My DCU - Legion of Super-Heroes Redesigns Team A

NOTE: In my head canon, the Legon are comprised of 30 members split into six hierarchical squads based on seniority. The team featured here is the Andromeda Squad, which is comprised of founding members Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad, along with Phantom Girl and Triplicate Girl.

ORIGINS

After a series of intergalactic wars that threatened to destroy the very fabric of the universe, several of the most prominent worlds formed a treaty to prevent future conflict under the protection and organization of the United Planets. To enforce their laws, the Science Police were formed and were armed with the most advanced weaponry this side of Thanagar. However, this peace was nothing more than a facade. This utopia had lulled civilians living under the United Planets into a false sense of security and were all but dictated by the ruling politicians. Enter the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Inspired by the adventures of the famed Justice League, these superpowered individuals formed an alliance to combat the growing rebellious forces looking to disturb the status quo of the United Planets. Not only that, but they've dedicated themselves to ridding the United Planets and Science Police of the corruption that has festered within the system. They're a small army of roughly 30 individuals, but their powers have proven so great that the United Planets and the UP's enemies have become eager to eliminate the Legion.

Phantom Girl

Tinya Wazzo was born on Bgztl, a world which evolved from the prison dimension known as the Phantom Zone. Like all other inhabitants of Bgztl, Tinya possesses the ability to shift her body mass in order to travel to our dimension. This also grants her the ability of intangibility while she is here.

As the daughter United Planets Ambassador Winema Wazzo, Tinya has grown up under the protective bubble of the upper class. Often bored by the monotonous daily life of a politician's daughter, she rebelled against her parents the first chance she got and joined with the Legion of Super-Heroes as a way of sticking it to her mother. However, after realizing the very real corruption that exists within the UP, Tinya has matured from an impetuous girl to a dedicated heroine.

Cosmic Boy

Rokk Krinn hails from the eyesore of the United Planets - the distant dirt planet of Braal. As one of the poorest of the poor, Rokk was illegally sent to Earth in order to earn wages to send back to his family. While here, Rokk discovered that his innate ability to manipulate magnetic fields made him a natural athlete at the sport of magno-ball. By pursuing this full-time, Rokk became a superstar athlete and was able to afford to sponsor his parents on Earth.

Rokk's public persona is ultimately what led to Imra Ardeen, a Science Police reject, to seek him out when she stumbled on an assassination attempt on the life of billionaire (and vocal UP opponent) R.J. Brande. Rokk, along with Garth Ranzz, helped to stop the hit. This fateful alliance paved the way for the foundation of the Legion of Super-Heroes. While he's very much family-oriented and has a bit of a jock mentality, Rokk is a natural leader due to his excellent motivational skills and his general hardass persona.

Saturn Girl

Imra Ardeen is a Titan-born telepath who longed to join the Science Police ever since she was a little girl. However, she was consistently rejected from the organization with no reason given. Not one to be deterred, Imra took it upon herself to prove her worth to the Science Police by leading the charge in saving R.J. Brande's life. While her heroic deeds led the SP to offer her membership, she suspected their involvement in the assassination attempt and instead opted to create a new independent task force known as the Legion of Super-Heroes.

As the Legion's first serving leader, Imra is the glue that holds the Legion together. Her resolve and steadfastness make her a reliable individual, while her telepathy has proven to be one of the most useful powers amongst all of the Legion members.

Lightning Lad

While vacationing on the planet Korbal, Garth Ranzz and his siblings Ayla and Mekt were caught in a powerful storm that resulted in each of them receiving superhuman abilities. Now able to channel lightning and electricity, Garth became a lone wolf vigilante under the codename Lightning Lad. Embittered by the attention Garth received, Mekt went the opposite route and used his abilities to make a name for himself in the criminal underworld.

As with Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad was chosen by Saturn Girl in order to help her prevent the assassination of R.J. Brande. Though Garth was hesitant to join the Legion, he stayed with the group out of his attraction for Imra and his certainty that they could help him in bringing his brother down when the time came. At his core, Garth has a big ego and likes being in the spotlight. This often means he comes into conflict with the more reserved members of the Legion.

Triplicate Girl

Like all people from the planet Cargg, Luornu Durgo is able to separate herself into three bodies. When a natural disaster nearly decimated the people of Cargg, Luornu was sent forward to meet with the United Planets to negotiate relief. However, she soon discovered that nature was not to blame for Cargg's near extinction, but rather that the United Planets had orchestrated the event as a shakedown after Cargg threatened to pull out of the UP's jurisdiction. It was then that Luornu began fearing for her life and this led her to flee into the sanctuary of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

As their first non-founding member, Triplicate Girl holds a special distinction within the Legion and is regarded highly amongst her colleagues. At first glance, she is responsible yet playful. A real girl's girl. However, when she separates her bodies have three distinct personalities. Her purple self is the stylish, girlie girl, her orange self is her rebellious bad girl, and her white self is the selfless hero. Typically, she is a balance of these three. When separated for too long, her selves become more independent and lack the desire to come back together again.

DESIGNS

For those of you who might remember my previous Legion piece within my head canon (which has long since been deleted), all of the team members wore matching costumes. By and large, you all seemed to indicate that you weren't big fans of this. As such, I went back to the drawing board. I read tons of Legion comics in preparation and decided I'd draw as many Legionnaires as I could. These five obviously have designs which are very reflective of what we've seen them in before. If it's not broken, right? My main goal was to marry elements from their various looks and to create more detailed ensembles for them. I also wanted to give them distinct looks that reflected their personalities. PG is the "princess," Cos is the handsome jock, SG is the tough (yet sensitive) leader, LL is the bad boy, and TG is the fun-loving fashionista.

RELATIONSHIPS

Since I'm planning to draw roughly 30 Legionnaires, I'll be discussing only those seen here for this section. As discussed previously, Saturn Girl is the leader of the group. This squad at least. She's levelheaded and has a strong sense of right and wrong. She, Phantom Girl and Triplicate Girl have a strong bond as sisters-in-arms. In many ways, they're often able to gang-up on the boys and typically get their way when they want to. Of course, each gal is different from one another. Tinya is the more irresponsible one and is flighty at times, Imra is the confident and self-assured one, and Luornu is the anything goes one (a sort of happy medium between the two). Despite this, there is some tension. Phantom Girl's inextricable thing for bad boys means she often has her eye on Lightning Lad, who likes Imra, but who Imra doesn't show too much affection for. As far as Imra is concerned, she has no time for boys. Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad are the outnumbered boys of this group. They're thick as thieves, despite their many differences. The good guy-bad boy dynamic is definitely alive and well with these two. If anything, think of Cos like Steve Rogers and Garth like Tony Stark.

Lastly, I want to give a special shout-out to DanFalcon who suggested I give each of the Legion squads I'll be posting space-themed names. This one in particular he ended up dubbing "Andromeda Squad." Thanks!

As always, I love hearing from you all so please feel free to leave a comment below to let me know what you think of these designs, the characters and their backstories in my head canon.

Enjoy!