Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business LMB Fast Facts! Ask Cobalt...

Update: Lardy is now single again, technically a widower.And, already, he's begun an unholy liaison with Kalla Hryl (now Kalla Hrykos). All of this is shown in the recently-completed "Smoke and Mirrors" Onevision.

As a side note, Cobalt left out Lardy's one night stand with Jada Konti (who is now Bat-Fem II) shown in "Turning Point" Part Two . Of course it was just a one-nighter, but given the significance of her character in LMB lore, worth mentioning.

Which leads me to my next clarification from Cobalt...

...do you believe Lardy and Space Tart ever had a fling?

It's been implied before, but I know there's no hard evidence. Certainly, it's been shown that she would gravitate to other men (and Cobalt to other women) when the two were on the outs to make him jealous. There's the flashback scene I included in "Hummer Lass: Intervention" to use as an example of that, at least.

What does your gut tell you happened, Des? And if they did, do you think that caused any tension (albeit temporarily) in Lardy and Cobalt's friendship?

Lardy, my gut tells me know, for a few reasons, though your line of thinking isn't off, and there was definately a longtime friendship/flirting b/t them:

(1) When Spacey did flirt with Lardy, Hummer Lass quickly intervened and a cat-fight broke out.

(2) Besides Cobalt, the other posters who Spacey really went after were Kid Psychout, Mightyfanboy Lad and Loser Lad.

(3) I always assumed that Lardy & Spacey never hooked up and Cobalt & Hummer Lass never hooked up, since there might be an unwritten 'code' among Lardy and Cobalt not to do that. Of course, there were tons and tons of times for either scenario to happen so its not out of he question, and also, there was a very strong sense of 'Roman Bachanalia' back then, so its not completely far-fetched.

In other words, my gut tells me no, but the evidence certainly leaves things at a 50/50 chance. I don't think it would have provided tension at the very beginning, but certainly would have in later years as we proceed along Cobalt's timeline:
(1) Year One - that 'Roman Bachanalia' phase
(2) Year Two - Cobalt dissapears, reappears, he and Spacey have flings but generally fight with each other constantly and cheat on each other--so maybe here.
(3) Year Three - Cobalt returns, his pscyhe is more 'right', he and Spacey have a better, stronger relationship, get engaged--so no at this point.
(4) Year Four - They get married--also no, and then no from there on.

I actually think it would cause more tension and animosity right now then in the past, given where Cobalt is in his life.

I wish the poster with Space Tart posted more! It could be good fun and drama!

Hm, I think you're more the exception than the rule John, though its not as limited as one might think.

For example: Eryk Davis Ester is obviously that character's real name. And Crujetra and Mikal are the names for Spellbinder and Crusader. Though my character started off as Desmonius, his real name is now Cobaltus (story behind that).

But many posters have the traditional style like Lucien Lad is Bevis, Lard Lad is Anthony, Faraway Lad is Darden, etc.

You know, as I write this, I think its more 50/50 split.

As for characters like Scott and Caroline, what is established is that in the LMB verse, Lightning Lad is 'Scott', not 'Garth' and Saturn Girl is 'Caroline', not 'Imra', i.e., Nightcrawler = Gary, Kent Shakespeare = Kent, etc.

Their Earth-2 (DC Comics) and Earth-3 (Marvel Comics) counter-parts would have the different names.

PS - I hope you guys are checking out the History thread!

Answering these questions was no prob. But the minute a hard one comes, I'm letting the thread lie in waiting for weeks and months on end until I"m ready to answer it

(And lets not kid, I know one's coming and I can tell which of two posters* it'll be from )

(*To be clear, not Lardy or Rocky!)

Huh?

I think he thinks you can't think of a question to stump him! A challenge, I say! Prove him wrong, Antman!

Hey Cobie, is Future's Onevision: LMBP the Movie, in continuity or not?

Depends on whether he wrote me a hot love scene with Cali or not...

Cobie, did we ever write Pov into the "Ongoing" storyline?

Didn't he have a love affair with GRL?

Yes, but only as a script that Future wrote for an LMB movie, so, the events didn't technically happen I don't think. I'm pretty sure he is, though we definately didn't do enough bad things to him IMO

Two posters that will ask questions that will cause Cobie to let this thread fall off page one = don't want to reveal them b/c then they'll do it

In your opinion, which death of an LMBer character has had the most impact? Also, which death of a non-LMB character (ally, enemy, supporting character, etc.) was most impactful?

Hey, you know as well as I do that historians decide this kind of thing, so don't be shy!

(I'd qualify this further by sticking to deaths that have been apparently permanent, rather than ones that were undone or revealed not to have happened.)

note: real deaths in real life are a trillion times more important, so I'd prefer we just address the deaths of fictional characters in a thread like this one.

Hm, this is a good question. There have been a lot of deaths over the years, from the very beginning of the LMB (death of Foodmaker Kid, who we only meet posthumously), to right up until recent times. So I’ll give my most honest answer, which of course is purely my own opinions.

Most powerful death(s) of an LMB
To me, this would have to be the death of the Emerald Empress and Space Ranger during LMB Infinite Crisis. In fact, there really isn’t any other deaths in LMB history that carry the same kind of impact. Its too bad you never got to interact with these characters personally Lardy.

When I first came to Legion World, it was almost at the exact time the ALT ID’s ‘Space Ranger’ and the ‘Emerald Empress’ registered. But this was a different time: the alt IDs were posting just as much as the real posters, even moreso at times, which is the case of Space Ranger. Plus, there was such an excitement during that time, and so much activity, that all Alts developed their own personalities and so many crazy storyline and subplots that they really felt like real posters. None more so than these two. Both the Ranger and Emerald Empress were involved in many storylines on the MMB, most notably the Dark STU Saga and the Alt ID Rebellion, and really kind of became LMB mainstays. In essence, they were just as important to the LMB as myself, Eryk, Vee and everyone else posting then. They were highly prominent in all the tag threads of the day, including ‘Ms. Grundy goes to SHAKES’ and many others, the former being Space Ranger’s shining moment. They stopped Thora’s rebellion and the two of them formed the Security Office with me. It was probably that founding of the Security Office which kept them so included in all things LMB. So for over two years they were very prominent accounts on Legion World. It had definitely gotten to the point where the two of them were equally as important to LMB lore as Space Tart and all the other major alts, and you know that’s a big deal when *I* say it.

So, definatley, without question, the deaths of both of them during Infinite Crisis were the most powerful. First, the Empress very tragic death, which really puts a cap on an amazing story of retribution for the character. She came to LW, was under suspicion during a perilous time, had major problems with Space Ranger and myself, won over many, helped defend Legion World, won over other LMBers like Vee, Semi and Arachne, then won over Ranger and me, helped form the Office of Security, was prosecuted by the Royal Inquisitor until Crujectra stood up for her and the rest of the LMB did, had a long-standing romance with Space Ranger, defended Legion World during the Dark STU Saga, ‘The Good, the Dark and the Dead’ saga and others, and had achieved pretty much total retribution for her criminal past—and then gave her life to Legion World. Its actually one of the better, more powerful stories of the LMB.

Space Ranger is no less so. Coming to Legion World he had an air of authority and arrogance to him that rubbed the LMB the wrong way, especially Semi, Vee, Icey and others. However, he proved himself during the invasion of Thora and won them over, and then co-founded the Office of Security. It became a major theme that the Ranger would see things in black and white, in ‘right or wrong’, and he often found himself at odds with new posters who did not agree with this (Cali, Tamper Lad, etc.). But he was always there defending Legion World in every single ‘saga’, which really only about four or five of us can say (myself being one other). His posts were always funny, and he often served as a way to mediate between rival posters like myself and Abin Quank. And very importantly, he became like the ‘Martin Luther King Jr.’ of the Alt IDs, which was a very cool part of continuity. Of course his death would be powerful and it was—dying to defend Legion World and rescue Jailbait Lass from the Red Bee and an army of super-villains, while the rest of the LMB was off battling the Anti-Moderator and doing things on a cosmic scale. Its very fitting when you consider the Ranger constantly had the theme of ‘looking out for the little guy’—the lurkers, the alt IDs, etc. He truly comes off as one of the most heroic of all the LMB characters.

I definitely see these two as the biggest deaths in LMB history. Very powerful stuff!

I'll answer later--too busy right now!

Not lettin' ya forget about that one! And...

Just caught up on your "The Good, the Dark and the Dead" recap--great stuff! Wish I was there! However, two questions:

1) Disaster Boy: Is Morgause really his mother? And has there been a reveal about his father's identity?

2) Lardy: How far away from his return are we? Sometime soon after Infinite Crisis? How soon after GDD is IC?

(*) Will get to!

(1) We at this time still don't know. It actually appeared that Banshee, another Avaloninan may be his mother. But later, he reappeared and he seemed to have some kind of knowledge about his origins that caused him great 'emotional pain'. Personally, since all of Avalon was diconnected from LW in 'Infinite Crisis', I would think otherwise. We do have hints that his parents may be LMBers, or at least one is. He may be from an alternate LMB timeline (think Cable or Bishop or Rachel Summers).

(2) We're getting there. There's a section after GDD called 'The All-New, All-Different LMB', which I've pretty much finished. Then 'Infinite Crisis' will have its own mainly b/c its so large, but its really only the event being covered. Up next is a 'OYL/pre-Actor Lad term' era that covers about 6 months of real time, in which Turning Point will take place and close with Lardy's return. Then Actor Lad and Kent's term. So we're close, but not quite there yet. But I'm moving incredibly fast now, so it shouldn't be too long. What will slow me down is IC itself, so we'll see how I can get through this. But I've begun my notes and I'm beginning to recall the general outline of how it went. So you'll see Lardy's gradual return at the close of the section following IC (I'll have a better name for it eventually), which will be a very large section (considering there's no leader, there's no natural split).

Ok, correction. I've recently done heavy research (days worth) on old Infinite Crisis threads. And I can confirm that Disaster Boy's origins actually lie within those and will be included in future updates on the history.

So I stand corrected (by myself).

Okay, I took a looooong stroll down memory lane tonight, and I have two questions about things that happened in my long absences:

1) EDE was in my body for a while? What was the story on that one?

2) Forgot about the time I couldn't log on to LW way back when. Was there an in-continuity explanation? Seem to recall it was worked into "Dark Stu" or something?

And don't forget about:

*

(*Why's this one so hard? )

The story basically goes that when I first came to Legion World, September 2003, I became immersed in the then-ongoing storylines on Legion World that were taking place. Because I was kind of ‘old school’ and most of the then active posters were very new, there was an interest in old LMB continuity that I would reference. Lash, Cru and Stu, the other main active old school LMBers joked with me that we should make a coherent timeline of LMB continuity, which of course led to my huge project.

During the course of that, Lash told me about the story involving you privately emailing him saying you were EDE, and Lash, myself and EDE laughed about that. I didn’t know EDE at that time, so I was actually curious that he might know you outside the boards, and since I hadn’t talked to you in years, I asked him privately about that, even having a theory that you guys were brothers or cousins or something. EDE told me this wasn’t the case, but must have found it amusing, because a week later he was posting as ‘EDE in LardLad’s Body’ with your avatar. Basically, because of the renewed interest in the EDE/Lardy connection, there was suddenly some Lucifer Lass & One Called the One plots in the ongoing tag thread, and Eryk had fun with that for a week. Nothing was every resolved and there was no real story there.

A few weeks later I posted as ‘Cobalt in EDE’s Body’, and not missing a beat, Vee became ‘Vee in Cobalt’s Body’, and soon Kid Prime and others joined in so for a night on LW, it was that kind of craziness. More ‘goofing off on the MMB stuff’ than ‘relating to LMB Mythos stuff’.


Basically the story went that when Phineas B. Fuddle was revealed as the true enemy of the Dark Stu Saga, he specifically was taking his revenge on STU, Pov and myself because were the then-active posters on LW that were the most active during the time the LMB spent on the Phineas Boards. Not wanting to discount yourself or Lash, since you were so major on the Phineas Board, it just so happened that this was about the same week you were trying to log back into Legion World (if you remember both Stu and Arachne tried to help you with me), so Stu added into the story that Phineas was responsible for inability to get back to Legion World. This was around the time you had disappeared after being around briefly, so we worked that into your continuity for a time. Though murky, it would suggest that your continuity went: (1) arrive on LW, (2) do your part in my onevisions Price and Journeys (3) story in tag thread that is retold in ‘Turning Point’, (4) exit LW powerless in search of Mordra, (5) at one point try to return by not allowed by Phineas, (6) eventually return two entire years later.

As for Lash’s part, we implied that Phineas had a crush on Lash, which is why he remained unscathed.


I wanted to give this one some time to think about it, but I’ve just been too busy at work.

But off the top of my head, I’d say the most recent death of Bat-Fem in ‘Omnia’ is possibly it, or at least tied for it (if I can recall any others). Specifically because Omnia was able to build so much story and characterization over the massive amount of posts, that it gave Bat-Fem a very powerful redeeming arc that was so perfectly connected to the death of her husband, Lard Lord. Also, it was the powerful connection with Jada Konti that really played up Bat-Fem’s role.

But most of all, it was the sheer hugeness of Omnia and the stakes on Legion World, and Bat-Fem’s Ferro Lad like death that underlined what it was these supporting characters were risking in order to defend Legion World against enemies that would give the much more powerful LMB trouble. Her death not only underlined her own heroism, but became a more powerful example of the heroism of all the main characters of Omnia.

The other major deaths I can think of are (1) Giant Squid in Dark Stu, which showcased the heroism of a supporting player in light of everything set against him, which then finally rallied the LMB to turn the tide and (2) Blaine Fey’s death in Invasion which showed just how high the stakes were and how far the invasion had come, where Legion World actually had Dark Oval troops in the streets with the LMB and their allies acting as a resistance.

Am I missing any other big ones? I can’t recall off-hand…

Okay, here's one: How old are the LMBers? Again, this refers to the characters, not the people behind them who range from teens to fifties.

It seems to me that most of them are about the age of the Adult Legion of the late '70s and early '80s comics, but that's a guess, based on that some of the characters are married and in most pictures, they seem to be portrayed as fully-developed adults.

I've established ages for some of my characters. I've made references to Rockhopper Lad and Rockhopper Lass being in their mid-20s and Rockhopper Lad being about a year older, but Pyngwynyy may or may not age at the same rate as humans. Openly Gay Lad/Blaine Fey was 18 when he met Rocky which I guess was about two years ago and Time Teller Lad is under 20.

Has anything else been established?

This is how I see the ages of the characters. When we started the LMB, it was pretty much established that all the posters were teenagers, because it was part of the 'regrabbing our youth' spirit of the LMB for some of the older posters, and even some of the posters that were then in their late 20's (I was actually 18 years old in real life when the LMB started so not so much me). So almost all the origional LMBers were about 16-18 years old (I would say). It was established that Cobalt Kid was the youngest, so we'd have him at about 15-16 (keeping it somewhat vague purposely). Later, a poster named Mightyfanboy Lad would become the youngest poster at age 14, but he left about a year after he joined (and I miss him still!).

Basically, we've all aged as the timeline has moved forward, which at this point, means were roughly about 8 years into the LMB timeline. So if Lash Lad and Lard Lad started at age 17, they would be 25. Cobalt Kid would be about 23 now, I’d wager, though there definitely many younger LMBers than him now.

For the most part, that is how it would work for most LMBers, but there is a ton of leeway.

For instance
(1) A lot depends on where the posters want to have their age when they join. So Poverty Lad joined in the LMB’s third year. But he would have the option of starting at age 17 or he might want to be at age 20, which is what most of the LMB would be at that point. Given the ‘spirit’ of Pov’s posts over the years, I would think he would be about a year older than Cobalt, but probably about the same or just under Lash Lad and the year one LMBers. So I’d put him at around age 19 when he joined, which means he would be about 24-25.

(2) On the other hand, some posters might want to go the root of being at a very young age when they join, similar to the notion that Dawnstar was 18 years old when she became a Legionnaire, despite the Legion having aged for the most part by then. For example, Caliente may say she was 17 when she joined (the exact year up to her).

(3) Then there are the extremes that fall outside of this general assessment. Invisible Brainiac, who was the youngest Legionnaire by far, and still the youngest now, was probably 14 in continuity when he joined, since its part of his story. Faraway Lad has always had the ‘elder statesman’ aspect to his story, and it would fit, given his backstory as an excellent diplomat and military strategist. I would even put him at age 30 at his joining, but really its anywhere ranging from 25 – 35 when he joined in Year Two. Because the LMB would of course not exclude anyone for their age. Yellow Kid too has always seemed to be older (though he may not be) and Dev-Em, who had a history of espionage prior to his joining in year one, would definitely be one of the older Legionnaires during that time period.

But overall, I would say your assessment is right. The majority of the LMB are in their mid-20’s, similar to the 70’s era Legion leading up to the GDS. The LMB now age per the timeline (roughly a year for every real year, though there is room in there that I have built in to allow for what I call the ‘real time/in continuity overlap’). People would just need to keep in mind that there are some outliers that stand outside this general guideline and that the age of a poster does not necessarily begin at 18 when they join, but could be anywhere in sync with the average age of the active membership.

Y'know, I was really only 18 when I joined. (Sound familar, Cobie? ) And I probably would say I was 16/17 (since my birthday's in Ocbober, this would make me almost 19/20, now, which isn't bad for a "married" gal) just because I was oh-so-immature. Thank God I grew out of that!

I'm glad Rocky asked that, though. I never thought about it. Very cool.

Cobalt, I've a vested interest in this next question:

Is Lard Lad really dead?

I don't think so

But hey, I'm an optimist

I just checked the Chicago voter rolls; you're not registered to vote yet. That means you are still alive, my friend!

Lucien Lad would probably be one of those exceptions as well. It's always been a bit of a vague thing about how old Lucien Lad actually is (since it's been established that he's bumped around the time/space continumumumumum for a long time before meeting the LMBP) but even when he joined I ahd him pegged as being a little older than a teenager. In fact he was probably about the same age as I was at the time which would have made him about 23 when he joined in Year One, at least physically if not chronologically, so he's now at least in his early 30s. That'd fit with him being slightly closer in age to the likes of Far so even given that he's one of the longest serving members of the LMBP and so one of the oldest simply by virtue of how long he's been around he's probably also one of the older members from when he joined.