Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Create a Silver Age Legionnaire!

So, I was thinking the other day about how Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet were opposites, and how it might be kinda neat if there were other 'opposite' Legionnaires, but created with the same sort of kooky sensibilities common to the Silver Age.

And, to mix it up, these Legionnaires would be 'retconned' in to the Silver Age Legion, and exist now only as retirees, ex-Legionnaires or statues on Shaghalla.

Examples;
Material Boy (opposite Phantom Girl). 'Matty' is able to absorb the atomic strength of any substances in his immediate vicinity, becoming effectively invulnerable, so long as he is in the presence of appropriately durable materials. Originally named ‘Matter Lad,’ he changed his name after Tenzil Kem joined the team and looked at him funny. Died protecting the inhabitants of the space station Kestral, when he tapped into the station’s power generator to reverse his powers, allowing him to reinforce the station against the shockwave from a supernova. His own body was never recovered, vaporized by the shockwave, but the station survived long enough for the hundreds of researchers on board to be rescued.

Laser Lord (opposite Shadow Lass) Able to generate light for illumination, up to blinding intensities, or even as coherent laser beams, this dusky-skinned youth wears a bright red costume with a yellow sash, puffy sleeves, long skirt like tunic and flared boots, like a pirate version of Sun Boy’s costume. Laser Lord was found to be using his position as a Legionnaire to benefit his family (by faking criminal activity at their rivals, and calling in his Legion friends to ‘shut them down’), and was ‘asked to leave.’

Jenny Jupiter (opposite Saturn Girl) Like all Jovians, Jenny is a thick-limbed woman with enormous strength and stamina, as well as a boisterous outgoing demeanor that endears her to her friends and irritates others. She wears an outfit that includes purple and orange layers, with a large red swirly symbol in the center of her chest. Famous for having once caught the Persuaders axe between her clasped hands, she left the Legion after being terribly injured in a battle with the League of Super-Assassins, after exposure to Neutrax’s nullification rays caused her to lose her powers long enough for Titania to shatter nearly every bone in her body with a treacherous blow. After her rehabilitation, she found that her enthusiasm for Legion membership had waned, and she is now a civil servant on her native Jupiter. (Alternate name, Jupiter Jill? Or Jupiter Jim for a male version, but he'd have the same super-nice 'Monstress' personality regardless.)

She was later claimed to have been written out because 'boys don't want to read about a 'Juno-esque' girl.'

Miss Mercury (opposite Saturn Girl, again!) Like all inhabitants of the fastest planet, Miss Mercury can move so fast that she leaves a trail of fire behind her when she runs. She has a costume reminiscent of Mary Marvel, minus the cape (although she does have a scarf that trails behind her), and her last battle is against Mordru, who curses her powers to go out of control so that she accelerates uncontrollably and vanishes in a flash of fire, leaving only an ashen streak behind. (Many years later, it is discovered that she didn’t actually die in this battle, but accelerated out of our dimension entirely, but she is no longer able to leave the accelerated dimension she found herself in, and has made a life for herself there.) Miss Mercury is designed at first to be the first Legionnaire to have a significant non-human appearance, at first, as she is depicted with sleek featureless silvery skin, but this is later ret-conned to be a form-fitting bodysuit covering a blonde-haired, red-skinned otherwise normal-looking humanoid, when she lifts her mask to kiss Mon-El on the cheek, making her the first masked Legionnaire.

Dynamic Girl (opposite Chameleon Boy) Dynamic Girl never pretends to be anyone else, that's for sure! Her super-human charisma allows Dynamic Girl to always be recognized (and obeyed!) wherever she goes. Unfortunately, her powers go to her head, and after forcing the other Legionnaires to vote her leader (as she feels is her due, being so much cooler than they are!), she whimsically kicks half of them off of the team for displeasing her, and, when the others rally against her, she disbands the team in a huff, accusing them of mutiny and treason to the Legion Code, using her leadership priviledge to kick them all out permanently! They are forced to reform the team (sans Dynamic Girl) with a hyphen, as the Legion of Super-Heroes, instead of their former name, the Legion of Superheroes, as she has forbidden them to use their old name!

Composite Lad (opposite Triplicate Girl) He can absorb any object or creature into himself temporarily and make his body an amalgam of himself and the absorbed thing. If he absorbs a hawk into himself, he becomes a flying avian humanoid. If he absorbs a blaster into himself, he grows some metal hide and can shoot energy blasts from his hand. He can later release the absorbed item or creature unharmed. Composite Lad absorbs the Negation Bomb into himself, and is erased from both time and space, making him a forgotten hero, unremembered even by his closest friends. The last page shows him shrinking out of existence in a panel of blackness with a little white dot in the center. Another panel, without explanation, in the beginning of the next issue, shows a white background with a tiny black dot in the center. Fans argue that a tiny humanoid figure can be seen in the center as well, and that this was a deliberate reveal that the Negation Bomb didn’t erase Composite Lad from reality, so much as create a new reality, with him at it’s center, but this is never addressed again, leaving it nothing more than a curious footnote in Legion history.

Space Girl (opposite Star Boy) Can turn herself into a cloud of darkness that can smother criminals (becoming a cold, dark and gravity-less area of vacuum) and absorb energy. Originally wore a black one-piece with a skirt, thigh-high boots and long gloves with white stars on the chest, around the belt line, and down the length of the gloves and boots. Later wore the same starfield costume that Star Boy adopted (and was known to have a bit of a crush on Thom, much to Dreamy's displeasure...).

During the Sun-Eater Invasion, when the mad Controller Prime unleashed a horde of the doomsday machines to devour every star in the galaxy, Space Girl expanded her powers to an undreamt-of degree and became a living black hole, consuming the Sun-Eaters, the planet-sized Controller factory that was manufacturing them, and Controller Prime (who attempted to save his doomsday machine factory to the last), and then vanished into nothing, leaving behind only empty space.

Moon Girl (opposite Sun Boy) Trained by the mysterious sect of 30th century witches who call themselves the Moon Maidens, Moon Girl had powers of attraction and repulsion (and could also use this power to fly, by 'pushing away from the Earth,' or even to turn invisible, by 'repelling light'!), appears like a pale white skinned, black haired version of the Silver Age Scarlet Witch, with a white costume and cloak and a silvery tiara of ‘moon crystal.’ She dies absorbing into her body the radiation of a deadly bomb that would have killed all life on the primitive world of Karnus. Much later, Phantom Girl pretends to be Moon Girl when an old foe of hers (who insanely insists that she can’t be dead) shows up and demands that Moon Girl give herself up to him or he will kill her family, in the mistaken beliefs that a) she was still alive and had only faked her death to avoid his stalkery affections and b) that he could steal her moon crystal tiara and gain her powers! Phantom Girl defeats the deranged villain, and saves Moon Girl’s family.

While her costume looked no more scandalous than a white version of the Scarlet Witches classic costume, modern viewers might note that it ends up looking a lot like Emma Frost's outfit...

Mirror Miss (opposite Invisible Kid) This 30th century history student found a cache of specially treated mirrors created by a 20th century criminal called the Mirror Master. These mirrors were broken, and shards of the special glass were embedded in her skin, giving her the power to create mirror images of herself to fool others and appear as one woman Legion all on her own! She later learns how to affect the physical world through these mirror images, although they still always mirror her physical actions. She ends up nearly single-handedly stopping an invasion from extra-dimensional creatures that use mirrors to cross into our universe, and ends up entering into ‘mirrorspace’ to serve as a living barrier between our universe and theirs, although she is still contacted from time to time by the Legion, as she can be contacted through a special mirror in Legion Headquarters that has a Flight Ring built into it. It is later established that ‘Mirror Space’ is somehow connected to the Phantom Zone, and she ends up becoming friends with Mon-El (and Shady, who is apparently unconcerned that her boyfriend regularly talks to a girl in another dimension).

Historian (opposite Dream Girl) This shy young man has the ability to recall everything, perfectly, and not just events he was present for, as he can close his eyes and look back to see the past of an area, reciting it’s history flawlessly! Even the perfect crime is no mystery to him, as he can see events in the distant past as if he was there the whole time! His power proves to be such a threat that criminals like Tharok begin committing crimes in total darkness, or under areas of ‘chronal static,’ to block his powers, but less resourceful (or clever) than Tharok, the Dark Circle simply has him assassinated to prevent his powers being used to uncover their plans! His death shakes the team to the core, as it is the first time that an enemy has sought out and murdered a Legionnaire outside of combat in such a way.

M-Pulse: Physician Kent Shakespeare, through exposure to an alien virus on the hospital planet Quarantine, acquires the ability to generate Meta Beams (similar to Adam Strange's Zeta Beams) which can transport objects or himself to the Dark Dimension and back again.

PS - Laser Lord needs to be an ape!

Yeah, Laser Ape would have worked better, and been very Silver Age. But I didn't want to rip off someone else's brilliant idea.

Having M-Pulse use an Adam Strange riff is very Silver Age! Cool!

I really like these, especially Moon Girl and Material Boy.

Here's one from me.


Rubber Boy Tarik the mute wanted someone to infiltrate the Legion of Super-Heroes, so he selected a new recruit to his gang, young Byan Rogert to drimk a modified version of the super-elastic formula that gave Bouncing Boy his power. The modified formula turned Byan's body into a super-rubber which insulated against all forms of energy based weapons, like Lightning Lad's electricity. He can also stretch his body to form a shield to protect others.

He likes the camaraderie of the Legion and compares it to the cutthroat behavior of Tarik the Mute's gang. Tarik the Mute threatens his family if he doesn't betray the Legion. Rubber Boy does lead the Legion into Tarik the Mute's trap, but turns on Tarik, when Dream Girl contacts him that she has rescued his family as per one of her visions. He saves the Legionnaires by shielding them from Tarik's deadly Theta Ray gun although it does knock everybody out. Feeling guilty, Rubber Boy takes off while the rest of the Legion is unconscious. He wears his flight ring on a chain around his neck, hoping to one day feel worthy to be a Legionnaire.

Ground Girl (opposite Lightning Lad) Can absorb and ground all electrical and related energy attacks, and pass that energy down into the earth. But since her powers are useless when not on a planet surface, she was rejected and joined the Subs.

Repulsive Lass- Kandie Karn was a normal, everyday girl until her ship passed through a meteor shower. This caused Theta Pi rays to crash into her ship which had sustained a hull rupture due to a freak space dolphin attack. As a result, she gained the power to repulse any forms of energy or physical actions taken against her.

She was a member for only a short time. While she had total mastery over her powers, she was expelled when Sun Boy was found unconcious in a hallway due to severe pinching and facial bruising. She later admitted that while Sun Boy had wanted to stop, her power was controlled by her emotions, which basically wanted to slap the hell outta sun boy.

She now works as a bouncette at Hargra's House of Humpbacked Honies on gthrkjbkwej 7.

Osmosis Lad (opposite Brainiac 5)- Stewart Colbert was a young man of very average intelligence. However, when near very intelligent, scheming, or manipulative people, he could absorb their thoughts. While near other heroes, he could correctly deduce the best way to combine their powers to defeat a foe; criminals lost their train of thought and were more easily captured. Unfortunately, too much time spent near Brainiac 5 cause the Coluan's intellect to occasionally plummet to 11th level intelligence. It was decided his power was not well controlled, and Osmosis Lad resigned the Legion and now works with focus groups in determining new entertainment shows and talent for networks. He authored the book "What Sentients Want" and is credited with discovering Marella Tao.

Rubber Boy - very Silver Age story, cool! It actually kind of mirrors the animated Ron-Karr story, an infiltrator spending time with the Legion and being changed for the better by the exposure.

Ground Girl - ooh, imagine if she later developed her powers to allow her to *attract* energy, so that she could lead a crowd of civilians through a fire-fight, and all of the blaster fire would swerve in midair and hit her (harmlessly) instead of endangering the innocents!

Repulsive Lass - another very Silver Age story (with lots of little jokes scattered throughout, such as her name, and the usual Silver Age bits of whackiness like 'space dolphin attack'). Also very cool!

Osmosis Lad - I was wondering how to do a 'reverse Brainiac,' with thoughts of someone with superhuman willpower that refused to die (ultimate mind over body sort), but this works even better, someone who instead of making himself smarter, makes others dumber (and becomes smarter in the process!) In some ways, Timber Wolf already is a 'reverse Brainiac,' especially in the Shooter / Waid interpretation whose powers are described as 'prodigious physicality.'

Also very Silver Age for a wannabe to be rejected because his powers don't play well with another more popular Legionnaires, such as the Rainbow Girl / Superboy situation.

Karmic Kid- Jorn Mel was born on the planet Dar Mah. All the residents of the planet were on a evolutionary tract that would in just a few generations transform them into ethereal beings. However, Jorn was a mutant. His evolutionary tract was the ability to influence the Karma of others to a high degree. This usually manifested itself in various forms of Irony. A gunman might find his weapon taken from and turned back on himself. A Pirate might find his booty stolen.

It was a very powerful if subtle power, and due to this, the character became an easy Deux Ex Machina for writers. This lead to the character quickly being killed off...in an Ironic manner, of course.

Art Lass (opposite Karate Kid) - Art Lass is the master of all known art forms, *other* than the martial arts. She can paint, sing, crochet, dance, weave, sculpt, write, etc. at a prodigious level, and has mastered art forms from dozens of different UP worlds. Her power, while impressive, was deemed to 'not be very useful in a fight,' and she now works for the UP Ministry of Information, where she sublimates her bitterness by manufacturing news stories and public information holos that subtly discredit the Legion and are slowly turning the public sentiment against their actions!

Sable Scientist (opposite White Witch) - Growing up on the medieval world of Darkus, the mysterious helmed figure who called himself the Sable Scientist (and bore a black coat of arms on his shield), had developed many ground-breaking feats of technology, such as articulated plate armor and 'alchemical fire' and siege engines and repeating crossbows. Unfortunately, his displays of 'incredible technology that has revolutionized my world!' resulted in Brainiac 5 having to be escorted from the room, as his laughing fit turned into a choking fit and he was politely asked to not let the space-door hit him in the space-caboose.

It is said that he has returned home and is working on a 'doomsday' machine to 'make them pay!' He should have the means to place his steam-powered automatic cannon on wheels in only a few short years, making him a menace to anybody within five or six miles!

BS (opposite XS) - Innej Stango has the power to speak super-fast. She can babble away with such speed that her words rise to ultrasonic frequencies and cause disorientation and confusion to those that hear them. Her Legion tryout ended with half of the team staggering around, randomly activating their powers and falling over from fits of uncontrollable vertigo, and only Chameleon Boy's apparent immunity saved those present from utter disaster when he clasped a hand over her mouth. Due to her inability to control who was affected by her super-speed-babble, she was turned down for membership, but this had no affect on her indefatiguable optimism, and she still works as a solo hero, occasionally showing up and attempting to help, but instead causing havoc and discord at events that where already disastrous before she arrived...

I've just notice, we seem to be creating more villians and rejects than actual heros.

Yeah, my first batch included a couple worthy of statues on Shanghalla, and these latest ones, not quite so much. I guess I can only write so many 'gave her life to save thousands!' stories.

JUST caught up with this thread, WHAT FUN! Inspiring too. If you guys don't want images posted here let me know and I will move them to the Fandango thread over in BITS....