So I went to the comic store the other day in the vain effort to start my pull list again. Unfortunately, Previews doesn’t come out until next week, so I left with only a copy of The Legion of Super-Heroes #1 in my greedy little hands.

As I read through the first few pages, I noticed that this particular incarnation of the series takes place at the dawn of the 31st century and I got to thinking: doesn’t Futurama take place in the year 3000 – the last year of the 30th century or the first year of the 31st century, depending on who you ask? And, technically, both series started out in the 30th century, but now they’re 31st century stories. Or, in the case of the cancelled Futurama, were 31st century stories. This is getting weird, all this talk of past futures, or is it futures past?

My thoughts immediately turned back to The Legion and their humble beginnings as a vehicle for Superboy. They were based in the 30th century in most iterations other than their newest volume. How could I compare and contrast these two seminal works of pop-culture science fiction? Why, through links and pictures on my blog, of course!

Exhibit A:
Matter-Eater Lad and Nibbler come from the same planet. They actually come from Bismoll and Eternium , respectively, but I’m saying that’s the same place. How could the universe possibly contain two planets whose inhabitants each have such amazing dietary habits? How, I ask you!?

Ferro Lad and Bender look an awful lot alike. Ferro Lad can turn himself completely into iron, while Bender is only 30% iron, but that’s a minor quibble.

There are other similarities as well. The Legion all use “flight rings” to help them gallivant across the Universe, while the Futurama cast uses jetpacks. At least they do on the cool retro-future metal lunchbox I have.

Both teams have brainy leaders: Braniac 5 and Doctor Farnsworth.

Both teams have spiffy abodes: Farnsworth’s laboratory and the global (universal?) headquarters for Planet Express delivery service versus The Legion’s headquarters.

Both series feature stunning brunettes dark-haired heroines: The Legion has Shrinking Violet and Futurama has Leela, who isn’t a shrinking violet (natch), but does have purple (violet?) hair [Thanks, RSL].

Sure, I could go on like this for paragraphs about the technologies, villains, styles and other geek-factors that link these two works, but that would be tedious. I wanted this post to be fun and it’s taken me nearly 6 days to write. So sit down, shut up and enjoy these almost interesting links to Futurama and Legion source material on the internets.

Legion:
The Legion
The Legion of Super-Heroes Online Companion
Newest Incarnations & a review of Legion of Super-Heroes #1.

Futurama:
Got Futurama?
TV Tome: Futurama