Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Things I hope (yes, seriously) are part of the next boot

1. The Uncanny Amazers
(I liked the idea of the Legion having a rivalry with another hero team, with all the teen drama that comes from members jumping back and forth between teams)

2. Athramites
(Been way too long since we've see the l'il fashion bugs)

3. The Subs
(Given short shrift in the last two boots, but the junior varsity team is an integral part of what makes the Legion, IMHO)

4. Bouncing Boy
(It won't kill me to lose Tenzil - sorry EDE & LASH - but hope Chuck can make the cut this time)

5. A Brainiac 5 who is not a total snot
(I'd like my Brainy to be a bit more like Sheldon, from the Big Bang Theory and a lot less like House.)

6. KOKO!!
('nuff said)

7. Space opera
(I wouldn't mind a little more sci-fi mixed in with my 31st century heroics)

8. Tyroc
(There's gotta be a way man, there's gotta be a way. I've always been a Troy fan, mostly because my first Legion comic was S/LSH #218)

9. The founder's triangle
(Imra has just always seemed better suited to Rokk, IMHO)

10. A true Legion
(We don't need to see every hero, every issue -- although a quick Mission Monitor Board check can help us keep track of who is where doing what -- but I hope the new Legion writer(s) will refrain from keeping the spotlight on a small, core group of members. Mis it up, I say.)

Dev Em.
I miss our Kryptonian friend. Every other Kryptonionian (until the recent Kandor stuff) has been a hyper-motivated good guy but Dev was always an entertaining counter point to that.

Umbra
Gates
The heroes of Lallor
Amethyst ~ somehow ~ mixed with Mysa is fine with me
Lydda
Brainy 5.1 rather than Vril Jr., please.

And ~

The Naga Princess, I hate ALL of the other Jeckies (except Sensor Girl but she was almost as boring in her mystery.)

Timbor Wolf with the 'pack' mentality and Dire wolf attributes.

Cera as the Emerald Empress, hate the reboot psycho chick and Sarya is tired.

Cub.

Rond Vidar in some form.

Shikari.

Rond Vidar and the Time Institute. A lot of people don't like the time travel stories, but I'd like to see them go to different centuries, not necessarily ours.

The Fatal Five, in their original nastiness.

Absolutely agree on the Vril-free Brainy.

R.J. Brande (unlikely, I suppose).

A Legion independent of the U.P. administration.

Maintain the no-kill policy. And no dead legionnaires, for a while at least.

XS! I really miss reading about her.
Legion World, the planet. That has got to be the coolest thing DnA did.

Workforce - an adult team would be fine with me!
Legion Outpost.

Stories set on other planets (not on earth, not in space)

Legion Tryouts (that's a must!)

Voting for Legion leader

Triad with the 3 distinct personalities (it always made for a good read)

Legion Espionage Squad!

Same Gender relationships!

Agree on
- Brande
- Split-personality Triplicate Girl
- Tyroc. By not using him in the Modern Age, DC writers had no chance to "redeem" him, leaving him forever associated with the disco and blaxploitation 70s.
- LGBT. The Legion is known for it, but it's really almost all in 5YL. Align reality with how people know and want it to be.
Add
- Andromeda
- Race lifting, like Star Boy. The Legion has a good track record on gender inclusiveness, not so good on race. Relying solely on established non-white characters and new characters will leave the team with a white core.
- Non-humanoid Legionnaires and aliens in general
- An established UP, unlike in the reboot. The idea that different planets can get along shouldn't be new. And...
- Recognition that Earth doesn't run the UP; the Earth President is to be clearly distinct from, and lower than, the UP President. Actually, since when is the term "President" appropriate for that? Shouldn't a planetary leader be a Governor or something?
- Futurespeak

I'm going to make my list without reading anyone else's response to make it more honest and less 'yeah me too' or 'no way'. It'll be a mix of pulling things from the past/present and stuff I'd like to see that hasn't been yet.

-- Lyle Norg as Invisible Kid, with the superspy background and eagle-eyed observer quality. I'd prefer him gay and getting over a huge crush on Brainy. He should be leader of the Espionage Squad, but *never* accept the position of LSH leader-- always taking the role of indispensible advisor.

-- Element Lad, alive and not insane or *too* quirky, but he should be the lone survivor of Trom processing that tragedy stoically and with a sense of humor, like in ADVENTURE. He should have the 'touch' limitation when he transforms solids into other states, but not for gases or liquids. Forget the time limitation.

-- A couple of members who haven't been official Legionnaires but have been around. Like Gas Girl or Evolvo or Chlorophyll Kid.

-- A couple of new Legionnaires who are nonhuman.
In addition to...

-- Gates and Tellus.

-- Chemical King deserves a shot. Let Kid Quantum I stand as the dead inspirational legionnaire.

-- Daredevil Ferro Lad from the 31st century, alive and kicking.

-- Karate Kid as active combat trainer, even on missions.

-- Saturn Girl as the no-nonsense, intelligent, fearless woman from ADVENTURE.

-- Infectious Lass a member.

-- Ayla's Waidboot personality intact, perhaps less neurotically sleeping around. I think I prefer the Light Lass power, but not to the point of disliking the Lightning Lass identity.

-- Tinya's Waidboot persona is possibly her best, as well- but leave off the inhabiting two realms mentally bit while she's intangible.

-- Sun Boy active as rules-enforcer on missions, pleasure-loving when off-duty.

-- Projectra's power usage from Shooter's storyline continued, up to the point where they started talking about the ID (that makes no sense, to me). However, murderous stooge Projectra personality? Not so much.

-- Insect Queen. I guess L'onna L'eing went into the white with the rest of her reality, but whatever reality exists around the next title could contain it's own L'onna, who should be written as closely to the way DNA wrote her in LEGION WORLDS as possible.

-- More romance, personality and talents unrelated to heroics exploration, friendships!!! (I think I want that more than anything else on this list.)

-- Stories set on other planets. The return of the encyclopedia galactica or something similar. I want to feel like I'm visiting an actual place when the legionnaires go on a mission. Alien biologies, wildlife, architecture, technology, cultures... I want to see the full scope of science fiction and fantasy as possible for the LSH.

-- The use of starships. Maybe teleportation could be available, but only accessible from deep space with as little gravity interference as possible? It's been too easy.

-- Villains. I want to see all the cats on display in LEGION OF THREE WORLDS, plus Titanor, Tangleweb, Domain, Quicksand, Planetary Watch members, that tattooed guy from Caarg, Elysion, Ignea, that pirate dude that threatened Ayla, etc. And NEW ones!!! (That's probably second to friendships). But above all, GIVE THEM NAMES- especially if they are introduced in a horde!!!

This is a fun exercise, but I kind of think a melded LSH is what we'll be getting. The Johns' Action legion plus whatever 'Archie' boot members survive (I don't like using that designation, but I don't subscribe to the numbering system most of the fans here use). I kind of think the Waidboot will get to return to their world.

Maybe the 'Archies' will get their own world to protect, but it won't be populated by the beings they recognize. Unless Mysa uses some heavier magic than we've ever seen her craft.

Regarding the historical whiteness of the Legion - there may be a retconable reason for it.

I recall reading a story in Discover or Scientific American a few years ago about skin color. The gist of the thing, IIRC, was that as cultures become less isolated, and thus interbred, "white" and "black" may become things of the past. In time, the article speculated, a light brown, hispanic-looking, skin color may predominate across the human race.

Now, of you look at a lot of hispanic actors, you might almost take them for white, or whitish.

If we can accept that a certain skin color will dominate 1,000 years from now, with true "white, black, yellow and red" being anomolies, we can, I think, simply imagine the supposed whiteness of the legion to be a miscolored, or as closely-colored-as-possible light brown.

More other planets, yes please. The opening of Shooter's run on Triton was a breath of fresh air. Or frozen methane. Or whatever. I am sick beyond tears of things happening to Earth in general and Metropolis in specific. The *Justice League* gets more space-faring action than the Legion of Super-Heroes, and that's six kinds of wrong.

More secondary characters like Brande, Rond Vidar, Marla Latham, Dr. Gym'll, Theena, Kinthea Kesselbach, Marte Allon, Winema Wazzo, Gigi Cusimano, Shvaugn Erin, etc., etc. Instead of having this being the adventures of a bunch of teenagers in a headquarters, let it be the adventures of a bunch of heroes in a bustling galaxy full of future-folk that the Legion gets to be heroes *for.* A story about heroes is meaningless without regular people for them to contrast with, save and / or get into interpersonal relationships with.

More *other* heroes of the future. Heroes of Lallor, Wanderers (original version), Substitute Heroes, Academy recruits, etc., etc. More heroes of other planets, who might end up working with (or, competitively, *against*, in fine comic book tradition, where two hero teams end up fighting over some misunderstanding) the Legion.

More relationship shuffleboard. Less set-in-stone true-love-forever romances. Breaking up Dreamy and Thom was a brave choice, back in the day, when superheroes just didn't have fidelity issues. I'm fine with one such pairing, but, again, without others being less successful at (or just not-at-all-interested-in) the mating-for-life concept, the enduring great love kind of falls flat. Ooh, they've been together forever and have an unshakable eternal love. Big whoop. So's every other couple...

The implication that this is 1000 years in the future, not just in the technology, but in the fashions, the people passing in the streets, the social customs, etc. Monogamy might be passe on some worlds. It might be the only option on others. It might have *never* been an option on still others. Instead of having a (gasp) gay Legionnaire, why not have a Legionnaire singled out as coming from a world where sex with the same gender is considered pointless or strange, and the rest of the Legion, coming from worlds that got over anachronistic gender-identity concepts five or six centuries ago.

Nah.

Frankly, even in our own era of the "incredible, shrinking globe," there are plenty of communities that simply don't interract with one another to combine/diffuse all racial differences through intermarriage (or something like it). If you begin to scatter humankind even more widely across the galaxy, not only is this less likely to occur, you may even logically argue that former homogeneous groups will split apart and create new differences once they've spent enough time apart. Especially if you throw in A) Possible demands of a different natural environment, B) Possible necessity of acclimating oneself to the standards of other sentient species already living where you've settled and C) Technology that might well make it possible to redesign your own external appearance as readily as you can build your own computer. (Lily-white me is not so arrogant as to simultaneously imagine that we'll all have risen above racism by that time;And yet everyone given the choice would naturally choose to be as lily-white as me. Or even whiter.)

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Now, of you look at a lot of hispanic actors, you might almost take them for white, or whitish.

[Shrug] But leaving aside the acting biz, there are dark-skinned Spanish speakers. Think Cuba or Venezuela, for instance.

Show biz by and large prizes the ideal of light=better, especially for actresses. This is as true in places like India and Africa as it is in the U.S. But show biz imagery has never exactly been an accurate measure of how people live and look in the real world.

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If we can accept that a certain skin color will dominate 1,000 years from now, with true "white, black, yellow and red" being anomalies, we can, I think, simply imagine the supposed whiteness of the legion to be a miscolored, or as closely-colored-as-possible light brown.

Well, in that case, I'd have to argue that the majority of humanoid U.P. citizens would also look much more Asian than they do;Since in terms of sheer numbers, most citizens of contemporary Earth are actually Asian, not Caucasian.

From a personal standpoint, I'd say that the pop culture overlords' continual whitewashing of SF and Fantasy (U.S.-style) is obnoxious enough. (Think of what happened to The Last Airbender and the Earthsea series when they made the jump to live action.) It's not something I'm anxious to see more of.

Oh, and I'm not trying to pick on you, PB. Or anyone else in the thread. There's a lot of great ideas here.

Unfortunately for me, unless one of the main things we see is more reasonable pricing on comic books, or a greater emphasis on budget trades, I'm still gonna' be mostly watching from the sidelines no matter how fantabulous the next Legion series is.

[sulk]

(snip) Novelty:

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...Same Gender relationships!

Well, we've had those. So this time let's actually see the characters actually be allowed to, y'know dance, kiss, whatever and say things like, "We're in a relationship." That would be nice.

Hasn't even Marvel finally reached that point with a few characters on a few superteams ? Their sales don't exactly seem to be plummeting because of it.

My Top Ten:

1) Retro-futurism

2) Ties to other classic DC Sci Fi properties (Tommy Tomorrow, Space Cabbie, etc.)

3) Tryouts, the Academy, Subs, Legion Oaths, "No Kill" rules, the Legion Flag, the Legion Constitution, Planetary Chance Machines, Miracle Machines, etc. (Basically all those distinctively Legion concepts that make the Legion so... distinctive!)

4) Strong, individual villains and villain groups, both classic and, especially, new.

5) Lots of visits to other planets! Other dimensions! Other times (especially, other than the twenty-first century)! Included in this should be an element of danger... travelling to unexplored regions ala the original Star Trek!

6) Reader-participation. As much as possible.

7) Either a much bigger Legion, or more rotation of members in and out.

8) Bgtzl in the 4th Dimension! With writers who understand what that means!

9) Complex personal relationship among the members. Some Legionnaires should be good friends; some should really dislike each other. It's natural.

10) Lots of supporting cast! Friends, family, lovers, mentors, quadrillionaire financiers, park bench philosophers, the whole shebang!

Oh yes, add this to my list! Fan-submitted characters, fan-submitted costume designs, fans voting for Legion leader, etc., etc. There's no easier way to both mix things up for the writer (Wait, *Dream Girl* is going to be leader? Wow, that's gonna be a twist to write!) and give the fans a sense that this isn't just some story being passively dumped upon them by faceless editorial teams, but a living, breathing process that they are a part of, that they can become invested in, as they see the ideas of fans just like themselves become integrated to the story, even if just as 'walk-on' characters that show up for a Tryouts issue and then aren't seen again.

30 pages, with 8 page back-up story. I was sorry to see that go in the 3boot. The back-ups can be good vehicles for character development/backstory.

Let the Johnsboot Legion run with no reboots

Let's get Thom, Tellus, Drura back to the 31st Century. Get all the MIA Legionnaires back.

Let the Legionnaires continue to age, develop relationships, quit, join, have kids,and very occasionally die.

Let the dead stay dead.

But is this possible anymore in the "No solicitations, no submissions" climate?