Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business Klar Ken T5477’s Miscellanous Musings

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So with the coming cancellation of the Legion, I just cannot get up the enthusiasm to write any more fanfic. However, I have a bunch of stuff rattling around in my head, so I thought I would dump it here.

The main reason that I post this stuff is to demonstrate that ideas are easy. True creativity is a little harder. Competent storytelling is harder still. But there is no excuse for blandness in comics, especially with the Legion, with its multitude of characters, galactic scope and tremendous, mostly unexplored history. Histories.

So for what it’s worth, here goes.

As part of our continuing series spotlighting unique individuals across the Galaxy, we interviewed the last surviving full-blooded Kryptonian, Nam-Ek, the ‘Rondor Man’.
We were graciously invited to his isolated villa deep in the Daxamite Wild Forest.
(editor’s note: due to side-effects of the Rondor Man’s immortality elixir, our reporter was provided with a Gustox inhaler, which temporarily ‘paralyzes’ the olfactory sense for the duration of this interview.)

DIPN: Many of our subscribers are unaware that a full-blooded Kryptonian still exists in the Galaxy.

NE: (laughs) I am not a typical Kryptonian. I am a relic of a bygone age.

DIPN: Exactly how old are you?

NE: Truthfully, I have moved around a lot; different planets, different time-streams. In Earth-years, I believe I must be about a millennium and a half old, but I stopped counting birthdays a long time ago.

DIPN: They say you are effectively immortal? Can a mortal really live forever?

NE: Death may be out there for me somewhere, but I haven’t found it yet. Based on my own centuries-old analyses, I believe that my body can heal from any injury. Daxamite medical specialists who have examined me have come to the same conclusion. I allow them to send their graduate students out her to examine me once a year—it does not appear that my healing factor has been degrading.

DIPN: How did this happen? Can your condition benefit the rest of the Galaxy?

NE: On Krypton, there was a beast called a rondor, something like a purple Earth rhinoceros. Its horn had amazing healing abilities—putting an injured person in contact with the horn of a living animal would stimulate the Kryptonian immune system, fighting off any disease, healing any injury. The beasts were terribly rare, and fairly aggressive, though, so it was always a last-resort sort of treatment. As a biologist, zoologist, and physician, I made the study of the rondors my life’s work. I even vivisected and dissected several of the creatures. I’m not proud of it—it was against all the laws of nature and Krypton—but I was overwhelmed by the possibility of curing disease—all disease—forever.
I was arrested and imprisoned by the authorities—killing a rondor was a felony—but returned to the work after my release. I want to emphasize- they were right, I was wrong. My overzealous pursuit of this line of inquiry led to the extinction of the rondors, even before the destruction of Krypton.
However, before that had happened, I was involved in an accident: long-time exposure to the various glandular extracts, as well as a peculiar form of radiation in the rondor habitat caused me to assume rondor-like characteristics. My skin turned a grayish-purple. My hair turned white. I grew a single rondor-like horn from my forehead. And I developed the characteristic rondor smell. I am told there is a creature on your Earth- the polecat? And a plant—some kind of giant orchid? Which both produce offensive odors. But the rondor scent is much worse. So nauseating that some individuals pass out when exposed to it. Without some sort of protection, no man or beast will approach this villa closer than a mile.
The rondor themselves were not immortal, but the accident so stimulated by physiology that I instantly heal myself from any illness of injury.

DIPN: And you escaped the destruction of Krypton through the Phantom Zone?

NE: No, I was living on Krypton when it exploded. I spent decades in the vacuum of space, floating, dying, reconstituting, over and over again. But you may know that kryptonite can be a powerful energy source, and an alien mining craft rescued me. They immediately locked me up in an airtight vault, the stench in that ship became so overpowering.
I eventually made my way to Earth, after I learned of Kal-El, the Kryptonian survivor. My mental state was terribly fragile, having spent all that time in the vacuum of space, and when I gained the powers a yellow sun grants Kryptonians…
Well, let us just say I did not behave rationally. That is when I was placed in the Phantom Zone.

DIPN: But you were released on Rokyn, eventually?

NE: I was released on Earth, accidentally, with a couple of Kryptonian psionics. That was when I was completely immolated—down to the bone—by a Kryptonian pyrokinetic. But my body regrew itself instantly. Kal-El put me back in the Zone, eventually, but it was a wake-up call. If I was going to live forever, I figured I had better get my head together. Kal-El and the Kandorian Council eventually decided to release me into Kandor, the bottle-city, but the city was so small… I really can’t live around other people, not without causing extreme discomfort. After the founding of Rokyn, I was released there, and lived in isolation from the main colony for a while. But by then the Kryptonians were a dying race; insufficient genetic diversity had doomed them. Other humanoids came to Rokyn: Terrans, Krill, Bgztlr, and others. The Kryptonian genome is so diluted there that it has virtually disappeared.

DIPN: And how did you come to Daxam?

NE: I became uncomfortable with even the modest super-powers granted by Rokyn’s orange sun. Also, the cities were expanding, and I needed more distance between myself and civilization.

DIPN: Is Daxam more Krypton-like?

NE: Daxam seems so strange to me. Krypton was huge; ten times the diameter of Earth, and over a hundred times the land mass. A hundred billion Kryptonians called it home. Cities stretching up to the sky, filled with flying vehicles of all description. Android servants did much of the manual labor. Of course, there were wild areas, too. The Scarlet Forest, the Gold Volcanoes, the Flame Falls. So beautiful, but gone now for centuries.
Daxam, on the other hand is a much older world. Volcanic activity is almost unknown, no gold volcanoes, no flame falls. Tectonic activity is carefully regulated to provide power for the population.
The population is also so much smaller. Less than a billion Daxamites, and half of them crowded onto the Crescent Isle, smaller than a single Earth continent. They are incredibly gregarious. When the medical students come out for their week-long annual visit, many of them are deathly homesick by the time they leave. Some even leave before the week is up. Most of them have a psychological need to be surrounded by other Daxamites, all the time.
Did you know that less than one-seventh of Daxamite couples are fertile? Ironic, isn’t it: Daxamite fertility treatments are utilized by hundreds of races, but inadequate for their own people. That means when any couple that does have children, have huge families. Twelve, sixteen kids; then, of course, a couple of dozen aunts and uncles more in to take care of them all. It is not unusual for a hundred family members to be crowded into a single one of their rambling apartments. An old hermit like me is out of place, out here in the forest.
Most of Daxam is wild. The Hyperborean and Antarctic Wastes at the poles, the Great Circumequatorial Desert, the Countless Islands. There have been a few families: renegades, defectors, the disenfranchised, a few revolutionary factions, and some utopians… that have settled in these places. But they are relatively small groups, unknown to most of Daxam.
Ah, and the forest here. Strange turquoise skies, emerald leaves and grasses. So alien and unsettling, compared to the peaceful red skies and scarlet forests of home. The only familiar sight is the red sun shining in the sky. Still, it has been my home now for several Daxamite centuries. I built every stone of the place myself, did all the plumbing, and installed the geothermal electrics. I grow the sorts of food in my garden that pleases me.
“My food is not that of man; I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment.” – You want to put quotation marks around that last-- And just as well my needs are so simple, for man and beast together shun this place. Even the birds do not congregate to sing here.

DIPN: There are other heavy-gravity worlds under red suns…

NE: There is Kormon, an ever more alien world. It has a dead neutron star at its core. Although its gravity is comparable to that of Daxam, or long-lost Krypton, it is actually smaller than Earth’s moon. Scarcely four hundred million Kormons call it home, and yet it is as densely populated as Krypton was in its heyday. An odd people, too. Nearly genetically identical, it is difficult to tell the men from the women. Ther are perfectly—too perfectly—genetically adapted to their environment. Unable to handle stress, and even more xenophobic than the Daxamites. Their world is rich in heavy metals, yet poor in lighter ones—aluminum, iron, copper, magnesium—almost unknown there, yet they will now establish trade with the U.P. Did you know they are so alike, they each have identical fingerprints?
No, I am better here on Daxam.

DIPN: If I may say so, you seem content with your life, in a melancholy way.

NE: Well, I think I am learning to develop patience. I think that patience will serve me well throughout the coming years.
DIPN: Thank you for your time, Nam-Ek. You have been an interesting guest.

NE: Thank you. I understand that the Terran Time Institute forecasts that humanity will continue to thrive for another eighty millennia, at least. I will be here, I think, should you care to visit me again.

Nam-Ek

On the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, we asked long-time journalist Klar Ken T5477 to provide us an encapsulation relating how he came to work for DIPN.

I was born in Earth-orbit on the Medicus Satellite in the year 2939, either on March 1st, or on February 28th, depending where on our globe you happen to live. My father was Jon Feggo, at the time a medical technician and doctoral candidate, my mother was Zara, a Daxamite research physician. I was named Jon Feggo, Junior.

At that time, there were a number of Daxamite medical personnel working on Medicus. The onboard environment was carefully controlled. There was no lead anywhere on board, and shields filtered out the sub-yellow electromagnetic radiation that would have otherwise given the Daxamites unwanted super-powers.
I spent my youth as most Earth-born children, taking lessons from the Standard Educational Curriculum Broadcast, interacting with interest networks across the United Planets, and playing the sorts of games that all children play.
When I was fourteen, my father unexpectedly contracted the Pain Plague. There was no treatment in those days, and within twenty-four hours he had died.

Two years later, the Medicus Satellite research program closed down. It was not until fifty years later, with generous funding arranged by the philanthropist R.J. Brande that the current “Medicus One” satellite opened to continue its research.
My mother and I ‘returned home’ to Daxam—a world I had never known. Shortly after arriving, I began experiencing strange symptoms of discomfort: I had difficulty breathing, my heartbeat was irregular, and I was exhausted all the time. It was determined that my half-human heritage made it impossible to live in Daxam’s heavy gravity environment for extended periods of time without incurring severe damage to all my physiological functions. As I had always been interested in writing, I applied to Oxford University on Earth, eventually taking a double major in Interlac Composition and English Literature.

My visits with my mother have been frequent, but unfortunately brief. She is a spry one hundred and six, an emeritus hospital board member, and is still called in for occasional consultations. She is also Daxam’s most respected authorities on home agriculture and the cultivation of root vegetables.

At the time, there was a renewed interest in professional journalism, an occupation that has waxed and waned in popularity throughout the years. I began making contributions to the Daily Interplanetary News sub-etheric broadcasts, meanwhile continuing to pursue a master’s degree in Journalism at Oxford.

In 2963, I was approached by an executive at the DIPN Entertainment division. They were interested in creating a product placement holo-vid series about a fictional descendant of the 20th-century Superman, supposedly an employee of DIPN. Because of my general resemblance to that historical figure, as well as my half-Daxamite powers, they wanted to screen-test me for the role.

In those days, it was extremely difficult to “fake” psychic experiences. Today, of course, the sensational illusion of freely flying through space, or lifting massive boulders, can be convincingly duplicated by CPI technology. But at that time, the “stunts” I did were real—sensations recorded from my mind and broadcast to the subscribers at home. The series lasted for two years, and was modestly popular. I was so identified with the role, however, that DIPN changed my byline from “Jon Feggo Jr.” to “Klar Ken T5477”, the supposed alter-ego of the fictional Superman of 2963 - 2965.

With the myriad of holo-vid productions since then, there are probably few who remember by foray into the theater. While it was entertaining, both for me and for subscribers, I have found much more fulfillment in my continuing position as a journalist. I have interviewed some of the most famous, infamous, fascinating, and dangerous personalities in the known Galaxy. I have visited worlds and sites that I could have never imagined possible, when I was studying at Oxford.

One interesting bit of trivia, for those who do remember the old show, is that the actress who played Klar’s co-worker Lyra 3916 also played the villain Muto, with heavy holographic makeup. Originally from Trom, all the transmutations she did on-vid were completely authentic. Unfortunately, she passed away on her homeworld, shortly after the serial ended, in the Great Trommite disaster.

Klar Ken T5477 has begun working on an autobiography, recounting his fifty-plus years in broadcast journalism, tentatively titled “Another Mild-Mannered Reporter”

Don and Gayla Mahlons are exhibits at the Galactic Sentients Zoo on Bismari. The following is an excerpt from and interview with the Metropolis Daily InterPlanetary News

MARCH 3014

DIPN: Many people would find it unusual for two people to choose to live in a cage.

Don: It is unusual! There are over one hundred billion humans in the United Planets, and there are only two in the Galactic Sentients Zoo!

Gayla: Everyone needs somewhere to retire, and the Zoo seemed perfect for us. And how many people get to retire at our age?

DIPN: I notice that it says “EARTH: HUMANS” on the outside of your display. But you aren’t really from Earth, are you?

Gayla: All humans are from Earth originally, aren’t we? No matter how long we’ve been gone, our ancestors lived there once upon a time.

Don: It’s true, we were Winathan farmers, born and bred. Our children are still on Winath, and Gayla and I both have siblings there. Of course, we’re citizens of Bismari now, aren’t we? But that doesn’t make us any less human, does it?

DIPN: Tell me how many other species are represented in the Zoo.

Don: Oh, don’t ask me that. They say there are over 800 different worlds represented here, spread out over an area of five square miles. Each display has its own habitat control, duplicating the conditions of the exhibit’s homeworld. Some even have artificial gravity generators!

Gayla: Our neighbors are Durlans on one side, and Ulthat on the other. Across the way are the Gordanian and Gamorrean exhibits. But Don and I have never taken the opportunity to tour the entire zoo.

Don: I understand that there is an aquarium with some sort of Atlanteans, Hykraians and Gil’Dispan, but as Gayla said, we have never seen them.

DIPN: How is it that you have never seen the whole zoo?

Gayla: Oh, there is not time for that. We have thirteen days off every year—they put up a sign saying “Exhibit Being Cleaned”—and another two weeks vacation besides. But why would we want to spend time touring the Zoo? We usually spend that time with the grandchildren back on Winath. Don always says we’ll go to Ventura one of these years, but that’s just talk.

DIPN: Tell me about your exhibit.

Don: Well, it’s eight hundred square feet, but only half of that is visible to the public. The bedroom, baths, and W.C. are all completely private. You can look into our kitchen, dining room, and living room though, and we do an exhibition of Terran cooking every day.

Gayla: Of course, we don’t get the fresh fruits and vegetables we did on Winath. We just have to make do. But they provide us with some very high-quality preserved and synth foods.

Don: And there is quite a holo-vid collection. There are literally millions of titles to choose from. Some of it samples the old “flickers” from the very beginning of human recording. No tri-D, no color no sound! Fascinating. The print library is even more fantastic! Interlac translations of ancient Babylonian, Sumerian, and Egyptian texts—some dating back nearly ten thousand years. And of course, we always get the latest releases, both print and holo-vid, as soon as they come out.Why, we even have a daily subscription to the Daily Planet feed!

Gayla: And, of course, we have the very finest in Roboclean, which keeps the living quarters spic-and-span. And aside from the one meal a day which we cook, we are also provided with two well-balanced meals from the Zoo.

DIPN: What about children?

Don: All the exhibits here are well past child-bearing age for their particular species. The Zoo is just not set up to care for and educate children.

DIPN: But the two of you are so young: only in your fifties. Surely you could have more children if you wanted to?

Don: Not without medical intervention. Ha-ha. Gayla and I had our family naturally, and very early. They are all adults now, and have inherited the farm back on Winath.

Gayla: I think people underestimate the intrusion of modern medical science into having and raising a family these days. When you want children, just go to the doctor, take a couple of pills, and nine months later—a baby! Some people even start families with alien species now, and don’t give a second thought to the fact that their DNA would be naturally incompatible. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; but Don and I were old-fashioned, and raised a family the old-fashioned way.

Don: When we learned about the opportunities here at the Zoos, we decided to leave the farm to the kids, and live the second half of our life here on Bismari.

DIPN: Is it true you receive no compensation?

Gayla: Oh, there’s plenty of compensation. A beautiful home, fine food. We have a high-quality printer which downloads the latest clothing fashions and furniture styles on a regular basis. Don has already mentioned the Entertainment Center. We even have a travel allowance for our annual vacations. But the only actual money we have are the credits we left Winath with. I suppose that’s why a trip to Ventura would be such a treat: a chance to spend a little money.

Don: Gamble it away, she means. We live like royalty here; months go by without our having to spend anything at all. The perfect retirement: everything provided, and no responsibilities!

Gayla: Except cooking that one meal per day!

DIPN: Is there anything you would wish for?

Gayla: It would be nice if the kids would bring the grandchildren to visit. I know our place is small, and there are no facilities for them to stay overnight here—they would have to rent a startel—but it would be nice to see them more often. They have only come to visit once since we moved here.

Don: Chaz and his family have never visited us at all at the display. So, yes, that would be nice. Oh, and Chaz, if you see this, call your mother!

DIPN: Thank you, Don and Gayla. It has been a pleasure to speak with you.

Don: I think the Zoos are doing a great work, increasing understanding between the various sentient species of the Galaxy. So come to the Zoo in your neighborhood! And if any one of your subscribers would be interested in retirement as an exhibit, they can contact the Galactic Sentients Zoological Society at UPGov. Galsentzoosoc@up.gov

Concept: The Legion of Super-Gorillas

Aurora: Winged, albino female gorilla from Wingor, a former colony of Thanagar, with the ability to fly unaided through space.

Telestia: Inhabitant of the Gorilla World, colonized by the people of Gorilla City, Earth. She has telepathic and telekinetic powers on par with Solavar or Grodd.

Titano 2: Like Colossal Boy, able to increase his size. Also hais Red Kryptonite Vision, which produces random, bizarre effects.

Phantom Gorilla: She is able to become an intangible phantom, and travel unaided through myriad dimensions.

Whizzy, the 31st-century Super-cat: Because every group needs a token “alien” member.

Chameleon Gorilla: Actually, a 31st-century version of Chameleon Cat (see the adventures of the Space Canine Patrol Agency), and another token “alien”.

Congorilla 55: Golden gorilla able to temporarily exchange minds with any other living being.

Ultra, the Multi-Gorilla: Strength (green), magnetism (blue), electricity (yellow), flight (orange).

Character: MetaGene (Eugene Hugo) is a mutant with the ability to shift his DNA makeup between the various Terran races. He has fourteen forms. He replicates the appearance and abilities of a typical member of these racial groups; in no case do his powers equal the level of the abilities of the Legionnaires.

01. Atlantis [Atlantean]
Powers: Ability to breath underwater (both salt and freshwater); enhanced strength and resilience to enable living under high pressure at the bottom of the sea; rudimentary telepathy (talks to fish); can survive only 1 hour out of water.
Appearance: Dark hair, green eyes

02. Bismoll [Bismollean]
Powers: Able to eat and digest any material
Appearance: Dark curly hair, blue eyes.

03. Braal [Braalien]
Powers: Ferromagnetokinesis
Appearance: Straight dark hair, blue eyes.

04. Carggg [Cargggite]
Powers: Triplication
Appearance: Light brown hair, brown eyes

05. Geeqou [Geeqouan]
Powers: Hyper-pheromonic aura
Appearance: Curly blond hair, blue eyes, taller, more robust musculature

06. Janus [Janusite]
Powers: Two heads
Appearance: Hairless, gray eyes, large-boned

07. Kathoon [Kathooni]
Powers: Infra-red vision
Appearance: indistinguishable from Braalien.

08. Naltor [Naltoran]
Powers: Precognition
Appearance: Silver-white hair, sky-blue eyes

09. Somathur [Somathuran]
Powers: Harmlessly assimilates disease vectors, immunity to poisons.
Appearance: Snow-white skin, lavender hair, lavender eyes

10. StarHaven [Starhanvenite]
Powers: Flight; supra-light speed; enhanced strength and resilience (able to survive in the vacuum of space unaided); modest “tracking” ability.
Appearance: Ruddy, black hair, black eyes

11. Thaar (Tharran Glaciocaster)
Powers: Psychoglaciation
Appearance: Short in stature, white hair, ice-blue eyes

12. Titan [Saturnian]
Powers: Telepathy (Mind-reading, thought-casting)
Appearance: Blond hair, pink eyes, highly arched eyebrows, ears slightly pointed (Imra Ardeen is atypical)

13. Trom [Tromman]
Powers: Elemental transmutation
Appearance: Curly blond hair, green eyes

14. Zwen [Zwenite]
Powers: Petrifico-somnolence
Appearance: Brown hair, gray eyes

15. Default [Initial Terran form]
Powers: none
Appearance: Stereotypical Nigerian African; blue-black complexion, curly black hair, black eyes.

Story Fragment (revised continuity):

The nearest star to Earth is as yet undiscovered in the 21st century: a tiny red dwarf which lies out toward the constellation Aries. Orbiting this dim star at a distance closer than Mercury is to our sun, is a tiny, cold, desert world, its sands covered with a thin layer of iron oxide. Small rivers run from the polar ice caps, watering the world in summer. In addition, a network of canals has been built by the inhabitants, further irrigating the planet.

This is N’Chandra, the new home of the Gold Martians, formerly known as the Yellow Martians, who fled Mars during the war between the White and Green Martians. By the 31st century, there are only a few hundred Elders who still remember Old Mal’Aleca’Andra, in the Solar System. Possessing all the powers of the Martian Manhunter, they spend the majority of their time in meditation and respectful philosophical debate.

When infrequent visitor arrives on their world, most of the Gold Martians assume the forms of rocks, trees, and harmless wild animals. Their riparian cities appear empty, except for a few Elders draped in their brown-and-yellow martian spider-silk robes and cowls. Often, those who leave N’Chandra forget that they were ever there…

Shape-shifting, including invisibility and intangibility
Telepathy and telekinesis, including levitation, psycho-catalysis, and eye-focused energy-blasts
Psionically enhanced strength, speed, and durability
Alien senses, including increased visual acuity across a large portion of the electro-magnetic spectrum
Physical and psychic vulnerability to fire

Location:

Shanghalla is the asteroid on which monuments to the Galaxy’s greatest heroes are display.

Malhaya, on the other hand, is the asteroid upon which the monuments to the Galaxy’s greatest villains are displayed. Of particular interest is the Black Pyramid of Nyarlapatra, the evil queen who exterminated all life in an entire galaxy. OK, so it was only the Small Magellanic Cloud, but that is still pretty impressive.

There is also a monument there dedicated to Cosmic King, Lightning Lord, Saturn Queen, and Superboy-Prime—created centuries ago, long before any of them were born.

Story fragment:

Esper Lass vs. Brainiac 5

After his most recent disastrous encounter with Saturn Queen, Brainiac 5 set up some protections.

Anyone trying to access his mind finds themselves in an expansive virtual meadow, where Querl’s elf-like psyche gaily cavorts among the flowers. In the distance, rimming the horizon, vast computer banks loom, calculating interminably.

In fact, the computers are merely searching for “interesting” strings of numbers within the digits of pi.

The green-and-purple elf is a psychic construction; a psionic firewall separates this area from the rest of Brainiac 5’s computer mind.

Telepathic illusions, mind-control, and telepathic interrogation seem to be effortlessly effectual against the harmless little elf… but back in the real world, Brainiac 5 himself- his true mind and behavior- is unaffected.

And it is a trap. Esper Lass senses there is something wrong. She tries to probe deeper, but steel jaws clamp shut across the sky. Her mind is trapped in the “virtual sandbox” mental world Brainiac 5 has created. Comatose, her body immobile and helpless, she is at the mercy of her intended victim.

Story fragment:

Esper Lass vs. Brainiac 5

This space for rent.

Story fragment:

Esper Lass vs. Brainiac 5

This space for rent.

Proposal: The Legion Academy MMPORPG:

Create your character: First, choose your homeworld. This determines the sort of base power set you have.

Atlantis, Antares. Bgztl, Bismoll, Braal, Carggg, Colu, Dollworld, Durla, Geeqou, Gorilla City, Hykraius, Imsk, Janus, Kathoon, Korlon-Dryad, Naltor, New Themiscrya, Rimbor (no innate powers), Sklar (no innate powers, female only), Somathur, Sorcerer’s World, StarHaven, Talok VIII (Shadow Champion) ,Teall, Thaar, Titan, Trom, Zwen, Zyzan, Apollyon (everyone has powers like Sun Boy), Brobdingnab (everyone has powers like Colossal Boy)

Maybe J586?

Sorry, but you can’t be from Daxam. Or Zrfff.

Now report to Montauk Point for Legion Academy training. You may compete against ‘bots (NPC’s) or other players. As you progress, you learn new skills and applications of your abilities. Skills learned include damage, defense, dodge, all the video game standards. Each base power has different strengths and weaknesses. Eventually, you are sent on missions, either with random groups of players*, or alone. (There would be a feature in which you are able to “friend” other players to form more permanent groups.)

You may also train in martial arts, gaining supplementary skills outside your class. In addition, you might find or purchase various chemicals and devices which further enhance or supplement your abilities, such as: zuunium, norgine, gingold, kathooni steroidal compound, sancha, elasticizing serum, “Green Boy”’s color-changing elixir.

Game play is similar to oh, say, Pirate 101.

As you level up, the missions become more difficult, and your powers become more formidable. Ultimately, you (and your friends) face Mordru and the Time Trapper.












*selected by the Planetary Chance Machine?

Story fragment:

Tri-jitsu: the governing principle is “Attack as Three, Defend as One”. That is, increase power to your attacks by triplication, but provide a small target for defense by re-unifying.

Karate Kid competed in the World Tri-Jitsu Tournament on Carggg, and had so mastered the technique that many of the judges failed to observe that he actually never triplicated. When the few judges who did notice pointed this out, he was disqualified, although he otherwise would have (naturally) won.

Story Fragment:

The Legion of Supergirls vs, the Legion of Super-Heroes

Supergirls and Power Girls of alternate universes (which now exist only as quantum potentialities) join together in a fight to restore those universes to actual existence—but doing so will result in the utter destruction of the Multiverse as we know it!

Only the Legion of Super-Heroes stands in their way. But is the Legion strong enough to face two dozen Maids of Might?

Including:
Cir-El
Superwoman (Kristin Wells)
Ubermadchen
Lilith Lee, Satan Girl
Luma Lynai, the Supergirl of Staryl
Kara Zor-El
Kara Zor-L
Kara In-Zee
Kala Jor-El
Kara Marvel
Kendra Shakespeare
Supergirl Red & Supergirl Blue
Black Power Girl
Skygirl of Kormo
Hypergirl of Oceania
Supergirl-Prime
The Supergirl of Atlantis, daughter of Kara and Jerro
Laurel Gand, Valorgirl
Lauren Gand, Star Sapphirel
The 31st-century Power Girl, daughter of Laurel Kent and Jed Rikane
Ariella Kent, the 853rd century Supergirl
Brainiac’s Daughter
Lois Lane & Lana Lang

Concept Fragment:

Monstress and Blok: together again for the first time.

Character Outline:

Indira Pradeshi of 31st-century Venus was the daughter of Laevar Bolto, although even her mother was unaware of that fact. Bolto probably never knew she existed.

Easily in the 99.99th percentile of intelligence, she always felt isolated and alienated from her peers, which feelings were only amplified as she entered adolescence.

When her powers began to manifest, she was initially unaware of it. Small possessions would mysteriously vanish, turned to water or helium. When a single yellow rose in a vase at a kindly aunt’s home was discovered to have been replaced by one of fine gold filigree the day after her niece’s visit, no mention was made of the discovery. But when Indira saw her schoolroom stylus transform into a small, strange lizard, she knew something strange was going on. Her father, a noted biophysicist and cryptobiologist was unable to identify the creature. Closer examination in his laboratory showed that the creature, although appearing lizard-like externally, was internally organized like a miniature human being. Despite his elaborate precautions, the creature vanished from its cage before any of his colleagues could examine it.

Eighty-five percent of the Venusian populations are adherents of Perelandrianism, in varying degrees of piety and observance. Transmutation of the elements is therefore nearly universally rejected as morally repugnant, and an insult to Creation.

Indira kept her powers secret.

Privately and secretly, she practiced and experimented to define her limits. She was able to duplicate the molecular structure of any object which had been in her presence. She seemed to unconsciously, and subconsciously, sense and record the nature of anything within visual range. She was able to manipulate both the shape and substance of an object, but unable to alter total mass. Her powers affected both living and non-living matter. As illustrated by the lizard, she was able to imbue non-living matter with life, and transform living matter into inert materials.

At last, she began her great project. In a small copse in a local park, she began collecting rocks, soil, branches, and vegetable debris, until she had created a mass equal to her own: about fifty kilograms. Then, with careful concentration, she created a duplicate of herself.

Physically, it was perfect. She even made some improvements, clearing up ‘Indira-Two’’s acne, making the eyes brighter, the lashes longer, the hair fuller and glossier, the figure more adult, clothing it in the latest fashions.

Most of all, Indira Pradeshi was curious: would the new Indira be her intellectual peer, one whom she could make a confidante, an equal?

“I wonder,” she thought, “if it will be friends with me”

‘Indira-Two’ gazed at her young creator, eyes shining, awareness dawning, lips gradually curling into a gentle smile. With a small gesture, she transmuted the inferior girl into nitrogen gas.

Cosmic Queen is a living, but soulless, duplicate of Indira Pradeshi, with all her intellect, powers, and memories. She has never returned to the original Indira’s family, and they have all but given her up for dead. She has gone by a host of pseudonyms. She has traveled far from her original province, slowly modifying her form, changing her fingerprints and iris patterns, becoming not merely attractive but coldly, stunningly, beautiful. She is a true hedonist and a perfect sociopath, void of sympathy or morality.

Undeveloped Thought:

If the Legion had been founded by Lightning Lass, Projectra, and Element Lad, they would have had the same power set as the original Legion of Super-Villains

Tying up loose ends:

Becoming aware of the creation of Justice League Earth, the 1000-year-old Amazo robot tracks down the remaining Leaguers on Takron-Galtos (or Labyrinth, or Hell Planet, or wherever they are being kept)

(Storm Boy, Spider Girl, Tusker, Radiation Roy, and Golden Boy)

Amazo replicates their powers, and kills them all.

Now it is up to the Legion of Super Heroes to stop it’s interplanetary rampage.

I am sorry to admit it, but we Legion fans are getting old. Many of us are approaching eligibility for AARP, or even Social Security. Every year, there are fewer of us who enjoy the old Legion stories, and more, well, to put it bluntly, ignorant children.

This no doubt explains, at least in part, DC’s careless attitude towards its Legion property. But what is there to be done? Can you imagine 17-to-21-year-old college students enthralled by the old Legion Archives?

Maybe. Maybe not.

In an effort to promote the continued and future existence of the Legion, I am engaging in a new, long-term project. About once a month, I will go on ebay or somesuch, and purchase a good copy of a Legion archive, TPB or other compilation, hopefully hardbound, hopefully reprinting stories, preferably in color, from the sixties-through-eighties. I will then mail said copy to a local University library as an anonymous donation. I figure I can manage a dozen donations a year. I should be able to place one or two hundred or so, if actuarial tables hold.

I invite everyone here at Legion World to join me in this effort. There are about 7,000 accredited colleges and universities, large and small, throughout the U.S.

If we all work together… well, probably nothing. However, by the year 2957, college librarians throughout North America might be asking, “What in the world are these?”


Remember: non-anonymous charitable donations are tax-deductible!

LLL

Story concept:

Whenever Karate Kid dies, Projectra has her Orakills select a likely subject—a strapping farm boy, or burly, hardened criminal—and he is trained to physical perfection. Then magicks are laid upon him to change his appearance to perfectly mimic Val Armorr’s at the time of his death.

Then the soul of the honored victim is placed in a small, sealed bottle, and the soul of Val Armorr is summoned into the empty vessel.

But it is getting harder to summon the soul, which wishes to return to its eternal rest… and this time, something else has gotten into Karate Kid’s body…

Unexplored Continuity Trivia:

When Karate Kid was killed by Nemesis Kid, (and Orando was transported into another dimension) according to the terms of KKs will, all his earthly possessions were inherited by Timber Wolf. This included basically ½ of all the offworld assets of Orando, making TW basically a gazillionaire..

I don’t believe anything ever really came of it, although I think there was speculation that TW deeded it all back to Sensor Girl when she showed up again. There are a lot of plot points like this that just evaporate.

What's interesting about this is that Karate Kid was never 'king' or anything, he was addressed as the 'royal consort,' which is pretty much 'Her Majesty's Boytoy,' as far as status goes.

She clearly gave him some access to Orandan funds, so that he could have such an inheritance to bequeath to Brin, but his choice to do so is intriguing, and perhaps even a tad manipulative, as it sets up a quantity of Orandan money off-world and in the hands of a Legionnaire. It's been suggested at times that Orando is a bit of a hands-off planet, deliberately technologically and cultural 'backwards' compared to the UP (and, especially, Earth) and that Projectra's father and advisors weren't the biggest fans of Earth, the Legion, etc.

And now, a chunk of the Orandan economy is much more strongly tied to Earth (and the Legion) than some Orandans would necessarily like... With this act, Val may have been taking a political maneuver to block Orandan attempts to further remove themselves from the UP, or even to secede entirely, and, on a more personal note, to tie his widowed love to the Legion that she might otherwise no longer care to be a part of.

His choice of the single Timber Wolf, in particular, might even have been a subtle matchmaking attempt, recognizing Brin's wounded heart, and that in the event of his death, Projectra herself would also be in need of a strong presence at her side, and if she finds that her husbands will necessitates her spending some time with Brin, so much the better...

Obviously, nothing ever came of that, and yet, years later, we had a Threeboot in which Projectra and Brin were a couple, despite having little or nothing to do with each other (or in common) in previous continuities.

.

As for wealthy Legionnaires, the team also has Cham, who is likely the sole inheritor of the Brande fortune, and Jan, who is the single solitary owner of his abandoned homeworld and all the tech left behind, cultural artifacts, resources, etc. that entails. If Jan had the slightest interest, he could probably generate vast revenue by allowing development of Trom (it's not like the UP doesn't have people like the Titanian refugees in need of places to resettle), or even just allowing *tourism* to Trom (which it's been implied he doesn't, since Shvaugn was described as one of the very few people to have ever been there the time Jan took her there).

Others, like Shady and Dreamy and Dirk, have wealthy or high-status families, as well.

Agree 100% with the implications listed above. I don't think it all means Projectra loved The Kid any less: it is just the political realities of the Orandan monarchy.

Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth of England, is officially "Prince Consort", which means he is the father of the future Kings of England, but does not himself rule. (Elizabeth's position is distinguished as being Queen Regnant rather than Queen Consort. Technically, she is the King.) Philip also holds the title of Duke of Edinburgh, and probably others.

It is possible Val also had / has other official titles, "Marquis of Mumbletypegge", or whatever.

----------------------------------------------------------------

It is the year 3113. Projectra is now the Queen Mother, having abdicated over a quarter-century ago to her daughter. Her daughter has passed on a few years ago, and Orando is now ruled by Projectra’s grandson, Ferix.
Queen Mother Projectra suffers from advanced dementia; she lives in a fantasy world, but her illusions are now cartoonish, incomplete, and unconvincing. Behind closed doors, she is known as The Mad Queen.
Val Armorr, her long-time consort, is long dead—this time, permanently, as the Orakills have refused to revive him yet again.

Brin Londo, meanwhile, has retained a fraction of his inheritance, in a deal worked out with Orando, but is still rich beyond the dreams of avarice. He lives in a palatial mansion on Meissa IV, attended by both sentient and robotic servants. He has permanently reverted to the Furball form, which is much longer-lived than his humanoid appearance. He is still mute, but is usually accompanied by a levitating psionic voder which easily allows him to communicate.

He is even older than his chronological age might indicate, having spent a substantial amount of time “lost” in the past on at least two occasions. His red-gold fur is streaked with grey.

(The Furball incarnation has always reminded me somewhat of Warner Brother’s Gossamer)

Timber Wolf

Gossamer

(Of course, Mon-El’s costume puts me in mind of Underdog, and Brainiac 5 has always reminded me of Simon Barsinister

The year in 3257, the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

A two-year story arc. This is the one I would really do if given the resources of DC Comics. Or even some random Jo with adequate artistic ability and a willingness to create twenty-five full-length fanfic issues.

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The Legion is now a sad joke: the subjects of a 33rd-century “reality” holo-vid programme which is something of a cross between “The Real World”, “American Idol”, and “Survivor”. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of THC Holding Company, the most powerful conglomerate in the Greater United Planets.

For the last fifty years, the UltraCorp initiative has barred the Legion from accepting any applicants without allowing a special-forces unit of the ICC to draft them first. This effectively means that any powerhouses at or above the level of, say, Ultra Boy, Sun Boy or Element Lad, are forbidden from joining the Legion.

The five surviving Original Legionnaires have disappeared into ordinary lives of relative obscurity. Some are even believed gone. But they have been secretly packing the current Legion with ringers: heroes who appear weak, but have hidden strength. Their plan is to finish a long-term project which the other Legions never could: to confront and defeat the One True God of the Dominators.

There are also secrets hidden within Legion Headquarters of which even UPGov and THC are unaware.

But can a group of third-rate second-stringers possibly succeed where most powerful Legionnaires of the past have failed?

Starring in Alphabetical Order:
Caduceus
Dimensio of Neptune
Flint
Gravelle
Herokalos
Jill Frost
Psimian
S.E.P. Lad
Saturday Girl
the Sigellian Kid, from the Superboy Planet
Skyboy
Tin Soldier
Toadstone of Hykraius

and featuring special guest appearances by: Indomitable Lad, Leeta-96, M.E.C.H., the Daxamite Pirates, Captain Xyzkov, Ozmarda, Volaillere & Chanticleer of the Sorcerer's World, the mysterious Mr. Cobb, UltraCorps, and the 33rd Century Legion of Substitute Villains!

Character Concept:

From Earth-C-minus:

Blok Lobster

Okay, I've had time to read through the entire thread, which reminds me that I have dozens of similar plot bunnies lying around in various word documents on my computer. Ideas for Legion fics I haven't written, ideas for new characters, lists of mythical gods that would make cool super-heroes (instead of the overused Thor and Hercules, such as Artemis or Skadi or Heimdall), etc., etc.

.

I like the idea of the Gold Martians and their hidden world around a dwarf star. The sheer amount of power available to a Martian (of any color) has always turned me off a bit to them. It might be an intriguing mix-up to Martian continuity for them to have some sort of communal psychic power, so that John, as last of his race, contains the vast, vast quantities of psychic power of his dead race, and if the Martian population ever increased, his power would be distributed among them somehow. (Alternately, that might make an interesting tweak for Element Lad's origin. His people, individually, might only have been able to transmute small items for limited periods of time, but when they died in their thousands, all of their transmutative potential flowed to the one survivor, giving Jan abilities vastly greater than any single Tromnian. If he ever has children, his own power will be divided among them, and if Trom is ever repopulated, all will have only 'normal' Tromnian power levels, a mere fraction of the power that Jan currently holds in waiting for his race's rebirth).

.

Malhaya sounds intriguing. A monument to villains! A shrine to evil? Who built it? Who maintains it? What secrets does it hold?

.

Esper Lass vs. Brainy reminds me of how triflingly easy it would be for Brainy to perfectly emulate and ‘profile’ a lesser intellect, such as a human, containing every single thing he’s learned in a psychic model of that person, so that when he interacts with that person, he’s literally running a program version of them in his head, allowing him to anticipate their reactions and behaviors (and updating his ‘profile’ when they surprise him, so that it becomes more and more accurate over time, so that, after teaming with some of his fellow Legionnaires for a decade or so, he’s got mental simulacra of them running in his brain that are psychically indistinguishable from them, and, say, were there a Legion election to determine if he should be kicked out for killing Jaxon Rugarth, he’d be able to anticipate their votes *before they even decided*, because he’s got a ‘Shadow Lass program’ and a ‘Mon-El program’ and a ‘Saturn Girl’ program running in his head, and he can just run the simulation version of them and know with great certainty their decisions, and exactly why they made them, and what they were thinking, etc.

A telepath breaking into his mind might be surprised to find dozens of other people, as real and fully formed as an actual human, living in there, his mental simulacra, each serving as his social interactions database, allowing him to interact with and predict the otherwise baffling behaviors of these, to his mind, vastly smaller intellects.

.

Legion Academy MMO could be fun! I wouldn’t limit the membership to pre-existing worlds, ‘though, or to powersets common on those worlds, although I would try to make sure that characters with ‘common’ Legionverse powersets are available (like cold and ice-generating characters, who may or may not be from Tharr, if that’s the backstory they choose). The way MMOs work, powers tend to accumulate pretty slowly, so it would be entirely feasible to allow a Daxamite character, but have them be in the middle of a long and involved process of being immunized against lead or something, explaining why they only start with a smidgen of super-strength and toughness, and have to go through ‘treatments’ (earn exp, like anyone else) before unlocking more of their Daxamite potential. The ‘lead immunization treatments’ or whatever would basically become the in-game excuse for why the PC from Daxam and the PC from Bismoll both start out on an even keel, and both progress at the same rate (although the Bismollan PC might choose to develop more skills or equipment based ‘powers,’ if he wants to stay true to the limited nature of the racial powers he chose, or just say that he’s a mutant Bismollan and develops fun new powers like fire breath or converting consumed matter into power-ups that give him super-strength or whatever).

.

Karate Kid studying Tri-jitsu (and / or sparring with Lu, to practice fighting multiple opponents, or with Shady, to practice blind-fighting) could make for a neat mini-story.

.

*Love* Cosmic Queen. What a great character idea, with a horrible awesome origin story! She's got crazy potential, too, able to create 'evil duplicates' of foes, etc.

.

An Amazo with the powers of Tusker, Golden Boy, Storm Boy, Radiation Roy and Spider Girl sounds intriguing. Indestructible skeleton, golden body, deadly ‘midas touch,’ radiation emission, weather control and prehensile hair. Funky.

.

Donating archives to libraries sounds like a great idea!

That's my point. Any serious Legion fan has dozens of ideas, large and small, written down or in mind. I have dropped a few others, in more developed condition, here and there around this board.

So why have we been treated, since the end of the threeboot, to such a festival of failure-of-imagination? Rewind history, and rewrite the Legion's first encounter with the Fatal Five? Legio vs. Superboy Prime? Kill Karate Kid and bring him back again for (what?) The fourth time? With no explanation / consequence / reason?

I can forgive bad writing. Actual good writing is hard, especially on a deadline. But an inability to come up with ideas is difficult to understand in a professional writer.


Incidentally, the fanfic I am most proud of is the Mog Yagor / Nimbok / Hate Face / Leeta-87 'Super-Hero Club' story I wrote a while ago.

It is inexplicable to me, as well.

*Dozens* of the Legionnaires remain veritable cyphers, with their homeworlds almost a total mystery.

We've seen Orando under threat, and been there several times, but really don't have much of an idea what the planet is all about, or how it interacts with the rest of the United Planets (which, in general, seem vastly ahead of them technologically, but less comfortable with the idea of magic and sorcery).

But what do we really know about Cargg? Or Braal? Or Imsk? Or Naltor? We've had the briefest of visits to these worlds, if at all, and some are from different continuities entirely. Other worlds, we've seen perhaps a tiny bit more of, such as Titan or Winath, but, unlike Talokk VIII, Orando and Sorcerer's World, we haven't had *adventures* on these worlds.

The exact nature of the United Planets itself is a bit of a mystery. Has every single inhabited world within a certain volume of space *unanimously* agreed to be part of the UP, or is it a messy patchwork, like the United States, encompassing entire regions of sovereign territory that belong to native people who *haven't* joined the UP, and mostly manage their own affairs? Are the gas giants of the UP often inhabited by races like the Hyrkraians, and do these races have *their own United Planets*, existing in every UP system, and more or less politely minding their own business, so long as 'rock-worlders' don't use their gas giant worlds as toxic waste dumping grounds or siphon off their hydrogen atmospheres for fuel or whatever? Similarly, are the stars inhabited? Is there a 'United Suns' that, again, is scattered throughout 'UP space,' more or less minding their own business and having little or nothing to do with the 'United Planets?'

Our world saw some serious 'distributed nation building' with the Sun Never Sets on the British Empire, but, in the far future, where members of the United Planets could have entire solar systems controlled by the New Vegan Unity, or the Thanagarian Star Empire, it's possible that 'borders' would be a thing of the past, as different worlds in the same solar system could be part of completely different interstellar alliances, with other governments existing across dozens of worlds that themselves are nominally part of different governments (similar to how adherents of Shaira law, or followers of Orthodox Judaism consider themselves subject to laws and allegiances in addition to those of whatever country they currently reside in).

A 'New Atlantean Empire,' for instance, could exist on Earth, in the oceans of Cargg, in the oceans of Winath, and in the oceans of six other Earth-colonies, and have their own laws, and be also signatory to the United Planets, even though, technically, they aren't a 'planet,' so much as a singular nation-state that encompasses parts of seven different worlds.

As an exercise in world-building, it's all just mental masturbation, but as fuel for storytelling, there's potential for Legionnaires having to deal with some attempt at provoking the New Atlanteans into conflict on the various worlds they inhabit, perhaps involving some sinister person (the Dark Man?) teleporting Devilfish around to New Atlantean colonies and having it ravage their cities and outposts, and leaving behind evidence that one of their rivals in the UP council is responsible, leading to strife and conflict. The Legion has to fight Devilfish (whom they find out has been cloned, and there are dozens of them!), protecting Atlantean colonies, while perhaps also fighting off over-zealous Atlantean colonists who have been convinced by a whisper campaign that the UP is sending the Legion to wipe them out, and then stage evidence that some 'Devilfish' myth is behind it! Diplomacy! Intrigue! Heroes mistakenly fighting heroes! (Assuming the Atlanteans have some of their own.) Combat in an alien environment, forcing the Legionnaires involved to adapt and overcome!

From a tiny bit of world-building, comes a storyline.

And, sixty years later, we still don't know if Bgtzl is a relatively small pocket dimension, like Marzal, an entire 'counter-Earth' in another dimension, or an entire alternate universe, with billions of worlds, it's own Legion of Super-Bgtzlns, Aqua Lantern Corps, Justice League of Bgtzl, Purple Martians, etc.

Is Imsk a 'Bottle World' originally shrunk by Brainiac? Does it orbit a black hole, having been compressed to microscopic size, yet inexplicably remaining intact, with a living population of microscopic Imskians hovering millimeters away from annihilation as they skate the edge of the singularity's event horizon like a bead of water skipping over the surface of a hot skillet? Who knows.

It's staggering how little we really know about Legionnaires (and their worlds) who have been around for five decades.

I think one of the most memorable things about the Great Darkness Saga is that it both delved into the past of the DCU, and yet also brought something new into the Legion verse. It wasn't a story about the Fatal Five, or the Time Trapper, or Mordru, or Universo. Darkseid may not have been 'new' to the DCU, but he was certainly new to the 30th century, and that livened up a franchise that, IMO, occasionally 'goes back to the well' a bit too much.

(Bringing in R'as al-Ghul as a villain in the Reboot was, IMO, attempting to recapture that lightning-in-a-bottle. R'as, like Vandal Savage, was an ideal choice for a villain who could show up 1000 years later, but, IMO, he wasn't a tenth the menace that Darkseid was, and trying to put him on that level was a poor choice.)

The Legion verse is more than big enough to handle a few new concepts. If in charge of a relaunch, I'd put a moratorium on the Fatal Five, Mordru, Universo and the Time Trapper (and Darkseid, or any 20th century villains) for the first few years. Build something new, preferably out of the incredibly rich tapestry already available.

I do like how Paul at least made an effort in that direction. Akka, Sun-Killer, Immortus, Questor and Alchemical Girl may not have turned out to be the most memorable characters (and Alchemical Girl lost her powers pretty much the same day we met her...), but at least they were new (and, in Immortus' case, hinted at having deeper DCU ties). Many of them, instead of just being totally new ideas, also tapped into pre-existing Legion lore. Questor was a Coluan, and hinted at some sort of adversarial familial past with the Dox clan. Akka was a Sklarian. Alchemical Girl derived her powers from a former Legionnaire! Even Sun-Killer, not connected so much to Legion continuity, had more of an origin story and a 'hook' than Sun Emperor or Beauty Blaze or Flare, who had similar powers, but no origin other than 'oh look, here's a new fire-powered character!'

Interesting potential, at least somewhat squandered.

To give credit where credit is due, Justice League Earth was brilliant, as was the re-imagining of the Reject’s powers. In fact, I was pretty well impressed with the whole (six-issue?) “Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes” story arc. IMHO, it was good Legion writing—although it was in Action Comics, and not LSH or Adventure.

Which is kind of funny, since I was completely unimpressed with “Lightning Saga”, which immediately preceded SATLOSH, I truly hated the “Batman and the Legion of Super-Heroes”, which immediately followed it, and was supposed to wrap things up, and I found the post-JLE storyline and dénouement of Absobancy Boy / Earth-Man completely confusing, logically speaking.

And I have also come to the conclusion that the horrid “Legion of Three Worlds” never happened, as Superboy-Prime’s destruction of his Time-Trapper self created a closed time-like loop now completely isolated from the rest of pre-Flashpoint continuity.

Why Mysa is now the Black Witch must have another explanation.

(Random thought: Can Superboy-Prime be redeemed in the Flashpoint Universe? If he never actually killed all those uncountable trillions of people… but I would never ask that Superboyman-Prime be brought back into the DC Universe.)

(And does ‘Earth-Prime’ exist any more? Could the 3boot Legion still be out there somewhere? Bizarro Brainiac… Giant City… possibly even a Supergirl-Prime? No, no, no, it’s just asking for trouble.)

This is how easily ideas come.

I recently learned a new word: gamboge.

I immediately realized that this is the name of the prime Yellow Lantern in the 31st century.

(Gamboge is a color: a sort of dark shade of yellow, a half-tone, something like gold, but not shiny.)

riffing on your post: Not only Bgztlr Aqua Lanterns (Will and Hope) but Bgztlr Chartreuse Lanterns, (Fear and Will)

I suppose *anyone* can be redeemed. The question becomes, why would you want to? What unique story can be told with this character, or what special appeal does he bring, that would not be possible with another character, either pre-existing, or created for the particular story?

His powers are nothing special. The DCU, heck, even the Marvel U, are crawling with people with the standard Kryptonian powerset, from Krypto folk to the half dozen other races that conveniently also have Krypto powers (Daxmites, Maximans, etc.) to the Martians to the Shazam-peeps to the various Superman knock-offs (Hyperion, Supreme, Apollo, etc.).

Various other heroes have been redeemed after killing other heroes (Tony Stark, Hal Jordan, Wolverine, etc.), and, it seems, those 'redemptions' tend to get retconned out of ever having happened anyway via universe-reboots, if necessary, so, that's a story that's not only been told, but almost invariably been swept under the rug and forgotten tout suite.

Superboy Prime's entire theme was 'what if someone with the power of Superman went bad,' and it's a tale we've seen a hundred times since the Silver Age of comics, thanks to Red Kryptonite and Bizarros and Zod and Invincible/Irredeemable and Supreme Power and ad nauseum.

Some tellings have been better than others, but Superboy Prime was definitely one of the 'others.'



That's a good question. I have no idea what the status of the 'multiverse' or the '52' is in the new DCU.

Obviously there's an 'Earth 2,' but it's not the old Earth 2, and it's existence doesn't necessitate that there's an 'Earth 3' or an 'Earth Prime.'

I guess there's still a Bgtzl, even if we've never known whether it was an alternate Earth, pocket dimension the size of Paradise Island or an entire alternate universe...

This is what I know about the Legion Worlds. Don’t ask me to quote chaper and verse. Some of it may be false memories from my own frenzied imagination, but all-in-all, I think that some digging will show that this was referenced somewhere in Legion mythology, either in-story, on the letter pages, or in the role-playing guide.

There is probably more information about these worlds than what I have listed here.

Each world is listed with one of the Legionnaires who call it home.

I skipped Earth and Krypton, as they have been represented in ways too myriad and contradictory to be dealt with here.

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Aarok (XS) is a Terran colony in the Earth-247 universe. Little else is known about it.

Aleph (Kinetix) is a Terran colony in the Earth-247 universe. Little else is known about it.

Antares II (Proty II) is the home of the Antarean Proteans. Its rich history is well-described in the Legion mythos. How it relates to the other DC worlds supposedly orbiting Antares is unknown.
(e.g. Dhor, Llar, Mosteel, Alstair)
In our universe, Antares is an immense red giant.

Bgztl (Phantom Girl) is an other-dimensional planet which occupies the same space as Earth. It has a technology generally equivalent to 21st-century Earth, with a couple of exceptions. Lighter-than-air flight has been developed to a very advanced level, rather than the jet airplanes we are used to. Also, all the inhabitants are able to travel between dimensions, accessing Earth, the Phantom Zone, and by implication other universes. They have this power naturally, and can enhance it with mechanical devices. Very active in the United Planets, it is easy to infer that they are an important political force in other dimensions as well—possibly the reason they have eschewed space travel.

In the Threeboot, only Tinya Wazzo had dimension-hopping powers, and existed, to a certain extent, both in Bgztl and Earth simultaneously. Bgztl was represented as being on a technologically equivalent footing with 31st-century Earth, about 1,000 ahead of the classic Bgztl.

Binderaan (Thunder) is a world which exists several millennia in the future. Computers control almost every aspect of life on this world.

Bismoll (Matter-Eater Lad Jr.) is a well-developed world, checkered with both modern urban centers and well-managed forest areas. Their political system is conscriptatory—citizens are ‘drafted’ into government service. At one point, an attempt was made to create a centralized planetary computer control system, but the project met with failure due to the intervention of Pulsar Stargrave. It is not known if this was ever attempted again.

Braal (Cosmic Boy) is represented as an impoverished world, and an early Terran colony. Despite its long history of colonization, and, presumably, industrialization, there are still broad stretches of wilderness on the planet, where the native iron-carapaced fauna may be found. An important part of Braalien social life is the sport ‘Magnoball’, which appears to draw crowds and interest as large as football (soccer) does on Earth.

Carggg (Triplicate Girl) a planet which orbits three yellow stellar primaries, Cargggan social life is built around the triplicating abilities of its inhabitants. Numerous social conventions and taboos exist regarding the use of the inhabitant’s native powers.

In the Reboot, Lluornu Durgo was an anomaly whose three ‘selves’ had three distinct personalities, apparently the norm on Carggg.

In the Threeboot, Lluornu Durgo was the only inhabitant of Carggg, three of millions or billions of duplicates. A complex social pattern of merging and re-merging in order to transmit information and keep the ‘hive’ homogenous was hinted at.

Colu (Brainiac 5) is a planet which houses a hyper-advanced technological civilization of superintelligent humanoid aliens. Its stellar primary is a small green sun called Yod. (Superman therefore has no powers there) By the 31st century, it apparently has been overbuilt so completely as to be entirely artificial—that is, manufactured. Computerized systems link the inhabitants to vast databases, and, presumably, social networks. In the Retroboot, it was revealed that there is a subclass of Coluan ‘data zombies’ whose entire focus is the collection of data to ‘feed’ the worldwide computer database.

Daxam (Mon-El) is an immense world orbiting a red giant stellar primary, presumably named ‘Rickleff’. Its technology is at least on a par with 31st-century Earth; it is known for both superior medical technology, as well as native xenophobia, agoraphobia, and an almost sheep-like gregariousness. There are, of course, individual exceptions, such as Lar Gand, Ol-Vir, and Res-Vir. Daxam is a colony world, whose original inhabitants are said to have come from ancient Krypton. Krypton was also originally a colony world, and since Kryptonese and Daxamites are both genetically compatible with Terran humans (that is, of the same species) it is reasonable to postulate that Krypton was originally colonized by Terrans. Perhaps the Atlanteans of Arion, or even the pre-Atlanteans, developed spaceflight at one point.

Dryad (Blok), also known as Korlon, is a world colonized by Terrans, but which for at least hundreds of years hosted the stone-like race of Dryads. There is, or was, some intimate connection between the Dryads and the ecosystem of the planet Korlon, but that has only been hinted at. Representations of the human colonists show a near-Edenic paradise, with the people living in open meadows, surrounded by fruit trees, in what is apparently unchangeably pleasant weather. The surface of Korlon was reduced to a smoking cinder when its stellar primary went nova.

Durla (Chameleon Girl), the world of shape-shifters, appears to be a barren wasteland where only the hardiest life-forms can survive, and those in small numbers. It appears to be ruled by a political and religious aristocracy.

Gryxor (Antennae Boy (5-year Gap Legionnaire): apparently, the people of this world have very large ears. Whether they are of Terran stock or not is unknown.

Hajor (Kid Psycho), like Krypton, was destroyed by a planetary disaster. I appeared to house an advanced, humanoid civilization.

Hykraius (Tellus) is an immense water-world, and therefore presumably has a ‘hot-ice’ core. The waters of Hykraius are also rich in both oxygen and methane, an unstable equilibrium that can only be the result of the life-forms which reside there. Apparently, it is also a necessary environment for the life-forms that reside there. (This is not unusual: Earth’s ecosystem is the same, created of Earthlife, by Earthlife, and for Earthlife.)
The Gil’Dishpan have a strong political influence on Hykraius. Its technology, or at least, its architecture, is alien: their undersea buildings resemble upright coral reefs, and may in fact have been built by coral-like alien entities.

Imsk (Shrinking Violet) is a colony world of the Krill, and ancient spacefaring race whose homeworld is either unknown or extinct. Its primary is a white dwarf star called Irulan, it has a sister world, also colonized by the Krill, called Orzde.
Irulan is a variable star, and at regular intervals emits radiation which causes its planets to shrink. Imskians and Orzdeans found a way to ‘harvest’ some sort of stored energy in the asteroid belt which allows them to be affected by Irulan’s natural ‘shrinking ray’, as well as giving them their famous size-changing abilities. There are parallels between Imskian shrinking technology and the experimental work done by Dr. Ray Palmer in the 20th and 21st centuries.

In the Threeboot, Imsk was located in a bottle which sat on Brainiac 5’s desk.

Janus is the homeworld of the late, lamented Double-Header, a 5-year-gap Legionnaire. Virtually nothing is known about this world or its strange amoebic inhabitants.

Jaquaa (Variable Lad) is inhabited by cute little purple bipedal aliens with either three or four arms. It is possible that the number of their arms varies with their mood. Little else is known about the planet.

Why Kathoon (Night Girl) is in perpetual darkness is a mystery: does some giant world permanently block out the sun, or does it have a second side turned perpetually towards the light?
It seems reasonable that if it is a gravitationally frozen moon, its stellar primary must be a brilliant O-type star, far distant, and therefore easily eclipsed, while still providing adequate warmth and energy even within the deep shadow of the Kathooni moon.

Khundia (BloodClaw) once provided Legionnaires, but whether there is a single Khundish ‘homeworld’, or merely an extended Khundish Empire, is unclear. Flederweb is an example of a race ‘conquered’ by the Khunds.

Kwai (Shikari Lonestar) is a world, or possibly worlds, or possibly cluster of asteroids, located in the “Progenitorverse” which was accessible from Earth-247 space. Whether this alternate dimension is accessible from the new post-Flashpoint universe has never been addressed. As Shikari theoretically had the powers of Seipnurr, it would seem reasonable to believe that she could find her way to the current DC continuity.
The Kwai are dragonfly-like humanoids which have evolved naturally, and not from the interference of the Progenitor. There has been minimal discussion of their culture, planet, or social interactions.

Lallor (Duplicate Boy, Gas Girl, Beast Boy, Life Lass, Evolvo Lad, and occasionally Floyd Belkin were not truly Legionnaires, but hey, cut me a break) is a world perpetually at war, or at least in a cold war of some kind. At one point the conflict escalated into a massive nuclear exchange, but the planet appears to be recovering. Whether the ultimate source of conflict is political, economic, racial, tribal, religious, or of some other cause is unknown. Even the number of opposing sides is in question.

Linsar (Gear (I.Z.O.R.)) was a hyper-technologically advanced world in the Earth-247 United Planets, populated primarily by cyborgs, whose mechanical and biological components are seamlessly integrated. Despite their superior technology, Linsarians seem to have been enslaved by other races to serve their own needs. On the other hand, it is possible that there is a central independent government which occasionally sells its citizens into slavery in order to support its financial needs.

Lupra (Color Kid) is pretty much a cipher, although we know that at least one scientist there was studying interdimensional electromagnetic radiation

Mardru, the homeworld of Chlorophyll Kid, apparently has a thriving agricultural sector, although little else is known.

Murrians are a pack of thieving rogues, who once built a supercomputer with the ability to effect a vast array of biological changes in the inhabitants. After triple-crossing the Murrian spies , the Legion destroyed said machine, as well as the plans for it, and Murria has not been able to rebuild.

Little is known of Myar, the Alchemist’s World, except that it was ostensibly the homeworld of Nemesis Kid.

Naltor (Dream Girl) is ruled by the High Seer, and his/her council. Inability to forsee the future is considered a disability similar to blindness. There must be a great many near-sighted Naltorans, if Nura Nal is the best of them. Our experiences of Naltor have been primarily near the High Seer’s demesnes, and they have been opulent.
There is a colony of Titans currently being integrated into the Naltoran population, since the destruction of their homeworld.

Orando (Projectra) is a feudal, medieval society, with a powerful monarchic tradition, and is ruled as well as the mystical, council of Orakills, who serve and advise the monarch. While theoretically absolute, the monarchy is bound by rite and tradition, which appear to be somewhat interpreted and enforced by the council of Orakills. The Orakills are magicians and necromancers, and may, in fact, also be something of a priestly order.
Orandans are not Terran-descended, or if they are, have substantially diverged genetically from the ordinary modern population, having a very different physiology, as evidenced by the fact that they have two hearts, like Gallifreyans.
That Queen Projectra was so easily able to execute Nemesis Kid is not surprising to me, considering his weaknesses: (1) he was a coward, and (2) his powers were ineffective when facing more than one individual. Projectra is herself an Orakill, able to channel the minds and souls of her royal ancestors. This is what Nemesis Kid was facing. In addition, as Queen Regnent of Orando, Projectra embodies in her person the will and presence of whole of the population of Orando, her subjects, just as Queen Elizabeth II is, in a sense, England herself. On a magical world such as Orando, the line between metaphor and actuality is somewhat blurred. Nemesis Kid therefore found himself, in the eyes of Projectra, facing not only generations of the dead, but the whole of the population of the living planet.
In the Reboot, Orando was populated by giant snake-like aliens, as well as some sort of sapient procyons, who served as either slaves, servants, or symbiotes to the ruling serpent race.

We have learned more about Phlon since the introduction of Chemical Kid only a couple of years ago than in the prior fifty years. And it still is not much.

Rimbor, the Mos Eisley of the Legion universe, and birthplace of Ultra Boy. There seems to be some sort of a legitimate economy, but it is dwarfed by the various black markets and underworld criminal organizations which abound there.
Humans make up a substantial portion of the Rimboran population, but there are plenty of other alien races as well.

Schwar. Is Fire Lad human, or humanoid? Does he even have a nose? It is both a conundrum and a contradiction.

Sklar (Kono) is a low-tech planet, and a political matriarchy, similar in some ways to Femnaz. Not actually a member of the United Planets, Sklarian ‘pirates’ are known to attempt to plunder technology from member worlds. They are at least capable of spaceflight, although perhaps only technologically capable of maintaining stolen starships.

Somathur is apparently a ‘secret’ member of the United Planets. The biological singularity of its inhabitants seems to be so revolutionary as to be classified, top-secret information. UPGov was no doubt relieved when Infectious Lass became ‘lost in time’.
In the Reboot Legion Lost, Monstress’ family appeared to be Somathurans living on Xanthu.

StarHaven (Dawnstar, daughter of Moonwalker) is a very earth-like planet, and its inhabitants have been very diligent in protecting, maintaining and integrating with its ecosystem. On the other hand, they seem to practice a sort of eugenics or genetic manipulation of their own people in an effort to improve the race..

Talok VIII (Shadow Lass) is a relatively primitive world, divided into at least two nation-states, ruled by the competing political factions of the Shadow Champions and Lords of Memory. Its technology is somewhere between 21st and 31st century Earth’s.

Quislet’s Teall is an extradimensional world which we know very little about; its inhabitants are a hive-mind, and the laws of physics differ substantially from those in our own dimension.

Thaar (Polar Boy) is an incredibly hot world, a Terran colony exists underground. A subset of the population has psychoglaciation powers, and they keep the temperature in the caves one or two degrees Celsius below the boiling point of water: a temperature at which ordinary terrans could not long survive. The Terran-descended population generally must therefore be substantially variant in its physiology.

Trom (Element Lad) ought to be uninhabitable, at least by Terran-descended colonists. The entire surface of the planet is highly radioactive, and immediately lethal, except for a small city-sized portion carved out by the element-transmuting Trommite colonists.
This habitable area could have been no larger than San Francisco or New York, and the Trommite population between one and ten million. As is well known, all Trommites are now extinct, due to the machinations of the pirate Roxxas, save one.
Or, in 5YL, two.
In the classic Legion continuity, 5YL, and the Reboot, Trom is a vast radioactive wasteland, with the tiny habitable area a ruined ghost town. Tsarin crystals dot the ground, marking the graves of the fallen. It is a very creepy place.
Outside of the Trommite settlement, it is likely that not even Mon-El, Superboy, or Ultra Boy could survive, due to the intensity and variety of radiation on the surface.
In the Threeboot, none of the above applies. The Trommites are a flourishing race with the ability to only temporarily transmute the elements, which heavily influences their semi-religious philosophy.

Ventura, the Gambler’s Planet, and home the 5YG Legionnaire Calamity King, is Las Vegas carried to celestial extremes. According to Bouncing Boy, however, it does still have some wild areas.

Vryga (Gates) is a planet in the Reboot universe of naturally politically communist insectoids. While we have seen the planet, little is known of its geography.

Winath (Lightning Lad) is primarily an agricultural world, and a very productive one, and presumably sparsely populated.
(If every inhabitant of Earth was allowed forty acres of land, it would have a population of only about 800 million.)
As “bread basket” of the U.P., it is a vastly wealthy world.
The fact that nearly all Winathans are twins is fundamental to its social structure.
In 5YL, it was clear that public nudity, or near-nudity, is without stigma on Winath.
Its stellar primary appears to be called Amarta, and the Lightning-World Korbal is located somewhere within its stellar system.

Xanthu (Kid Quantum II) is probably the most diverse and detailed world we have encountered in the Legion universe, with the exception of Earth and Krypton only. Displaying a wide variety of environments and climate zones, cities large and small, protected wild areas with alien flora and fauna (including the much-maligned paracat, possibly the dominant species on Xanthu before human colonization) Its political organization, government, social structure and technology seem much like 31st-century Earth, and it seems to have something of a competitive spirit with that world.
In the Reboot, Xanthu was very interested in producing a super-hero group to rival Earth’s Legion of Super-Heroes; a dozen or so members flowed through the Uncanny Amazers. Near the end of the Reboot run, Xanthu was entirely destroyed, and the population fled to other U.P. worlds.

Zoon (Timber Wolf) is another world with a triple-sun stellar primary, but in this case, the suns seem to orbit the planet.
(Rather, Zoon does not orbit any of the three suns, but is located at a stable Lagrange triple-point nearly equidistant from all three.)
The three stars, although seemingly of similar size and mass, are tri-colored: one red, one yellow, and one green. This divided the day into three near-equal portions:
(1) Red Daylight, when the red sun alone is visible,
(2) Orange Daylight, when both the red and yellow suns are visible,
(3) Yellow Daylight, when only the yellow sun is visible,
(4) Chartreuse Daylight, when both the yellow and green suns are visible
(5) Green Daylight, when only the green sun is visible, and
(6) False Yellow Daylight, when both the green and red suns are visible.
We can assume that due to their physiology, Kryptonians would only be super-powered during the Yellow Daylight portion of the day.
The native fauna have the appearance of giant fungi.
Mining is an important part of the Zoonite economy, and is performed by humanoid robots. The manufacture of robots and androids therefore also forms an essential part of the economy, as must interplanetary shipping. Rare minerals, such as zuunium, are available in quantities on Zoon not found in the rest of the U.P.
The Zoonite mining concern might be socialist in nature, as the petroleum mining operations in Alaska.
In the animated series, Zoon is a rough-and-tumble world with a strong criminal element, or possibly has an anarchic political system which tolerates behavior which would be considered criminal on other worlds. No mention of its three suns was made, but Superboy was powerless there for several hours.

Zwen is another super-hot world, as its highly eccentric orbit brings it too near its stellar primary for at least half the year. Rather than Thaarian adaptations, Zwenites enter a state of hibernation as petrified stone. The hibernation chambers appear integrated into the otherwise undeveloped landscape, which resembles the Utah National Monument with its tall stone pillars. Orbital mechanics tells us that Zoon must have miserable winters, at least on par with northern Russia, and two brief growing seasons in between the unendurable summers and frigid winters.
Stone Boy appears to have worn his pajamas as his super-hero costume, a choice not without precedent.

Wow, that's some neat information!

My thoughts on Zuun, which I was about to use for a fanfic, were colored by its appearance in the Legion cartoon (lush jungle world full of dangerous beasts), and I had no idea that it was supposed to have three suns or be kind of a mined out devastated ecology!

Interesting bits about Bgtzl being technologically behind. I think I'd rather it only be a parallel earth, and not have an entire parallel universe of Bgtzl-Khunds and Bgtzl-Daxamites and whatever...

Back to the random ideas.

An All-New Fatal Five, just for JLA3K
(1) Lelak, another Dark Servant Superman Anti-Clone, as seen in the Legion’s Darkseid Saga;
(2) A 31st-century hypertechnological version of ‘The Wrath’;
(3) An adult Thaddeus Thawne, previously known as Kid Zoom, Reverse-Impulse or Inertia;
(4) Gamboge, an all-new, (female, alien) premiere Yellow Lantern of the 31st century;
(5) A self-styled ‘Goddess of War’, possibly from Sklar or Femnaz, super-strong, super-fast, with various mystical weapons (sword, torch, and so forth) taking on the name and appearance of the ancient Earth war-goddess Columbia.

Another All-New Fatal Five, just for JLA3K
(1) The Time Trapper
(2) Another Time Trapper (from an alternate End of Time)
(3) Glorith (technically, yet another Time Trapper)
(4) Jaxon Rugarth, The Infinite Man
(5) Darkseid

A group of extraterrestrials who resemble Terran animals apply for Legion membership, and are rejected, mostly because their powers duplicate those of current Legionnaires:

(1) Sundog of Sirius III: a caninoid who can control a wide range of electromagnetic radiation
(2) Starling: a small bird-like alien who has a wide range of vision-powers: both super-senses and heat, cold, shrinking, lightning, and invisibility projection, as well as others.
(3) Chameleon Cat: a descendant of the original 20th-century shapeshifter, from a planet orbiting a star somewhere in the constellation Canis Major.
(4) The Elephant in the Room: more like a small, bipedal wooly mammoth, she is from a high-gravity world, standing something over twelve feet tall (4 meters), massing around three tonne, she can lift (press) ten times her weight. She has the power of teleportation.
(5) Gravity Grizzly: he can alter the strength and direction of gravity
(6) Pigfire, a porcine pyrokinetic
(7) Speedtest, a super-fast lagomorph
(8) Tortugamera: Tortoise-like alien; a crack shot with his hand-held anti-matter cannons (with sonic disruptor attachment for less devastating destruction)
(9) The Gingerbread Hamster, a student from the Sorcerer’s world, she has the ability to conjure pastries out of thin air, or even empty vacuum. Don’t underestimate her power: go see Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 1.
(10) Whirling Squirrel of H’Lven, a 3-foot-tall martial artist
(11) Behe-Moth: a tiny, moth-like alien (2 inches tall, humanoid, four arms, moth’s-head, wings) who can grow to immense sizes
(12) The Mindfish: a reverse mermaid (fish on the top, humanoid on the bottom) with telepathy, telekinesis, and super-intelligence

They decide to form their own super-group, to take on small assignments that the Legion is too busy to handle, and to possibly earn passage back to their homeworlds, as they all had purchased one-way tickets.
Stranded on Earth, they are looked upon first as “talking animals”, as evidenced by their choices of code-names.
The Super-Animals? The Super-Beasts? At last they decide on “The Legion of Super-Pets” as friendlier.

They take up residence in the cave originally used by the Legion of Substitute Heroes—but unknown to anyone in the 3Ist century, it was also the original base of the 2Oth-century Justice League of America! That’s right! The very same cave!
Behind hidden panels in the stone walls are rooms full of forgotten ‘souvenirs’ and ‘trophies’ of the most dangerous kind!

(In a later story, they team up with L’Onng N’Ozz, the Aardmartian Anteater of Earth-C-minus, the 1,100-year-old last survivor of his universe.)

That made me chuckle Klar. I love this thread. Your thoughts are sometimes genius, sometime funny, often both and always interesting.

Whoa! That is an extremely powerful grouping and would definitely make for an interesting story.

Harbinger: Thanks, I am sure that all Legion fans have just as many interesting ideas knocking around in their heads. And I believe comic books should have some humor in them.
(Look at Avengers, or Iron Man 3. Then look at Man of Steel. Then look at box office receipts.)

Invisible Brainiac: No, the 2nd "New Fatal Five" would not make for an interesting story. They would chew up JL3K and spit them out.


[size:14pt][font:Arial Black][b]NOW DOESN'T THAT LOOK LIKE FUN?[/b][/font][/size]

What's so refreshing about this thread Klar is you post your ideas and leave them at that. I wish I had that level of self control as when I'm struck by an idea it invariably ends up leading me to write a story for the next six months - in the case of the Legion 35C series over two years on it.

And I have to agree with you that humour is necessary to keep a story interesting. It seems that the onset of successful films has reinvigorated the comic franchise a little in this regard as the 90's (except the Bwah ha ha JLA) and early 00's were a minefield of desperate angsty plot driven books.

Love your list of planets - I'll be using that for a reference guide Though I thought Kathoon had been establish to be free floating in space away from a star and that's why it is in perpetual darkness? Wasn't that in the miniseries that established Brande as Cham's father (secret origins??)? I may be totally wrong though so don't take that as canon.

Harbinger:
It is just the opposite with me. If I had a few hours every day to work on these, I would generate innumerable fanfix. But it takes a lot of time to craft a story from an idea...

Dunno about Kathoon. Could be. If it's free-floating, it must have a heck of a geothermal core temperature to make it habitable.


Chlorophyll Kid's powers are creepy.

I kind of get where Harbinger is going though. I have a ton of smaller ideas, that quickly grow all out of control. I wanted to do a short story called 'the Legion of Lightning Lords,' for instance, but it's grown to the point where it has at least three *large* chapters, each of which might rival my 'Emerald Legion' fic in scope, if I'm not *ruthless* about trimming them down. Even the smallest joke idea for a 'Legion reveals' thread, like 'Sun Boy has been infecting one-night stands with solar powers' can turn into a deeper story.

The harder part is pruning down my plot bunnies, at least half of which are utter drek.



For my Emerald Legion fic, I went with Kathoon having a companion moon that shielded a section of the tidally-locked planet from the light of their sun. That's hugely improbable, and, in retrospect, it would have been way simpler to just have Kathoon's star be a brown dwarf or something that gives off minimal light along the visible spectrum, but plenty of UV, so that it can still warm a planet and provide energy to living creatures, while still appearing 'dark' to humans that see primarily along the visible spectrum.

Like so many oddities of the Legion universe, it's ripe to not just be explained, but to actually become a story element. It doesn't matter so much whether Imsk is a 'bottle world' shrunk by Brainiac, or exists along the edge of a singularity, so much as whatever the deal is, it makes for some good potential storytelling.

The old Brainiac tech is unstable, and only Brainiac 5 has the knowledge needed to fix it before Imsk shrinks out of existence, or catastrophically grows to full planetary size with so much force that it explodes! But to figure out this Brainiac tech, Brainy must interface with it, and runs the risk of being infiltrated by dangerous cyberviruses planted within the original tech, by Brainiac itself, that will attempt to co-opt Brainy's brain to allow his evil ancestor to be reborn within his 'descendent!'

And so we've got a reason to send some Legionnaires to Imsk, where they will have to fight runaway machinery, possibly deal with rioting Imskians whose planet seems on the verge of flying apart, and keep Brainiac 5 from getting an involuntary 'reboot' / system downgrade to 'Brainiac 1.0.'



Ooh, very cool. A time-lapse image of some vines crawling up a building, or even a tree splitting a rock, would be awesome to showcase his power.

Exactly! One idea leads to another, one plot development to another, one character interaction implies many other character interactions. Next thing I know, I am wanting to write pages and pages of Legion adventures; more than could fit in several years’ worth of comic books.
Why do professional writers not seem to have this problem? (Neil Gaiman excluded)
Why do we get retreads of the same old stories, themes, and memes in the Legion of Super-Heroes?

e.g.: The UP appears to be constantly at war with the Khund and the Dominion. We have had at least a couple of rounds of “Daxam vs. the UP” and “Durla vs the UP”. Why have we never seen “Bgztl vs. the UP”, or even “Bgztl Invades Earth”?
I enjoyed the “Braal-Imsk War” arc and the “Khundish Legionnaires” in 5YL for the originality, and reasonable ness, of the concepts. (Of course, I am lonely in my appreciation for 5YL. Is this part of the reason creativity is so restrained?)

Even the “ground-breaking:” Man of Steel film was essentially a rewrite of the first two Christopher Reeve Superman films, retold within the modern 2Ist-century, terrorism-phobic, ultra-violent conventions. And Man of Steel II has been announced as “Superman vs. Batman” which may feed the fanboys, but is so tired a concept now that “Superman and Batman, World’s Finest Heroes” seems almost new in comparison.

Meditation:

Earth-Two Today

The Golden Age Superman was born February 29th, 1916, making him 21 years old when we are first introduced to him in Action Comics #1.

He would be 97 years old today.

There is plenty of time for a third generation of Kents (or ‘-Ls) to have grown to adulthood. Other super-heroes of his generation could be similarly represented

Of course, this concept has been explored to a great extent in the Elseworlds “Generations”, “Dark Knight”, “Batman Beyond”, and “Kingdom Come”, with varying degrees of satisfaction.

Earth-One Today

The Silver-Age Superman, as well as the Earth-One JLA were originally supposed to be just twenty years older than their Earth-Two counterparts, making his birthday February 29th, 1936. Today he would be seventy-seven.

This would set an Earth-One ‘Batman Beyond’ in the present day.

Earth-Prime Today

Clark (Superboy-Prime) Kent was introduced in Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985. He was supposed to be about sixteen at the time of those events, which means he was born February 29th, 1968.

If comics’ time flowed normally (rather than sideways, upside-down, freezing, accelerating, rebooting and retconning) the Earth-Prime Clark would be 45 years old today, essentially the age of the Earth-Two Superman when Barry Allen and Jay Garret first met in “Flash of Two Worlds”.

The John Byrne Superman Today

Byrne came up with some interesting takes on Superman, heavily de-powering him, for example, but a lot of that was lost after the first couple of dozen issues. The idea of the Byrne Superman’s “heat vision” being pyrokinesis, for example, was lost quite early on.

Later, he was tossing ocean-liner-sized rocks out into the asteroid belt, but still unable to squeeze coal into diamond.

(The feat of squeezing coal into diamond in a few seconds is ‘only’ comparable to balancing the Eiffel Tower on upside-down on one hand. Even the Hulk can do that.)

The Byrne Superman debuted in 1986, but he was an adult by that time, making him five or ten years or so older than Superboy-Prime. I am not sure that the ‘February 29th’ birthdate convention still holds for this version; otherwise I would state more definitely that he was born in 1960 or 1964.

This makes the Byrne Superman just entering his early fifties in 2014.

Confession:

If I had Superman’s powers I would be pretty useless. I cannot see myself risking my neck for wet-tissue-paper human beings. In fact, there are only two things of Superman’s that I would covet: his invulnerability, particularly Silver-Age-class invulnerability, and his Fortress of Solitude.

One problem with 'if I had' musings is that it assumes that the reader has the powers or resources of character X in a complete vacuum.

It might be nice to have Superman's powers, if absolutely nothing else from his continuity or derived from his character, existed, such as magic, to whom he has en explicit vulnerability, and for that to exist, magic would then have to exist as well. Ditto Kryptonite, which is *ridiculously* common, it seems, on Earth, let alone who knows how much is just floating around in space, or sitting at the bottom of the ocean, just waiting to murder any curious Kryptonian who decided to check out Mars, or explore the bottom of the ocean, or whatever.

And there's all that other Superman-adjacent stuff, like a Phantom Zone full of ruthless war-criminals with the exact same powers, or whatnot...

Plus, being alone with all that power, even in the comic books, seems to be a recipe for disaster. See Superboy Prime, who never had a 'Legion' of friends to relate to, or Reboot Alchemist, who thought he was alone. (On the other hand, see also Mon-El, who was pretty much alone for 1000 years, and didn't turn into a prat...)

Ha! Set! This is just what I mean! If I were the Silver-Age Superman (living in the Silver-Age Superman universe) why would I risk my neck fighting Zod or Mordru? I mean, I could get killed.

And the invulnerability? Sure, kryptonite and magic would be a problem. But if I never take off the Clark Kent glasses… and maybe I would get a job less dangerous than Foreign Wars Correspondent. Like accountancy. But never sick. Never sick every single day of my life since 2001. Don’t have to take half-a-dozen pills a day every day for the last ten years. Don’t get the flu every winter. Don’t need to watch my weight. Don’t need to worry about heart attack or stroke or pneumonia. Don’t need to sleep more than a couple hours every few days. Can’t burn my hand on a hot iron or a hot frying pan; can’t slice a finger chopping up tomatoes. Not tired all the **** time. Invulnerability. Yeah.

And besides, aren’t there so many super-heroes willing to risk their lives defending the Earth that they would darken the skies like locusts?

Salu Digby tore open the package with unconcealed enthusiasm.

“What have you got there?” asked Ayla.

“It’s an Imskian Environmental Suit. I had to save up years’ worth of credits to buy it. Then it has to be fitted your specific genetic code and physiology. I’ve been waiting a long time for this!”

“But what is it for?”

“It’s for extended periods of time in hostile microversal environments. With this, I can go where no one has gone before.”

Ayla seemed puzzled. “You have a transuit, Vi. It shrinks to fit you, right?”

“Even transuits can’t handle every environment. And I have one place I am very anxious to go.”

• * * *

Quislet’s ship was smaller inside than Shrinking Violet had imagined. Most of the bulkhead was taken up by a huge engine.

“Quislet’s has a hyperspace drive built in,” the tiny Legionnaire explained. “Mostly, it runs on impulse engines, but the ship can go anywhere a Legion cruiser can, and maybe even faster.”

“I appreciate your inviting me into your home like this,” Violet offered. “Does your ship have a name? Or do your people name inanimate objects?”

“Quislet’s ship is not inanimate. It is alive—sort of. But not like Quislet is alive. Or like Ayla is alive. It is life-not-as-we-know-it. It’s name is,” he declared, pride ringing in his voice, “The Effluvia of Teall.”

Salu was nonplussed.

“Maybe it loses something in the translation,” Quislet admitted. An impish, almost humanoid face seemed to flicker across the surface of the pink ball of crackling energy.

A small ellipsoid with a profusion of tiny, hairy tentacles rubbed up against Salu’s ankle. She jumped back in alarm, then caught herself. Who knew what—or who—lived on Quislet’s ship with him.

“He likes you,” Quislet explained. “Don’t be nervous. It’s just Quislet’s pet, Paramecium Pete!”

To Be Continued?

Ha, I had a short scene with Violet having to hide from a wall of anti-matter inside Quislet's ship (one of the few things nearby that could survive said wall of anti-matter...), only to discover there were thirty or forty tiny alien people crewing the 'Quislet,' which was the name of the ship, and the 'energy being' that everyone thought of as Quislet was actually a ship's weapon...



So true. DC's Metropolis and Marvel's New York seem to be *teeming* with super-heroes!

PROBLEMS (EARTH-PRIME)

Laurie Lemmon could see that Clark was in one of his moods. One of his very bad moods.

“It should work!” he complained. “The principle is so simple!”

He held up what appeared to be a smoked-glass light bulb.

“The glass is a unique crystalline form of moissanite,” he explained. “It’s a pain to work with- it doesn’t melt, it only softens. It took me months to get the matrix right. The filament is a quark-doped alloy of tungsten and radium—I’ve been buying old radium watches off the internet; fortunately I didn’t need very much. But look!”

Clark replaced the bulb in a desk lamp and positioned it over a caged rabbit. He turned the lamp on, and a soft violet light suffused the desktop. The other lights in the rooms dimmed briefly: the bulb was drawing a lot of power. The cage and rabbit shrank; the rabbit was now the size of a large ant.

“Clark, that’s amazing!” cried Laurie. “How in the world…?”

“It’s a piece of trash,” Clark interrupted. He turned off the lamp. The cage and rabbit returned to normal size. “It only works while the light is on. There’s no permanent shrinking effect. And it doesn’t work on aluminum; reflects right off. That’s how I can cover the desktop with aluminum foil, and the desk the cage sits on is unaffected.”

“That’s not the worst of it,” Clark continued. “Look at that.” He gestured toward the wall behind Laurie.

Laurie let out a gasp. Sitting behind the door sat what appeared to be the rough, clay-like figure of a man, life-sized, and dressed in a ragged “Superman” costume. The red and blue of the costume had been reversed. Then Laurie realized: the thing was breathing.

“What is it?” she cried.

“It’s supposed to be a bizarro,” Clark explained. “But look—instead of white, chalky flesh, the thing is an obscene yellowish-grey; soft, and doughy. It breathes, it will even eat if you offer it food, but it has no mind. It doesn’t think it just sits there all day, doing nothing.”

“But… where did it come from?” Laurie asked. “Did you… make it?”

Clark picked up a device about the size and shape of a machine gun. He pointed it at Laurie. She screamed, fearing the worst.

There was a brilliant flash of light. Standing beside Laurie was one of the squashy bizarro-things, this one dressed in a pale, ragged copy of her own clothing. It seemed to oddly resemble her, just as the thing in the corner somehow resembled Clark.

“Completely worthless,” Clark grumbled. The Laurie-thing stood motionless, shoulders slumped, breath moist and noisy. Clark picked up a third device, which resembled a hand-held price scanner more than anything else. There was a click of a trigger, and the Laurie-thing disappeared, leaving a pile of clothes behind. Clark pointed it into the corner, and the Clark-bizarro also soundlessly vanished. A pile of red-and-blue rags lay piled on the floor.

“Did you… kill them?” Laurie asked.

“I don’t think that’s possible,” Clark replied. “They’re sort of… already undead. This is supposed to be a Phantom Zone Ray Projector, but it only works on organic materials. And the other dimension it sends them too… well, look at this.”

He handed Laurie what looked like night-vision goggles. She put them on. Suddenly, a new world sprang into view. She was in the middle of a wooded area. The trees looked like they were made out of mercury. She could see patches of silvery ferns and grasses, but the landscape was not completely colorless. The trees had fruit of several varieties. Here and there, brilliantly colored wildflowers stood out. There seemed to be insects equally brilliant in color, possibly similar to dragonflies and butterflies. They were moving too fast for her to examine closely, but she got an odd impression there was something unearthly about them. The sky was a pale golden hue, the sun was a small, crystal blue disk.

To her left stood the Laurie-thing, naked, slumped, and motionless. The equally naked Clark-thing sat like a lump on the ground. There were several rabbit-shaped bizarro-things scattered around the woods. One of them was moving, slowly oozing along. She thought she saw a Clark-bizarro in the distance; it seemed to be slowly moving away.

“Maybe they wake up after awhile,” she thought to herself. “Maybe when they’re hungry, they forage… “

“It’s a complete failure as well,” Clark complained. “It’s clearly another material world, not a Phantom Dimension at all. I call it the “Compost Zone”. I can send any organic material there, but I can’t bring anything back. I’ve worked on these projects for over two years, trying to make something useful. It’s all been a waste of time.”

“But Clark, don’t you see,” Laurie took off the Zone-viewing goggles, “All of this: the Shrink-Ray, the Bizarros, that other Dimension—it’s completely brilliant! It re-writes science as we know it! You have to… you have to show it to someone!”

“No one sees it!” Clark insisted. “It’s dreck. A total waste. It makes me look like a fool! If I still had heat vision, I would burn it all to slag.” He gathered the four devices, and tossed them into a large black garbage bag.

“Throw this away when you leave,” he snapped. “You can take the rabbit with you, too, if you want it.” Clark joggled a mouse, and his desktop computer screen sprang to life. He plopped down in a chair, turning his attention to the screen, pointedly ignoring Laurie.

“Can I call you tomorrow?” she asked.

“Sure,” Clark answered. “Maybe I’ll be better company then.”

After giving Mr. and Mrs. Kent a hug upstairs, Laurie went out to her car. She put the rabbit cage on the front seat. “I think I’ll call you Hoppy,” she told the rabbit.

She took the garbage bag and put it in the trunk of her car. She would sort out the rubbish later, but she had just the place for Clark’s amazing inventions. She would put them in her room: not in an obvious place, where no visitor- Clark, for example- would see them. Somewhere she could get at them quickly if she needed to. She drove off into the night.

American Bandstand
And Everything Nice
Annie Oakley
Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts
Arthur Murray’s Dance Party
The Betty White Show
The Bing Cosby Show
The Bob Hope Show
Buck Rogers
Burns and Allen
Candid Camera
Captain Video and His Video Rangers
The Cisco Kid
Coke Time with Eddie Fisher
Crusader Rabbit
The Dave Garroway Show
Ding Dong School
Disneyland (later, the Wonderful World of Disney; still later, Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color)
Doctor I.Q.
Dragnet
The Ed Wynn Show
Father Knows Best
Fireside Theater
Flash Gordon
Ford Television Theater
General Electric Theatre
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
The Hallmark Hall of Fame
Hopalong Cassidy
Howdy Doody
I Am the Law
I Love Lucy
I've Got a Secret
The Jimmy Durante Show
The Johns Hopkins Science Review
The Keystone Kops
The Adventures of Kit Carson
Kukla, Fran and Ollie
The Life of Riley
Life with Buster Keaton
Life with Linkletter
The Lone Ranger
The Magic Clown
The Mighty Mouse Playhouse
Mr. Peepers
My Favorite Husband
Mystery Theater
Name That Tune
Our Miss Brooks
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
Passport to Danger
People Are Funny
Pepsi-Cola Playhouse
Philco Television Playhouse
Phillip Morris Playhouse
The Plainclothesman
Popeye the Sailor
Ramar of the Jungle
Range Rider
The Red Skelton Show
Rescue 8
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
Rocky Jones, Space Ranger
Rootie Kazootie
The Roy Rogers Show
Shadow of the Cloak
Sky King
Space Patrol
The Spike Jones Show
The Stranger
Super Circus
The Adventures of Superman, starring George Reeves
Tales of Tomorrow
The Three Musketeers
The Three Stooges (Four of the seven Three Stooges were the sons of Rabbis)
Time For Beany (pre-Cecil, the sea-sick sea serpent)
Topper
Truth or Consequences
The Victor Borge Show
Watch Mr. Wizard
What’s My Line?
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickock
Winky Dink and You
You Asked For It
Groucho Marx’s “You Bet Your Life”

I just wanted to say that.

We were actually shown what Quislet and his people looked like, around the time it gave Wildfire a body. Things might be different in the Retroboot, though.
I like your idea of Quislet's ship having a large complement of crew, however, I think an improvement would be for the Tealliens to have the ability to temporarily 'possess' material objects... but everytime one of them does, it dies... (of course, they have different standards of morality than we do, otherwise 'Quislet' would never use its powers)

There is something very strange about Mercury.

Astronomers in the 19th century noted that Mercury’s orbit did not precisely fit the predictions of Newtonian mechanics. It appeared that postulating the existence of another planet within the orbit of Mercury would solve most of the problem. This hypothetical planet was named “Vulcan”, and during eclipses of the 19th and early 20th centuries, astronomers all over the world looked for it.

After Einstein published his General Theory of Relativity, it was realized that one of the resultant predictions was that the energy of the Sun’s huge gravitational field would itself have mass, producing a secondary gravitational field, which completely accounted for the variation in Mercury’s orbit.

So Einstein’s General Theory obliterated the Vulcan hypothesis.

Unfortunately, it worked too well. The Einstein’s theory accounts for, within the margin of error, 100% of Mercury’s orbital perturbations. Although there may not be a planet within the orbit of Mercury, one would expect something to be there. After all, there are asteroids and dust and small rocks floating all over the rest of the Solar System Earth itself regularly encounters clouds of miscellaneous rock, resulting in, for example, the annual Perseid meteor showers. However, unless the space-detritus within the orbit of Mercury is distributed remarkably homogeneously, there is virtually nothing there.

Furthermore, careful observation of the area within Mercury’s orbit shows… nothing. With a high degree of certainty, we can say that there is nothing 100 meters or larger orbiting the sun within the orbit of Mercury. It is just empty there.

In addition, recent up-close-and-personal photography of Mercury show that its craters are really, really old. Nothing of any substantial size has impacted there in a long, long time.

Both theory and observation tell us that the interior of Mercury’s orbit is strangely empty.

Why is the interior of Mercury’s orbit such a perfect vacuum? Is there some aspect of gravitational mechanics which we are unaware of? Is there some kind of massless wormhole / vortex orbiting nearer the Sun which sweeps that area clean? Or was there some cataclysmic event early in the formation of the Solar System which resulted in this strange emptiness?

No one knows. Even more confounding now, we have observed other stars, similar in size to our Sun, which have planets orbiting them way closer than Mercury.

As one wag put it, “There is a hole in the bottom of the Solar System.”

One of my favorite parts of the Legion—possibly my favorite part—was Legion Tryouts / Rejects / The Legion of Substitute Heroes.

Legion Rejects are easy and fun to create; since their powers don’t need to be useful—in fact, are better when they are wholly useless.

Here are a few.

the Ant – Ant-sized hero with the proportional strength of an ant

Anti-Chlorophyll Kid – Can shrink any plant

Antipath – Giant virus

Anything Boy – Randomly transforms into anything, animal, vegetable, mineral, or
energy-construct

Atomic Girl – Humorless Bismollian

Banana Lad – When he eats one of his special radioactive bananas, he turns into a random primate

Bizarro Yellow Lantern Le-Mon

Brummagem – Can duplicate any power, but only at very low levels. (example: warmth vision rather than heat vision)

Butterfly Girl – Can morph into a swarm of butterflies (one of her butterflies has a crush on ‘the Ant’)

Cake-Frosting-Hair Girl

the Changeling – A perfect magical duplicate of DingBat, she does not share her powers, and is completely invisible to her

Circe's Daughter (Aion Capella of the Sorceror's World) - The Wand of Circe allows her to transform any sentient into any sort of were-creature.

Decal Damsel – Can create an image of anything she is looking at on any smooth surface

DingBat – Magic-blind, resembles LassBat in appearance

the Electro-Static Kid – Able to build up an electrostatic charge without shuffling his feet!.

Flavour Lass – Can change the flavor of any substance

Gelatinus – Can morph into indestructible gelatin

Gerbil Commander – mental command of rodents

HandyMan – Can grow his hands to giant size. (and his feet, but he is embarrassed about that aspect of his power)

HydroSphere – Merman who can create a levitating sphere of salt-water around himself

HyperPulse – Able to emit an hypermagnetic pulse which temporarily shuts down all electronic and organic systems within a radius of 1 km, including himself

LassBat – Flight, ultrasonics. Hails from the planet Langstrom, where everyone looks like Man-Bat.

Liability Lass – Magically loses any and every competition

Lumina – Able to manifest ‘St. Elmo’s Fire’ at will

Pastry-Chef Lad – Can create any bread or cake product ex nihilo, except for icing

Pretty Polly – Super-ventriloquism

Repulso – Continuously projects a psionic field, making himself nauseating to anyone in his vicinity

Rock-Softener Lad – Can temporarily make rock as soft as pillows

Salamandrea – Re-constitutes and re-animates immediately after immolation

Sir Galahad (Gwalchavad) – Suffers from the delusion that he actually is Sir Galahad. His strength is as the strength of ten because he is a mutant, and he believes his heart to be pure.

SleepyHead – Can put herself and any one other person to sleep

Solomon Grundy, Junior

StarChart – Has memorized the location and orbit of each star and planet in the Milky Way Galaxy

Tentacle King - Able to transmute both organic and inorganic limb-like appendages (arms, tree-branches, table-legs, etc.) into writhing, slimy tentacles and eye-stalks.

Tickle & Itch: Tickle is a human girl with the ability to tickle people from a distance. Itch is a gremlin-like non-human alien with the ability to make people itch from a distance.

Translucent Lad – When he took Norgine elixir, he became an almost-invisible kid.

Virl Girl – Has the ability to project illusions affecting the sense of virl; can make vyruryu sense like other vyruryu, or even create the illusion of vyruryu that are not even there. Also has an enhanced sense of virl, able to sense far further into the vyruryan spectrum, both dextral and widdershins.

Volailler (Alex Xam of the Sorceror's World) Owns Chanticleer, a magical blue rooster who can instantaneously teleport himself and others anywhere in the Galaxy when he crows.

Vroloka – All the vulnerabilities of a Vampire, and none of the powers (Sort of a reverse-Edward Cullen) but reincarnates every night at sundown.

White Elephant – A magic amulet transformed him into a giant white elephant. Now he can’t change back.

…some of these may not be original with me; I sometimes cannot remember if I invented things myself, or read them elsewhere. I do know that in at least two other places, I have seen Kid Cthulhu and S.E.P. Lad mentioned. (neither is included on this list)

I love Virl Girl. "I have the power to totally fool a sense that, uh, I guess none of you have? Weird. On my homeworld, I'm like, invincible..."

"Really, if you could just virl what I'm doing right now, you guys would be totally impressed!"

Brummagem is also kind of fun, like a way toned down Duplicate Boy. "Hey, you never know when the ability to just light up an area and make it warm and comfy will prove useful Sun Boy!" "Well, it's not telepathy, per se, but I can mimic a fraction of Saturn Girl's powers, to make myself super-good at guessing what other people are thinking and sort of suggesting to them what I'm thinking, like super-charades! Bet you don't have anybody with super-charades powers on the team!"

Legion Applicants are like a box of chocolates...

Concepts for the Earth-3 (or Anti-Matter Earth) Evil Legion:

(1) On a dystopic 31st-century Earth were cruel tyrants rule the galaxy with an iron hand, the Legion of Super-Delinquents is a teen-age gang of hoodlums, anarchists, extortionists, terrorists, and thieves. Fighting against the system, the do not seek so much to overturn it, but to get (or steal) their piece of the pie.

(2) The Legion of Super-Despots is in fact a loose association of the cruel (adult) tyrants who rule the various worlds of the U.P.
a. Triad and Bounder rule the world of Carggg...
b. The Black Witch rules the Sorcerer’s World, having overthrown Mordru, assisted by a supremely powerful being known as the Black Golem...
c. The Saturn Queen and her Prince Consort, Garth of Winath, the Storm King, rule Saturn’s moon Titan...
d. Lady Lightning, having slain her older brother, Lightning Lord, rules Winath in his place...
e. The ruthless woman known only as Violet rules over both Imsk and Orzde...
f. The thousand-year-old Lord Gand is the Master of Daxam, his first lieutenant being his brutal 31st-century descendant, Laurel...
g. Earth is divided into a number of warring nations. The lands of North and South America, ruled by the Sun Emperor and the Rainbow Empress, is in an uneasy armistice with Eastern and Western Europe, currently ruled by Lyle Norg and Jacques Foccart, joint heads of the ruling coalition known as The Unseen. Another coalition is headed by the hideous Iron Pharaohs, which controls the Middle East and Africa. The Far East is ruled by the Karate Master and the strange alien Princess Projectra. The whole of Russia is a nuclear wasteland, inhabited by mutant animal-men, and ruled by the boy-king, Kamandi...
h. Mars is ruled by the Leviathan, the Colossus...
i. The world of Bgztl, under the rule of the Phantom Queen, is at war with Teall, an evil composite intelligence, and Marzal, ruled by Tyroc, whose name means, “Shout of the Devil”. Earth, Mars, and Titan sometimes gets caught in the middle of the battles, which occur across three neighboring dimensions...
j. Brainiac 5 still rules Colu, in an unbroken line of command since the original Brainiac came to power over a millenium ago...

(3) The Legion of Super-Pirates is a space-going fleet of super-powered teens, terrorizing the Galaxy on behalf of their sponsor, the greatest pirate of them all, R.J. Brande…

(4) On Earth-Three, in the 20th century, three aspiring young super-powered delinquents contact the teen-aged Clark Kent (Ultramanboy), and invite him to join their criminal gang one thousand years in the future. He viciously kills them all…

The Violet-Quislet story, continued...

“Wildfire says your name is ‘Yod’,” said Salu. “Am I pronouncing that right?”
“‘¥□Δ’”, said Quislet. “But close.”
“’YngQwdh?” asked Salu.
“Better to stick with ‘Quislet’,” said ¥□Δ. “Speaking of he, Quislet hopes Wildfire gets here soon.”


Synopsis of remaining Quislet-Violet story:
…Quislet creates a new anti-energy body for Wildfire, this one compressed match the size of Quislet and Violet. He also re-forms his own body, first reverting back to his pink-energy-sphere Teallien form, then morphing into a blue-white copy of Wildfire, but in approximately female shape.

“Wait a minute,” says Wildfire. “You mean, you’ve been a girl all the time?”
“Boy-girl do not exist on Teall. Much more complicated. But Quislet is… more than half-girl.”

Quislet explains that she / he / it is taking them all to Xul, a planet outside UP space, where a race of micro-life needs the Legion’s help. When they arrive on the planet, they see it is inhabited primarily by giant, eight-legged dinosaurs, some of which have developed to a 1st-millenium technological level. However, there is a small plateau, about ten miles wide, on a desolate, isolated island in the midst of great sea where very different race exists.

They resemble water bears, and one of them has found a damaged Green Lantern ring. The ring appears over twenty stories tall to the tiny denizens of this world. Despite the fact that it retains only a 2% charge, it is a formidable weapon of almost incalculable power, and the renegade tardigradoid alien, using it as his fortress and as a weapon of mass destruction, has assumed total dictatorial control over its fellows.

After a prolonged battle defending the insurgency from the attacks of the Ring-Dictator, Violet, Wildfire and Quislet meet with a council of the Xulons to determine strategy. Four plans are suggested.

1) Wildfire and / or Quislet could use their powers to attempt to destroy the ring directly
2) Wildfire, Violet, and Quislet could continue battling the ring’s constructs, until the ring runs out of power
3) Shrinking Violet could grow to her natural size, and either:
a. Flies the ring far away to the other side of the planet
b. Puts the ring on, shrinks down to sub-microscopic size, and leaves the ring lost somewhere in the microverse
c. Attempts to exhaust the ring’s power
4) The ring is obviously damaged. Otherwise it would have returned to Oa; it would not have responded to the will of the Ring-Dictator without making him a Green Lantern, and informing Sodam Yat. Damaged, it will probably respond to the will-power of any individual: the Xulon population could possibly exercise their collective will in opposition to the Ring-Dictator’s, and gain popular control over the ring. The remaining power of the ring could then be used for good and useful purposes, depending on the will of the population of Xul.

It is decided to attempt the fourth option. The Xulons are successful, the Ring-Dictator is brought to justice, and the Legion returns home…

…which leads to the possibility of a Xulon Legionnaire, or even an entire Legion of Xul… but that’s another story.

Drug Abuse in the 31st century:

Well, there is Silverale, which is actually legal on Rimbor. Other popular recreational drugs include:

Norgine: Hallucinogen. Allows the user to see ‘visions of the afterlife’. Side effect: temporary invisibility.

Tainsulin: Mood elevator. Side effect: temporary physical deformity.

Gingold: Muscle relaxant. Serious abusers can by found lying around, strung out all over the place. Side effect: the stuff tastes awful.

Thiotimoline: Hallucinogen. Students will use this mind-expanding drug in order to undergo the experience taking tomorrow’s tests today. Side effect: severe temporal disorientation.

Levitatrol (Largandium chloride): Mood elevator. Side effect: causes actual, physical levitation.

Rannantarite: Mood suppressor. Quick antidote to Levitatrol. Side effects: Users will feel slow, heavy, and lethargic all day.

Red Sigellian: Hallucinogen. Radioactive material which produces bizarre, random psychological and physiological effects. Extremely dangerous, both to users and those who they may come in contact with.

A sinister 'drug.'

Dot - this red paste is administered to the skin, somewhere where arteries and veins are near the surface, such as the wrist or the side of the neck. It causes an incredible high, total blissful euphoria, with a pleasurable tingle just at the edge of consciousness. The 'tingle' increases when you please someone else, by, say, doing what they tell you to do. The drug makes people crazy suggestible, and even willing to hurt themselves to do things suggested to them by those who have the right tone of voice.

That tone of voice happens to sound almost exactly what the Dominator ambassador sounds like...

Interesting that in the Dominion, the higher the social rank, the more 'dot' is allowed (required?) to be used.

Location:

Rhode's Asteroid, a tiny world of only about 1,000 square miles located out in the middle of deep space.

It has an artificial sun, and an artificial atmosphere held in by a polymer sphere.

Positioned half-way between Xanthu and Rimbor, it is an important location for space-traffic.

We all know that successful super-heroines are pretty rare in the comics.
The Legion has been one place where original female characters shine.
But female Legionnaires are pretty well outnumbered in the Legion.

The Original Legion gave us eleven:
Dawnstar
Dream Girl
Lightning Lass
Phantom Girl
Princess Projectra
Saturn Girl
Shadow Lass
Shrinking Violet
Supergirl
Triplicate Girl
White Witch

Thirteen, if you include Lana (Insect Queen) Lang from the Legion Reserves,
and the deceased Quantum Queen from the Adult Legion stories.

Four extant heroines were said to have joined during the 5-year gap:
Infectious Lass, Night Girl, Nightwind, and Lamprey.

"Five-Years-Later also gave us seven more female Legionnaires:
Laurel Gand (YAY!), Kono, Computo, Celeste, Spider Girl (also a member of the Legion of Super-Villains, and Earth-Man's Justice League, in other realities), and the Khund VeilMist.

And Catspaw. I always forget Catspaw.

That is twenty-four out of some ninety listed Legionnaires in the original Legion, Reserve, Adult Legion, and 5YL.
Pretty good for comics generally, but still just over a quarter of the Legion.

The Earth-247 Legion was a golden age for new female Legionnaires, as a percentage of new characters, introducing
Inferno, Kid Quantum 2, Kinetix, Monstress, Shikari, Thunder and XS.
Seven female Legionnaires, but only two new male members: Conner Kent and Gear (I.Z.O.R.)

You could argue that the Conner Kent / Kon-El Superboy is not really an original character,
or that Sensor the Snake is, but five-to-two, or six-to-one, it still looks good for the girls.

Just as an aside, I personally count all the Superboys named Kal-El or Kal-L from all the various Earths and Pocket Universes as variations on a single character.

I count all the Legion Supergirls as one Supergirl, but Laurel Gand as a separate character.

I count all the Projectras, human or snake or double-hearted, as one character.

I count Shikari and Dawnstar as two characters. They seem different enough to me.

But that's just me.

The Threeboot Legion gave us the characters Theena (YAY!), Sizzle and Gazelle, although only semi-Legionnaires, but also introduced at least as many more male semi-Legionnaires, lame though they may have been:
Dream Boy, Fruit Boy, Turtle... probably some others. I lost interest.

The current Retroboot?- gives us Chameleon Girl, Night Girl, DragonWing and Harmonia Li.

All in all, over time, less than one-third of the official Legion members have been female, even excluding ambiguously-sexed characters like Tellus and Quislet.

One way writers create female characters is to take a popular male character, and introduce a female “sister” or "cousin".

Thus, while we have seen a Lightning Lass, Kid Quantum 2, Supergirl, and Chameleon Girl, we have not seen:

Antennae Girl
Blackout Girl
BloodClawette
Bouncing Lass
Calamity Queen
Chlorophyll Queen
Cosmic Girl
Crystal Kid (Female)
Dynamo Lass
Echo 2 (Female)
Elastic Lass
Element Lass
Ferro Lass and her twin sister, Ferro Lass
Fire Lass (Oh, wait, maybe that's DragonWing)
FireFistette
FlederWebbette
Gear Girl
Gravity Girl
Impulse Girl (Danvers Shakespeare)
Invisible Girl
Karate Queen
Magnetic Lass
Nemesis Lass
Polar Girl (Ice Queen?)
Porcupine Patricia
Queen Psycho
Reflecto Lass
Size Lass
Star Girl
Stone Girl
Storm Girl
The Female Version of Tyroc
That Two-Headed Girl from Janus
Ultra Girl
Variable Lass
Visi-Lass
31st-century Zrfff Girl (Descendant of Gsptlsnz?)

Hi Klar, you missed out Glorith and Comet Queen in your retro boot list. Love the list of possible female characters above.

Yep.

Things are a bit better if I look at the various Legions separately: the female-to-male ratio runs at nearly 40% overall: pretty good for the comics.

As with all lists, I probably left someone out.

Classic / Retroboot Legion (including 5YL Glorithverse)
1 f Chameleon Girl
2 f Comet Queen
3 f Dawnstar / Bounty
4 f Dragonwing
5 f Dream Girl
6 f Glorith
7 f Harmonia Li
8 f Kono (Brita An'Nan)
9 f Laurel Gand
10 f Lightning Lass / Light Lass / Pulse
11 f Neon / Darkstar (Celeste Rockfish-McCauley)
12 f Night Girl
13 f Phantom Girl / Phase
14 f Princess Projectra / Queen Projectra / Sensor Girl
15 f Saturn Girl
16 f Shadow Lass
17 f Shrinking Violet / Virus
18 f Spider Girl / Wave
19 f Supergirl
20 f Triplicate Girl / Duo Damsel / Duplicate Girl
21 f Veilmist
22 f White Witch / Jewel / Black Witch
23 f XS

1 m Blok
2 m Blood Claw
3 m Bouncing Boy
4 m Brainiac 5 / B-5
5 m Chameleon Boy / Chameleon
6 m Chemical Kid
7 m Chemical King
8 m Colossal Boy
9 m Cosmic Boy / Polestar
10 m Earth-Man
11 m ERG-1 / Wildfire / NRG
12 m Ferro Lad
13 m Firefist
14 m Flederweb
15 m Green Lantern (Rond Vidar - Posthumous Member)
16 m Impulse (Kent Shakespeare)
17 m Invisible Kid
18 m Invisible Kid II
19 m Karate Kid / Xi
20 m Kid Quantum
21 m Lightning Lad
22 m Magnetic Kid
23 m Matter-Eater Lad
24 m Mon-El / Valor
25 m Element Lad
26 m Nemesis Kid
27 m Polar Boy
28 m Reflex (Devlin O'Ryan)
29 m Star Boy / Starman
30 m Sun Boy
31 m Superboy
32 m Timber Wolf / Furball
33 m Tyroc
34 m Ultra Boy / Emerald Dragon

1 x Gates
2 x Quislet
3 x Tellus
40% female vs male

5YGap Legion
1 f Infectious Lass
2 f Lamprey
3 f Nightwind

1 m Calamity King
2 m Chlorophyll Kid
3 m Color Kid
4 m Crystal Kid
5 m Echo
6 m Fire Lad
7 m Karate Kid II
8 m Porcupine Pete
9 m Stone Boy
10 m Storm Boy
11 m Visi-Lad
21% female vs male

Special Mention
f Insect Queen (Lana Lang)
m Blackout Boy
m Command Kid
m Dynamo Boy
m Elastic Lad (Jimmy Olsen)
m "False Pretenses Kid" (Jan Jor?)
m Gravity Boy
m Kid Psycho
m Magnetic Lad
m Pete Ross
m Power Boy (Jed Rikane)
m Size Lad
m Variable Lad

Batch SW6 Legion
1 f Andromeda
2 f Apparition
3 f Catspaw
4 f Computo II (Danielle Foccart)
5 f Gossamer / Spark
6 f Princess Projectra (2) (Almost immediately deceased)
7 f Saturn Girl (2)
8 f Shrinking Violet (2)
9 f Triad

1 m Alchemist
2 m Brainiac 5 (2)
3 m Chameleon Boy (2) (Almost immediately deceased)
4 m Cosmic Boy (2)
5 m Dragonmage
6 m Ferro
7 m Inferno (Batch SW6 Dirk Morgna)
8 m Invisible Kid (3)
9 m Karate Kid (3)
10 m Leviathan
11 m Live Wire
12 m Matter-Eater Lad, Junior
13 m Star Boy
14 m Ultra Boy (2)
15 m Valor (2) (Almost immediately deceased)
38% female vs male

Reboot Legion
1 f Andromeda
2 f Apparition
3 f Dreamer
4 f Kid Quantum II
5 f Kinetix
6 f Monstress
7 f Saturn Girl (3)
8 f Sensor (Snake)
9 f Shikari
10 f Shrinking Violet (3)
11 f Spark
12 f Thunder
13 f Triad (2)
f XS (already counted above)

1 m Alchemist / Element Lad / the Progenitor
2 m Brainiac 5 / Brainiac 5.1
3 m Chameleon (3)
4 m Cosmic Boy (3)
5 m Gear
6 m Ferro
7 m Invisible Kid (4)
8 m Karate Kid (4)
9 m Leviathan (2)
10 m Live Wire (2)
11 m Magno
12 m Matter-Eater Lad (2)
13 m Star Boy (2)
14 m Superboy (Connor Kent)
15 m Ultra Boy (3)
16 m Valor / M'Onel
17 m Wildfire-2 / Feral Star
18 m Wolfpack

x Gates (already counted above)
42% female vs male

Threeboot Legion
1 f Atom Girl (a.k.a. Shrinking Violet)
2 f Dream Girl
3 f Gazelle
4 f Lightning Lass
5 f Night Girl
6 f Phantom Girl
7 f Princess Projectra
8 f Saturn Girl
9 f Shadow Lass
10 f Sizzle
11 f Supergirl
12 f Triplicate Girl

1 m Brainiac 5
2 m Cosmic Boy
3 m Dream Boy
4 m Element Lad
5 m Invisible Kid
6 m Karate Kid
7 m Lightning Lad
8 m Micro Lad (a.k.a. Colossal Boy)
9 m Mon-El (?)
10 m Star Boy
11 m Sun Boy
12 m Timber Wolf
13 m Turtle
14 m Ultra Boy

x Chameleon
46% female vs male

Special Mention
f Theena
f Virus

m Fruit Boy
m M’Rissey
m Sludge
m Sonar
m Spy
m Voice

Total Males: 92
Total Females: 60
39% female vs male

Total Xenales: 4

TOTAL LEGIONNAIRES: 156