Reflecting on the death of Jim Shooter and reminiscing about his influence on the Legion made me wonder how many Legionnaires he created.
And then I asked myself: which writer has been responsible for the creation of most Legionnaires?
As always, a few ground rules:
-Each Legionnaire is counted only once, regardless of now many times they show up in several continuities. The reasoning is that we wouldn’t have, say, the Reboot and the Threeboot versions of Saturn Girl if someone hadn’t created her first incarnation.
-For the same reason, SW6 Legionnaires are not counted twice.
-Since I’m stretching this beyond the current point of the retrospective, I’m going by the general consensus of who is a member. Things may change during the retrospective itself.
-I’m stopping at the Threeboot, since I didn’t read through all of the Retroboot and I haven’t read Bendis yet.
THE ONE-HIT WONDERS
BILL FINGER
1 Legionnaire
Lesser known than the fact he created Batman, but he did create Lana Lang who went on to become Insect Queen.
E. NELSON BRIDWELL
1 Legionnaire
Technically speaking he created White Witch, although Levitz rewrote her SO much that he’s going to get half a point for her.
KARL KESEL
1 Legionnaire
The creator of the post-Crisis Superboy.
JERRY ORDWAY
1 Legionnaire
The creator of the often-forgotten Thunder.
ROGER STERN
1 Legionnaire
Stern’s contribution to the Reboot is often overlooked, as is his creation of Magno.
DAN ABNETT & ANDY LANNING
1 Legionnaire
Despite their importance to the latter half of the Reboot, they only created Shikari.
That’s enough for me, because she’s among my favorite Legionnaires ever.
Don’t try to call her Dawnstar’s equivalent in my presence.
LESS THAN HALF A DOZEN
ROBERT BERNSTEIN
2 Legionnaires
I’m betting even longtime Legion fans tend to forget he created both Mon-El and Pete Ross.
TOM McCRAW
2 Legionnaires
Co-creator of two of the Reboot newcomers, Kinetix and XS.
MARK WAID
3 Legionnaires
Co-created XS and Kinetix, plus we have to thank him for Gates.
GERRY CONWAY
3 Legionnaires
His only major contribution is creating Blok, but he also created Crystal Kid and Nightwind who joined during the 5-year gap.
CARY BATES
4 Legionnaires
Appropriately for a relatively short run he only created Wildfire, Tyroc, Infectious Lass and Porcupine Pete, although the latter two only joined during the 5-year gap.
TOM PEYER
4 Legionnaires
One of the most important figures of the Reboot, contributing Inferno, Monstress, Kid Quantum II and Gear.
KEITH GIFFEN and AL GORDON
5 Legionnaires
It’s hard to separate who exactly did what, so they might need to share the credit (or the blame) with the Bierbaums for Laurel Gand, Kono, Kent Shakespeare, Celeste Rockfish and Devlin O’Ryan.
LESS THAN A DOZEN
OTTO BINDER
6.5 Legionnaires
The creator of the Legion is also responsible for the creation of 6 Legionnaires: Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Star Boy, Supergirl and Kid Psycho.
I’m however also including Insect Queen, because while he didn’t create Lana Lang he did create the secret identity… so I’m giving him half the credit.
PAUL LEVITZ
7.5 Legionnaires
Despite having the longest run, he’s not at the top. He created Dawnstar, Invisible Kid II, Tellus, Quislet, Karate Kid II and Visi-Lad, although the latter two only joined during the 5-year gap.
But I’m also giving him three “half points”:
-White Witch may have been created by E. Nelson Bridwell, but Levitz’s version is basically a different character.
-Magnetic Kid was created by Ed Hamilton as Cosmic Boy’s kid brother, but he was barely a character before Levitz.
-Computo II is technically his creation, as Invisible Kid II’s sister, but she’s a McGuffin at most until the Bierbaums reintroduce the grown-up version in the 5YL era.
JIM SHOOTER
9 Legionnaires
In addition to the important ones (Princess Projectra, Nemesis Kid, Ferro Lad, Karate Kid, Rond Vidar, Shadow Lass, Chemical King), he also created Echo who inexplicably joins during the 5-year gap, and he later creates Gazelle during the Threeboot. That brings the total to 9 Legionnaires.
A TRUE LEGION OF NEW CHARACTERS
ED HAMILTON
11.5 Legionnaires
Unsurprisingly since he was the first writer to consistently use a large roster, but he’s personally responsible for creating only four “regular” Legionnaires in the Silver Age: Element Lad, Lightning Lass, Dream Girl and Timber Wolf.
But he also created Polar Boy who joined in Volume 3, the Subs who joined behind the scenes before the 5-year gap (Chlorophyll Kid, Color Kid, Fire Lad, Stone Boy and Calamity King)… plus I’m giving him credit for creating Proty, who thanks to the absurd 5YL retcon has been a Legionnaire longer than Lightning Lad. That brings the number of Legionnaires to 11.
But as mentioned, I’m giving him half a Legionnaire for Magnetic Kid.
TOM and MARY BIERBAUM
13.5 Legionnaires
As we’ve already seen I’m giving them half a point for turning Computo II into a full character, plus we have the 5 Legionnaires created together with Giffen and Gordon (Laurel Gand, Kono, Kent Shakespeare, Celeste Rockfish and Devlin O’Ryan).
But they’re also responsible for another 8.
I’m counting Reflecto as their creation, since while he’s BARELY a character at least he’s not another Legionnaire in disguise.
They also created the first Kid Quantum, Catspaw and Dragonmage, plus the four Khund Legionnaires (Firefist, Veilmist, Blood Claw and Flederweb).
JERRY SIEGEL
16 Legionnaires
Full writing credit for an incredible 16 Legionnaires.
From the original continuity *deep breath* Superboy, Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Invisible Kid, Phantom Girl, Triplicate Girl, Brainiac 5, Sun Boy, Bouncing Boy, Shrinking Violet, Ultra Boy, Matter-Eater Lad, Command Kid, Dynamo Boy and *sigh* Elastic Lad.
Plus Spider Girl, who becomes a Legionnaire in the 5YL era.
Even more impressive if you consider that SEVEN out of these 16 characters where introduced over two single issues: Action Comics #267 and Action Comics #276 !!!