Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes August 2021 is a Bustt

It does look neat, though I would rather they had Bendis-booted Gates than give his power-set to Tinya. Kinda. I'm still a bit confused, as the other panel shows her phasing. So basically she can do both phasing and teleportation now... unless she only teleports people into, and out of, the phantom zone... yeah I got nothing.

It's established classic Legion Lore that the Dominators use "subdimensions" to travel rapidly from place to place, so it's probably not a huge stretch that Phantom Girl's dimension hopping power could be used to travel through one of those as well, thus effectively allowing her to simulate teleportation over short distances.

Agreeing with cleome, Ibby and EDE at once here.

Yeah, the teleport hoop is a cool feature, but its a power previously not given to PG (which I guess is OK) but HAS been given to prior boot Legionnaires (not OK).

And to EDE's point about the subdimensions, I came to Legion at the same time I was engrossed in GDW's Dark Conspiracy RPG in the mid-90s where they had the concept of "Dimension Walkers" that fit the bill to the three- and Bendis-boot Tinyas to a T. (I did not intend for that pun, BTW)

The conceit was that those who could walk dimensions could step into a portal to another dimension, move slightly (or not so slightly) in that dimension, then reappear in another location in the original dimension, was something I thought was originally Tinya-capable, but ultimately a Gates-type power.

Personal intangeability is different from teleportation - or more specifically in this case, the capability to teleport another - at least as I understand these weird concepts. LOL.

yup I feel the same, personal intangibility involves phasing oneself through objects here together... I would also be fine if Tinya could phase other people, but this clearly seems to be a teleportation thing.

ah well. Bendis did it first with Gold Lantern doing BOTH teleportation AND transmutation... the latter of which is already being done by Element Lad. I was fine with having a Gold Lantern with more limited powers, something like Celeste over in 5YL - she had green energy but couldn't do all the things that a modern Green Lantern (heh, modern, until they reboot t hem again) ring can.* (my frame of reference being around the Black Lantern stories...)

That hula-hoop portal looks suspiciously like a device to me, the way she holds and stores it above her head. No reason they couldn't allow external devices in this Legion, however. What would Gold Lantern be without the ring?

Invisible Kid 2 also had teleportation/portal abilities of a sort. Though he considered them a burden and was relieved when Brainiac 5 was able to remove them. So the ability to travel via portal has been a property of several characters over the years.

Kind of a shame they didn't just go ahead and give Tinya's people a more alien appearance. Changing skin color (at least to that of a humanoid ethnic group which doesn't even exist in our reality) seems like the shallowest form of "something different" at this point.

I don't care for the idea of changing Tinya's powers that much, since she's *ripe* for development as is (what is Bgtzl?!).

But if I were going to make it some sort of circle, I would have 100% tied it to Boom Tubes somehow, and given her some sort of Apokaliptan ties. (Bgtzl of this verse is a parallel Earth that was conquered by Darkseid, and fought their way back from the brink, and now has some smatterings of Apokaliptan tech, and a ravaged world still recovering from that bleak time?)

'Cause I like stealing from other peoples crayon boxes when doing my coloring.

I am kind of intrigued by the differences, but more frustrated at the odd hint towards story that seems like it's never going to be developed, even if Bendis keeps writing for another decade, since he's just terrible at cultivating any of the plot seeds he sprinkles about.

For instance, Jo is shown in an early issue putting up a green force field to block a bunch of Horraz attacks. That's not a traditional use of ultra-energy, but I'm cautiously fine with it. And yet the Frishman tags suggest that he's just got the powers of Superman one at a time, same as 'our' Ultra Boy, so was it an artistic flub? It's not like a hugely necessary power, since Brainiac 5, White Witch, Dr. Fate and, I think, Gold Lantern, where shown using force fields at various times, so it's not like the team *needed* a dude who could put up a force field in that scene. (White Witch was there, IIRC, and she could have done it, but it would have been pink instead of green...)

Set, you've very succinctly captured my feeling about the Bendis Legion.

It's funny, because Bgtzl got some development in the Terrifics and... Bendis ignored all of it. And Sook ignored what they looked like too, but 1,000 years of evolution or whatever.

Linnya is also a phantom girl. She phases. Her parents phase. The people we've seen from Bgtzl phase in the Terrifics.

It just feels like the team wanted to give Tinya a less passive power set, so they ignored what was already established about her planet in the Rebirth continuity.

And honestly, it seems they did the same with Thom, as he has some sort of blast power, and even a bit with Brainy, as his forcefield is now discs from his hands instead of just automatically encompassing his entire body.

I mean, with Tinya. Her Reboot and Threeboot versions made her more offensive. Phasing into robots to rip out their circuitry, or phasing into someone to attack their internal organs!

I'm not familiar with the Terrifics, but just looking at the cover, I can see that Phantom Girl looks like.... Phantom Girl.

So this is supposed to be in the same universe???

I mean I think its fine if she uses a device to be more of an active battle participant, but I think the espionage squad also has its place (not like the hoop can't be used in that kind of capacity either).

Shaner has said that he was inspired by Cockrum's Tinya when designing Linnya.

But yeah, both are set in the Rebirth continuity so... I certainly believe it's the same universe?

I get a bit of sideeye when DC shows a 21st century version of a Legion world from the 30th century and everything is *exactly the same* as it is 1000 years in the future. Earth went through ten centuries of change. Does time flow differently in Bgtzl?

For that reason, I like the idea of at least *some* Legion worlds not even existing yet, in the 'present' DCU. Winath and Braal and Titan, for instance, might not even be settled for *centuries* and be uninhabited in the 'present day.' Ditto various other worlds that seem to be filled with Earth-humans, like Rimbor and Imsk and Cargg. Other worlds, with actual aliens, like Durla and Colu and Khundia, sure, but they *also* should be radically different than they are in the Legion future, as different as Earth is today from how it was during the Battle of Hastings.

If I had to nail 21st century Bgtzl down, I'd make it the Meta-Zone, from Shade, the Changing Man continuity. 1000 years from now, it'll call itself 'Bgtzl,' and they won't need special vests that cause them to go all spatially wonky and unstable to cross over into our universe.

Some future writer will probably make it that the Bendis Legion is from another Earth and the Time bubbles were actually moving sideways as well as through time. Oh and Rogol Zarr also got transferred - and Zod jr - somehow. Heck they've done it before. in which case Mon-El can relax as Jon is not really his great-whatever grandfather, just a parallel earth double because I'm sure that would make hi feel so much better.

Remember, according to DC, since Death Metal and New Frontier EVERYTHING is in continuity - somehow.

I think the next issue of the Legion, however that gets produced, is Nura waking up and saying, "I had the strangest dream where we were all wearing funny costumes and saying stilted dialog."

Honestly it wouldn't surprise me at all if we get a Legion of 4/5/6 Worlds by Johns in a couple of years.

I would laugh a mean bitter laugh if there's a Legions of Many Worlds reunion ten years down the road, and the Reboot and classic teams were there, and even one-offs like Superboy's Legion in all their Alan Davis-drawn glory, but Bendis' team was a no show.

would explain why they were all talking all over each other, and nobody ever finished a sentence I do get that real life youngsters may talk like that, but.... it's jarring in a comic book, and we never really had that in the SW6 or in the Reboot or even in the Threeboot...

Oh, c'mon EDE. Now you're just trying to trigger me on purpose.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Okay, now that I've gotten that out of my system...

I don't actually have a problem with that, as long as it's not Johns writing it. Or Hickman. Or King. Or...

Hmmm...it's a little early in the morning for me to process this stuff properly.

Its funny - I actually credit Johns as reawakening my interest in the Legion in the 00s.

I was pissed about the reboot ending, and while I enjoyed the early threeboot, I didn't like its overall arc, so the Lightning Saga that he and Metzler did was very appealing.

Then came 3 worlds and now I run away screaming any time there is any mention of his name (which now includes pretty much all of the live action entertainment).

I was mainly pissed at HOW they ended the Reboot. Why not just leave the Legion and its reality alone? Then it could still be out there...

As for 3 Worlds, I'm pissed not only because of Kinetix's death, but also the ones of Threeboot Jan and Dirk.

I had a similarly dramatic arc, but with me it was Green Lantern and the DCU in general (that's not easy for me to admit today.) The final straw for me was Blackest Night. That was when the shift in my opinion of Johns reached a full 180 degrees. IIRC, 3 Worlds was about halfway through at that point? I'm usually good at dates, but that whole late-noughts era is one big, ugly blur to me.

I think the reason why X-Men does better than Legion is that their large cast is spread out over several titles, with only characters like Wolverine appearing in multiple titles.

Legion?s cast is confined to a single title, and today?s writers seem unable to be able to juggle that many characters without grossly ignoring large numbers of them.

Levitz was, in my opinion, the last writer to do Legion justice. He wrote the title like a soap opera, with each episode having a main focus with a handful of characters while also providing scenes from other plot lines mixed in that may not support the main story but progress or set up upcoming plot lines. And when he wrote an event, it featured everyone and gave everyone their moment in the spotlight. Just having characters standing in the background is not the same as using them.

Justice League Unlimited was a good example of how to write the Legion.

very well said.

I will add a more recent example: the Reboot Legion had a few great stories showcasing an ability to juggle a huge cast well. L* 48-50 (Emerald Vi/Mordru); LSH 80. Both had over a dozen super heroes to keep track of, and used scenes to move subplots along.

Whereas Bendisboot? Oh look another group shot of everyone flying at the enemy / flying at Mon-El / flying at Superboy / flying at the UP President / flying somewhere...!