Some issues of The Legion of Super-Heroes would focus on new heroes trying out to join the Legion. And many used the application process as the opening scene to a much larger story.
One applicant was called Arm-Fall-Off Boy. His superpower was that his arms could fall off and be used as a weapon.
In the same story, one origin of their headquarters, which looked somewhat like an upside-down rocket sticking up out of the ground, was that a Legion applicant, Fortress Lad, whose power was that he could turn into a building, had turned into a structure to protect the Legion from a villain with a ray that could erase memories. He forgot that he was a person, and the Legion members had forgotten where the building had come from. Quite the tragic origin.
The reason their headquarters origin turned into a Legion applicant rejection story is that the writer wanted to tie it to the HQ being a rocket from Krypton, Superman’s home world. But at that time, the Superman editorial office was trying to separate Superman from the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Antennae Boy was one of my favorite rejected Legion applicants. He had large ears that functioned as antennas. He could pick up transmissions from across space and time.
While some rejected applicants were comedic relief for one issue, another group formed their own team after being rejected, dubbed The Legion of Substitute Heroes. One of them, Stone Boy, could turn to stone. Another was Chlorophyll Kid. He could cause plants to grow extremely quickly. Chorophyll Kid could cause plants to grow really quickly. Need a forest? He’s your guy as long as you have the seeds. Fire Lad inhaled the fumes from a fallen meteor, granting him the power to breathe fire, but the Earth’s oxygen-rich atmosphere made his flame wildly uncontrollable. Night Girl had superhuman strength…but only in darkness. Color Kid, a later failed applicant added to the Substitutes, could change the color of matter…like Kryptonite. They eventually helped the main Legion and officially earned their respect.
Ironically, one of the substitutes, Polar Boy, could generate extreme cold. His power seemed like a legitimate superpower that could be useful to the Legion. Polar Boy’s cold wasn’t directional, so it was considered dangerous when he initially tried out for the team. He did eventually earn a spot on the main Legion of Super-Heroes team.
Here’s where the Legion crosses over with more mainstream pop culture. If you watch the credits of the Karate Kid movie, there is a thank you to DC Comics. Why? One of the Legion members was named, you guessed it, Karate Kid, whose powers were that he was really good at karate. It was the 60s/70s. And he was one of the main Legion of Super-Heroes members.
They later quietly added the ability to perceive hidden structural weaknesses; he could shatter steel, resist mind control, and suppress pain to justify how Karate Kid could stand on a team with the likes of Superboy and Mon-El, who was a Superman-level character.
Meanwhile, Bouncing Boy, whose power was to inflate himself and bounce like a bouncing ball, and Matter Eater Lad, whose power was to be able to eat anything, were made members of the main Legion of Super-Heroes team.
Where some of the joke-powered characters ended up as full members, and others got shunted to the Substitute team, the line between “punchline” and “Legionnaire” might seem arbitrary. It wasn’t.
The stated difference between a character with lame powers like Bouncing Boy and Polar Boy’s powers is control. Many of the Substitutes were considered to lack enough control over their powers, which could possibly pose a danger to their teammates. That was the in-story rationale. Underneath it was an editorial one: Legion membership tracked whether a writer could build a plot around the power without the character solving or breaking the story. Utility alone was never the driving factor. That’s why “turns to stone and can’t move” loses to “eats matter.”
Sources
- The Tom Brevoort Experience, Secret Origins #46 and the lost origin of the Legion clubhouse: https://tombrevoort.com/2021/12/11/secret-origins-46-and-the-lost-origin-of-the-legion-of-super-heroes-clubhouse/
- Cosmic Teams, Legion of Substitute Heroes members: https://cosmicteams.com/legion/profiles/Subs.html
- Cosmic Teams, Legion Rejects: https://www.cosmicteams.com/legion/profiles/legion-rejects.htm
Now that I’ve provided sources on a post, am I going to have to provide sources for all of my posts going forward?
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