He was briefly known as Mystery Lad as the Legionnaires tried to guess his superpower. Jan was the last survivor of Trom, as the other Trommites had been massacred by the space pirate Roxxas in revenge for their refusal to transmute valuable elements for him , how a band of pirates was able to systematically massacre an entire planet of people with element-transmutation powers remains still unclear. Jan survived this genocide because he had been in space at the time.

With the aid of the Legion, Roxxas was brought to justice and Jan joined the Legion, using the codename Element Lad. He was a member of the Legion for many years, serving terms as leader and deputy leader. He was romantically linked to Shvaughn Erin, the Science Police's Legion liaison, who was depicted as a transsexual later in the series. When Shvaughn was forced to revert back to being a man, Element Lad revealed he stayed with 'her' all this time not because of 'her' being a woman, but despite it.