Original Legion Membership

About the Membership Order

The order in which the earliest Legionnaires joined the team was not discussed until All-New Collectors' Edition #C-55 (1978). It revealed that the first dozen or so Legionnaires did not join in the same order that they first appeared. In a backup feature from the Collectors' Edition, the three founders were featured, and then it asserted: "Triplicate Girl and Phantom Girl were the next to join." Thus, this source became the canon among fans for the true joining order.

This same order was reiterated in the roll call in Legion of Super-Heroes #300 (June 1983, see sidebar). Likewise, the 2995 Sourcebook adhered to this.

Membership history was not explored in story form until Secrets of the Legion (1981). It recounted each Legionnaire in the same order as was established in the Collectors' Edition, but placed Star Boy earlier, as the ninth.

Chronological First Appearances

The outline below lists the chronological order of the earliest Legionnaires' appearances. Their canonical order is in parenthesis.

Adventure Comics #247 (Apr. 1958):

1. Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad (1-3)
4. Superboy (12)

Action Comics #267 (Aug. 1960):

5. Chameleon Boy, Invisible Kid, Colossal Boy (6–8)
8. Brainiac 5, Supergirl (10–11)
10. Shrinking Violet, Sun Boy (15–16)
12. Bouncing Boy (17)

Adventure Comics #282 (Mar. 1961):

13. Star Boy (14)

Action Comics #276 (May 1961):

14. Triplicate Girl, Phantom Girl (4–5)

Superboy #98 (July 1962):

16. Ultra Boy (13)

About Superboy and Supergirl

As with the Legion's history, its membership is affected by major changes to 'Superman family' continuity. The Crisis on Infinite Earths erased Superboy and Supergirl from the DC Universe, which also negated the participation of the Legion of Super-Pets and honorary members like Jimmy Olsen, Lana Lang and Pete Ross. To maintain Superboy's legacy in the post-Crisis universe, Superboy was said to have lived in another "Pocket Universe."

Later, the continuity headaches and editorial mandates spurred creators to stop trying to work around it and create a way for the Legion exist without ties to the Superman family.

In Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 4 #4 (Feb. 1990), Mon-El took an action that rewrote Legion history and removed Superboy and Supergirl. They were replaced by Mon-El — who was now called "Valor" — and his family descendant, Laurel Gand. Plus, a new Legionnaire called Kid Quantum was inserted into early continuity.

» SEE ALSO:

• Legions membership rosters: Original Legion  +  Retroboot  +  Reboot  +  Threeboot  +  Rebirth  +  All Legions
• Legion Leaders

List of Original Legion Leaders

Section 6 of the Legion Constitution dictated that leader elections be held yearly (this was further defined in the Mayfair Games Sourcebooks). There were some exceptions to that rule, and in earlier years there were no deputy leaders.

The Legion is famous in the real world for inviting the comic's fans to vote for Legion leader. This began in Adventure Comics #364 (Jan. 1968), when DC editors encouraged fans to vote for the next Legion leader. The results appeared in the letter column of Adventure #368 (it was Ultra Boy), and it was shown in-comic in the story from Adventure #371 (Aug. 1968).

During the "Five Year Gap," elections were kept private because of the public attention they tended to attract. The Legion was trying to keep a low profile while it was under persecution from Earthgov (which was influenced by the Dominators).

Election No.	Member	Issue	Deputy Leader
1–2	Cosmic Boy	(Superboy vol. 1 #147, May/June 1968)	None; the first "election" was done by a computer.
3–4	Saturn Girl	Adventure #304 (Jan. 1963) Adventure #323 (Aug. 1964)	None
5	Brainiac 5	Adventure #337 (Oct. 1965)	Saturn Girl
6	Invisible Kid I	Adventure #348 (Sept. 1966)	Superboy
7	Ultra Boy	Adventure #371 (Aug. 1968)	Mon-El. Note: This was the first reader-elected leader; Mon-El received the second highest number of votes.
POST-ADVENTURE ERA
8	Karate Kid	Action #382 (Nov. 1969)	Mon-El
9	Mon-El	Action #392 (Sept. 1970)	Element Lad
10	Ultra Boy	Superboy vol. 1 #184 (Apr. 1972)	Various
11	Mon-El	Superboy vol. 1 #190 (Sept. 1972)	Brainiac 5
12	Wildfire	Superboy vol. 1 #225 (Mar. 1977)	Element Lad. Note: Superboy was actually elected but the rules dictated only full-time members can be leader.
13	Lightning Lad	Superboy & the Legion #247 (Jan. 1979)	Element Lad
Legion vol. 2
14	Dream Girl	Legion vol. 2 #291 (Sept. 1982)	Ultra Boy
15	Element Lad	Legion vol. 2 #306 (Dec. 1983)	Dream Girl
Legion vol. 3
16	Element Lad	Legion vol. 3 #12 (July 1985)	Dream Girl
17	Polar Boy	Legion vol. 3 #36 (July 1987)	Element Lad
18	Sensor Girl	Legion vol. 3 #59 (Apr. 1989)	Timber Wolf
Legion vol. 4 + FIVE YEAR GAP
—	Timber Wolf	20 March 2991	Polar Boy
—	Sun Boy	5 July 2991	Unrevealed
—	Polar Boy	14 Sept. 2991	Unrevealed
—	Rokk Krinn and Reep Daggle	23 Oct. 2994	Co-leaders
—	Jacques Foccart	Legion vol. 4 #43 (May 1993)	Co-leader, previously leader of the S.U.B.S.
—	Firefist	Legion vol. 4 #44 (June 1993)	(Intended to be) co-leader
—	Violet	Legion vol. 4 #54 (Feb. 1994)	none
SW6 LEGIONNAIRES
1	Cosmic Boy II	Legionnaires #1 (Apr. 1993)	Computo II

The Legion Constitution

The Legion Constitution appeared in various places, including the Mayfair Games Sourcebook No. 216: Legion of Super-Heroes, Volume II: The World Book (1987).

6.0 LEADERSHIP

6.1 Each year the active members of the Legion of Super-Heroes shall select a Leader and a Deputy Leader from among the full-time active members in a manner conforming to the requirements of Sections 8.2, 8.3 and 8.4 hereunder.

6.2 The Leader and Deputy Leader shall serve for concurrent one-year terms and may be re-elected for consecutive terms.

6.3 In the event of the resignation, expulsion, leave, death or incapacity of:

(i) the Leader, the Deputy Leader shall become Leader and shall appoint a new Deputy Leader;

(ii) the Deputy Leader, the Leader shall appoint a new Deputy Leader; or

(iii) both the Leader and the Deputy Leader, the senior active member shall serve as temporary Leader, with a new Leader and Deputy Leader to be selected at the first opportunity in a manner conforming to the requirements of Sections 8.2, 8.3 and 8.4 hereunder.

6.4 The Leader shall be the supreme commander of the Legion of Super-Heroes, answerable only to the United Planets Authorities and restricted only by the applicable provisions of this Constitution.

6.5 The Leader may authorize the Deputy Leader or any active member as an acting or temporary or team Leader with an appropriate portion of the Leader's authority hereunder.

6.6 Members shall, in all instances, be required to obey the orders of the Leader and/or the Leader's duly authorized representative, so long as such orders conform to this Constitution.

6.7 The Leader may be suspended temporarily by a unanimous vote of the standing Committee on Constitutional Matters, and such suspension shall last only until a court-martial may be held as provided in Section 4 hereunder.

6.8 The Leader is responsible for the funds of the Legion of Super-Heroes under Section 1.3 hereunder and shall have the full freedom to use those funds to fulfill the purposes and requirements of this Constitution.

Tenure in the Original Legion

Special thanks to Aaron Severson and DarkMark's Comics Indexing Domain

This is a tally of each Legionnaire's service record during the time before Zero Hour. All 30th century dates herein are taken from the Legion Sourcebook: 2995, except for a very few which were extrapolated from those Sourcebook dates. I set the date of Zero Hour at August 1995. Legion vol. 4 #1-11 (1994) are not included in anyone's memberships, as the Legion had not yet re-formed. The last official date given anywhere in the Glorith Reality was 13 June 1995 — when the SW6 Legionnaires were deputized.

Keep in mind that this timeline was quite drawn out in the middle years. All Legion leaders served only one-year terms, but in terms of comic book issues, Wildfire and Lightning Lad, for example, served in that capacity much longer than one year.

In the Sourcebook timeline, the original Legion existed for approximately 23 years. DC published the Legion for 36.66 years. This means that every year of our time equals about 7.5 months of Legion time.

Membership Details

Service, Listed by Totals

This list shows, in descending order, who served the most, least and everything in between. Time has been converted to years months.

Observations

Note that the time from when the Legion re-formed up until Zero Hour was only 9 months, so Legionnaires who served in that time didn't actually accrue that much tenure from it. Another factor adding significant time to members' tenure was their service during the 5-year gap. Members like Polar Boy, Element Lad, Dawnstar, and Lightning Lass gained significant extra tenure in that time. More specifically, here are some interesting results:

• Not surprising, Colossal Boy tops the list. His unbroken tenure from his date of joining to the Legion's disbanding gives him the longest tenure of all.
• Saturn Girl beats out the other two founders, due to her rejoining towards the end of Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 3.
• Phantom Girl out-serves Ultra Boy. Despite her death, she joined over a year before he joined.
• Laurel Gand — #4 on the list. Funny how readily we accept her as part of continuity, often forgetting that she was a Legion vol. 4 retcon (a courtesy rarely extended to Kid Quantum). Nevertheless, her unbroken service record gives her over 17 years.
• Invisible Kid I served a full 8 years before his death.
• Bouncing Boy, way down the list at 4 years, 6 months. His various temporary returns (as well as Duo Damsel's) were not included in his time. Plus, he was absent for over 2 years when he first lost his powers.
• Impulse and Nightwind are the only members who joined during the 5-year gap to serve for any significant length of time. Nightwind because she was the first 5-year gap member, and Impulse because he served after the Legion re-formed.