In my infancy of becoming a comic book fan, I was hooked immediately on two things... The Legion of Super-Heroes and the Superman family of extended characters. And one of the several commonalities where the two worlds intersected was with Insect Queen! Superman's childhood gal pal and girlfriend, Lana Lang assumes the costumed persona of Insect Queen, a heroine who eventually becomes a member of the Legion's Reserve!
I thought it would be fun to travel through Lana's appearances as Insect Queen, and then take a quick glance at the legacy the character inspired years after her original debut.
Let's get strapped in and put this tour into drive!
Let's start at the beginning with Superboy (vol. 1) #124 (October 1965). Lana is in the woods and stumbles across an alien who has been trapped by a fallen tree. After she frees him, he rewards her with a "bio ring". Lana learns that the ring provides her with insect-like abilities whenever she requires them.
Lana makes a costume and begins operating as the heroine Insect Queen. But in typical fashion, she soon decided to use her unique abilities to try and prove that Clark Kent and Superboy are the same person! After failing to do so, she hangs up her costume. This is partly due to her belief that she can only assume each insect's abilities just once, so she doesn't want to use up her limited knowledge of various insects all in one swoop of hero activity!
I gotta say, her seamstress abilities should have been the envy of the neighborhood. Not only was the design absolutely perfect, but so was the fit... and it took her just an afternoon to make it! I've always wondered what the costume "wings" were made of?!
I gotta say, her seamstress abilities should have been the envy of the neighborhood. Not only was the design absolutely perfect, but so was the fit... and it took her just an afternoon to make it! I've always wondered what the costume "wings" were made of?!
Lana suited up again just 3 issues following her debut as Insect Queen. In Superboy (vol. 1) #127 (March 1966), Lana reveals her double identity and abilities to her father, Professor Lang. He decides to take advantage of her by taking her to Africa, where he's scheduled to assist a Dr. Pelham who happens to be researching insects. How convenient for both Lana and her dad!
Kim is distraught because, unlike Insect Queen, he can't change back to human form. Kim becomes angry and very anti-social until Superboy promises to look for a cure. (FYI, no cure was ever mentioned, and Bee Boy was never seen or referenced again.)
The next time we see Lana mention being Insect Queen, it is in Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #94 (July 1966). As an adult, Lana has apparently gone public about being Insect Queen since she discusses having used her bio ring on television earlier in the day.
When spider-abilities are needed quickly, Lana gives her ring to Jimmy Olsen (because she had already converted to a spider form earlier in the day!) to have him change into a spider lad. After the moment passes, Lana asks Jimmy to lock her ring up as she has to go somewhere. But of course, being the rapscallion he is, Jimmy instead wears it, and then the entire issue revolves around him using the bio ring to be a sort of Hero-for-a-day. By the end of the story, the bio ring is back in Lana's hands.
In Adventure Comics #355 (Feb. 1968), Superboy rewards Lana with a trip to the future. Lana brings along her Insect Queen suit and bio ring. After putting out a fire on a space shuttle (and possibly saving Dream Girl's life), she gets the idea to try out for membership in the Legion of Super-Heroes. And fortunately, the team just happens to be conducting an open membership drive!|
Alas, because her powers come from artificial means, she is rejected. (One has to wonder how she thought she would participate as an active member... what with living 1000 years in the past!)|
However, after assisting on a mission and saving the lives of several members, including Superboy, Lana is gifted with membership in the Legion Reserve.
Just a few months after being extended Legion Reservist status, Insect Queen gets the opportunity to participate in an actual Legion of Super-Heroes adventure. This happens in Adventure Comics #369 and #370 (1968). A classic Legion tale.
The four heroes assume human identities as they hide from Mordru's hunt for them and plan their next move. At one point, the four heroes (along with Ma and Pa Kent) subject themselves to a memory wipe to ensure Mordru can't find them.
Pete Ross, Clark Kent's best friend (who knows Clark's secret identity), enlists the aid of Lana Lang as Insect Queen. He reveals Superboy's identity to her, and with her help, they are able to return everyone's memory. Insect Queen continues to assist the Legion as they take on Mordru.
In the end, after Mordru is defeated, Superboy erases Lana's memory of his dual identity.
Our next stop on this tour comes from Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #69 (January 1969). This tale is set in the "present" thus, it features an adult Lana Lang.
After Lois's apartment is flooded, Lana Lang lets Lois temporarily move in with her. While Lois is visiting, she finds Lana's old Insect Queen costume. One night, Lois hears on the radio that a hero is needed to rescue a child from a burning building. She opts to put on Lana's costume and borrow her bio-ring and help out as "Bug-Belle"!
After Lois's public exploits as an Insect Queen, a female villain (Velvet O'Mara) from the Anti-Superman Squad steals the bio ring and also gains information on Kryptonian insects. Amazingly, whenever Velvet transforms into a Kryptonian insect, she also obtains Kryptonian powers!! (Holy ... there is no science to support this!!)
Ultimately, Lois explains what has happened to Lana. Lana and Lois both study up on Kryptonian insects; they suit up together as mutual Insect Queens (thankfully Lana sewed a spare suit!) and ultimately defeat Velvet and her Anti-Superman Squad.
After sharing the bio-ring, Lois passes it back to Lana as its sole owner and user.
After a five-year hiatus, Lana finally shows up as Insect Queen again in Superboy #205 (December 1974).
For Lana's birthday, Superboy allows her to accompany him to a 30th-century meeting of the Legion of Super-Heroes. However, after they arrive in the future, they are told that it's not a good time for a visit since Ultra Boy has gone insane and has tried to kill his Legion teammates.
After having a one-on-one clash with Ultra Boy, Superboy is convinced he can find a cure for his insanity from somewhere off Earth. But after Superboy leaves to find this antidote, Ultra Boy and Lana soon find themselves on the receiving end of a death squad composed of Legion members. Before they can be executed, Superboy returns and saves them.
It turns out that a villain named The Master was able to overcome the will of every Legion member other than Ultra Boy. With the help of Insect Queen and Superboy, Ultra Boy is finally able to defeat The Master, destroy his plans for universal domination, and return the rest of the Legionnaires to normalcy.
It would be another 6 years before we saw Lana as Insect Queen again. And this time, it was only in flashback when her origin was retold. This occurred in Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes #3 (March 1981).
In the last months of 1981, in Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 2) #281 and 282, we are treated to Lana's final outing as Insect Queen.
During the embarrassing Reflecto storyline, several Legionnaires go back in time to Superboy's Smallville. While there, they are arrested, and Lana takes it upon herself to help free them. They thank her for her assistance and then head back to the future... without her. For some unknown reason, the writer of this tale simply makes up the fact that Lana's transitions can only last for short periods, about an hour or so.
So, taking out the flashback origin and the Jimmy Olsen tale (where Lana doesn't actually use her bio ring), it appears that Lana only suited up as Insect Queen seven times! Were you to have asked me how many appearances she made as Insect Queen before I put this tour together... I would have banked on at least 20, if not more! I guess this is a testament to how good the few tales Insect Queen appeared actually were (or maybe it was just how many times they were reprinted!).
But lest you think our tour is ending here, fret not. This ride still has some curves and detours ahead!
We've covered Lana Lang's tenure as Insect Queen (1965 - 1981), or have we? Let's make a correction... we've covered Earth-One Lana's Insect Queen! But the Lana Lang of Earth-Two also had a brief stint as the Queen of Insects!In 1985, DC's groundbreaking maxi-series, Crisis on Infinite Earths, eliminated the DC multiverse and jettisoned many characters and concepts, creating a singular Earth where all their characters existed. The Lana Lang of Earth-Two was erased from history. Also erased from history was the notion that the remaining Lana Lang had ever been Insect Queen.
With that said, readers would see Lana in the Insect Queen outfit one additional time in 1999. In The Kingdom: Planet Krypton #1 (Feb 1999), a young woman named Rose, who works at Booster Gold's hero-themed restaurant, Planet Krypton, begins seeing the ghosts of numerous heroes who technically don't exist. These ghosts are later identified by Batman as being "echoes" of heroes from lost realities. Among them is the original Lana Lang Insect Queen.
Despite Lana's time as Insect Queen being wiped from history, that didn't mean that DC was done with keeping the copyright on the character's name. Nor were they finished tantalizing fans of the character with updated incarnations! From here, we will look at some of the many ways that DC Comics re-created Insect Queen following the erasure of Lana's tenure. First up is Lonna Leing (do I need to point out the obvious?! LOL!), who debuted in 1996. Following DC Comics's Zero Hour reboot, a new Insect Queen was introduced. She resides in the 30th Century future of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Lonna Leing is a heroine from the planet Xanthu (the homeworld of Legion member Star Boy). She is a member of a Xanthuan super team known as the Uncanny Amazers.
Ironically, this version of Insect Queen, not the original Lana version, holds the record for the most appearances in DC Comics.
In DC Rebirth continuity (beginning in 2016), Lana Lang becomes Superwoman. She and Lois Lane shared the powers of a Superman who apparently died. During a battle with Lena Luthor, and at a time when her powers were fluctuating, Lana was given a suit built by Natasha Irons to help her contain and control her powers. The specially designed armor was referred to as the "Insect Queen" and it resembled the suit that the Silver Age Lana Lang wore as the bio-ring-wielding heroine, Insect Queen. This armor debuted in 2017.
At first, she works as an enemy of Superman, but after learning she has been under the control of the Ultra-Humanite, Lana gains control and helps Superman beat his longtime villain. Superman is then able to break the Insect control by separating Lana from her broach.
This version of Insect Queen debuted in Superman Family #213 (December 1981).
Despite Lana's time as Insect Queen being wiped from history, that didn't mean that DC was done with keeping the copyright on the character's name. Nor were they finished tantalizing fans of the character with updated incarnations! From here, we will look at some of the many ways that DC Comics re-created Insect Queen following the erasure of Lana's tenure. First up is Lonna Leing (do I need to point out the obvious?! LOL!), who debuted in 1996. Following DC Comics's Zero Hour reboot, a new Insect Queen was introduced. She resides in the 30th Century future of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Lonna Leing is a heroine from the planet Xanthu (the homeworld of Legion member Star Boy). She is a member of a Xanthuan super team known as the Uncanny Amazers.
Lonna shares the abilities of the original Lana Lang version of Insect Queen, except her powers are innate rather than originating from a bio ring.
Another alternate version of Insect Queen appeared in the Amalgam line of comic book titles. If you aren't aware, Amalgam was a joint venture between Marvel and DC Comics (published from 1996 through 1998) where characters from the two companies were merged together to create a new "amalgam" character. For example, Dr. Strangefate was a character created by combining Marvel's Dr. Strange and DC's Dr. Fate.
First appearing in 1996, this heroine is a combination of Lana Lang's Insect Queen and the Marvel character Mary Jane Watson. She obtained her powers from a meteorite's radiation, which altered her DNA. She ultimately marries Spider-Boy (an amalgam of Superboy and Spider-Man). In a possible future, she might be the mother of a heroine known as Spider-Lass.
In WF3 #1 from 1996, Superboy's girlfriend Roxy dresses up as Insect Queen for a costume party.
Our next alternative Insect Queen was never seen, only mentioned. From 1992 through 2011 (following the Crisis), what was formerly known as Earth-Three became known as the Anti-matter Earth. Despite the name change, it remained the home world of Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, etc.
Anti-matter Earth (just as with the previous Earth-Three) is a sort of "reverse Earth". The doppelgangers of heroes on other Earths are villains. Subsequently, the characters who are typically villains on other Earths are the heroes of Anti-matter Earth. The primary heroes of this world formed the Justice Underground. One of the JU's fallen members was a heroic version of Zazzala. Zazzala is typically a villain known as Queen Bee, but on Anti-matter Earth, she was the hero known as Insect Queen! She was never visually seen but merely referenced in JLA Secret Files and Origins 2004.
Yet another alternative version of Insect Queen came on the DC scene in 2008. This Insect Queen was part of an alien "All Hive". Because she represented a threat to the All Hive's reigning queen, she and some of her followers were banished to Earth. She joined forces with Lex Luthor. He helps her take over the Earth, and in exchange, she puts her drones to work finding more samples of kryptonite for Lex.
Eventually, she inserts a portion of her DNA into Lana Lang and takes control of her body for a while, until Lana is eventually freed by Supergirl.
In DC Rebirth continuity (beginning in 2016), Lana Lang becomes Superwoman. She and Lois Lane shared the powers of a Superman who apparently died. During a battle with Lena Luthor, and at a time when her powers were fluctuating, Lana was given a suit built by Natasha Irons to help her contain and control her powers. The specially designed armor was referred to as the "Insect Queen" and it resembled the suit that the Silver Age Lana Lang wore as the bio-ring-wielding heroine, Insect Queen. This armor debuted in 2017.
We've seen the Insect Queen of Earths One, Two, and Three, but what about the Insect Queen of Earth-66, home of the Dozierverse Batman (based on the William Dozier produced 1966 Batman television series)? Earth-66's Insect Queen had a tiny cameo appearance in Batman 66 Meets the Legion of Super-Heroes #1 (2017). She appears to be an active member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in that universe.
The most recent appearance of an alternative version of the Insect Queen came in 2024. This one comes from the TV-series, Kite Man: Hell Yeah!
She made two appearances. Whether she is a unique new character or intended to be an animated version of an existing comic book version of Insect Queen is unknown.
The legendary comic book writer Otto Binder penned the original story where Lana Lang assisted the tree-trapped alien and was rewarded with her bio ring. DC fans are still being treated to incarnations of Otto's character, Insect Queen, sixty years later!
We now bring this tour to its conclusion! Have your ticket punched as you depart, and we shall roll out another comic book tour soon!
Lana Lang, Insect Queen, and all related characters, names, and elements and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of DC Comics, Inc.
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