Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Obstacles for new readers?

The notion: the Legion is continuity-heavy, and THAT is the central reason the series has a hard time attracting new readers.

There are several possible reasons why the Legion has had a rough time of it since 1994. I'm not sure how continuity becomes the culprit, as other healthy growths in today's DC - Teen Titans, Birds of Prey - have tons more 'continuity' tacked on the characters. Just tonight, my roommate asked who Huntress is and I had to ask if he read the Crisis on Infinite Earths (he looked at me like I had turned into some kind of rampaging drooling super-geek) before knowing what response is appropriate.

As for genre, science fiction might not be selling like zombies and horror, but it appears fine, at least as measured by manga and trade collections (manga numbers being difficult to compile from the myriad selling venues).

So what are the obstacles for the Legion in attracting new readers?

For me, after over a decade of LSH, the Archie-era killed my loyalty. Shot dead in the streets with a smiley bullet. I don't like cheerleaders.

Now, the 5 Year Gap was, IMO, originally crafted for a continuity-savvy adult audience. It drifted into treacherous terrain trying to appeal to its original audience AND a mythical 'regular' reader. When the SW6 Batch pulled on flight rings and decided to stay, I felt the series start to sink. (Lightle's proposed second series, discussed in his interview in LEGION COMPANION sounds like an infinitely better choice at the time.)

I wasn't sold on DnA's designs on the future. While at first drawn in by the possibilities in Coipel, Legion Lost & Worlds, I never thought the team gelled fully; the creators didn't commit to big risks again in their run.

For me, the Legion wasn't burdened by continuity; it was more shackled by 'too-many cooks in the kitchen syndrome' and driven by an engine that preferred generically happy tones to the characters, conflicts and scale possible in 30th century DC.

Let me know where you stand on the matter. Have you ever tried to introduce anyone to the Legion? Which series/issues? What were the barriers to them picking it up?

(And am I way too wordy right now, delirious as I am for sleep?)

DC is a bit harder to explain to old buds than Marvel. "Jorge what is up with Supergirl?" I usually ask them to sit down.

Lots of buds read comics as kids and teens but stopped about college time. They ask me just to catch up. Sometimes the answers are easy...most of them are not.

Explaining the Legion is hard work Sure I can explain the concept somewhat but even that has changed from the Levitz days.

I usually say superheroes meet Star Trek. But the members are all young and cool.

Jorge

LOL! Really? Someone asked me who Cable was and I could not think of one thing that made sense. Most of the X-folks are too complicated for casual conversation. (That's why the movies have been so impressive - they manage to tell a story without getting bogged down.)

That's funny as hell! I quite agree, but never thought about it that way.

Of course, the writer in me has to wonder WHY ARE LEGION MEMBERS NOT COOL? Isn't that the point? We WANT to be in the club? (And, perversely, the club is big enough to accomodate us in our many forms, functions and dysfunctions through at least one branch.)

Truth to tell: the best I've done is pass along a storyline I thought was strong and just say "It's in the future." Hasn't worked either.

I want to be part of the club! You can hang out at the spa and I will be at the bar on Legion World. Occassionaly we can save the universe.

Jorge

The biggest obstacle for a new reader? Finding a Legion title on sale in the first place.

DC's top fifteen titles are routinely still placed on spinner racks, where they still exist. Mostly at chain bookstores, since they pretty much left convenience stores a decade ago (and newsstands two decades ago).

If the new readers can't find them, they won't even try to read them. A constantly dwindling set of direct-market comics (and manga, and statues, and Pokemon) stores is far from enough.

This dwarfs anything involving continuity, which fascinates us, but ignores how the comics ship is taking on water. For this series to get readers, they have to be able to FIND it.

AMEN!!!

It's one of the reasons I'm a little wary of the reboot and its stated goals. Creatively, I'm looking forward to the change; but realistically, DC intends to make Legion a top seller again? When the number of sale venues has shrunk (maybe a couple hundred comic shops push the vast majority of product, right?)?!? Isn't 40,000-50,000 a more realistic number? Even that's gonna require some major support.

Good luck trying to get ANY display going in the MARVEL X/ULTIMATE / BENDIS/ SPIDER onslaught for shelf space. No shade, but Marvel pumps out dozens of clone books that comic store retailers stock at decent numbers, pushing the Little Legion that Could even further into the background. In most of the comic stores I've been in, there is generally a huge section for X, another for Ultimate, another for Spider, another for Vertigo, another for Image, and smaller ones for Bats, Supes, and JLA/JSA. Where does the Legion 'fit'? When was the last time you saw Legion with decent coverage on the shelf? A lot of retailers only seem to get enough copies for the pull lists.

Where is DC gonna push Legion to get it out there? Comic retailers? I believe the Cartoon Network lines get picked up by retailers outside of comic shops -- what are the chances of that for Legion? How about in libraries or chain bookstores as a trade collection? And how do you market a single sci-fi trade collection (because sci-fi is easier for bookstores to market than superheroes) with creators who don't have huge names outside comics? (No shade, just compare the rep of a Mark Waid to a Neil Gaiman if you have questions...)

Keep on hearing a buzz about Cartoon Network interest (and the 2-3 proposals already shot down). Pinning all hope of the book series on the vague possibility of a cartoon is kinda silly, as projects take FOREVER to get completed in this town AND the two different mediums/outlets produce two different books/groups, at least it has for Teen Titans, Justice League, Superman and Batman.

You're right, GreyEagle, it's gonna take a lot more than hiring some talented folks and rebooting to a #1. And, frankly, those questions haven't really been brought up by the DC side. All we've heard is 'who's on the team' and 'it's important they're lad/lass/girl/boy to be heroes' and 'it's kinda indie rock/social activism/knights of the roundtable.' That's cool of the creators to provide us with teasers and listen to concerns, but as fans, I'm sure we'd all like a Legion that thrived, that could support some ancillary series, that returned to a central part of DC's future. And that will only happen with better and wider distribution and promotion.

(SIGH. As u can probably tell, I still can't sleep!)

You know where DC should be looking to the "new" Legion? The bookstores. Print collections in that cute little digest format and put them into trades quickly. I've long said the Legion is the DC-universe concept that matches the manga audience best and that what they should turn to... put out the periodicals for the traidional audience, but the only way they're going to get a new audience is throught the bookstores.

I think soap-opera is part of the concept and a good part of the appeal. That can be jumped in midway. What I think that hurts the Legion is the constant "marketing of the new" approach that it gets. There are so many new visions of the concept and each one requires an explanation to put the story into perspective. I mean, to explain Wonder Girl do you need to explain the differences between how Bob Hanley, Marv Wolfman, Dan Jurgens and Devin Greyson interpreted Donna? OTOH, to explain Garth and Imra's history it's hard not to mix in explanations of how different approaches affected their history.

I may have gotten burned out on the Titans but at least the Titans have always been, in some way or another, the Titans. (Yes, the Jurgens run barely lives to the name, but it doesn't interrupt the franchise's history like the TMK era or the reboot does.)

My biggest complaint about the "re-imagining" is that they're marketing it as "The Legion of Super-Heroes". I really wish they'd give it a unique name (like Ultimate Legion of Super-Heroes) to separate it from the other versions.

However, I say putting it in the bookstore would bring in a new audience by bringing it to an audience who has (mostly) not been exposed to discussion of how the concept has changed course so many times.

Heh, Crisis Intervention Team Alpha Legion...