Silver Age Legion Writers

The Legion of Super Writers

by Emsley Wyatt

When the Legion of Super-Heroes were introduced in Adventure Comics #247 back in April 1958, it was intended to be your typical one-and-done kind of story. But if there was one thing that the DC writing staff was known for, it was recycling story elements as part of the Superman mythology. Indeed, they would recycle whole stories on occasion, as I have commented on here. So, once the Legion was established it was inevitable that they would return. But what was not inevitable was that they would, over time, develop a mythology of their own as broad and deep as the one that originated them. As the manifest of this page tells us, it takes a Legion to create it. A Legion of Super Writers, if you will...

The first of the Silver Age Legion of Super-Heroes writers was its creator, Superboy writer Otto Binder (8/26/1911~10/13/1973)

Binder created the Legion's futuristic setting, including the Interplanetary Malt-Shop, the Time Bubble, and many other aspects of the Legion mythos. He established the initial three Legionnaires Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad (then called Lightning Boy). Additionally, he created Legionnaires Star Boy and Supergirl, as well as the Elastic Lad persona of Jimmy Olsen and the Insect Queen aspect of Lana Lang. All of these were part of the Superman (or Superboy) mythos first, and part of Legion continuity second. 

Binder wrote extensively for the comic-book industry, logging time at Fawcett, Gold Key, Marvel, Quality, and, of course, DC. He also wrote a 1967 novel featuring Marvel's Avengers (not the Steed and Mrs. Peel Avengers) called The Avengers Battle the Earth Wrecker. 

Binder also wrote a series of short stories featuring a robot character named Adam Link, which was the basis of the Outer Limits television episode "I, Robot." He co-wrote a number of works with his brother, Earl, using the pseudonym Eando Binder ("E and O") 

From the first Legion tale, here is an early version of the Legion Mission Monitor Board or maybe the first big screen TV. You be the judge.  

For those interested in learning more about Otto Binder, there is a biography of him available: Otto Binder: the Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary by Richard A. Lupoff.  

The second individual more responsible for the underpinnings of Legion lore was Jerry Siegel, the creator of Superman (10/17/1914~1/28/1996). 

Siegel wrote more than a dozen stories that featured the Legion as guest-stars in various titles alongside Superman, Superboy, and Supergirl in the first four years after their debut appearance. Although there had only been three Legionnaires in Binder's story, Siegel expanded their roster to true Legion proportions, responsible for the next ten members. Siegel also created ancillary concepts the Legion of Super Pets, the Adult Legion to stand beside the adult Superman, and their counter-part adversaries, the Legion of Super-Villains. 

Siegel is also the originator of the concept of the Legion Try-Outs, where hapless heroes and future super-villains would attempt to join the group. He also created the Science Police and Matter-Eater Lad.

Jerry Siegel created all but three of these Legionnaires! 

Although Binder had created the concept, it was Jerry Siegel who nurtured it and began to define what it would eventually become. 

If you would like to learn more about Jerry Siegel, Superman, and Siegel's stormy relationship with DC Comics, I recommend Superman: The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero by Larry Tye, a work that every comic-book fan should have on their shelf. 

The third member of the Legion of Super-Writers is Edmond Hamilton (10/21/1904~2/1/1977). 

Hamilton wrote over thirty early Legion stories, creating Legionnaires Element Lad, Light/ning Lass, Dream Girl, and Timber Wolf. Among his other contributions to the Legion canon were the Legion of Substitute Heroes, Proty, Starfinger, the Time Trapper, and the Heroes of Lallor. 

Hamilton's imagination on display in the form of the Heroes of Lallor

Like Binder, Hamilton started out in the pulps, as the photo above shows. His first published story was in 1926. Hamilton was the creator of the pulp character, Captain Future, who is enjoying a bit of a resurgence thanks to SF writer Allen Steele, who has written a few novels in that series. Steele has updated the aesthetic without eliminating the high camp of it. Capture Future has sidekicks called The Futuremen. Of interest to Legion fans would be the fact that one of these had a pet called "Oog." Oog is a Denebian mimic described as "white and doughy," sort of a  proto-Proty. Hamilton must not have been feeling particularly imaginative that day, as the pet's name is simply 'goo" spelled backwards. One of Hamilton's short stories, "The Man Who Evolved" was adapted as an episode of The Outer Limits entitled "The Sixth Finger." 

He wrote extensively for DC across their entire array of titles. His best-known non-Legion story is probably "Superman Under A Red Sun" from Action Comics #300. 

Hamilton was married to fellow SF writer Leigh Brackett who wrote, among other things, the first draft of the motion picture The Empire Strikes Back. That's kind of amusing, given that Hamilton created "the light sword" in his story, "Kaldar, Planet of Antares," published in 1933.  

Whether it was in the pulps or in the comics, what characterized Hamilton's writing was the casual inventiveness where new characters, beasts, and, indeed, whole worlds would spill from his fertile imagination like candy from a pinata. 

If you're interested in reading some of Hamilton's other works, I would recommend What's It Like Out There? and The Best of Edmond Hamilton. While much of his work will seem dated to the modern reader, "What's It Like Out There?," "He That Hath Wings," and "The Inn Outside the World" are, in my opinion, timeless. 

The fourth and last writer of the Legion during the Silver Age was Jim Shooter (b. 9/27/1951). 

Jim Shooter's story is pretty remarkable. He decided as a thirteen-year-old kid that he wanted to write comic-books. (Haven't a lot of us?) But then he actually started doing it and selling them to a publisher! 

Much has been said about Shooter's tempestuous relationships with, well, pretty much everybody, but it should be noted that he learned the comic-book business at the proverbial knee of Mort Weisinger, a man who has been described at various times as overbearing and heavy-handed, among other things. Perhaps, along with everything else he took in, Shooter might have internalized some wrong lessons along the way. 

Jim Shooter's contributions to the Legion mythos includes not only Legionnaires (Karate Kid, Princess Projectra, and Ferro Lad were the first of six!) and villains (the Fatal Five, Mordru, Dr. Regulus to name but three of the best), but also universe-busting concepts such as the Khunds, the Controllers, the Miracle Machine, and the Dark Circle, to name just a few! 

Beside the multiple characters and scenarios that Shooter created, two contributions to Legion mythos can be laid at this feet. The first was characterization. Pick up any DC group comic story from 1966 and anything one member said that didn't specifically relate to their power/skill set could have just as easily been said by any other member. Shooter changed that, making the Legionnaires individuals. Contrast the cockiness of Ultra Boy with the quiet confidence of Mon-El (befitting his status as the oldest Legionnaire, both physically and chronologically, what with his whole 1,000 years trapped in the Phantom Zone thing.) Compare the brazen sexiness of Dream Girl with the girl-next-door demeanor of Duo Damsel; kind of a Ginger/Mary Anne dynamic.  You suddenly have the nerdy guy with a crush on the girl who was way out of his league (Brainiac 5), the rich girl (Princess Projectra), the not-too-bright guy (Star Boy), and the chubby class clown (Bouncing Boy). Sun Boy's later skirt-chasing proclivities were not a Shooter creation, but he made them possible. One can almost picture the young Jim Shooter taking notes on the behavior of his school-mates finding things he could work into his stories. 

The second aspect of Shooter's bequest to the Legion was his absolute mastery of the two-part book-length continued story. Sure, there had been continued Legion stories before, such as their battle against Computo and their adventure at the Super-Stalag of Space. But Shooter's continued stories were EPIC, and great examples of both style and pacing. Who can forget the last panel of "One of Us Is A Traitor!" where the seven Legionnaires look amongst themselves suspiciously as they stand guard over the two remaining defense towers? Or the cliff-hanger of the Fatal Five-Sun Eater story, or the Outlawed Legionnaires story, with eight Legionnaires hiding in the sewer, literally driven underground? And in the Mordru two-parter, Shooter actually found a way to put Pete Ross and Lana Lang (as Insect Queen) into a story and not have it suck! I bet in those days that a lot of kids swung by their corner drugstores asking, "Is the new Adventure Comics in yet?" 

When the Legion was pushed out of Adventure Comics and into the back-up pages of Action Comics, Shooter leaned into the characterization. With no room for sweeping stories with Mordu or the Fatal Five, Shooter brought us intimate tales focusing on one or two Legionnaires, exploring such topics as drug use and poverty through Timber Wolf and Light Lass in the former and Matter-Eater Lad in the latter. Also, he originated the Bouncing Boy-Duo Damsel romance. 

Like most writers in the DC stable, Shooter wrote for comics across their Superman Family line, like Action Comics, World's Finest, and Superman. He left the Legion in 1969, came back for a few years, left again, and came back again as recently as 2008, more than 40 years after his debut in 1966. Shooter worked at Marvel for several years, where among other things he was responsible for The Secret Wars event. He also wrote my favorite non-Legion comic story, the second Superman-Spider-Man team-up, where they faced Dr. Doom and the Parasite (another Shooter creation). 

Those interested in learning more about Jim Shooter are invited to Google his name and just go from there.