Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Is switching STAR BOY's race stupid?

I think it is.

This is going to be the 1 thing that bites Waid in the ass, I think.

So the future isn't all white people? This would have been easily shown by including already-established characters like Tyroc, James Cullen, Danielle Foccart and Catspaw. Characters whose fans haven't seen them in years.

So this goes against the whole "using the Adventure-era only cast" idea? Then maybe that was a bad idea too.

Well, we know what Lester would say...

Seeing an actual image of Star Boy now...I don't know what to think. I don't see how it's going to make him more interesting and I agree that if the diversity was needed another Legionnaire could have been drawn in.

I definitely didn't feel I could visually relate this guy to postboot Thom at all, or his preboot counterpart...but maybe his personality will shine through and things will work out.

Though the Adventure-only cast is nice, I'm desperately missing the variety of members from eras and (more than that) the non-humanoids. At least two of the Adventure-era people I was missing have been confirmed now as cast members...though sadly Chuck & Tenz are still no-gos.

I'll reserve judgment, but I can understand the cries already of its stupidity.

I dont like it. I agree that Catspaw, Danielle-Computo would have been good. Does it MATTER that he's black? He on a team with a blue skinned girl, a green-skinned boy, and others from dozens of other worlds. Does 'random-black-guy' matter?

That was my big worry when I first heard about this too MLLASH. I have a REAL FEAR that Star Boy is going to become the new <shudder> Sneckie!

And I agree with your reasoning - why make such a fundamental change to a character when they could have easily just brought Tyroc or either Kid Quantum in?

But I think once the inital surprise wears off it'll be OK. I mean he's still going to be the same character. In this universe some of Thom Kallor's ancestors just made some different partner choices is all.

They've changed Karate Kid's race too, incidentally, but that adjustment seems a lot more fluid to me - probably because his race was always a little up in the air anyway.

Anyway, I'm just happy to see some diversity. Hopefully there's more to come.

Yeah, KK's race has kinda fluctuated depending on who draws him.

But Thom's been a cracker for 40 years!

Okay... I won't panic... I'll file it under "wait and see"...

But I'll still be bitching that Tyroc, Danielle, April and James are going unused!

(for the record-- I'm not including Jacques in my rant because A) I like Danielle more and B) I assume Lyle will be the Invisible Kid here)

Speaking of KQ, would anyone else like to see James Cullen's character the firt actual chance it'll ever get in history?

I think this really has the potential to be a huge problem with this version. They better get his personality right.

I do, however, *really* like the costume.

As I've posted elsewhere, I'm against the idea of making white characters black or Asian or what have you because it's been done so often: (Black) Goliath, Captain Marvel, Dr. Light (both of whom changed not only race but sex), and our own Invisible Kid to name a few. It's like saying people of color can't come up with identities of their own.

While I second Blacula's call for diversity, I think that changing races of existing characters is a trite way to do it.

Petty

I for one wonuld really like to see the character of James Cullen explored.

I really liked the sweet young man he was as written by the Bierbaums in LEGIONNAIRES, but was equally intrigued by his dare-I-say gayish postboot persona.

Plus I prefer his powers-- forming stasis fields-- over his sister's nigh-omnipotence.

i don't have a problem with Star Boy being black as long as it's not the Thom Kellor "Star boy " character and as long as they make this Star Boy's character and personality (if he isn't Thom) as interesting or better then his perdicessor then i'll look at it as if someone new is carrying on the name of Star Boy.
i didn't have a problem with the new Dr.light or Capt. Marvel being female and of different ethnicities, nor with Black Goliath or invisible kid² being black. the names are the same it's just the people using the names are different.

i stand with Mllash, Blacula and He Who Wanders on this

it just seems strange to 'color in' one of the adventure legionnaires when Tyroc would have been fine with some shifting in his powers (the disco screamer was pretty bad & flat -- wheras the DCU is overrun with 'magic words' that grant powers -- he could have one of those)

UNLESS xanthu is a primarily black planet in this universe

OR Star Boy is James Cullen here

BUT if it's to avoid using Tyroc (a personal fave) because Waid couldn't come up with another name or -gasp - more visual powers ... that's just lazy

I haven't read any of your posts yet...fyi.

I think it is cool only for the reason that it shouldn't change a damn thing.

usually i am against a black legacy character...by that I mean a black character inherits a heroic identity. I rather black characters be introduced as new.

But this is the 31st century...what difference does it make that this time around Thom is black? None IMO.

I hate the ppl that bitch about the Kingpin being black in Daredevil or Jessica Alba being too hispanic for Invisible Woman. It's like being pissed Ben Affleck wasn't a natural red head or irish or whatever. ohwell.

Jorge

IF you didn't like the snake, you shouldn't like this...

I don't think that's necessarily true. The snake was a bad character in its own right, regardless of its being a reboot of Jeckie, and changing a character's species is a *far* bigger change than changing skin color.

Comparing this to the snake isn't the wisest of choices for a few reasons.

So far i think this goes pretty seamless UNLESS they suddenly change Thom's character. If Thom is suddenly cutboard copy of other noveau black characters it will. If Thom is Thom...the same hard luck guy who sometimes really doesn't care about the Legion all that much...then cool.

I don't like James Cullen...never have.

Jorge

I don't know James Cullen -- whether he was the arrogant hothead who was just 'asking' to be killed, or the 30th century's Ghandi coming out off the dessert to give his soul so that his people would live, or the pretty gold statue in the Legion cemetary.

It's just a possibility - "Star Boy" not having the most descriptive name (Heavy Lad? G-Plus Boy?), Kid Q having a star shape and completely amorphous 'galactic' powers. It was the simplest solution to "why is Star Boy black?" One of Xanthu's other mega-powered guys is black already: ergo, maybe it's him.

I couldn't care less. It's not like someone's sneaking into my storage room to color in all my back issues or anything. They didn't "make" Star Boy black. This is a new version of the character.

I truly think we're going to be getting a Thom Kallor who is suddenly black after 40 years and not James Cullen as Star Boy.

How sad to think that the already-established black characters have been passed over in favor of giving whitey a tan.

"Wait and see... wait and see..." Maybe it'll be good...

So long as his personality isn't changed, it doesn't really make a difference to me. I think it's really peculiar considering how random it seems and how there's already plenty of black characters in Legion history, but so long as he doesn't become as irritating as "Sensor" did, hey, whatever color's fine by me.

i tend to hate the "minority inherits wasp-y super hero identity". i understand that it comes from the creators acknowledging that there needs to be more ethnic diversity but it tends not to work. Mr. Terrific in JSA is the only exception i can think of. But this is a little bit different for me, because in the LSH future there is no african-american identity. there really is no social difference--no personality difference. the change is largely cosmetic and therefore pretty superficial. I'm actually surprised after hearing Waid's explanation of the motivations behind it that it wasn't done to more of the characters. there are still so many brown-haired wasp guys. I still think XS will be the 20th member-the boots that are flying off the page, and her dark skin will be welcome. but what will be her girl/lass name?

First of all - there's no maybes about it. Thom Kallor *is* black in this new continuity. Mark Waid said so himself in that Pulse article.

Secondly - even if Waid had brought in Tyroc, James, Jenni, Jacques, Jazmin, etc (Hey! What's with all the 'J' names?) instead of changing a character's race (as is what I think we would have all preferred he do) the Legion would still have been left with the same problem its always had... namely 6 brown-haired, brown-eyed white males with very similar builds who are all very difficult to tell apart out of uniform (Jo, Gim, Thom, Lyle, Val and Brin). And that number goes up when you include all the guys who are exactly the same but with slightly darker hair (Rokk, Condo, Tenzil, Lar and Chuck when he's not fat).

With a large cast like the Legion, having so many characters who look alike might be off-putting or confusing to new readers. Its also a lot less pleasing visually to see one block of homogenous characters on a team rather than a group of characters with individual characteristics and appearances.

Obviously the creators have tried different tactics to resolve this problem over the years - fat Chuck, feral Brin, bearded Thom, headband Lyle, Asian Val... dead Condo - but when you strip them all back to their basic, youthful premise (as WnK have done here) then that same visual problem raises its ugly head again.

I think WnK probably had a hard choice to make, and while I'm not sure that they made the right one yet, I do agree that it was a problem that needed to be addressed.

And, lets face it, this change is nowhere near as bad as the snake!

I hated the snake because I loved Projectra. Projectra is human, not a snake. If Star Boy was a big favourite of mine (which he isn't but I don't mind him) I would not be too upset because changing his skin colour doesn't change his species.

I do think suddenly changing the race of a character who's been white for 40 years is a bit crass, I would feel the same way if Kid Quantum suddenly turned up as a blonde blue eyed white girl. I still dislike it heartily that the post crisis Lois Lane has brown hair, not blue-black. As far as I am concerned, if she hasn't got blue black hair she's not Lois!

Yeah I'm a silver age fangirl who hates change. At least I can admit it! ;p

But no, it's nowhere near as bad as the snake. Still a bit duff. Once a character is established I like 'em to stay the same way forever.

It was inevitable that some character would get their ethnicity changed though, if you are going to go strictly silver age. Back in the SA, as we know DC didn't dare make any characters black because they were afraid of losing sales in the American south. Which is why black people suddenly appeared in the 30th century in 1974 (3074?) or thereabouts having been non-existent beforehand. (ah how thoughtful of you to notice that two thirds of the human race actually exists!! well done dc! hur hur)

But anyway, if you're going to go all Silver Age on the lineup, you had to change someone's race. You just can't get away with having a team of 20 or so humanoids all being caucasian these days. Goodness knows it was jarring enough even back then! (blue, green and orange people galore but no actual real-life human diversity!oooo nooooo...)

Like nearly everyone else I would have preferred an already established black character from Legion history though.

Would it have gone over better if they made Ferro Lad black, since that was what the character was originally intended to be?

Or Shadow Lass?

To me, it would work if this Star Boy is not Thom Kallor. I hope he's some other guy with the Star Boy powers. I hope he's interesting, too, of course. Therefore, I hope that this version of Legion comics shows Thom as still being around in some other capacity, not Star Boy (yet).