Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes New recruits!

So, what do we make of Otaki and M'Winadji?

Otaki (Oh-TA-kee) is most likely of Japanese decent. If I know my Levitz, she'll be of Earth, with powers gestated from the long-term affects of the Fukishima disaster. What kind of power do you get if you're bit by a radioactive wave? An aquatic-based power is one never seen in the Legion annals, IIRC, so that would be neat.

M'Winadji (MWIN-ad-gee) is of African descent, though not necessarily, in fact, probably, not of Earth. His name evokes T'Challa (thus my addition of the apostrophe) and the movie Jumanji. I imagine he is from some jungle or agrarian world (Manna-5?) with the ability to make wild animals appear. In fact, I bet his power is to grow animals super-fast Chlorphyll Kid-style from miniature sized versions kept in his belt.

Okay, maybe not.

Also, FWIW, my translation from the interlac was mwieadji, but the more commonly accepted mwinadji makes more sense,

Where did you get these names?

Translated the interlac from their cameo appearances in LSH #9

Oh.

What are the odds that her codename has the word "sun" in it?

Heroes of Chinese descent need to have dragon in their code name.

Sun Dragon!

How synchronicitous! I was just throwing together some new characters that I would like to play around with and one of them was 'Ark Lad,' who produced 'eggs' that he could cause to expand into full sized animals from different worlds! (He was mixed race, part human and part some fish-race that stored many eggs inside themselves, like sturgeon, and had the mutant ability to imprint his otherwise infertile eggs with DNA from different animals he'd encountered, and then cause them to grow super-fast!)

Kind of the animal version of Chlorophyll Kid, really. The Legion hasn't really had a lot of summoner types, or someone with animal control / manipulation powers (barring poor Animal King).

And Otaki doesn't have to have tsunami powers or sun powers, there's plenty of other Japanese cliches she could tap into, like being a ninja, or having an energized samurai sword, or being able to turn into a giant robot girl (or giant fire-breathing atomic lizard-girl)! Maybe she has yakuza tattoos that she can animate! Maybe she's a nine-tailed fox spirit of mischievous powers!

Or maybe she's like Harmonia Li, Chinese to the hilt, but with mastery of the classical *western* elements. Otaki could be all traditionally Japanese, but have cowgirl powers of stunt-riding horses and trickshooting revolvers!

And her arch-nemesis can be Reverse Cowgirl!

Or not.

Hmm, we're kinda being deluged with utterly new characters when there are plenty of existing candidates to choose from...I am not opposed to new blood in and of itself; we would never have had Tellus or Blok if Levitz was afraid to introduce any new elements to the team after all.

But the way it's happening now seems to be a bit too on the nose...we have characters floating around who want to be Legionnaires, who have no reason not to be Legionnaires, but they're being passed over for completely untested newbies in every instance.

Having said that, I hope Levitz steers away from the obvious cliches. It would be super cool if we got some powers the Legion have never had before instead of just a replacement for Timber Wolf or Colossal Boy or so on...

An empath might be an interesting way to fill the gap that Tellus and Saturn Girl have left.....I like the summoner idea mentioned above as well...maybe a new HEROIC Nemesis Kid? (though I guess that's kinda what we had with Variable Lad, and that didn't really work out too well)

To be honest, I would much rather see Infectious Lass, Calorie Queen, any of the Subs, any of the old-school Academy kids, the Heroes of Lallor or any of the existing reservists come back before getting any new members again so soon though...Glorith hasn't even been on an actual mission yet, has she? Let the new kids settle in a bit before we get newer new kids to steal their thunder

Agreed. I'm still a little bitter over the new kids bumping Lamprey and Nightwind, and wouldn't mind seeing some previously seen figures like 'Tiger Girl' or 'Amp Girl.' Yet more completely new characters seems unnecessary at this point, particularly on a team that's already quite large, and with the specter of the Legion Lost team returning within the year, if their own title gets cancelled.

I agree 100%!

There may not be many people who'll agree with me but I really like this idea. I reckon that with the title being called Legion there should be more members. Okay so I'd love to see Gear, Monstress, Thunder, the Quantum Kids, Amp Girl, Babbage be included to some degree as a nod to previous incarnations. but hey Ho, you'll not hear me complain about new members. be nice if Nightwind, Lamprey, Mandalla, Gravity Kid and Jed were seen as a sub-group, Legion Takron Galtos.

Anyway, yay new members!

I don't have a problem with new members per se, in fact I enjoy seeing new faces.

My issue is that new members always replace someone else. There is a perceived need to keep the membership down to mid twenties, so each incoming member sees someone's favourite written out.

The number of ex-Legionnaires (including the Lost) is well into double figures. Add the Subs, Lallorians etc and we could easily have a Legion of 50 - 60 members. Now that would be a challenge to the creative team.

I wonder if a format like the JLU cartoon back then would work. Using a different group per episode allowed the creators to juggle dozens of heroes. Granted, the large majority only had 1-2 spotlighted episodes... and Levitz would be forced to compress his storylines.

And even with the current team size, there are already several members who have had little screen time.

Or "light"?

I think the ideal would be to have a second "Legionnaires" title, with each issue spotlighting a single member. That way, in two years you'd get through everybody in a twenty-four member cast, and maybe you could use annuals to focus on supporting cast like the Subs or Heroes of Lallor.

I haven't picked up a Legion book since LOTW. I've kept tabs through this medium. So far, not regretting my decision to *Let Go.* (At least, as far as spending my money on comics, is concerned.) Seems to me that instead of wasting efforts on an *Official* 2nd Legion title. The *Powers* concerned might explore the idea that more than one super-group can exist in the 31st century.

Designating Adventure Comics as a 31st century title, could be a really cool thing. There are a universe, or three, worth of characters and themes to explore in such a title. Aside form the Subs, and the Science Police, there's also the Time Institute, The Wanderers, The Heroes of Lallor, the various super-villian groups, any immortal characters that have survived from the present day. All sorts of Solo stories could be told. It would be a great way to satisfy those of us who'd love to see some of the characters from the past Legion incarnations, and the Legions that never were.

Where's Kono? Dragonmage? Thunder could re-appear, as a member of the Tempus Knights. Sorceror's World could be explored. Jaxon Rugarth could cross paths with the Black Witch as the Spectre of the 31st Century. Does Labyrinth still exist? Sisters OF The Eternal Cosmos? Andromeda? I'm sure everyone wants to catch up with Rol Purtha? (Smirk.) Tons of ideas.

A second series sounds like an awesome idea. Plus, characters whom the writers don't plan to make Legionnaires could be explored further.

Maybe XS has found her calling helping UP aid groups revive devastated planets?

How are Nightwind, Lamprey and Crystal Kid dealing with their new assignments?

Is Tenzil enjoying the Bismollian senate?

Could a version of Kinetix be an up-and-coming fashion designer?

I think the new recruits are just to rebuild the ranks of the Legion Academy which I don't think should have gotten depleted by sending the kids up to the big leagues so fast.

I agree with the idea of a second title set in the 31st century. It would be a better option than Legion Lost sending a team of legionnaires back to the 21st century only in hopes of attracting Teen Titans readers. The title could reprise the "Legion Worlds" title and feature the Legion Academy and other groups/heroes lurking around the 31st century. It might even serve as an incubator for creating new worlds/heroes/villains that could bring new life to the main Legion title in the future.

i love this idea!

Or as a way to test the popularity of past characters and worlds!

welcome to Legion World Leather Wolf! Although I like the Legion Lost concept (Liked the first Legion Lost arc better), I DO NOT like setting the Legionnaires in the 21st century. One of the main attraction of the Legion for me for the last 32 years has been that they were always stand alone and there were no continuity worries with the rest of the DC universe. I can't wait until the seven lost Legionnaires return home...and they will because they always do! I'm not sure about the status of these two new recruits but it does seem somewhat accelerated, especially by Legion Academy standards. Look how many years it took for cadets like Jed and Comet Queen to be even considered for Legion membership.

I really wish that they had taken the time to get more non humanoid looking members for the academy.

I'm pretty sure that all the Earth-man and Geoff Jones's legion arc is still in take. i would think that the Legion would want to try and help rebuild relationships with other planets.

plus i really just want to see more new and crazy worlds.

Agreed...with Tellus and Quislet gone, we could do with an infusion of actually ALIEN looking aliens. I am glad that at least the newbies aren't white, but it would be cool to see something a bit different again too...

The Legion could definitely use some less-human-looking aliens. The usual animal-headed folk (bird-people, cat-people, insect-people, fish-people) would be one route to go, with the more outre options, like Gym'll's people or Pheeb's people or something also being out there.

It used to be Dawnstar, as the token not-entirely-humanoid-profile on the team. Then they added Tellus, Quislet, and Gates (and flirted with adding Variable Lad). It's kind of odd that the Teen Titans (thanks to Skitter) have more non-humanoid members than the Legion.

And now every single one of them is gone, either gone, gone, or off in the 21st century.

Pheebs could totally come back. Maybe his race is harder than expected to kill, and the Durlan assassin's attack jumpstarted some sort of super-power in him... He had a funky look, with the four arms and the serpentine lower half.