Big brother, little brother

Mon-El- Balder

Here the resident nurd delves into Legion of Super-Heroes lore, which has undergone at least four, count ‘em, four reboots in the past twenty years. As far as I can tell, Mon-El’s history has reverted back to the way it was from 1961 to the late ‘80s.

As for Balder, an ancient mythological figure refigured for the MU? I recently bought a TPB comprised of the first few issues of Walter Simonson’s Mighty Thor run in the 1980s. I was pleased to again encounter Simonson’s characterization of Thor’s sensitive, doomed brother as a fat depressive.

Should I ever get around to further Legion-Guardians pairings, I’ll probably have to assign a lot of cosmic Marvel characters that were never associated to the Guardians of the Galaxy with the much more numerous Legionnaires. I always thought Marvel could do more with the Guardians franchise: which is to say, exploring a future MU, and not making a modern version tied to this Annihilation event I have not read, which is what has transpired as of late.

Commonalities:
Mon-El was introduced as “Superboy’s Big Brother” in 1961, with what was very likely no intention to ever use the character again. But he was transferred to the new Legion of Super-Heroes franchise as a Superboy surrogate, which would seem to make a pairing with Thor’s younger brother. Also, both have odd weaknesses: Mon-El’s is lead, Balder’s is… mistletoe!

Differences:
Only that Balder was never in the Guardians of the Galaxy, but he’s, like, immortal!

Alternate histories:

ME: Mon-El is the half-brother of Kal-El; while Superman defends Earth, Mon-El remains on Krypton and aids his father Jor-El against the likes of General Zod and other native antagonists. Mon-El is nearly as powerful as Kal-El, but his death was long believed to be the impetus of the destruction of Krypton. While this came to pass, the essences of Mon-El and his fellow Kryptonians have been resurrected on Earth.

BA: Balder is native to the Vanir, a race of powerful beings that exist near Asgard and have equivalent abilities to Asgardians. He learns of Thor, the last survivor of Ragnarok, and travels to modern-day Earth where he befriends the young demi-deity. Balder is struck by a weapon bearing a sprig of mistletoe, which is foretold as the only substance that can damage him. In order to survive, he retires to a netherworld, where he remains until thirty centuries later. Balder emerges and joins the Guardians of the Galaxy, the 30th century’s premiere intergalactic peacekeeping organization.