From point A to point B

I get it.  Legion of Super-Heroes is supposed to be about... super-heroes.  Unfortunately, it's set 1000 years into the future, which means it will have to border on science fiction.  There has always been elements of sci-fi in Legion stories (advanced science, alien races, space travel) but they were never really thought out much.

I've somewhat touched upon this in my transuit and Dawnstar posts.  It's never made sense for Legionnaires to be flying around through space, especially Daxamite/Kryptonians because of this whole speed of light thing.  There have been references how the Legion lore was influenced by Star Trek, especially in the design of some of their cruisers and technology.

Many older fans are familiar with this image.  The parallels to Star Trek are pretty obvious here as it notes Impulse engines, Warp Engines, Transporter Room - all design elements from Star Trek, though I don't really think we ever saw Transporters used much as these ships were capable of landing. It is interesting to note how the Legionnaires have to man the Engineering section.  All things considered, perhaps there were some missed opportunities here.  It was always stated that Sun Boy was one of their best pilots.  What if they needed civilian support staff?  Wildfire was an astro-engineer so perhaps he should have been admitted based on his knowledge of engineering, not what powers he actually had as ERG-1.  

Warp travel aside, we also had hyperdrive technology.  It appears hyperdrive tech is used in the 21st century DCU though but there was one in-panel reference in the 70s to hyperdrive.  In the Dawnstar initiation story, we have Dawnstar following thieves through a space warp.  Now, was that more like a wormhole, something that occurs naturally, or was it caused by the ships?

In the Fatal Five story, we also see Ferro Lad used a jump ship. I would assume that would be based on folding space tech.  This is also noted to be experimental tech.

One of the most used tech used has been Stargates.  They factored prominently during the Reboot and was part of a significant storyline.  Stargates themselves are generally regarded as a type of wormhole travel, although, they could be part of a larger part of some type of tunnel system. Geoff Johns did have the Legion using Stargates in his Superman and LSH story.  

We have also seen transmat used briefly in the Threeboot as a method of instantaneous transport without a ship, but it was noted to be very expensive.

Wikipedia has a very nice reference of different FTL travel methods in TV and other fiction.  Hyperspace   If you do go to the Wikipedia page, it has a see-also to Boom Tube. Boom Tubes currently will allow for point A to point B travel, without necessarily going to Apokolips.  Cyborg has this tech but potentially, it could be incorporated into other tech and make its way to the 31st century.  

The inconsistencies of travel

So this has been one of my biggest pet peeves.  Superman writers have been much more cognizant of his ability to travel near the speed of limit by noting that he can only travel from the Sun to the Earth, in that it takes about 8 minutes. Legion writers, not so much.  We have Legionnaires traveling too distant worlds not using a ship.  A trip to Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our sun, would take 4.22 light years.  YEARS. There really is no way for the "power squad" or whatever you would like to call them to travel to distant worlds without a ship.  And just consider, throwing relativity out the window for a second, that if they could travel several times the speed of light, that they wouldn't be exhausted from their trip?  Even Superman would need to recharge.  Meanwhile, the Legion has SuperBOY,  who hasn't developed the stores of energy that adult Kal has, doing this.  So when it is written that Dawnstar is faster than a Legion cruiser, she potentially could be, until that cruiser engages its hyperdrive.  It makes me question who ever decided that Dawnstar, Wildfire and others should fly along side Legion cruisers.  It's a fun visual, but really isn't well thought-out. Even Stargates require a ship to use to power them up so a cruiser would have to accompany the "power squad." 

And furthermore with Ultra Boy, he should never be able to travel at the same speed as Daxamites and Kryptonians as he relies on a transuit to protect him through space.  If those things can stand the stresses of traveling at the speed of light, makes one wonder why they don't build stuff out of transuit material.  Well, I guess they did with Earth's polymer screen.

The future needs to be imaginative.  I think some writers have been more successful than others over the years. With fantastic technology, the challenge is finding a place for your characters who are supposed to be "super." How to get the Legion to move at the speed of Plot becomes more of a footnote but maybe figuring that out helps to figure out which characters should be in the next version and which characters need updated or need to be moved on out of the Legion.