Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! What are you looking for?

Seriously, what are you guys looking for in this new Legion? I love it, but I want to see more charcters utilized. Thank you Mark and Barry for everything. I loved it thus far, and I really liked how Mon-El was used, seemingly temporarily. Even though I'd like him to come back, I'm just as glad if he wouldn't. I am gettin' kind of tired of Supergirl. It made for a great story and all, but I'm not a big fan of the Kryptonian scene(don't misunderstand, nobody can go wrong with big blue). I guess all I'm saying is I'm looking forward to a (hopefully) great new story, new and improvised characters (Ferro..Wildfire..), and maybe even a sub-story at the end of every issue, 3-5 pages, maybe, of Cosmic Boy and the Knights in the 41st Century. But the whole mystery of it would be good, also.

Thanx.

Honestly, I'm not quite sure. The easy answer would be that I want to see Condo introduced (as well as some others) and I want Mon released from the Phantom Zone for good!

However, I'm really not certain that this Legion will be around much longer other than as an occasional multiverse appearance. I suspect that the current JLA/JSA arc is laying the ground work for the return of the Classic Legion. Whatever it is that they Legionnaires in that story arc are trying to accomplish will somehow "change" things or "realign" the future of the New Earth with the Legion of Wildfire, Dawnstar etc. If that's the case than the current boot will become the Legion of Earth 52 (seems to be the appropriate moniker for that version of Earth)

If I'm wrong, however, and the current Legion remains THE Legion, then I would like to see them act a bit more heroic and less like spoiled brats who occasionally do some good by chance.

What am I looking for? Good stories and characters that are true to themselves that can be distinguished by their speech and actions and not by their costumes.

What would be ideal?

Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes would remain the book about the Threeboot Legion... hopefully minus Supergirl soon.

LSH would be a new comic about the Legion that originated from the JLA/JSA crossover. This would be a title for the preboot characters and incontinuity with the current DCU.

Knights Tempus would be set in the 41st century about the Knights Tempus...

and

Legionaires would be for the reboot legion and would continue after where gail simone left off.

Yeah, only in my dreams I know.

If your first request of seeing more characters utilized happens, it will go a long way towards making this a better legion. I would also like the team to develop some sense of cohesion & competence instead of just happening to be some teen-oafs who hang out together. A moral compass would help too--something to keep them from hanging out with murderers and approving of genocide. Even with all that, though, if I had the option of the Lightning Saga version of the legion, I would likely go for it without hesitation.

Although there are a number of things I like about the recent Legion run I've felt a sense of inconsistency throughout. I want to say that a lot of the team hasn't been characterized well but that's not necessarily true. I've got a good sense of Shady, Brainy, Cos and a few others. But Cham? Yeesh! I mean sure Durlans could have personalities that are all over the place but it was never really addressed. One minute he acts like a total retard the next he's infiltrating the science police. It just seems like inconsistent writing. E-Lad? I loved the previous versions of him, here he just seems like... I dunno a zombie or something. I Can't quite put my finger on it but maybe I just haven't found much I can sympathize with in this team. I don't think this is something that be cured by more members. Although I'm all for more characters.

Plus I think the team must be humanoidists. For all the throngs of aliens hanging out in Legion plaza they are amazingly underrepresented in the core team. In fact we rarely saw plain-old humans in those crowd-scenes. Like it was just an excuse for Barry Kitson to stretch his drawing-muscles or something. Rather than representing diversity.

Then there's the whole under 18 thing. I've found this major plot element a bit ludicrous. What, when you turn 19 you no longer sympathize with the younger set? I really don't get it, it seems too contrived. Consider: it's conceivable that alien races might take 3 years or maybe 50 years to mature. What about them? What about older folks? They all go with the flow huh? I mean come on, it takes some people until their waaaay into adulthood to come out of the closet or even join an organization. I dunno, it just seems like under agers and Sun Boy's folks wouldn't be the only ones unhappy with the status quo.

Stuff like this nags me concerning this new Legion whereas I never necessarily felt that way about the previous incarnations. Certainly I had other problems with them like spaceship travel, SW-6 and bad versions of the Emerald Empress but the "Five Year Leap Legion run seemed entirely plausible. And although I did pretty much hate the beginning of the incarnation prior to the current one and refused to read them until Legion Lost, I was warming to them considerably prior to cancellation and really enjoyed the Darkseid and Universo storylines.

Regardless , I can't wait to see what happens next. Hopefully something wonderful!

I have re-read the WaK Legion over the last few months, and it's such a mixed bag. What would I like to see going forward?

Mainly, a little less irony and a little more sincerity and heroism. I think back to how the WaK Legion was described by DC leadership prior to its debut: an irresistable new concept. What was that concept? A society for creative anachronism-type Legion in a stuffy, safe, adult world? OK. But, as many posters on these boards have pointed out, that "great" concept was too much "eat it, grandpa" and "adults are stupid." Also, we never REALLY saw the historic inspiration for the Legion, did we? A bunch of 1950s comic book covers, played for ironic humor. That was it. And the "expose my secret identity" game played by Sun Boy and Triplicate Girl in issue 3.

When Supergirl showed up, pandemonium should have ensued--here in the flesh is a heroic inspiration of the ancient past. You could have done a lot of good humor and sincere emotional beats with it, but Waid avoided almost all of that. (The issue with the trip to Rokyn was the exception that proves the rule.)

So, I want to see a Legion truly inspired by the heroes of the DCU, and Superman in particular. I want to see the Legionnaires try to ACT a little more like Superman, even if it's hard for them (in fact, more interesting if it IS hard for them!) There's still plenty of opportunity for these "heroic" young people to meaningfully contrast with a drab, risk-averse, etiquette-ridden society. They don't have to act like jerks constantly to make a statement.

Also, I want Legionnaires that care about each other, that are willing to sacrifice their lives for each other. I want a Legion that fulfills Superman's sentimental memories in the JLA/JSA crossover. It doesn't have to be sappy. But I want to see Colossal Boy take a shot aimed at Ultra Boy's back when his powers aren't on invulnerability. I want to see Karate Kid bite off more than he can chew to protect Phantom Girl, even if Tinya get's ticked off and only later realizes he did it because she cares. Yes, I even want Brainy to save Cosmic Boy's life. No need for hugs, just an acknowledgement that Cos is a small-brained sentient worthy of his limited existence.

I really like your thinking there, doublechinner.

One of the reasons that I really like the Legion back in the day is that they were all young people like myself. I turn 50 this year so the "eat it, grandpa" and "adults are stupid." didn't really do much for me. The Archie Legion didn't do much for me either.

I want the LSH currently depicted in JSA & JSL. I may not continue buying an LSH title that doesn't feature that LSH.

I thought so too but then I figured out what was really going on. I think Cham is one of the best-characterized Legionnaires ever, now.

And I support entirely what doublechinner just posted.

Have to agree with doublechinner, man, talk about hitting the nail on the head.

I would also like to see more characterization, I feel like we know Cos, Briany and Supergirl just five, but at the detriment of the team. Early on in this run we were beginning to get glimpses of who these characters were, but then Waid killed off one of his most solid characters (Dream Girl) and he never went back to showing us the other members of the team. I don't need a spotlight issue on each member, but a little bit here and there would help a lot.

Also, more action, thirty issues and we really only have two storylins, the war and the dominator war. Even the resurection of Dream Girl kinda went no where (it took him about 7 issues to do the science stuff to bring her back, then about 7 more to find out what her final status is...not good imo). All the other filler stuff, Supergirl and the Robot Rebellion are fluff in the worst way. We haven't even had any Legion missions where the team went anywhere or did anything. This book has been pretty slow to me and I get the impression the Legion just hangs out waiting for Earth to get invaded. Sometimes this book just feels like one massive subplot.

So, what doublechinner said, better characterization so we care about these Legionnaires, and more action/plots that actually go somewhere.

I don't mind them being young but ALL of them that young? Or looking that young? Eh.

I also want them to be the best & brightest people with super powers and that is why they are in the legion. I hated the teen movement thing.

I didn't care for some of the origins like Phantom Girl and Colossal Boy. But ohwell.

Ultra Boy and Colossal Boy were basically idiots.

I would try to make it more like the PC Legion and add more members from all eras.

Cut bait and drop the current Legion.

Reboot to the Shooter/Levitz era.

Introduce Legionnaires from all different versions at different tryout issues (instead of having a Legionnaire dies this year, have a Legionnaire (or two or five) joins this year).

Short stories with a handful of Legionnaires - every Legionnaire has an active role in at least two issues a year. This would promote more characterization (with the smaller numbers) and a variety of interesting mixes of teams.

Show a variety of different places around the United Planets.

One of the problems with this version of the characters is that we all KNOW what they SHOULD be like and keep expecting them to be the characters we remember.
What's actually different to any of them? Cos is still cos, and I see very little difference between him and his post Zero Hour version in that he's making hard decisions and keeping things from the whole team. been there, done that.

A grumpy, manipulative Brainy with his own agenda? Again, been there done that.

A combative Shadow Lass. A slightly geeky, clumsy Star Boy. Shrinking Violet with a kick-ass attitude. Zen-like Karate Kid... we've seen it all before. Maybe not all in the same version/run, but they are the same characters, but in different costumes and a slightly different context.

This was the opportunity to do something totally different, and I don't think the opportunity has been seized. We've SEEN the galactic-wide war before. We know the Dominators have issues with Earth (even though I'm never quite sure WHY). Perhaps the only thing that had a spark of originality was the concept that EVERY young person was a Legionnaire, and something that could have been pushed further.

What would I like to see?
Characters that are sure of themselves and have an important and trusted role to play in their society, that are something to look up to and to aspire to.
Maybe some members that are the descendants of JLA/JSA members, and that's where their inspiration comes from.
Minimal time travel!
A less Earth-centric team.
NEW characters. Trying to rehash old characters doesn't seem to work.

New characters? There are plenty of characters to draw from. We don't need new characters when some of these revisions are working well. The problem is making a successful revision out of a charcter. I'm not so sure of the whole Phantom Girl.

What I always look for in the Legion:
WILDFIRE!

Love, in all the wrong places...

Okay, after reading this, I thought of something. There are 52 worlds now. And according to the Guardians, they all lead to their respectable "universe". So, perhaps the classic Legion is being re-introduced in another universe, and this new Legion can actually stay. With that being said, I also recall Starman telling Superman about "meeting the two other Thoms..." which could mean a Legion/Legion/Legion crossover between their universes. That would be cool.

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"You hit two cones. Those could have been people; those could have been guests at her wedding."

"They were cones."