Highlight On: The Legion of Superheroes

It’s no surprise that my fellow modder and associate, John Jr., really loves his DC heroes, especially with several mods hosted on this site dedicated to them. While taking some time out of his schedule, JJ decided to write up a small passage about one of his favorite teams. Why don’t you take a gander, and you can find links after the tag. Enjoy!

Legion of Superheroes!

The Legion is enjoying some kind of a renaissance… again. What is it about them that made the series so enduring that they survived an endless succession of reboots? The Legion began as gimmick in a Superboy story (Adventure Comics #247, 1958). Three heroes from the future traveled back to XX century Smallville in order to invite Superboy to their team and… well, play a prank on him. The story was silly, even by the 50s standards, but the concept of a bunch of super powered teens, inspired by Superboy (and later Supergirl), fighting crime in the far future was interesting enough to get the Legion a second appearance, a third, and… soon, they got the Adventure Comics leading feature from Superboy.

The first stories were classic space operas. The Legionnaires would fight space monsters, villains, pirates, etc., but some things would make the Legion strip different from the others. A fourteen-year-old writer named Jim Shooter assumed the Legion, and he changed the team forever. In his very first story, Shooter added four new Legionnaires, and one of them was a traitor, not someone who would repent as Wonder Man had, but a real turncoat who would become one of the Legion’s worst enemies. Shooter created the Legion’s most powerful foes, like Mordru and the Fatal Five. The story that introduced the Five was groundbreaking for the 60s. The heroes had to join forces with a bunch of killers to stop a creature called the “Sun Eater” (just guess what it could do?). In the end, Legionnaire Ferro Lad sacrificed his life to stop the creature. And he stayed dead. No resurrection, hoax, dream, zombies, or Black Lanterns, just a dead hero. In the sixties. In addition, Legionnaires married (including founder members Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad) and others died, and new members arrived. Change was the rule, and no one was safe. But at its core, the Legion would always be the same: the story of super-heroic teenagers from the future who fought to protect a federation of planets. The message of the Legion was about the hope of a better future where prejudice, famine, and hatred would be things of the past. And, of course, the girls in spandex didn’t hurt the popularity of the team.

As the years passed, the Legionnaires became adults, Superboy and Supergirl died and were retconned, and the future became dark and depressing. They eventually became kids again, got a different Superboy and Supergirl, and became teen rebels and then… hey, surprise! The old team returned! They’re older, but Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl are still married, Ferro Lad is still dead, and the Legion is still fighting for a better future inspired by the legend of Superman.

They survived the Time Trapper, Mordru, the Fatal Five, three Crises and a lot of reboots, so it’s no wonder their battle cry is…

“Long Live the Legion!”