Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Yeah, only in WWitLSH, he actually visits Pocket Universe Krypton!
So, he goes off to explore space, somehow ends up crossing over to the Pocket Universe, lands on one of the only two inhabited planets in the PU, finds out this planet (Krypton) is about to blow up, gets a map to the other inhabited planet, winds up in suspended animation on his way there, finally lands but with amnesia, meets the son of the guy who gave him the map and is mistaken for the kid's older brother, regains his memory after being massively poisoned, is put in the "Phantom Zone" for 1000 years, and is finally released and cured of his poisoning in his home dimension.
Hmm.... maybe that "Valor" stuff isn't so convoluted after all...
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
So how long was he in suspended animation? Same time as Superman it seems. So Mon-El is from the distant past?
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
I don't think there was any suspended animation in the Silver Age Superman origin.
So, Mon-El was born in, like, the early 1910s, visited Krypton in the late 1930s, was in suspended animation for about 15 years, landed on Earth in the 1950s, was in the Phantom Zone for 1000 years, and freed in the 30th century.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I understand some issues with the storytelling style; I will say, however, that this is one of my favorite Legion stories. I thought it was a beautiful example of a retcon that made sense and really answered a fundamental 30th Century question: Why do people from different planets, although all of them are basically humanlike, have different powers? The Silver Age explanations for how these powers developed was not really holding up very well, and it also established why Valor was such an important figure. I don't really consider it to be a "Mon-El replaces Superboy" story.
-------------------- The only consistent feature of all of your dissatisfying relationships is you.
Don't judge me!
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
armsfalloffboy, i agree. I think that was the main reason for it. Why do all these worlds have human characters that are very earthlike. I hope that story still stands somehow.
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
The problem is it doesn't really explain that, though. You've still got tons of planets that are basically inhabited by humans (Thanagar, Rann, Krypton, Daxam, many others), with or without powers, that have nothing to do with Valor. If you've got a universe where you've got tons of planets that are inhabited by humans, I don't see anything weird at all about some of those planets having people that develop powers without some unifying explanation for how specifically those powered races got there.
Basically, you're trying to explain why there are super-powered humanoid aliens out there by saying "a super-powered humanoid alien did it", but that's no explanation at all.
[ June 15, 2007, 01:59 PM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I understand that point but those planets that the survivors inhabited are all Legion related planets. Daxam, Thanagar, Krypton, Rann we all know existed.
I don't remember anything about Winath, Tharok, Braal, Naltor mentioned in the 20th century.
What planets exactly did they explained were colonized by the human survivors anyways? It wasn't that many was it? Starhaven probably needed an explanation.
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
(though i'm sure it was mentioned in a PC Superman comic. He was meeting aliens from every other planet it seems. And they looked just like the boy next door) *blah messed up my post*
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Yeah, but before the late 80s (not long before the "Valor" retcon was introduced) we hadn't seen anything about the Dominion, Khundia, Durla, et al. in the 20th century, either. Legion planets just weren't used in the twentieth century pre-Crisis.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I kind of wish Legion planets are not used by the current DCU myself. We see Khunds, Durlans, Coluans, Dominators popping up everywhere. And there isn't much of a difference between them in the current DCU and 1000 years in the future.
I guess Invasion! introduced the Dominators and Khunds to the "present" time. Damn Giffen!
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Yeah, I think one of the biggest problems with comics (at least DC) is that all of the "sci-fi" settings seem to be basically the same. So, if you travel to the 22nd century or the 30th, there's not a whole lot of difference, and they both look pretty much like most alien planets you visit.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Exactly. The only example I can think of is the Durlans are shown to be hi-tech and in the future they are not?
Also the Khunds are slightly more barbaric than in the future version. but in the future they still are barbaric.
I guess many of the present races/planets like Tamaranians, Psions, half the members of the Omega Men and L.E.G.I.O.N. are not represented in the Legion future.
What happened to them?
"Only the children of Gand survive. Only the children of Gand."
And people think he's not a savior.
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Square Peg, Round Hole. This is exactly why I didn't like the retcon. Having Man-el/Valor take over the Superboy stuff in continuity wasn't a good fit because their characters were so extremely different.
Mon-el was slightly morose and haunted by his time in the past. He took so much joy in his friends and relationships because they were the only thing that eased his pain, yet he was still prone to wanderlust and isolation.
Superboy was, well, Superboy. Youthful, energetic and a heroic inspiration, mostly because of the first two traits. Trying to take the "inspiring" part and graft it onto Mon-el just didn't work. I'll stop now because I sound like a broken record.
From: Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada | Registered: Sep 2004
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
It kind of makes sense that a lot of the planets that might be important in the 31st century would be different than the planets that are important in the 21st century.
I mean... if you think about it on analogy with countries... how many countries that are powerful today were really all that important/powerful 1000 years ago?
You could add something into the background of the Legion about how a bunch of planets all develop space travel about the same time in, say, the 29th century, which leads these "young planets" to form the United Planets.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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