Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! The Legend of Valor -- Visited

I completely disagree. The more one fills in the gap, the more the Legion gets the carpet pulled from under it. Look at the rag-tag GL Corps/Darkstar history, and its LSH ties as an example of this (let alone post-Crisis Superman "continuity").

I'm not familiar with the Green Lantern Corps/Darkstar history, Kent. But just because one story or storyline created complications doesn't mean that the rest of the third millennium should be off limits. After all, many of those stories may have nothing to do with the Legion.

it wasn't just one storyline, HWW - pretty much any storyline with strong cross-millenial links has backfired. I just used GL as an example.

Can you provide some examples of how they have backfired, Kent? I had largely stopped reading DC's mainstream books before the Darkstars were introduced in 1992, and I don't recall any other stories (except for the odd Space Museum story or Booster Gold's origin) that were set in that millenium.

In fact, the stories I do recall are Legion-related ("Soljer's Private War," S/LSH # 210, which referenced the 28th century, and the backstory of Computo/Robotica in the reboot). Maybe I just have a one-track mind where the future is concerned.

One aspect of the Valor legend/story that I really liked was this "ordinary hero becomes a god". Although it wasn't often featured, Valor was sometimes shown dealing with the consequences of being worshipped. Jeckie called on him to use this influence when there was Dark Circle trouble on Orando and he refused. However, he did use his exalted position on Cargg to expose the Dark Circle there.

Another person might have let all this go to his head and exploited people, or live a celebrity life, or just become impossible to live with, but Lar withdrew from it. If you've become a god, but don't want to sit on a throne and dispense wisdom, what else do you do?

In this sense, I think it was a hindrance to the character as a Legionnaire. How do you function on a team mission when people are worshipping you wherever you go? So I really like the idea of Lar leading a Wanderers team, or working the edges of the galaxy - it would enable the character to keep the complexities of his godlike-status, operating in areas where perhaps no one had even heard of the legend of Valor.

Good points, Cramer. I think it was smart of the reboot team to keep Valor's identity secret from the general population. It prevented people from reacting as Triad did when they saw him.

One of my favorite scenes, although it doesn't portray Lar in the best of light, is from Legionnaires # 31, when he comes out of the Stasis Zone and is worshiped by Triad. He tries to turn her away gently, but then is informed by Cosmic Boy that he should lay low for awhile, until Valor fever subsides. He then lets Triad have it, blaming her and people like her for the fact that he's gone from one prison into another.

There is so much in this scene:

1. Triad learns that Valor isn't the perfect god she thought he was.

2. Valor learns that his past actions, though heroic, have had unintended consequences for him. No good deed goes unpunished, and all that.

3. We see that Valor has a temper. While again not his best moment in comics, it gives him a human quality which, I think, is handled much more believably than his outbursts in Annual # 2.

i never saw mon-el as a loner type after all we knew he had great affection for Superboy, and was close to Jo. Yes he did brood a lot after the great darkness saga at least that's where I saw the broddness begin. And defintely when his serum started running down. columinating in issue 23 of the baxter story. but never really much else (unless you;re taking what happend to daxam and him being upset over what the UP was treating the surviving daxamites. I thought those were in character and normal.

Maybe Mon-El should go emo? (i just learned what that word meant...i am old).

I didn't start reading Mon-El till after the GDS. I do remember him being happy though. With Shady, horse playing with Jo, or that double date camping trip.

Still I like a brooding/serious Mon-El. It seperates him a bit from Superboy.

Plus it seperates him from the others. I'd like to see these characters have more cultural differences rather than it be a all american high school.

The brooding or loner aspect didn't become defined until much later, but, as with many characters, you can find clues or subtle hints in some stories that might support this development:

In ADVENTURE COMICS # 341 (the second half of the Computo story), Mon is present throughout, but has little, if anything, to say.

In ADVENTURE COMICS # 333 ("The War Between Krypton and Earth"), he is absent from the story until the very end, when he arrives in time to stop a bomb.

In ACTION COMICS # 384, Mon learns that he is dying and chooses to spend his last hours in action instead of with friends.

In SUPERBOY # 191, Mon runs for leader, yet worries that he will crack under the strain of leadership (in spite of having already served a term as leader).

In SUPERBOY # 203, Mon, now leader, goes ballistic when a Legionnaire (Invisible Kid) is derelict on duty.

While none of these episodes prove conclusively that he brooded, they do suggest that he may have been more comfortable being by himself or keeping his own counsel. He was utterly dependable when needed (ADV. 333), but didn't participate in the main adventure. He served as leader out of a sense of duty, not because he enjoyed being in command.

Mon-El was happy, of course, particularly with Shady. He also regarded the Legion as family (though, as with any other family, that doesn't mean he wanted to be around them all the time).

There is, of course, leeway to interpret these stories differently. But, like Jorge, I think a tendency to brood or go off by himself distinguishes Mon from Superboy.

HWW, and I guess that is why in v4 they explained his temper tantrums, loner attitude as him being part Eltro Gand?

You'd think constant contact around lead despite the serum would make him a bit crazy.

I always equated Mon-El with Captain America. They make Cap down right depressing sometimes cause of his "man out of his time" thing.

Mon-El lived in the Phantom Zone! I just don't imagine him all that happy. I like somber Mon-El.

The Eltro Gand revelation may explain a few things (or at least validate the later Proty-Garth revelation), but I don't like the idea of it explaining temper tantrums, indecisiveness, or other personality "weaknesses." This suggests that Mon-El was perfect before Eltro started mucking with his mind.

I never thought of lead as something that might make him uncomfortable, though.

The Cap analogy is very interesting and fitting, Jorge. I hadn't thought of them both being men out of their time.

I think Mon adjusted to his circumstances better than Steve Rogers did. Mon was able to put it all behind him, except in unusual circustances such as the villain (Memory?) manipulating his thoughts. Steve Rogers seemed to wallow in self-pity during the early '70s. He spent a lot of time in self-reflection and wondering who he was. Mon didn't seem to have those issues.