The Legion Constitution: Articles 1 and 2

Last week, this here blog made fun of the Legion of Super-Heroes - its selection process, its lack of harassment policies - and being in a Legion kind of mood, I dug further into my long boxes for 1988's Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes. This mag did us the favor of printing (over 5 of its 7 issues) the entire Legion Constitution. Let's take a look, shall we?So far so good.
That last little clause looks like trouble. "...and such authorities as they may from time to time designate." Like this time:
Looks like the exchequer's cronie isn't as free with the money as previous administrations.
Hm. How's that system working out these days then?
And isn't the Legion currently disobeying its Constitution by having Bill-Gates Lad handle its finances?
But some codes, you don't break easily:
Even on Johns-Earth, where the Legion was ousted in favor of a racist, all-human Justice League, the LSH didn't leave this old mudball.
They just moved the clubhouse underground.

Moving on to Article 2...
The Avengers, this isn't. Hey, it's a big galaxy.
If the Legion was inspired by Superboy, they still have to pay a debt to the Justice Society/League for coming up with the whole team idea. More than that, they owe that debt to SBG favorite Aquaman, who based his Justice League Detroit around the idea of a live-in team of always alert heroes. The Legion even accepted a bunch of losers over the years, just like the JLD did!
Here we go. The first of several articles that give Superboy a free pass. A reminder on how he managed it:
By being a big baby about everything. Ok Superboy, you don't HAVE to spend all your time in our century.
Honorary members include Pete Ross, Jimmy "Elastic Lad" Olsen and Green Lantern Rond Vidar, all guys who don't meet membership criteria under Article 3.
Reserve members include Kid Psycho and Lana "Insect Queen" Lang, though I doubt the latter is a legal choice (her powers weren't inherent). Kid Psycho was, of course, known for two things: Being called to duty as canon fodder during the Crisis, and not being psycho at all. In reality, this is the All-Star Squadron clause, giving the Legion the possibility of drafting any hero in the 30th-31st century into its ranks. Except those filthy Heroes of Lallor.

Tomorrow, the big one: Admission to Membership. Who can make it in, and who cannot?

Comments

De said…
So what's the deal with the folks in the Legion Academy? Were they also considered reserve members or did they have some other kind of status?
Siskoid said…
Tune in tomorrow for the answer.
Michael said…
If you want to copy and paste rather than scan, the entire Legion Constitution is at the Legion Wiki (pre-ZH and post-ZH reboot versions).