Laura Nelson

Laura is the daughter of Kent Nelson, Jr and his wife Marissa. Laura's childhood was not particularly pleasant. Her parents argued often and this traumatized Laura significantly. By the time she started school, she was deathly afraid of any sort of conflict — which only made her a prime target for her school's worst bullies.

Laura is the cousin of Simon Reynolds and his wife Marissa. Laura's childhood was not particularly pleasant. Her parents argued often and this traumatized Laura significantly. By the time she started school, she was deathly afraid of any sort of conflict — which only made her a prime target for her school's worst bullies.

Shortly after her eighth birthday, Laura was walking home from school when a group of her bullies chased her into an alley where construction had blocked her path. With Laura cornered, she grabbed a loose brick from the ground and swung for the biggest bully. Laura's attack failed to find its mark, but her decision to fight back angered the bullies, and they proceeded to beat her.

Fortunately for Laura, but unfortunate for her attackers, the world had been changing. In the wake of the mass devastation wrought by intrinsic explosions almost a decade earlier, magic was returning and unbeknownst to Laura, she had the natural birthright to harness such fierce power. And in her pain and rage, that is exactly what Laura did. In an explosive jolt of mysticism, Laura's bullies were launched out of the alley and into traffic.

The kids were rushed to the hospital, Laura included. Laura told her parents that she could not remember what happened, leaving the police little choice but to believe one of the bullies' flimsy excuse that they had all been struck by lightning.

By the time Laura returned to school, she was difficult to recognize. The color had drained from her hair and eyes, leaving her with platinum blonde locks and a fierce silver gaze. However, with her new look, Laura had a new outlook on life. Laura became a brave and bold beauty. She went from the meek girl to Miss Popular. She was no longer afraid of her bullies and made sure to leverage their fear of her to protect other bullied children. Meanwhile, in private, Laura began to study the occult and practice her magic.

She along with Blue Jay and Wandjina came from another world called Angor, the only survivors of a nuclear holocaust. They came to Earth after being manipulated into seeking revenge for the destruction of their world against Justice League. After initially mistaking each other as villains, the two teams unite to fight the robots that originally manipulated them both.

The Silver Sorceress and her team sought refuge on Earth and attempt to destroy this Earth's stockpile of nuclear weapons in the hopes of preventing the devastation that destroyed Angor from affecting Earth as well, before being confronted by the Justice League and the Rocket Red Brigade. Wandjina sacrificed himself to save innocent people from a nuclear meltdown. She and Blue Jay turned themselves in to the Russian authorities.

The Sorceress and Blue Jay later escaped from Russian custody. While Blue Jay sought the Justice League for help, the Sorceress returned to Angor. Unfortunately, she discovered the Extremists, an Angorian team of meta-human villains responsible for the destruction of her home world, and was captured and tortured to bring them to Earth, where they intended to take over the planet. From her mind, Dreamslayer extracted a path to Earth. The Sorceress was taken to a theme park known as Wacky World and imprisoned by Carny. Justice League Europe managed to rescue the Sorceress, along with one of the few survivors of Angor, a celebrity entertainer known as Mitch Wacky. Mitch was actually being held prisoner by robotic versions of the Extremists. The Sorceress soon learned Mitch was dying of the flu, an ailment that is easily remedied back on Earth. This terrible news came as another brutal reminder of how different her people were to her teammates, of how alone she still felt on Earth. Silver Sorceress helped the League confront and battle the android Extremists, and upom discovering that Dreamslayer was the only surviving Extremist the Sorceress cast a spell which destroyed Dreamslayer's body. The Silver Sorceress and Blue Jay decided to remain on Earth and joining the European Branch of the Justice League International.

She remains with the team as an active member until her death at the hands of Dreamslayer, whose essence manages to take over the mind of Maxwell Lord, a close friend and leader of various aspects of the Justice League. Using Lord's persuasions powers, he took over the mobile island of Kooey Kooey Kooey, using it and kidnapping Mitch Wacky as a base to rebuild the Extremists. When Mitch is not needed anymore, he is brutally killed. Silver and the League attack the island and its natives that were brainwashed into fighting back. Silver falls victim to the need not to hurt the innocent natives and she ends up shot in the stomach with an arrow. As she lay dying, she managed to subdue and entrap Dreamslayer, temporarily ending his threat. The League members bury Silver Sorceress on Kooey Kooey Kooey island. Despite the fact they all lost a friend, none were as affected by her death as much as Blue Jay, for now he was literally the last of his people.

## Powers, Abilities and Weaknesses

Silver Sorceress is a magic user of advanced abilities. While she had to use a combination of magic and technology to create the original doorway from Angor to that of the Justice League, she is later able to do so with magic alone.

* **Homo Magi Physiology:** Homo Magi or "Mages" are a sub-race of magic-using humans. The Homo magi evolved in a parallel but separate line, alongside Homo sapiens, almost exclusively on the ancient land of Atlantis, prior to its cataclysmic destruction. Laura is descended from survivors of the cataclysm who integrated into human society.
	+ ***Astral Projection:*** Laura can project her consciousness into a mystical duplicate of herself, emulating an ephemeral being which allows her to explore the astral plane at incredible speeds and more easily transition to other dimensions, such as the Void, the Dreaming, and so forth.
	+ ***Silvering:*** Laura can place an enchantment on herself or others which induces a potent period of intense self-reflection. This is best used as a therapeutic practice on sleeping subjects, but it is possible to cast such a spell on a walking target. Targets of this spell will experience visions, dreams, nightmares, or hallucinations that can depict things that a person has fears, regrets, desires, or hopes concerning. Laura has no control over what visions the person may experience when under this spell, how long the spell lasts, or what may happen to the subject after surviving the experience.
	+ ***Silver Sorcery:*** Laura's most recognizable magical effect is the colorless raw magic she generates to create arcane constructs, levitate herself in the air, propel blasts at her enemies, shield herself or others from harm, or ensnare objects and persons to suspend them mid-air.
	+ ***Sorcery:*** Laura has access to magic intuition and natural ability. She has also studied extensively to give her further knowledge and perfect her prowess. Laura is capable of the manipulation of essence through the use of rituals, warding symbols, occult gestures, and spells. Laura has demonstrated on a number of occasions that she has a rather potent amount of esoteric potential, exceeding what is usual for most known mages.
	+ ***Supernatural Senses:*** Laura can see magic, ghosts, and ephemera, as well the raw flows of essence around her. She can distinguish magic from the mundane quite easily (see 'Achromatopsia' in the Weaknesses section for more info). She can also hear mystical sound and interact with the ethereal world.

* **Music:** Laura plays a number of acoustic instruments including guitar and piano. She is also a skilled singer. She can often be found strumming chords and singing ballads in her cabin on the Watchtower as a means of calming herself before or after a mission or to provide a diversion from her mystical studies.

### Weaknesses

* **Achromatopsia:** Since she was eight years old, Laura suffers from an extreme form of color blindness. For her, the world exists in black and white, much like an old-time television. This may be the explanation for her altered appearance, as an example of some sort of mystical mind over matter. It is worth noting that this condition only effects her physical sight. She still perceives magic and esoteric energy in color. As such, Laura does not consider her color blindness to be any sort of detriment to her, and actually views it as a benefit that allows her to more easily recognize magic around her.

## Notes and Trivia

### Notes

* Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series *Crisis on Infinite Earths* remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.
* The Silver Sorceress is an homage to the Marvel Comics character Scarlet Witch. Like all her teammates, she is an analogue for a member of the Avengers.
	+ In the comics her last name is Neilsen.
	+ Her appearance is based on the actress Elizabeth Olsen, who portrays Scarlet Witch in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
		- Her civilian appearance is based on Scarlet Witch's costume in *Avengers: Age of Ultron*.
		- The character of Silver Sorceress is an homage to Marvel's Scarlet Witch in DC Comics.
		- Laura's color blindness and fond of black-and-white movies is also a nod to the *WandaVision* TV series.
	+ The Angorian Magical Academy is a nod to the character being from another planet called Angor.
	+ She is composited with Laryn Nelson, the daughter of Kent V. Nelson, who was also a Doctor Fate.
	+ Laura's family has nods to other characters from various media:
		- Bruce Nelson is a detective who appeared in *Detective Comics* #1.
		- Seth Nelson is a character from the *Smallville* TV series.
		- Lia Kelly is Lia Nelson, the Flash of Earth-9 / Tangent Comics reality.
		- Terrence Kelly and Celeste Nelson are the parents of Lia Nelson.

### Trivia

* + Silver Sorceress makes a brief cameo appearance in issue #4 of the *JLA/Avengers* crossover miniseries.
	+ In *Showcase* #63 (July-August 1966), the Inferior Five faced a team of supervillains based on Marvel Comics Avengers. This team has a member named that Silver Sorceress that is also based on Marvel's Scarlet Witch; however, she is otherwise unrelated to the version from Angor
	+ Laura's mother used to smoke. As a result, Laura cannot stand the smell of tobacco. On more than once instance, she has forcibly put John Constantine's cigarette out or used a spell to cleanse him and his clothes of the residual odor.
	+ Laura is a fan older (black-and-white) movies and television shows, possibly due to her severe color blindness.
	+ Laura has been spending a lot of her free time off the Watchtower in Coast City as of late. Supposedly, she's really into their foodie scene.
		- Silver Sorceress joined the Justice League in 2017 nominated by Batman.