Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Visionaries of Tomorrow Mark Waid discusses 3boot in Interview & New Interview June 2021

Mark Waid has given a (long) interview with AICN, covering many topics. One of them is his run on the 3boot, where among other things he reveals they had worked out the origin:
The interview is here; scroll about halfway down for the Legion material (when you see the Legion covers).

Also reveals that DC didn't tell them about the Lightning Saga Legion until they were about to be published, so that stinks.

However, threeboot suffered from more than DC pulling the rug out from underneath them early on, I don't care how well Barry and Waid had the threeboot worked out, they just didn't consistently deliver. Stories were drawn out and unexciting, characters unlikeable, and many of the themes just were "Legion." For a guy who loves the Legion so much, he sure missed the mark about what is appealing about them.

I wish Mark Waid nothing but the best, but I take issue with the part of the interview where he states the Waid/Kitson team had planned a total reboot to the Legion series. If I remember correctly, they maintained right up until the first issue that it wouldn't be a reboot! He states numerous times in the interview that management (both DC and Marvel) misdirected or flat out lied to him in regard to various titles, but isn't that what happened by himself to us Legion readers?

The TMK reboot and recent WaK reboot may have garnished a few fans, but alienated more than they gained of the long timers, and fractured the Legion continuity to rubble. Their Legion legacy is a few good scattered tales (not enough to justify the rebooting) at the expense of a convoluted dump heap.

It seems to me there is little choice but to return to the Silver Age characters, with or without Superboy, in order to solidify some sort of reader base. Good luck to the next creative team sorting all this mess out.

Thanks for sharing, Pete.

I don't hate the guy, and do not wish him ill, but it'll take more than his 90s heyday to wish him well in the comics world. I want to see the comics biz put out the best material it can, not fill rack space with veterans who are just coasting. I'd rather see room made for new blood.

I can't really say I feel sorry for him. Blaming Lightning Saga for his own book's fizzle seems like a giant cop-out. He bungled that on his own, as far as I can see.

He had a free hand to do a reboot - how could he expect it would not further convolute the Legion? There is nothing he did that could not have been a completely new series.

All he has shown is his lack of imagination when it comes to reviving the Legion (Again - considering his role in the '94 boot). Maybe he's one of those fans who clutches when he gets the chance to do his favorites.

(Kid Q - your use of "TMK Reboot" makes me wonder if you are referring to 1989 (TMK) or 1994 (the Reboot, which did not involve TMK)).

(Moved to Visionaries)

You are not remembering correctly. I was at the panel at the Baltimore Comic Con where the details were first announced back in September 2004. It was always said to be a reboot. Here's proof; a first hand account of the panel . And my own notes from the panel (I posted this somewhere, but I'm not sure where) said this: "It is a reboot; although Mark did say there is an in-continuity reason for it."

Well, thanks for setting me straight PR on the Waid reboot. I haven't seen that article before. Still, I want to say that there was a lot of concern about a reboot at the time by posters here on Legion World, but TPTB downplayed it to be more of a modernizing, or at least that's how my ever increasing senility interpreted it. My apologies to Mr. Waid.

Kent - I was indeed referring to the 5YL version done by TMK. It was a radical change to the previous Legion version, and even though 5YL was supposed to be a future extension of it, I contend that the characters, setting, and basic premise and spirit of the series was changed so much, I consider it a reboot.

I seemed to recall *someone* insisting it was not really a reboot. I thought it was Waid, too.

KQ, 5YL was certainly a departure, but it doesn't meet my definition of a reboot, any more than I consider Cockrum a reboot of 60s Legion. Maybe we need a new term for something less-than-a-boot.

In any case, I do hope Waid does write good things in the future, but I hope he stays away from having creative control over of Legion (but occassional fill-ins or even Elseworlds would be okay).

I tend to use "Relaunch" whether it's a new #1 or just a marked creative departure that doesn't involve restarting a property from scratch.

Guys, I wasn't sure where to post this, but here's an article the folks at Super-Bloggers put together regarding Mark Waid's legal battle with that racist, homophobic hack Richard Meyer and the GoFundMe campaign Mark has going to help with it

http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-lsb-supports-diversity.html

Mark Waid interview at Word Balloon podcast discussing a wide range of topics including LSH. He wouldn't want to write LSH again. Likes Brainy & Mon-el. Seemed to hint he might be working on a Brainiac 5 story (vague - maybe just playing around or for some guest appearance?). DC editorial hated the reboot.... still have an hour to go on the interview.

Thanks for the link, FC.

Just to keep the links together from a thread perspective, here's the Waid interview from the Legion Clubhouse podcast where he says the same about Brainy & Mon.

Regarding the Lightning Legion & the fact that it basically undermined the threeboot: he, "hit the roof."

There's also a bit of a sobering discussion about the nature and viability of the Legion in that interview. Recommend if you haven't listened to it yet.

https://majorspoilers.com/2017/04/13/legion-clubhouse-006-macguffin-legion-mark-waid/

i'm more of a reader than a listener, but I am curious. Thanks FC, GL

DC editorial hated the reboot.... huh? I mean, their editorial decision (zero Hour) caused the Reboot, so...

Its DC Editorial, so



EDIT

I was listening to this and if its the same section of the interview, I think he was referring to the 5YL work due to the discussion around Giffen. Did I mishear that?

It was 5YL - I've got reboot on the mind! - Waid really admired Giffen's vision for 5YL and the Bierbaums' dense scripting, ahead of its time.

What he said about viability of the Legion: that it had been one long continuous story, then it got disrupted again and again, essentially lost the magic (my words, not his).

Yep - And I don't disagree with that. It's like when you have a pane of glass that breaks - any way to give it the same shape requires your to break it into smaller squares, so you still have a square of glass, but its vastly different and there is a mess everywhere.

And I'm shocked about the management not liking it; that style of story was all the rage, and they obviously had the intent to do the 'younger' Legion based on what was said there, as well as the separate academy book.

Too bad, really.

One other interesting note about the interview with Waid.

The interviewer asks point blank about how he feels about the Bendis version of the Legion. Waid is very complimentary to Bendis in a very general way.

However he is much more specific about his praise when it comes to re-envisioning the Legion - "If you want to re-imagine the Legion as diverse group, this is the way to do it." Which I don't disagree with, but I think Sook's designs factor in on that aspect of it more than Bendis' writing. Waid specifically did NOT comment on Bendis' story arcs for the main title or Future State.

True, Sook's designs are definitely diverse