Origin
Julie is the daughter and second child of Margaret Power and James Power, an inventor who once made a device which (unbeknownst to him) could destroy large parts of the universe. The alien race known as the Snarks came looking for the device and thus came into conflict with the Power kids, whom moments before had received amazing powers from Whitey, an alien who died trying to warn the Power family of the nearing danger of the Snarks. Julie was given the power of flight. Her siblings also gained super powers: Alex could control gravity, Jack could manipulate his body density and Katie could disintegrate matter and then fire energy balls. Julie adopted the code-name Lightspeed. Although they four of them now had amazing powers, they could not stop the Snarks from kidnapping their parents and taking them of into space for further study of the humans. All seemed lost until the smart-ship (named Friday) of the now dead alien Whitey told the Power kids he could follow the Snarks and try helping them rescue their parents. The foursome went of to outer space, in hot pursuit of the Snarks. After an intense battle the Power kids found their parents on the Snarks mother-ship, where able to save them and flee the forces of the Snarks. Afterwards, Julie’s parents didn’t have any memory of the Snarks or their kidnapping. The four siblings decided to keep their powers a secret to their parents and the world. Especially Julie was in a moral dilemma thinking that her mother and father wouldn’t love her anymore and think of her as a freak if she told them about her powers. When Julie asked her mom, Margaret if she would love her no matter what, Margaret replied that “she would love her, even if she would start flying” (witch ironically was Julie’s superhuman power), reassuring Julie it was all OK. And thus Power Pack was born, the world’s youngest superhero team.
Creation
Julie Power was created by writer Louise Simonson and artist June Brigman and first appeared in Power Pack #1 (1984).
Major Story Arcs
Power Pack
Power Pack soon established itself as a young superheroes team. They had their own costumes and often teamed-up with other heroes, working with larger superhero teams, like the X-Men and the Fantastic Four and they even became a trusted sight for the amazing Spider-Man. Julie was probably the most well educated of the bunch, she read books whenever she could and often helped the team out by using her knowledge of things. Early in their careers, the team befriended Franklin Richards, who came looking for the team after he had precognitive dreams of Power Pack getting attacked by the Snark prince Jackal. These dreams turned out to be a reality when the team was in fact attacked by the Jackal. Power Pack, aided by Franklin, fought the Jackal in a lengthy battle and won. After this, the team accepted Franklin as a member of the team, codenamed Tattletale.
While Power Pack was doing battle on the Snark planet, the team went through their first ‘power switch.’ Team members could ‘trade’ their own power for one of their brother’s or sister’s. Julie gained Jack’s old power, the density power. She could turn into a cloud or go small and super dense. She was the first of the Pack to discover how to use this power to project water and air bubble force fields. Early on in the series, she was also the first of the Pack to demonstrate Kymellian healing powers when her arm broke but was nearly healed the next day. The next time the team switched powers, Julie got her flying power back. She and her brother’s and sister went on to battle many more menaces like the supernatural Bogeyman, but also more earthly subjects as drugs-dealers and robbers.
In between and the 2000 mini-series
After many, many adventures, the Power Pack team decided to take it more easy and start living their normal lives again. This worked out for most of the time, except when Julie’s oldest brother Alex briefly returned to the superhero life, aiding the New Warriors. He borrowed all of his sibling team’s powers, making Alex stronger then ever. Soon after this, peace returned to the Power’s house. Julie was attending high school and had a crush on a boy living near her home. At a party, the boy asked her if she wanted to go outside the room. Julie accepted but was shocked when the boy started kissing her. Julie ran off with tears in her eyes. She later told her parents that she did like him, but was not ready to kiss yet. And when he kissed her, he took away her only chance at a first kiss. The boy later apologized, but Julie told him she did not want to see him again. To protect their identities, Julie and her siblings now wore masks whenever they appeared as Power Pack. The team had to return to their old alter-egos again when the Snarks attacked their home. A battle was fought, but the kids managed to defeat them once again and save the day.
Loners
A time leap forward. Julie, now older, decided to retire from the hero business for good and left her home for some time to pursue a personal life. During a meeting with the team known as the Loners (a support group for superheroes who didn’t want to fight anymore) she decided that she would like to take on an acting career. However she and her group-members agreed to take on one last mission they were offered. The goal of the mission was to bring in the Runaways, young children that reminded Julie a lot of how Power Pack used to be. After the mission, they decided to stop using their powers. Julie however felt the urge to make use of her powers and did so against the group of Runaways. While fighting Runaways-member Karolina Dean, she fell a strange connection to her. After a fight between Hollow and Julie’s group member Ricochet, she was wounded (but soon recovered) and decided to stop her membership with the Loners support group. Julie left the group and returned home, still hoping to find her place in the world. It is known that an old member of the Loners got Julie an audition at the Marvel Studios.
Avengers Academy
Recently, following the events of Fear Itself, the Avengers Academy has moved to the west coast and taken up residence at the former base of the West Coast Avengers. They have decided to open their doors to any and all super powered youths who want formal training. While many are just part time students, Julie Power, along with White Tiger, have joined the Avengers Academy roster as full time members to the chagrin of the rest of the team. While there, she admitted to another student to sometimes have feelings for girls as well as she does for boys, but she is not just sure yet and hasn’t done anything with those feelings. Julie remains at the Academy for now, but also visits her home and her brothers and sister as often as she can. During a brief crossover between the two groups, Julie Power and Karolina Dean of the Runaways decided to start dating.
Break-up
For some time, Julie and Karolina dated, both heading of to college. This caused some problems, since Karolina’s school was very far away from where Julie was attending her school. At this moment, July also came out to friends as both liking boys and girls, falling for their characters. Eventually Karolina once more rekindled her friendship with her group of friends, known as the Runaways. This caused great strain on Julie and Karolina’s relationship, with Julie trying to save their relationship, but Karolina seemingly lacking the motivation or will to do so. Things came to a climax when Julie was accidantely returned (by sorrcery) into the body of her preteen self. She was luckily restorted to her normal self, but this, and the seeming lack of support from Karolina, caused Julie to angerly break it of with Karoline.
Future Foundation
Grief-strickin of her break-up with Karoline, Julie returned home and filled a number of her days with eating ice-cream and crying. This was until she was contacted by her big brother Alex, which at the time lead the Future Foundation, a team searching through the multi-verse. He aksed for her help and, with not much consent, Julie was teleported away into a different reality onboard of the ship of the Future Foundation. At first, Julie was angered, but after helping the group out with their problem, she filled Alex in on everything she had been up to (including her being bi-sexual) and eventually decided she wanted to stay with her big brother and help his team out in all their multiversal adventures!
Return to Earth and Outlawed!
With Julie’s parents pleeding the Fantastic Four to return their oldest children back home to Earth, mr. Fantastic managed to return them through an interdimensional portal. They came back just in time to be cought up in the effects of the Outlawed-law, which restricted teenage superheroes from doing superhoeing.
Powers
Main power: Acceleration, High-Speed Flight, Teleportation
Other powers: Density control, force fields, water bursts, energy blasts, gravity control, subconscious healing.
Explanation of powers
When Julie flies, she doesn’t actually fly at light speed. Many people have been mislead due to her name and many other factors but actually all she does is fly and leave a trail of light behind her. It is known that she can break the sound barrier but her top speeds are unknown, initially Julies Acceleration abilities had nothing else to expand upon but with time and practice she eventually learned how to teleport over variable distances using it once as her Lightspeed persona and again as Starstreak.
When she has the density power, she released her molecular structure to make herself like mist. She can also compact it to make herself small and dense. By manipulating particles around her body she can create air bubbles and force fields and wind bursts.
Her healing power was transmitted when the pack gained their powers. Julie was the first to demonstrate it subconsciously early on when her arm was fractured. The other 4 siblings also have healing powers.
Alternate Realities
Earth-91172
On Earth-91172, a world ravaged by the Hulk, Lightspeed is a member of the Next Wave of Heroes – the last heroes of earth. The members are Quentin Quire, Patriot, Wiccan, Lightspeed, Speedball and Sophie, Mindee and Esme Cuckoo.
Earth-58163
In the House of M reality Julie was member of the Wolfpack, a gang of super-powered sapiens.
Trivia: The team’s first major battle was with an alien race known as the Z’nrx. Since their name was unpronounceable Julie dubbed them the Snarks based on the monsters of her favorite book; The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll.
Other Media
Games
Lego Marvel´s Avengers
Lightspeed is a playable character in the game.