Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes 51st Century Legion?

I've always loved the Levitz Legion...and I love the current Levitz Legion. I do see low sales though and unless Jim Lee jumps on as artist I don't see that changing. (the art has been great on the current titles especially Portela and Batista!).

How about the Legion farther in the future. Brand new characters in the same universe/mythos. We can have some 20th/21st century legacies as well as some 30th/31st century legacies?

That way it won't step on the 31st century legion yet pay homage and be something new? I kinda wished Waid and Kitson's Legion was something like this. I know Waid hinted at a future Legion.

I love the current Legion especially since they are back to a continuity close to what I love but something brand new Legion related may be a good idea.

P.S. My first post here ever many years ago (2003/2004?) I wrote about how I wish DC would just go back to the Levitz Legion continuity. Got some responses about getting over it and that will never happen. Glad to see it has. Hope.

I came up with a Legion Legacies team that would consist primarily of the descendents of the 'classic' Legion (with Graym Ranzz as the oldest member), but that was 'close enough' to the standard 30th/31st century team that it required me to write out their parents (who would have disappeared en masse).

The thing I'd worry about for a farther future team is the increasing levels of dissonance required to deal with farther-future technology (to say nothing of cultural / social developments!), and the seemingly inevitable desire by editors to cross-pollinate ideas, leading to all sorts of anachronistic events and 'guest-stars' from more popular or successful properties that end up taking over.

(Examples of such weirdness include the introduction of Tribulus in LEGION or the use of the Khunds, Dominators, etc. in Invasion!, both of which made for some strange assumptions that distorted the feel of the original Validus, or the nature of the alien races in the Legion continuity, IMO.)

Over at Marvel, they attempted a Guardians of the Galaxy-esque future series at one point, and, as time went on, their own more original creations began falling by the wayside as 'Easter Eggs' from the modern-day Marvel continuity, such as Captain America's shield or the Phoenix-force, began overtaking (or transforming) the original characters.

I'd be concerned that 'guest-stars' from the past Legion, or Legion shout-outs like a Talokkian or Bgtzln or Durlan or Coluan character might end up overshadowing anything original or organic to the series, as editorial seems to like to temporarily boost sales of newish properties by having Spider-Man or Wolverine swing by for a guest issue, which only succeeds in driving away the original fans of the property, and guaranteeing it's doom...

Tying a future property too close to the Legion could lead to Legion fans protesting that it's not 'Legion-y' enough, and that we haven't seen what's happened to Bismoll or Starhaven or whatever yet, and any fans of the new fresh ideas growing disillusioned as the writing ends up attempting to please both groups, and letting down both in the process.

LEGION, IMO, suffered greatly from this. 1000 years before Validus, they introduced Tribulus. 1000 years before RJ Brande, they introduced 'the Durlan.' 1000 years before Tinya, they introduced 'Phase.' 1000 years before Brainiac 5, they had Brainiac's 1, 2 and 3 functioning in the same ten year period, making for an inexplicable 1000 year gap between Brainiacs 3, 4 and 5.

A 41st or 51st century Legion would, IMO, be better served by having as few connections to the old Legion as possible. That might disappoint fans who were hoping to read the adventures of Matter-Eater Lad in the 51st century, but I think that it would make the 51st century property stronger on it's own feet. Avoiding having a 51st century Bgtzln or a 51st century Brainiac 8, or a 51st century Braalian, and instead having members of never-before-seen races, or pre-existing DC alien races that have never had Legionnaires (like a Dominator or a member of the Spider Guild or a Murran or a Thanagarian) might help to divorce a future Legion from the past Legion.

In my experience, tossing a blonde telepath from Titan onto the team isn't going to placate old-school Legion fans, so much as it's going to piss us off that we are reading this story about this 'replacement character', instead of stories about *our* Imra Ardeen from *our* Legion of Super-Heroes.

That's, IMO, part of what sank the Waid/Kitson threeboot. We were handed different versions of the characters we wanted to read about. I'd rather read about the original characters *or* completely new characters.

Given a choice, I'd rather read about Timber Wolf, than Gazelle. And yet, given a choice between a distorted version of Timber Wolf, like Furball, and Gazelle, I'll pick Gazelle every time, because Gazelle's new and fresh, and Furball was not exactly a shining bit of character development for poor Brin.

As always, add IMO to the end of any sentence that starts with a capital letter.

Rather than a new series set in the 51st century, I'd like to see the Legion use it's time travel capabilities to explore periods other than simply going back to the 21st century.

A groovy sequel to the Anti-Lad story, with the Legion traveling to whatever year he came from and exploring wild new stuff then would be a lot more fun than reading yet another Dominion invasion storyline, imo.

You make so many spot-on points, but this is one I had to jump in and echo, despite having already complained about it before in LW (I think). It really bugs me enough to do it again.

The idea that all these races in Invasion and dotLegion have had virtually zero technological and cultural progression in a millennium is damned annoying.

That said, why make a 41st or 51st century series a "Legion" series at all? If you do call it Legion in any way, readers will rightfully expect some kind of connection, and as you say, may well complain that it's not Legiony enough if there is almost none. If you want to do something new with as few connections to an old title as possible, then why not have no connection at all?

Set, you make some very good points. I personally would like to have connections to the 31st century Legion...but not go overboard. I wouldn't have any 21st century connections at all though.

EDE, a time traveling Legion is a great idea. I rather have Legion Lost do that. A bit more like marvel's Exiles.

Shining Son, while I would still like Legion connections...not naming it Legion might be a good idea. We don't need to confuse new reader even more.

Thanks for the replies.

Just having it in the DC universe means there will likely be some connections, in execution (if it runs long enough) even if not in concept.

Using the name simply sets up an expectation for a certain level of connectedness, that's all. I doubt it would confuse anyone in either case, just disappoint someone who tried it based on that expectation.