Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Archive question regarding the Legion in the "21st Century"

Just picked up Legion Archives #2, and I was surprised to see that the narrator blurbs refer to the Legion being in the 21st Century instead of the 30th. Can anyone shed some light on this as far as when and why the change was made to put the Legion further into the future?

It was not so much a change to push the Legion futher into the future as a correction of an earlier mistake.

The Legion's first appearance was written by Otto Binder and placed the Legion 1000 years in the future, just as we ar all used to.

By the time those stories in vol. 2 appeared, and even some of those in vol. 1 which made the same error, many months... even years.. had passed.

New writers, namely Ed Hamilton and/or Jerry Seigel placed the series in the 21st century, and editor Mort Weisinger, we can only assume, never caught the error.

If you even get vol. 1 you will notice an even strager error which crept in and was later considered apocryphal: The Legion that tries to induct Supergirl refer to themselves as the children of the Legion that inducted Superboy.

One of the more interesting theories about this error is that it is ultimately the reason why we have Brainiac 5 as a Legion member. If the Legion were set in the 21st century, it would make sense for the fifth generation descendant of a Superman villain to be a Legionnaire, but if moved to the 30th, that could only be the case if, as was later explained, Coluans have extremely long lifespans.

The problem with this theory is that the story that introduces Brainiac 5 clearly set the Legion 1000 years in the future. Perhaps there was a discrepancy between the conception of the character and the actual writing of the story, however.

It is weird. At 20 years generation, 5 would have made sense if hte Legion were to be from teh 21st centory, as they were when they first met Supergirl.

Odder still, is that the Saturn Girl from the 30th century when Supergirl joins claims to be the same Saturn Girl who, in the first story, claimed to be the daughter of the original Saturn Girl from the 21st century.

I have looked looked those pages over and over to examine the lettering. Tell me what you think. Do either the 5's, or the references to 1000 years and 30th century appear as though they were relettered?

Can anyone with an original copy of these early issues compare them to the Archive versions? I know a bunch of folks here have some of the originals...

Ah yes, that was half the fun of comics in the sixties. I don't think much attention was paid to continuity at all. A lot of things would make you shake your head and go "what! was that".
Things really depended on who wrote the story. Wiesinger/Schwartz weren't as concerned over what happened before as much as what makes this a good story.

Most sixties DC stuff is full of that sort of thing. Marvel was always better at keep their universe constant. Not pefect but better.

They still made for some great stories though. I haven't bought the Archives due to finances but may soon. Since the number of current titles I've been able to enjoy is shrinking mightly.