Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Levitz talks Legion

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Then why'd you go ahead an explain it?...

BB, that's my explanation. I don't expect that the pros are trailing me around and hanging on my every word. If they are, I want cash, and a trendy title like "Half-Baked Itinerant Consultant At Large" or whatever.

Oh, and I have long hair IRL. I'd look just like your standard issue hot super-chick if not for... uh, everything else.

Durla, huh?

COULD be a way to begin the slow process of lightening up the xenephobia in the new continuity. Y'know, everyone joins together to show support after the planet they all secretly were afraid of was destroyed by drunken space-rednecks?

Great. Just great. Now not only have I got Midnight Oil's "Redneck Wonderland" stuck in my head, I keep picturing Durlans as all carrying surfboards and speaking with thick Aussie accents.

[shakes fist]

Curse you, Super-Lash Tot! Currrrse yooooou!!11

Durla's the planet.
Rokk & Lydda are the couple he's referring too.

JAMES SHERMAN!!!!

I felt like I've been in a comics coma and I've finally come to!

May is too long away.

Everything sounds too good to be true.

I like the idea of Tyroc's homeworld going buh-bye, giving him a reason to return to Legion permanently. More legionnaires from racial minorities seems to make logical sense for a group that's supposed to represent different worlds. It's the U.N. of space.

The idea of Durla biting the dust is an intriguing one, since any survivors could now hide anywhere as anyone; they could be the most targeted race to be hated due to the xenophobia that Levitz wants to focus on.

The whole problem I have is that Africans aren't a racial minority there are over a billion now -caucasions only account for about 700 million, while the Indian sub-continent and China both have a billion.

OK other planets may have different breakdowns but the Earth representatives should reflect the population now or as it is likely to be in 1000 years - possibly 'coffee colored people by the score'.

Eh, I think there's something not right with that accounting. We're missing some people.

Anyhow

I've been seeing more and more purple people. Can't imagine how many of those there will be in 1000 years, but I'm pretty sure they'll dominate.

A 1000 years isn't all that long for a darwin type genetic revolution to take place so current trends being what they are...

Of course now if planets had been populated by people who were alien kidnapped before the sail sped up color mixing, then we could reasonably still see distinct present day earth type racial characteristics.

[/qb][/QUOTE]The whole problem I have is that Africans aren't a racial minority there are over a billion now -caucasions only account for about 700 million, while the Indian sub-continent and China both have a billion.

OK other planets may have different breakdowns but the Earth representatives should reflect the population now or as it is likely to be in 1000 years - possibly 'coffee colored people by the score'. [/QB][/QUOTE]

Even by this estimation, then, all the more to see more black, Indian and Chinese characters(at least one so as not to alienate the entire reading demographic).

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We Caucazoids really need to be better about sharing our toys with others.

Writers and artists lament about the difficulty of portraying a character like Tyroc, and fans complain that characters of color are "too angry," "too bland," "too good and infallible," etc. An obvious way to alleviate this problem is to have more than just a single token person of color in an ongoing story. Have two, have twenty, but not just one.

Nobody refers to a character like Guy Gardner as "the angry White man," do they? If he were the only White character in the Green Lanterns, though...

Yes Native Americans, Native Australians, Polynesians, Arabs, Indo China, Indonesians, Japanese etc etc

the point was really about people of African skin/features not being a minority. The UN recently 'celebrated' Africa passing the 1 billion population point following on from India doing so a few years back
My point exactly

Don't forget
Melanesians. Can't have too many Melanesians.

Now that we're back to the retroboot, the writers and artists can pay more attention to the little details that separate different ethnic groups and employ some of them for more diversity (plus add new Legionnaires that are 'different'.)

Tinya - Mexican or Puerto Rican
Luornu - Slavic
Val, if alive - Asian
Jo - Russian
Rokk - Hebrew
Dawnstar - Indian, oh, she's already Plains Indian, sorry
Salu - Mediterranian, Greek or Egyptian or French
Ayla/Garth - Scottish/Dutch redheads with freckles, very rare
Imra/Nura/Mysa/Jecka - Scandinavian
Jacques/Daniel - French/African
Jennie - American/Mulato (her father always looked Creole, to me)
Gim - middle American/Canadian

Anyway, that's the idea, play up regional differences for more diversity.

^^^ I always thought Jenni's Dad's origins stretched back to the Indian sub-contintent. She always looked more Indian than African to me anyway.

I don't know.
I thought he looked Spanish but I've been told he was at least partically, black.
But India is a perfect place for him to come from, too.

I'm just pretty much fantisizing in that post about ethnicity.
The principle issue is focus on cultural diversity more than racial differences but that those differences can be shown somewhat in physical ways.

Where's Sketch when we need him?!

In Superboy's Legion, she had a hint of (East) Indian, which was a nice look for her. Then again, trying to fill ethnic slots with aliens, like Bgtzlns or Carggites or Braalians, somewhat defeats the purpose, IMO.

"Oh sure, we're gonna totally neglect your millenia old culture, that represents like 20% of the Earth's population, but Tinya looks kinda Indian, is that good enough? Oh, and we had that dude who became Earth president, Gupta something, and sure, he was a dupe of a supervillain, but at least we didn't say that the entire population of India left Earth to go to a magical disappearing island..."

Anasazi, actually, so more Arizona-based Native American. Comic book native americans are always plains dwellers (Marvel's Black Crow) or desert dwellers (Marvel's mythical Kewazi tribe). It would be neat to see a Seminole, or a South American native, but given that the Legion doesn't even have token members of groups that outnumber caucasians (such as Asians or East Indians), I don't think I'll hold my breath for an Iroquois showing up.

Her name becomes a pun, if she's French, so go for it!

Imsk is one of those worlds that hurts my head. Shrinking is such a mind-boggling power. Imsk must exist on the periphery of a black hole or something... I must stop thinking about this, before another Legion Worlds fanfic results!

He's already Jewish, and grew up on Mars, so, for an Earth-human, he's less bland than, say, Dirk or Invisible Lyle.

The Earth in the 21st century is becoming much more ethnicly mixed and in a lot of places were there is diversification (France, the UK, Brazil for exampla), there is a high percentage of mixed marriages. Here in the UK it is estimated that very soon 45% of all Afro-Caribbeans will marry outside their population.

Extrapolate this for 1000 years/200 generations and there aren't going to be any caucasions, Indians or Africans just a whole lot of Beyonce Knowles

i realize that the Tornado Twins (Dawn Allen is her mom) are still alive in this Earth and same age as the legionnaires. i hope he touches on this.

They're one and the same. Dawn (from this Era/Earth) is Her mom. They relocated to Earth 247 (it was referred too in the Final Crisis: Legion of 3 worlds)

True, to a point. Blue eyes, for instance, are recessive, and something like 80% of the population doesn't even have the genes for them today. 1000 years from now, blue eyes are going to be a cosmetic choice, not something you are born with. Blonde hair (and redheads) are similarly on the way out, but that doesn't stop a truly staggering number of people from bleaching their hair blonde, or tinting it red (as a trip to pretty much any public venue outside of Scandinavia will highlight).

It's already happening pretty quickly in melting pot America. Perhaps in another 250 years or so we'll be pretty much the same color, and have one less reason to clutch our pearls in fear and walk over to the other side of the street when we see a cluster of 'scary' people.

Me, too.

Yildiray Cinar did some work on Jay Faerbers' Dynamo5 that was published by Image.
While he didn't do a lot of work, what he did do was quite nice.
I think he might be a nice fit for Legion.

Being recessive doesn't mean that it disappears from the gene pool, it just means it doesn't show up until someone else with the recessive gene shows up.
Coloring is extremely complicated anyway.

In my family, my Mom had blue eyes and my Dad had brown. Both of my brothers have blue eyes and mine are hazel green.

A friend of mine in high school came from parents with dark brown hair and brown eyes.
All three of their daughters are carrot tops with blue eyes. Only the one boy in the family has brown hair and eyes.

And many cultures on Earth are NOT melting pots.
Many of the scandinavians remain mostly scandinavian.
Many of the Asian countries remain mostly Asian and etc..

A thousand years isn't going to erase ethnicity except maybe, in those countries that have high emigration.

And I had no idea that Gim was supposed to be Jewish! He certainly doesn't act or look Jewish.
Anyway.

When I cast Tinya in my photo posters, I've usually used Jaslene, who's Hispanic.
She just feels right to me, but maybe I'll explore a more Indian (India) look.

What would a character do to "act Jewish"?

Jews can also be of European (East or West), Middle Eastern, Hispanic or African extraction (for starters)-- so there's probably no one way to "look Jewish," either.

I knew someone would say that when I wrote it.
sigh

I meant 'classic' Jewish.
Which is what we're talking about here, classic ethnic looks.

All of the different groups, red and yellow black and white (brown isn't in the song, but brown), have huge variations within them, so if the discussion is on Legionnaires representing different ethnic backgrounds, I think that we have to be addressing the stereo types for whichever group we're talking about.

For 'acting Jewish' I was thinking of someone who would identify themself as Jewish.
That tends to mean strong family and religious connections. Gim has the family but not the religious background.
I know Jewish people don't HAVE to have strong religious beliefs but again, we're talking about the Legion representing ethnic groups.

Make sense?
I never know if I'm making sense to anyone else but myself.