Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Your favorite Legion running gags?

I'm now rereading the Reboot Legion, and I've picked up on a few running gags that I really like. So what about you, what are your favorite humorous, tongue-in-cheek or downright hilarious running gags through Legion history? Submissions from all eras welcome, of course.

1) Reboot: When trapped in the 20th century, the Legion had a special Code Green or Code B which meant, "Brainiac 5 is off the premises! He's out there and acting on his own!" The Code is used in LSH 87 and LSH 95, and we see the Legionnaires scrambling like anything - jumping out of bed, grabbing their uniforms, and talking about the untold damage that Brainy might be doing.

2) Reboot: Monstress finding different men attractive, and the appreciative things she says or thinks. And she's not shy about it!

a) L* 51 - "Mmm, M'Onel is soo sexy! All that strength, and energy powers, too!"
b) L* 53, to Marla Latham, who is showing her to her room (! who I admit seems like quite the silver fox ) - "Oh, you ARE a dear man! Charming and handsome, as well as efficient!" And Marla goes, "Eh-hem! Well, here we are!"
c) L*53 - "Lyle is just adorable... and blissfully unaware of it."

3) Reboot: More endearing than laugh out loud funny, is XS mooning over first Cosmic Boy. Then when she sees Cos and Imra are a couple, she moves on to M'Onel, and keeps freaking out whenever he spends time with Umbra. Kinetix teases her quite a bit for that. And in L* 59, Dyrk Magz (formerly Magno) tries flirting with her; she is so oblivious that Dyrk finally gives up and leaves - and only after does XS realize he liked her! They eventually would go out a couple times.

4) Reboot: Spark sticking her tongue out, as popularized by Jeff Moy. Just so in keeping with her personality.

5) Reboot: Not so much a running gag as more his personality, but Gates has so many hilarious one-liners.

a) Adventures in the DCU 10 (to Ferro): Your whole species has been brainwashed by capitalist propaganda! You think you can get beauty, love and happiness by buying the right brand of shoes!!"
b) L* 94 (while watching TV): "Unbelievable! Even over the airwaves, this senator person emanates evil as if it were musk!"
c) L* 79 (when Leviathan whines that he's left to fight Validus with only Gates and an unconscious Star Boy):
Leviathan: "Gates? They sent YOU? Grife. Validus is gonna blow this place and I'm stuck with the sprocking shirk-force!"
Gates: "Thanks for the encouragement, nasshead!"
d) Impulse 21, when Impuse realizes Gates is a Legionnaire and gets all excited: "Gates faces down the teenage commando in the privacy of his own lair... AAAAKK! I knew it! (to his flight ring) Attention! I am under attack by a cyclone with hair! Red alert! Red alert!!!"

Off-hand, I can't think of many running gags from the original version, but just posted some images in the Gruertis Nyebif thread. The Purple Eyestalk Guy was a bit of a running gag from the 1980s onward.

The reboot had a lot more humour. I never liked the tongue sticking out bit, but the others are pretty good.

I find the height of the Reboot's humour was between L* 33 / LSH 76 to about LSH 100/L* 57. Before then, the team was facing tons of challenges (getting used to each other, Chu's manipulations, the deadly White Triangle, pressure from the UP). However, as the team recovered from the White Triangle attack, the humor began cropping up (i.e. Leviathan coming down hard on Star Boy and Gates for not being as professional as he wanted), and shot up after the Fatal Five/Chu sting lifted a weight from everyone's shoulders.

The snappy dialogue and humor reached its height during the Team 30 and Team 20 split, I think. I suspect the focus on smaller sub-teams allowed for a slightly more stable cast and the evolution of key relationships (XS and Kinetix becoming close and Zoe teasing Jenni, Spark and Brainy's friendship, Brainy and Gates' sparring, Spark's annoyance at the Imra/Cos romance, Sensor and Umbra butting heads, Umbra sniping at Magno, etc.).

When the team reunited in LSH 100, the humor began dropping again. There were still scenes intended to be funny, but for some reason weren't. I checked the credits, and it was still a mix of Tom Peyer, Tom McCraw and Roger Stern doing the writing for both books, so I don't know what happened. But I do remember Gates' dialogue becoming less funny after returning to the 30th century...

This guy was my first thought.

There's the running gag of Ben Grimm appearing in backgrounds.

There's all the drunken Tree-Men of Arbro...

Or wait... was that only a running gag on Legion World? I forget sometimes...

Running gags on Legion World are pretty god.

When they'd visit the hospital, there'd often be an alien misunderstanding in the background;

1) Robot escorting alien from the premises while he says, "But I love human babies..." "Breep. Human offspring are not for consumption as foodstuffs."

2) Mortified mother alien dragging her child away while the child wails, "But the nurse said it was a sample..."

I was also fond of Graym being 'nose-grabber lad' and constantly grabbing people's noses.

Ah yes, I loved those random kooky aliens in big crowd scenes In the Great Darkness Saga there was an alien collecting scent traces instead of autographs. He was the only one who paid Jacques any mind, while the rest of the tourists were swarming around Superboy and Phantom Girl.



Legion World is great at producing deities!

Doctor Gym'll's Credit Vouchers

Another entry from LSH 100. Monstress to the Martian Manhunter: "They tell me you excel at shapeshifting too, Mr. J'Onzz. But why you'd ever want to change that shape is beyond me!" Oh, Candi

The many deaths of Karate Kid is essentially a running gag, of varying popularity.

In the Reboot, that Xanthu is an outpost/backwater planet.

* LSH 82: Xanthusian officials overcompensating, with the Prefect even cheating in a "friendly" battle against the Legion. Leviathan busts Star Boy's chops over it, leading Gates to call Leviathan out for "perpetuating hateful stereotypes!"

* Nobody ever has heard of the Uncanny Amazers. Legends of the Legion 4: Star Boy tells some kids he was an Amazer, and they all stare blankly. LSH 82: Monstress whispers to Insect Queen that none of the Legionnaires have ever heard of them. L* 49: Workforce members think the Amazers are a bunch of yokels.