Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Which Legionnaires Were Not Depicted as Well as Their Marvel Counterparts

I started thinking about Legionnaires who had counterparts in the Marvel Universe, in the sense that they had the same or similar powers. Sometimes, the Marvel counterpart was actually a more interesting character. There could be many reasons for this - the most obvious being that the character had more page time. Legionnaires had to fight for page time given the size of the group.

My first thought was that Polar Boy was really quite inferior to Iceman from the X-Men. I always loved the way Bobby would ice up and create ice slides to get around. All I remember Polar Boy doing was shoooting out concentric circles of cold. (Maybe I'm not remembering well and am open to being corrected.)

Any others?

Well, if Imra was really a top-level psi, she and Chuck should have been of similar level. While the prof had more experience, it's true, Imra grew up in a society of experienced psis and psionic teachers while Chuck basically had to teach himself, yet with few exceptions, Imra was rarely doing Xavier-level deeds.

Magneto, likewise, out-magged Rokk by far. I realized that way back in the "God Loves, Man Destroys (or was that Kills?)" GN, when Magnus uses magnetism to create electricity as well.

i always liked gladiator better than m'on-el.

As far as electric powers go (i.e. Garth and sometimes Ayla)-- Storm's got all of weather to control, not just lightning. And Surge has electric powers and super-speed. So she owns Garth and Jenni.

Me too but reading this thread made me wonder if Gladiator is more of a Superboy than he is a Mon-el.

There were some Byrne issues where the Fantastic Four go up against the Gladiator and I think the premise was a FF-vs-Superman tale.
Yeah, I know...
It's a nit picky point from one perspective, is he Lar or Kal? From the other side it just doesn't matter at all except for the kryptonian level powers.



Now to blather on about the thread's actual subject.

I like Phantom Girl more than I like Kitty Pride. Yet, I have to say that while I think there have been some interesting scenes with PG over the years, Kitty's been developed better and exposed to every wierd crossover and subplot that the Marvel Bullpen could throw at her and the X-Crew.

Tinya always comes across as the kind of girl that "needs" a heroic protector. Maybe it's a characterization 'glitch' that came out of the Silver Age but it's always annoyed me.

super boy or mon el. hunh thats funny i just always assumed he was a mon el. it never even occured to me he could be super boy.

there was no super girl rip off though.

The powers of most Legionnaires have really varied quite a bit from one depiction to another. Most of the time they will be depicted in as basic a fashion as possible, but then almost everyone has one or more stories where they suddenly accomplish amazing things with their powers.

Saturn Girl's a good example. In some of the early Legion stories, anybody could resist her telepathic powers if they were prepared and "guarded" their thoughts. In other stories she'd take control of large populations of people, such as the entire town of Smallville in the second Legion story.

For the most part, I think the Marvel characters usually use their powers much better and stronger than their Legion counterparts (power-wise), although I also think that's why some Marvel characters have ended up waaaay too strong. I mean how many X-Men turned out to have God-like powers at one point or another?

However, there are some exceptions:

- I feel the White Witch's use of magic was one of the most thorough and best displays of magic in comics, because mainly of the limitations. Sure, Dr. Strange apparently is more powerful, but the White Witch actually has a fleshed out system for how she uses her powers, instead of the 40+ years of duex a machina magic of the MU.

- I don't really think there is any Marvel character with super-strength or super-abilities to ever have come close to Superboy, Supergirl, Mon-El or even Ultra Boy. While many of them show off their strength a lot, none have really ever shown the all-encompassing mega-power of these Legionnaires. For instance, one could argue that Thor and Namor are on the same power level as these Legionnaires, but I've certainly never been shown that over the years (*occassionally* with Thor, but not really).

Interesting then, that the Legion's biggest guns IMO show off their power much more than the Marvel big-guns, but the 'lesser-powered' Legionnaries (if you want to call them that) are the opposite.

Oh yeah, and Karate Kid could pretty much kick anyone's ass in the Marvel Universe. Its the nature of his super-karate, just like he could decimate the DCU. Of course, thats a little of the top, but I felt I should mention it...

Wolverine vs. Timber Wolf - who dares win?

A Supergirl knock off in the IG would kick nass! I'd love to see a young female version of Gladiator.

Jeepers! Cobie's right about the Marvel versions being stronger. You'd never know that Tenzil and Galactus are analogues.

Give Tenzil a goofy helmut and change the green to purple and their practically identical! Except a few minor details like their size and stuff...

Gives new meaning to that "Eat it, Grampa" reference...Could Tenz actually awallow a whole planet?

Galactus is a cross between Tenz and Gim.

The raw amount that Tenzil can eat has never been determined, but I doubt he could consume an entire planet by himself.

I'd say, however, if Darkseid had taken over Bismol rather than Daxam, there'd have been a couple less U.P. worlds around...

First time I saw Galactus was on that 60's Fantastic Four cartoon in an episode which also guested the Silver Surfer...The big guy is capable of being spooked when Reed shoves a device at him and Green-Puss literally wimps out!

Well... Gates vs Nightcrawler?

Justice Roberts vs Rhenquist? If that hasn't been a maxiseries it should be.