Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Shooter gone @ 50, Bedard re-launching Legion?!?!?!?

I think the major problem was never the Crisis, but changing the premises of the book: characters matured, new characters would substitute old ones, chronology followed real time, adulthood was treated like adulthood - and it all ended when Keith left v4. From THEN on, it all went downhill.

What I don't understand is why Shooter is leaving at #50 if he could stick around for at least a couple of issues more.

I think Ricardo is exactly right about this. The real-time continuity, while novel, was a time bomb for the LSH. It went off in v4, which took the original LSH well beyond the point of no return. While v4 is what pulled me into the Legion, it couldn't sustain me, and after Giffen left is when I dropped it the first time. It was the young SW6 Legionnaires that REALLY made me a fan of the TRUE concept of the LSH and kept me coming back to the series over and over again.

This is why I'm still pretty set against bringing back the original Legion in their current mid-to-late-30s age. It'll always feel like a 20-year high school reunion; fun enough, but with sense that the glory days are long gone.

So that’s it. Like DnA, Shooter gets the ax before finishing his story. But this time, no monthly relaunch in sight or even rumored to be in the making. With the demise of the cartoon series and the Johnny DC companion book, the Legion’s 50th anniversary has been turned into a funeral.

When Shooter is done with the Legion, so am I. There’s just no sense in fooling ourselves anymore. It doesn’t matter how well the LO3W miniseries sells, the Johnsboot bogus-original Legion hasn't got the legs to stand on its own for long. A couple of years of playing second fiddles to Superman (himself an anemic franchise DC can no longer pretend is its flagship property), followed by yet another and perhaps final descent into obscurity. I don’t want to be around to see it happen.

Long live the …. oh, forget it. The Legion is already dead.

I think the SW6 concept would actually allow the book to really take off in two directions: a more mature sci-fi political book and a return to "super-hero"hood with SW6. Why DC screwed this up is beyond comprehension.

And Legion is strong enough to have new characters taking up the mantle from older members who would be resigning. Much like JSA does these days in a more coward manner.

The Legion died a long time ago,for me it was when they published that God awful Pocket Universe Superboy story.

I think there are two different issues. The Legion had moved from teens into the 20s-30s before the Levitz/Giffen run, so I don't think that was the problem. They also dealt with "serious" issues during the S/LSH, LSH, and Baxter issues. So age alone isn't the question.

Where I think the 5YL and then the subsequent runs is that they got rid of too many old characters and brought in too many new characters. One of the things about the Legion is that its membership was remarkably stable. Between the end of the Adventure run and Zero Hour, how many members did the Legion add? I think it's 10 new members in about 20 years. (Timber Wolf and Chemical King joined in 1968; 5YL began in 1989.) Just off the top of my mind, 5YL and Glorithverse added Laurel Gand, Celeste Rockfish, Devlin O'Ryan, Kent Shakespeare, and Kono within a few issues. Plus you had characters who were rendered nearly unrecognizable, like Furball. I think that was the main reason readers balked, not that the Legion was dealing with the aftermath of the 5YL period. I think there were a lot of dramatic opportunities to delve into what had happened during those 5 years and how it affected the Legion. A good writer could have developed that story extraordinarily well. However, I felt that was more of an afterthought in the series (why did it take so long to actually detail Venado Bay, for instance). Instead, it was like some members of the Legion I knew were lifted from their reality, placed into a new environment without much explanation, and a bunch of new characters were added and I was expected to care about them.

Trying to bring back the "early" legion through the SW6 didn't work, imo, because too much Legion history and character growth would have disappeared if they became the 'dominant' Legion. The lighter tone of Legionnaires also didn't help, particularly in the 80s-90s, when mature comics were dominating the market.

My take is that I think there's room for expansion. I've alwayds thought the LSH was a strong enough concept that it could justify a couple of solo titles and maybe a team split.
Use the X-Franchise as a model. Marvel isn't afraid to do spin offs and one shots and minis that feature secondary characters. They use the central premise to try new peeps and at one point they glutted the market with all things X and made money like they were printing it.
DC has experimented with sci-fi versions of some of their flag ship characters but have never gone all the way to support new titles with them, for instance Batman Beyond was a great success for a wierd experiment with an old character. It's almost as if TPTB are afraid of success and would rather play it safe with a dwindling market rather than take a bold risk.
I'd buy an Ultra Boy series..probably..I'd also buy a Superboy in the 31st century comic or even a Legionnaires 3 with a rotating cast, a Justice League-31st Century title would attract new readers so why not?. DC's experiments with solo Legionnaire titles have always been half hearted and for some reason put future teens in the 20th century rather than use the Sci-Fi backdrop that has always been a Legion strength. I don't understand their failure to go with a major part of the Legion's universe that sets it apart from every other comic out there.

This is of course supposing that DC went out of it's way to get creators that produced top quality work rather than newbies trying to use the LSH make their mark on the industry. That particular process has worked out well a few times but it's also produced some real stinkers. I'd like to see the company really put the Legionnaires to work and really see what the future could bring.

Over at Newsarama, DC Comics confirmed the LSH will end with #50, with a 30-page issue Shooter says wraps up most of the story (he could have gone to #54, if allowed.)

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090829-LegionEnds.html

DC also confirmed the Legion comic book will go on indefinite hiatus, and there will be NO series relaunch after LO3W.

This is a sad day for ALL Legion fans, no matter which version you are rooting for.

I suspect there's a plan beyond "hiatus". No way Didio would let a successful (thus far) launch like LO3W go without a follow-up. As we get closer to the end of LO3W, I expect an announcement of some kind.

It is a bit of a kick in the head though, to think we're going from three Legion books to none in the space of a few months.

I must warn you there is a *huge* spoiler in the article, so don't read if you don't want to be spoiled about the ending.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Projectra is the "One Evil"</span></span>

P.S. Stop kidding yourseelf, rouge. Didio was quite clear about it.

I want the other four damn issues!!!

As Howard Dean said,

YEEEEEEEAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!

No Legion = No comics at all for me, I think. I will probably keep buying the ones my six-year likes, but otherwise that's it.

So Dan 'I hate Nightwing, let's kill him!' Didio is going to put the nail in the Legion coffin.

[sarcastic voice] That's a shock. [/sarcastic voice]

He's been a huge fan of killing off teen heroes altogether, so a whole team of them must be like an itchy rash that he's been yearning to scratch out of existence.

Happy 50th anniversary! <Blam.>

I swear, him and Joe 'I wanna kill Mary Jane, but the fans won't let me!' Quesada have some running competition for who can destroy the comic book medium first...

I suspect there isn't.

Oh, I'm sure there'll be another Legion comic someday. After all:

1. DC has to publish comics about something.
2. There are people who want to buy Legion comics.
3. There are people who want to write and draw Legion comics.

But I wouldn't hold my breath for it.

While 25K (and dropping) isn't the healthiest levels for a book, it's also far above the cancellation level given other books that are hanging in there at a lower level. Even if it was cost of talent vs. profit, it would be easy to shuffle out Shooter for a lower costed scribe.

I still stand by my hunch that something's up, otherwise they'd run the title into the ground before discarding it.

I saw a reference that something will be happening to Action Comics in the near future. There would be a bit of symmetry to "Action Comics featuring Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes," considering what happened after the initial Adventure Comics run.

That is really pathetic that they're doing this after all the hype about the 50th anniversary. DC sucks is about all I can say. I may have to boycott them and switch to Marvel.

I agree with rouge that there is no way Legion should be cancelled when you have books selling way below 15k and being sustained by DC for any reason or other. Not only that, but from fan reaction at Newsarama, most people dropped the book because they saw L3W coming and ending the threeboot. And this was a HUGE mistake from DC. The main event of Legion is actually undoing the main title. What???
That said, I don't see a new series coming after Legion of 3 Worlds because it seems clear that Johns is not writing LSH in any capacity in the near future and I would say Dan Didio will do to the Legion his Aquaman approach: when someone gives him a good reason to try something, he will do it.
Funny though, was that Rich Johnston was right all the time - the book would end at #50, no relaunch would be made but there might be some specials coming out of that.
Hopefully, it will be a Levitz/Giffen mini or HC. Hell, I'd give my finger for a Shooter/Giffen Legion book.

Well, except for Iron Fist, most Marvel material these days is unreadable. And I even tried Annihilation. Sorry, but I simply can't have love for that. Maybe it is a good excuse to go back to used bins and search for cool material.

Well, if after all the smoke clears following FC and there's no Legion title, and the limiteds I'm reading all finish off, I'll only have four ongoing titles on my pull list. That hasn't happened in... well ... ever.

S-such a long time since I posted...

Finding out the Legion's being cancelled... I have such mixed feelings. I had kind of fallen out with the threeboot earlier on, but Shooter was getting me back into it again, and I wish we could see all he'd had planned (to 54) instead of ending with the dramatic number of #50.

I don't think it'll stay quiet too long, despite the refusal to state any plans... but still, I'm sad.

I'm not so concerned about the fact that the current series is ending. I *know* there will be something else Legion related coming. Well, I *hope* another Legion series will be coming.

It is sort of like, "Happy Anniversary... now Die!" That sucks.

My gut reaction is that I fear missing whatever appearances come up. I rely on Legion World to not miss stuff, so I'll be here.

Fuck this. I expect there will be another new Legion title sooner or later, but as long as DC is not publishing a regular Legion comic, I will be boycotting DC.

Well, it appears that Rich Johnston was right after all...

Not fussed as long as something comes back in a few months

This has been a very strange 50th anniversary for the Legion.

1) Cancellation of the animated series
2) Cancellation of the Legion in 31st Century comic book
3) Upcoming cancellation of LSH main title book at #50

The good news is we still have the Legion of 3 Worlds mini-series - hopefully it will turn out to be great. We also have the Legion appearing in an upcoming episode of "Smallville", so they aren't totally dead yet.

Still, I am ultimately very disappointed DC is willing to let Shooter and Manipul go so easily. The title has been quality stuff for the past year, and if it was given more support by the PTB, and not by schizophrenic Elseworlds versions of "Classic Legion" or "Adult Legion" or "Animated Version Legion" but specials and crossovers with the Shooter Legion, I think a lot of new fans would be less confused and have joined on. A new reboot with a new art team and their new "vision" will lose me completely. I'm getting too old for this.