So who would you call the "Teen Titans" of the Marvel Universe?

You could manage the Legion story without bringing Superman, or any current hero for that matter, into it directly. Their original origin is that three teenagers from different planets stopped an assassination attempt on a rich industrialist during an interstellar flight. Said industrialist was so impressed by their heroics that he suggested they use their abilities (two had powers native to their respective planets, one had unique powers received in an accident) to keep peace and further the cause of justice, just as — and this is what he says — Superman had done, when HE was a boy.

That's the essential story. More details, subplots, addendum, etc, were added as time went on. The Legion functioned for years without an origin, the one I mention only getting told in, I think, the 70's. But there's no need, really, for the "as Superman did when he was a boy" bit. Or even to cite him or any other hero at all. It's been floated a few times that Brande suggested to the then-fledgling United Planets (kinda like the Federation over in Star Trek) that a group of meta-powered teenagers, possibly one from each planet in the United Planets, would be good for diplomacy and unity and whatnot. Seems like as workable a reason to form a superteam as any.

I'd say they don't need to be kids, but they always have been —teenagers, anyway. At least outside of the "Adult Legion" stories that showed up in Adventure and Action Comics in the 60's, and in Tom and Mary Bierbaum's exercise in fanwank when they took over the title in the 90's (which actually wasn't all bad, but definitely inspired by fan fiction, which shouldn't be a surprise given they both came out of organized Legion fandom).

edited 22nd Feb '16 9:41:27 AM by Robbery

I always thought the Legion's rule that non-super-mutated humans or races without "powers" need not apply was amusing. I always wondered if they ever inspired xenophobic backlash in places under their protection with populations that aren't allowed to join.

edited 23rd Feb '16 8:51:07 PM by KnownUnknown

Actually, Geof Johns relatively recent Legion story from Superman depicted such a reaction on Earth, led and exacerbated by a bunch of humans who had been rejected for membership in the Legion (their leader because his powers only copied the powers of other — every Legionnaire had to have at least one power unique to themselves—another because his powers were achieved by mechanical means, etc) and one of their points was how few Earthlings were in the Legion, which was based on Earth. I can only think of 3 off the top of my hear, Sun Boy (later called Inferno) and Colossal Boy (later called Leviathan), both of whom received their powers through accidents, and Karate Kid, who had no powers but was so insanely good at martial arts that he was even able to hold off Superboy, at one point. Colossal Boy was later made into a non-human by Mark Waid, from a planet of giants; his power was he could shrink to human size. He wanted to be called "Micro Boy" (perhaps the king of pointless retcons, and all for a seriously lame one-note joke; Waid should be ashamed of himself).

Generally, to be in the Legion, you had to be able to do at least one thing, under your own power, that no one else in the Legion could do. That was the official line, and wasn't always consistently enforced; for instance, Supergirl got into the Legion, even though at the time of her induction there were at least two other Legionnaires who had all the same powers, not even counting Superboy (who by the time of her induction was Superman, and retired from the Legion).

edited 24th Feb '16 10:02:58 AM by Robbery

So how did Karate Kid join them? According to him, he has no powers.

Karate Kid joined in the best way possible: he walked in, declared his martial arts skill so good it counted as a superpower, and demanded to prove it by going one on one with Superboy. And he won.

edited 24th Feb '16 12:04:11 PM by TheEvilDrBolty

If you pay attention to the end credits of the Ralph Macchio Karate Kid film, you'll see a special "thank you" to DC Comics for letting them use the name "Karate Kid."

In Karate Kid's first appearance in Adventure Comics # 346, he isn't able to hurt Superboy, but the degree to which he's able to hold his own impresses Superboy enough that Superboy sponsors his membership. Precisely how well Karate Kid does in the encounter has been changed over the years. But heck, he impressed Superboy. That's pretty damn good.

Karate Kid, along with Princess Projectra, Ferro Lad, and Nemesis Kid, were creations of Jim Shooter, in his first professional job in comics (as a 14 year old, no less).

edited 24th Feb '16 1:07:01 PM by Robbery

I think the Young Avengers more or less fit the bill. You could even make comparisons between them.

Wiccan -> Raven (Team magic user with unexpected lineage and mysterious destinies)

Hulkling -> Beast Boy (Green shapeshifter with absent parents who acts as the Heart and the Big Guy)

Miss America -> Starfire (From another world, star motifs, both have flight and super strength)

Prodigy -> Cyclops (African American super genius with expertise in technology) There's probably more but those are the first to come to mind.

edited 27th Feb '16 11:44:20 AM by TrixiePixie

Regarding the Torch, Lee mentioned disliking teenage sidekicks because he felt it made no sense for grown adults to pal around with teenagers. He made the comparison that Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes never needed to pal around with kids.

I'm wondering if perhaps the decision to make Johnny Storm a teenager might have been the result of some Executive Meddling.

heh...and then one recalls Boy, from the Weismuller Tarzan films, and Wiggins of the Baker Street Irregulars (ok, he didn't actually pal around with Holmes, but he did work with him...).

It's the age old concept of master and apprentice, knight and squire. But to each his own...

To be fair, he did say heroes didn't need to pal around with kids, and the Tarzan franchise didn't really need Boy at all. It's telling most incarnations of the character never even throw a nod towards the idea of Tarzan hanging around with a little adopted son.

Also he'd just sort of made the comment that in real life, how many adults do you know who hang around with kids that they aren't related to? If you were gonna have a partner who you wanted to have your back, wouldn't another adult make more sense?

In hindsight I think that's probably why when he did introduce partners like Falcon (who it could be argued served a role similar to that of Robin), they were adults.

I should mention that adult heroes don't "pal around" with kids the same way they do with other adults.

It's always made sense to me that Batman, being mortal, would want to train someone to replace him if necessary. In fact, I've always thought his motivation to taking Robin under his wing made sense, especially given the reality he lives in.

In Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) they gave Spidey a team consisting of teen version of Luke Cage & Iron Fist as well as Sam Alexander Nova and Ava Ayala White Tiger. I'm pretty sure this team was inspired by the Teen Titans, especially the cartoon version.

Edited by KahJunn on May 10th 2022 at 5:20:09 PM

Funnily enough, the first Young Avengers story actually revealed the in-universe reason a Teen Titans analogue never showed up. J. Jonah Jameson explains that the Heroic Sacrifice of Captain America's sidekick Bucky soured the public on the whole idea of young sidekicks. As a result, no superhero took in sidekicks of their own, meaning there was never a group of sidekicks who could go on to form a superhero team of their own.

I know the discussion of the Legion of Super-Heroes here has been dormant for years, but this thread got bumped, so I read it. This talk is reminding me of this list of ideas for Legion stories: http://mightygodking.com/category/i-should-write-the-legion/

I've never read any Legion stuff, but this list of hypothetical stories makes me want to give them a shot.