Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! More Mark Waid Murmerings

Originally posted by CORSAIRUS at the DCMB:

Fantastic Voyage: 5 Questions with Mark Waid
http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazines/wizard/WZ20040802-five.cfm

Q: Having worked on several previous incarnations of the Legion of Super-Heroes, do you think your take on the team will be a major departure from what we’ve already seen?

A: It’s my job to come along every ten years or so and write the last Legion story and then start all over again. I don’t to see it as a completely new take because the goal was to strip everything down, back to the basic concept. It’s a bunch of kids having super-heroic adventures in the far future. It should be fun and bright and high-spirited. That said it’s a pretty radical departure from anything we’ve done with the Legion so far. But what I feel good about is that (classic Legion writer and DC exec) Paul Levitz gives me the thumbs up and says “go forth and do”, this is exactly what we’re looking for. We can start anew without discounting things like Impulse’s connections to the 31st century, Barry Allen living there his last years, all that will be accounted for. But basically, the idea was to pretend as if we were inventing the Legion today, as opposed to continually trying to make something that was created in 1958 work for an audience of the 21st century.


Sounds like a little bit of back-pedaling. Before he said he wasn't taking a "back to basics approach", now he's implying he is. Not "a completely new take" but still "radical". Note that that the origins the Allen family, and presumably XS, will remain intact.

"fun and bright and high-spirited" kids having adventures sounds good to me, like the olden days. I guess I'm an old fogey like Waid.

Amen (and pass the Metameucel )

I'm really looking forward to the new series, the Legion has always been about looking to the future in a positive light so that's what I'm going to do with this.

Thanks TC for reposting this and for directing me to this great messageboard.

I'm pretty convinced that this direction will both appeal to new and old fans. Time will tell!

"Fun" was an adjective rarely evoked by DnA, no matter what you felt about the quality of their work. Too many Imminent Crises Shaking the Fabric of Spacetime. If Waid brings it back, more power to him.

I'm not getting anxious, though, about what could happen. We can't really change it, not with Levitz and others giving it that much of a head of creative steam. We'll all simply see it soon enough.

Mr Waid - If you're out there listening, PLEASE bring back GIM ALLON as Colossal Boy.

Many thanks!

And since we're making a wish list, please bring back Sun Boy. It's not the Legion without him. Feel free to dump Triplicate Girl, though - never could understand what was so special about triplets.

Hey, hey, hey…wait one minute!
Let's not dump on Lu!!!

Luornu stays.

If Mark must open up a spot to make room for, say, Calamity King, feel free to dump Kid Quantum.

I really don't want another reboot. If we get another one I just having a feeling we will have a reboot every 10 years or even less. Maybe what the Legion needs is a "Tales of the Legion" title to set stories in any era or new ones.

TRIAD rocks!!! She's been one of the highlights of the post-boot for me.

But I'm pretty sure swapping Shikari for Infectious Lass would be a gutsy and very, very correct move to make!

(plus it leaves the door open for Dawnstar to return post-re-imagining!)

I always thought Lu was pretty cool in the preboot as well! No other Legionnaire had suffered the degree of tragedy she had, and yet she still showed courage in the face of it all.

It's not, is it? It was so shocking to me that he didn't pull the "must risk life to regain powers" bid this time around. I miss him. But it's not like he can't be brought back into the fold, so to speak, without rebooting. It just needs to be done believably.

Maybe he doesn't need to be a superhero, with powers and everything. I mean, he's a very intelligent person, and an utter workaholic, and he could be a crimefighter, like Batman! Or, well, maybe fire isn't so useful in airless environments like underwater, in space, etc... but heat still applies, and light. The original Sun Boy had the power of Super-Radiance, right?

Dirk's been on my mind a bit lately, can you tell?

Oh, I loved her then too. Tom & Mary made a fan-for-life outta me when they gave her her second body back!

That basically was his power, originally. The ability to project fire only came about with the SW6 "Inferno" version.

http://www.legionworld.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13&t=000193

Be sure to vote the right way!

Will the left and neutral way work as well, SoM?

Well, I was confident we weren't getting a flat-out reboot, but now these new comments make me wonder if we are. Especially drudging up the 'every ten years' monster of having the Legion rebooted/retooled.

I know I'm going to love the new series with the people behind it, I just wish I knew WHAT I was looking forward to. The current crop grown up and possibly with a retconned/reworked background a la v4, or the current Legion in a new/altered home front, or a brand new Legion?

My first impression is that this is not much more than something to keep us chattering without telling us anything. That said, it also makes me a little nervous that there will be changes made just for the sake of changing things. I still think that the current series was only in need of a little bit of a tune-up not an overhaul.

With DC saying more and more that this isn't a reboot, plus Waid's comments that the founders might not even be seen and that we might not recognize some of them, my latest theory is that they're doing a "ten year gap" or something.

That way, enough time will have elapsed that they can change the status quo and redesign the 31st century but keep the old continuity and redesign the Legion, probably with most of the same names, but with new characters. A "Legion: The Next Generation" sorta thing. "Legionnaires" was always flawed because of the whole clone confusion, but maybe now DC will try again for a multigenerational Legion universe.

That makes some sense Drake. Especially since we already know that the Titans coming out following the Legion crossover has them appearing ten (I think it was ten) years into their future.

But a "10-year gap" makes no sense in the context of this statement by Waid.

"It’s a bunch of kids having super-heroic adventures in the far future. It should be fun and bright and high-spirited."

Maybe they start out as tweens?

*shrugs*

No? My thinking is they'll retire most of the current cast and focus on the next generation of Legionnaires (hence the comment about not seeing the founders).

Heh. Judging from the brief glimpse we've seen from Kitson, if these are 'tweens, they've seriously upped the dosage of the growth hormones in milk in the 31st century.

Yet didn't Gail make a comment about how her story kind of fits in with Waids plans - she's focussed on the academy kids so I think we might see a few years gap and the introduction of a few new characters including a couple of the current cadets in the line up.

We'll find out soon enough