The final stories of the Adventure Comics run of the Legion of Super-Heroes before the arrival of 13-year-old comic-writing sensation Jim Shooter was an adaptation of an Academy Award-winning film!

To see a 400-point force of Legionnaires trapped in the Super-Stalag of Space, follow the link!

Synopsis: The two-part Super-Stalag of Space story from 1966 was essentially the story lifted from a 1953 film: Stalag 17 for which William Holden won his only Academy Award. The comic hits many of the same emotional notes, but with shape-changing super-heroes and a group of nuclear-powered aliens subbing for the camp guards. The motivation of camp commander Nardo is a peculiar hatred of 'galactic lawmen', but he had the power to keep the following members of the Legion of Super-Heroes prisoner:

88 (Superman 008) Brainiac 5
70 (LSH 003) Cosmic Boy
70 (Arkham Asylum 037) Element Lad
58 Veteran (Unleashed 039) Chameleon Boy
53 (Superman 024) Invisible Kid
35 (Superman 025) Matter-Eater Lad
+ 6 x 4 Additional Team Ability Legion Lost

= 398 Points

Note that the Superboy being killed on the cover is actually a Durlan who was trapped while mimicking Superboy in an effort to bluff Nardo!

This HeroClix force is a good example of a force from a really fun comic that is just not a great team to play in a 400-point game. Even with the sad damage-dealing potential, I think this force would be viable with better dials from the pair of stinkers: Element Lad and Chameleon Boy. There is some weird tendency to make 70-point Legionnaires with no way to reliably damage opposing figures with Invulnerability that I just don't understand. But I digress...

One key to being able to do damage to opposing figures is though the application of Outwit, and the 12th-level Intellect of Brainiac 5 brings that to the table. This figure is from the 2011 Superman booster release. It's a great figure for backing up other Legion of Super-Heroes keyword figures, but not so hot as the tentpole of the force.

E Brainiac 5 Points: 88 Range: 0
Team: Legion of Superheroes
Keywords: Future, Legion of Super Heroes, Scientist

7 9 17 2

7 9 16 2

6 9 16 1

6 9 16 1

5 8 15 1

5 8 15 1

KO KO KO KO

Force Field Belt: Brainiac 5 can use Invulnerability. Give Braniac 5 a free action and choose an adjacent character with the Legion of Super-Heroes keyword. That character can use Toughness until your next turn as long as it is adjacent to Brainiac 5.

Twelfth-Level Intellect: Brainiac 5 can use Outwit. Once during your turn Brainiac 5 can use Perplex or Probability Control.

The Cosmic Boy from the 2007 Legion of Super-Heroes starter set is the most recent HeroClix version of the character, as well as being one of the most effective. The Telekinesis/Willpower combination is a good one, as he can stretch his ranged attacks to range 8 by use of objects as weapons. The opening Leadership can also be valuable if he is able to remove tokens from adjacent (lower-point) allies.

E Cosmic Boy Points: 70 Range: 6
Team: Legion of Superheroes
Keywords: Future, Legion of Super Heroes, Teen

9 10 17 2

9 10 16 2

9 9 16 2

8 9 16 2

8 7 16 1

7 7 15 1

KO KO KO KO

I cannot bring myself to like the Element Lad dial from Arkham Asylum. Incapacitate, Barrier and Smoke Cloud are all 'finesse' powers to begin with, and lumping them together on a high-priced dial with nothing but 1-damage is embarrassing. The Transmute special power is bizarrely restrictive as well. Your best hope is to pick a good Team ability to copy (see below) and hope for a miracle. If nothing else the figure can take theme-team action tokens to force re-rolls.

R Element Lad Points: 70 Range: 6
Team: Legion of Superheroes
Keywords: Future, Legion of Super Heroes, Teen

8 9 17 1

8 9 17 1

7 9 16 1

7 8 16 1

6 8 16 1

6 7 15 1

KO KO KO KO

Transmute: At the beginning of your turn as a free action, Element Lad can choose one of the following options: (1) Destroy up to two adjacent objects or squares of blocking terrain; or (2) one at a time remove up to 6 hindering terrain markers, blocking terrain markers, and debris markers (in any combination) 4 or fewer squares from Element Lad to which he has a clear line of fire at the time they are removed; if a debris marker is removed that indicates a wall or area of terrain that was destroyed, it is no longer destroyed.

The Chameleon Boy is another member of the Legion of Super-Heroes that has a poor dial that would be better simply by increasing the stats across the board. If you pay attention to the attack powers you may be able to surprise some opponents, but it would be nice to get a version of the character more recently made than this 2004 Veteran from Unleashed.

V Chameleon Points: 58 Range: 0
Team: Legion of Superheroes
Keywords: Future, Legion of Super Heroes, Spy

9 8 15 2

9 7 15 2

8 7 14 1

8 6 14 1

7 6 13 1

7 5 13 1

KO KO KO KO

A more modern figure is the Invisible Kid from the 2011 Superman set. This version of the character is not the one from the Silver age comic, but the powers are close enough for my taste. This is the sort of dial (and point cost) that I appreciate for Legionnaires that aren't given decent damage values. The special power and trait are useful, and I can even tolerate Incapacitate on the dial. The cost is kept low enough that the figure given support powers doesn't cost as much as a front-line offensive piece.

E Invisible Kid Points: 53 Range: 3
Team: Legion of Superheroes
Keywords: Future, Legion of Super Heroes, Spy

7 9 16 2

7 9 15 1

6 9 15 1

6 8 15 2

5 8 14 1

KO KO KO KO

Full Invisibility: Invisible Kid can use Stealth. Any line of fire drawn to Invisible Kid is blocked if he has no action tokens.

Shared Invisibility: Give Invisible Kid a free action and choose an adjacent character with the Legion of Super-Heroes keyword. That character can use Stealth until your next turn as long as it is adjacent to Invisible Kid.

Matter-Eater Lad, also from the Superman set will probably be the go-to character on this force for damage dealing because of his dial's Exploit Weakness. Of the characters that can benefit from possibly having action tokens removed via Cosmic Boy's Leadership, I think M-E Lad is the best candidate.

E Matter-Eater Lad Points: 35 Range: 0
Team: Legion of Superheroes
Keywords: Future, Legion of Super Heroes, Politician

8 9 16 2

8 9 16 1

7 9 15 1

7 9 15 1

KO KO KO KO

Matter, Eaten: Give Matter-Eater Lad a free action and destroy an adjacent wall, adjacent square of blocking terrain, or remove an object in his square or an adjacent square from the game.

The only saving grace of this poor force (I can see why they were stuck in a Prison Camp for two issues!) is that they are both a keyworded theme team and they have a decent Additional Team Ability to make use of. Choosing Mystics may be annoying, but more mileage may come from Superman Enemy. This force needs more damage-dealing, and those are probably the best options available.

LEGION LOST Cost: 4 per character
Prerequisite Keyword(s): Legion of Super Heroes, Legion of Super Villains

Once at the beginning of the game, if no character on your force possesses a team ability that isn't a wild card team ability, choose any one DC team ability other than an additional team ability, a wild card team ability, or a team ability that can't be used by wild cards. Characters using this team ability are not wild cards and can use the chosen team ability if they can't already.

There were a few Girl Legionnaires trapped in their own Prison Camp: Saturn Girl, Duo Damsel and Light Lass...but I don't think either of the two existing HeroClix characters really helps this force. Eventually Superboy, Mon-El and Ultra Boy showed up to save the day, so I suppose you could add one of them to improve this team's chances of victory.

Well you have 2 perplexs with Invisible Kid and Brainiac 5, you could use police team ability, then increase range or damage on Cosmic Boy or Element Lad for range attacks, and use Matter-Eater Lad Chameleon as tie up pieces. Not great, but different. Need some of the bigger LSH guys to fill out the team.

As always a great article!

I remember those issues..... God bless the Silver Age silliness!
Yeah, that cover was a gotcha....
However this article does show the weakness of some of the most useful legion figs.... that Element lad is absolutely dreadful and I have never been able to stomach poor Cham. I just can't. I suppose it could be possible to mod a figure and replace Beast boys morph dial and use the morph trait to simulate his changing but all those bizarre space creatures and thier abilities are lost then...nut it's better than nothing.

we need more Legion. Maybe that's one of the reasons I liked the Superman set so much; more LoSH's.

Yeah, we need a new Cham badly. Maybe with a Chameleon Chief LE in the same set . . .

What? We need some good Legion enemies.

Absolutely agree with this.

If we wanted a "morph" mechanic: I was thinking that it might be possible for a 60-point Chameleon Boy dial to have a power written in such a way that he could change into *one* of the beast boy animal forms but would be obligated to change back into Chameleon Boy before picking another form. The power could involve a 'token' of some sort that prevents the character from using Morph: Beast Boy but allows the character to change back into Chameleon Boy (on the same click number).

Otherwise, I think a trait like the Wonder Twins would allow Cham to get access to any of the oddball "space powers" that a shape-shifting Durlan would have would satisfy me.

Cosmic Boy is still good.

quirky force
looks to be a gold challenge for a seasoned vet
most definitely

DC needs a Shape Shifting alien TA - they have Martians (White and Green) and Durlans

A good choice for a Legion team is Batman Enemy, assuming you have Karate Kid or Ultra Boy to lend the great attack out