This is the real-life history of the creation and development of the LNH as a shared universe and writing group. For the in-character history, see History of the Looniverse.
1992
Back in May '92, on rec.arts.comics, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes started a trend of posters claiming a superheroic net.persona, calling themselves members of the Legion of Net.Heroes. Someone (who was obviously having a bad day) declared himself "Dr. Killfile" and threatened to killfile all of them. Ben Pierce responded by calling for all net.heroes to join forces against Dr. Killfile and his Brotherhood of Evil.Net.Villains. At least forty-four people responded to this call. Craig Thomas Judd, as Manga Man, chose instead to be the first villainous WC; he put it upon himself to collect the first forty-four or so posts together and give them a semblance of plot. So was begun the Cosmic Plot Device Caper.
There are three versions of the Cosmic Plot Device Caper: the original version, Martin Phipps's 2002 version, and Drizzt's post-Cry.Sig version. The post-Cry.Sig version was meant to replace the original, but doing so would have contradicted 501 Blues: A Lurk of Faith. One contribution Drizzt did make to canon was to establish in The Cosmic Conspiracy that the Cosmic Plot Device had been "shattered and discarded". This ending was added to the CPDC when Martin reposted it in 2002 as an eight-part miniseries. As well, he added a prologue and an epilogue, as well as bits of story that had been posted in the original thread, but not included in the original collection.
Two and a half months after the CPDC had stopped (as opposed to finished), Todd Kogutt tried to find out who was still around out of all those who had originally got involved in the LNH. It turned out that only about a dozen of them were still active on the net; the remainder of the CPDC characters were eventually considered "Public Domain". Todd decided to make do with what characters there were, plus create some more, making himself the first person to claim multiple WCs. This then became 501 Blues: The Long Road to Nowhere.
With TLRtN having come out, the LNH was less of a joke. New people came along with their own LNH stories, and with about fourteen people involved in the LNH in one form or another, the LNH was just starting to get organised. Meanwhile, Scavenger decided to form a Council of Elders which included everybody except for Gary St. Lawrence, Jameel al Khafiz, and the writers of Integrity Quest. The latter were not considered "elder" at the time; the Integrity Questers were omitted due to... well...
Ah, yes. I refer you now to sections 4.1-4.2 of the FAQ where it refers to "explicit sex, profanity" being "frowned upon" and how "Porno stories' are NOT allowed." Seems a reference to a certain part of the male anatomy being in an excited state was considered explicit, profane, even pornographic by some writers. This was the "Woody Scandal". Thus were all of the Integrity Questers excluded from the ranks of the Elders, even though Doug was the only one actually guilty of pushing the envelope (at first).
(An alternative view of someone who was around at the time: Doug threw in a semi-explicit sex scene in the middle of what had been a good story with no warning. I wrote him a heated letter about it, he posted to get the general feeling of the LNH on it. Basically, most other people -- wReam being the only exception that springs to mind -- didn't care. Hubert objected on the grounds that Panta should be unattainable, the story was retconned away, and the advisement about labeling was added to the proto-FAQ. Doug and I made peace, everyone went away happy as far as I know. Dunno why certain people have to harp on this piece of LNH history that was really nothing more than private email. -- Drizzt)
In the interests of peace and harmony - well, actually because he didn't have enough time to finish it on his own - Drizzt got together himself, Stephane Savoie, Mike Caprio, Jef The KaTeFan and Gary to do THE FLAME WARS. It was significant in that it was the first multi-writer effort that had an actual plot that was worked out in advance (by Drizzt).
Then heroes started dropping like flies: Lost Cause Boy died in the Lost Cause Boy Special, Continuity Champ died in Blaze of Glory and even new writer Martin Phipps's Generic Man (tm) found himself in a state of discontinued life in Generic Man (tm) #7... only to return, miraculously, in Generic Man (tm) #8. Any similarities between these stories and The Death of Superman is, of course, pure coincidence.
1993
In In Pursuit of the Net.Villains, a set of what-were-then-known-as-Public Domain characters and Deja Dude decided to singlehandedly go after the Brotherhood of Net.Villains. This dovetailed nicely with wReam's plans, which involved having the Legion question the leadership of Ultimate Ninja... who was taking over the leadership of the LNH after the departure of Rebel Yell as a result of A Lurk of Faith. This lead to the Leadership Crisis, which had Ultimate Ninja officially assuming authority as leader of the LNH.
Around this time, interaction between writers really began to ramp up. The Crossover Caper (by Jef, Jameel, Mike Escutia and Martin) was the first LNH mini-series since Electrocutioner's Song to involve a storyline that ran over several different titles, and wReam, Martin, and Hubert's Jungle Cheesecake was the second. Meanwhile, Jameel, Mike and Andre Condon had their own continuity going in Particle Man, Pliable Lad, and Kid Chivalry, respectively, and Deja Dude/Master Blaster #6 featured the climactic battle between Pocket Man and Master Blaster for the love of Organic Lass, as well as the first appearance of Gary's Elvis Man.
Summertime meant that fewer people were on the net: it also meant that those who were around had more time to write. Mike, Dave, Ken Schmidt and Jameel put out a considerable amount of stuff over the summer. Continuity Champ returned in THE FLAME WARS II (by Drizzt, Gary, Mike Caprio, Martin and Josh), leading into Continuity Champ & The Drizzt's Defenders, Drizzt's first ongoing title.
In the fall, the Wrath of the Administrator cascade not only created the Net.Trenchcoat Brigade, but lead into the Bad Forms crossover in the LNH. Looniverse Adrift, a multi-writer storyline largely within a single title, gave the LNH a cosmic threat to deal with, put the focus on the NWCs, and seemingly killed off Tsar Chasm.
1994
The Omaha Project (by Ben R. Pierce, Russ Allbery, Christopher J. Sypal, Rob Rogers, David R. Henry, Mike Escutia and Arthur Spitzer) had various Legionnaires (Easily Discovered Man, Easily Discovered Man Lite, Pliable Lad, Parking Karma Kid and Tour Guide Girl) being sent to Omaha to investigate an explosion.
Jeff McCoskey (with help from Ken, Hubert, Dave and Steve Hutchinson) wrote LNH Triple Play #3, the Valentine Ball. Saint Squad #2 (by Gary) then had Pocket Man propose to Organic Lass. They were married in Giant Sized LNH #6 (by Martin and Gary with Rebecca Drayer). Meanwhile, Pencil Rain was working for the Waffle Queen (in Rob and Jameel's Breakfast in America crossover), robots were invading (in Dave Van Domelen, Arthur Spitzer, Robert Armstrong, Rob Rogers and Mike Escutia's Robot Invasion crossover) and the LNH Registration Act had passed (a storyline that was resolved in Drizzt's Continuity Champ and The Drizzt's Defenders #12 and Martin's LNH #83). Then, in LNH #85, Squid Boy (who had only recently taken up the identity of Squidman in Constellation #24-25) died from a mysterious virus. Squid Boy's funeral took place in LNH #86 and Constellation #26.
It was around this time that a lot of new blood was joining the Legion, specifically in Decibel Dude and Vigilantee Guy by Tick, Swordmaster and the Load Island Renegades by Badger, Glitch Girl and the Alt.ter.Net.tives by Marie Antoon, Johnny Stomper by Josh, Coma Kid and Continuity Champ Junior by Mystic Mongoose and Generation Y by Martin. Meanwhile, Squid Boy returned from the dead in Constellation #29; with his former mentor now having become a trademarked character, Squid Boy chose to continue on in the Legion as Squidman.
Retcon Hour was quite simply the biggest crossover the LNH had attempted up to that time, and ended up as the most chaotic and ludicrous. Twelve different writers worked on it, the plot itself changed directions several times, and it spanned across July and August of 1994. The biggest result was introduction of two new LNH subgroups, The Legion of Occult Heroes (by Paul Hardy) and Dvandom Force (by Dave).
Crisis of Infinite Sidekicks, a pre-planned, tightly-plotted crossover between three writers, was written as a response to the excesses of Retcon Hour, and Retcon Midnight was inspired in a different way, showing an alternate universe where Pliable Lad had never existed.
and Pliable Lad #30 which described the wedding of Pliable Lad to Tour Guide Girl.
1995
Many new writers appeared during the year following Retcon Hour: Campbell March (Guitarless Man), Saxon Brenton (Limp-Asparagus Lad), Rene Villareal (Dog Boy), Ben Rawluk (Kid Mysticism and the Net.Titans), Mike Friedman (Spite Grrrl), Eric Gearman (Leftover Lad), Jamas Enright (Fan.Boy), Jennifer Whitson (Misfits), Ian Porrell (Kid Kiwi's Kommandos) and Abhay Khosla (Refugees of Net.ropolis). Meanwhile, Chris Gumprich had become the official RACC reviewer, as well as, eventually, the writer of R.E.J.E.C.T.S..
Crimes of the Brotherhood (by Jeff McCoskey, Martin Phipps, Badger, Tick, Drizzt, Mike Friedman, Jaelle, Rob Rogers and Scott Johnson) proved to be the LNH's most lackluster crossover in years with the Brotherhood of Net.Villains making ineffective attacks against the Legion. The surprise, and somewhat anticlimactic, ending of the storyline came in Continuity Champ and The Drizzt's Defenders #22 which revealed [[Mr. Homage]] to be none other than the Robbing Lie-fild. With their leader captured, the remaining members of the Brotherhood turned to Lagneto for leadership and relocated to Asteroid L. Meanwhile, Sig.Lad's funeral took place, Sig.Lad having been killed in Dvandom Force #48 while doing battle with an evil Sig.Lad from an alternate future.
[[Catalytic Conversions]]
[[Swordmaster/Legion of Occult Heroes]]
[[Dvandom Force/Team Mecha]]
[[Culinary Disasters]]
[[Flame Wars III]]
1996
1997
1998
1999
In 1999, several well-known and well-regarded series ended. In Tales of the LNH #370, Panta was retconned out of existence, sacrificing herself to save the Looniverse from the Collector. Dvandom Force ended with issue #100, Fan.Boy ended with issue #22, and The Continuing Adventures of Brain Boy ended with issue #35.
[[Birth of a Villain]]
'00s
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2006 was the beginning of a minor renaissance in LNH stories. 450 stories were posted that year, and while many of these were Haiku Gorilla-style short-short stories, it was still a significant amount of storytelling.
'10s
2010
2011
Near the end of the year, Arthur Spitzer came up with the idea of doing a 20th anniversary event for the LNH, and Rob Rogers proposed a reboot that would parody DC's Flashpoint/"New 52" reboot. Things quickly snowballed, and in the third-busiest month in RACC's history, the LNH20 imprint was created (along with Martin Phipps's LNHX Origins.