Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Return of the Levitz/Giffen team for LSH in 2013

About the "hand on the cover" identity question, it could also be Darkseid, I suppose. Paul and Keith have made significant use of the character more than once in the past, after all.

In the alternative, maybe it's Blok. Just a couple of guesses for our consideration.

Giant hand = Mega-Mano!

I'd like to see Jacques have his multi-dimension powers come back again. Not only would he be able to be invisible by light, but he could sneak around by dropping in and out of dimensions. Lyle Norg also experienced this with his ghost girlfriend way back...

I don't know what to say about the Fatal Five being retconned as just making their first appearance. Honestly, I have to say I trust Paul with whatever comes.

Sometimes, a power upgrade is actually organic. For instance, Luornu may have always had the power to make multiples -- just wasn't aware of it. Perhaps, that's why she didn't die when her first triplet was killed.

I think it's high time some of the Legionnaires learned how to user their powers efficiently. Dream Girl having to take a nap?! Please, let's push those boundaries and let her use her powers while in combat, fer cryin' out loud.

And why should Jo need to use all of his ultra energy for one power at a time. Why not half- strength and half-invulnerability -- when necessary?

And can we please let Shady do more than block out light? I mean, those powers are mystical in origin, you'd think they'd be a bit more useful -- especially as an offense.

And by now, Lyda should be over the artifical light weakness. Surely, he genius of a father, could have conqurered that weakness by now!

I personally would hate for the legionnaires to lose their unique limitations...it's what makes them so appealing to me, that they have quirky powers which can save the day but a lot of the time their cunning/intellect/resourcefulness is what REALLY saves the day.

Two of my favourite LSH moments are Brainy throwing the Infinite Man at the Time Trapper to deal with them both, and powerless Rokk's dinner with Mordru in an early 5YL issue.

I think removing their quirks makes them more generic and loses their charm....Night Girl without her weakness to light is just another strong woman...

I agree up to a point. My problem at the moment is that Levitz is reducing Legionnaires power levels (such as Jan) or making the Legionnaires look inept. Most of the Legionnaires have been fighting bad-asses for years so for example Jan not turning oxygen to helium as routine before facing off seems a bit dumb to say the least.

And some of the restrictions on powers would have been got around by Legion technology. For example Lydda's trans-suit could block out light to make her powerful in any conditions as long as her trans-suit is intact

I think Levitz made great use of Element Lad and Chemical Kid in LSH #14. They were creative and inventive, and worked as a team.

What they could also do is, to further work that angle, is have Jaques declared dead, which would make Jaques even less expected, because who would be prepared for a ghost?

Ah, but [fanwank] would people fall for that again, after Lyle and Condo faked their deaths and formed the Secret Legion?[/fanwank]

They sort of did that with postboot Jacques, as I recall, though he was a spy rather than a member of the Legion.

My theory is Phantom Girl has been kidnapped and replace with Phantom Lad on Profem. Hence, the "don't touch" comment.
With the return of the Fatal Five, who has the time to take medication?

Newsarama interview with Levitz.

Nothing really new.

Would be a nice homage to Dirk being the one to figure out that Garth was really Ayla.

Figures that Dirk would be the one to develop the talent to tell biological females from Profem females!

Well, Paul states that the Legion has previously faced members of the Fatal Five (which remember, they were being called before any of the villains ever met) just never all together at once. This easily allows most of past LSH history to exist. During the Sun-Eater crisis, Jeckie was never able to find the Persuader (the one FF member not in mortal danger) thus only Tharok, Emerald Empress, Mano, and Validius were present when Ferro Lad sacrificed himself. Months later, the Fatal Four escape Talok VIII and their attempt to conquer the UP fails but not before Tharok takes Validus under his control. From then on, Tharok forges a tenuous alliance of convience with the Persuader and the others but various circumstances conspire against the Legion ever fully confronting the full complement of the Fatal Five. Lyle is still crushed by Validus answering the beacon of Tharok's brain fragments, and Sarya still kills herself with Jeckie's help prior to the Magic Wars...

Nrama: And you already said "no one is safe." That sounds like someone is going to die.

Giffen: Yeah, it does, doesn't it?

Nrama: Can you describe the story you guys are telling over the next few months?

Giffen: Without giving away too much, the next few months is a Fatal Five story. And we'll begin to inject real consequence into the Legion book. We'll make it harder to do things in the 30th Century.

hmmmmmmm

I have a feeling that we will lose a few long time Legionnaires and that the emphasis will be placed on the younger members of the team. And we will likely see new members.

Yeah, if they give us this "no one is safe" spiel, and then do something predictable like kill off one of the new kids or an inactive Legionnaire or something, it's going to seem pretty lame.

My gut tells me the two most likely candidates are Cosmic Boy and Element Lad. Rokk is the only active founder, and killing him would really put the team through the ringer. Jan has mostly been seen in the mentor relationship with Chemical Kid lately, and his death would eliminate the semi-redundancy of their powers, as well as proving a possible turning point for Hadru.

Brainiac Five would be really daring, and we've seen Levitz and Giffen flirt with a Brainy-less Legion during their last collaboration, so it's not impossible, but I just don't see it actually happening.

Of course, they may just fall back on something lame and predictable after all. Oh, what's that you say? The Fatal Five just landed on Bismoll? I wonder what's going to happen? :rolleyes:

The very lame thing is...if for have a good story the writers must kill a very loved character.
It means that capacity of imagination of them is not so big and they go to the easy thing.

Paul did this same thing before starting this new run and it resulted mostly in an epidemic of eye rolling. Blow up a planet? Sleep with your best friend but he's not your best friend yet....


Just tell good stories. Don't manufacture controversy and drama.

The entire industry could benefit from that advice

Eh. Coming from someone who dreads Giffen returning to the Legion, I'm pretty much jaded to this anyway.

Could be worse. If he's going for 'drama!,' he might veer away from his "comedy." (Note my use of sarcastic air quotes.)

It could be the all-Ambush Bug and Lobo show, guest-starring the dreadfully uptight Legion of Super-Incompetents, who serve as their hapless comedic foils and look annoyed (complete with little black squiggly over their scrunched up faces) whenever Ambush Bug does something whacky or Lobo saves the day, for instance.

My guess is Cosmic Boy is going to die after showing how heroic he is without his powers.

Hoping for the best, it goes without saying that Levitz and Giffen had a legendary run during the 80's!

My biggest concern is that right after they had finished with my favorite characters it occurred to me that there was a Legion before Levitz and Giffen, just not after Levitz and Giffen?

Of course Crisis on Infinite Earths and John Byrne had a lot to do with that.