Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! I have cracked Mark Waid's code

I think I have, anyway.

My latest post on Legion Abstract is one I'm really proud of, and I welcome everyone's thoughts on Waid's approach to Legion characterization, here or here

I read through your article already Matthew and I have to say "Great Job!"

I think that you are right on the money on what Waid is trying to accomplish. I actually feel a bit stupid not seeing it before.

And I especially like your theory on Chameleon and can't wait to put it to the test in the months to come.

Thanks!

Nice article Matthew. I've thought of several of them ways similar to what you outline but never considered your thesis as the overarcing theme for the whole cast.

On Phantom Girl, I agree we're not supposed to know her, even some of her teammates dont really know her well and she's a senior member. Her spotlight made it clear that she had been living two separate lives. A violent, exciting punching life on Earth and a suburban life back on Bgztl.

I think that at the end of the spotlight she chose her life with the Legion (symbolized by the dumping of the boyfriend). But this decision came too late for her to form strong bonds with some of her teammates, (symbolized by the fact she was left alone at the club).

I love your insights in this article, Matthew E. The relationship between powers and personalities is a great one to examine. It'd be interesting to know how much is by the writer's plan, and how much is subconscious.

About Element Lad- there's another aspect to his power that I wish writers would think about using. Yes, he changes things... but he also perceives them. In the reboot-that-was, this aspect was played with a bit but in a half-baked way. If Jan's personality has to be presented in terms of 'spirituality' (and it unfortunately seems that it does), it'd be nice to see it filtered through perception rather than change.

I agree with Nightcrawler. Your summary of Cham 'chameleoning' to mirror/react to whoever he's around is *genius*! I want to reread that scene with Saturn Girl in a spaceship-- what was revealed then?

When I read your article, one of the things that jumped out at me was how sad Invisible Kid's situation is. Maybe that's why I haven't warmed up to this version of the character, yet.

Brainiac 5-- I wonder if his 'immunizing' himself against his teammates' powers could be read as him protecting himself from their personalities as well? Maybe he's made the same deductions as are found in the article. Of course, he'd rationalize his immunization from a position of arrogance. But underneath? Anyone else think this guy is paddling as hard as he can to keep anyone at all from getting 'close'?

That is a very astute article with some sharp insights, Matthew. My compliments.

I think that diversity, and especially the achievement of unity despite diversity, is what the Legion is all about. "Blue skin, yellow skin, green skin ... we’re brothers and sisters ... united in the name of justice everywhere!" My favorite part of your argument is that you show how Mark and Barry's Legion is also about diversity, on a much deeper level than that superficial story I just quoted. These characters are even more diverse than any previous incarnation of the team (except maybe the one that included Tellus and Quislet). But their diverse perspectives are slowly coming together into a cohesive unit: a Legion.

Thanks to all for the kind words.

Tamper Lad: We agree about Phantom Girl's commitment to the Legion... but I still don't feel like I really get her yet.

Mystery Lad: I hadn't picked up on that aspect of Element Lad's powers, but I guess he's had that in every version, hasn't he? He must have.

One thing I hadn't thought of about Chameleon's personality... what if he's only a Legionnaire because he happens to be hanging around with other Legionnaires? What if he has no attachment to the group of his own? What happens if he's sent to infiltrate a supervillain group?

I agree that Invisible Kid's situation is a depressing one. One of these days, though, soon, I'm going to post a bunch of stuff I've figured out about Lyle, and I think there's a lot of reason for optimism about him.

As for Brainy, it's always tough to try to write a really smart character, because rarely is the writer that smart himself. Brainy's arrogant enough to think that he wouldn't need to immunize himself against anybody's personality; his mind is too powerful to be vulnerable. What I think Brainy needs is the kind of smackdown Invisible Kid gave to Brainiac 5.1 in the reboot (something the original Brainiac 5 never seemed to need), some way of bringing it home to him that he's a member of the Legion and the Legion is not his personal staff.

That's good. I loved it.

Fantastic, Matthew! I hope all the Legion Worlders get around to reading this. Most valuable, in many ways, is reminding us that, from the beginning, Waid wanted the Legionaires to have a harder time relating to each other. I think a lot of the disgruntlement with the new Legion is the sense that they don't like each other, don't have the camaraderie of the earlier versions.

Your insight into Chameleon, and by extension lots of the other Legionaires, is brilliant! I can't wait to see if your thoughts on Ultra Boy prove out. I suspect they will. We may never know the real Chameleon. Kind of like the tragedy of great actors and performers -- when are they themselves and not in character? (I always think of the late great Phil Hartman...)

I had some similar thoughts on Cosmic Boy. Powerful magnetic fields alter the behavior of anything with an electric charge -- from an electron to a black hole. The power to locally alter laws of physics has to make you a control freak, a narcisist, or a megalomaniac.

I can't wait to read more!

Congratulations, Matthew, on a very interesting and insightful analysis! It will be fun to go back and reread the issues with your ideas in mind.

Now that you've got us all thinking... Karate Kid's power isn't just about strength, but control, as emphasised in the scenes in which he was trying to help Jo. Perhaps he has a controlling personality as well.

There's something more to some of them which I can't put my finger on, as though they represent opposing characteristics: Light Lass is frivolous, but she's also very capable and powerful - she isn't at all frivolous when something needs to be accomplished. Brainy is so smart, he's stupid - and we probably all know someone who is really brilliant intellectually, but a total dork in dealing with the real, everyday world.

Anyways, you've given us lots of food for thought!

Very well thought out Matthew. I applaud you. Gives me reason to go back and re-read the series.

Matthew,

Read this earlier this morning from a link off of CBR where they were discussing what a great grasp of the new legion you had. I didn't realize when I read it that it was you.

I really think you're on to something here. Excellent work!

CBR Discussion of Legion Abstract

Jamie

Thanks, everybody. I really appreciate the response.

I'm going to be extra looking forward to future issues of the Legion now, so I can find out a) if I'm full of it, or b) if I'm not, how this applies to characters like Timber Wolf and Star Boy and others who haven't been satisfactorily mapped into this model yet.

Oh, by the way: someone anonymously posted on Legion Abstract that the first Waid/Kitson TPB includes character sketches and notes and stuff that partially corroborate the sort of stuff I wrote about in this column. If anybody has it, can you provide details about this? I'm curious.

I haven't looked at my copy in forever but I believe they were the same ones Barry shared with us here .

Okay, I'm rereading that thread now, and I think I can see what the guy means; one of the comments for Chameleon is "usually blank slate features except when in conversation [...] face takes on animation and echoes features when he is engaged with others". That's not proof, but it is support.

I don't think proof is really necessary. To a certain extent, it doesn't matter whether your interpretation is the one that Mark and Barry had in mind. A text has a life of its own, independently of the intentions of the authors. (And anyway, we can never really know what their intentions are-- even if they tell us, they could be lying. ) What really matters is whether your interpretation is reasonable and interesting, which it is.

Well, that's fine if we're talking about a static text. But the Waid/Kitson run of Legion isn't complete yet, so any interpretation that occurs while they're still creating new issues runs the risk of being contradicted by future events. So guessing correctly what Waid and Kitson have in mind does have value: it helps us understand future issues, where an incorrect guess would at best be swept away and at worst confuse us. It's not just personal satisfaction that makes me want to be right, even if I never find out for sure if I am.

(Of course, there's also the possibility that Waid and/or Kitson are reading this and deciding to do it this way even if they weren't before. Which would amuse and delight me to no end. I have to admit I've posted quite a few things, here and on Legion Abstract, where I kind of wished Waid and/or Kitson could or would chime in, not so much to Confirm My Genius as to reassure me that I wasn't Away With The Fairies.)

I don't have the credentials to confirm your genius, but I can assure you that you're not Away with the Fairies.

The column was one of the most interesting analyses of this Legion that I've read.

I'll ditto that.

I'll third it. Well done Matthew--you've got me thinking about the Legion in a whole new way. Your analysis of Cham is really interesting, and now I'll be looking at every interaction he has with another Legionnaire much more carefully. It could be the ultimate literary tool for foreshadowing (like your thoughts on how Dirk didn't feel like he was fitting in).

I'm really curious to see what this means for Jo, and how Cos might seem different now to Cham.

If Cham infiltrates a team of super-villains? Wow, you've just raised a really interesting scenario.

This is the kind of indepth analysis/critique that is sorely lacking on super-hero comics. There is lots of this kind of stuff for the non-capes work. It's almost as if real critique on the superhero set is written off as a waste of overall time.

I really enjoyed this essay. Do more of this. Please.

Perhaps Jo can only think about one thing at a time.

That'd be kind of neat. The average person can think about, what, two things at once? Three or four? I read it somewhere but I forget. That'd be a real handicap for Jo.

Thanks, Nick (and everyone else), and I will try to do more... but I've been trying to do stuff like this all along! Check the Columns (or Roster, or Reviews) page on Legion Abstract and see if there's anything else you like. I'm prouder of this article than of many of my other articles, but I do think some of the other ones were good too.

Matthew, I just got around to reading your blog and I concur with the others it's a very intriguing and cogent theory. Whether or not you've really cracked the code isn't as important as your realization that, to a large degree, this version of the Legion seems to be about exploring the essence of the characters (though, obviously, some of them have been deep-mined while a few have barely had their surfaces scratched.)

I look forward to your take on the personalities of the animated Legionnaires which, I presume, will be even more tightly integrated with their powers.

Thinking about Matthew's "Legion Code" and the issue #22. Subject: Ultra Boy.

He's all surface. He can use only one power at a time. Cause, effect, correlation?

First, Waid's Ultra Boy provides new insight into his power. I think Waid's point is that the "ultra energy" in Jo could be used for ANYTHING. If he wanted, Jo could be "I-Shoot-Energy-Turds-Out-of-My-Butt" Boy. (Do NOT tell him that...)

He uses the energy to replicate the powers of histories greatest hero, Superman. Coincidence? Heck, no, not for Waid and Kitson. You get Ultra Energy in an accident, you intuitively realize you can use it to be a super-hero, you do your best to emulate the iconic super-hero. Hence, strength, invulnerability, speed, flight, vision powers, etc.

Does this imply Jo isn't very imaginative? Perhaps so.

What I ponder is this. Can he use only one power at a time BECAUSE he's all surface, no subtlety, no doing two things at once? Or does using his power require so much concentration there's no mental room left for nuance? I like both explanations. If I had to bet on the "right answer," it would be on the former.

I like this code stuff. It explains EVERYTHING. Why Jo would just happen to have all Kryptonian-like powers, and WHY he can use only one at a time, and what that says about his personality.

There's also his code-name. If you are ULTRA BOY, you would be, well, all BOY, right? History's greatest frat guy, with all the good and bad that implies. Do NOT let this Ultra Boy near anything important, like the Legion Leader or UP diplomacy!

Some thoughts on Shadow Lass and issue 22, sometime.

Interesting thoughts on Ultra Boy.

I also wonder if the nature of his powers prevents him from being anything other than Shallow Surface Lad. It's possible that controlling and directing his Ultra-Energy is so taxing that it doesn't leave him much 'room' for anything more complicated.

If he's expending everything he's got just to control what's raging inside of him, and, as has already been demonstrated, hasn't always been successful even at that, perhaps he doesn't really have much emotional energy left for introspection. He's riding a tiger, and if were to stop to admire the sights, he might end up getting mauled...