In the comics I own and have read - REGARDLESS of their date of publication - the first Legionnaires were the three founders. Yes, there were other Legionnaires. Yes, "Superboy Meets the Legion of Super-Heroes" has other Legionnaires in it. I own Showcase Presents, Archive books, and more than a couple of reprints. My point was simply that the first three Legionnaires were Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl. That's all. (Messrs. Hague and Phelps - I don't question your knowledge of the Legion, and it sounds like it'd be great fun sitting around with you guys discussing the Silver Age Legion.)

The Avengers - sounds as if you're absolutely right. The FF and Spidey were the only ones to have their own books (and maybe Sgt. Fury?) because DC was controlling Marvel's distribution and only allowed them to publish eight books a month. On one hand, it was kind of draconian; but on the other, it was the competition for goodness sake!

What I meant about the JLA/JSA similarity was that, as you noted, the members had to have their own strips (Snapper Carr being the exception, but, y'know...) But if they had their own actual BOOK, they were relegated to honorary members of the JSA. Batman and Superman were underwritten for the first ten issues of JLA or so and the B&B appearances - because even with J'onn, Hal, and Diana on the team, if Superman were to appear, he'd probably dominate. (I'll note B&B #29, where exactly that happens - Superman shows up at the end of the story to save the day.)

Superboy technically was a member of the JLA - why, I oughtta... ;) I guess that Wonder Girl counts as a member too.

Expansion of the JLA - your point is well made that there were only a few other heroes available. And Mort Weinieburger* wasn't about to let any of his properties loose, besides Superman. We could come up with a list, but between other teams, teen sidekicks associated with the Teen Titans, and brand new heroes who might or might not be sales drains... I see your point.

Legion of Three Worlds - I believe that one of its specific purposes WAS to reintroduce Superboy and Kid Flash, and thus the emphasis. (And I still don't know when that Superboy ever got anything near enough power to be in Superboy-Prime's class.) Speaking as a Legion groupie... I totally enjoyed the series. But your mileage may vary, as always.

*Inside joke that's funny only if your name is Weinieberger. Thank you, Not Brand Echh. :)

I'm left wondering if there's a solution to all of these accumulated memberships. Naturally, over time, rotating memberships will bring in new members and the fannish impulses of the writers will inevitably bring about "reunion" storylines like Mark Waid's first few issues back with the Avengers or Mark Waid's "Legion of Three Worlds" or Mark Waid's... well, you get the idea. :-) 

Fine. Even if we accept all of that as a given, do we have to maintain multiple versions of titles, each one populated with a full-to-the-brim complement of super people all their own, each and every one a member of the larger group as well? Apparently, sales say yes. We do have to do that. Readers will buy a second, third, and even fourth Avengers title before they will buy an issue of the New Troubadours or the Protectors of Punxsutawney. After all, the Avengers is the main book. It's the one that ties in with all the others. And once you buy one, you're pretty much committed to buying the others. They all inter-relate.They all MATTER. No one cares what happens in Punxsutawney. (At least not until they see the incredibly sarcastic and funny CGI Punxsutawney Phil in the new Marvel movie. That scene, the one where he goes nuts and takes out his own shadow? That was cinematic gold, I tell you...)

In any case, after the film, maybe we can do more PoP books. Until then, keep your eyes peeled for this month's fifth Avengers book, a mini-series starring the first 100 members of the team (and ONLY the first 100 members!) in a battle for the last cheese sandwich in the diner. If that goes well, we'll do a sixth book. Maybe one about there now being too many cheese sandwiches somewhere. And they're taking over...

Aside from constantly rebooting the universes to wipe clean the membership rolls (and yes, we have tried that, and no, it did not work) is there anything that can be except to grin and bear it? Would it do any good to encourage new writers to pull from the existing roster rather than padding the list with new members who are sure to "rock the boat" or force you to "re-evaluate everything you think you know?" Does the problem lie with the editors once again? Do they even have time between crossover conferences and traffic managing to approve or disapprove of stories and membership rolls in anything but the most superficial fashion? When the writer wants to bring in Mrs. Incredible from the Incredibles, Twiki the robot from Buck Rogers, and PandaStein, the rockin' new re-animated political radical, re-constructed from the dismembered corpses of the last Pandas in the wild and dedicated to vengeance upon short-sighted humanity and stand them besides Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man at the forefront of a new, more exciting version of the Avengers, is there anyone to say "no" any longer? Especially if the whole thing came about because Disney and Universal Studios have new licensing deals with Marvel and PandaStein is the new writer's pride and joy and is burning up the sales charts so fast Punxsutawney Phil doesn't even know what hit him? Can we be sure it was the writer who made the call? 

And if Twiki is an Avenger, then isn't Dr. Theopoulos one as well? And technically, if we do a story where Dr. Theopoulos is replaced by a criminal duplicate, wouldn't THAT guy have been an Avenger as well, entitled to full membership benefits and the ability to show up at the next big reunion special? Careful now, because if the answer's "no," we're going to have to do a special crossover series to appease fans of the character that brings him back and reforms him so he CAN show up at reunions... 

So how about Crichton then? The big, tall jerk robot that used to argue with Twiki all throughout the second season. (Yes, I know. No one watched the second season. Seriously, whose idea was it to dress Wilma up as a stewardess and lose the spandex?) I can see him on the team, arguing with Jarvis over the menu selections, not understanding how important it is that the cheese sandwich either remain or go away depending on how that big mini-series turned out... 

Am I rambling? I think I'm rambling. In any case, is there a way to cap membership? Or to fire ex-members so they stay fired and don't come back all the time? Are we stuck with an ever-expanding roster until all of Manhattan are either full-time or honorary Avengers?

:D

I wonder, if today's mindset had been around decades ago, would the likes of the Defenders and Champions have been created? Or would they have just added the likes of Dr. Strange and Ghost Rider to the Avengers?

Also fun would have been an issue with the members all appearing as their teenage selves, with Superboy, Wonder Girl, Aquaboy, the amazingly untalented-at-archery Green Arrow, and Bruce Wayne in the original Robin costume from when he was in training as a detective by Harvey Harris. Did we ever see Barry or Hal as teens in the 60's? I know there's an 80's era tale with a young Barry. How about J'onn? 

Let's not forget that Bruce Wayne was also the Flying Fox... basically the same as Bruce's Robin outfit and character, but still an option.

Y'know, the Lord of Time, Felix Faust, or Abra-Kadabra might have been the villain where he reverted the JLA to teens, or even to children. It could have been fun.

I can't argue with your analysis of the appearance of so many characters in L03W. Even with the LSV that was presented... that team had a mega-load of power. Just when I count the Kryptonian-level heroes*... well, it's how Johns wrote it. There was a little aspect of hot mess to the story (and if I had to see ONE MORE PANEL of three Brainiac 5s fighting, I was going to use desperate language.)

"Let's resurrect the dead guy." ROFLMAO! It seemed to me that Kon-El, post-resurrection, was able to stand up to Prime, which had not been the case previously. But then again, there were a lot of unexplained changes to Kon once he got into Johns' Teen Titans, so... who the hell knows.

*And let's remember that the Legionnaires' world Star Boy was still Kryptonian level, as well as mass affecting powers.