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Quote1 I will gather those to us who we need, until we are truly legion... And one devoted to the true dharma that power takes what it chooses! Quote2
Saturn Queensrc

The Legion of Super-Villains is a feared coalition of fanatical terrorists created to be the antithesis to the peacekeeping/law-enforcement squad called the Legion of Super-Heroes. As one of the chief threats to preservation of the peace in the 30th Century/31st Century United Planets, the Super-Villains have vowed to slay their opposite numbers, the Legionnaires, and bring chaos to the galaxy.

History

Standard Pre-Zero Hour Timeline

The Legion of Super-Villains' story begins with Tarik the Mute, a man whose larynx was destroyed by stray laser-fire in a shoot-out between the Science Police and a gang of bank robbers. Although Tarik was provided an electronic implant and robot companion to artificially replace his natural voice, Tarik swore revenge against all agents that claim to uphold the law, out of disgust with how the law failed to protect him. Tarik brainstormed the idea of running an underground academy for young super-criminals, to further corrupt them and forge them into an evil counterpart of the Legion of Super-Heroes.[2]

Tarik kidnapped Marte and Wynn Allon, the parents of Legionnaire Colossal Boy, and coerced Colossal Boy into smuggling LSH training materials for his own operation to imitate. Colossal Boy was caught by the other Legionnaires and temporarily expelled, but an investigation by the Legion Espionage Squad revealed Colossal Boy's circumstances and the extent of Tarik's organization. The Espionage Squad attempted to infiltrate the Legion of Super-Villains but were exposed, leading to an all-out battle between the Super-Villains and the Legionnaires, which the Super-Villains lost. Tarik's LSV consisted of Lightning Lord, Nemesis Kid, Ron-Karr, Radiation Roy, and Spider Girl.[2]

A later lineup of the LSV led by Sun Emperor, consisting of Nemesis Kid, Lightning Lord, Spider Girl, Radiation Roy, and Chameleon Chief, plotted the assassination of esteemed United Planets diplomat Larx Kenrik, who was to be presented with the Universal Trophy in a public ceremony at Legion HQ. The Super-Villains used mind-control devices to brainwash Jonathan and Martha Kent in Smallville of the 20th Century, and Crav and Mytra Nah on Rimbor, in order to incapacitate Superboy, Mon-El, and Ultra Boy. Then Chameleon Chief would infiltrate Legion HQ and turn the Universal Trophy into a bomb set to detonate once presented at the ceremony. However, Chameleon Boy captured Chameleon Chief and assumed his form to counter-infiltrate the LSV, setting the Super-Villains up for an ambush.[3]

Several years later, a third Legion of Super-Villains gathered under the leadership of Nemesis Kid, consisting of nearly every criminal the LSH faced in their entire history up to that point. The LSV adopted cult-like airs and aesthetics, as each member swore a blood-oath to kill a Legionnaire or die trying. Using the teleportation abilities of the Gil'Dishpan Zymyr, the LSV recruited Micro Lad from a failed heist on Ventura and Ol-Vir from a Takron-Galtos prison riot, kidnapped ex-Legionnaire Ayla Ranzz from Winath at Lightning Lord's behest, occupied Orando to serve as the team's base, and backed Prince Pharoxx of Orando to assassinate his cousin, the reigning Queen Projectra, and her consort Karate Kid during their honeymoon. Projectra and Karate Kid overcame Pharoxx and returned to Orando after the honeymoon, only to be ambushed by the LSV and taken hostage in the royal castle.[4][5]

Teams of Super-Villains then worked to steal the Earth's polymer shield and several fusion powerspheres, combining them with Zymyr's powers to transport Orando into the Interdimensional Limbo. The LSV's goal was to steer Orando like a "traveling world" through the Multiverse, until they happened upon a parallel universe ripe for conquest. Lightning Lord's vain attempts to torture his sister Ayla into joining the Super-Villains instead reactivated her long-dormant electric powers as Lightning Lass, allowing her to sabotage the tech that the LSV had used to hold their Legionnaire captives. Afterwards, the escaped Legionnaires fought and defeated the Super-Villains over the capital of Orando, while Karate Kid sacrificed his life to destroy the fusion powerspheres integral to the LSV master plan. As the ruler of Orando, a distraught Projectra summarily executed Nemesis Kid on the spot and turned over the other Super-Villains to LSH custody, resigning her own LSH membership in the process.[5]

The Legion of Super-Villains would experience another resurgence when Superboy-Prime was plucked out of a prior string of Multiverse-hopping misadventures by the Time Trapper and deposited in the 31st Century. Enraged to see that history remembers him as a mere footnote, Prime freed dozens of the Legion's enemies from Takron-Galtos and assembled them into a team. According to Saturn Queen, it is only among the Super-Villains that Prime's name and legacy are revered, in a perverse parallel of how the LSH took inspiration from the 20th Century's Superboy. The threat of Prime's LSV forced the LSH to resort to drastic measures: recruiting two alternate Legions from parallel universes, resurrecting Bart Allen and Conner Kent, convincing the last living Green Lantern Sodam Yat to enter the fray, using the White Witch to absorb Mordru's dark magic, and summoning Superman during the events of Darkseid's invasion of Earth. Ultimately, the Legions of 3 worlds and their allies suppressed the Super-Villains' rebellion, but not without suffering the casualties of R.J. Brande, Rond Vidar, Kinetix, Earth-Prime's Sun Boy and Element Lad, and the second Karate Kid.[6]

The LSV had one last hurrah under the subsequent leadership of Saturn Queen, who led the Super-Villains in an invasion of the mystical land of wisdom Shamballah, at the bidding of a being called the Blue Flame which came into existence from Krona's infamous eons-ago experiment. The defeat of the LSV on this occasion required the sacrifice of the LSH's enemy-turned-comrade Earth-Man.[7]

Adult Legion Timeline

In an alternate future timeline, the Legion of Super-Villains was eventually reduced to a triumvirate of Lightning Lord, Saturn Queen, and Cosmic King. This version of the LSV first appeared when they traveled in time to the 20th Century to kill Superman in league with Lex Luthor. Superman and the chief triumvirate of the LSH from the same era/timeline -- Lightning Man, Saturn Woman, and Cosmic Man -- defeated the villainous confederates and returned them to their own era to receive punishment.[8]

However, the LSV would travel back to the 20th century repeatedly to vex Superman, typically in concert with Lex Luthor and Brainiac.[9][10] On one occasion, the Legion of Super-Villains sent two "Chameleon-Men" to make Superman's life difficult in their place, but these proxies were thwarted just the same.[11] The LSV capitalized on a brief window of historical opportunity when they time-traveled to the period when treacherous Legion-infiltrator Dynamo Boy exploited the team's constitutional bylaws to force it to disband. The LSV entered into a working arrangement with Dynamo Boy to clandestinely pillage the U.P. while posing as its new superhero protectors. However, the Super-Villains eventually found Dynamo Boy superfluous to their scheme and stranded him millions of years into the future to die, before Superboy and his younger version of the Legion of Super-Heroes arrived to put a stop to the Super-Villains' rampage.[12]

Returning to their native era of the timeline, the Legion of Super-Villains sought to use the deceased Legionnaire Ferro Lad's embittered brother Douglas Nolan as their instrument of revenge on the LSH, through Saturn Queen's power of twisting the emotional intentions of the human mind. The Super-Villains failed, largely because the LSH brought Superman into the 30th Century to investigate acts of sabotage committed against Legion HQ.[13] The LSV then personally struck against Lightning Man, Saturn Woman, Cosmic Man, Polar Man, and Element Man, joined by new recruits Beauty Blaze and Echo, but they were unexpectedly defeated by the 30th-century descendants of Lex Luthor and Mr. Mxyzptlk, who saved the Legion to atone for their ancestors' evil deeds.[14]

The LSV's last and most ambitious scheme of all was to revise the origins of Superman and Batman to create an alternate 21st Century timeline where the World's Finest duo conquered the Earth and made it into a despotic tyranny under their joint-rule, with Lightning Lord, Saturn Queen, and Cosmic King naturally being considered Superman and Batman's senior partners and surrogate "parents." However, this plot ultimately failed, and the timeline returned to normal, apparently erasing this version of the LSV from existence and negating their entire timeline.[15]

Despite this, Saturn Queen was spared the cessation of existence and shunted into the Phantom Zone by reality-upheavals caused by Superboy-Prime and Alex Luthor. One year later, Saturn Queen had brainwashed Ultraman to steal Superman's identity and establish a Kryptonian-supremacist dictatorship in Kandor. Saturn Queen and Ultraman were exposed by Power Girl and Supergirl, using the alter egos of Nightwing and Flamebird.[16]

Paraphernalia

Equipment: Time Bubble


See Also

Links and References

Footnotes


Legion of Super-Villains 02
Legion of Super-Heroes Villain(s)
DC Rebirth Logo

This character or group of characters is or was primarily an enemy of the Legion of Super-Heroes from the 31st Century, and may have existed in any of the various Legion continuities, including but not limited to the Original Legion, Reboot Legion, and the Prime Legion. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Legion of Super-Heroes villains" category.

Villains-secret-files
Superman Villain(s)
DC Rebirth Logo

This character has been primarily an enemy of Superman in any of his various incarnations, or members of the Superman Family. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Superman Villains category."

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