History ComicBook / LegionOfSuperHeroes

* ''Superboy'': With issue #197 it became the Legion's comic and was renamed to ''Superboy and/starring the Legion of Super-Heroes'' (1973-1980).

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Averted something fierce, most unusually for a comic originating in MediaNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}.

** [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Bouncing Boy and Matter-Eater Lad]] from the Legion proper. Note that during the Great Darkness saga, Bouncing Boy successfully knocked down Daxamites. Granted, they were mind controlled and thus not at peak efficiency, but still. [[NighInvulnerable Daxamites]].

At the start of UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}, one story, in ''Adventure Comics'' #247 (April, 1958), introduced the "Legion of {{Super Hero}}es", a trio of super-powered teenagers from the future who committed many acts of questionable morality while initiating Superboy into their club -- [[SecretTestOfCharacter with the best of intentions]], ''really''. The trio became popular enough to be seen again, as Superboy began traveling in time to team up with them, and the other new members they'd recruited.

The Legion gradually became more prominent in ''Adventure Comics'' (which at the time was a second Superboy book) and took over as the main feature with issue #300 (September, 1962), reducing Superboy to supporting character status on what used to be ''his'' comic book. They are remembered for their wide-eyed idealism, not to mention corny touches -- their clubhouse was ''designed'' to look like a crashed rocket. [[BiggerOnTheInside How they all fit inside]] was [[AWizardDidIt never explained]]. However, their series was surprisingly sophisticated for UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}; with one of the earliest comic book characters KilledOffForReal in Ferro Lad (and, for that matter, one of the earliest [[BackFromTheDead comic book resurrections]] with Lightning Lad), a trial for a Legionnaire killing in self-defense, and dealing with FantasticRacism even before ''Franchise/StarTrek'' did.

At the end of UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}, the Legion's slot was swapped with ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, leaving Supergirl as star of ''Adventure Comics'' and the Legion as a backup in ''ComicBook/ActionComics''. After the retirement of editor Mort Weisinger, the Legion was reduced to an occasional backup in ''Superboy''. Dave Cockrum, who would go on to design many members of the [[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] incarnation of the ComicBook/XMen, became the Legion's regular artist, and started redefining their look. With this, their popularity started to inch upwards again, and eventually, ''Superboy'' became ''Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes'' and later just ''Legion of Super-Heroes''. [[RunningGag Again booting the poor kid from his own book!]]

Eventually, Keith Giffen took over the book, along with [[RunningTheAsylum fans-turned-writers]] Tom and Mary Bierbaum, and the series ''really'' jumped into UsefulNotes/{{the Dark Age|of Comic Books}} with the "Five Years Later" TimeSkip. Earth is ruled by alien invaders. One character was [[{{Retcon}} retconned]] into an AppliedPhlebotinum transgender person, and another into a shapeshifter who only ''thought'' he was the character. The Legion are actually clones -- unless the other, younger Legion (Batch [=SW6=]) that were discovered in PeopleJars are the clones, as one might think at first. The moon was destroyed, [[EarthShatteringKaboom followed by the Earth itself]].

* BadassNormal: ComicBook/KarateKid, who has no actual superpowers but has never run into any trouble with the Legion's traditional superpower requirement, presumably because nobody wants to say no to a guy who's demonstrated that he can put the absurdly overpowered [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] Superboy in a headlock. Even Batman has said that KK is a better fighter than he is.

* DarkAgeOfSupernames: After being a famous example of SomethingPerson names during UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, the trended started to shift during UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks in the mid-1970s, with new characters like Wildfire, Dawnstar, Tyroc, Tellus, Quislet, and Atmos. The pace picked up considerably during the TMK run starting in 1989, with Valor, Impulse, Bounty, Kono, Veilmist, Firefist, Flederweb, and Nightwind. But it reached its pinnacle with the introduction of [=SW6=] teenage duplicates of the team, many of whom adopted "edgier" versions of their original names (see below for examples). Most of these names were kept for the post-''Zero Hour'' reboot, and new characters introduced during this period usually started off with such names (Catspaw, Dragonmage, XS, Kinetix, Gates, Thunder, Monstress). When Mark Waid started writing the "threeboot" version of the team, he deliberately returned to the traditional SomethingPerson convention, and the post-''Final Crisis'' version of the team has stuck with it as well, though not as zealously.

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Averted something fierce, most unusually for a comic originating in UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}.

At the end of UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}, the Legion's slot was swapped with ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, leaving Supergirl as star of ''Adventure Comics'' and the Legion as a backup in ''ComicBook/ActionComics''. After the retirement of editor Mort Weisinger, the Legion was reduced to an occasional backup in ''Superboy''. Dave Cockrum, who would go on to design many members of the [[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] incarnation of the Comicbook/XMen, became the Legion's regular artist, and started redefining their look. With this, their popularity started to inch upwards again, and eventually, ''Superboy'' became ''Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes'' and later just ''Legion of Super-Heroes''. [[RunningGag Again booting the poor kid from his own book!]]

Stories post-''Infinite Crisis'' have reintroduced TheMultiverse and brought in the "retroboot" Legion, which essentially restored the Pre-Crisis team and their entire history to canon – including Superman's past with them – while [[CanonDiscontinuity disregarding]] everything post-Crisis. This version first (re)appeared in ''ComicBook/TheLightningSaga'' BatFamilyCrossover between ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' and ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica''. As a tie-in to ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', Geoff Johns wrote a miniseries called "Legion of 3 Worlds" which included the reboot, threeboot and retroboot versions of the Legion, and put the reboot and threeboot Legions [[PutOnABus on a bus]] for good. The retroboot Legion then got an ongoing series written by Paul Levitz; while it was renumbered with the ComicBook/New52 reboot, it was largely unchanged aside from losing some characters to the ''Legion Lost'' companion series featuring a group of Legionnaires in the present. The series was eventually cancelled, with the implication that the New 52 take on the Legion ''actually'' belonged to an Alternate Earth (this Legion's final battle was with the Fatal Five for the apparent first time, and the last issue mentioned their Superman died fighting Steppenwolf which happened on ''ComicBook/Earth2''). The Legion reappeared as part of the "Infinitus Saga" storyline in ''Justice League United''.

** The [[Comicbook/TheAvengers Uncanny Amazers]].
** On the flip side, Creator/MarvelComics has created two entirely separate {{expies}} of the Legion: the [[TheSixties original]] Comicbook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy and the [[Comicbook/XMen Shi'ar Imperial Guard.]] Comicbook/{{Wolverine}} was initially (loosely) based on Legionnaire Timber Wolf.

** Gates is one to ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}}, from Marvel's Comicbook/XMen, giving their similarities in appareance (blue body, three fingers per hand, red and black costume) and powers ({{Teleportation}}). It's a bit ironic, considering that Nightcrawler's creator Dave Cockrum wanted him to be a member of the Legion, and, after it didn't work out, part of a spin-off called "The Outsiders", which was also rejected.

** Explicitly forbidden in most versions of the Legion's constitution. Any hero whose only powers are derived from an external source (like a belt, ring, or clothes) are not allowed to serve on the team. Examples include the first Kid Quantum (whose death led to the adoption of the rule in the first place, in the reboot version) and any member of the [[Franchise/GreenLantern Green Lantern Corps]].

** The Reboot also had the White Triangle, a group of speciesists composed of several species who are all ultimately pawns of a [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Nazi-esque]] regime-slash-religion that claims ''Daxamites'' are superior to all other species. Since Daxamites basically have all the powers of [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Kryptonians]], they have some reason for assuming so - but in addition to being racist, they're also dirt-ignorant, superstitious, inbred, violent JerkAss thugs. Who can melt entire planets into slag, from orbit, by looking at them funny.

** In the first Post-Crisis continuity, this was {{Retcon}}ned so that all of the Human Aliens were actually humans who were sent to colonize other planets after gaining superpowers during ''[[Comicbook/InvasionDCComics Invasion!]]''...and Projectra, still an actual alien, was a snake.

** Thom "Star Boy" Kallor has been revealed to be a part of the "Starman" legacy, as well, which James Robinson had set up during his Comicbook/{{Starman}} run.

** Leland [=McCauley=] in the Postboot continuity [[spoiler:(who was actually Franchise/{{Batman}}'s immortal foe Ra's al-Ghul in disguise at the time)]]. He was still definitely evil in the Preboot and earlier in the Reboot continuities, but was a CorruptCorporateExecutive, not president [[spoiler:(and wasn't Ra's, either)]].

** Brainiac 5 is this to the original Comicbook/{{Brainiac}}.

** The Legion is a spin-off of ComicBook/{{Superboy}} (who is himself a spin-off of Franchise/{{Superman}}). Members ComicBook/CosmicBoy, Timber Wolf, ComicBook/KarateKid, and Mon-El have all had SpinOff series of their own, as have the Legion's fellow future SuperTeam, the Wanderers, and SixthRanger Inferno.
** ''[[ComicBook/LEGIONDCComics L.E.G.I.O.N.]]'' (later ''R.E.B.E.L.S.'') is a slightly unusual example: it's a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute for the Legion, with similar characters and a similar space-operatic style, but set in the contemporary 20th/21st century Franchise/{{DCU}}.

* WhamLine: At the end of the final ComicBook/New52 issue, Bouncing Boy mentions [[spoiler: Superman being killed by Steppenwolf, implying that this takes place in the 30th centuty of Comicbook/Earth2]].

* {{Textplosion}}: During the "5 years later" arc, text pages were often used to provide exposition on events that occurred during the TimeSkip or other background information. Issue #38, in which the Earth is destroyed by an environmental disaster, is told entirely in illustrated prose.

* ''Legion of Super-Heroes/Bugs Bunny Special'' (August, 2017). One-shot crossover.

Meanwhile, over in ''The New Golden Age'' by Creator/GeoffJohns, a future version of the Justice Society of America appeared featuring a version of Dr. Fate who is implicitly ''not'' the same Dr. Fate in the Bendisboot Legion. The future Justice Society refer to the Legion of Super-Heroes by name, and in the fifth issue of ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica2022'' (also by Johns) Per Degaton is shown fighting none other than the Retroboot Legion. The seventh issue features the appearance of the Legion of Substitute-Heroes on the last page approaching present day Khalid Nassour, the present day Dr. Fate. What this means for the Legion's status at DC is unknown, due to Bendis's Legion appearing in the pages of ''ComicBook/GreenArrow2023''.

An AnimatedAdaptation aired from 2006 to 2008, [[PragmaticAdaptation taking the most iconic versions]] of all involved, but also taking even more inspiration from the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse despite, judging by Brainiac 5's [[RobotBuddy being an android]], not being in continuity with it. [[WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes2006 See Here for that series]]. An [[WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes2023 animated film]] set in the WesternAnimation/{{Tomorrowverse}} continuity is also set to be released in 2023, and will follow Supergirl as she attends Legion Academy.

Meanwhile, over in ''The New Golden Age'' by Creator/GeoffJohns, a future version of the Justice Society of America appeared featuring a version of Dr. Fate who is implicitly ''not'' the same Dr. Fate in the Bendisboot Legion. The future Justice Society refer to the Legion of Super-Heroes by name, and in the fifth issue of ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica2022'' (also by Johns) Per Degaton is shown fighting none other than the Retroboot Legion. What this means for the Legion's status at DC is unknown, due to Bendis's Legion appearing in the pages of ''ComicBook/GreenArrow2023''.

Stories post-''Infinite Crisis'' have reintroduced TheMultiverse and brought in the "retroboot" Legion, which essentially restored the Pre-Crisis team and their entire history to canon – including Superman's past with them – while [[CanonDiscontinuity disregarding]] everything post-Crisis. This version first (re)appeared in ''ComicBook/TheLightningSaga'' BatFamilyCrossover between ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' and ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica''. As a tie-in to ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', Geoff Johns wrote a miniseries called "Legion of 3 Worlds" which included the reboot, threeboot and retroboot versions of the Legion, and put the reboot and threeboot Legions [[PutOnABus on a bus]] for good. The retroboot Legion then got an ongoing series written by Paul Levitz; while it was renumbered with the ComicBook/New52 reboot, it was largely unchanged aside from losing some characters to the ''Legion Lost'' companion series featuring a group of Legionnaires in the present. The series was eventually cancelled, with the implication that this Legion ''actually'' belonged to an Alternate Earth. The Legion reappeared as part of the "Infinitus Saga" storyline in ''Justice League United''.

* CorruptedCharacterCopy:In the Reboot ''Legion Of Super Heroes'' "trapped in the 20th century" period, they learned that Ferro had escaped from Doc 30, a mad scientist in a high-tech hover-wheelchair who bought young mutants for use in his experiments. As an evil ComicBook/ProfessorX, his team of wardens/enforcers (the broken "successes" of his experiments) were based on ''ComicBook/XMen'': The Knight Shift's leader Taser, who fired electric EyeBeams (ComicBook/{{Cyclops|MarvelComics}}), his girlfriend Psych, who had PsychicPowers (ComicBook/JeanGrey), and the element-controlling Landslide (ComicBook/{{Iceman|MarvelComics}} but DishingOutDirt) have all become deeply sadistic, while the monstrous Kritter (ComicBook/{{Beast|MarvelComics}}) and wolf-like Fangg (ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}) are entirely feral. Ferro's brother Douglas, who shares his ChromeChampion powers, would have been their ComicBook/{{Colossus}}, if Doc 30 had succeeded in breaking him.

Meanwhile, over in ''ComicBook/TheNewGoldenAge'' by Creator/GeoffJohns, a future version of the Justice Society of America appeared featuring a version of Dr. Fate who is implicitly ''not'' the same Dr. Fate in the Bendisboot Legion. The future Justice Society refer to the Legion of Super-Heroes by name, and in the fifth issue of ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica2022'' (also by Johns) Per Degaton is shown fighting none other than the Retroboot Legion. What this means for the Legion's status at DC is unknown, due to Bendis's Legion appearing in the pages of ''ComicBook/GreenArrow2023''.

** ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes2020'' came to be when [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} Dr. Manhattan]] undid his changes to the DC Universe that resulted in the ''ComicBook/New52'' continuity at the end of ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock''. The original intent was to restore the Retroboot Legion to continuity, but ''Doomsday Clock'' suffering delays led to Creator/BrianMichaelBendis seizing the opportunity to do his own take on the Legion, which had more drastic changes than before.

** In keeping with tradition, the rebooted Legion is given a similar storyline to end their run and bring in the "threeboot." [[spoiler:Fatal Five member Persuader discovers he can use his Atomic Axe to slice through realities into parallel universe, an ability he uses to recruit 100 other versions of the Fatal Five to go against his Legion. The combined forces of the Legion and the time-traveling Teen Titans defeat them, but in doing so destroy every Atomic Axe. The resulting release of energy strands the Legion in the time stream, and slices off their original universe from the mainstream DC universe, replacing it with the threeboot world.]]

%%* GuineaPigFamily: Timberwolf.

** At least two all-out continuity reboots, and many other variations besides.

* KingIncognito: Projectra, during her Sensor Girl phase. Originally her identity was obscured even from her teammates, but it remained a public secret for even longer.
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: The starting point of the Threeboot era was "Superboy and the Legion", a two-part crossover with Creator/GeoffJohns' run on ''ComicBook/TeenTitans''.

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/legion-of-super-heroes.jpg]]

* ''ComicBook/Superboy'': With issue #197 it became the Legion's comic and was renamed to ''Superboy and/starring the Legion of Super-Heroes'' (1973-1980).

* TerribleIntervieweesMontage: Legion auditions frequently run like this.
* {{Textplosion}}: During the “5 years later” arc, text pages were often used to provide exposition on events that occurred during the TimeSkip or other background information. Issue #38, in which the Earth is destroyed by an environmental disaster, is told entirely in illustrated prose.

* BewareTheQuietOnes: Shrinking Violet in postboot continuity. She starts off as, well, a ShrinkingViolet. Over time she is showing coming out of her shell, even going so far as to be elected team leader. [[spoiler:Right after that, it's revealed that her increased confidence was the result of her coming under the influence of the Emerald Eye of Ekron.]] [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity She completes a (temporary)]] FaceHeelTurn shortly thereafter and curbstomps her former teammates.

Eventually, Keith Giffen took over the book, along with [[RunningTheAsylum fans-turned-writers]] Tom and Mary Bierbaum, and the series ''really'' jumped into UsefulNotes/{{the Dark Age|of Comic Books}} with the "Five Years Later" TimeSkip. Earth is ruled by alien invaders. One character was [[{{Retcon}} retconned]] into an AppliedPhlebotinum transgender person, and another into a shapeshifter who only ''thought'' he was the character. The Legion are [[CloningBlues actually clones]] -- unless the other, younger Legion (Batch [=SW6=]) that were discovered in PeopleJars are the clones, as one might think at first. The moon was destroyed, [[EarthShatteringKaboom followed by the Earth itself]].

* CloningBlues: Batch [=SW6=]. [[spoiler:They're not clones. Maybe they are. It was resolved, but not necessarily to anyone's satisfaction. Apparently, as originally created by TMK, they were intended to be the original team, with the adults actually being the Dominators-created clones. The editors refused to let them run that storyline, though, and the canonical explanation was given later during the "End of an Era" storyline leading up to ''Zero Hour'': they're not clones, they're the originals from a forked pocket dimension created by the Time Trapper during one of his attempts to protect the team from being caught up the universal destruction he knew was going to occur. That the Dominators found them in stasis and stored them under 30th century Metropolis was, apparently, just a coincidence.]]

* ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica2022'' (2022-Ongoing)

* ''ComicBook/TheTerrifics'' (2018-ongoing) ([-contains Phantom Girl's modern ancestor-])