Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes On Kinetix and Power Lust

Yeah. Violet after the Eye, well, she gained the power to grow. Then there were a couple issues exploring the aftermath. But then her character arc seemed over.

For that matter, Zoe's arc ended too until they zombified her, and then further Terrorformed her...

Ack! Gaseous Lad with the bad pronoun references! 10 points from Ravenclaw!

I fixed it to read: Regardless, once Violet was freed from the Eye, the creative team just basically did nothing with Zoe, and no one but McCraw could write her worth a damn.

So ZOE was left to basically do nothing from them on. At least DnA gave Vi the occasional line or action here and there

Alas. Probably why they terrorformed her... but still a shame. I mean, they did very little with XS, Gates and a few others too, they could have just left her as is... she was powerful, but not overwhelmingly so. And her powers IMO were easily written (if they could write Kid Quantum's powers, they could very well have written Kinetix's simpler powers!)

also a shame, as in her very few appearances under DNA, they seemed to have had a good handle on her personality AND on her powers! Bubbly, kinda rude, well-meaning, etc. I was thrilled when they wrote her in... Legion 6 I think it was, her during the Terrorforms' first appearance. And in Legion Worlds 1 too, meeting M'On and Shvaughn.

Ah well, what could have been...

She was well written by DnA, a distinctive personality with lots of potential; she would have been a good balance for Shvaughn if they'd left her in the SPs. Guess she drew the short straw for terrorforming.

She had one of the most haunting, tragic final lines that I can recall. When she's transformed into machine kind, she crackles with green energy - probably just a colourist's choice, but it made me think of the Eye in the light of this discussion.

Yes... what a haunting and great "final line" indeed. And using her last gasp to warn Shvaughn away... a nod to the hero within!

Thanks FC. I think you've been able to refine my thoughts here. You're absolutely right. Her SP scenes in Worlds were great, and the above pic that you posted, which I had forgotten, is just haunting.

I think my issue is that they transformed her but then didn't use her that much. But I'm trying to be linear on my read, so I have a ways to go before DnA yet. I'm steeling in for the post-Mordru lull now. Give me strength.

I would not have minded the transformation as much, if she had at least retained her personality through it Would also have been interesting to see why she resisted expending all her energy so she could revert.

A poster here called Future, did a piece (somewhere here in the Bits forum) on each Legionnaire narrating their greatest fear. Zoe's was her power lust, she explained that she chose to stay as a Terrorform because of the power it gave her... she knew transforming back would mean giving up a lot of that power. And she was afraid of what that meant for her.

An acceptable explanation given her past... if only DNA had used that!

Future's explanation certainly could have been used; it does fit Kinetix. Don't know where it might have taken her, if she'd be consumed by the power as Sarya was with the Eye, or if she would be the next stage of human evolution, as the forms were described. She may have lost that sense of power as she transformed further into machine, if she became part of some hive mind, regardless of how much power she could actually wield. I don't recall how she went back to being a Terrorform to rejoin the Legion as a seldom-seen member.

I was thinking more about why she might have been the character picked for transformation. It's ironic, since she was a magic-based character, that she became one of the machines.

And also, she was the character pre-DnA that underwent the most transformations generally between costumes and powers.

I can think of four or five different versions of her, so this may have been DnA echoing that theme.

re her rejoining the Legion, she kind of... just appeared as a Legionnaire. There was never any scene where she officially rejoined, but she just WAS.

Nothing to add re why she was picked. It makes sense... I remember just before her transformation, she was bragging to her sci-cop partner, that she was the Legionnaire who changed costumes most times!

She just followed them home and invited herself back.

Pulling back to this for a second - IB, I'm doing some digging here and I think what you are describing is *exactly* what the original plan was, although I'm going to look more to see if I can confirm this.

The "emerald princess" sketch that Reboot was helpful enough to attach was dated at around the time that this was posted in the AOL Legion chat transcript with the creators from around the same time that Troy McNemar would post on the LSH Usenet group:


Mordru comes up in speculation from the fans.

I'm gonna keep digging, but that obviously changed.

Searching the old Usenet archives makes my head hurt, but it does take me back for sure!

wow! that is amazing, GL! we should call you Archaeology / Archive Lad! those Usenet archives are a great resource!

You're just calling me old.

This finding does beg the question, was Kinetix denied the Eye twice?

In other chats, it is noted that they basically set up the Emerald Vi (specifically, tagging Vi with the Eye) plot when they did the Future Tense story, which famously had the Eye pop out of the scavenger's case in the background. So that would be the first plot to connect Kinetix with the Eye which they avoided. Then the Bride of Mordu story would have been the second. Kinetix offering herself as Bride to free Violet, then defeating Mordru would have been an interesting read.

What I haven't still been able to find is any confirmation about the intent of Kinetix with the Eye and how they had planned it. Just some convention notes where they said they basically said "that was the plan" but there is no reporting on any specifics of the plan.

LOL! no no, you like history / old things Like Zoe, she's young but has an archaeological streak

Ooh, Zoe offering herself as Bride would have been cool! Great idea. I think they could have written it in a way, where both Vi and Zoe have their moments re strength of will. Vi could have freed herself from the Eye still (just like what happened), while Zoe's moment could have been her resisting the Eye to concentrate on beating Mordru. Win for both ladies.

Sadly, Zoe's big moment of turning power down, would not come until LSH 113... ah well.

Zoe's arc, I always felt, would have had a big moment where she gets really tempted by Power. Then chooses to forego it for a greater good. A giving up of something, realizing she does not need it to do good in this world. This is largely based on the set up within her origin story.

Or better - Zoe is able - with assistance from Mysa - to tame the Eye then use it against Mordru. Or make it more dramatic and she does briefly become the Empress, but is able to drain enough power from the Eye in the fight that she can use her own powers to "keep it on a leash" so to speak.

Then, yeah, basically nothing until 113. Then very little after that. :smh:


Which she kind of does in 113? But its kind of cheapened. The only "punishment" that she receives as a character is that she became a vegetable for a year that didn't really affect her like it did Vi. Apparently that whole anomaly thing was a device left between writing teams to use as a springboard after 100.

EDIT - and I agree IB, all that research was a lot like archeology, a lot of sifting and searching through junk!

Yeah, I think it would work better if Zoe sends the Eye away after L* 50...


and indeed. LSH 113 was too abrupt. It did not feel like a big moment for Zoe

Haha I felt the same when writing fanfic or doing rereads. Lots of googling and looking up back issues!

So I've been moving and as part of the process I had to lug a ton of comic book longboxes, mainly DC comics from the 90s (Superman, Batman, Legion and assorted others), and as part of digging through them for my Legion books I discovered a copy of Jeff Moy's Sketch Games book that he created from the early 2000s. Big section on the Legion in that with the exact answer to the question that I posed several months ago regarding Kinetix, attached. Also lots of other concepts for the Workforce and Emerald Violet.

oooh sweet! Loving the art very much