The Wanderers

The Original Wanderers

The Wanderers were a team of adventurers and heroes that was famous throughout the universe for several years prior to the formation of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The team consisted of seven people, about whom very little is known:

• Celebrand, their leader, who had no super-powers, but had a brilliant tactical mind and expertise with a ray gun,
• Ornitho, who could turn himself into avian forms of all sorts and could fly
• Elvo, a nimble master swordsman,
• Dartalg, a crack shot with a blowgun who carried specially-treated darts for all occasions
• Immorto, who could never be killed due to his body's ability to heal itself almost instantly,
• Psyche, the Mistress of Emotions, and
• Quantum Queen, who could turn herself into any form of quantum radiation.

In 2979, several years after the Legion rose to fame, a United Planets publicist came up with the idea of the new heroes meeting the old ones, and he arranged a meeting between the two teams, which was extremely amicable. But after leaving the meeting, they accidentally flew through the Nefar Nebula, which contained psychoactive radiation that caused them to turn evil, and they stole the legendary Seven Stones of Alactos. The Legion hunted them down, engaging in a sort of contest to determine who was the strongest Legionnaire, and eventually, they figured out what had happened to their friends. (Adventure #375)

The two groups once again parted as friends, and the Wanderers have been invited to the Legion's happy events, such as the wedding of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel (Superboy #200), and called in to help in emergencies, such as the Daxamite invasion of Weber's World during the Great Darkness. (Legion vol. 2 #294)

NOTES: Quantum Queen actually appeared before her teammates in Adventure Comics #354 (Apr. 1967). In this Adult Legion ("imaginary") story, she was depicted among the statues of dead Legionnaires. This may have been part of the inspiration for Kid Quantum.

Post-Crisis: The Clones

The following events occurred after the Crisis on Infinite Earths. This time period no longer stands in Legion continuity.

Then they disappeared for several years without a trace. Even a special team sent by the Legion (Legion vol. 3 #42) were unable to find them. The reason for this was that they had been murdered ... by creatures born of a Controller named Clonus and his cloned human wife, Velissa. The cloning process, as it turned out was deeply flawed, and any creatures born of a being created through it eventually turned into murderous monsters which savagely enslaved entire worlds' populations, a problem the Wanderers had been trying to investigate when they were killed by those very creatures. Clonus tried to make amends for this by cloning the Wanderers (except for Celebrand, who had been too far gone), manipulating their genes so that their powers would be more effective. When they woke up, Clonus (actually a clone of him) explained to them what had happened and four of them decided to take new names to reflect their increased powers.

• Dartalg, who was changed into an almost monstrous form, with quills coming out of his body and out of his hand like talons instead of his simply using them as weapons, was given the name Dartalon
• Elvo, who now owned a power-sword that fired emotion-triggered blasts became the Elvar
• Immorto, who now had the power to heal and revive other people called himself Re-Animage
• And Ornitho decided he liked the name Aviax better.

Together, they searched for their killers, aided by Clonus, whose body (both his prime body and his clone body) was killed by a Controller hunting him (because to them, cloning was a crime against universal nature due to the monsters it created ... something Clonus had not known), but whose mind survived in their ship's computer. Through a coded data-pyramid that Clonus's prime body left behind, they traced the creatures to a world on the galaxy's rim which was inhabited by reptilian bipeds. There they met several Legionnaires, who acquainted themselves with the new Wanderers and helped them eradicate the clone-creatures from that planet. (Wanderers #3)

The two teams then parted ways once again, with the Wanderers searching for, and eventually finding, the children of Clonus who killed them on a planetoid in the Naranga system. The Controller hunter, who had been possessed by one of these creatures, explained to Clonus and the Wanderers why the Controllers had forbidden cloning. With the help of another of the creatures (which Psyche later named Squink after the sound it made), who had formed a mental bond with Psyche and forsook its fellows for it, they finally tracked down the source of the creatures, who had formed a hive-mind with Clonus's wife, Velissa, who they had been keeping alive. The original creatures, the children of Clonus and Velissa, had been sent to a children's home to be raised while Clonus and Velissa continued their scientific work, and had kidnapped Velissa when they turned into monsters, feeding off her emotions and making her their queen. The monsters procreated by expelling crystal "eggs" from their foreheads, and thereby created an army with which to find other worlds that would join their group mind. Velissa originally wished to destroy Clonus, blaming him for her torment, but eventually she realized that Clonus still loved her, and that her true desire was to go to her eternal rest and stop her monster children from destroying all other life in the galaxy. She provoked Dartalon into expressing his hatred of Clonus for making him a monster, and the creatures picked up on this destructive emotion and severed their mental link with Velissa, killing her and causing a cave-in on the planetoid they were on, killing creatures. (Wanderers #1-5)

The Wanderers then headed for the nearest United Planets outpost, which happened to be Shakarta, and applied to become official U. P. agents, earning the job by busting up a ring of smugglers/terrorists. (#6) In recognition of their good deeds, the United Planets appointed them as official peace-keeping agents, and they carried out some tasks for the U. P., who assigned them a woman named Ahrane as their Contact. (#7) They attempted to set up a home base on Psyche's home planet, but this attempt ended in tragedy, as Psyche's parents, Korda and Shalleen, didn't recognize their daughter in her new, cloned body, and instead accused her of being their daughter's murderer. They called the police, who sent robotic Stalker robots against Psyche, who fled from them and let her emotions run wild, summoning anyone in the vicinity to her side, including her childhood acquaintances Darda and Shan and several other Wanderers. When she realized what she was doing, she withdrew her emotion and fled again, but she needed to feed off emotion and was in danger of dying. She went to the nearest human settlement, her parents' house, where she finally convinced them she was their daughter just as the Stalkers arrived. Her parents were killed for trying to stop the Stalkers, and Psyche, whose identity was later confirmed and was named heir to the estate she intended the team to use as a home base, no longer felt at home there. (#8-9)

After a few months of missions and wandering, the Wanderers were given the mission of saving the birds, or proto-birds, on Planet W-23. While there, they encountered a race of alien beings who, they came to believe, were responsible for the evolution and extinction of species on many planets, possibly by splicing their genes into those of native species. The Wanderers further theorized that they themselves might be these creatures' descendants, and their powers might have come from whatever parts of their genetic heritage these creatures were responsible for. At the end of this final mission (during which Elvar finally figured out what was wrong with previous attempts to clone Celebrand, and finally began a clone of Celebrand which should, logically, grow properly), the Wanderers flew through a space warp created by a black box — given them by the aliens, (#12-13) and were never seen again ... maybe.

Leland McCauley IV was, until mid-2995, in possession of a large collection of beings held in stasis through the power of an Emerald Eye and two of them, curiously, resembled Elvo and Dartalg in their pre-death state. What these are and how he got them is a mystery. (Legion vol. 4 #39, Legionnaires #4)

The Wanderers of Earth-Prime

Terror Firma

Many of the members of the Wanderers started out as members of another group called Terror Firma, an assembly of agents who followed a terrorist called Lemnos. Many of these super-powered teens had good intentions and did not realize that Lemnos was aiming at galactic war. (Legion. vol. 5 #1-13)

In their final battle, Terror Firma turned on Lemnos. These adherents were now rudderless, and a number of them teamed up with the Legionnaire Sun Boy, who saw the potential to redeem them. (#13)

The Wanderers

Elsewhere, someone else also saw possibilities for the leftover scores of Lemnos' army. Mekt Ranzz (brother of Lightning Lad and Light Lass) began recruiting them and others for a new band of Wanderers. The Wanderers were originally formed by United Planets as a black ops team to counter attacks by the Dominators. At the time, there had been a non-aggression pact between the U.P. and the Dominators, so the Wanderers were charged with covertly uncovering Dominator cells on other planets. Mekt Ranzz was the only agent to survive this initiative. But the threat of the Dominion still lingered and Mekt began to rebuild his team independently. (Supergirl & the Legion #25)

Mekt also recruited from among the Legion's at-large membership (#17) and from Colossal Boy's home, Big City. The first publicly known members were Polar Boy, Kid Quake and Nemesis Kid. (#21) The Legion first clashed with the Wanderers on the planet Rokyn, where they attempted to steal a Phantom Zone projector. (#23-24)

With the help of the White Witch, Mekt sealed off and surrounded Legion headquarters. They abducted four Legionnaires whom Mekt believed would follow him. (#25) Light Lass tried to warn the Wanderers that her brother was suicidal, but the two teams had no time to argue. Just then, the Dominators launched an attack on Earth that disabled all electronic technology. (#26)

The teams were forced to work together; Brainiac 5 begrudgingly accepted assistance from another Coluan, Vrax Gozzl (a mere 10th-level Coluan) while Kromak healed the wounded and Plant Lad provided cover. Cosmic Boy was captured by the Dominators and laid his own trap. (#27) The resistance forces opened a portal to the Dominion home world, (#28) where they were aided by Sun Boy and his former Terror Firmans. (#29)

The endgame was a combination of efforts. Mekt had one of his telepaths plant thoughts of destroying the Dominion home world in Cosmic Boy's mind. Indeed, Cos did away with the planet—he transported it into the Phantom Zone. After it was done, everyone believed that the planet had been destroyed. Only the core Legion members were informed of the ruse. (#30)

For their role, the Wanderers won public favor. Mekt's motives after this are inexplicable. The Wanderers were offered Legion membership by Supergirl, and Mekt accompanied a Legion team to his home world, Winath. (#31) Despite these positive milestones, Mekt was found to have been mind-controlling the "Cult of Validus" on Winath. Upon word of Mekt's capture, his core group of Wanderers fled from the Legion. (#32-33)

As a postscript to Terror Firma, Sun Boy was largely unsuccessful in reforming its former members. At one point he actually requested Legion membership for them. (#33) but they ultimately fell back into lives of crime, and were jailed. (#48)

Members

The Wanderers from Earth-247 (Reboot)

At the close of their adventure which involved three Legions, the Legion from Earth-247 undertook a new mission. Finding themselves without a home in the multiverse, they dubbed themselves "Wanderers." Their mission is to save others who have become stranded in the multiverse.

Their number includes the entire membership of the Reboot Legion, except for XS and Gates, who chose to remain on Earth-0. (Legion of 3 Worlds #5)

The New 52