posted
When the Legionnaires defeat Darkseid in LSH v2 #294, he curses them with "The curse of darkness growing within you, destroying you from within … and that which is purest of you shall be the first to go !"
Obviously the first part refers to the fact that the "curse" is one of Imra's future children... but what is "that which is purest of you"? Does that refer to Lyle (i.e. the first and only Legionnaire who Validus killed), or what?
-------------------- Aaron Kashtan/Sir Tim Drake
From: Providence, RI | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
Atually Lyle being killed by Validus happened long before Darkseid made the scene. And long before Validus was ret-conned.
I think the "purest of you" is referencing the baby Darkseid steals.
-------------------- Five billion years from now the Sun will go nova and obliterate the Earth. Don't sweat the small stuff!
From: Boston | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Wasn't Light Lass the first Legionnaire to leave after the curse?
I took it that he meant her.
Or else Karate Kid, who was the next to leave... in a more permanent fashion.
I'm forgetting Mentalla, though. 'Pure' doesn't really describe her, though. Not that she was 'impure', just not pure in the way you could argue Ayla and Val were, in different ways.
Oh, did Sir Tim Drake mean the *fake* Lyle in the Dream Dimension? Maybe Lyle *was* there all along-- and Darkseid's curse caused the Dream Demon (that was it's name, wasn't it? Could've been 'Dreamon'...) to take Lyle's place, hiding him from Wildfire, etc.s' view... All those years, maybe Lyle *could've* been alive and a member!
I always somewhat disliked that storyline... especially compared to what surrounded it. Now, I feel a bit better about it-- and worse!
From: Knoxville, TN | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Alas, we'll never know the answer for sure, unless Paul Levitz tells us what he meant by the curse.
There's probably a good chance that Levitz himself didn't have anything specific in mind. The curse may have been just a device to keep us guessing (like Londo's five predictions on "Babylon 5"). After all, "pure" and "to go" are vague enough terms that can apply to any number of characters (Ayla, Val, even Magnetic Kid).
However, Darkseid's wording -- "that which is purest of you" -- led me to believe he wasn't refering to a specific person, but maybe an aspect or ideal of the Legion. Perhaps the loss of this aspect or ideal led to the Legion's disintegration during the Five Years Gap.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I wonder how did it lead into another story - "the Quiet Darkness" - does it signify the death of Darkseid?
From: Hayward, CA | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
The 1986 annual provides no answers, either. In that story Ol-Vir follows Validus around wondering how Darkseid's curse will ultimately be fulfilled and we're teased with the possibilities that he might kill more Legionnaires, his parents or his brother, or be killed by his own father. But in the end it turns out to be little more than an elaborate practical joke. Darkseid has his belly-laugh, gives little Val back to his parents, and everybody goes home.
The whole thing was one of Levitz's less stellar ideas, imo, made even worse by the next creative team, who just couldn't leave bad enough alone.
From: Reimagined Trom | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
I always took it that the key point was Imra's acknowledge that she needed the darkness, needed the evil, which should've have ramifications down the line.
TMK, though, as I understood it, try to fulfill the curse through the whole "Validus Plague" idea, which also never really got developed.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
You know what would make a great story? Imagine if Darkseid's curse turned out to have the effect of creating all these reboots and other calamities the Legion has encountered since then - the removal of Superboy, the Mordruverse, Zero Hour, the time calamity in the Titans/Legion Special... but the idea of the Legion is just too strong to be defeated by any of these things, and keeps coming back.
But I've always taken it to mean exactly what EDE has said above.
I'll tell you though, and I'm probably in the vast minority, if there was ever a story about how Darkseid cursed the Legion and they could 'break' the curse to come out as they were at the GDS, I'd be like a six year old kid at Xmas. And when I was actually a six year old kid at Xmas in real life, GDS was a couple of years old by then...
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Although, perhaps the curse was that one day Legion fans would be forced to read DnA's Darkseid Legion story? That bastard! He really did curse us!
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Cobalt Kid: Although, perhaps the curse was that one day Legion fans would be forced to read DnA's Darkseid Legion story? That bastard! He really did curse us!
Yeah, Foundations was crap, but not THAT crap!
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
Well, I certainly didn't like it, but its a pure tongue in cheek comment . I personally feel like that one was purely editorial driven but have no evidence to back it up. I feel like it partially killed the reboot, but thats neither here nor there...
One thing I always wanted to see explored was a further back and forth b/t Mordru and Darkseid in some way. It felt like there was a connection there that could be followed up on (not a 'secret' per se, just something there given that Mordru was in the 2 Darkseid Levitz stories).
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Cobalt Kid: I personally feel like that one was purely editorial driven but have no evidence to back it up.
I think so too, and have said so in the past - the way Darkseid got written off in Dream Crime, and the way that the Cadets & Mekt threads from #25 got dropped so hard (along with all the other plots, including Thom and Cub - note that, from #26-on, Foundations is the only DnA arc not to stem out of something in Lost, Worlds or the earlier issues - and the Worlds #3 lead was still to be followed up on, and #25 put Cos near Braal...) suggests Mr. Whacker was bearing down hard on them to do a Darkseid arc, and perhaps outright telling them what to do, and their heart wasn't in it.
quote:Originally posted by Cobalt Kid: I feel like it partially killed the reboot, but thats neither here nor there...
Well, technically, sales went up, but the quality certainly dipped - although it got better again for the last Singularity two parter. I still really, really wish we'd got to see DnA's #34-36 to tie up the Cub arc, and don't see why Whacker ordered them off at #33 when there were still five issues left...
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
Seriously though, I always thought the curse was referring to the run of bad luck and character deaths the Legion had throughout the Baxter series, beginning with the death of Karate Kid.
It could be argued that since Karate Kid fought with basically nothing more than the human spirit and no superpowers that he was the purest.
Follow that up with the deaths of Superboy and SuperGirl and...there are definite signs of a curse of the pure.
And as someone else mentioned...Darkseid could have also been referring to when Invisible Kid was killed originally.
I never looked at it as Validus himself being the curse...only part of it. The part that hurt Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl? His return could have signalled the end of it though...or not.
Cosmic Boy's little brother also got killed...can't remember if that was after Darkseid lifted the curse or not though.
But to me the Legion was definitely cursed in the Baxter series era...their history was destroyed and so were some of my favorite characters...whether that was intentional by Levitz or not...there's no doubt that Darkseid's curse turned out to be eerily prophetic, as the Legion Universe was deconstructed and dismantled during the Baxter run. It was a well written and character indepth deconstruction and dismantling, but it was a deconstruction and dismantling nontheless.
[ June 02, 2006, 01:26 PM: Message edited by: Superboy ]
Registered: Mar 2006
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. I personally feel like that one was purely editorial driven but have no evidence to back it up. I feel like it partially killed the reboot, but thats neither here nor there...
