In the future, teens will tie the knot in odd, yet lavish
ceremonies.

Anniversaries and milestone issue numbers have always been a
big deal in comic books. In 1974, there was a celebration for Superboy hitting
his 200^th issue, which he actually wound up officially sharing his
title with the Legion of Super-Heroes just a few issues before. The Legion, of
course, has had a long history with Superboy. And after moving from
Adventure Comics to back-ups in Action Comics and then
Superboy, they in short order took over the title, and so with #200 the
celebration centered on the Legion.

Since almost the very beginning of
the Legion’s run, there has been a spark of romance between its members. The
most notable early mention of it is in Adventure Comics #304 when
Lightning Lad sacrificed his life for Saturn Girl. (Don’t worry; he got better
eight issues later). But for Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes
#200, DC took Legion romance to another level: Bouncing Boy finally married
Duo Damsel. With a big ceremony on Mars, two of the earliest Legionnaires tied
the knot. And with a great eye for detail, Dave Cockrum managed to fit in every
member of the Legion, as well as their allies and a few surprise guests in at
the wedding scene.

There had been a pair of Legion weddings before this.
In Adventure Comics #337, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl and Ultra Boy and
Phantom Girl held a double fake wedding ceremony. It was all part of a secret
plan to expose the location of the home planet of the Murran spies. After the
spies were defeated, Lightning Lad told Saturn Girl: “Someday we won’t have to
pretend,” and the two became engaged (as was later revealed in a letters
column). Luckily she is a patient girl who didn’t want to rush things, because
she would wait from 1965 until 1978. Oddly enough, the two weren’t married in a
regular issue, but in a treasury sized comic format that was popular at the time
(Limited Collectors Edition C-55).

The next wedding would take
place in 1983, in the Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #2, in which Karate
Kid and Queen Projectra (formerly Princess Projectra) were married. Like the two
previous couples, these Legionaries left active duty upon tying the knot.
Originally part of the Legion Constitution stated that members had to retire
after marrying. Eventually this was amended, so that Lightning Lad and Saturn
Girl could return as active members. Like many of the early Legion Bylaws, it
was a rule that didn’t make a lot of sense in practical terms from the modern
reader’s perspective.

After that, things get a bit odd. Shadow Lass
married a mortally wounded Mon-El after a battle with Time Trapper. Ultra Boy
and Phantom Girl announced their engagement and then she got lost in time with
amnesia. During the “Five Year Hiatus” Period, in one of the most
unusual May/December relationships, White Witch left the team and wound up
marrying one of the team’s arch-enemies, Mordru. To her credit, she did later
leave him and rejoined the team to help defeat him once again.

Of
course, in the classic Silver Age “Adult Legion Story,” Jim Shooter
revealed many couples that would eventually marry. While not all came to be, it
did, like so many things from that story, lay the foundation for what was to
come.

The Legion has experienced several reboots since the first major
one with Zero Hour. Unfortunately, none of these replacement continuities
have run long enough to have more weddings occur. But the current continuity is
written with a loving wink and a nod to all things past. Mark Waid even had a
great scene with Dream Girl forecasting her eventual marriage. So, don’t put
away your Durlan Tuxedo just yet. There are bound to be more Legion weddings in
the future.