Whenever people ask me “Who’s your favorite member of the Legion of Super-Heroes?” (and they ask me much more often than you would imagine!), I inevitably answer with this poor guy:
Ferro Lad's Who's Who entry
Andrew Nolan. Ferro Lad. Died saving the world, the solar system, possibly the entire universe. Was originally intended (back in the heady days of the 1960s) to be the first black Legionnaire, but fears of racist Southern distributors refusing to carry a comic book with a black super-hero scuttled that plan.
Anyway. Ferro Lad. Cool character. Made cooler, I think, by his short-lived career and heroic sacrifice.
(From Who’s Who in the DC Universe, Volume VIII. Written by Len Wein. Art by Dan Day and Larry Mahlstedt.)
I absoulutely agree with you, Ferro Lad’s career wasn’t that long but I think he made quite the impression and you can’t help but feel like he would have been a really cool guy… well cooler than he already was for dying for the entire solar system.