I haven't been following L3W firsthand, so I wasn't qualified to vote. However,
Originally posted by He Who Wanders:
I also missed the poll, but since I haven't been following LO3W, I wouldn't have been able to answer many of the questions, anyway.
Still, from what I have seen, I resist the idea of retconning again, no matter how "small" or trivial the changes may be. To me, the Legion consisted of a continuous thread from ADV. 247 until the Magic Wars. With 5YL things get a little murky because DC decided to do a mini-reboot early in the run and erase the presence of Superboy and Supergirl from Legion history. Otherwise, I enjoyed most of 5YL, even the darker, more mature take on the Legion.
The reboot restored much of the opitimism and fun to the Legion, and I loved characters such as Gates and XS. But to me the Legion has always been about the balance between good and evil, between optimism and negativity. I guess that's why I accepted Element Lad's downfall and Live Wire's sacrifice. Both made sense in the context of the characters and the Legion as a whole.
From there on, the reboot faltered as DnA didn't seem to know what to do with it. I guess part of the problem is the same problem that confronted the creators of the original timeline: Once you have the characters actually evolving, growing up, having kids, etc., what do you actually do with them? Do you let the story proceed along its natural course or do you keep the characters eternally young to match the supposed audience? DC always chooses the latter.
I often think of this in these terms: A long-running series naturally evolves. Sometimes, the chnages that follow logically from what came before lead to stories the writers wouldn't have expected. Sometimes, these can open new avenues of storytelling; other times, they can hurt the series by closing possibilities. Then writers start thinking "What if?"
I never accepted the threeboot on so many levels, the least of which was restoring the characters to teenaged status. In every other aspect, the characters seemed only marginally recognizable. This version also relied on a trite premise: Kids who know everything rebel against adults who know nothing. This idea was trite by the end of the 1960s.
Shooter's run? I read only the first issue. In one issue, he managed to make Lightning Lad look like a dumb and irresponsible leader, and the rest of the Legionnaires didn't come off much better. Perhaps he should have stopped writing about teenagers when he ceased being one.
Yet the threeboot has its fans who have argued eloquently for its existence and benefits. I guess what this has taught me is that I expect different things from the Legion--things which current versions cannot deliver.
Not everyone got into the Legion at the same time, or for the same reasons. I'm glad you realize that.
Which brings us to the Action Legion. Like everyone else, I was delighted to see the old characters and costumes again, yet somehow I started to realize that I'd read all this before. Every time DC reinvents the Legion, something is lost and other things gained, but it seems to me that they are still trying to recapture lighting in a bottle. Unfortunately, I'd rather see the stories go forward than backward.
At last, you've pointed out why the neo-80s Legion can't have the same effect the 80s Legion did, even if it were exactly the same (which it's not). The 80s Legion wasn't a copy.
Originally posted by Candle:
Lastly, I'm greedier than you ~ I want the Legion to inspire kids, and adults, forever.
The world is full of nerdy teenagers who aren't reading the Legion. And that's just wrong. It's the sort of series that could have wide appeal if DC ever realized what they had on their hands.
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