Lanford Terill

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​​55 years ago - Lanford Terrill is born.
​40 years ago - 15-year-old Lanford is exposed to alien radiation.  his body becomes capable of manipulating light.  He becomes the Ray.
​38 years ago - 17-year-old Lanford joins the All-Star Squadron.
​30 years ago - 25-year-old Lanford begins working for S.H.A.D.E.
​28 years ago - 27-year-old Lanford retires from superheroics when he is offered a permanent position with S.H.A.D.E., not realizing that it has gone rogue.
​25 years ago - 30-year-old Lanford's son Ray Terrill is born, and genetically manipulated in utero to enhance his metapowers.  S.H.A.D.E. places him in a foster home for observation.
​8 years ago - 47-year-old Lanford's son Ray Terrill's foster father is killed in a car accident.  He discovers the truth about his father and powers.  He reveals the truth about S.H.A.D.E..  Lanford goes underground to avoid arrest.
2 years ago - 53-year-old Lanford successfully uses the research done on his son Ray Terrill's powers to augment his own, and begins working as a mercenary.
Traditionally, the original Ray is always depicted as part of the Freedom Fighters, a team of characters originally from Quality Comics retroactively placed in World War II.  We've kept the Freedom Fighters in that era, but the Ray's involvement with the team is nowhere near as important as his role as the father of the modern Ray.  To this end, we've moved him from the Freedom Fighters and into our re-imagined All-Star Squadron, a team we've deliberately designed to connect Golden Age heroes to their modern counterparts.

There is a definite aura of the sinister in the way Lanford manipulated his son, and we've decided to let that flourish, involving him with the perpetually sinister spy organization S.H.A.D.E.  Letting this notion of a more disquieting purpose for the character gives him a far more unique presence, so much so that we decided to actually allow him to outlive his son, who sacrifices himself heroically to save the rest of the Justice League.