Later, Paul Levitz, a former editor-in-chief of DC Comics, alongside artist Keith Giffen, defined a more mature take on the team and crafted one of the group's greatest adventures in "The Great Darkness Saga." In this story, the Legion takes on Jack Kirby's creation Darkseid, an evil god of immense power. Each era holds its own reading gems, starting with the early days, in which Jim Shooter, who later became the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, created many of the team's most memorable characters and adventures, while himself still a teenager. One of the most accessible (though occasionally frustrating) aspects of the Legion is that, more than most superhero teams, their stories have been re-launched, re-imagined and rebooted over and over again. Still, the true heart of the Legion of Super-Heroes lies within the team's interpersonal dynamics. These range from the Fatal Five, a group of bizarre sci-fi miscreants, to Starfinger, a cosmic crime boss with delusions of grandeur.
While their adventures sometimes tend more toward soap opera than space opera due to their 30th century teenage hormones, the Legionnaires have had their share of action facing a variety of villains and threats as colorful as they are.
From Ultra-Boy - who possesses super strength, invulnerability, flight and super speed, but can only use one power at a time - to Matter-Eater Lad - whose physiology allows him to consume almost anything - each of the 20 to 30 active Legionnaires present unique twists on well-known comic archetypes. The Legion of Super-Heroes are a vast team of teenage superheroes assembled from various planets, each possessed of unique, often iconic, but sometimes bizarre powers. NEXT: Captain Marvel The Legion of Super-Heroes Nova will also appear on the Marvel NOW! Avengers team.
Marvel has announced a new series starring Nova, to be produced by top creators Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness, as part of the Marvel NOW! Initiative. Nova also had his own title for some time, which spun out of "Annihilation." Recently, Richard Rider, the original Nova, died, and a new Nova, Sam Alexander, took over Rider's powers. Nova's greatest story is undoubtedly "Annihilation," a cosmic epic in which much of Marvel's space-bound characters united against a threat of unimaginable strength. After many of the New Warriors died in an encounter with a powerful super villain, Nova saw a revival as a solo character, taking a starring role in Marvel's cosmic oeuvre. In fact, it wasn't until years later that the character came into his own identity and gained popularity as a part of a team of young superheroes called the New Warriors. If that sounds familiar, you may be thinking of Green Lantern, whose most iconic incarnation has a very similar origin story.įortunately, this more cliché characterization of Nova didn't last long. Nova is the space-faring alter ego of one Richard Rider, a young man granted immense power by an alien species, and tasked with protecting the universe as a part of the inter-galactic peace-keeping force, the Nova Corps.