Top 10 Legion of Super Hero Members (Pre Bendis)

[Lee Stone]

I'm really interested in reading more about Dream Girl. I've only read a few things like the Great Darkness Saga but she was a definite highlight to me. Just seems like a fascinating character. Surprised to see her described as "sassy". Could someone recommend some singular issues from different eras?

There was an issue of the pre-Baxter run that had Dream Girl and Star Boy fight a guy named Magpie. I think she got to use her martial arts in it. Been a while since I read it.

[ultradav]

I see a lot of people putting Laurel Gand in their top ten, it's nice to see 5yl get some love. What do you think distinguishes Laurel Gand and Supergirl as characters?

For me it is just that Laurel was allowed the chance to develop and grow and so is more fleshed out in the context of Legion. Supergirl, being part of the Super family and from the 20th century, never fully belonged to the Legion. Not to mention she was pretty absent for long stretches of time and by the time she died she had barely made any appearances in Legion. Even in the short time of Laurel we got more depth into her relationship with Brainy and Rond Vidar than we ever really got with Kara. We got to see her reputation as a Khund buster, as a mother, etc

[ultradav]

So many different versions of Legion it's somewhat hard to distinguish in a list form, so I'll just share from a broad composite level

1 Saturn Girl
2 Brainiac Five
3 Dream Girl
4 Element Lad
5 Gates
6 Kid Quantum
7 Matter Eater Lad
8 Sensor Girl
9 Shrinking Violet
10 Valor

[Jim Kelly]

I see a lot of people putting Laurel Gand in their top ten, it's nice to see 5yl get some love. What do you think distinguishes Laurel Gand and Supergirl as characters?

I wonder why anyone would see Laurel Gand as being that much like Supergirl? I don't remember Laurel Gand that well, so maybe I'm missing something. To me she was a composite character--Laurel Kent (but looked nothing like Lois Lane which the previous version was s'posed to), Mon-El and Supergirl. To me Brainiac 5 and Supergirl go together--was Laurel Gand a love interest for Brainy (I don't remember)? Laurel Gand is super like Supergirl (and also like Lar Gand) but otherwise she isn't like Kara Zor-El, Superman's cousin from Krypton.

[hareluyafan1]

I'm really interested in reading more about Dream Girl. I've only read a few things like the Great Darkness Saga but she was a definite highlight to me. Just seems like a fascinating character. Surprised to see her described as "sassy". Could someone recommend some singular issues from different eras?

Levitz/Giffen era #285, Nura had a great solo story "The Forgotten Future."

Levitz/Giffen era Annual #2, she had a pretty important part in the story "Whatever Gods There Be."

Levitz/Giffen era #310 "Omen." I know a lot of people hated the "Omen" arc but he was a powerful villain and Nura was key to his defeat.

Levitz/Giffen era #268 "Life after Life after Life" also featured her prominently.

Superboy #201 (1973) also had a LOSH story "The Silent Death" where she had a key role.

[Captain Nostalgia]

I had really considered ranking poor Sun Boy, but ultimately decided that Vi and Kid Quantum were more important.

But it's honestly been really frustrating how dirty Sun Boy was done in the Bronze Age and especially 5YL. They treated him real bad, it honestly qualifies as character assassination.

Yes, writers seem to have treated Sun Boy as the Legion's punching bag over the decades.

I didn't mind the 5YL storyline, I thought Giffen did a good job of writing a guy who got trapped on the wrong side of the fence.

But I didn't know that he was later killed by Superboy Prime, and this from wikepedia lol....

Sun Boy perishes in a starcruiser crash on a strange planet; his body is later cooked and eaten by the planet's sentient inhabitants

[Nomads1]

But it's honestly been really frustrating how dirty Sun Boy was done in the Bronze Age and especially 5YL. They treated him real bad, it honestly qualifies as character assassination.

They basically changed his name to "Dirt" Morgana.

Peace

[Superfan90]

This is tough but here we go.

Mon El: Greatest hero of them all. His confrontation with the time Trapper is genuinely one of the greatest moments in comics history.
Brainiac 5: Who doesn't loves brainy?
Saturn Girl: Badass psi before X men made it popular
Dawnstar: The OG Emma Frost, badass bitch
Wildfire : Original hothead, way before Wolverine made it cool
Lightning Lad: Just love him
Timber Wolf
Matter Eater Lad
Cosmic Boy
Gates : Utterly hilarious

[Jim Kelly]

I'm really interested in reading more about Dream Girl. I've only read a few things like the Great Darkness Saga but she was a definite highlight to me. Just seems like a fascinating character. Surprised to see her described as "sassy". Could someone recommend some singular issues from different eras?

To appreciate the affection for some of the classic Legionnaires, you need to read the old stories from the 1960s. During the pandemic, I re-read all of the stories from the beginning and I'm now up to the mid-1970s.

Dream Girl is significant because Nura Nal played key roles in memorable adventures. Early on, she manipulates the Legion to get her way but only because she sees their future doom and is trying to protect them (ADVENTURE COMICS 317). After that debacle, she joins the Legion of Substitute Heroes, having lost faith in her abilities. Later Star Boy is kicked out of the Legion for murdering one of Nura's old boyfriends and Thom joins the Subs which brings the two closer (ADVENTURE COMICS 342). When Superboy and Supergirl have to leave the Legion for reasons, they name as their replacements Sir Prize and Miss Terious--not telling the Legion who these two really are, just asking them to accept them on faith. The two mysterious Legionnaires are dressed all in armour (like knights) and prove their worth against their doubters, after which they reveal themselves as Thom and Nura. In the process of this story, the "Hag" is magically returned to her natural form as the White Witch, Nura's sister (ADVENTURE COMICS 350 - 351). Dream Girl and White Witch play an important role in defeating Mordru the Merciless at the conclusion of the two part story that introduced the villain (ADVENTURE COMICS 369 - 370).

[Jim Kelly]

Supergirl, being part of the Super family and from the 20th century, never fully belonged to the Legion. Not to mention she was pretty absent for long stretches of time and by the time she died she had barely made any appearances in Legion.

The problem for me is this

Arrange your top 10 Legion members from favourite to least (Example)

Superboy and Supergirl are favourite characters of mine (full stop). And they were also in the Legion. Am I supposed to subtract points from their favouriteness based on their relative participation in the Legion? They are so overwhelmingly favourite characters--even if I could take points away from them, they would still be right up there. I voted for Lyle Norg, too--and he was killed off fairly early--so how much time they were in the Legion wasn't as important as how much I liked them as characters. I could have included Jimmy Olsen and Lana Lang, as well, given how much I love them. But I drew the line there since Jimmy and Lana were never officially part of the regular Legion.

[Sutekh]

I had really considered ranking poor Sun Boy, but ultimately decided that Vi and Kid Quantum were more important.

But it's honestly been really frustrating how dirty Sun Boy was done in the Bronze Age and especially 5YL. They treated him real bad, it honestly qualifies as character assassination.

Yeah, he'd never really been a favorite, and the more he turned into a cheap Human Torch knockoff, the less I really cared about him (same with Timber Wolf getting more and more 'Wolverine-y' over the years, and the occasional art panel that suggested the team thought Imra Ardeen was a *telekinetic* as well as a telepath, breaking windows and stopping falling pillars with 'telepathy' just made me irrationally annoyed...), but after he was summarily snuffed (and eaten!) I developed a retroactive fondness for the character.

Though I'm not sure how much of my fondness for Sun Boy, or Karate Kid, for that matter, isn't a reflection of my dislike of Giffen.

[El_Gato]

1. Wildfire
2. Dawnstar
3. Timber Wolf
4. Brainiac 5
5. Saturn Girl
6. Tyroc
7. Phantom Girl
8. Karate Kid
9. Cosmic Boy
10. Lightning Lad

[bearman]

Lyle DID get written out early, but he had a tremendous run after the 5YL revival.
Tenzil has a big following on these pages... deservedly.

[j9ac9k]

- WILDFIRE
- Ultra Boy
- Dawnstar
- Timber Wolf
- Shadow Lass
- Brainiac 5
- Laurel Gand
- Lightning Lad
- Saturn Girl
- Gates

[Zero Hunter]

If you look at these lists you can kinda see why the reboots hurt. So many people list the 70s and 80s members (Timber Wolf, Dawnstar, Wildfire, Blok, White Witcg, Tyroc, ect), and yet in most reboots these characters are usually ignored in favor of the original 60s characters. The first Reboot did it. The Waidboot did it. Bendis did use them, but he changed them all so much they might as well have been new characters.