Salu Digby aka Shrinking Violet was born on 30th Century Earth to Imskian parents, inheriting their native ability to shrink to microscopic size. Salu grew up a very quiet and shy young girl. Despite this, she decided to attempt to join the Legion of Super-Heroes. Salu tried out for membership at the same time as Bouncing Boy and Sun Boy.

At that very same tryout, Supergirl and Brainiac 5 joined the Legion, admitted right away for their impressive powers. Due to her lack of confidence Salu failed in her first attempt to join. Triplicate Girl saw something special about this miniature applicant and convinced her to try again. Salu proved her mettle and became thirteenth member of the Legion.

Shrinking Violet proved a very useful Legionnaire though very shy around new people. Salu started a long-distance relationship with Duplicate Boy, of the Heroes of Lallor. Salu stayed true to Duplicate Boy even when pursued romantically by fellow Legionnaire Colossal Boy. Salu took Duplicate Boy to her home planet of Imsk on vacation, but was attacked by the Fatal Five. After the couple was rescued by the Legion, Colossal Boy again showed an interest in Salu, but she chose to return to her one true love Duplicate Boy.

The planet Imsk's relationship with the United Planets has always been strained. Imsk threatened to secede from the United Planets over a dispute involving hunting rights.

When Earth's and the solar system was struck by a mysterious shrinking plague, the United Planets accused the Imskians and tensions grew between Salu and the rest of the Legionnaires. The Legion of Super-Heroes eventually discovered that the plague was engineered by Dr. Regulus and they worked together to stop him.

After a few years of service to the Legion, she was abducted by Imskian radicals led by Micro Lad who wished to replace her with a Durlan named Yera who used her native shape shifting abilities to assume her identity.

Element Lad who at the time was the Legions appointed deputy leader, and Science Police liaison Shvaughn Erin became suspicious of the fake Salu when Yera fell in love with Colossal Boy, who had unrequited crush on the real Salu for years. The Durlan's charade was exposed and Salu was rescued from the Imskian radicals by the team.

When she recovered from her abduction, Salu resumed her position as a Legionnaire. The incident changed her personality making her more cynical and more violent to criminals. This lead her to learn various fighting techniques making her one of the skilled Legionnaire's in hand-to-hand combat. It was also after she had recovered from her confinement that she broke up with Duplicate Boy, who had known that her replacement was a Durlan and not her, but didn't let anyone in the Legion know about it.

Currently Salu is dating fellow Legionnaire, Lightning Lass.[1]


  • Imskian Physiology: A native of the planet Imsk, Salu shares the hereditary trait of reducing her size.
    • Size Alteration: Salu Digby possesses the ability to shrink from normal human size to sub-atomic sizes, and any size in between. She retains most of her physical strength even at smaller sizes.[2]




  • This version of Salu Digby (Pre-Zero Hour), including all history and corresponding appearances, was erased from existence following the collapse of the original Multiverse in the 1985–86 Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series. Even though versions of the character may have since appeared, this information does not apply to those versions.



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Legion of Super-Heroes member

Bronze Age Legion of Super-Heroes
This character is exclusive to the continuity of the original Legion of Super-Heroes universe and its variations.

The original LSH universe and its variations are from between their first appearance to Zero Hour and from Lightning Saga and beyond. Any official designation for the home universe for this character has not been given, and thus this page may have to be moved in the future. In the meantime, it's designated as "Pre-Zero Hour".