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Legion of Super-Heroes (comics): Difference between revisions
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This incarnation used plenty of the [[Soap Opera]]-style storytelling that was popular in the days of ''X-Men'' and ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'', but kept on a level of solid yet unexciting sales, even after they booted Superboy out of his own book. This changed in the early '80s, with the Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen Legion. Classic stories like "The Great Darkness Saga" appeared during this run, but it was interrupted halfway through by the ''[[Crisis On Infinite Earths]]''.
Since the entire premise of the Legion was centered around Superboy, and Superboy no longer existed in the [[Post
Eventually, Keith Giffen took over the book, along with [[Running the Asylum|fans-turned-writers]] Tom and Mary Bierbaum, and the series ''really'' jumped into the [[Dark Age]] with the "Five Years Later" [[Time Skip]]. Earth is ruled by alien invaders. One character was [[Retcon|retconned]] into an [[Applied Phlebotinum]] [[Transsexual|transsexual]], and another into a shapeshifter who only ''thought'' he was the character. The Legion are [[Cloning Blues|actually clones]] -- unless the other, younger Legion (Batch SW6) that were discovered in [[People Jars]] are the clones, as one might think at first. The moon was destroyed, [[Earthshattering Kaboom|followed by the Earth itself]].
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Eventually, a combination of [[Continuity Snarl|continuity issues]] and low sales brought DC to the point where they said "screw it" and decided to reboot the series altogether. In 1995, as part of the ''Zero Hour'' [[Crisis Crossover]], [[Mark Waid]] and Tom McCraw wrote the first issue of an all-new all-different Legion. Some of the sillier characters were pruned, and others were introduced to fill the gaps. This incarnation of the Legion was a youth corps run by [[The Federation]], which was just forming as the series began, to symbolize its member worlds and species working together. (Although they were frequently dismissed as either a publicity stunt or a "teenage death squad".) This version sidestepped the Superboy issue by being inspired by the 20th century's age of heroes in general (although the Post-Crisis Superboy did become a member). The new version attempted to [[Adaptation Distillation|distill]] all of the Legion's history to date, while adding its own twists -- some of which [[Fanon Discontinuity|didn't work that well]] ({{spoiler|Sneckie}}) Still, this version lasted until 2004 with a few writer changes and [[Retool|ReTools]]; then, they were wiped out (or at least [[Put On a Bus|detached from the main line of DCU history]]) during the build up to the ''[[Infinite Crisis]]'' [[Crisis Crossover]], and replaced with a third version -- the "threeboot" Legion.
This version, ''also'' introduced by Mark Waid, brought back many of the more idealistic elements, including the [[Something Person]] names, while going for a more complex universe. In this incarnation, the Legion are firebrands and muckrakers in a future where those under 18 are almost entirely controlled by their parents and a paternalistic government; although only a chosen few are given flight rings (which are ridiculously expensive), anyone who follows their ideals is considered a Legionnaire. It also added twists to many of the characters; for instance, in this version, Colossal Boy is a member of a race of giants whose super-power is to shrink to six feet tall. (He prefers to be called Micro Lad.) Their inspiration this time is legends of superheroics as preserved in old comic books. [[Supergirl]] joined up about a year and a half into the series, having apparently made the trip during the "One Year Gap" in her own title (all DC books jumped forward a year after ''Infinite Crisis''), and been given [[Laser
Recent stories post-''Infinite Crisis'' have reintroduced [[The Multiverse]] and restored the ''original'' Legion, including Superman's past with them. This version first (re)appeared in the "Lightning Saga" [[Bat Family Crossover]] between ''[[Justice League of America]]'' and ''[[Justice Society of America]]'' and is the one currently appearing in DC Comics. As part of ''[[Final Crisis]]'', Geoff Johns wrote a miniseries called "The Legion of Three Worlds" which dealt with all three versions (original, Zero Hour, and threeboot) of the Legion.
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*** Rond does have a special power, albeit a very minor one: He is completely impossible to hypnotize. Not difficult, ''impossible.''
* [[Amulet of Dependency]]: The Emerald Eye of Ekron. Used long enough, it's also an [[Artifact of Death]].
* [[Animal
* [[Apron Matron]]: Monstress
* [[An Axe to Grind]]: The Persuader
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** The Time Trapper served as this during Paul Levitz's v3 run in the 1980s.
** President Chu from the early postboot run.
* [[Big Bad Ensemble]]: The Time Trapper, Mordru, and Glorith during the Giffen-Bierbaum run in the early 1990s. {{spoiler|The former two eventually [[Villain Team
* [[Black Guy Dies First]]: The post-Zero Hour Legion's roster as of their first mission included four white guys, three white girls (or five, depending on how you count Triad), a black guy, a black girl, an orange guy, and a green guy. Guess who died the first time out. If you guessed the insufferable jerk with the technology-based powers who also happened to be the only black guy, you win a first-class ticket to the funeral of James Cullen (Kid Quantum I).
* [[Boisterous Bruiser]]: Ultra Boy.
* [[
* [[Break the Cutie]]: v4 did this with a number of characters, but particularly harshly with the White Witch. Previously depicted as a slightly shy, bookish type in a (platonic?) relationship with teammate Blok. At the start of v4, she was shown to be in an abusive marriage with former archnemesis Mordru. She was rescued by the reconstituted Legion just in time to discover that Blok had been brutally mutilated by genocidal pirate Roxxas the Butcher.
* [[Broken Angel]]: Dawnstar in v4 lost her wings {{spoiler|after being possessed for three years by Bounty, a thrill-seeking entity that used her tracking powers to go into business as a bounty hunter}}. The reason for this was never explained.
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* [[Fiction 500]]: The Legion's main financial backer, R.J. Brande. Also his [[Jerkass]] rival, Leland McCauley.
* [[Finger in The Mail]]: In the [[Darker and Edgier|"Five Years Later"]] run, the crazed killer Roxxas blows up the rock Legionnaire Blok and mails the pieces to the other Legionnaires.
* [[Five
** Arguably, the original Substitute Legion.
*** [[The Hero]] -- Polar Boy
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* [[Great Offscreen War]]: The Braal-Imsk conflict during the five-year gap preceding the Giffen/Bierbaum run is only seen in flashback glimpses, but it casts a massive shadow over subsequent events. Black Dawn may also qualify, but since it's also a [[Noodle Incident]], it's hard to say for sure.
* [[Guinea Pig Family]]
* [[Half
** Lightning Lad/Live Wire and Lightning Lass/Light Lass/Spark, to varying degrees.
** The entire planet of Winath where they were born was full of examples of this trope. Twins were the norm rather than the exception (by something like 99-to-1 percent), and while some pairs were single-gender, there were plenty of counter-examples as well.
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** Surprisingly, Earth Man (of all people) in the latest series
** Blok started off as a member of a team of villains seeking revenge against the Legion for the destruction of his planet. Turns the Legion wasn't responsible and were actually trying to evacuate the survivors, so he switched sides.
** A lot of examples of this during the v4 run, especially former members of the Legion of Super-Villains. Lightning Lord and Saturn Queen's former villainy was excused as an example of [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]], and Spider Girl ([[
* [[Heroic Albino]]
** The White (later Black) Witch.
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* [[Invisible Anatomy]]: Atmos of Xanthu has an invisible ''torso'', revealed by a costume that covers his shoulders and abdomen but none of the rest of his chest.
* [[Invisibility]]: Invisible Kid.
* [[
* [[The Jailer]]: Grimbor the Chainsman
* [[Joker Jury]]: "The Devil's Jury" in ''Action Comics'' #370.
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* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: And loads and loads... One might say [[Incredibly Lame Pun|they are Legion...]]
** Not just the team, but the Legion titles seem to exist in a universe all their own. In the 1980s, DC released a ''Who's Who'' maxi-series dedicated solely to the Legion, covering just about every named character that has been in a Legion-related book since the 1960s.
* [[Long
* [[Lost Episode]]: ''Sort of''. A very significant story (the wedding of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad) was originally published as an oversized, tabloid-sized special in the mid-1970s. It was never truly lost, but because of its unusual publication format (especially in the days before eBay) it remained extremely hard to find in the usual places where a fan would look for such things (specialty comic book store back issue collections, mainly). Gained the nickname "That Damned Tabloid" in fandom as a result. It was eventually reprinted as part of DC's hardcover archive collection in the late 1990s.
* [[Luke, I Am Your Father]]
** {{spoiler|In the original canon, R.J. Brande is Chameleon Boy's father.}}
** Postboot, the leader of the Dark Circle {{spoiler|is really Brainiac 5's mother, Brainiac 4}}.
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* [[Scandalgate]]: The crisis of the United Planets' [[Portal Network]] being subverted by an alien power and used to invade Earth is referred to as "Softgate."
* [[Scarily Competent Tracker]]: Dawnstar and her postboot semi-counterpart, Shikari.
* [[Scars Are Forever]]: Shrinking Violet is scarred during the five-year gap period between v3 and v4 and keeps the wound until the ''Zero Hour''-induced reboot. 30th century medicine is more than capable of repairing the damage, but since she earned it during an unjust war with her former teammate's planet, she takes it as her [[My God, What Have I Done?]] moment and continues to wear it as a protest.
* [[Science Hero]]: Invisible Kid, Brainiac 5.
* [[Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale]]
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* [[Secret Identity]]: Averted, unlike most superhero comics. The identities of all members are known to the public... except for Sensor Girl in the original continuity, whose identity isn't even known to the Legion for a while, and M'onel in the Zero Hour reboot, who won't let anyone find out he's the mythical Valor who first seeded their worlds with life because it'd be impossible to have a life of his own afterward.
* [[Secret Test of Character]]: The first story with them involved an "initiation" for Superboy which was three separate Secret Tests. This story was later repeated with Supergirl.
* [[Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains]]
** It's not like the Legion didn't have plenty of questionably attired heroes, but even when this was common during Mike Grell's run as artist, it wasn't unusual to see the villains wearing ''even less'' than the heroes, as was the case with Grimbor the Chainsman and his partner Charma, who were dressed as a bondage duo.
** In the postboot era, this was typified during the "Emerald Legion" story, where the Emerald Eye-possessed Legionnaires all get much skimpier (and greener) costumes.
* [[Shapeshifting Squick]]: In fact, in the threeboot, someone suggests that Chameleon is not attracted to non-shapeshifters. Averted in the original continuity, though, where Colossal Boy and Chameleon Girl (a different character) have a happy marriage.
* [[Shell
* [[Showing Off the Perilous Power Source]]: Element Lad does this in a newly-created, empty universe - without protection. He goes mad.
* [[Shrinking Violet]]: Er, [[Trope Namer|Shrinking Violet]], particularly post-Zero Hour.
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* [[Space Police]]: The Science Police. The [[Green Lantern|Green Lanterns]] show up in some incarnations, too.
* [[Space Whale]]: Most notably as the source of Ultra Boy's (real name: Jo Nah) powers.
* [[Spin
** The Legion is a spin-off of [[Superboy]] (who is himself a spin-off of [[Superman]]). Members Cosmic Boy, Timber Wolf, Karate Kid, and Mon-El have all had [[Spin
** ''L.E.G.I.O.N.'' (later ''R.E.B.E.L.S.'') is a slightly unusual example: it's a [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]] for the Legion, with similar characters and a similar space-operatic style, but set in the contemporary 20th/21st century [[The DCU|DCU]].
* [[Spinoff Babies]]: The SW6 clone team, who starred in pre-Zero Hour ''Legionnaires''.
* [[Stalker With a Crush]]: Glorith's unhealthy obsession with Valor in v4.
* [[Starfish Character]]: {{spoiler|Apparition and Phase}} in the Reboot version.
* [[Star
* [[Star Spangled Spandex]]: Threeboot Star Boy, and current-era Starman.
* [[Strawman Political]]: Gates from the Post-Zero Hour Legion. But he's a rather unusual case, since the writers consistently treated him as a three-dimensional, sympathetic character despite his often silly beliefs, rather than a convenient political target to knock down.
* [[Suicide By Cop]]: Darkseid during "The Quiet Darkness." {{spoiler|A brilliant scientist saves his dying wife during her pregnancy by [[Deal With the Devil|striking a deal]] with Darkseid in exchange for implanting the unborn children with the "[[Applied Phlebotinum|Gemini Matrix]]" to raise them to a more powerful plane of existence. Darkseid then takes over the planet in order to prevent the children from fleeing, and finally goads the twins into attacking and killing him. His final words suggest that this was his plan all along: a god like Darkseid was [[I Cannot Self
* [[Super Dickery]]: The Legion were made of this in their early appearances. Most early Legion stories consist of the Legionnaires being jerks to each other, only to reveal at the last minute that it was for the greater good. Arguably, the most famous example is a story in which Saturn Girl mind-controlled the Legion into electing her leader and then stole all of their powers so that she could ensure that she would be the Legionnaire to make a prophesied [[Heroic Sacrifice]].
* [[Super Hero School]]: The Legion Academy.
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* [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]: Reep Daggle/Chameleon Boy and Yera/Chameleon Girl, who are Durlans, a species of shapeshifters.
* [[Wham Episode]]: Almost any story featuring the Time Trapper during the 1980s and early 1990s could be considered an example of this. Especially the "Mordruverse" two-parter near the beginning, and "End of an Era" at the end of v4, pre-''Zero Hour''. Also, ''Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes'' ({{spoiler|R.J. Brande is really Chameleon Boy's father}}), v4 annual #2 ({{spoiler|long-time villain Validus is really the child of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl}}), and the conclusion of Cosmic Boy's [[Plan]] against President Chu in the post-''ZH'' book.
* [[What Happened to The Mouse?]]: Tends to happen a lot whenever there's a reboot. For example, at the end of the Postboot era, plot points that were left unresolved included Apparition's missing sister, Apparition and Ultra Boy's rapidly aging son, the disappearance of Computo and the mysterious figure who "stole" him (probably the Time Trapper), the apparent rebirth of Darkseid, Ra's al-Ghul staying in custody on Legion World, the romance between Cosmic Boy and Kid Quantum, and a hinted-at subplot in which the Time Trapper would have turned out to be Cosmic Boy and XS' son...
* [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway]]: The Legion of Substitute Heroes. Also [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|Bouncing Boy and Matter-Eater Lad]] from the Legion proper.
** Until Matter-Eater Lad started to eat people.
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