Welcome to a new occasional Heroclixin’ feature called F.U.N. Focus, in which we take an in-depth look at a character or team or, as in this case, an entire keyword: The Legion of Super-Heroes, in anticipation of the full-size Superman and The Legion of Super-Heroes set releasing later this month.

Building a F.U.N. all-Legion of Super-Heroes team has been an exercise in frustration for many years. The vast team of superteens has long had a number of problems to overcome that other similarly sized rosters don’t:

• It’s lacked many attackers with greater than 10 AV.
• It’s lacked multiple support-power pieces: Only one starting-click Outwitter in Modern Age and ZERO healers.
• It’s composed almost entirely of fliers and so severely lacks the action advantage that a force with taxiable characters can employ. Or, to put it another way, it’s a swarm team that can’t really swarm.
• It’s also almost lacking in Willpower/Indomitable — fewer than five total each compared with literally dozens in the other big teams — which compounds its difficulty swarming.
• It’s also almost entirely made up of wild cards.

Most of these problems are mitigated when the characters are teamed up with non-Legionnaires that they can carry and copy. But the Legion ought to be formidable in its own right. This is a team that’s taken on Darkseid, for crying out loud. Or, as a quote from one of their comics — and ATA cards — goes:

“So you’re like the Teen Titans of the future?”
“No, we’re the Justice League of the future.”

This problem just came up in a multi-player game recently. I ran a 500-point all-Legion team and was the last to fully engage because every one of my characters had to waste actions just moving around and couldn’t safely push, while the other five teams either had Willpower or taxis or both.

This 10-or-so-part F.U.N. Focus series will take a look at the progression of the Legion in HeroClix and how well each piece works on an all-Legion squad, ending with a sort of rating:

 This piece has a role best reserved for a huge Legion team.
 The piece is fine for most Legion teams of any size.
 This piece must be considered for any Legion team, big or small.

Finally, one of the charms of the Legion is that even the weakest members have something to contribute. This series will highlight each piece’s Hidden Charm.

The first installment will use the Legion Time Bubble to go back in time to 2003…on Monday. Be there!