The Legion analogs and parodies covered in this section have primarily appeared in comics by non-DC publishers.
This differs from the Legion Elseworlds page,
which covers alternate Legions published by DC Comics.
The Archie Legion
The following image was not published, but is a fan-commissioned piece of
art. What's notable is that it preceded the launch of the post-Zero Hour Legion—which
came to be known as the "Archie Legion." It's drawn by popular Archie illustrator,
Mike Worley. The date reads either 1991 or 1992.
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FIRST APPEARANCE: Marvel
Super-Heroes #18 (Jan. 1969)
Today it seems even more suspicious that the Guardians of the Galaxy were
from the 31st century (where our Legion now resides as well). All its members
generally hail from within Earth's solar system. They were brought together
to fight the alien Badoon race.There are no flagrant Legion similarities other
than their being based 1,000+ years in the future.
Though they were created
in 1969, it wasn't until they got their own series in 1990 (by Jim Valentino)
that this team came to any sort of prominence. Valentino makes only one remarks
about the Guardians in relation to the Legion in a
written retrospective on his site. In particular, he mentions a cameo
appearance by the Legion’s R.J.Brande (as "Ambassador Jacques") in 1991's
annual.
A new book was launched in 2008 bearing this name, but starring a cast from
the current-day Marvel universe.
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SERIES: Guardians
of the Galaxy, 62-issues (1990-95)
The first batch of heroes who appeared as the Imperial Guard were designed
by Dave Cockrum after he left DC (his last issue was Superboy #205, Nov./Dec. 1974).
At DC, Cockrum had proposed
several new Legionnaires called the
Outsiders. His proposal was not picked
up and Cockrum took his ideas to Marvel where some became the new X-Men. After
the X-Men title took off in sales, the creators took it one step further and
unveiled a massive parody of the Legion — the intergalactic Imperial Guard. Its first appearance
included:
Astra
(Phantom Girl)
Electron (Lightning Lad)
Fang (Timber Wolf)
Gladiator (Superboy/Mon-El)
Hobgoblin (Chameleon Boy)
Impulse (Wildfire)
Magic (Projectra)
Mentor
(Brainiac 5)
Midget (Shrinking Violet)
Nightside (Shadow Lass)
Oracle (Saturn
Girl)
Quasar (Star Boy)
Smasher (Ultra Boy)
Starbolt (Wildfire)
Tempest
(Sun Boy)
Titan (Colossal Boy)
Following their first appearances, other members were introduced who were not Legion knock-offs. But, in the years that followed, other creators had fun with the concept and introduced additional pseudo-Legionnaires.
There was also a parody of the Legion's foes, the Fatal Five. In S.W.O.R.D. vol. 2 #9 (Dec. 2021) a new Lethal Legion were introduced as the opponents of the Imperial Guard. Its members, Half-Bot, Mr. Eloquent, The Electric Head, Orbis Extrmis and Death Grip were clear analogs of Tharok, Persuader, Validus, Emerald Empress and Mano, respectively. Read more about this Lethal Legion.
The Lethal Legion, from S.W.O.R.D. #9 (Dec. 2021); by Al Ewing and Jacopo Camagni.
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SERIES:
Imperial
Guard, 3-issue limited series (1997)
Realm of Kings Imperial Guard, 5-issue limited series (2010)
Heroes Reborn: Hyperion & The Imperial Guard (2021)
Young Ethan Crane meets the League of Infinity. From Supreme #42 (Sept. 1996); by Alan Moore and Rick Veitch.
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FIRST APPEARANCE: Supreme #42 (Sept. 1996)
The League of Infinity were a Legion parody group that appeared in Image Comics, in Supreme (who was himself a Superman analog). When Alan Moore wrote the character, he parodied Superman's time with the Legion and created the League of Infinity for Kid Supreme to join.
They used a Time Tower, which was "constructed down the central bore of time itself." This allowed heroic youths from many ages — past and future — to come together and fight crime across time.
ROLL CALL:
Aladdin
Bill Hickok
Boy Achilles/Achilles
Future Girl/Future Woman
(Zayla Zarn)
Giganthro
Kid Supreme/Supreme
Mata Hari
Siegfried
Wilhelm Reich
Witch Wench/Witch Woman
Zhuge Liang
Appearances
Supreme #42 (Sept. 1996)
Supreme #55 (Dec. 1998)
Supreme: The Return #4 (Mar. 2000)
The League of Superteens
Static, Rocket and Supeboy find themselves recast as retro teen heroes. From Static #14 (Aug. 1994); by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan and Prentis Rollins.
Static #14 (Aug. 1994)
By Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan
The League of Superteens was a parody of the Legion that appeared in the Milestone universe. This was in the climax of the "Worlds Collide" event, a crossover between Milestone and the DC universe.
In the story, a villain called Rift merged the two universes. In Static #14, the usual teen heroes — Static, Rocket and Superboy — were recast as Static Boy, Rocket Lass and Fabulous Boy, respectively. They reveiwed a "Mission Monitor" which named 29 heroes in the League (mostly with silly names). The roster included the primary heroes from the crossover, including Icon, Hardware, Steel and Superman.
They visited the Walk of Fame, which honored members of Milestone's Blood Syndicate. In this reality, they had died as teens.
ROLL CALL:
Adhesive Lad, Burnrubber, Dough Boy II, Fabulous Boy, Fabulous Man, Fan Boy, Fat Boy, Foxtrot Lass, Frat Boy, Hardware, Hoot-Man, Icon, Itty-Bitty Girl, Kite Lad, Kodak Kid, Mall Hair Girl, Maniac 5, Phenomenal Lass, Procrastination Lad, Rocket Gal, Seltzer Lad, Sneeze Lad, Static Lad, Steel, Sterno Lad, Super Nazi-Fighter, Superman, Transit, Very Big Boy
The Legion of Galactic Guardians 2099 (Amalgam
Comics, 1997)
From Spider-Boy
Team-Up #1 (June 1997); by Roger Stern, Karl Kesel, Jose Ladronn and Juan Vlasco.
Spider-Boy
Team-Up #1 (June 1997, Amalgam Comics)
Amalgam was a joint publishing venture between DC Comics and Marvel. In Amalgam stories, characters from both companies were mashed together to form new ones.
The Legion appeared in Amalgam in just one issue, Spider-Boy Team-Up #1. In this adventure, Spider-Boy (Superboy plus Spider-Man) of the year 2099 met the Legion of Galactic Guardians 2099.
The first team resembled the Silver Age Legionnaires. ROLL CALL: Bouncing Ball, Cannonfire, Chameleon, Dream Date, Fantastic Lad, Growing Boy, Invisible Girl, Lady Bug, Living Lightning Lad, Living Lightning Lass, Martinex 5, Molecule Lad, Multiple Maid, Paste-Eater Pete, Phantom Cat, Psi-Girl, Shadowstar, Star Charlie, Sun Lord, Timberwolf by Night, Universe Boy, Vance Cosmic
When reality was "rebooted," a second team appeared. These were analogs of the Reboot Legion. ROLL CALL: Chameleon, Darkstar, Invisible Girl, Lady Bug, 'Lectron, Living Colossus, Martinex 5, Mass, Mig-El, Myriad, Nucleus, Phantom Cat, Phoenetix, Psi-Girl, Sparkler, Universe Boy, Vance Cosmic, Xcel
It happened again, and now in 2104, a third Legion appeared. They were analogous to the Legion of the Glorith Reality. They lived in a dreary, dark universe trapped in a nine-panel grid, in
which "no one knows who they are anymore — why we're here." Members were Salu Van Dyne and three other unnamed heroes.
Two different publishers came up with this title, ten years apart.
Legion of Stupid-Heroes #1 (Jan. 1987, Blackthorne Publishing)
By Taylor Overbey
Stupid doesn't begin to describe this book. The characters romp around with no real
purpose. DC parody characters include: Soopaman, Badtmann & Boobin;
plus Legionnaires Bloatman, Camel-Lion Boy, Career Girl, Cromag-Man, Dawn Spark, Dreaming Girl, Elementary
Lad, Maniac 5, Magnethead Boy, Nom-El, Phantasmic Girl, Plastic Surfer, Soopaman,
Thunder Lass, Tinder Wolf and Water Boy. Plus a Marvel parody Cap Namerica.
Alternate Concepts, 2 issues (1997)
No information at this time.
The Legion of Superfluous
Heroes (Aardvark-Vanaheim, Canada)
The Legion of Superfluous Heroes. From normalman #1 (Jan. 1984) ; by Jim Valentino.
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FIRST APPEARANCE: normalman #1 (Jan. 1984)
This Legion parody appeared as a gag in this humor comics. Lightweight Lad began reading the Legion's roll in normalman #1 (Jan. 1984) and didn't finish until issue #7 (Feb. 1985).
The group was set in the 33rd Century. That long list named:
Shanda Fantasy Arts publishes specialty comics featuring "funny animal" characters,
not unlike Captain Carrot.
In its anthology issue (50 pages!), SFA Spotlight #5, one two-page
story starred the Legion of Super-Furries. It parodies the classic Legion tryouts
and the roll call highlights: Cosmic
Cat, Saturn Squirrel, Lightning Bug, Monk-Ey, Ultramarine, Karate Kid, Dream
Beaver, Colossal Boar, Polar Bear, Night Owl, Chameleon Chameleon, Shrinking
Viaduck and Star
Fish.
I thought this issue would be impossible to find, but it was in stock at
Mile High Comics (in July 2008).
After its publication, Legion fandom took the concept and ran with it a step
further, creating the virtual, the hypothetical ... Lotta
Species Heroes.
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FIRST APPEARANCE: Big
Bang Comics vol. 2 #12 (July 1997)
The Pantheon of Super-Heroes was a nod to both Dave Cockrum's Legion and Imperial Guard. They were formed sometime around the year 2965. In Big
Bang vol. 2
#12, the Savage Dragon is thrust forward in time and meets a trio of heroes: Clone
Boy (Dubba, who was a sort of mix between Chameleon Boy and Triplicate
Girl); Gravity
Girl (a combo of Star Boy and Light Lass); and Laughing Boy. This
tale mirrored the Legion try-outs from the Adventure Comics era.
Their
next appearance, in issue #14, was an homage to the 1970s Mike Grell tales
and the Five Year Gap Legion. We see Galactic Lad (now simply called by his
real name, Noa Zark) and Snowstar and hear a mention of Anglefish and Nature
Boy (deceased). He and Snowstar talk about how their enemy the Time-Bomber
keeps them from traveling in time, and how Clone Boy is his prisoner. These
heroes are from 2988, but man a station at the end of time and are destroyed
when the Savage Dragon passes through their era.
The Dragon's journey continues to plague the Pantheon in 2969, where we meet
Brain Boy and Tele-Girl. Then we catch a glimpse of 2973 and
Ghost Girl and the entire Pantheon — rendered in the style of Dave Cockrum
and combined with his designs for Marvel's Imperieal Guard.
The cover of issue #18 (Apr. 1998) was drawn by Dave Cockrum and the indicia page inside features a pardoy of the Adventure Comics #247 cover, with Brain Boy, Clone Boy and Telegirl rejecting the Savage Dragon for membership.
Issue #22 (Sept. 1998) features a reprinting of the gallery of heroes in #18, with a "who's
who" key! Members past and present are identified.
Issues #24 and 26 (1999) are a staggeringly detailed mockery called "History
of Big Bang Comics" that tells about these characters' faux publishing
histories. It shows how Ultragirl traveled from the past and was a member of
their group.
In issue #33 (July 2000), Tele-Girl appears in the Savage Dragon's time period and meets
the Whiz Kids (now in their New Teen Titans Pérez-styled era).
The Pantheon was inspired by 20th century heroes like the Knights
of Justice (based
on the Justice Society), and the Round Table of America (based on the Justice
League).
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FEATURED APPEARANCES: Big
Bang Comics vol. 2 #12, 14, 18, 22, 33
(Image Comics)
