Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Medicine in the Future?

I wonder how advanced medicine in the Legion's time. True, a lot of the stories happened in the Silver Age so people didn't get injured as much as they do now, but it is cool to see how different writers/artists approached the subject over the years. It seems that most minor (and even major) physical injuries can be treated up to a certain point. To me it seems like the limit is nerve/brain damage, which makes sense scientifically because it is hard to recover from such traumatic injuries. I have heard that Neutrax refuses treatment, but that still doesn't explain why Star Boy was in a hover chair at the end of the Retroboot. Another limit is presumably injuries/disfigurements caused by magic, as they appear to only be undone by other magic (Nura's transformation, Dream Girl's blindness in the Threeboot). What are your thoughts?

4D Surgery and Curative Capsules are pretty cool!

Wow, this is a wild question. There are instances all throughout the Legion's run.

However, 3Oth & 31st century medical technology seemed to be all over the place.

Old age could be put off, and life could be extended to some extent, but just how much was never defined.

Many diseases had been completely done away with; others were extremely difficult to treat, such as the Pain Plague, and Yorggian fever.

There was a 'trim-ray' that did away with the need for bariatric surgery.

Several biologists experimented with giving ordinary beings super-powers, with varying levels of success. Timber Wolf, Radiation Roy, Storm Boy, and Night Girl are examples.

Medical technology was not evenly distributed. Daxam was noted for its advanced medicine. Orando and Talok VIII both had 'healers', who presumably used magic or techno-magic in their arts.

Dr. Zan Orbal was theoretically on the cutting edge of 3Oth-century medicine, but had only just barely learned how to regenerate a limb.

Cloning was imperfect, and faced some bizarre restrictions: some clones simply exploded after 48 hours, others producing monsters when they tried to breed.

On the other hand, a few years later, the UP was shown routinely creating whole artificial life-forms. (The telepathic Probes.)

Dr. Gym'll was shown using whole-body healing tubes for serious injuries. He served on Medicus One, a hospital satellite orbiting Earth. Where Medicus Two was, or whether it even existed, was never addressed.

Kent Shakespeare worked in a hospital on Quarantine, an underwater facility for individuals requiring ongoing medical treatment, like Garridan Ranzz, carrier of the Validus Plague.

I think there may be a section on Health and Medicine in CMK'S Legion Help File, available in the Encyclopedia Galactica Section of this forum.

Medicine was a lot more lively in the Adventure era, full of crazy instruments and treatments and doctors who looked like they stepped out of a 1960s cigarette ad. Unusual diseases also. Brainiac 5 began treating Legionnaires with his own devices and knowledge then, perhaps because a medical licence is still required in the future, Dr. Gym'll and Medicus One brought a more credible portrait of medicine.

As the series progressed, we saw fewer strange diseases and more injuries. The hospital beds gave way to the healing tubes, although Brainy still kept a hand in treating his teammates.

We know from Gym'll's constant complaining about billing that there is no universal health insurance in the United Planets.

As JRR pointed out, Daxam became a planet known for its medical technology. I'm surprised more wasn't done with Somahtur. Infectious Lass cooked up some nasty diseases and you'd think a race with that much disease knowledge would also have studied the curative/preventative side of the problem.

It would be interesting to see a tally of good vs evil doctors in Legion history.

The psychiatric side of medicine wasn't addressed too often. We did see Brainy (again!!) treat Violet's psychosomatic inability to shrink, Dr. Aven helped Saturn Girl deal with trauma and there was a psychologist in the reboot from the same race as Dr. Gym'll.


No sign of Ted Williams having been restored to life through cryogenics, though.

I have tried searching for it, but cannot find a thread with the exact title name. Do you think it could be archived somewhere else?

I also want to thank everyone for the lively discussion so far.

Oh, I should have explained in more detail. It's not a thread, but a downloadable Help File. There's a link to the page where it can be downloaded at the top of the EG forum. You'll probably need to download software to open it as well. It's a pretty comprehensive encyclopedia of Legion stuff up until 2000. I'm not entirely certain it has a section on Medicine, but I seem to remember it doing so. You'd probably enjoy checking it out anyway for lists of planets and stuff.

The drug problem wasn't addressed much in the series. Timber Wolf got addicted to lotus fruit and had to deal with it on his own. Probably driven by the Comics Code, but one might consider that drug addiction was pretty much eliminated by the 30th century except for some rare physiological exceptions. Seems unlikely - there was one instance of recreational drugs being used in a holo-cinema to heighten the sensory experience, so maybe the addictive nature of drugs was overcome at some point. We never even see them drinking coffee, except for one scene in 5YL with Brainiac 5 and a steaming mug (unidentified liquid) after a sleepless night. There are drunks in the bars of Rimbor, but that's about it.