The Legion of Super-Heroes reminds me that there will always be good people in the world, in every generation, in every place, and that they will come together to make the world a better place no matter what -- in other words, that goodness is omnipresent in both time and space.
A big factor that gives me this feeling towards the Legion is their setting, and the fact that the team forms during a time when superheroes are no longer the standard. In the setting of the classic Legion stories, we don't see the 20th descendant of Batman fighting the 20th descendant of the Joker -- heroes and villains are pretty much gone because the Earth has progressed to be almost a utopia. Supervillains aren't common, so superheroes aren't common either. Everything has settled down.
So, what happens when a villain does show up? When someone's life is threatened?
Was the goodness of the modern day heroes, like Superman and The Flash, just a fad? Just a trend that existed in the modern day as a fluke?
The Legion says absolutely not. Three random kids, on a random train, on a random day, happen to see a businessman being attacked by an assassin, and they use their inborn abilities to save the man's life. There's no big origin for them, there's nothing grand about it; they just decide to help. The fact that heroes, really good people, rise up and do an exceptional thing all the way in the distant future gives me the assuring feeling that good people are always around, all the time. Like good people are around every corner, just waiting for the opportunity to do the right thing. (By the way, I think this factor also applies to any superheroic characters in the universe that are removed from the modern day -- so the Justice Society, the Seven Soldiers, or further back with someone like Shining Knight. It helps give the sense that goodness does not depend on anything contextual whatsoever, rather that it's innate.)
And the Legion not only makes the point that good people will always be present throughout time, but that they will always be present regardless of location. Good people are on Saturn, Braal, Daxam; they are all over the universe, and the Legion just brings them together, with every member representing a different planet. As emphasized after Zero Hour, they are a mosaic of galactic unity -- and are therefore a showcase for the goodness that is absolutely everywhere in the world.
Therefore, the Legion is a symbol of the prevalence of good people everywhere and everytime. No matter where and when you exist, you will be able to find people who will stand up and do the right thing. As such, the team may instill in you a sense of optimism, and a feeling of community with those around you. In dire times, remember that goodness isn't as rare as it might seem.
There's also a secondary appeal to the Legion that I'd like to briefly mention, which is the connection the team has to Superman, because the Legion proper is formed because the members are inspired by Superman, who is a historical figure to them. The reader would've initially discovered the Legion through the point-of-view of Clark Kent, and I think this provides a great sense of wish fulfillment -- not only because Clark gets superpowered friends he can relate to, but also because he gets to know that his actions in life do eventually make an impact on the world. His altruism does successfully inspire people even centuries in the future, and he is made aware of that. When we try to do the right thing, it can be really, really hard to persist when we can't tell if we're actually making a difference. The Legion acts as wish fulfillment for the reader by validating Clark's altruism as something that does genuinely affect the future of the world.
Appendix A:
The message of goodness seeming omnipresent is why I believe the Legion
is better when composed of original characters that are not legacy
characters related to prior superheroes (even though I like the
character XS). It seems like being related to a superhero would provide
an additional motivation to do good, like some weird predisposition to
doing good or a feeling of responsibility to uphold a heritage. I prefer
when the Legionnaires' motivations are instead related to an intrinsic
desire to do good, because this is something we can understand any
person possessing, which is important for the optimistic message of
goodness being omnipresent in the world. If goodness was relegated only
to people who had a special reason to do good, it could not be nearly as
ubiquitous.
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