X-Men vs Legion of Superheroes: Why are they so similar?

Cafe Society
1

Note: In nearly all cases except those marked with *, the Legionnaire came first.

Legion/X-man or enemy of
Saturn Girl/Professor X (telepathy)
Cosmic boy/Magneto (magnetism)
Lightning Lad/Storm (lightning/weather)
Phantom Girl/Kitty Pride (intangibility)
Triplicate Girl/Multiple Man (split into several people)
Ferro Lad/Colossus (change to metal)
Timber Wolf/Wolverine (agility, strength, claws, fangs, super senses, accelerated healing)
Sun Boy/Sunfire (heat and light generation)
Polar Boy/Iceman (cold generation)
*Dawnstar/Angel (wings allow flight)
*Nemesis Kid/Mimic (copies powers of others)
*Tyroc/Banshee (sonic abilities)
*Blok/Blob (strength, resistance, energy absorption)

And then, there’s even more parallels in the 80’s and 90’s, mostly with Legionnaires copying established X-Men:
*Kono/Harry Leland (body density)
*Veilmist, Flederweb/Nightcrawler (wall adhesion, teleportation)
*Bloodclaw/Wolverine (strength, razor claws)

Possible theories:

  1. There’s a limited number of superpowers so there’s bound to be overlap.
  2. Disgruntled former employees became new employees at the other company.
  3. They willfully plagiarized from each other because the nature of the two universes required coming up with new powers almost monthly.
  4. I’m seeing something that’s not there.
  5. Other.
2

Most of the characters you listed debuted decades apart in either direction and a lot of them are real stretches (the stone guy Blok is the same as the Blob?). It’s safe to say that when you have the two largest teams in comic book history there will be a little bit of overlap in their 50 year histories.

Now the Shi’ar Imperial Guard and the Doom Patrol clearly have grounds for some complaining.

3

These two.

Now, if you want to complain about copying, you could make a case for Doom Patrol / X-Men, but given that they debuted 4 months apart, the ideas (outcast superhero team) were probably developed isolated from one another.

The Shi’ar Imperial Guard was a 100% copy of the Legion of Super Heroes. Given that artist Dave Cockrum worked LSH in the early 1970s and the debut of the SIG was in 1977, it is easy to figure out where the idea came from.

4

Dave Cockrum is key here. Nightcrawler was originally designed for a Legion spinoff book that never materialized; Timber Wolf and Wolverine’s distinctive shared hairstyle were his design. He redesigned both teams in the mid 70s and both retain his imprint.

The X-Men (Wein/Cockrum/Claremont era) owed more to Blackhawk than to the Legion. Not a lot of original thinkers in comics.

5

Not to mention that you’re really stretching the definition of ‘X-Men’ - Harry Leland? Really?

And Nemesis Kid’s power isn’t power duplication, it’s adaptation.

6

Saturn Girl/Professor X (telepathy)

Single most common power in the Marvel U, particularly among mutants. Also, one people really believe in.

Lightning Lad/Storm (lightning/weather)

Rather looooong stretch. Electric generation (the whole of the Ranzzes’ powers) is not nearly the same as weather control.

Timber Wolf/Wolverine (agility, strength, claws, fangs, super senses, accelerated healing)

Timber Wolf doesn’t have most of those powers for most of his existence - the healing factor was a late addition, the claws and fangs came later. Wolvie doesn’t have fangs, and his claws are different.

*Dawnstar/Angel (wings allow flight)

Again, a long stretch caused by ignoring most of the powers. Dawnie’s chief power is her tracking ability. Since the 80s, that’s also been only one power for Angel, as well - either he has his neurotoxin-coated blade-feathers, or his healing blood, or both, now.

*Nemesis Kid/Mimic (copies powers of others)

As mentioned, that’s not Nemesis Kid’s power. Darwin would be the X-Men character who best matches Nemi on powers (and again, it’s not quite a proper match).

*Tyroc/Banshee (sonic abilities)

Very different sonic powers. (Sean can’t teleport, for instance.)

*Blok/Blob (strength, resistance, energy absorption)

Already mentioned that this is a hell of a stretch…and Blok doesn’t have any energy absorption abilities, save for the ability to withstand kinetic energy that anyone with superstrength and durability has by default.

*Veilmist, Flederweb/Nightcrawler (wall adhesion, teleportation)

Nightcrawler, by the way, was originally designed as a Legion character (as was Storm). Cockrum wasn’t disgruntled, he just took the designs DC declined to use when he moved over to Marvel.

Teleportation is, again, not a rare power. And, when you need to combine 2 characters to get a parallel to one, that should be a sign that you’re stretching.

7

As you can see in my OP, “or enemy of.”

8

What? The nearest thing to the LOSH in the X-Men comix is not the X-Men, it is the Shi’ar Imperial Guard!

9

You’re also leaving off some prominent members of both teams. Who are the Legion equivalents to Jean Gray, Cyclops, Rogue, Gambit, or Beast? Who are the X-Men equivalents to Superboy (or any of the Daxamites), Matter-Eater-Lad, or Karate Kid?

10

Yes, I will admit to cherry-picking, which is why option 4 is there.

11

Has there ever been, from any comic company, at any time, a character that could, by any stretch, be said to be similar to Matter-Eater Lad?

This is a serious (ok, semi-serious) question, not rhetorical. I’ve never heard of anything close to ME Lad, but I’m wondering if there are similar characters out there that I’ve missed.

Or Bouncing Boy, for that matter (no pun intended).

12

Image has a new detective book where the guy eats stuff at the crime scene to get impressions of what went down. I believe it’s called Chew.

13

I’m going for number 4 (with a slight mix of the other answers). Simply the roster for both is way too big. Here is a (very incomplete) list of X-men:
Anole, Angel, Armor, Banshee, Beast, Bishop, Blindfold, Cable, Caliban, Cannonball, Chamber, Changeling, Cipher, Colossus, Cyclops, Darwin, Dazzler, Dust, Elixir, Forge, Emma Frost, Gambit, Gentle, Graymalkin, Nate Grey, Havok, Hellion, Hepzibah, Husk, Iceman, Ink, Joseph, Jubilee, Juggernaut, Karma, Lady Mastermind, Lifeguard, Lockheed, Longshot, Maggott, Magma, Marrow, Marvel Girl, Mercury, Mimic, Mirage, Mystique, Namor, Nightcrawler, Northstar, Omega Sentinel, Petra, Phoenix, Pixie, Polaris, Prodigy, Professor X, Psylocke, Revanche, Cecilia Reyes, Rockslide, Rogue, Sabretooth, Sage, Shadowcat, Slipstream, Stacy X, Storm, Sunfire, Sunspot, Surge, Sway, Thunderbird (John Proudstar), Thunderbird (Neal Shaara), Vulcan, Warpath, Wolf Cub, Wolverine, X-23, Xorn

Now compare that to this list (also pretty incomplete) of Legion members:
Andromeda, Blok, Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy, Chameleon Girl, Chemical King, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Dawnstar, Dream Girl, Element Lad, Ferro Lad, Gates, Gear, Invisible Kid, Invisible Kid II, Karate Kid, Kid Quantum, Kinetix, Lightning Lad, Lightning/Light Lass, Matter-Eater Lad, Mon-El, Monstress, Night Girl , Phantom Girl, Polar Boy, Princess Projectra, Quislet, Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Shikari, Shrinking Violet, Star Boy, Sun Boy, Superboy/man (Kal-El), Superboy (Kon-El), Supergirl (Kara Zor-El), Tellus, Timber Wolf, Triplicate Girl, Tyroc, Ultra Boy, White Witch, Wildfire, XS

There are way too many characters for there not to be some overlap. But at the same time there are way more characters with no analogue. And the inclusion of villains, secondary characters, related and associated characters really doesn’t change that much.

14

First thing that springs to mind: the Gronk, (a very timid and humourous metal-eating sidekick alien) that appeared in Strontium Dog.

Why yes, I do have a complete run of original Starlord… yes… geek… :slight_smile:

15

Marvel’s Superman/Mon-el is Sentry (Marvel Zombies/World War Hulk.)

16

Who in no way relates to the X-Men.