Utopia, Rebellion, and the Kingdom of Heaven in the Legion of Super-Heroes

Abstract

Introduced in Adventure Comics #247 (1958), the Legion of Super-Heroes represents a teleology of the DC Universe: a future where a millennium of scientific and moral progress have led to a near-perfect society, governed by the principles embodied by Superman in the 20th century. In this utopian future, Earth is governed by a single, cooperative government; automation has eliminated the need for toil; artificial intelligence has diminished the role of tribalism in politics; and most of the inhabited planets of the galaxy have banded together in the mutually beneficial partnership of the United Planets, guarded by the Legion itself, a “superhero club” that grew to encompass dozens of members. This paper explores key moments in the Legion’s history—particularly its early stories of the 1950s, Paul Levitz’s stories of the 1970s, and Mark Waid and Barry Kitson’s “threeboot” Legion of the mid-2000s—in light of both anarchist utopianism and Christian conceptions of the Kingdom of Heaven.