxes herself she will black out (Adventure Comics No. 374).

By concentrating hard on spectrium metal worn by herself and other nearby super-powered people actively using their powers, Saturn Girl can duplicate those powers in herself for a short time (Adventure Comics No. 304).

Limitations and Weaknesses: Saturn Girl has to worry about keeping her own powerful thoughts from "leaking" information to others, particularly those wearing head-sets that are capable of receiving vibrations of thought. With her own mind closed off, however, she is unable to use her ability to probe the thoughts of others (Adventure Comics No. 321).

Saturn Girl's telepathic messages can be "listened in on" by other telepaths, so she has to watch what she "says" to others in the presence of other telepaths (Action Comics No. 391/2).

As mentioned before, there is a range to Saturn Girl's ability to contact people telepathically (Adventure Comics No. 309). She cannot read the mind of a person with amnesia (334), or someone who is hypnotized from another source (335, 336, 349, 359, 360), or stunned or unconscious (345). Unconscious minds also cannot receive any telepathic commands (310).

Saturn Girl's mental powers can also be blocked through a number of methods. There are frequency -interfering anti-telepathy helmets (Action Comics No. 385/2), and mind-helmets made of lurium metal that scramble the wearer's thought-waves, so she detects only static; and the only weapon that can melt lurium is an illegal z-ray (Adventure Comics No. 303). The presence of some stars or worlds can block thought-impressions if they are located between the subject and her telepathic waves (307). Electrical static inference prevents her thought-control impulses from getting through to a person's brain (Jimmy Olsen No. 76). The electric eye halos of prison worlds (Adventure Comics No. 334) present invisible barriers to her thought waves (359). There are also certain chemical compounds that block telepathic waves (314), and sometimes even the ground interferes with her location of people (339).

She can be kept from mentally spotting people if a special brain-wave nullifier is planted nearby (Adventure Comics No. 374).

While Saturn Girl can hypnotize others into doing her bidding, she herself is not totally immune to hypnosis that is more powerful than her own will (Adventure Comics No. 293, 326, 349, 368). People can condition their minds to resist her telepathic intrusions, resulting in a battle of the wills, with the stronger mind prevailing. She proved too weak to resist Apollo's charms, for instance (350).

Saturn Girl is vulnerable to being knocked unconscious by psychic shock impulses (Adventure Comics No. 347), and if her power ever backfires, her own thought-waves will strike the brain centers of her own imagination and give her fantastic hallucinations which can overpower her mind and cause her to faint. She must recover from this by using telepathic psych-treatment several times daily (Action Comics No. 386/2).

It is important to note that her mind-probing can cause agonizing pain if too much force is used, but only evil Saturnians use this power to harm others (Adventure Comics No. 300).

Speculative Explanation of Power: There are two schools of "thought" regarding telepathy. The traditional view is based on the fact that the human brain functions via the transmission of electrical synapses between neurons. These electrical impulses operate on a specific frequency, the echoes of which can "leak out" beyond the body and be picked up by "receiver" brains that are adjusted to the same frequency. In this way, telepaths can be thought of as a ham radio operator tapping into a specific radiowave broadcasts of others. This is even more apt when you consider the fact that she can pick up actual radio broadcasts traveling through space (Adventure Comics No. 267).

A recent theory has come about that explains the functioning of the brain on a quantum level. The Quantum Brain Theory (QBT) takes the position that there are no states of change in the universe but that the brain takes in reality one moment at a time, like a series of snapshots. The perceived change comes about from the brain observing the reality before and after change, and then fusing the two images together to create a sense of order and time flow. The theory also involves the quantum interconnectedness of all matter and energy, and posits that two objects that briefly interact will always remain in contact on a quantum level even though they may be physically separated across the universe. This explains how Saturn Girl can use psychometry to connect an object a person has held to the person themself.

Both the classical and quantum interpretations apply to Saturn Girl's methods of telepathy. At close range, she can harmonize her own brainwaves to match the thought processes of another person's brain. A superficial contact allows her to "hear" a person's surface thoughts or "feel" their current emotional state. She can also inject her own thoughts into theirs to suggest ideas or so that two-way communication is possible.

On a deeper level, she can tap into areas of the brain that govern other cerebral functions. In this way she can access another's memories of past events. She can even share her own experiences with the subject or make them "see" or "hear" what she is mentally imaging in order to create hypnotic halluncinations.

By tying-in her electrical impulses even more strongly, she can override a person's physical control over their own body, thereby controlling their motor responses.

The quantum interpretation explains how Saturn Girl is able to instantaneously pick up on and send out thought transmissions across the vast distance of space. In quantum reality, space and time do not exist, rather everything is connected in the now, so telepathic information may be shared instantly without the need for electrical thought impulses to traverse the distance in between.

How Saturn Girl is able to make a group of others temporarily telepathic is done by her using her mind to adjust the brain frequencies of those involved so that they are all on the same "channel" as each other. The effect is only temporary because each subject's signature brain frequency will always reassert itself over time.

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Physical Description: Imra has long blonde hair, parted in the center, with the ends curled underneath. She has wide-set eyes with thick lashes. Her jaw line is squarish and her chin slightly pointed.

Personality: Imra is a very logical, strong-minded, and courageous person. Highly intelligent and educated, she often works with Brainiac 5 on scientific projects (Adventure Comics No. 310, 336, 337), and was the only Legionnaire clever enough to solve Proty II's puzzle, winning her a second term as team leader (323). She is also quick at problem solving (293) and can concoct elaborate schemes on short notice (304, 312, 314).

Imra is a strong proponent of continuing education (Superboy No. 147, Adventure Comics No. 317), and a "by the book" person when it comes to the Legion's constitution (317, 342). With her scientific background, she believes in neither superstitions, calling them "sheer foolishness" (343), nor the occult (357). The logical bent to her personality does not keep her from trusting her intuition, however, which she ascribes to the scientific complexity of the mind (322).

Imra is a staunch believer in equality of the sexes and often acts as the representative for the other girl members of the team (Adventure Comics No. 375).

Imra loves to spend time with animals, which she has a special rapport with, and enjoys riding them (Adventure Comics No. 323) and playing with them in circus acts (325). While a part of her enjoys playing pranks and jokes on people (247, Jimmy Olsen No. 76), once telling Supergirl that she and the others were "the children of the three young super-heroes who befriended Superboy" (Action Comics No. 267), Imra takes her job as a Legionnaire very seriously. She is more than willing to sacrifice her life to save any one of her teammates (Adventure Comics No. 304).

Imra has vowed never to use her E.S.P. power to pry into other members' affairs (Adventure Comics No. 371, 316), or invade the privacy of law-abiding citizenry (337 "The Legion Outpost"). She is, however, ready to pick up stray or random thoughts and emotions (314) from those who do not keep their minds closed and their thoughts guarded constantly (307). She will even pry if the reason is very important to her (312), or if it concerns the well-being of the Legion of Super-Heroes (315, 349, 364).

Skills: Imra is a highly skilled biochemist, and invented Serum XY-4, which provided Mon-El with several minutes of temporary protection against lead poisoning (Adventure Comics No. 300). She also knows judo (Adventure Comics No. 355), mostly likely taught to her by Karate Kid.

Interests: She enjoys seeing late night 3-D movies with Lightning Lad (Action Comics No. 381/2).

Previous Occupations: None known, although she originally intended to join the Science Police Academy (Superboy No. 147).

Nicknames: None, but her fiance Garth Ranzz calls her "honey" as a term of endearment (Adventure Comics No. 350).

Relationships: From the first moment Garth laid eyes on Imra he was attracted to her: "Wow! Get a load of the blonde! What a dish!" he thought, his excitement no doubt sensed by Imra as she passed by (Superboy No. 147). After his "death", Imra realized that Lightning Lad had more than a physical crush on her (Adventure Comics No. 304). She blamed herself for not succeeding in saving him (312), and perhaps also felt guilty for the way she ignored him on previous occasions (301, 303).

That her sensitivity increased following Lightning Lad's death is shown in the way Imra sensed the lonely need in applicant called Mystery Lad (really Jan Arrah/Element Lad) and extended a motherly welcome to the boy (Adventure Comics No. 307). She also rushed to his side when he was hurt physically (307, 363). Out of her love for Garth, she also gave his sister, Ayla, a warm reception into the Legion of Super-Heroes (308).

Still feeling guilty over Lightning Lad's death, she was determined to sacrifice herself to revive him, but was out-tricked by Proty (Adventure Comics No. 312). After Garth's return, the two became increasingly intimate with each other. She was extremely disillusioned and upset, however, when she once incorrectly thought Lightning Lad had betrayed the Legion, and her, by giving away the secret of the Concentrator (321). When Garth lost an arm to the Super-Moby Dick of Space, and had it replaced by a metal one, she tried to be strong for him. His metal arm made no difference in the way she felt about him, except to increase the worry she feels whenever he goes on a Legion mission (350). The two have been engaged since 2965 (337, 353 "The Legion Outpost").

Imra and Brainiac 5 have what can be described only as an "antagonistic friendship". She can become annoyed at his chauvinistic overprotection of the female Legionnaires (Adventure Comics No. 319, 345), but she remains his steadfast pal, with whom she shares scientific interest (333, 345). Her closest Legion friends are fellow charter member Cosmic Boy, Mon-El (300), whom she regards as one of the Legion's loyalest members (312), and Superboy. Imra and Proty also got along very well together (312), as she does now with Proty II. As fellow telepaths, they have a great understanding of each other.

Imra attended college on Saturn with a girl named Marli Zhorg (Action Comics No. 390/2).

Known Relatives: Parents living on Titan (Adventure Comics No. 356)

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Induction: Saturn Girl was a founding member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. After she graduated from college, she left Saturn to get a job with the Science Police. After being an instrumental part in saving the life of R.J. Brande, along with Garth Ranzz and Rokk Krinn, the wealthy financier bankrolled them as a crime-fighting club. They were sworn-in as honorary citizens on all member worlds and deputized as full-fledged Science Police officers in a public ceremony (Superboy No. 147).

Positions Held: Charter member; leader for 2nd (2963-64) and 3rd (2964-65) terms; deputy leader for the 4th term (Adventure Comics No. 343 "The Legion Outpost"); judge in the trial of Star Boy (342); permanent member of the Legion Espionage Squad (347 "The Legion Outpost")

Career Highlights:

Adventure Comics No. 247 (Apr. 1958) "The Legion of Super-Heroes"

Saturn Girl, along with Lightning Boy and Cosmic Boy, used the Legion's new time machine to go back to 20th century Smallville to invite the legendary Superboy to become an honorary member of their Super-Hero Club. As part of the Boy of Steel's initiation tests, Saturn Girl had telepathically commanded a sea-monster to raise the sunken statue of the Unknown Spaceman, the first explorer of Venus, thus beating him in the first of three tests.

Adventure Comics No. 300 (Sept. 1962) "The Face Behind the Lead Mask"

Saturn Girl, in telepathic contact with Mon-El while he was in the Phantom Zone, was able to mentally diagnose the harm done to his body and figure out what chemical elements would be needed to counteract his lead poisoning. She invented serum XY-4 with the intention of giving it to Superboy as a surprise, but when Urthlo attacked the Legion with a power-nullifying gadget and green kryptonite vision, she had Superboy release Mon-El from the Phantom Zone and then gave Mon-El the serum, which latest long enough for him to help them defeat Urthlo (which turned out to be a robot of Lex Luthor's sent from the 20th century).

Adventure Comics No. 304 (Jan. 1963) "The Stolen Super-Powers"

Saturn Girl intercepted a message capsule from the planet Mernl which predicted that a Legionnaire would die while using their super-power to battle Zaryan, the Conqueror. In order to ensure that she would be the one to fulfill that prophecy, Saturn Girl telepathically rigged the leadership election so she could be in the position of authority to set about duplicating in her all the powers of her teammates and summarily suspending them from the Legion for trumped up failures. Upon learning her plans from Mon-El in the Phantom Zone, Lightning Lad violated her orders and bravely sacrificed his own life to save Saturn Girl and defeat Zaryan.

Adventure Comics No. 312 (Sept. 1963) "The Super-Sacrifice of the Legionnaires"

Saturn Girl was one of the six Legionnaires who gathered to risk their lives in order to revive the frozen Lightning Lad. Mon-El wanted to use the Daxamite life-exchanging machine himself without telling the others, but Saturn Girl discovered his plan and took action of her own. She planned to use a duralim metal wand to attract the lightning needed to revive the dead hero, but ultimately it was Proty who took the form of Saturn Girl and used the duralim wand to sacrifice his life essence to restore Lightning Lad.

Adventure Comics No. 314 (Nov. 1963) "The Super-Villains of All Ages"

When the villain Alaktor stole the Legion's time-bubble, Saturn Girl was part of the team that helped construct a new one so they could follow him into the past. As they were time-travelling, Saturn Girl used her power of thought-casting to track the thief to 1945, but the Legionnaires were too late to stop him in his mission to collect the three greatest villains in history. After Alaktor transferred the evil personalities of Hitler, Nero, and Dillenger into the minds of Superboy, Mon-El, and Ultra Boy, Saturn Girl tried a couple of different strategies to defeat them. Eventually, she tricked the villains into destroying themselves by thought-casting into each mind the knowledge of the other's weaknesses.

Adventure Comics No. 323 (Aug. 1964) "The Eight Impossible Missions"

Saturn Girl solved Proty II's puzzle, figuring out that the first letters in the names of the Legionnaires who he'd sent on various missions, and the first letters in the last names of the visiting honorary members, created an acrostic: SUPERBOY. She also knew that the significance of the puzzle honoring the Boy of Steel was because it was the latest anniversary of the day he joined the Legion. As a result of her cleverness, Saturn Girl went on to lead the team for a second consecutive term.

Adventure Comics No. 337 (Oct. 1965) "The Weddings That Wrecked the Legion"

As part of a plan to discover the location of the home planet of the Murran spies, the Legion held a fake double wedding - Lightning Lad "married" Saturn Girl, and Ultra Boy "married" Phantom Girl. After the spies were defeated, Garth told Imra: "Someday we won't have to pretend," and the two became engaged (Adventure Comics No. 353 "The Legion Outpost").

Adventure Comics No. 343 (Apr. 1966) "The Evil Hand of the Luck Lords"

Saturn Girl was determined to track down the cause of the bad luk jinxes that were happening to the Legion. On her way to Thaun, the Luck Lords seized Saturn Girl and her cruiser was wrecked. The other Legionnaires thought she was dead but later found her a captive on Thaun. The Luck Lords were defeated by the Legion of Super-Pets, an auxiliary branch of the Legion she had created (Adventure Comics No. 293) and which she contacted telepathically for help during this crisis.

Adventure Comics No. 344/345 (May/June 1966) "The Super-Stalag of Space" / "The Execution of Matter-Eater Lad"

When Saturn Girl received word that Brainiac 5 was being held as a prisoner of war, she led a team of Legionnaires to Nardo's Super-Stalag of Space where they were all captured. The male and female members were separated into different camps, but when all the boy's attempts to escape failed, Saturn Girl came up with a plan of her own. She got Duo Damsel to split in two, with one of her selves returning to the barracks and the other staying hidden, then escaping after dark through a section of fence that Light Lass had made light enough for her to lift. When Duo Damsel made it to the other camp, she used a tower searchlight to lure a stampede of phanders from the forest and through the fence, giving the boys the distraction they needed to make their escape.

Adventure Comics No. 349 (Oct. 1966) "The Rogue Legionnaire"

In order to track down Universo in the Legion's stolen time-bubble, Saturn Girl went to Napoleonic France of 1812 and was forced to be a maid. She was framed by one of Napoleon's men and faced a firing squad, which she telepathically ordered to shoot into the air instead of at her. However, when Universo's stooge suddenly fired a futuristic weapon at her, she was rescued at the last second by Rond Vidar and his time-cube.

Adventure Comics No. 357 (June 1967) "The Ghost of Ferro Lad"

Upon receiving an urgent thought summons from Superboy, Saturn Girl and Brainiac 5 delayed their attendance at a law-enforcement officer's convention and rushed back to the clubhouse. When they found out that they had been called because the other members thought the clubhouse was haunted, Saturn Girl remained skeptical, thinking it must be group hysteria, but telepathically asked Brainiac 5 to humor them. When Cosmic Boy, Princess Projectra, Sun Boy, and Superboy were attacked by something Saturn Girl and Brainiac 5 couldn't see, she tried to use her power to sense what was harming them, but the "ghost" overwhelmed her mind and put her into a deep state of shock. It turned out that the force behind the attacks was a renegade Controller from another time-space continuum, who elimated Saturn Girl's interference with a shock impulse to prevent her from tracing his psychic waves and discovering who was behind his plot.

For information concerning Saturn Girl after 2969, click here.

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