Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Was Blok DOA?

Was Blok introduced (pre-boot) to be dead (or written off) at some point?

Was he's death just a "after the 5 year gap" plot device?

If it was, did it work?

And why haven't we seen a reboot Blok?

QL

I'vew read that Blok is due to reappear soon as a kind of Blok/Stone Boy mixed character.

I always assumed Giffen killed off Blok purely for shock value as not only was he the most physically intimidating legionaire but he was by far the most gentle and innocent and killing him enforced the darker grittier tone of the books...

If Blok/Stone Boy returns, I wonder if he'll retain the gentle innocent character. He was never one of my favorites - but there could be a place for that kind of character at this point. Shikari is innocent in the way of finding everything new and fascinating in the Legion galaxy, but she's not gentle, and has a directness and a "nosiness" (for lack of a better term) that reduces the sweetness that Blok had. Ferro has matured, it appears, so he wouldn't fit the bill, either. And the sicky (although sometimes cutting) sweetness of Monstress has gone with her.

Blok was just more of a nice guy, although I think he was perceived as, or called "sweet". Certainly his senseless death at the hands of Roxxas was all the more touching for his being the inoffensive, gentle creature he was. One could almost picture him saving baby birds that fell from the nest, *sniff**sniff*. It was a nice touch that, with all the nasty, grimy shit she put up with as an Earth sci-cop, Shvaughn was brought to tears over his death.

Blok never seemed more than the "gentle giant" to me. As time went on, he only became more and more of that, so I wasn't sad that Roxxas blew him to bits. Although I was still touched by the reactions to it and Mysa watching the holo of them together over and over...

Blok was always one of my favourite Legionnaires and I miss the big guy. I really hope he returns and with his gentle personality intact.

I'm not sure where I heard it, but I thought that Giffen's original plan was to have Roxxas kill Shvaughn but was pressured into changing this to Blok. Can anyone else shed some light on this or did I just imagine reading it???

I'm not sure if Blok could reintroduced today, since Dryad was destroyed and its last survivng inhabbitant apparently commited suicide...

Plus I believe we've already seen Stone Boy in that Legion try-out issue in LEGIONNAIRES a few years back.

re: Giffen originally intended to have Roxxas kill Shavaughn (sp?).
hmmm.....
That would have prevented TMK from doing the 'SE is really a man' story a couple years later, which I think was in their plans all along.
Plus Earthgov hired Roxxas to kill only ex-legionnaires so I don't know if that would work.

Then again Roxxas was a homicidal maniac so I guess it would not have been a big stretch.

I miss Blok as well. He was a good story-telling instrument to get out older stories of the team since he spent so much time reviewing the archives. And he never shirked from monitor duty.

I think his death was just for shock value and because Giffen knew if he killed the 'gentle giant' it would have more impact, especially having Roxxas mail the pieces to Graym Ranzz on Winath.

And he is coming back as a Stone Boy/Blok composite in the upcoming Academy issue. I am interested to know, though, if his origin is going to be more Dag from Zwen instead of Blok from Dryad.

Blok, as a character, just never really captured my attention.

He was interesting at first, as the villain who went good (decades before every nutball in Flash's Rogue Gallery reformed-- see how it is always the Legion that sets the pace) as oppsed to the constant stream of Rejects who went bad.

After that, I soon lost interest in the character. I think it was becasue, to me, allof his scenes seemed so forced and overdone. "Yeah, yeah, he's the gentle giant. I get it already."

I did not find out about his death until long after it happened, due to having no access to a local comics shop through much of v3 and v4. Coming in aat the middle of the whole 5YG thing, I was too busy trying to figure out what exactly was going on to care much about an off panel death.

However, today, yeah I think we could use a gentle giant kind of character...

DOA??? Actually as I recall he was PD...postage due.

Blok was Substitute material from the start. His first big Legion appearance he had to bust through a spaceship portal because he was too large. How do you write a Legionnaire that needs three flight rings, is slow, obvious, and not exactly brainy?

If the writers had played his empathic nature up to super-power level, I think he'd of had a better run as a "superhero." As was, he was an excellent peripheral character that I miss. His role, like Tenzil's became, could be that of character actor that makes the play colorfull with an occasional starring role.

I did read once in an interview with Tom & Mary that Keith wanted to kill Shvaughn but T&M convinced him not to.

I hope they don't literally merge Blok & Stone Boy. I'd rather see each character stand out on their own.

I always found Blok to be an interesting character. At the core he was the gentle giant, slow to anger but once riled up (as he was a few time, as I recall) was capable of great rage. He had the past as a villain, which made him unique, but was also one of the most fiercely loyal Legionnaires, especially to those he considered friends, such as Brin and Mysa. He showed a fascination with the history and traditions of the Legion, which made him unique among the younger members. And Levitz was doing some fascinating development with him near the end of v3, with his transition to the adulthood of his species and resulting reexamination of his existence. Had Levitz not left the title, I'm sure this would have continued in interesting directions.

As I understand it, Giffen's intention was to kill Shvaughn, which, among other things, would have increased the tension in the Roxxas-Jan relationship. One of the Bierbaums interceded on her behalf, and Blok was chosen as the sacrifice instead. If this change hadn't been made, we would have been spared the whole Shvaughn/Sean deal and v4 would have been much better off.

I had never head that scenario before. That would have been an interesting turn of events. And would have made more sense with the history between Roxxas and Jan.

i didn't know that either !! thanks for the info ... and it would have been interesting for the storyline !!!

Matthew.

Blok was never a "favorite" of mine, but one thing that I did always appreciate about his character was the fact that he was just one of those sweet, nice guys. He was just kinda there, doing his thing, being a little naive sometimes, doing thoughtful kinda things. Not a pushover, powerwise, but as someone else called him, a "gentle giant." Comics have their share of basically nice people, but there's really only a handful of characters that can believeably maintain that level of innocence. Blok was one... Magnetic Kid was another, I think. And both were sacrificed for storyline purposes

I guess one of the aspects of Blok's character I always liked was the almost fan-like way he'd review old mission tapes or volunteer for monitor duty. I guess if I was a Legionnaire I would spend a lot of time viewing all those mission tapes too as I've got a historian streak within me. In terms of my own Legion reading the earliest original stories I remember reading were from around this period, so I've always had a soft spot for characters like Dawny, Blok and Mysa.

His interest in history and devotion to Legion traditions could have made him the "Rokk" (pun intended) of the second generation of Legionnaires.

I felt bad that he had to wear all those terrible costumes!
Remember those loud pajama bottoms he was in for a while?