I Finally Get The Legion!

Today, I had a minor, personal epiphany about the Legion of Super-Heroes.

See, it's not that I don't like superhero aliens teaming up to have space adventures in the 31st century, everyone does. I just couldn't get over the fact that, while the universe has come to regard them as a Justice League-esque organization, realistically they should be pretty ineffectual. Take founding member Saturn Girl, who has psychic powers. She's not unique among her race. All Saturnians have psychic powers. Her race also has a military, and SWAT teams, and the like. When Darkseid shows up and tries to conquer the universe, there should be whole armies of psychics mobilizing to stop him. While some Legion members have unique powers, many are in the same boat. So why are they anything remotely special or effective, when so many others can do exactly what they do?

Well, the answer is that many others simply DON'T do what they do. It's not the Legion members' powers that make them special, the thing that distinguishes them from others is that they saw problems and stepped up to do something about it. By chance I also stumbled upon this post about Superman, arguing that he chose to be a hero not because it was forced on him (like Batman) or because of something he did (like Spider-Man), but simply because it was the right thing to do. If he lost his powers tomorrow he would shrug, become a fireman, and still try to do the right thing to the best of his abilities. The Legion, originally, was inspired to heroics by Superman, and they're doing the same thing: stepping in and using their abilities to the fullest to do the right thing. Other Saturnians could throw themselves in the path of galactic tyrants, but they don't. Saturn Girl does.

Now maybe I can enjoy reading about them more.