Who's This? A rainbow bright girl.
The facts: Created by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo for Batman and the Outsiders, and therefore first appearing in the preview included in The Brave and the Bold #200 (July 1983), Gabrielle Doe AKA Halo was the teen of the team, with color-coded auras/rays and total amnesia because she was a light-based alien in a dead girl's body (no joke). Her association with the Outsiders (at least the recognizable version of the team) never ended and she's usually been in any roster that had her friend and mother figure Katana. The link to Katana was strong enough that, in the New52, a rebooted Halo would appear in the Deadshot/Katana Suicide Squad mini-series.
How you could have heard of her: Violet/Gaby/Halo has not been seen since The Doomsday Clock event. This version of Halo briefly appeared in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and a different version (Gabrielle Daou) was in Young Justice.
Example story: The Outsiders #8 (January 1986) by Mike W. Barr and Jan Duuresema
With the Japanese spirits taking over ninjas and trying to assassinate Katana, you might think this is better suited to HER spotlight. But something happens to her that is counter to that, and it's up to her daughter figure Halo to fix things. "Gaby" (a most horrendous nickname for someone called Gabrielle - it needs another "b"!) is a teenager in an adult's body, and a very childish one at that (she has a bedtime, for example), so it's no wonder she goofs around on their girls' trip to Japan.
There's also a scene where she makes a pass at a grown man lifting weights and he fortunately ignores her. I guess this is the tail end of something because they immediately fly back to the States where someone tries to kill Katana and gets impaled on her sword (the Direct Sales-only Outsiders means the Comics Code doesn't enter into it and Katana is no longer fighting with just the flat of her blade). So they head off for Outsiders HQ, which at this point is an oil rig in the Bay. That night, Halo is watching Letterman instead of sleeping when she hears a noise. The HQ is under attack by Japanese hands!
The orange aura gives her force blasts, so I'm not sure what she means when she says they work "both ways". As a forcefield? It's still "repel". The twist, of course, is that having stabbed a possessed ninja has absorbed the evil spirit and now it's in Tatsu. Mamma, no!
It's very important to know your aura colors when reading Halo stories. Here, it's blue. What does blue do? It's a "distortion effect". It makes people think Halo is here, when she's really a few feet over there. It's not a complete illusion, she still has to lie prone there and play dead, and does so until Katana has left the oil rig.
Why so long? Feels manipulative. I guess she doesn't want to fight her mother figure. So it's BACK to Japan for Halo and Looker - why doesn't the story just have the ninja attack Katana in the hotel? Why this back and forth?! - to rescue their teammate. Time for some indigo tractor beams!
Best Halo can do is tractor the sword away from here, so there's that, at least. Indeed, Katana's soul is inside the katana, and Halo wields it into battle (plus yellow aura - a blinding light).
The Tengu spirits are on the Outsiders' side - it's just a captive one having to do the Yakuza's bidding - so the fight is taken to the Japanese mob. Red aura = heat!
In the end, Katana gets her body back and the girls hug it out. A pretty good range of auras used! We're only missing green (stasis beam, gee, should have used that on Katana) and violet (unknown at date of Who's Who publication, but gives her body's previous consciousness control).
I am semi-famous for taking a satirical pick axe at the Batman and the Outsiders book, and I held a LOT of that in while reading/reviewing this issue. I hope. But maybe that's what you like about my Outsiders coverage. Halo is no Geo-Force or (gosh!) Looker, but she's no Katana either. Middling in terms of the characters original to the series, especially in later stories like this where she isn't written as a lobotomized dumbbell. And yet, I prefer the longer hair. The short hair is too trendy for a clueless teen. But your mileage may vary.
Who's Next? The Monitor's messenger.
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