Fictional Team History
Pre-Crisis the Legion first appears when Lex Luthor creates a radio to contact the future, hoping to send a message to a Legion of Super-Villains, feeling there must be an evil counterpart to the Legion of Super-Heroes. He is broken out of jail by a gun, flying belt, and force-field helmet being sent into his cell. He then meets the trio of villains, Cosmic King, Lightning Lord and Saturn Queen, who tell him of their origins. They cause trouble for Superman and finally an illusion cast by Saturn Queen succeeds in luring him to a planetoid, where a kryptonite field holds him. He is told the origins of the Legion, and sentenced to death in a parody of the way the Legion of Super-Villains voted him in, but the adult Legion of Super-Heroes appears and battles their foes. Luthor threatens to kill Superman, but Saturn Woman offers herself in his place. Superman asks for a tribute to her and is released after promising not to rescue her. He uses part of Saturn's rings to create a ring round the planetoid, causing Saturn Queen to hyptonize the villains before they can kill Saturn Woman, as it is revealed Saturn's rings somehow make the inhabitants stay good. Saturn Queen is given a fragment to make sure she stays good, and the other villains are jailed. However they would battle Superman at other points, such as during Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, where they create a force field around the Fortress of Solitude to stop other heroes helping Superman, before fleeing back to the future when Superman brutally attacks Lightning Lord.
Pre-Crisis, the Legion of Super-Villains was founded by Tarik the Mute, who had suffered irreparable damage to his vocal cords during a battle with the Science Police and subsequently developed a pathological hatred of law and order. He founded a school for supervillains, which served as the headquarters and recruiting grounds for the Legion's first incarnation. He blackmailed Colossal Boy into joining as a teacher.
Several other incarnations of the group formed over the years, led first by Sun Emperor and then by Nemesis Kid. In the last incarnation they conquered the low-tech planet of Orando, homeworld of Princess Projectra, and slipped it into another dimension as a base of operations. Each villain was sworn to kill one Legionnaire, but only Nemesis Kid succeeded, fatally wounding Karate Kid.
In post-Crisis continuity, some of the members of the Legion of Super-Villains attempted to remake the universe by tampering with the origins of Superman and Batman and adopting them as their own "children," eventually transforming them into dictators of Earth, and eliminating other members of the JLA to stop them interfering. Superman and Batman managed to overcome their brainwashing, however, due to the Darkseid of another reality telling them what had happened, restored the timestream to its proper course, and took the villains to the 31st century to be imprisoned, but kept the memories of their lives with the villains.
Read more about this topic: Legion Of Super-Villains
Famous quotes containing the words fictional, team and/or history:
“It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.... This, in turn, means that our statesmen, our businessmen, our everyman must take on a science fictional way of thinking.”
—Isaac Asimov (1920–1992)
“Once a word is spoken, a team of four horse cannot retake it.”
—Chinese proverb.
“My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.”
—Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)