L.E.G.I.O.N.

Membership: Amon Hakk, Captain Comet, Garryn Bek, Garv, Lady Quark, Lobo, Lydea Mallor, Marij’n, Phase, Silica, Stealth, Strata, Telepath, Vril Dox

Base of Operations: Maltus, formerly Cairn

First Appearance: Invasion #2 (February, 1989)

History: (Invasion #2, L.E.G.I.O.N. ‘89 #1-4)-The Licensed Extra-Governmental Interstellar Operatives Network, or L.E.G.I.O.N. is a vast peace-keeping squadron that acts as a police force for those worlds that choose to subscribe to its services. L.E.G.I.O.N. has a small core membership, but employs hundreds of operatives from many different worlds, many of whom have paranormal abilities. L.E.G.I.O.N. was founded by Vril Dox II, one of the most brilliant minds of the galaxy. Dox was one of thousands of aliens taken prisoner by the Alliance, an organization on aliens bent on conquering Earth. Dox engineered a revolt among the prisoners and in the ensuing riot led several fellow prisoners to the docking bay, where they stole a starship and made a getaway. The escapees Garryn Bek, Lyrissa Mallor, Strata, Stealth and the Durlan were anxious to resume their lives, but Dox had other ideas. He duped them into coming to his homeworld Colu and overthrowing the Computer Tyrants that ruled the planet. The escapees decided to remain together as a team rather than let the untrustworthy Dox and his new psychopathic friend Lobo out of their sight.

(L.E.G.I.O.N. ‘89 #5-10)-Dox planned to establish a peace-keeping force, but he would first need a reputation and a base of operations. The team arrived on the planet Cairn, home to a narcotic ring that spanned five star systems. Dox assassinated the top druglord Kanis-Biz, and had Lobo massacre every other major drug dealer on the planet. Cairn was now drug-free, and Dox had instant credibility, as well as the control of Cairn’s entire police force. With this the L.E.G.I.O.N. was born.

(L.E.G.I.O.N. ‘90 #14-18)-At the request of the planet Rann, L.E.G.I.O.N. brings down Dagon-Ra and his band of interstellar pirates. Garv joins the team, as does Telepath, a former employee of Dagon-Ra.

(L.E.G.I.O.N. ‘91 #29, 30)-Marij’n and Captain Comet officially join the team. Lobo breaks up a smuggling run of Maximillian G’odd.

(Lobo I #1-4) - Vril assigned Lobo to bring a prisoner from Oneida VI to L.E.G.I.O.N. hq on Cairn, and when Lobo said it was a job beneath him Vril reminded him of their physical debate. He failed to mention that the prisoner was Miss E. Tribbs, Lobo’s fourth grade teacher and the author of an unauthorized biography of Lobo. Lady Quark and Strata both thought it was a bad idea but Vril thoroughly enjoyed torturing Lobo. Vril tracked his status as he killed Oneida police chief Bamueless and got in a fight with space-truckers. On Lobo’s way to Cairn Oneida S.W.A.T., the space-truckers, the hero-worshipping Sons of Lobo, the Demolition Dance Company and the Legion of Decency, who were after Tibbs, were all converging on him, and Vril said everything was going according to plan. He wanted all these rogue elements taken out by Lobo, but didn’t want L.E.G.I.O.N. associated with it. Before the big confrontation Lobo and Tibbs were abducted by the Orthography Commandos, champions of literacy who forced them to compete in a deadly spelling bee. Lobo escaped, killed the Commandos, and brought Tibbs to Revel-7 the party planet. He phoned Vril over an unsecured line to tell him he was taking a brief rest, and the factions seeking Lobo picked up the call and started converging on Revel-7. Vril was upset because Revel-7 was a neutral planet without law enforcement, and a poor choice for the battleground. The combatants ended up taking each other out, but in his boredom Lobo broadcasted to all of Revel-7 threatening to kill everyone if they didn’t leave the planet in 5 hours. The mass evacuation resulted in rioting and the loss of millions of lives. Lobo returned Tibbs to Cairn and told Vril his broadcast was only a joke so he wasn’t at fault. He then snapped Tibbs neck, telling Dox he promised to deliver her alive but made no guarantees past that. The normally unshakeable Vril was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

(Lobo’s Back #1) - L.E.G.I.O.N. officers found numerous bounty hunters slain by Loo on Dooley-7 and contacted their former employer Ramona of Ramona’s Bail Bond and Unisex Salon.

The core members of L.E.G.I.O.N. would eventually become deposed by Dox’s son Lyrl, and form a new team called R.E.B.E.L.S. Lyrl turned L.E.,G.I.O.N. into a fascist organization, and pursued the R.E.B.E.L.S. for many months. Captain Comet and Vril Dox finally defeat Lyrl, stripping him of his advanced intelligence and powers. Captain Comet brought L.E.G.I.O.N. back to it’s original principles, and Vril Dox retired to raise his son.

(R.E.B.E.L.S. #1-4) - Vril Dox received a subspace transmission warning him to flee because L.E.G.I.O.N. was about to be taken away from him, and further directing him to go to Earth, locate Supergirl, and speak the word "cephalophore" to her. Vril was indeed usurped, and fled to Earth with extraterrestrials Tribulus, Skwaul, Amon Hakk, and Getorix in pursuit. He crash landed, and asked people in a boat he'd just upended to tell him the location of the nearest restroom. They complied, and he told them to start swimming. His pursuers ship landed on top of the tourists, and Skwaul detected his psionic signature nearby. Vril used the restroom to enter the sewer system and emerged in the city, ready to turn the tables even if he had to sacrifice every human in sight. Supergirl arrived, and he convinced her to save him and lure his pursuers away from bystanders. He spoke the mnemonic trigger, and her heat-vision activated, burning code into a blank CD he held in front of her. He decoded the disc, which gave schematics, and told Supergirl the tech he needed to build it. She couldn't help but feel she was being manipulated, but she was curious about who implanted code into her head. They went to an Antarctic science station so Vril could build the device, and it was a message from the 31st century from his descendant Brainiac 5. Brainiac said he'd put data in Supergirl's head before she left the Legion because he had no intention of Vril being the last of their great house. There were no further records of Vril from the 31st Century archives, so Brainiac sent him files on the Legion of Super-Heroes so he could construct the perfect team, and said Supergirl would be an excellent first choice. The bounty hunters found them, and Vril asked Amon what happened to him, a former honored member of L.E.G.I.O.N., and Amon said Vril ruined his life like he ruined everything he touched. Vril dodged Amon's plasma blast, which hit Getorix, killing him. Vril realized Getorix was controlling the monstrous Tribulus with a cranial implant, so he removed it, and had Supergirl implant it in him with her heat vision. Vril had Tribulus knock out Supergirl, saying he had no further use for her, and flew off with Tribulus in tow. Brainiac yelled at him for going off plan, and Vril said he preferred an unquestioning and unmerciful asset like Tribulus over the willful Supergirl, and deactivated his connection to Brainiac 5. Vril learned that his computer Silica had taken control of L.E.G.I.O.N.s' droids and told client planets they were now L.E.G.I.O.N. property. He flew to Rann space to talk with the Omega Men, who were also on the run from L.E.G.I.O.N. Omega Man Elu was a living cosmic storm, and he asked for his help disabling Silica, but the Omega Men refused, not forgetting their bad blood with Vril. Vril alerted L.E.G.I.O.N. to their presence and told them to run. While Vril Dox assembled his R.E.B.E.L.S. the Omega Men snuck onto Maltus, and Erg destroyed Silica. They planned on taking over L.E.G.I.O.N. for themselves to destroy the Spider Guild, but found that Silica had been possessed by a Starro, and were confronted by Astrild Storm-Daughter, another Starro slave. She proved too powerful for them, so they fled into the streets, only to be trapped inside a media center by Starro slaves. They sent out a SOS, which Vril and his newly formed R.E.B.E.L.S. received, but Vril chose not to help them, assuming they were as good as dead. The Omega Men were teleported to safety by the Psions, who showed them Starro had opened up a subspace rift in the Dominator controlled Xylon expanse, releasing a fleet of warships and the powerful slaves known as the High Vanguard.

(R.E.B.E.L.S. #5, 6) - Vril was approached by Storm-Daughter, who said her master was fascinated by the mind that created the L.E.G.I.O.N., and offered him the chance to serve Starro, and retain some degree of free will like she had. Vril had no interest in the proposal, and flew off, but sent Wildfire to Maltus to retrieve the remains of Silica. Starro the Conquerer and his High Vanguard returned to Maltus after conquering the Dominator homeworld, and Vril used Silica's failsafe programming to regain control of his L.E.G.I.O.N. peacekeepers. They left their client planets, flying to Maltus, forming a forcefield around the planet, effectively trapping Starro and his legions.

(R.E.B.E.L.S. #8) - Starro sent the L.E.G.I.O.N. peacekeepers to Voorl, where they killed Stealth and forced Vril's son Lyrl to flee.

(R.E.B.E.L.S. #16) - Vril used the zeta-beam to teleport Rann to the former location of Tamarin in the Vegan system, and cloned samples of Rann's native flora and fauna to make the planet habitable. He intended to rebuild the L.E.G.I.O.N. using lifeforms instead of robots, and to clean up the Vegan system to regain his reputation. Despite media appearances where he praised his own altruism most of Vega was skeptical, and kept referring to him as the son of Brainiac. He told the R.E.B.E.L.S. he was the antithesis of his father, but Adam Strange warned him that he'd landed in a political hotbed, and the neighboring planets might not want him interfering. The L.E.G.I.O.N. recovered a stolen Arcturian vessel, but wounded GLC member Atlin Ad'ms in the process. The GLC warned him, but he said he had a duty to his shareholders to aggressively pursue peacekeeping unless the GLC wanted to buy out his contracts. Captain Comet thought the new L.E.G.I.O.N. would blow up in his face, and planned to quit until Starfire joined the team to defend her native system, and he was impressed with her charisma. As they got to know each other her sister Blackfire attacked Rann, seeing their planet where hers once was as an affront.

(R.E.B.E.L.S. #21) - Vril and Lyrl drove Brainiac from Colu, but the planet was left in ruins, and they clashed with the GLC, who wanted to arrest them for the damage.. Vril said he intended to rebuild Colu, so unless the GLC was up to the job they could forget about arresting him. He assured them Lobo would be in his safekeeping since he always paid his debts and Vril could help him with the bills he'd accumulated as archbishop of the triple-fish god. Vril was joined by his R.E.B.E.L.S., and said their name was apt because that's how the Guardians of the Universe viewed them. He said the L.E.G.I.O.N. used police by consent utilizing each planet's laws, but the Guardians sought justice using only their own capricious whims. Vril denied charges that Lyrl had invaded Colu, saying he was under the control of Pulsar Stargrave, and painted Stargrave as having always been Brainiac's pawn.

Comments: Created by Bill Mantlo & Keith Giffen

L.E.G.I.O.N. received a profile in Who's Who in the DC Universe #11.

L.E.G.I.O.N. had a cameo in R.E.B.E.L.S. #10, 16, 18

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