Just for fun, I’ve decided to rank the Silver Age Legion of Super Heroes. This is my list, so if you disagree, please create your own. I’d love to see it.
Here are the guidelines I’ve set for myself for this list:
Characters will be ranked in several areas:
I’ll tell you all right now, there are gonna be some surprises.
Tags:
Not quite.
Steve W said:
Ok, it's day two, so I'm sticking my neck out and I'm gonna suggest it's Mon-El.
2. Superboy
Intangibles – 6 – Inspired the Legion
Perceived Value – 10 – I think you’d have to expect great things from the last son of Krypton.
Actual Value – 9 – This really isn’t his fault. Frequently he had to be either sidelined or neutralized in a story for it to last longer than a page or two. Because of this, he generally didn’t have quite the impact for the team that you’d expect.
Total: 25
3. Cosmic Boy
Intangibles – 7 – Founded and led the Legion
Perceived Value – 9 – Having control over magnetism is extremely useful, especially if one uses one’s imagination.
Actual Value – 9 – I would have to say that he performed his Legion duties to the best of his ability—not to mention sympathy points for that abomination of a costume he wore in the 70’s (just kidding on that last one).
Total: 25
4. Chameleon Boy
Intangibles – 6 – Led the Legion Espionage Squad
Perceived Value – 9 – Having a shape-changer on the team, especially one like Reep is decidedly a large advantage.
Actual Value – 10 – Reep usually seemed to be in the midst of all of the Legion’s adventures, whether in the forefront or working undercover. He performed his duties well and efficiently.
Total: 25
Since Mon-El was the Li'l Capn's favorite, I'm going to to pretend he ranks higher than Chameleon Boy, if that's all right.
You're right that Kal-El was sidelined a lot. On the other hand, he was in the vast majority of Silver Age stories, so he was available to be sidelined. He should get points for participation and promptness, given that most Legionnaires showed up on a more spotty basis or almost never, and he had a much more difficult commute! (I'm looking at you, Chemical King.) So he's definitely at least #2, and I'm sure you can find some people who'd argue #1. He was the inspiration for the team, after all (until 1986, which is outside your parameters).
That being said, Saturn Girl deserves the #1 spot by my lights. She'd have been my first pick, too.
I had much the same experience, Dave. I wanted to see more of the Legion because some of them had genuinely interesting powers, and I wanted to see some clever use of them. Again, Chemical King leaps to mind here. Also Element Lad. If only John Broome had written the Legion ...
Also, the presence of Superboy made Mon-El superfluous, so he was often "on a space mission" or some such. That's probably the origin of my enthusiasm for the character, that he was an underdog of sorts, only able to show his stuff when the spotlight-hogging Teen of Steel wasn't around. Or maybe I just liked the costume.
Anyway, as you say, we got what we thought we wanted with Crisis, only to discover that the Legion without Superboy just felt "off." They were like a phantom limb of the Superman Family.
Just a quick note regarding under-utilized Legionnaires like Chemical King and Element Lad, I'm not going to hold their lack of use against them. It's all about what they did when they were used.
Moving on:
5. Supergirl
Intangibles – 5 – Despite all she brought to the team, I don’t really feel like she brought anything particularly noteworthy beyond her powers and abilities.
Perceived Value – 10 – Kryptonian and everything that comes with it.
Actual Value – 9 – Suffered from a lot of the same lack of effectiveness as Superboy, although I think to a slightly lesser degree. Once again, not her fault, but I’m working with what’s in the stories.
Total: 24
6. Mon-El
Intangibles – 5 – Beyond being ridiculously powerful otherwise, at least in the Silver Age he didn’t bring much else to the team.
Perceived Value – 10 – Daxamite and everything that comes with it.
Actual Value – 9 – Superboy syndrome strikes again. In his case, it was much more the “Mon-El is out in space on a mission” sort of thing, but even when he was used in a story, he generally wasn’t very effective, which was kind of surprising as I’m imagining his weaknesses were generally less well known than that of Kryptonians.
Total: 24
7. Element Lad
Intangibles – 5 – He brought himself, and really that’s enough.
Perceived Value – 10 – Having someone on your team that can change any object into another object should be an exceptionally useful power.
Actual Value – 8 – I suppose that rather than “Superboy Syndrome” I could call this “Flash Syndrome”. I’m sure it wasn’t easy using EL in a story without figuring out a way he wouldn’t end it in a single panel. Hence, he wasn’t used often, and rarely in a story with serious stakes. What he did bring was pretty good, but he rarely got the chance.
Total: 23
And now for a question: was an upper limit ever established of how much matter Jan could actually convert at one time? Part of the reason I’m asking is the story where Superboy and Supergirl were forced to quit the Legion because of the Green Kryptonite dust surrounding Earth that Color Kid eventually turned into Blue Kryptonite. Why couldn’t Element Lad have turned into, say, helium or hydrogen or some harmless gas? And is Color Kid really that powerful that he can change all of that Kryptonite in such a quick fashion? Seriously, just how powerful was Color Kid? That’s a lot of mass to change the composition by changing it’s color.
Randy Jackson said:
And now for a question: was an upper limit ever established of how much matter Jan could actually convert at one time? Part of the reason I’m asking is the story where Superboy and Supergirl were forced to quit the Legion because of the Green Kryptonite dust surrounding Earth that Color Kid eventually turned into Blue Kryptonite. Why couldn’t Element Lad have turned into, say, helium or hydrogen or some harmless gas? And is Color Kid really that powerful that he can change all of that Kryptonite in such a quick fashion? Seriously, just how powerful was Color Kid? That’s a lot of mass to change the composition by changing it’s color.
You're so close to the money, Randy, that I suspect you read the story that answers your question, and just the details elude you.
It was Adventure Comics #350 where the kryptonite cloud encircled Earth, and with Superboy and Brainiac Five watching, various Legionnaires tried their powers against the cloud. It wasn't Element Lad, but Cosmic Boy, who found his powers inadequate for the task at hand.
"I flopped," thought Cosmic Boy. "My power isn't great enough for a titanic job like this. Earth's field is too strong."
Lightning Lad and Sun Boy also tried their hand with no results.
"My most powerful bolts have no effect on this confounded cloud," says Lightning Lad.
"I'm projecting the heat of an exploding supernova," says Sun Boy "the hottest thing in the universe -- but this green K is completely heat resistant!"
None of that makes much sense -- green K is lightning and heat resistant? Tell that to Superman, and all the times he destroyed green K with his heat vision!
But then the Legion brought out its (seldom used) big gun: Element Lad.
"I'll use my element-changing power to turn the kryptonite into harmless helium gas," he thought. "But wait! I never expected this! Suddenly the dust is sparkling like a fireworks display!"
Two panels later, Brainiac Five delivers the bad news.
"Your hunch was right, Element Lad," he says. "If you'd used any more power on the green K dust, you would have caused a chain reaction that could destroy Earth!"
So the plot called for the most powerful Legionnaires to fail, but for Color Kid to succeed.