Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Diversity in the Legion of Super-Heroes

I'm going to break this one down to make it easier to reply, if anyone wants to, and easier to read. As with my past few topics, this is a reprint of someone else's work but is significant enough to include here for those who may have missed it originally.

By David J. LoTempio

Social clubs have long been signifiers of status in society. They generate organically from the community itself and act as arbitrators of social acceptance. They also provide access to people of influence and power. The group mirrors the fashion, trends and attitudes of the society. Membership within a social club represents a barometer of the society, and within the recent past, America has seen disenfranchised groups fight for acceptance in clubs, traditionally comprised of white men.

Super heroes are not excused from this situation. They have often fallen short of the ideals that they supposedly represent. An examination of super teams would be hard-pressed to find a group not predominately Caucasian male before 1980. The books reflected the demographics of the comic-buying public: Caucasian male boys.

This is not to say that socially integrated teams did not exist before 1980. One notable exception was the Legion of Super-Heroes, one of the most ethnically and racially diverse comics published by any major publisher. We will take a look at some of the different elements representing this diversity.

Burning Anti-Gravity Bras

Women in the Legion held a real sense of empowerment; often having important, long-term roles in the team before other groups accepted it. Saturn Girl was an early Legion Leader, and both she and Dream Girl are fondly remembered as having distinguished terms. Indeed, these women were accomplished scientists as well; talents that proved critical in several Legion missions.

Unlike other groups, Legion women were rarely the minority. Quite the opposite was true, the women often out-numbered the men. The female membership (circa 70s) consisted of Saturn Girl, Dream Girl, Triplicate Girl (Duo Damsel), Lightning Lass (Light Lass), Dawnstar, Shadow Lass, Phantom Girl, White Witch, Princess Projectra, Shrinking Violet and Supergirl; with 11 female members - 12 or 13 depending on how you count Triplicate Girl - the Legion had Equal Opportunity beat. So the Legion really had a pro-feminist approach among its women. Although it should be noted that few of these women had demonstrative abilities — super strength, anti-matter blasts, etc — but they more than made up for it by being smarted and more intuitive.

The Great Protean Rights Movement of 2982

In the early 60s, the Legion acquired a cast member named Proty - a being of shape-changing protoplasm. While not a true member, Proty was a supporting character that fulfilled the narrative role of "team mascot." The intent was to have a character that provided comic relief and that could empathize with readers. But Proty was exploited instead, transformed against his will into a fawning hero worshipper. The team mascot has never been a popular role, and often would indulge in the worst imaginable stereotypical characterization. The offensive "big tooth" version of Chop Chop from Blackhawks or the too-hip hipster Snapper Carr from the Justice League of America are excellent examples contemporary mascots that indulged in bad characterization.

By 1980, Paul Levitz, Legion Scribe, decided that the Proteans deserved equal rights. Until this point, they were treated as pets, and their status was more akin to slavery. Proteans communicated subtly through their shape-changing abilities, which didn't easily convey their sentience. Proty and his fellows fought for and won their independence.

Blue Skins, Orange Skins and Other Races

The first non-human looking member of the team was Chameleon Boy. He was the future of the team and, in many ways, embodied what was great about the Legion. Until the 1980s, Chameleon Boy was the only legionnaire to appear distinctly non-human. Sure, there was Brainaic Five and Shadow Lass, whose skin-color separated them from their fellows, but they were essentially human. They didn’t have any strange antenna coming out of their heads or enlarged ears.

In Legion #263, the Legion ushered in a new era for its diversity with the membership of Blok, a silicon-based humanoid. A former Legion villain, Blok repented his crimes and became a steadfast member. He was not a popular amongst his other Legionnaires though. Legion scribe made it quite clear that other Legionnaires considered Blok a little slow-witted and naïve. Blok’s friends were characters like the White Witch and Timber Wolf who were also considered outside the Legion norm. Still, Blok set a theme that Levitz and later writers would expound upon.

I think that the Legion first begins to live up to its promise of inclusion and universal representation in Legion v.3 #14. In that issue, Levitz introduced two new, non-human Legionnaires: Tellus, an amphibian from a methane ocean world; and Quislet, an entity from a sub-microscopic dimension. By this time, Legion artists had populated the 30th century with increasingly obtuse aliens; my favorite being the Gil-Dishpanns, Variations on the human shape had become abnormal; therefore, it became necessary for the Legion to reflect its diverse environment. Later, non-human members included Gates, the first insectoid member, and Sensor, a reptilian princess (based upon the former Princess Projectra character).

Diversity is more than skin color, though. It is social, cultural, and genetic, but much of this diversity is not explored during the Legion’s early years. Most of the Legion was treated like average white teens. This is expected since the average reader in the 60s-70s was a white teen ignorant of other cultures. Over time, the background of the characters and their worlds was expanded; Shadow Lass and Brainiac 5 both benefited from this evolution. Later stories would reveal that Brainiac 5 came from a world dedicated to scientific research, a society ruled by logic and precision. Chameleon Boy enjoyed the best benefit from this cultural expansion. In Legion v.2 #301, we find out that the Durlans are xenophobic. Also, they have a heavily ritualized and religious community. Talokan society, Shadow Lass’s race, was later revealed to have a strict caste system, much like Earth’s Middle Eastern cultures.

One of the first superheroes with a Native American heritage was Dawnstar; whose pride separated her more from her fellows than her out-sized wings. Levitz spoke volumes about her upbringing by having Dawnstar as a taciturn character. She spoke rarely, but when she did, it was to profound affect. It often seemed like the other Legionnaires did not know what to make of her, and they rarely fraternized with her. Even though her forebears were born on Earth, she was treated like an alien even among fellow humans.

The Invisible People

"I been readin’ about you… How you work for the Blue Skins… And how on a planet someplace you helped out the Orange Skins… And you done considerable for the Purple Skins! Only there’s skins you never bothered with…! The Black Skins! I want to know…How Come?!" Green Lantern #76.

Good question. Races with blue skin, green skin and orange skin were very prominent throughout the Legion’s run during the 60s, but notably there were few, if any, Black or Africans in the strip. Unless someone told you otherwise, a reader might think that all people of African descent had grabbed a space shuttle and left for Mars; or Takron-Galtos, if you wanted to be cynical.

The Legion would be 16 years old by the time it addressed this question. Tyroc was the first character of African descent to join the Legion. His story — The Hero Who Hated The Legion - directly deals with the issue of integration within the Legion. In a nutshell, Tyroc and his people live on the isolated island of Marzal and perceived a quiet segregation from the Legion, whom never aided the Marzalians. Superboy points out to Tyroc that the Legion does not discriminate based on skin color. There’s a big group hug scene where Superboy cries about coming from a broken home, and then Tyroc is inducted into the Legion. Well, not quite but that would have made this otherwise dull story interesting.

Unfortunately, while Tyroc and the Legion succeed in bridging their cultural divide, his character was so poorly received (and conceived) that few writers bothered to use him. Quicker than you can say "Caffé Au Lait", he became a member in absentee, appearing in a meager four subsequent issues. His conspicuous disappearance may have been instigated more by the vague limits of his super scream — like the Spectre, no one knew what his limits were - and less to do with skin color. Tom and Mary Bierbaum used his character somewhat better in the Five Years Later storyline, in which he becomes the President of Earth. Still, he never rose to much prominence.

The Legion didn’t field a successful black character until 1981, when Invisible Kid 2 is drafted. Invisible Kid 2 had his fair share of criticism though. Many critics noticed that the only African on the team spent much of his time invisible. Fortunately, he was very popular with fans and Levitz, and the character received substantial attention through out the 1980s and 90s. Again, Tom and Mary Bierbaum used his character quite prominently in the v.4 Legion series. Invisible Kid 2 also becomes the President of Earth, for a short time, and is portrayed as an intelligent and stalwart leader.

More interesting history. Thanks Scott.

Given the diversity of the Legion, and its portrayal of women as credible people, I've always wondered if more females than average read the book. It's hard to judge by the message boards and I don't know that I've ever seen demographics for comics readership generally.

Should this Legion seek more diversity along established-Earth race lines (blacks (I know Gear has black skin), aboriginals of different countries, hispanics, arabs, orientals all seem to be missing) or add more alien-ish members?

Perhaps to measure diversity, what would be in order is to start with a redefinition of culture. Else we're likely to get stuck in the trap of skin color/ orientation/ religeon. Legion provides a writer the opportunity to recreate diversity or address it from non-traditional angles.

Quislet and Proty were the examples, being from not just highly social cultures but also highly symbiotic cultures. THAT was unique.

Define (not pick) a culture, THEN describe a character(s). Not backwards as is normally done.

Legionnaires' culture has been addressed in their social life, but the book works really well when those cultures show in their battles. Sure they're trained, but not as an army to be lock step. More individualism in the writing the better for my tastes.


A self fulfilling prophesy? How would things change socially if someone in the 50's had said let's make our heros and villian diverse AND found away to make that so interesting as to sell?

Sounds like a job for Turtledove!

I would love to see more diversity in the Legion. For one thing, Asians already represent more than a third of the Earth's population currently. Barring some odd future catastrophe in DCU's version of Asia, wouldn't you think that these numbers would still hold (if not increase) by the Legion's time?

Yet, most of the Earth crowd scenes we've seen so far have featured far more "alien" aliens than non-white Earth humans...

(Actually, quite a large percentage of the Earth's population would probably be multiracial by the 31st century...)

LoTempio's article is very well done. I hadn't thought of black people in the Legion as "invisible people," but he ties that concept in perfectly with criticism over Invisible Kid II's powers. (I hadn't heard such criticism before.)

Another criticism that LoTempio overlooks is that Invisible Kid II, like many other black characters, took over the identity of a white character, e.g., Black Goliath/Giant-Man, Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau) and Green Lantern (John Stewart). Replacing a white character with a black one is considered by some to be as bad as the obvious naming of black characters (Black Panther, Black Spider, and, of course, Black Goliath), ), e.g., why not create a wholly new character who happens to black, instead? I think we overlook this with Jacques because he was a popular character and a distinct personality who stood out from the original Invisible Kid in ways beyond his skin color.

I haven't heard it regarding the Legion before, but the concept has been used as metaphor at least twice in my memory -- "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison and that invisible kid in the movie "Mystery Men"

Good point. I also remember that Jim Shooter's Good Guys book from Defiant Comics featured a black kid who called himself Nobody because no one paid attention to him. He was for all intents and purposes invisible.

The current lineup is pretty diverse, but it does seem that Hispanics, American Indians, Arabs and others are overlooked. But they often are in all kinds of literature and movies. Totally new characters tend to be alien so as to keep the Legion's science fiction roots. And many of the popular preboot members were distinctly Caucasian, so because of rebooting the Legion is still predominantly white. But since African-Americans (Gear and Kid Quantum, and even Jacques) and Orientals (Karate Kid, Amp Girl and Dragonmage) are showing up more, and even rising to prominence, then it probabl won't be long before other races follow. And the Legion has lots of diversity in characterization. I think most of them have unique personality traits and backgrounds by now. Diversity isn't all about race, after all.

Scott, do you happen to have the original source, publication and date, of the article? I'd like to be able to cite it, as I've rarely seen so much sound commentary in one brief piece, apropos of the Legion. (Wonder how I missed it last July.)

Although ...
In being from that demographic and time, I have to disagree here with this slam-in-passing. Average white teen (male)s, yes -- that was the comic-buying audience.

But "ignorant"? Not willfully. Even in my own suburban high-school experience, any flavoring from other "cultures" was welcomed. When we could get it, that is! You didn't see mass adoption of 'hood rap among sheltered whites, as happens now, but a fascination with things not "white-bread" was far from uncommon. Even among the geekish circles I was close to (most of the comics readers). Especially in the music and theater circles I was closer to. The biggest elective enrollment every year at my school was for the "Non-Western Cultures" history/sociology course.

Diverse interests didn't spring up full-blown from a supposedly benevolent '80s multicultural outlook. Or from Eminem's gold records. They were gathering forcefulness at least two decades earlier.

That being said ...
I'm saving that one, especially what I quoted in italics! Finally, someone grasps that her behavior wasn't a simple glove-fitting to Indian stereotypes, but selected for dramatic emphasis.

Levitz was able to make this vivid in only sporadic appearances for Dawnstar over 12 years, part of an intricate dance of characterizations. It went past someone like Giffen (1988 version), who saw Legion characters' subtleties as constricting his artistic choices ... or, worse, as being invisible, when he wanted them to be.

This article is interesting in light of the Legion Companion. It seems there were several attempts to bring in black characters (Ferro was one) earlier that got axed by the PTBs. I seem to recall reading somewhere that Shadow Lass was supposed to be black too.

Whedn the reboot occurred, I thought that TPTB could have addressed some of that whitebread issue by making some pre-boot caucasian chars into multi-racial chars. If race was indeed a non-issue, then why not prove it by mixing things up? How would readers have reacted to such change?

Probably a good thing in Andy's case - a black character so ugly he never shows his face would have led to hate mail.

To give credit, when the reboot occured it did incorporate some concepts of varried diversity. Yes it included 1 character of obvious African/Caribean descent, Kid Quantum. And yes it also quickly killed the character off.

But it also included the first Legion character of obvious and fully declared mixed racial herritage. XS. Perhaps more clearly than anything else that illustrated the vision of future culture and society that the legion is supposed to be trying to portray.

Thanks, LL.

"Tyroc was the first character of African descent to join the Legion."

Thank goodness he said African descent.


"Unlike other groups, Legion women were rarely the minority."

It's one of the main reasons I still read this book. **

"(Actually, quite a large percentage of the Earth's population would probably be multiracial by the 31st century...)"

Total agreement here. By this time, I believe it would be unusual to find someone of pure African, Asian, or Caucasian descent. Dawnstar and Tyroc retained their customs and racial purity when their ancestors separated themselves from mainstream Earth society. I'm sure there will be
small pockets of racial groups but it's nice to believe that the average person would have ancestors from several racial groups in the family, not just one.

While racial diversity has been touched upon the cultural backgrounds and societal views have still to be explored. Simple things like religious holidays or marital arrangements have been woefully ignored.

Gates does seem to be the only political voice in the Legion, and religion has often been a touchy subject. Gim and Zoe were both rumored to be Jewish, but I don't think anything has been done with that yet.

I'd also like them to portray the troubles of teens more often. Peer presure, little insecurities, hidden crushes... Though I suppose the Legionnaires would be too "noble" for petty little things, they ARE atill teens, and even the best of us kids misbehave from time to time. We're not THAT innocent, though you probably know that by now

Such things have appeared occasionally in the Legion:

Cosmic Boy was seen observing a Braalian holiday that forbade him from using his magnetic powers for one day (SUPERBOY # 215).

The Winathian custom of running around au naturel was introduced in TMK, I believe.

When Shadow Lass married Mon-El, she cut off her little finger on one hand, per Talokian custom (late in LSH v.3).

More of this sort of thing would be welcome, though, particularly since the Legionnaires are growing up. Some of them are probably coming into their own in realizing what their own cultures and traditions mean to them.

The postboot Element Lad also had some religious/philosophical beliefs that appeared to be typical of Trommites (though we never really saw too much of Trommite society, so it's hard to tell) -- the general idea that change is good, even if the circumstances underlying the change itself could be characterized as "negative."

It didn't seem as though these beliefs were particularly embraced by the other Legionnaires, who more often than not appeared to think of Jan's beliefs as eccentric or loopy.

The relationship side of the Legionaires lives always fascinates me, not so much as they are incredibly interesting but because so little thought has apparently gone into most of them...

I've posted before how disappointed I am by this side of the characters, no openly gay relationships, no multiple-partner relationships, no imagination at all really... While I appreciate that DC won't show Timber Wolf (or whoever) being a regular orgy organiser they could at least show one of the gang being in a non-hetro-bland relationship...

but that's just my opinion....