Legion of Substitute Heroes

Antennae Kid Chlorophyll Kid Color Kid Double Header Fire lad Infectious Lass Kid Psycho


Night Girl Polar Boy Porcupine Boy Rond Vidar Stone Boy Elastic Lad Insect Girl

Legion of Substitute Heroes I In early 2975, after Lightning Lad's death, many young super-powered beings came to the Legion, hoping to join. Amoung the teens that applied were Brek Bannin, who wished to call himself Polar Boy, Staq Mavlen, who breathed flame as Fire Lad, Ral Benem whose power as Chlorophyll Kid enabled him to speed up or slow down plants' rate of growth, Dag Wentim, who could turn himself into an immobile Stone Boy, and Lydda Jath, whose super-strength faded in sunlight, making her a Night Girl. All were rejected and they prepared to go back to their respective home planets as disappointments...until Polar Boy, ever the optimist, suggested that they could form a secret organization to provide backup for the Legionnaires when necessary. The four others agreed to this, and they carved a serviceable headquarters out of a cave, but were disappointed to see the Legion of Super-Heroes handle all emergencies without the need for a Legion of Substitute Heroes. Even Polar Boy began to get discouraged, when, as the Legionnaires were dealing with an attack of robot ships, they realized that the ships were dropping seeds on Earth, which, when grown, would turn into fierce vegetable soldiers to conquer Earth. The Legion of Substitute Heroes made their way to the ships' home planet, where Chlorophyll Kid caused a population explosion which would prevent the creatures from attacking Earth anytime soon. Their first mission successfully completed, they decided to stay in business (Adventure Comics # 306). They successfully handled one more mission secretly, exposing Zyzan Legion impostors (Adventure Comics # 311), and then they were discovered by the Legion. The Legionnaires took a liking to the team of backups, and held a contest to allow one of them to join the main team. Stone Boy won, but decided he'd rather stay with his friends (Adventure Comics # 315).
After that, the Legion and the Subs formed a working relationship, in which they would handle minor crimes and emergencies, and provide backup to the Legion when called upon. Despite their lack of impressive powers, the Subs managed to crack the mystery surrounding the planet Throon (Adventure Comics # 319), get components necessary for a magical spell (Adventure Comics # 351), bring down the Scorpius Gang (Adventure Comics # 374) and, with Brainiac 5's help, defeat the League of Super-Assassins (Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes # 254). They played pivotal roles in defending Earth during the Earthwar (Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes # 243) and organizing resistance to the Daxamites during the Great Darkness (Legion of Super-Heroes (1st series) # 293-294), and were summoned to stand by as potential backup during the 2985 fight against the Legion of Super-Villains (Legion of Super-Heroes (2nd series) # 4). In return, the Legion referred new members to them, such as Color Kid, Porcupine Pete, Infectious Lass, as well as Double-Header and Antennae Boy, who were so useless, the Subs relegated them to "auxiliary" status. In addition to rejectees, the Subs took on two members who were actually Legionnaires, but who had briefly resigned or been expelled, Dream Girl and Star Boy. The Legion even gave them their old headquarters to use when they got a new building complex (Superboy (1st series) # 211).
But by 2985, the Subs began to fall behind, and the emergencies that popped up became too much for them to deal with. Fire Lad, Porcupine Pete and Infectious Lass still had control problems, Chlorophyll Kid put on weight, and Stone Boy was just plain useless. After an almost-fatal encounter with some smugglers during which only the presence of Cosmic Boy saved them (Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes # 316) and an embarrassing incident on Bismoll, where former Legionnaire Matter-Eater Lad helped them defeat Pulsar Stargrave, Polar Boy disbanded the team (Legion of Substitute Heroes Special # 1). The various members went their own ways, keeping in touch as friends. In 2991, they joined the Legion that Polar Boy was trying to hold together, and later, they worked together as members of the underground Earthgov-resistance movement run by Jacques Foccart, where their unit became known as the "Superhuman Underground Battle Squad"...i.e., the SUBS.

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