Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Relationships that transcend traditional boundaries

I'm currently re-reading the entire reboot and recently finished the awful "Dark Circle Rising" storyline, (my pick for worst legion storyline ever, by the way). There was a scene in it in which Sensor's dad is feigning interest in his daughter's life by friendly asking her how her relationship with Chameleon is going.

His non-chalance at what he interpreted as a romantic relationship that crossed boundaries of species just struck me as bizarre. If I discovered that my daughter was the girlfriend of, say, a talking Elephant, she would find herself in a Catholic Girl's school before she could say "but I love him." And I'm not even religious.

With the Legion of Superheros having more non-humanoid characters than just about any other mainstream suprhero comic, what is everyone's stance on relationships that transcend such traditional boundaries. An example of forward thinking or an unrealistic idea for a storyline that probably shouldn't be explored?

I don't think it's that much of a problem. There are numerous instances out there of people from different alien races having relationships. I'd don't see what's the problem. Cham had a crush on Ayla and no one seemed to have problems with it. Why should this be any different?

it would be different for Cham and Ayla because Cham has always been depicted as humanoid.

My view on the matter is that it would be ridiculous for Ayla to date someone like Tellus or Gates.

I think you're right.

The problem is that in comics there are really 2 species: Humanoid and Non Humanoid. In this view, a snake and cham might as well be together because they're practically the same: non humanoid.

It's the same reason you can have a human with a non-human quality - like Timber Wolf or Catwoman - but you won't get a non-humanoid who does. You won't, for example, see someone from a snake species calling itself Timber Wolf.

what about the white witch and blok?

humanoid + non humanoid

Except that Cham is _not_ humanoid. That's just the way he makes himself appear.

The only problems with Tellus and Gates involve more intimate moments - which wouldn't have been a problem with Cham and Sensor.

well for tat mater there was also the wildfire/dawny combo

We haven't seen a functional, intimate relationship between humanoids and non-humanoids in The Legion - Dawnstar and Wildfire just never worked, physically; Mysa and Blok were always presented as close friends, as far as I could tell - maybe some puppy love on Blok's part.

Maybe Proty-in-Garth could count - but we never learned if any of the Ranzz children had protean powers. And who could forget the Brainy-Supergirl Robot affair, which mercifully deconstructed before things went too far?

Perhaps these pairings will remain in the realm of fanfic. I can think of a few such relationships in novels, but not anything too extreme in comics. There's Snow White/Bigby Wolf in Fables - with a few wolf-like cubs floating around now - but that series makes no pretense at reality.

I suppose nothing ever happened between Blok and Mysa because nothing ever could happen between them. I mean, I'm not even sure if they could even kiss or anything.

I suppose this issue was addressed when Wildfire created a body for himself so he could get physical with Dawny but considering that Drake used to be a human himself, this wasn't as a big a stretch of the imagination as Blok and Mysa.

A few symbiotic relationships in comics have been depicted with a romantic element; Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote, for instance (he buys it chocolates!), or Ultimate Doctor Octopus and his arms. And various androids end up in romantic relationships if they look human enough.

Don't forget Gim's Durlan wife; he stayed with her even after he found out her species.

In general this seems unrealistic; as Waid pointed out, even two visually humanoid species probably won't be mutually attracted, because the pheromones/body language/whatever won't match. On the other hand, a two-minute Google search will prove that someone out there is just waiting to find a giant sentient lobster so he can have sex with it. And morally I don't see a problem with it, as long as the giant sentient lobster is capable of informed consent.

Side note--remember when Sensor reassured her dad that Durlans were mammals? How the heck did they decide that?

Warm blood & live birth, I'd guess.

More specific than that: mammals are named after our most distinctive feature

And since Cham can have as many of those as he wants, he gets to be Lord of all Mammals!

It was just very weird for them to be discussing whether a shapeshifting alien with no known genetic relationship to Earth critters (or Orandan critters) was a "mammal" or not. It'd be like, I dunno, asking whether Blok's a bird or a reptile.

But some more distinctive than others.