Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Changes coming to the Membership of the Legion?

I doubt they are Giffen inspired changes either, but I wouldn't be surprised that he was sharing the results of editorial mandates when he did that interview back in November.

One idea I heard that I thought could make everyone happy was that they'll splinter the teams into seperate sectors of the universe--six of them on Earth, six of them on one part of the galaxy, six of them on the other, and so on, and then do stories that focuses on one of those groups at a time.

I think that could work--have a story where every member will shine, and it sort of takes out that "the Legion's spread too thin" thing that seems to ALWAYS be the case.

I don't see that there's any need to do that on a formal basis, though. When it's well-written, the Legion typically focuses on rotating small groups anyway, then gathers everyone together for really big stories. That's just Legion Writing 101.

^^ Agreed!

The small focus group of Legionnaires was just tried in Legion Lost, and after a fairly good start it didn't last very long. An apparent infatuation by TPTB to tie the futuristic Legion into the 21st century DC Universe is a Legion momentum killer.

Legion 12 by Leather Wolf:

Tellus
Gates
Dawnstar
Chameleon Boy
Shrinking Violet
Dream Girl
Wildfire
Timber Wolf
Lightening Lad
Duplicate Damsel
Cosmic Boy
Invisible Kid or Tyroc

I like the list, and it's interesting that you included the characters and power sets that were chosen for Legion Lost. I have a few variations to your list. First, you know they would have to include Brainiac 5 for the genius factor, and the extra alien look you mentioned. Shadow Lass, the exotic warrior female would probably also be included. I can see these two in place of Lightning Lad (whose power is somewhat redundant with Wildfire) and Shrinking Violet (who I love but is again redundant with Chameleon Boy). Tyroc gets the nod because his power strength. I would maybe suggest Gear would be a more interesting choice over Cosmic Boy and possibly Ultra Boy over Timber Wolf. My list:

Tellus
Gates
Dawnstar
Chameleon Boy
Dream Girl
Wildfire
Duplicate Damsel
Tyroc
Brainiac 5
Shadow Lass
Gear
Ultra Boy

I'll be dropping the title and never looking back when this occurs, except looking at my back issues that is.

I predict it will feel somewhat liberating.

BTdubbs, It has been fairly apparent to me that Levitz and/or DC was trying to trim the membership for awhile now, LEGION LOST was our first clue. This was one of the main reasons the recent Dominator arc made me so nervous.

This smacks of an editorial mandate too far as I'm sure if it was just Levitz being fed up writing for such a huge cast then surely there would be other writers willing to cut their teeth on a cosmic team? I'd love to do it if I had the chance! Surely the basic premise of a group called "the Legion" is there are a lot of them?

I wonder if in the post Fatal Five story the tech that allows faster than light travel between the stars will be almost non existent and the majority of the team will be spread throughout the Galaxy with no way to get back to Earth so one team that's coincidentally similar to the JLA of legend have access to good tech and are zipping about trying to fix things one planet at a time? It could lead to more space bound adventures, introduce us to some wacky other worlds and be a way to slowly re-introduce a larger team. God, I really hope that much planning has gone into this idea - and I just reeled that off the top of my head.

^ Harbinger's idea over there. That would allow for more character interaction with the promise that the gang will get back together, and save us from the horrid mess of drastically reducing the Legion's numbers.

It just ain't the Legion without oodles and oodles of characters, and the large cast has NEVER been something a skilled writer couldn't handle.

$&@*!& on the whole futuristic Justice League idea. Bah!

You've got an interesting list for Legion 12 too!

Still, I'd skip Brainiac 5, because if the future tech is gone, then he's too intelligent and would be always inventing stuff. Dream Girl is a worthy replacement since she's known as the #2 mind on the team. I originally had Ultra Boy on my list but removed him because he was too powerful. Giffen stated in an interview that the Legion would be more vulnerable. Timber Wolf is still a strong man but without the rest of the powers that give Ultra Boy an advantage. I had thought of Shadow Lass, but didn't choose her because of her weaker power, but I like your idea of her being a warrior princess. One reason I kept Lightning Lad was because of his lightning power and his badass tattoo. Every comic needs one character with a cool tattoo to relate to the kiddies!

Yes, I chose most of the members of the Legion Lost team. Those characters and powers are interesting together, and I think would have made that title interesting with the right writers and if they weren't transported to the 21st century. Their removal from LSH made the cast too human, which I think hurt the title in the eyes on new readers looking for sci-fi characters in the 31st century.

If the group are to be replaced by JL-clones the only good thing I can think of is we will finally see what happened to Paradise Island and the Amazons in the 31st century.

Leather Wolf, I totally agree that the Lost crew were a very interesting bunch who, in the right story, could have been awesome. Pity about the 21st Century fiasco really.

well, understand that that even though we have "a body" that resembles Sun Boy...was it really him? was he kidnapped and replaced by another as part of a larger plot? Even if he is dead, was he truly a victim of cannobolism or did it just appeared that way and if so, where did his body go? wishful thinking, perhaps but also possiblities. Also, I can't understand the logic behind downsizing the Legion...they wouldn't be "a Legion" otherwise. I don't quite comprehend what's going on with the LSH right now (remember we have another half dozen or so Legionnaires out there "lost" and on their way back to the 31st century...I hope!), but there has to be a reason why things are happening (again!, wishful thinking).

I'm a little confused by the whole talk of a "slimmer" Legion. One, it's hardly a "legion" if there are only ten characters. Two, it's really pretty damn slim (by LSH standards) now. And thirdly, why the hell did they add in Harmonia, Dragonwing, Chemical Kid, Glorith and Comet Queen if they were just going to "slim" down the Legion ten issues later?!

This all stinks of either incredibly poor planning or sudden editorial intervention. Which makes me very concerned for the Legion's cancellation status. It just seems like there's conflicting information about the book everywhere I turn. I don't think anyone at DC really knows what to do with this series anymore, which is ridiculous considering that it's a series set A THOUSAND YEARS IN THE FUTURE. The sky's the limit! It's the far future! You have amazing technology and fun aliens and anything you could imagine! What is so hard about WRITING A SERIES WITH ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES?!

UGH. I'm going to go drown my frustration in back issues.

No, No, No, No, No, and NO!!!!

The Legion is not and never should be a JL, JLA, JI or anything related to the damnable word justice. I would rather they had no connection at all to the 21st Century than this cockamamie idea.

Although I know I am in a minority of fans in liking the fact that the legion was founded as a teenage fan club. But it has grown to be so much more.

The Legion is an organization drawn together from all the planets of the UP to act as a beacon of hope to everyone. I do not want to see a ring bearer, amazon, archer, detective or king of the seas in the legion. Give me planets where people have to generate cold to survive or gain the ability to shrink, or eat anything and all that crazy stupid sci fi stuff.

The only, slight very very slight, positive I can see in this idea is; there were only a dozen or so members for the majority of 5YL and that didn't turn out too bad.

Otherwise though this is a stupid idea.

I thought about that, but you also have to remember that 5YL also focused on tons of character who weren't "official" members, plus introduced a second twenty-member Legion half-way through.

Also there was a evolving door of members ... and the curiosity of what happened to so many members, and the instinct that they may be in the next issue or we may find out something about it. It was still a book of a huge cast, just not all recurring.

I think less than ten core members would be all right if ... it was ten within a huge group that was referred to in some context.

but, UNFORTUNATELY, it smacks of "I can't write 25 characters so I will cut the roster."

I am so jaded about DC and this book now! haha!

I certainly agree with both of you but I am presuming the other members are going to be around somewhere so the possibility of reintroducing them down the line exists.

Otherwise you would be tempted to write a story where the Core10 wander around headquarters wondering why it has so many spare bedrooms.

I actually wouldn't mind a 'Justice Legion' sort of tale set in, say, the 24th century, with a future Amazon and a future Atlantean and a future Bat-legacy, etc.

The Legions 30th century future has long told of gaps in the historical record and big wars and disasters happening between the 20th and 30th century, so it's not like the existence of the Legion future would even 'box in' the stories to be told in such a setting, since anything short of blowing up the Earth would be possible (which is pretty much a no-no for stories set in the 21st century, too, no matter how many times they threaten it!).

Turning the Legion into such a 'Justice Legion,' on the other hand, seems like a bad idea. A 24th (or whatever) century 'League of the Future' would *add* marketable properties to the DC roster, not handicap or reduce a current property.

The solution to grow a business is to grow it to attract new consumers. Not shrink it and make all of your products follow the exact same formula to try and market everything you make to a single subset of potential customers. 'Cause, no matter how much they like the current direction now, they aint gonna buy your new seven-man-team 'Just like the Justice League!' cowboy westerns and 'Just like the Justice League!' space opera and 'Just like the Justice League!' vertigo line of Gaiman-esque fantasy.

Remember when Tinya, Lu, Garth, Imra, and Chuck used to live in this wing ... before they were decapitated by an evil Shrinking Violet and Chameleon Boy?



:bouncingboy:

The thing is that they've got plenty of properties that are supposed to be set in the gap between the present and the Legion's time, but they keep moving all of them to the present. I'd totes be up for reading "Space Ranger and his Amazing Friends in the 22nd Century!" if they'd publish it.

I agree with you
The limitless possible
Makes writing easy

In the far future
Perhaps all sentients speak
Only in haiku

I agree that Legion Lost started out pretty good but it turned to dreck with "The Culling" crossover event. It seems that the only purpose of "The Culling" was to introduce more dreck in the form of the Ravagers, that really worked out well.

Well, maybe it's just a rumor after all.

To the poster that expressed he'd feel relief after dropping the title. I haven't picked up a legion book
since LOTW and haven't regretted it since. I just follow the franchise through mediums such as this one.

I think the *powers* need to give the Legion a rest. Instead of changing the concept completely and calling it
*LEGION,* (hoping to appeal to the existent fanbase.) I understand all the changes made over the past decades
were in an effort to draw in new readers, but enough is enough! If they have to reboot every few years...

Do you have to be a *Coluan Genius* to figure out that there's room for more than one concept in a vast
universe, (or multiverse,) set in the 31st century??

If I were writing the future....(thread idea!)

At the conclusion of whatever event will bring the current run to an end, I would take *ONE* Legionnaire,
and only one, (in an effort to draw in some of the current readership.) I'd have this Legionnaire flung
or teleported or fall into some spatial anomoly or something, and have them appear either on othe other
side of creation. I would also write this legionnaire as suffering from amnesia. This legionnaire would
be a mystery to their new settings but more interestingly, the new surroundings would be a mystery to the
readers. Where? When? Nothing is recognizable, but this *unfamiliarity* would quickly be accepted as the
norm for someone with amnesia.

So unlike Legion Lost, the story wouldn't be geared towards finding a way back home. I guess this would be
similiar to when Phantom Girl wound up in the past. Except this legionnaire would be exploring their new
surroundings...same as us. Of course, they would appear in the middle of a revolt or some such upheaval. Not
being sure which way is up, forced to decide who to help. Befriended by a group of warriors. One or two with
familiar elements but so warped from anything we, (the readers,) recognize. (I'm imagining an Amazonian.)
Nothing but questions. Is it just how this race has evolved? Is it a different reality? This legionnaire
could remain an amnesiac for years, (no rush to return home.) Also, this legionnaire wouldn't be the main
focus of the new title. The focus of this new title would be to explore a new concept for the future.
***AND*** it doesn't have to be called Legion.

The Legion could get a well deserved rest until the concept is ready to be rejuvenated, handled properly, after
much anticipation. As for the legionnaire to make the trip and survive the experience and function in this new
setting...I think Mon-el would be perfect. *Valor* got a mixed reaction, but I liked that interpretation of
the character, and it could be revisited or re-interpreted. I could also envision another legion connection
introduced a bit later, like *Apparition's* third body/self. This third body never met any legionnaires so
there wouldn't be recognition, necessarily. Any sense of familiarity on his part could be mistaken for
attraction. An attraction to a woman who's always felt, somehow, incomplete and displaced.

I also think Adventure comics should be converted to a 31st century title. But it doesn't have to be a
*Legion* title. Although seldom/rarely used characters that have appeared in the legion titles could appear.
Instead, I'm sure something highly predictable, and truly tiresome will be *executed* in typical DC fashion.
Sorry to be a downer.