Legion member ranking: 5YL

Now that I’ve completed the 5YL era, it’s time to continue the tradition of ranking its characters.
But I have two problems with it:
1) most of these are supposed to be the same characters I’ve already ranked
2) I don’t like ANYONE in this era

So instead of starting from scratch I’m going to take the ranking of the pre-Volume 4 era, adding the 5YL Legionnaires and adjusting the ranking of the ones from the previous ranking.
I am removing from the ranking the following Legionnaires, since they have been EXPLICITLY removed from continuity: Supergirl, Pete Ross, Elastic Lad and Insect Queen.
Everyone else is fair game.
Also, the SW6 Legionnaires are considered separate characters from the originals.

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F TIER: THE WORST

 #92: Reflecto
+Previous rank: new entry
WHY IS HE HERE??? He adds NOTHING except convoluted continuity hiccups in the era that needs them the least!!! He’s not a character and he doesn’t even influence the plot in any significant way. He’s confusing, he’s superfluous, he’s boring, he’s a complete waste of ink and I don’t like him.

#91: Blood Claw
#90: Firefist
#89: Flederweb
+Previous rank: new entries
The Khund Legionnaires are a terrible idea executed poorly. They’re not heroes, they’re stereotypical bad guys, and they don’t belong to the Legion in the slightest. They’re not at the bottom because they are villains: they’re here because they’re just soooo boring.

#88: Dragonmage
+Previous rank: new entry
Blandness personified. I cannot tell you a single thing about his personality. His power is creating magic plasma dragons, how did they make him boring!? In his defense, unlike Reflecto and the Khunds, the fact that he’s in the team at least makes sense.
That’s about the only good thing I have to say about him.

#87: Catspaw
+Previous rank: new entry
On the other hand, I can tell you EVERYTHING about her personality: horny and angry.
Does she even WANT to be a superhero, or is she in the team because there are hot guys?

#86: Veilmist
+Previous rank: new entry
Out of all of Khunds, Veilmist is the only one who ALMOST has a personality; that’s what puts her above Dragonmage, who has none.
They might have managed to evolve her into something worthwhile if she stayed, or if they cared.
The fact that at least there’s a tiny in-universe explanation for her actions is what puts her above Catspaw by the smallest possible margin.

#85: Live Wire (SW6 Lightning Lad)
#84: Inferno (SW6 Sun Boy)
+Previous rank: new entries
I honestly considered ranking them even lower than the Khunds. While they’re not straight up villains, I don’t recall the last time I wished ill SO much to characters who are supposed to be heroes. There are ways to write a hero who is also a jerk, but these two came across as 100% jerks.
I rate Inferno higher because a couple of times he has been shown to have redeeming qualities.
I’m pretty sure that means LITERALLY two times, but still.
The ONLY reason they’re not EVEN LOWER is that I have to consider SOME of their Silver Age stories.

#83: Command Kid
#82: Dynamo Boy
↓Previous ranks: #45 and #44
These two were at the bottom of the old ranking; they’re so much lower simply because the number of Legionnaires to rank has doubled.
HOWEVER, the fact that they are no longer the worst ones means that this is an improvement!
They’re about the Khunds because, while they are also barely Legionnaires and are villains, at least Command Kid and Dynamo Kid starred in “so bad it’s good” stories instead of “so bad I want to quit this retrospective”.

#81: Sun Boy
↓Previous rank: #29
The only reason he doesn’t drop even lower is that, unlike the characters I’ve ranked beneath him, I have to consider a lot of good stories from his original incarnation.
One of the most egregious cases of character assassination I’ve ever seen.

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E TIER: the gap Legionnaires

 All of these have one thing in common: we didn’t actually SEE their Legion membership, because it happened during the gap years.
However I am not placing them at the very bottom because, while we didn’t actually see them do anything good, they didn’t get the chance to be so terrible that they got on my nerves.
In order to rank them, though, I have to get into specifics.

#80: Echo
+Previous rank: new entry
At the bottom between those unseen members because we literally don’t know ANYTHING about him.

#79: Karate Kid II
+Previous rank: new entry
Managed to get himself brainwashed by the Dominators after the gap, and nobody seems to care all that much.

#78: Visi-Lad
#77: Calamity King
#76: Porcupine Pete
#75: Crystal Kid
+Previous rank: new entries
Other enigmas. At least Crystal Kid has the distinction of having been in the Legion Academy, so he’s very very slightly above.

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E+ TIER: the nobodies

These guys might as well never have joined considering how little impact they ultimately have and not much is done with the characters.

#74: SW6 Karate Kid
#73: SW6 Princess Projectra
#72: SW6 Chameleon Boy
+Previous rank: new entries
They don’t do anything before they’re killed off. This is even worse for Karate Kid since we already HAD a version killed off, in an infinitely better way.

#71: Kid Quantum
+Previous rank: new entry
He’s introduced with a needless retcon and proceeds to show no personality whatsoever.

#70: Ferro (SW6 Ferro Lad)
+Previous rank: new entry
I constantly, and I do mean constantly forget he’s around.
He doesn’t do anything.

#69: SW6 Invisible Kid
+Previous rank: new entry
There are occasionally tiny glimpses of the great character his Reboot equivalent will be. Too bad he’s too often invisible to the plot.

#68: Computo II
+Previous rank: new entry
What a colossal letdown. She’s beloved by the Legion community but I never read many of the stories she appeared, so I just assumed that all the potential of the character must have been explored there.
And certainly there IS potential: she brings a good energy with her appearance, she has legitimate Legion connections being the sister of Invisible Kid II and owing her powers to one of their greatest villains… and they end up giving her absolutely nothing to do!!!

#67: Spider-Girl
+Previous rank: new entry
She clings to the team so much that I’m eventually obligated to consider her a member despite not having a clear on-panel confirmation.
She basically just gravitates around Ultra Boy and never does anything interesting; they don’t even do anything serious with the fact that she used to be in the Legion of Super-Villains!!!

#66: Kid Psycho
↓Previous rank: #41
Another one who only drops because of the much higher number of characters.

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D TIER: the bland

Unlike the previous tier these Legionnaire have a personality, they are actually used and are occasionally important, and they don’t make me want to strangle them.
Most of the time anyway.

#65: Celeste Rockfish
+Previous rank: new entry
Considering the amount of time we spend introducing her as a character, integrating her with the Legion and giving her powers, it’s incredible just how little we actually know of her.
When they remember she’s around she gets some good banter with her new teammates, and she’s in my favorite post-Giffen moment of the whole era.

#64: Leviathan (SW6 Colossal Boy)
+Previous rank: new entry
He’d be lower if I didn’t have to weigh his Silver Age days.
But the SW6 version is either not doing anything, or being so generic you can swap him with anyone else, or being this:

#63: Kent Shakespeare
+Previous rank: new entry
Boring powers and a very generic personality. He does have a good chemistry with the older Legionnaires, but his role could have been taken by ANY veteran.

#62: SW6 Matter-Eater Lad
+Previous rank: new entry
He was funny at first, although not anywhere near his older counterpart. His constant joking got unfunny and tedious really, REALLY far.

#61: Alchemist (SW6 Element Lad)
#60: Gossamer (SW6 Light Lass)
#59: Apparition (SW6 Phantom Girl)
#58: SW6 Ultra Boy
+Previous rank: new entries
If you squint really hard you can almost see the vastly superior version of these reinterpretations that will show up in the Reboot. Here it’s all wasted and doesn’t go anywhere.

 #57: Triad (SW6 Triplicate Girl)
#56: SW6 Shrinking Violet
+Previous rank: new entries
These two, however, actually DO manage to pull off an improvement. Well, Triad is an improvement and Violet is just a modernized version, but they work with what they have.

#55: SW6 Mon-El
+Previous rank: new entry
Unlike Computo II, they eventually DO use him a bit… in the Valor series, which is a nearly unreadable mess. The little we saw him with the rest of the team was unremarkable, since he didn’t really show any concrete difference with the main Valor.

#54: SW6 Brainiac 5
+Previous rank: new entry
Look what they did to my boy!!! He’s been stripped of all the nuances that made the original interesting, being relegated to just two kinds of scenes: giving exposition and being smitten by Andromeda. The latter was cute but ran into the ground almost immediately.

#53: Tyroc
↓Previous rank: #39
And to think that he was the worst “regular” Legionnaire in the old list. We didn’t know just how worse things could get!
He had a chance to redeem himself once he got to be President of New Earth… but then he pulls off an impressive record of blandness:
1) he never uses his powers
2) he never does anything interesting
3) HE DOESN’T LOOK LIKE HIMSELF
4) he doesn’t even seem to be a great President of New Earth, considering it’s falling apart

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D+ TIER: the extras

These are other Legionnaires who joined during the gap, but they are significantly higher than the ones I’ve already covered because at least they have SOME stories where they are great.

#52: Nightwind
+Previous rank: new entry
We didn’t see her membership, but she received an almost heroic death.

#51: Color Kid
#50: Stone Boy
#49: Chlorophyll Kid
#48: Fire Lad
+Previous rank: new entries
I’ve nicknamed them the Substitute Commandos because they got a shocking increase in badassery as soon as they left the Subs. They are lucky that in these rankings I’m also including ALL their appearances, not just when they were Legionnaires, so their Commando stories and a bit of their Subs years reeeally help.

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C TIER: the passable

These are the Legionnaires who, for me, at least manage to get a passing grade.

#47: SW6 Saturn Girl
+Previous rank: new entry
One of the few SW6 Legionnaires who actually seems to give a crap about being heroes. She’s held back by stuck-up in the Giffen era and being a pushover in the Legionnaires series.
You’d think that the Silver Age years she brings with her would help more, but most of her character development came after the point of divergence.

#46: Kono
+Previous rank: new entry
A rare 5YL original character that doesn’t make me want to throw the comic away, even though she DOES get annoying at times. During the Giffen era she brings some much-needed positive energy, but once that fades away she doesn’t contribute much.

#45: Andromeda (SW6 Laurel Gand)
+Previous rank: new entry
Not as good as her adult counterpart, DEFINITELY not as the Reboot version, but sometimes she does channel the Silver Age Supergirl to the right amount.

#44: Infectious Lass
+Previous rank: new entry
The Legion fandom absolutely adores her, and she IS a good character, but let’s be honest: she doesn’t get much to do.
Unlike the ones I’ve ranked lower, however, she does have one advantage: I’ve never found her annoying, which is rare in this era.

#43: Devlin O’Ryan
+Previous rank: new entry
He slowly grew on me. He was a non-character in the background for quite a bit, but he was slowly given the right personality to fit perfectly between the veterans and the bright-eyed teenagers.
If only he had moved to the Legionnaires series, there might have been SOME hope he could have made it more bearable.

#42: Magnetic Kid
↓Previous rank: #38
He was bland before, but I didn’t know just how much blander new Legionnaires could be.

#41: SW6 Cosmic Boy
+Previous rank: new entry
And he STILL lost to a younger version of his older brother! The SW6 Cosmic Boy is the only member of the SW6 batch that feels like an improvement over the original. To the point that the Reboot version feels more based on THIS Cosmic Boy.

#40: Lightning Lad
↓Previous rank: #8
Because of the retcon, this version of Lightning Lad actually died VERY early in his career, so he managed to do very little. Which unfortunately means he skips his entire character development and all of his memorable storylines, because THOSE were actually Proty’s… who is ranked separately.
This one is basically just the Lightning Lad from the pre-history days.

#39: Invisible Kid
↓Previous rank: #36
Moved around by others Legionnaires jumping up in the ranking. Aside from the SW6 version, at this point the original might be the last interesting version we’ve had.

#38: Laurel Gand
+Previous rank: new entry
Very inconsistent. She can either be a fun character to be around and one of the few Legionnaires WHO ACTUALLY DOES SOMETHING, or mope around away from the action.
Her relationship with Rond Vidar is completely squandered, though.

#37: Invisible Kid II
↓Previous rank: #35
Manages to nearly keep the same rank despite becoming President of Earth, mostly because he couldn’t accomplish anything before the planet was blown up.

#36: Rond Vidar
↓Previous rank: #33
I already hated the previous volume making him a Green Lantern. This era either doubles down on that or makes him such a non-entity that we don’t even get a proper reaction to the death of his wife!!!

#35: Chemical King
↑Previous rank: #37
Thanks to this era having THE Chemical King story.

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B TIER: could’ve been better

These characters were good enough in the previous ranking that even the 5YL era couldn’t completely ruin them for me.

 #34: White Witch
↓Previous rank: #18
I can’t call her treatment the worst character assassination of this era because Sun Boy exist, but… sheesh.

#33: SW6 Star Boy
#32: SW6 Dream Girl
↓Previous rank (non-SW6 version): #19 and #12
Yes they don’t do anything besides challenging the Comics Code, but that only helps them because it means they don’t ruin their reputation.
However they’re not as high as the previous ranking of their SW6 counterparts because, considering when they’re supposed to originate, they skip MOST of their original development.
Which is weird considering Dream Girl looks as developed as she’ll ever grow.

 #31: Nemesis Kid
↑Previous rank: #34
Even becoming a zombie doesn’t diminish his villainy. That’s dedication.

#30: Dawnstar
↓Previous rank: #25
The Bounty subplot is one of the worst botched subplots of this entire era, WHICH IS SAYING SOMETHING. She does admit some of her past mistakes, though.

 #29: Timber Wolf
↓Previous rank: #26
Let us never speak of his miniseries ever again.

#28: Quislet
↑Previous rank: #31
He might have been the smartest Legionnaire ever to completely skip this entire era.

#27: Ferro Lad
↑Previous rank: #30
Something good caused by so many Legionnaires dropping: more respect for THE Legion martyr!
See, it’s not how many heroes you kill, it’s how good their death scenes are.

#26: Tellus
↑Previous rank: #28
He gets a couple of incredibly minor cameos, not enough to hurt him.

#25: Lightning Lass / Light Lass
↑Previous rank: #27
She thankfully ditches the unpleasant personality she had developed by the end of Volume 3, her relationship with Violet is quite interesting, and she even patches up things with Timber Wolf!

#24: Colossal Boy
↓Previous rank: #23
The poster boy for “the default Legionnaire” manages to skip 99% of the era and keep almost the exact same ranking he used to have.
Kind of on point for the character, honestly. 

#23: Ultra Boy
↓Previous rank: #20
I thought he would drop significantly more, but he’s only insufferable when the writers… especially the Bierbaums… bend the universe backwards to hype him to absurd degrees.
The rest of the time he’s fine.

#22: Dream Girl
↓Previous rank: #12
Poor Dreamy: this era has an abysmal opinion of her. Which might be one of the reasons why she’s going to take a really long time to show up again properly!
I would have dropped her even more if she had more appearances, but there aren’t a lot of issues to damage her history. 

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A TIER: Legion material

 #21: Polar Boy
↓Previous rank: #15
In an era where every single other Substitute Hero is hyped, Polar Boy devolves back into being a parody of himself. The fact that he doesn’t drop as much as other Legionnaires should tell you something.
He will suffer greatly, though, because he basically skips two entire reboots before his return.

20#: Superboy
↓Previous rank: #13
While it’s poetic that he’s the LAST Legionnaire added to the membership count of this era… let’s face it, it’s mostly nostalgia bait that doesn’t go anywhere.
Perhaps it’s not entirely fair to consider ALL of his history when ranking him, considering he’s little more than an afterthought… but he WAS his old heroic self in the very few panels where he appears. So I owe it to him to still consider his original membership.

#19: Matter-Eater Lad
↑Previous rank: #32
The only Legionnaire where my favorite version of the character is during the 5YL era, so I expected to rank him even higher.
Unfortunately, the sheer strength of his initial appearances overshadows just how obnoxious he eventually becomes: after a while, every time he shows up there are diminishing returns.

#18: Phantom Girl
↑Previous rank: #22
She’s dead or retconned for the vast majority of the era, so despite a couple of flashbacks portraying her in an unflattering manner she’s not hurt too much in the ranking.

#17: Star Boy
↑Previous rank: #19
Speaking of Legionnaires wise enough to sit this one out.

#16: Blok
↑Previous rank: #17
You’re too pure for this era, Blok.

#15: Karate Kid
↑Previous rank: #16
Despite Giffen’s declared hatred for the character AND the murder of his counterpart, his reputation stays strong.

#14: Cosmic Boy
↑Previous rank: #21
He was one of the greatest disappointments of my original ranking… and he continues to disappoint me, although not as much.
The series never managed to hold up to the promise of making him the core of the team.

 #13: Shadow Lass
↑Previous rank: #14
She’s basically turned into a satellite character for Mon-El, but she’s still Legion enough.

#12: Proty
↓Previous rank: #8 (as Lightning Lad)
I have to consider almost the ENTIRE career of the pre-retcon Lightning Lad. He’s penalized by being a terrible retcon who lied to his wife, but he doesn’t do anything particularly stupid in the actual stories.

#11: SW6 Bouncing Boy
#10: Bouncing Boy
↑Previous rank: #11
Yes the SW6 version doesn’t do anything, but he does inherit the importance of the stories before his kidnapping from time… and unlike the others, MOST of what makes him an amazing character were there from the Silver Age. So he’s not penalized much for missing the rest of his career.

#9: Triplicate Girl / Duo Damsel
↓Previous rank: #10
She’s mostly in the background or she’s connected to nonsensical plots, making you wonder if anyone was interested in her character instead of her weird history.

#8: Element Lad
↓Previous rank: #5
He skips MOST of the era or is in the background of it, which is particularly egregious when Roxxas is a major threat for several issues. He also has subplots that have aged very poorly and is generally looking for a reason to be in the series the whole time.

#7: Mon-El
↓Previous rank: #4
This is mostly the fault of the Valor series, which seriously diluted the character with boring adventures of his namesakes. He’s fine in the main series, even great occasionally, but he’s absent for huge stretches. Combined, this brings down his ranking.

 #6: Brainiac 5
↓Previous rank: #2
Not a single writer knows what to do with him for the entire 5YL era.
Giffen is so fixated on making this era “grounded” that Brainy is never allowed to solve any problem, and the Bierbaums are more interested in writing his horny teenage doppelganger.
Infuriatingly HE NEVER USES HIS FORCE FIELD BELT, but somehow he’s able to grant its power to Duo Damsel WHO NEVER USES IT EITHER.

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 S+ rank: the top 5

Despite everything that happened, there are a few Legionnaires who still come up on top for me. 

#5: Wildfire
↓Previous rank: #3
He just can’t catch a break. He’s lucky enough to miss the first half of the era, then he’s brought back… to do almost nothing AND have the additional trauma of possessing Sun Boy’s corpse.
No wonder he won’t show up again for a long time.
Still, aside from that terrible revelation at the end, there’s nothing much to bring him down… this is as close as classic Wildfire as we could hope to get.

#4: Princess Projectra / Sensor Girl
↑Previous rank: #7
Helped by other Legionnaires dropping in the ranking, since she doesn’t do a whole lot.

#3: Chameleon Boy
↑Previous rank: #6
Really helped by a lot of other Legionnaires dropping in the rank. He’s pretty good at the beginning, the driving force for rebuilding the Legion and creating the separate Legionnaires team.
And although he basically ends up doing nothing in both series, he doesn’t have particularly bad moments.

#2: Shrinking Violet
↑Previous rank: #9
Controversial opinion perhaps, but SHE should have taken Cosmic Boy’s role of the one rebuilding the team after her personal trauma. They have a very similar journey, thanks to their war stories, but she’s actually involved in the action and has a complex love story to explore.
Too bad she slowly fades out of the spotlight, squandering a lot of her potential role.

#1: Saturn Girl
=Previous rank: #1
The First Lady of the Legion retains her position on the sheer strength of missing like 95% of this era, so there’s no new crap that brings her down.
Not only that, but… even with her team disbanded, tons of friends killed, a galactic war, the destruction of her once adoptive planet, her husband replaced by a blob… she STILL manages to take care of her family AND their business AND still remain a respected pillar of the Legion, without ever losing herself OR cheapening her reputation.
I can’t think of another Legionnaire who comes out of the 5YL era that well-adjusted.