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Natalie Lane Irons (Arrowverse: Controlled Burn)

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Forged in fire, strong as steel.
— Nat Irons src

Natalie "Nat" Lane Irons, codenamed Starlight, is the daughter of John Henry Irons and Lois Lane from an alternate Earth destroyed by her world's version of Superman. After arriving on a new Earth, she reunited with her father and eventually built her own Steel armor, becoming a vigilante in Smallville and briefly living with the Kent Family.

Origins

Natalie had a close relationship with her grandfather Sam Lane. They shared a love of horror movies and had movie nights once a week.[2]

On a day seemingly like any other, Superman turned on humanity and attacked Metropolis, destroying the city in seven minutes with an army of Kryptonians. The US Army under the command of her grandfather General Sam Lane tried to stand against the invaders, but were easily defeated. Her father was the only survivor.

The Irons family relocated to a hidden bunker where they would be safe from the invaders, but Lois went on television to tell the world about the Kryptonians' secret weakness to Kryptonite. Natalie witnessed her mother being murdered by Superman in the middle of the broadcast.

John and Natalie constructed a suit of armor which would allow John to fight the Kryptonians head on, using books to teach themselves the advanced engineering skills required. John was forced to take the armor out to fight Superman before it was fully complete, promising Natalie that he would come back to her.[3]

John's attempt to kill Superman somehow opened a dimensional rift to another world which he fell through.[4] Natalie followed him in an escape pod, crossing through the rift just before her dimension was destroyed by waves of antimatter and emerged in a black void, the space between worlds. Her ship's AI put her in hibernation until it could find a way to get her out. Six months later her ship was able to detect the transponder on John's armor, and Natalie ordered it to follow the signal out of the void despite the AI warning her the trip could be dangerous.[5]

Season One

Natalie crashlanded on the Kent Farm where John was staying and tearfully reunited with him, but then saw the Lois of this world, mistaking her for her mother.[6]

Season Two

Natalie Lane Irons Arrowverse Controlled Burn 002

Nat using her Steel Armor

Natalie ran to Lois and attempted to hug her but John stopped her and explained that Lois was not her mother. Lois stood in silent shock until the two departed in John's RV. Lois repeatedly tried to reach out to Natalie over the next three months, but Natalie refused to speak to her. John and Natalie settled in Metropolis under the names Henry and Natalie Johnson and Natalie enrolled in Metropolis High School. However, on the first day of school she encountered her best friend's parallel universe counterpart who did not recognise or even acknowledge her. Natalie walked out and wandered around the city for hours. She eventually came home and told John that they did not belong on this other Earth, and she wished she had been killed along with the rest of their world.

Natalie's arrival had stirred up Lois' issues stemming from her mother leaving the family when she was a child and felt guilty that she did not immediately love Natalie upon meeting her. She eventually called John and asked him to arrange a meeting between them. John took Natalie to Smallville ostensibly to try out a diner he liked, where Lois met them. Natalie angrily stormed out and Lois followed her. She told Natalie that although she was not her mother she still wanted to get to know and be friends with her, and she eventually convinced Natalie to agree to move to Smallville. At the Kent Farm, Lois officially introduced Natalie to her family.[7]

Natalie started attending Smallville High School with Jordan and Jonathan Kent and quickly befriended Jordan's girlfriend Sarah, using her mechanical skills to repair an old car Sarah's father Kyle had been working on. She could tell that Sarah and Jordan were having relationship problems and Sarah confided in her that she had kissed another girl over the summer. Natalie encouraged Sarah to be honest with Jordan.[8]

Natalie started to bond with the Kent twins, giving Jordan relationship advice and playing video games with them. Although John promised Natalie he would stay away from superheroics, he investigated the Shuster mines to determine the cause of the recent earthquakes and he and Superman were attacked by a monster who came up from underground. John's armor was seriously damaged and Natalie reluctantly decided to help him repair and upgrade it.[9] However, John took the damaged armour out before it was ready to help Superman fight Bizarro and was left comatose. Natalie was devastated and blamed Superman.[10]

Natalie chose to stay at the hospital rather than return to the Kent's home.[11] John eventually regained consciousness and was cleared for release, although he still had occasional lapses of memory, much to Natalie's concern. She continued to be hostile to Clark after the Irons's returned to the farm, eventually admitting that she was instinctively afraid of him because he was identical to the man who killed her mother. Clark suggested that she may be more comfortable if she and John had their own place, and they moved into a rental property belonging to a friend of his.[5]

Superman disappeared through a portal to a "shadow dimension" while hunting for Ally Allston, and in the month that followed John took over his heroic duties, using an upgraded Warsuit. He became so engrossed in this that he forgot the anniversary of her mother's death, which was also the date of Smallville's mayoral election. Natalie attempted to make waffles for breakfast using Lois's recipe as a form of remembrance, but John did not recognise what she was doing and took her to Lana Lang's campaign headquarters to help out. She was furious that John had seemingly completely forgotten Lois, especially when she saw him flirting with Lana and demanded that they go home. John realised what day it was and apologised to Natalie for forgetting, telling her he had been trying to move on from Lois's death because his grief had driven him to extreme actions. He made waffles and they watched old videos of Lois together.[12]

Clark returned home and told John that Ally Allston had fused with her other self on the inverse world, becoming potentially more powerful than him, and that Jonathan Kent's counterpart was on their world and had a pendant that allowed him to fuse people from the two world together, meaning he could potentially create a superpowered army. Nat was terrified of what had happened on their world repeating itself but John told her that he would protect her and asked her to help him build a device to stop Jon-El.

John and Natalie built a device that could potentially destroy the pendant Jon-El needed to merge the worlds, but it required so much energy to power it that merely running it for a few seconds blacked out the town. They went to the Shuster mines to collect X-Kryptonite to power the device. They found a rich vein near the portal to the other world and, as John was cutting a crystal from the wall, the inverse world's Lana Lang came through the portal and attacked them. John attempted to fight her off but his red solar weapons only made her stronger. As Lana was about to kill John, Natalie stabbed her with a shard of X-Kryptonite and the wounded Lana fled back through the portal. When they got home, John got an idea to collapse the portal and left to make a phone call. Natalie offered to help but he told her he could handle it.[13]

Natalie was secretly working on her own armour so she could help her father and was annoyed that he still treated her like a child despite everything they had been through. On Jon Kent's first day back at Smallville High School he encountered some of his former teammates who blamed him for getting the season cancelled and ranted at them that their problems meant nothing and the world was about to end. Jordan and Natalie pulled him away and Nat recognised that Jon was on edge after his encounter with his doppleganger. Natalie suggested that they skip school and took the twins to her home to show them her armour. She offered it to Jonathan to protect himself from Jon-El. The suit was unfinished and required a power source, so she took the twins into the Shuster Mines to collect X-Kryptonite to power the suit.

The kids made slow progress manually digging the X-Kryptonite from the rock, so Jordan used by heat vision to cut a chunk of it off. He inadvertently caused a cave-in but saved the others with his super-speed, leaving behind the X-K they had already gathered. Although the mission was a failure, they had fun together and got Jonathan out of his mood. They spent the rest of the day hanging out together at the Irons' home and Jonathan and Jordan stayed for dinner with John and Nat.[14]

Natalie completed the suit, but John learned about it before she could tell him and he confronted her. He ordered her to destroy the suit, telling her he would not allow her to put herself at risk but she refused. John attempted to destroy it himself but found that, as Natalie expected, it was indestructible. Natalie told him that she wanted to fight for this new world after they had lost their home, and asked him not to try to hold her back. Although he was still concerned for her safety, John agreed to let her join him.

Lois' journalism partner Chrissy Beppo called General Lane's emergency DoD number, and John realised that she and likely Lois were in trouble. John and Natalie responded to the distress call but Ally was too powerful to stop and simply left of her own accord. Natalie was able to resuscitate Superman using a defibrillator built into her suit, and they carried him and Sam back to the DoD. John and Lois stayed at the hospital while Superman was being treated Natalie joined the Kent twins at the farm. That night, Lois and John came to the farm and told them that Superman would live but he was still unconscious and his powers appeared to be gone, potentially forever.[15]

Clark eventually regained consciousness and returned home, but he was severely weakened and his powers were not restored by the sun. He thanked Natalie for saving his life, and she replied that the world needed Superman, showing she was no longer afraid of him. Clark asked John to take him to the Fortress of Solitude to find a way to restore his powers, but discovered there was nothing they could do except wait for his powers to recover naturally, which could take years. Meanwhile, the inverse world's red sun appeared in the sky as the two worlds began to merge. John and Clark returned to Smallville and John and Natalie went into the stratosphere to scan the red sun. They found that it was putting out approximately 3% of the energy of the normal sun but the output was increasing as the worlds merged together.

John and Natalie calculated that they had less than twelve hours before the worlds merged and tracked the source of the merge to the Shuster Mines, but couldn't detect Ally in the area. They received a distress call from the Kent Farm and responded in time to chase Lana-Rho away before she could harm anyone. They told Clark and Sam what they had found and Clark realised that Ally was in the space between worlds that he and Natalie had passed through when they crossed between dimensions.

John decided to go into the void and stop Ally. Natalie insisted on going with him and upgraded his suit to match the specification of hers, but when it was time to leave he triggered a safeguard on her armour which would prevent it activating for ten minutes. He told her to stay behind and protect the Kents, and left her the Kinetic Hammer. Natalie monitored John on comms as he went into the void. He found Ally and his her with a missile, but she absorbed the energy of the explosion and blasted him away. Natalie lost contact with him just as the lock on her suit expired. Her AI informed her that Jon-El and Lana-Rho were attacking the Kents at the school, forcing her to choose between helping them or trying to save her father. She donned her armour and flew to the school, where she helped Jordan defeat the two villains. Jon-El and Lana were taken into custody.

Natalie left the school alone but did not want to go home without her father and went to the Kent Farm instead. When the Kents got home they told her she was welcome to stay with them, and Lois assured her that John would come back. The worlds began to merge, and they were transported to Bizarro's dilapidated home on the inverse world.[16] Natalie managed to re-establish partial communications with her father and heard her tell him to bring her escape pod into the void. They were transported back to their world and she left to get her suit and the pod. The twins wanted to go with her but she only had one suit and likely even Jordan would have been ripped apart by the journey through the portal without protection. She told them they needed to stay with their family and Jonathan told her that she was part of their family too. She hugged them goodbye and told them she had enjoyed having them as "brothers".

Nat took the pod into the space between and found her father in the void, but when she got there she learned he had wanted her to bring X-Kryptonite which they could use to destroy the portals, but she hadn't heard that part of the message. She offered to go back for it, but her armor was too damaged to survive the return trip. Natalie suggested they sacrifice themselves by transferring the remaining X-Kryptonite energy from their suits to the pod. John reluctantly agreed as otherwise billions of people would die. The exploding pod disrupted the merge and Ally flew towards them in a rage. Believing they were about to die Natalie tearfully told John that he was her hero and she loved hin. John attempted to protect Natalie from Ally but they were both saved by Superman, who had regained his powers. He scooped them up and returned them safely to Earth, then defeated Ally and undid the merge, saving the world.[17]

Season Three

Natalie and John Henry settled into Smallville, planning to make it their permanent home. Her father began consulting with the DoD but refused to let Natalie get involved, saying he wanted her to have a normal high school experience in Smallville. As a consequence of John Henry's work; Sam Lane, her grandfather's counterpart, began regularly visiting them. Sam suggested that they go to the movies together like she used to do wit her grandfather. She eagerly agreed, but when they got there he suggested she may be happier at a military academy in Metropolis that Smallville High and she realised that he was only interested in trying to recruit her. When she got home she told John what had happened, and that the Sam on the new world was nothing like her grandfather. At the Kent twins' birthday party the next day Sam apologised to her and told her he was terrible at dealing with people. He asked her to forgive him and give him another chance to get to know her, which she agreed to.[2]

School was closed due to a black mould infestation and so Nat met up with Sarah to study, although Sarah was more interested in talking about Nat's dating history. Natalie eventually admitted that there was a boy on her world called Travis Michaels she had had a crush on and Sarah quickly found his counterpart on social media. Sarah discovered that Travis was having a party at his family's Metropolis mansion that day and told Natalie they should go. Natalie agreed and got permission from John Henry to go.

When the girls arrived they discovered that Travis was a spoiled rich kid who already had a girlfriend, but Sarah was determined to be Natalie's "wing-woman" and got a boy she noticed staring at Nat to talk to her. Natalie and the boy, whose name was Matteo bonded over their shared love of horror movies and Matteo admitted that he had seen Natalie in the halls during her one day at Metropolis High and had been hoping to meet her ever since. Before she could get Matteo's phone number, Natalie overheard Sarah and the Kent twins, who had also gatecrashed, arguing with Travis and went to check on them. Sarah threw a drink in Travis's face and the Smallville kids had to run from the house. When they returned home, John Henry and Lana told Nat and Sarah that they had been attacked by a mysterious metahuman in a mask.[18]

Lois revealed to her friends and family that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Natalie decided to give Lois a watch which she had originally built for her mother. She asked John Henry for permission and he argued with her, but then agreed, although he was still clearly upset. She engraved her and the twin's names on it, so that they would symbolically be with her throughout her treatment. They drove straight to school from her house in Jon's truck, and left the watch in the glove compartment while they were in class. Jon's truck was stolen from the school parking lot, along with the watch.

Jon suspected that his girlfriend Candice's petty criminal father may have stolen it and, although she refused to believe it and stormed off, both Jordan and Nat agreed he definitely did. Jon did not want to call the police on him and have him arrested, so they tracked the truck to a chop shop and stole it back. The next day, she gave the watch to Lois.[19]

Three weeks later, Natalie went riding ATV's on the Kent Farm with Sam. When they returned to the farmhouse they found Jordan talking to Matteo, who Sarah had tracked down on social media and invited to come to town. He told her that he had reached out to Sarah on social media and asked for her number, and she had invited him to come to town. He asked Nat out and suggested that they go to Smallville High's Valentine's Dance together, which she agreed to.

At the dance Matteo tried to kiss her, and Nat became flustered and ran out. Sam followed her outside, and she confessed to him that she had never kissed or even dated anyone before, and she didn't know how to deal with a boy who she liked and who liked her back. Sam encouraged her to go back in, telling her she was strong enough to deal with her feelings and in response she hugged and thanked him, calling him "grandpa". She went back inside and asked Matteo if they could pick up from before she ran out, which he readily agreed to.[20]

Matteo came to Smallville to meet John Henry and take Natalie to the movies. They had lunch together, where John was uncharacteristically confrontational and aggressive and attempted to intimidate Matteo, despite his politeness and attempts to de-escalate. Natalie stormed off in a rage at his behavior. At the movies, Matteo told Natalie that he would do whatever it took to win her father's approval. John Henry came to the theatre after the movie was over and apologised for his behaviour, admitting he did not know how to deal with Natalie having a boyfriend.[21]

A few weeks later, Natalie went to Metropolis to have lunch with Matteo's family. John Henry drove her and dropped her off, but at her request did not come in. The meal went well, but a few hours later John Henry burst in and told Natalie they needed to leave immediately. To Natalie and Matteo's shock, the other patrons all pulled out guns. Mannheim ordered one of them to remove them and another diner dragged them out. They heard sounds of fighting in the distance and Matteo punched the man out. They ran over to the alley the noises were coming from and found Matteo's dad facing off with John Henry in his armour. He ordered John Henry to leave and allowed Natalie to go home unharmed.

Natalie learned that Matteo's father was Bruno Mannheim, the leader of Intergang; and that his mother was the metahuman who had attacked John and Lana. When he got home, John Henry forbade Natalie from contacting Matteo again, ignoring her protests that Matteo hadn't known about his parents, and confiscated her phone so she couldn't call him.[22] He also made Natalie wear a tracking device and carry a collapsible nightstick for self-defence; and rarely let her out of the house. Natalie complained to her friends about not being able to see Matteo and Jon suggested that she just let him go. Natalie refused and they argued when she brought up the problems he had had with Candice's father.

Some of Mannheim's henchmen tried to kidnap John and Natalie in broad daylight while they were walking home. John Henry fought them off and they fled, but John Henry was terrified at how close they came to taking her and sent Natalie to stay with the Lang's. Jon apologised to her and said that he hadn't realised how hurt she was by not being able to see Matteo. He and the others helped her meet Matteo secretly. To Natalie's surprise, Matteo defended his parents when Natalie said they tried to kill her dad, saying there may be more that they didn't know. He also told her that her dad was blocking them from seeing Peia, which she was shocked by. However, Matteo said he didn't want to talk about their parents and told Natalie that he loved her. Flustered, she told him that she loved him too and they kissed.

When Natalie got home, she learned that John Henry had killed a metahuman that Intergang had sent after him. She told John she was worried about him and how he had been acting since the night at the restaurant. She asked him why he was using Peia as a bargaining chip with Mannheim, revealing that she had been to see Matteo. John insisted that holding Peia hostage was the only way of getting Mannheim to co-operate but Natalie asked him if he wanted to be the one who took those final minutes from a family like Lois's last moment had been taken from them.[23]

John Henry did eventually allow Matteo to visit Peia, but he slipped her a temporary cure for her cancer, allowing her to regain her strength and escape.[24] The next day, John Henry and Natalie joined the Kents, Lana and Sarah for dinner the night before Lois's surgery. Natalie told her friends that, although what Matteo had done was wrong, she missed him and wished she could talk to him one last time. The next day, she flew to Matteo's home and planted her AI assistant Hedy in the living room. John Henry tracked her to the apartment and told her she needed to give up on Matteo. She pretended to be convinced and agreed to go back home with him.

Later that day, Hedy detected Matteo's voice print in the apartment and she flew over to see him. Matteo told her that Peia was in trouble and she promised to help, but Bruno and his men came up armed with guns and told her to back away. Natalie tried to tell him she was there to help, when suddenly John Henry flew it, knocked Bruno's men down with the hammer and grabbed him. Bruno goaded John Henry to kill him, but Matteo and Natalie were able to get him to stand down. The building was rocked by a shockwave and they ran up to the roof to try and spot Peia. They saw her in the distance and Matteo begged Natalie to fly him over to her so he could try and help, but she told him if he got close to her he would die. Superman flew Peia up into the sky, where she released her power in a final blast and died. He returned her body to Bruno and Matteo and told them that Peia asked him to tell them that she loved them. Natalie comforted Matteo.[25]

A month later, Sam offered John Henry a job working for the DoD, which would have required them to move to Metropolis. Natalie was excited to go as that would involve her joining the DoD Academy, where Matteo had enrolled after his father went to prison. That night, Natalie went into town to watch a meteor shower when suddenly Clark, as Superman, crashed down out of the sky onto main street. A monster flew down after him and his friends and family rushed forward to help but he told them to stay back. He tackled the monster into the sky and they battled from Smallville to Metropolis and even to the moon.[26]

Season Four

Superman was killed by the monster, who ripped out his heart, and Sam recruited John Henry and Natalie to serve as Earth's new protectors. The monster attacked the DoD on Lex Luthor's orders, to try and force Sam to tell him where his daughter was hiding. John and Natalie tried to stop the monster but he easily blew past them. Sam refused to tell Luthor what he wanted to know and the monster killed him. Just before he was killed, Sam had injected himself with a serum made from Superman's blood to make his heart compatible with Superman's body. John Henry flew Sam's body to the Fortress of Solitude, where his heart was transplanted into Superman. The Kents and Irons' held a funeral for Sam at the Kent Farm.[27]

Natalie and John Henry eventually left for Metropolis while things with Luthor started to heat up even more.[28] Eventually, Clark ran Luthor out of town[29] and publicly revealed his identity.[30] The Irons' moved back to Smallville but continued to reside in Smallville. Natalie worked hard to live up to her promise to Sam by designing weapons for the DoD, but at John Henry's urging she took a day off to go and see a movie with Jon and Jordan. Just before she went out she and John Henry responded to a vehicular accident just outside of town, and found the driver mysteriously unharmed despite the car flipping and running off the road.

The boys were forced to flee from a crowd of fans and took refuge in the Irons' house. While they were there, Jon's girlfriend Candice broke up with him via text. Jon attempted to call and talk to her but she hung up on him. At Natalie's urging, the three of them flew to Topeka so Jon could try to win her back in person. While Jon was talking to Candice Jordan asked Natalie how thing were with her and Matteo, but she told him they hadn't had a chance to see each other in months. Natalie admitted that she didn't like working for the DoD and he suggested that she just quit, but she said that people like them didn't get to leave, pointing out that he was being pulled back into heroics after trying to get out.

Jon successfully won Candice back, but later Natalie's armour, which was being remote-controlled by a hacker working for Luthor, flew in and attacked the four of them. The armour resisted all of Natalie's attempts to shut it down and the twins were forced to destroy it with their heat vision as it was strangling Jon. She returned home and told John Henry, whose armour had also been stolen, that she was more dedicated than ever to stopping Luthor.[31]

Superman was able to defeat Luthor for good with the help of his friends and family. A year later, John Henry and Lana got married at the Kent Farm. Natalie told John that their new world felt like home and she believed her mother would be happy for them.[32]


Abilities

Equipment

Transportation

  • Escape Pod (Formerly)

Weapons


  • She is vegan.[8]

Related

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Superman & Lois: "What Lies Beneath"
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Superman & Lois: "Closer"
  3. ↑ Superman & Lois: "Man of Steel"
  4. ↑ Superman & Lois: "Through The Valley Of Death"
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Superman & Lois: "Into Oblivion"
  6. ↑ Superman & Lois: "Last Sons of Krypton"
  7. ↑ Superman & Lois: "What Lies Beneath"
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Superman & Lois: "The Ties That Bind"
  9. ↑ Superman & Lois: "The Thing in the Mines"
  10. ↑ Superman & Lois: "The Inverse Method"
  11. ↑ Superman & Lois: "Girl... You'll Be a Woman, Soon"
  12. ↑ Superman & Lois: "30 Days and 30 Nights"
  13. ↑ Superman & Lois: "Truth and Consequences"
  14. ↑ Superman & Lois: "Lies That Bind"
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Superman & Lois: "All Is Lost"
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Superman & Lois: "Worlds War Bizarre"
  17. ↑ Superman & Lois: "Waiting for Superman"
  18. ↑ Superman & Lois: "Uncontrollable Forces"
  19. ↑ Superman & Lois: "In Cold Blood"
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Superman & Lois: "Head On"
  21. ↑ Superman & Lois: "Forever and Always"
  22. ↑ Superman & Lois: "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"
  23. ↑ Superman & Lois: "The Dress"
  24. ↑ Superman & Lois: "Collision Course"
  25. ↑ Superman & Lois: "Complications"
  26. ↑ Superman & Lois: "What Kills You Only Makes You Stronger"
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Superman & Lois: "Always My Hero"
  28. ↑ Superman & Lois: "When The Lights Come On"
  29. ↑ Superman & Lois: "When the Lights Come On"
  30. ↑ Superman & Lois: "A Regular Guy"
  31. ↑ Superman & Lois: "Sharp Dressed Man"
  32. ↑ Superman & Lois: "It Went By So Fast"


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