Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Dangling Plot Threads I hope Levitz resolves by Legion #23

He seems to have forgotten the cardinal rule of Legion story-telling: when in doubt, just re-write something from Hamilton or Shooter!

Or have Brainy investigate and inexplicably blow stuff up!

There's always the dangling plot thread of whatever happened to Paul's ability to write great Legion stories...

It is perplexing. He had some very clever references to Diogenes and Panoptes and the like, and yet he's forgotten entirely how to write the characters voices (I thought Brande always talked that way!) or who is or isn't an orphan (getting both Imra and Garth's family situations wrong) or even what powers people have (Imra trying to use her telepathy to stop falling rocks and break through windows).

I understand that his run on World's Finest has been well-received, so I think it might be less a failure of ability as a failure of motivation. Whatever burning love he once had for the Legion has perhaps dimmed a bit, over the years.

I guess if I had one plot thread I'd like wrapped up, it's the situation with Gim and Yera. Did they really have a bad break up, or was it all part of a necessary deception preceding her departure on a secret mission to the past? If so, is Gim aware that it's all a big pretense, explaining why he never seemed to care that much that his wife had left and / or died?

Like Rokk and Lydda, and Jan and Shvaughn, I liked the idea of a Legionnaire dating and / or marrying someone who wasn't a fellow Legionnaire. The perplexing desire (particularly in the Silver Age) for any new female Legionnaire to be *immediately* paired off with a male Legionnaire (all the way up to Dawnstar, who had a Legion boyfriend picked out for her by the writers before she even became a member!), always made me feel like they were somehow considered Legion property, and not full-fledged people in their own right. I kind of like how, of the four new Legion ladies (Harmonia Li, Glorith, Dragonwing, Comet Queen), only Harmonia Li seems to have an immediate love interest thing going on (with Brainy).

(Well, not counting Comet Queen's crush on Bouncing Boy, which we all know is going nowhere!)

I agree, it doesn't bother me, but I do like it even more if they can get some semi-plausible technobabble in tied to what we currently know.

One thing I would not like to see is the situation where some writer finds a problem in an old issue and decides that that mistake is the hook to attach a large scale retcon on the grounds that it explains away the problem. Professor X was not seriously attracted to Jean Grey, certainly not after decades of backstory makes him much older than he originally was in X-Men #1. Garth was not Proty just because actually resurrecting Garth for real was stupid. The Martian Manhunter is not around in the 30th Century just because there was a cameo of him at a wedding.

New plot threads that Levitz just added in #22.

1. Why and how did the Karate Kid return alive!!

2. Will Polar Boy be charged with murder?

3. What's with the return of Invisible Kid's phasing power?

Ok, we're finally about ready to real LSH #23. Let's see how many of these dangling plot threads Levitz resolved. The preview already answered a couple...

1) The fates of Phantom Girl, Comet Queen and the mysteriously-disappeared Dragonwing

2) Who the heck is Harmonia, really??

Well, at Levitz let us know that Sun Boy, Star Boy and one or more of Duplicate Damsel's duplicates really died. He also brought Colossial Boy back safe and sound from star fleet.

I personally think Karate Kid's return is more of Jeckie's self induced illusions than reality. Note that he never mingled with anyone else and rarely speaks.

Levitz has left us with more questions than answers:

1. Why did the United Planets disband the Legion?

2. Who are the other injured Legionnaires in the medic bay? Dragonwing? Chemical Kid? Comet Queen? Perhaps.

3. Why did Levitz leave the Legion Lost team in the 21st century?

4. How much of this ending was part of Levitz and Giffen's planned in story reboot of the Legion?

I really wish Levitz would share in an interview what he had planned for the Legion. But alas, we shall never know.

"Never" is a pretty strong word. I suspect that "not until Paul Levitz feels that he won't be causing harm by revealing the truth about what's been going on at DC Comics for the past few years" is closer to the reality of the matter. We shall see...someday.

I think that we won't know until Paul Levitz is no longer employed by DC Comics and / or has finished writing books that require access to DC Comics' historical files. I suspect that if he revealed the truth about what's been going on at DC the last few years he'd be fired.

Given the rank Paul held at DC, he probably has some sort of retirement to think of as well, that could be subject to some sort of non-disclosure agreement.

Most writers and artists lack that sort of incentive to keep their traps shut (although they still would be well advised to do so, since many who have worked for DC have also worked for Marvel, and talking smack about what goes on in one house invariably involves talking smack about folks currently working in the other house, making it a serious career-limiting move).

But Paul, having been in the executive ranks, might have a more significant incentive to not talk trash about a place that has been his bread and butter, but may continue to hold the strings to his retirement.

Or he could just be a classy guy who tries not to talk out of school.

Set probably has it right. Even if there were "bad" decisions forcing Levitz' hand, after retirement sometimes if not just for classy reasons but for life reasons it's best to leave things in the past and move on. If he feels he can have a positive effect by opening up, then I hope he does.

DC's job is the bottom line. Business doesn't seem to care anymore about losing customers if decisions mean possibly gaining more in another area. It could just be that Legion is a victim of "good" business.