Browsing: Hero History

Or – “Making The World Safe For Skin-Tight Red Hotpants… Thank Rao!” In the 70 years since the advent of Superman, there have been a great many superheroes, with varying raisons d’etre. Some came to cash in on trends, some to break new ground, some to irritate, some to ingratiate, and some to infiltrate. But today’s entrant seemingly comes from the basest of all creative wells: protection of copyright. Like Jessica Drew, Carol Danvers, Kathy Kane, and others, our hero du jour is a female version of an existing hero. Unlike any of those others, she managed to carrying her…

Or – “Overlook Him At Your Own Peril…” Lyyyyle Nooorg!  Lyyle Norg!  Riding through the laaaand… Lyyyyle Nooorg!  Lyyle Norg!  With a beige headbaaaand! Sometimes I write little bits of doggerel to fill in the spaces and format the images in Wordpress, but that one cracks me up so completely, I thought I’d leave it in.  Of the many Legionnaires over the years, there have been a seemingly inordinate number of what the superhero RPG community calls “bricks.”  Mon-El, Tom Welling, Andromeda, Supergirl, Thunder, Ultra Boy, Kent Shakespeare, even my beloved Blok fall into the category of “Legionnaires Whose Job…

Or – “You Waste 10 Lifetimes In A Cosmic Peepshow & See How Normal YOU Are…” In this, the fiftieth anniversary year of that futuristic bunch of super-teens known as the Legion of Super-Heroes, we’re continuing our in-depth look at children of the future (teach them well, and let them lead the way to kick the behinds of the Fatal Five.)  We turn our sights today to the man who was, quite possibly, the most powerful hero alive in the pre-Crisis DCU.  When Superman could fly through suns, move the Earth out of orbit, and see thousands of miles in…

Or – “They Also Serve Those Who Mostly Stand And Snark…” The REAL trick of writing these Hero Histories is finding my inner fanboy for each and every lad, lass, kid and queen of the Legion, from their flight-belt heydey, through the salad days of the 70s & 80’s, through Giffen’s blotches, Lightle’s mullets, the Archie Legion’s tongue fetish, and the strange melange that was the 2003 revamp.  Heck, I even found the time to feel the love for the Legion’s very own Isaac Hayes stereotype (Jus’ talking ’bout Tyroc… Awww, yeaaah!) so, you’d think that no Legionnaire is beneath my…

Or – “Han Solo With Superhuman Strength…” In his brilliant series “I Should Write The Legion,” Christopher Bird pointed out the inherent awesomeness of today’s entrant, the local Rimborian boy who made good.  He’s a rogue who went straight, the Legion’s most street-smart member, and although he may not be a Rhodes Scholar, he’s still a clever kid who knows what really makes the world go round.  As tough as Mon-El, as strong as Tom Welling, as fast as Dawnstar, he also has a very specific weakness (if you can call having Kryptonian level powers a weakness) in that he…

Or – “You Thought TYROC Was Obscure?” In the 1950’s when the Legion was formed, the future was all about rocketships, frapguns and aliens with big heads.  Throughout the 60’s, there were occasional flirtations with mystical things, and the 70’s brought Mordru the Merciless, giant floating wizard with one of the silliest hats I’ve ever seen.  Even when the White Witch joined in the 80’s, her magic was much more quantified and limited, itself more resembling science than the sorcerous like of Doctors Strange or Fate.  But during the 90’s Reboot period (known pejoritively as the “Archie Legion”) there was…

Or�- “The Real World’s Greatest Detective Ain’t Some Spoiled Rich Kid From Gotham…” Today’s entrant marks a real watershed in the history of the Legion of Super-Heroes.  Before Tellus, before Blok, even before the pseudo-alien blue skin of Shadow Lass, came today’s subject.� The first really alien alien on the Legion roster, (even though Brainiac 5 preceded him, Querl is really just a blonde white kid colored oddly) he comes from a mystical, secretive, and widely-reviled race of shape-shifters.  In a universe that fears and loathes his people, he acts as an ambassador, proving that perceptions, predispositions, and prejudices aren’t always…

Or – “Proof That Where Goeth The Legion, There Goeth The DCU.” Over the last few years, the family of Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman, have come forward with a fascinating claim, with which faithful Spoilerites are probably quite familiar.  The gist of it all is that when Jerry and Joe Shuster sold Superman to National Periodical Publications, (now known as DC Comics) they were royally hosed, a fact that seems pretty obvious since DC had made millions upon millions of dollars after only a few years of the character’s stories, while Jerry & Joe were paid a pittance for…

Or – “Turn And Face The Strange Ch-Ch-Changes…” One of the pitfalls of a team the size of the Legion is that certain characters tend to fall between the cracks.  Sure, we know all about guys like Mon-El, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, and even Andromeda, but the backstories of others (say, Star Boy, Sun Boy, and today’s entrant) have taken literal decades to play out.  One of the most ethereal of Legionnaires, today’s subject is also one of the longest tenured, even serving three tours as Legion leader and several more as deputy.  His costume colors and varying (but always…

Or – “A Heart Of Iron, With A Face Even His Mother Didn’t Love.” The kids of the Legion are a pretty diverse lot, spanning the galaxy as well as a spectrum of skin tones.  Some are made of energy, others made of stone, and at least one seemed to be made of nothing much at all.  And even though they’re heroic to a boy, kid, or lass, even the kids of the Legion have their own legends to live up to.  Case in point: a young man from Earth whose face was so horrible that even in the age…

Or – “In The 30th Century, Big Man On Campus Takes On A New, Very Literal Meaning.” The Legion of Super-Heroes has room for many different kinds of hero. Some, like Sun Boy, Wildfire, Tom Welling and Ultra Boy seek out the spotlight. Others, like Blok, The White Witch, Star Boy, Tellus and others prefer to work more in the background. But only one Legionnaire tends to BE the background, backstopping his teammates and literally crushing everything in his path. Gim Allon is a straight-shooter, the kind of guy who sees life as a choice between right and wrong. If…

Or – “Living Proof That Some Questions DO NOT Need To Be Asked. Ever…” One of the side-effects of writing a series in the future is having to fake it. Legion writers not only have to come up with a decent superhero plot; not only have to utilize 16 to 25 superheroes with varying levels of power; not only have to explain why Mon-El and Tom Welling don’t tear off the villains arms, cauterize the wounds with heat vision, and beat them insensate with their stumps; they have to create an entire culture out of whole cloth. Future fashion, architecture,…

Or – “The Girl So Nice They Named Her Twice Seven Times.” The Legion of Super-Heroes was remarkably progressive, always a few steps ahead of it’s time, with a few exceptions.  One thing that was never a problem was finding strong female characters in the 30th Century.  Today’s Hero History subject actually joined the Legion under an alias (and an assumed gender) before taking a long-time supporting role.  She starred in one of the Legion’s EARLIEST romances, and when that one ended, was a part of one of the more controversial ones.  Always a soothing presence, she meshed well with…

Or – “How To Really Make An Impact As A Legionnaire…” As I may have mentioned before, the early days of the Legion of Super-Heroes are a continuity cop’s nightmare, with strange developments galore as the team cameoed their way across the Superman universe, rolling through the accumulated lore of their parent title on their way to building an empire. On the way, the varying writers made for some really inconsistent storytelling, such as the fact that all Legionnaires were supposed to have one UNIQUE super-power even though Kryptonian powerhouse Tom Welling and his identically powered cousin Laura Vandervoort were…