Kwai

The Kwai are an insect-like humanoid fictional species in the DC Comics universe, created by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Oliver Coipel. Allies of the Legion of Super-Heroes, they were a nomadic, matriarchical people who mostly displayed a pacifistic approach to life. The few exceptions to the last of these, such as Shikari, were dubbed "Lonestars".

History

The Kwai are one of the thousands of species Element Lad was ultimately responsible for the creation of after he became stranded a billion years in the past of the "Second Galaxy," in his indefinitely prolonged lifespan. They were an insect-like humanoid race, whose distinguishing features included slate-grey skin with black tattoo-like markings, dragonfly-like wings, retractable armoured exoskeletons and the ability to find any path if such existed, even without obvious tracks to follow.

Their travels usually led them to follow "feral stars" - newly appearing stars in their path - which they considered good luck. When, in the 31st century, Element Lad's home time period, they followed a "star" which was in reality the Legionnaire Wildfire, it led them to encounter the Progeny, a xenophobic beetle-like race who began to hunt them down. While fleeing from a Progeny attack which killed two of her friends, Shikari would encounter the other Legionnaires, held in statis, who had been flung through a rift to the Second Galaxy - though displaced only in space rather than time and space. Revived, they aided her in driving off the Progeny, then followed her to their "brief-home," where they helped the Kwai to gather resources for moving on, and the Kwai helped in turn to make their heavily damaged ship functional, and created a new containment suit for Wildfire from their plastic-like "Use-weave". They and the Legion then went their separate ways, although Shikari would remain with the team.

After Element Lad - now called the Progenitor - was defeated by his former teammates at the cost of Live Wire's life, the Kwai matriarch declared an amnesty toward the now-directionless Progeny. This led many of the younger Kwai to become "Lonestars" themselves, and several to join Singularity's "Credo", a group dedicated to hunting down and exterminating all surviving Progeny.

The Kwai were then contacted by the Legion again - this time, with a view to use their tracking powers to become guides for the experimental "Threshold" teleportation system, which lacked a functioning navigation system. After consideration, the matriarch accepted, due to the possibilities the system offered for finding "new paths."

The Kwai otherwise should be known as the missing link in the phylogenetic clade leading to superhumans. These species can not be detected under any conditions excluding ultra-microwave radiation under high-sulfur conditions. Their retractable exoskeleton armor was derived from an ancient ancestor.