Marvel Database
Marvel Database

I know there are other people out there like me...Super Heroes. They don't just defend their cities. They defend the whole world. And the whole world knows their names. Maybe someday they'll know mine.

Lei Ling[source]

History

Origin[]

Lei Ling (Chinese: 雷绫) ever since she was little dreamed of flying, and one day she discovered that she can control air and can really fly.[1] She graduated from the Tongji University as top student and then founded her own architect firm the Sacred Tree Design in Shanghai.[6] Lei Ling helped to design and build multiple buildings in the city,[1] and became the youngest to ever win Pritzker Architecture Prize, international award for living architects.[6] Some time later Lei Ling entered a relationship with Zou Yu[1] and they dated for four years.[7]

Eventually she started using her powers to protect Shanghai and became a known heroine Aero (Chinese: 气旋).[1] As Aero she was adored and loved by public,[8][3] and was treated as protector of the city,[6] but she kept her real identity in secret, because she hadn't wanted for her loved ones to become targets of her enemies.[1] She kept it in secret even from her mother[5] and boyfriend Zou Yu.[3]

Crystal Towers[]

One day during celebratory dinner Zou Yu decided to propose a marriage.[9] Ling's mother also wanted for her to marry,[5] but Ling herself wasn't yet ready for marriage and preferred to postpone and distract Zou Yu from making the proposal so she wouldn't have to say "no" to him.[9]

During the dinner Lei Ling noticed an accident going on in the city and went there to help.[10] She discovered strange crystal tower and fought against golems that came from it.[8] Aero managed to destroy the tower,[5] but next day 107 similar towers appeared all around Shanghai.[3] Same golems appeared from another tower and started to attack people, but Aero discovered that they stop moving, if no one approaches the tower. She decided that fighting them maybe not the best solution, so she brought the crystal from the previously destroyed tower to the National Institute of Science and Technology for scientific analyze.[6]

Mysterious woman Madame Huang came to Ling's office and revealed that she also had powers and provided a bit of information about the towers. She offered to help, if Aero needs it.[6] While skeptical, Aero still went to Madame Huang's to learn more. Madame Huang told her a story about ancient giant creatures, the Nest, that existed at the dawn of humanity. Before humans learned to build their own houses, they lived in the bodies of the Nest. But once they started to develop technologies, humans decided that the Nest became obsolete and since they can't control the Nest, they had to be destroyed. To achieve it, humanity created the crystal towers, but now they were a threat to humanity and had to be all destroyed. Madame Huang then helped Aero to train for several hours to create duplicates from air, so she could attack multiple towers simultaneously.[11]

Aero tried this way of attack same evening, but discovered that it was too taxing to control even one duplicate from afar, and as it was nothing but air, it couldn't really help her much. Only by utilizing tactics to force golems to attack each other, had she managed to win and destroy another tower.[7]

Next day Tony Stark arrived in Shanghai with a visit, his company and Lei Ling's architect firm had joint project.[12] Aero and Iron Man worked together and destroyed several more towers.[13] After Iron Man returned back to New York, Aero continued to destroy towers on her own for the next several days. She then returned to Madame Huang again to get some more advices from her. Under Madame Huang's guidance Aero learned to better control her powers and utilize the minimum needed effort to achieve her goal, this way making her able to fight more efficiently and for a longer time.[14]

The Last Nest[]

Eventually Aero managed to destroy all crystal towers, just like Madame Huang wanted. Madame Huang then revealed her true motives, she was actually the last survivor of the massacre of the Nests from thousands years ago. She wanted to destroy the towers, because they were a threat to her, but once they were gone she was able to call back the last Nest so they could conquer the Earth.[12][9]

Learning about Madame Huang's identity, Aero dissolved their student-teacher relationship and they became enemies. While waiting for the last Nest to return back to Earth, Madame Huang transformed multiple buildings in Shanghai into giant monsters and they fought with Aero.[9] After several months the Nest arrived and started to descend on Shanghai. While Chinese military tried to stop the Nest, Aero tracked down Madame Huang, hoping to defeat her and this way stopping the Nest.[1][10] It is unclear how exactly, but she indeed managed to stop Madame Huang and the Nest.

War of the Realms[]

Some time later Aero went beyond her jurisdiction into the North Pacific as she got this feeling like there was something wrong with the wind. Aero ended up in a confrontation with Triumph Division operative Wave who also felt a disturbance with the water. A whirlpool formed in front of them and Aero was bewildered by what had caused it. As she checked it out a plateau of fiery land rose from the ocean knocking Wave and Aero unconscious as Fire Demons of Muspelheim rose with the island pronouncing they had divided and conquered the two women.[15]

Aero finally came around after being contacted by her people about Shanghai being under attack. She figured that they had been tricked by the demons who pronounced that their queen sensed Aero's elemental power and decided to lure her away from her homeland so she wouldn't be there to protect it. Just when Lei was going to get an answer about who they were, the demons were killed by the fire goddess "Tūtū Pele."[15]

When a black dome encased all of Sin-Cong, Aero was there to save the poor villagers living in the outskirts. Wanting to rescue those who were trapped in the dome she attempted to go through it but was negatively affected by it. Warbird came to her rescue and brought Aero to Bhang Robotics HQ where Doctor Strange cured her.[16] She joined the heroes in infiltrating the dome and attack Lady Lotus. They fought her forces but were captured as their plan wasn't followed.[17]

Fortunately for them, Aero and her fellow heroes were able to escape through some gates that led them to a mystical desolate world.[18] There they encountered the being known as Shan-K'ang who explained to them how her world came under the attack of some aliens leading to her partially passing to theirs world and became the land that would become Sin-Cong. Deciding to help her become whole by bringing her to Earth-616, but it was revealed that in her attempt to regain her strength, Shan-K'ang was unwillingly collapsing all of the country. Lady Lotus attempted to bend the being to her will, but thankfully was knocked out by Kevin Schumer using one of Porcupine's sedative quills. With this, the mysterious Threadneedle appeared and calmed down his "sister" Shan-K'ang, helping her stop the destruction by leaving a little of her power behind. With the problem solved the heroes brought Lady Lotus to justice.[19]

Attributes

Powers

Lei Ling (Earth-616) from War of the Realms New Agents of Atlas Vol 1 1 002

Aero in flight

Lei Ling gained powers when she was a child,[6] but she doesn't know their source.[1]

Air Manipulation: By using her chi[9] Lei Ling can control the air and shape it into any form she wants just by thinking about it.[1] By controlling the air around the objects and people, she can lift them and control their movements with pinpoint precision.[9] For example, she was able to control thief's hand and redirect it, so he wouldn't be able to injure Zou Yu with knife and would instead throw the knife away. She then pressed the knife in place with air flow strong enough what thief wasn't able to lift it.[7] She can form air currents as strong as a hurricane,[9] and was able to lift a boat with them.[3] She was able to disperse cyclone by rotating the air around it in the opposite direction.[8] When she is underwater, Aero can gather the air into a sphere around her, so she could breath.[8] She can also utilize the sphere to harm her aquatic opponents who can't breathe on land. She also can form air currents strong enough to move people a long distance through water.[5]

  • Air Blasts: By gathering and compressing the air she can then release it as powerful blasts to attack enemies and push them away.[5][3] If she adds spinning to blasts, they can bore through high grade concrete.[1] Normally she directs the blasts with hands,[1][5][3] but can also do it with kicks,[10][5] or compress the air and release it as omnidirectional blast.[5]
  • Aerial Flight: Lei Ling can fly by using wind and can also do this with others.[1][10]
  • Air Senses: Lei Ling is always mentally connected with the air around her. By feeling the air movement she senses when someone approaches her[9] and can discern exact actions of people around her without even seeing them.[7] She can concentrate on this feeling to discern further details, for example, to feel what object someone is hiding in their pocket.[9] Aero can expand the range of this feeling, to, for example, feel the air currents in the building and check if there are people inside or not.[1] She was even able to include entire city into the range of her power.[9] Aero was also able to sense when something unnatural is happening with the air,[1] even if it happens a great distance away from her, for example, she was able to feel disturbance in the air above the North Pacific while she herself was still in Shanghai.[15] She can also rely on this feeling to track individual molecules of the air underwater.[8]
    • Emotion Perception: Via her connection with air, Lei Ling can even feel the heartbeat of other people and use it to judge if they are calm,[9] nervous,[10] in terror or in love.[8][5] When she expands the range of her feeling, she can rely on this power to find specific person in the city among 26 million people.[9]
  • Air Constructs: She can compress the air into semi-solid state and mold it into various shapes, for example, platforms,[1] swords,[9] shields.[10] She also forms her superhero costume from the air,[10][12] when she loses concentration the costume disperses.[13]
    • Aerokinetic Blade: She can shape the air into thin razor blades,[9][14] strong and sharp enough to cut a building apart.[10]
    • Duplication: After training with Madame Huang, Lei Ling learned to create a duplicate of herself from air.[11] She calls the double "Aero Avatar". It looks the same as her, but is partially transparent and glowing. The double isn't autonomous and fully relies on her control to move. The farther away from her it moves, the harder it is to control. Aero had to stay focused to control it, if she loses concentration the double starts to disperse. As it is just air, the double can't see or use Aero's powers. While physical attacks go thought it, they disrupt the air currents and it exhaust Aero's power to keep the double in a coherent form.[7]
  • Sound Cancellation: She can cancel the sound by counteracting the vibrations with air currents.[9]

Abilities

Trivia

  • Her superhero codename in the original Chinese manhua was 气旋, which means "Cyclone". In English, her alias was changed to "Aero".
    • Her name, which in the original comic was written as 雷, means "thunder".

See Also

Links and References

References