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Legion of Super-Heroes

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The Legion of Super-Heroes is a DC Comics superhero team. Created by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino, the original Legion first appeared in Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958).

Although time travel stories in comic books are frequent, the series is different from most in that it actually takes place in the 30th Century. Legion of Super-Heroes stories contain more elements of fantasy and science fiction than most American comic books.

The Legion is also known for its sizable roster. Most Legion line-ups include more than a dozen minor and major characters. A common visual associated with the group is a tidal wave of colorful heroes utilizing the group's "flight rings."

The team was originally closely associated with Superboy and was first portrayed merely as a group of time travelers who frequently visited, or were visited by, the young Superman. It was several years before the Legion’s origin and back story was fleshed-out and the group's connection to Superboy was loosened. They have since remained a somewhat popular DC franchise.

Contents

Original continuity (1958–1994)

A supporting cast for Superboy

Superboy was the featured series in Adventure Comics in the late 1950s. In Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958), he was met by three teenagers from the 30th century: Lightning Boy, Saturn Girl, and Cosmic Boy, who were members of a "super-hero club" called the Legion of Super-Heroes. Their club had been formed with Superboy as an inspiration, and they had time traveled to recruit Superboy as a member. After a series of tests, Superboy was awarded membership and returned to his own time.

Although intended as a one-off story focusing on Superboy, the Legion proved so popular that they returned for an encore in Adventure Comics #267 (December 1959). Lightning Boy had been renamed Lightning Lad, and their costumes were very close to those they wore throughout the Silver Age of Comic Books. In their third appearance, with Supergirl in Action Comics #267, it was claimed that the Legionnaires in that story were children of the ones Superboy had previously met, and that the Legion existed in the 21st Century rather than the 30th. Eventually these details were retconned away.

The Legion's popularity grew, and they appeared in further adventures in Adventure Comics and Action Comics over the next few years. The ranks of the Legion, only hinted at in those first two stories, were fleshed out with new heroes such as Chameleon Boy, Invisible Kid, Colossal Boy, Star Boy, Brainiac 5, Triplicate Girl, Shrinking Violet, Sun Boy, Bouncing Boy, and Phantom Girl. They even recruited Supergirl as a member (Action Comics #267 and #276).

Despite appearing in about a dozen stories during this period, the story of the Legion's founding was not revealed until a decade had passed. In Superboy #147 (June 1968), for the first time readers learned that the first three members to appear, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy, had founded the Legion when they used their powers to save billionaire R. J. Brande from an assassination attempt. Impressed with their skills and courage, Brande would bankroll the Legion for years to come.

The creators of the early Legion stories included Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, Otto Binder, Al Plastino, George Papp, Curt Swan, Jim Mooney, and George Klein.

Starring in Adventure Comics

In Adventure Comics #300 (September 1962), the Legion finally received their own regular feature, cover-billed "Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes". While they would share space with Superboy solo stories for a couple of years, they eventually displaced Superboy entirely as their popularity grew. Superboy, however, continued to appear on every cover, even if only briefly (or barely) mentioned in the story.

It was this run which established the Legion's general workings and environment. A club of teenagers, they operated out of a clubhouse in the shape of a yellow rocket ship inverted as if it had been driven into the ground. The position of Legion leader rotated among the membership, sometimes through election and sometimes by more arcane methods. (From time to time the editors of the Legion stories would allow readers to vote on the leader. See below for list of leaders.)

Each Legionnaire had to possess at least one natural super-power (i.e., powers from devices were disallowed), in particular one power which no other member possessed. (Despite this, several members had overlapping powers, particularly Superboy, Supergirl, Mon-El and Ultra Boy.) Some issues included comical moments where candidates with bizarre, useless or dangerous abilities would try out for membership and be rejected. (A few of these flawed candidates went on to form the Legion of Substitute Heroes.)

The Legion was based on Earth and protected an organization of humans and aliens called the United Planets. The regular police force in the UP was the Science Police.

Many of these early stories were "gimmick" tales, revolving around someone trying to trick the Legion, or a member of the Legion being controlled or injured in some way so that he turned against his comrades. Stark tie-ins with the Superman stories appeared from time to time, with Jimmy Olsen, Lana Lang and Pete Ross all becoming "honorary members". Characterization was often skimpy. In fairness, these sort of stories were common in DC Silver Age comics, and many of these stories are beloved by long-time Legion fans.

Creators of the early Adventure Comics stories included Jerry Siegel, Edmond Hamilton and John Forte.

A watershed moment for the Legion came with Adventure Comics #346 (July 1966), which was written by then 14-year-old Jim Shooter. A Legion fan, Shooter submitted a quartet of stories to DC. In an era before comic book artists and writers received regular credits on their work, Shooter—ignorant of the typical creation process behind the stories he enjoyed—submitted full page layouts on typing paper, complete with captions and dialogue bubbles. DC, at the time ignorant of Shooter's age, was impressed enough with his efforts to arrange for veteran artists Curt Swan and George Klein to fix up the layouts for publication. Those first four stories introduced several longtime Legion elements, including Karate Kid, Princess Projectra, Ferro Lad, Nemesis Kid, the Khunds, and Universo and his son Rond Vidar.

Soon thereafter, Shooter became the regular writer of the Legion stories, with Curt Swan (and later Win Mortimer) as artist. Shooter brought more characterization and action to the Legion, an approach which was working well for competitor Marvel Comics, and moved away from gimmickry. As it turned out, Shooter was an early participant in a gradual revolution of storytelling at DC over the next decade.

Shooter wrote the story about Ferro Lad's death—the first "real" death of a Legionnaire (although Lightning Lad had been believed dead for a while before)—and introduced many other enduring concepts, including the Fatal Five, Shadow Lass, the Dark Circle, Mordru, and the "Adult Legion", a conjecture regarding what the Legion would be like when they grew up.

However, the Legion's golden age did eventually end, and their last appearance in Adventure Comics was #380 (May 1969), when they were displaced by Supergirl.

Back-up feature

The early 1970s saw the Legion relegated to the status of back-up feature. First they appeared in Action Comics from #377–392 (June 1969–September 1970) featuring more stories by Shooter and Mortimer, usually vignettes with only one or two of the Legion appearing. These were nonetheless decent character-driven stories, rather unusual for their team in that regard.

Following that stint they began appearing occasionally as a backup in Superboy starting with #172 (March 1971) with creators including E. Nelson Bridwell, Cary Bates, and George Tuska. But soon signs of revival appeared, as young artist Dave Cockrum (who would go on to fame as the artist on Marvel's "all-new, all-different" X-Men) began drawing the series with Superboy #188 (July 1972). Cockrum was a prolific designer of eye-catching superhero costumes, and began revising the outfits of many Legionnaires, many of which endured for much of the next 20 years.

The most notable story during this time was Superboy #195 (June 1973), in which a hero whose body was made of energy applied for membership in the Legion, and seemingly gave his life on a mission. The hero would go on to become Wildfire, one of the most popular Legionnaires.

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes

The Legion returned to cover-billing on a book when Superboy became Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes with #197 (August 1973), possibly to save slipping sales on the title. Crafted by Bates and Cockrum, the feature proved popular and saw such events as the wedding of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel (formerly Triplicate Girl) (#200), and the death of Invisible Kid (#203). Cockrum was replaced on art with #203 (July/August 1974) by Mike Grell, who would also become a fan favorite. Several of the Legionnaires' costumes were changed and updated during this period, with some of the heroes' outfits, including those worn by Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, and Cosmic Boy becoming especially skimpy. Shooter returned during this period and wrote his swan song on the title with a tale involving the Time Trapper and a new villain, Pulsar Stargrave.

With #231 (September 1977), the book became a "giant-size" title, at this point written by longtime fan Paul Levitz and drawn by James Sherman (inked by a variety of artists, notably Jack Abel and Bob McLeod). In #241–245 (July–December 1978) Levitz and Sherman (and then Joe Staton) produced what was to that time the most ambitious Legion storyline, Earthwar, a galactic war between the United Planets and the Khunds, with several other villains lurking in the background.

S/LSH #239 (May 1978) featured a well-received story titled "Murder Most Foul", in which Ultra Boy is framed for murder. Written and illustrated by Jim Starlin, the mystery was resolved in S/LSH #250–251 (April–May 1979), but Starlin was so unhappy with the editing and the decision to break up his lengthy tale into two parts that he removed his name from the project, and the writer was credited as "Steve Apollo".

During this period, one of the Legionnaires spun off into his own 20th century-based title, named Karate Kid, which lasted 15 issues.

Levitz left the book to be replaced by Gerry Conway, a controversial choice among comics fandom. Still illustrated by Staton, the book led up to the next major change in the title's appearance.

Their own title at last

With issue #259 (January 1980), Superboy departed from the Legion due to a plot of a villain, and the book was renamed simply Legion of Super-Heroes. These issues are referred to by fandom and collectors as 'v2', or volume two. (There was a four-issue Legion of Super-Heroes series during the 1970s which is officially volume 1, or 'v1', but it consisted solely of reprints. Volume numbers are conventional in the magazine industry in order to distinguish identically titled successor magazines with different enumerations.)

Ironically, this fell in the middle of what is widely considered to be a low point in the Legion's history. The Conway stories were not very well-received, and often seemed to lack ambition. Fans often cite #260–261 (February–March 1980), featuring a "Space Circus of Death," or #268's "Life after Life after Life" (October 1980, written by J. M. DeMatteis), in which Legionnaires battle Dr. Mayavale, as the nadirs of this era. Jimmy Janes took over the art chores with #273 (March 1981), early in a lengthy tale by Conway and then Roy Thomas involving Ultra Boy disappearing during a mission and his long odyssey to rejoin the team. This story told the long-awaited tale of the Legionnaire Reflecto (only glimpsed during the Adult Legion story in Adventure Comics), featured villainy by the Time Trapper and Grimbor the Chainsman, and saw Superboy rejoin the team in #282 (December 1981).

Following this story, Paul Levitz returned to write the book.

Paul Levitz Legion

Pat Broderick illustrated the book for a short while before Keith Giffen and Larry Mahlstedt took over the art chores. Their clean style and flair for drawing high-tech gadgetry made them immediately popular, and this was enhanced by the five-part Great Darkness Saga which ran from #290–294 (August–December 1982), featuring a full assault on the United Planets and a surprise supervillain behind it all.

The Legion celebrated issue #300 (June 1983) by revisiting the Adult Legion story through a series of parallel world short stories illustrated by a number of popular Legion artists of days past.

Giffen's style changed abruptly a few issues later to a darker and sketchier style inspired by Argentinian artist José Munoz. This occurred simultaneously with DC's shift to launch a pair of "Baxter format" comic books (the other was the popular New Teen Titans) on higher-quality Baxter paper. The extant Legion series was renamed Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes for a year before it began reprinting stories from the new Legion of Super-Heroes volume 3 (Sometimes referred to as 'v3' by Legion fandom.)

While Levitz wrote most of the stories during this time, there were several memorable fill-ins by Mindy Newell.

The series launched in August 1984 with a five-part story featuring the Legion of Super-Villains. Giffen left in the middle of the story and was replaced by Steve Lightle. Lightle's elaborate style fit the book well, but he only remained on the book for a year. Despite this, he designed costumes for several new Legionnaires who were introduced, notably the longtime member of the Legion of Substitute Heroes, Polar Boy.

Greg LaRocque began a lengthy run in #16 (November 1985), including a crossover with John Byrne's recently-rebooted Superman titles in #37 and #38. The crossover was DC's first of many attempts to explain the origins and fate of Superboy, and his history with the Legion, in light of the revision to the DC Universe caused by Crisis on Infinite Earths. Perhaps appropriately, the crossover also first demonstrated the continuity paradoxes that inevitably resulted from such attempts; a statue for Supergirl in the Legion's memorial for deceased members, shown in #38, had vanished by #51, as per DC editorial's then-recent edict that Supergirl had never existed at all in the post-Crisis timeline.

Levitz' run ended with the return of Giffen and a four-part story, concluding in #63 (August 1989), focusing on the decline of science and the rise of magic wreaking havoc with the United Planets. Although the forces of good prevailed, both the UP and the Legion were left in shambles, the pieces to be picked up in the next series.

Although Levitz substantially changed the Legion and its characters and greatly altered the tone of the series from what had gone before, his run was extremely popular and was a high-water mark in the Legion's history.

Five years later

Giffen took over plotting as well as penciling the Legion of Super-Heroes in volume 4 ('or 'v4') starting in November 1989, with scripts by Tom and Mary Bierbaum. Five years after the Magic Wars, the United Planets is a darker place and the Legion a distant memory. However, a group of former Legionnaires worked to re-form the Legion in this harsh new universe, in which Earth was ruled by the alien Dominators.

Shortly after this storyline began, the decision was made to retroactively remove Superboy almost completely from Legion involvement, leaving a question of where the Legion's inspiration for founding came from without Superboy. The writers' solution was to recast Mon-El in that role, as a 20th century hero named Valor, and also added the characters Laurel Gand—a parallel for Supergirl—and Kent Shakespeare (a.k.a. Impulse) to further fill the void. Issue #5 featured a parallel world story in which this restructuring was effected.

This series was erratic, as Giffen missed plotting several issues for reasons that were not entirely clear. The Bierbaums wrote fill-in stories, but the overall cohesiveness suffered. Legion fandom was split in their reactions. Some felt that the stories challenged them; others felt that the Bierbaums were desecrating the Legion's legacy. Controversial storylines included various revelations (often based on longstanding fandom theories) that turned Legion history on its head. One was that Lightning Lad's body had been housing the consciousness of Proty, Chameleon Boy's protean "pet," ever since his resurrection years before. Another was that former Science Police liaison Shvaughn Erin was actually a transsexual and that her longtime beau Element Lad was gay.

A major storyline was the discovery of "Batch SW6", a group of clones of the early Legion, circa their Adventure Comics days. Keiff Giffen's orginal intention was that the clones would eventually be revealed as the real Legion, and the ones whose adventures had been chronicled for so long were actually the clones. Instead, there were now two Legions, and a parallel title, Legionnaires, was launched, with art by Chris Sprouse, starring the SW6 Legion. It was a lighter title than the main Legion book.

Giffen left the book after a storyline which involved the destruction of Earth (#38, December 1992), and the Bierbaums continued, overseeing the return of several classic characters. When the Bierbaums left, writer Tom McCraw took over and made a number of changes, including forcing several Legion members underground, requiring them to take on new identities and bringing longtime absent Legionnaire Wildfire back. In 1994, DC's editorial department decided that the team's continuity should be rebooted. As a result of the Zero Hour company-wide crossover, 35 years of Legion continuity came to an end, to be started over from the very beginning.

List of pre-boot Legion Leaders

The following is the List of pre-boot Legion Leaders and their deputies. (Note the deputy position wasn't invented until 2977.)

Rebooted (1994–2004)

Zero Hour

With Legion volume 4 #0 and Legionnaires #0 (both October 1994), a new Legion was created out of whole cloth, beginning with a variation on the classic origin story. Lightning Lad was renamed Live Wire, and after the group's founding, a large number of heroes were added to the roster very quickly. Several other members were renamed, and some new heroes were added, including XS (a descendant of the Flash) and Gates.

In winks to the recently discarded continuity, a number of old, beloved Legionnaires were kept around in different capacities. Chuck Taine (who had been the hero Bouncing Boy in the old continuity) became the Legion's maintenance engineer, and Tenzil Kem (who had been Matter-Eater Lad) became the Legion's chef. Rond Vidar—who had been the son of villain Universo, an honorary Legionnaire and a Green Lantern in the previous continuity—made a few token appearances as a colleague of Brainiac 5.

The rebooted Legion, with their allies and enemies. Art by Phil Jimenez.
Enlarge
The rebooted Legion, with their allies and enemies. Art by Phil Jimenez.

While in some ways following the pattern of the original continuity, there were some major deviations. Some characters died as they had previously, but others did not. Some Legion members spent time in the 20th century, where they recruited the member Ferro. Overall, it was a successful and well-received return to the days of a teenaged Legion defending a shining future from the forces of evil.

Legion Lost

However, sales began to fall. New writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning—often referred to as "DnA", a tag they commonly used for interviews—came on board with penciller Oliver Coipel to produce a dark story leading to the near-collapse of the United Planets and of the Legion itself. In the wake of the disaster, a group of Legionnaires disappeared through a spatial rift and the two existing Legion series came to an end.

The limited series Legion Lost (2000-2001) chronicled the difficult journey of these Legionnaires to return to their home, while the ensuing limited series Legion Worlds (2001) showed what was happening back in the United Planets during their absence.

Finally, a new series, The Legion, was launched in which the Legion was reunited and given a new base and purpose. Written for its first 33 issues by DnA, the series was cancelled with issue 38.

The Missing Legionnaire and Earth-247

In the Legion/Teen Titans Crossover that ended the DnA continuity, Legionnaire Shikari managed to evade the temporal change and emerge into the new continuity. She was not seen again until Infinite Crisis #6, where it was revealed in that issue that the post-Zero Hour Legion was from Earth 247, and that Shikari has been reunited with her Legionnaires.

Threeboot (2005—)

Following a crossover with the Teen Titans in Teen Titans #16 and the Teen Titans/Legion Special a new series was launched; written by Mark Waid, who previously rebooted the title following the events of Zero Hour, and penciled by Barry Kitson. This new series has recreated the team from the ground up and is using the Boy/Lad/Girl/Lass/Kid names that the end of the "preboot" era and the (prior) reboot had moved away from. Waid has said that this is the first view of the DC Universe after the events of Infinite Crisis.

Issues following #16 have a modified One Year Later logo, shown as 1,001 Years Later, referring to the current Legion's adventures taking place 1,000 years after the One Year Later titles. Beginning with issue #16, The Legion of Super-Heroes was retitled Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Initial issues of the current title have reintroduced the characters and provided them new and divergent origins. Most of the characters resemble their earlier counterparts in costume and powers. The most notable exceptions include Chameleon Boy, now called simply 'Chameleon' and depicted as an androgynous creature, Star Boy, who in this version of the Legion is black, Colossal Boy, who is now a giant who shrinks to human size, and Phantom Girl, who exists in two universes at once and even seems to have conversations with people in her own dimension while talking to Legionnaires at the same time.

The future universe of this Legion is an emotionally and mentally repressive society which involves human sexuality and contact being kept at arms' length as well as Orwellian surveillance of minors. The Legion's main goal is social reform as well as protecting people and inspiring them with the legends of superheroism of old, even though the team isn't appreciated by various government authorities.

The Legion is worshipped by thousands of "Legionnaires"; young people on various different worlds who worship the group in a cult-like manner. Some of the Legionnaries keep a constant vigil outside Legion headquarters.

\"1,001 Years Later\": Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes (2006—)

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.
When confronted by the Legion, Supergirl insists she is the real Supergirl, Kara Zor-El. She then informs the Legion that they are in fact not real, and exist only because she is dreaming them. Cosmic Boy theorizes that Kara has gone through so many traumatic experiences during her brief career as Supergirl that ending up in the 31st Century has caused her to assume that everything she's experienced since Krypton's destruction has all been an extended dream.

Little is done to dispel her delusion, as every whim she expresses seems to come true, much to the consternation of those Legionnaires who do not want to play along with her notions. Supergirl is then mentally probed by Saturn Girl, who learns that Kara's last memory before arriving in the 31st century was of the war between Rann and Thanagar during the events of Infinite Crisis.

Spoilers end here.

Appearances in other media

Cosmic Boy, Chameleon Boy, and Saturn Girl made an appearance on . In the episode "New Kids in Town", they travelled through time to stop Brainiac from destroying the Man of Steel at an early age. Jason Priestley voiced Chameleon Boy, Melissa Joan Hart was Saturn Girl and, Chad Lowe voiced Cosmic Boy. Similar to pre-Crisis comics, Superman was the inspiration to the team. The Legion (featuring more of its membership), along with the Fatal Five later appeared in an episode of Justice League Unlimited entitled "Far From Home" with Googy Gress as Bouncing Boy and Matt Czuchry as Brainiac 5. Kent Shakespeare as well as Legion member Andromeda made a guest appearance along with The Legion in Justice League Adventures #28 (though the story itself is out of continuity).

The feature film The Karate Kid used (and paid for) the name of the Legion member, although the film itself has no other connection to the character or the Legion.

The Legion of Super Heroes animated series will premiere on Kids' WB! (the Saturday Morning kids' block on the new The CW) in September and may possibly air on Cartoon Network at a later date. [link] Andy Milder, voice of Lightning Lad, told the Comics Continuum a bit more about the show. "In the series, Lightning Lad is the Legion's field leader. Other core team members will include Superboy (voice of Yuri Lowenthal), Brainiac 5 (voice of Adam Wylie), Saturn Girl, Timber Wolf, Phantom Girl and Bouncing Boy," [link] while recurring members will include Cosmic Boy (voice of [link]Wil Wheaton) and Triplicate Girl.

Appearances

This list is in approximate chronological order. After the reboot: 1 - Legionnaires Annual #1 is an "Elseworlds" story, which is part of neither the pre-reboot nor post-reboot Legion continuity.

After the "reimagining":

Trade paperbacks

The different series of the Legion has been collected in the following graphic novels:
Title Material collected
Original
The Great Darkness Saga Legion of Super-Heroes #287, 290-294, Annual #3
Reboot
The Death Of Superboy The Adventures of Superman #430-431
Action Comics #590-591
Superman #7-8
Legion of Super-Heroes #37-38
The Beginning of Tomorrow Legion of Super-Heroes #0, #62-65
Legionnaires #0, #19-22
Foundations The Legion #25-30
New start
Teenage Revolution Legion of Super-Heroes #1-6
Teen Titans/Legion Special #1 (preview story)
Death of a Dream
(on sale May 24, 2006) 		Legion of Super-Heroes #7-13

See also

External links

 

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