Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes LSH #23 Preview and Review [SPOILERS!]

Wonder what would happen if someone like Batista approached DC and asked to write the book under a different label under their umbrella? Has anything like that ever been done?

There are a few DC characters who had mini-series or one-shots published by Vertigo back in the day.

Batista's ideas are right on point. One of the big problems with the various Legion series in the last 10 years is that they have not kept up with real life technology advances - let alone the tech of the current day DCU. We are living in a "the future is NOW" environment, so it has be tough to imagine what life will be like 1,000 years from now but that effort must be made.

With the last two Legion series, there's not been much to indicate to the reader that this is happening 1,000 years from now. The story and art seem to scream "outer space" instead of "the future" and could blend in with current day DCU space titles like Green Lantern.

One nice thing in Maguire's issue was that he got creative and tried to make it all look more futuristic.

Exactly. But a writer making an attempt to write a "realistic" future could very well alienate the readers. The readers need to be able to identify. I can identify with 1000 years in the past but with tech and bio moving as fast as it is, I wonder if 1000 years in the future will be physically OR culturally recognizable. We're all going to be mind speaking, sex changing, pasty faced white guys with big heads and almond eyes.

Would there be huge objection to a Legion set 200 years into the future? Or would it just be better for everyone to suspend belief and then settle for tech one step better than Batman's, lol.

You know, I don't care how advanced tech is going to get, Batman would crush it. Because he's Batman.

Although futuristic technology and settings are a selling point, personally it's not THE main point for me. Good stories that highlight the characters I love is more than enough.

I think the lack of technological advancement can be compensated for by exploring more alien worlds and cultures.

Come to think of it, you know what Levitz's past stints as writer had that the recent ones were missing?

Encyclopedia Galactica entries.

I loved those! He'd occasionally mix them up with excerpts from other sources, such as from ancient folk sayings. I loved the issues where he'd bring us somewhere unique like Starhaven or Hykraius or Tharr or Teall.

Yep! I think Levitz was overly influenced by the trend against narration since his last run. Just stick with your strengths, damnit!

The biggest problem with the Legion and most comic books today is the fact that after 50 years (or more) there aren’t that many new stories left to tell. I think what needs to be done if the Legion were to be re-introduced is to go back to the past and re-examine what made them popular to begin with. First, the most obvious thing is the connection to SuperBOY Kal-El. He is what drove the whole super hero club idea. Also, they were not earthbound like the JLA or Teen Titans. That was the biggest difference between their tech and present day tech of the 50’s and 60’s. Space flight. Also, the notion that the large cities of today basically encompassed most of the continents. Tubes to travel THROUGH the earth. Simple stuff, yet intriguing at the same time. The Legion rescued people, responded to or prevented disasters or warded off the odd invasion. They fought some interesting villains, like Mordru, the Fatal Five or Universo, bad guys trying to grab power or control society. The Legion took on characters that the Science Police were unable to handle. That was the basic premise of the Legion. Why not go back to that?
DC has three choices regarding the Legion in my opinion. 1) Go back to the beginning as they did after Zero Hour and cherry pick the best of the Silver Age or Bronze Age stories and rework them to suit modern age sensibilities. 2) Pick up the timeline sometime shortly after the end of the Baxter era with a young adult Legion. 3) Bury them as they did the JSA.
Perhaps the Legion’s time has come and gone but we still have 50 plus years of re-runs to enjoy.
Thanks, the Maritimer

There was an article when Levitz started writing Legion again that he had made the decision not to use Encyclopedia Galactica in his new stories.

That puzzled me because to me it made all the more sense to use that in the current stories since the EG is like the 31st century version of Wiki.

I don't know why Levitz dropped the Encyclopedia Galactica entries either, especially with the popularity of Wiki, that you noted. A lot of fans said this version of Levitz's Legion just didn't "feel" like the original Legion. Perhaps if Levitz had used the EG entries to set the stage for things, that "feel" would have been there. I know I sure missed that element. The EG entries completed the book, and helped us modern readers feel comfortable exploring the 31st century universe.

The EG entries played a big role in letting readers imagine that the 30th century of the Legion was a world unto itself. The rich extended cast and the deep web of varied relationships between characters helped too.

I hate to say it, but I could not disagree with this statement more. This is a series set 1000 years in the future with a cast of over a dozen characters with superpowers. The possibilities of that scenario are endless, and it is a poor writer indeed who couldn't find something new to write about. I see nothing of value in re-telling/re-vamping old storylines for modern readers. That's been done to death in comics.

There are new and interesting stories to tell with the Legion...any version you wish. Just look at some of the stuff we here come up with.

The trick is to make them interesting. Have them honor the past without being a slave to it. In other words, don't totally dis a previous story without reason, and not liking a particular story does not mean you write it out of continuity...unless you have a really good reason and story behind it.

I am working on a fanfic that picks up the 5YL run after Zero Hour. In it, I had a thought about Mekt Ranzz which explained his entire batch of appearances previous to that run, and kept everything in place in regards to that history. There are ways to do things, you just have to have your heart behind it.

There are just over one hundred members of the Legion, Subs, Heroes of Lallor, and Wanderers, counting all the continuities. Plus the Uncanny Amazers of Xanth, and McCauley's workforce.

In addition, there are the unnamed relatives of each of these characters, adding several more hundred; plus non-powered characters, plus super-villains...

Now I know why I picked up Y the Last Man. First few pages of Genesis? Always a good read.

Some people consider the Legion's extensive cast of characters; long, involved and convoluted history; and massive multi-planetary setting, as features, not bugs.

Precisely. It's not like anyone has to use *all* of this stuff!

I'd consider stuff like the Murrans or the Taurus Gang or the Heroes of Lallor to be awesome opportunities, while avoiding stuff I didn't really care for as much (not feeling a burning need to return to Femnaz, or bring back the Weirdo Legionnaire...). Paul himself wrote out some characters, which I'd much rather see happen than a writer writing characters *he doesn't want to use.*

I'd much rather that Phantom Girl have gone on vacation in Bgtzl and been out of contact and missed the last few issues entirely, than have seen her abysmal portrayal here. If this is what happens to characters that the writer didn't want to write (or didn't want to be voted Legion Leader), then fans of Quislet should be jumping for joy that Paul wrote him out early!

Perhaps revisiting the past is not a good idea. However, I don't care how many characters a writer has to play with, they all seem to be repeating themselves. Legion Lost? At least 3 times, twice in the past and once in another galaxy. Robotic or otherwise invasions? Plenty of times. I guess they have to find new ways to tell stories of space pirates/raiders, super rich magnates trying to take over the world or planet wide mind control epidemics. There's only so many ways the Legion can fight the Legion of Super-Villains or the Fatal 5. Really, the only truly interesting stories to be told would be character relationships within the group, hook-ups, break-ups, cheating, rivalries, etc.

Personally, I think the Legion as we knew it is done. Over.

DC felt the need to reboot their entire universe and sever all ties with their past. I saw no need for it and felt left behind. I kept buying the Legion out of 50 years of loyalty. But now I'm finished with them and I almost believe it was by design to eliminate the boomer generation from the equation. I've even stopped buying the DVD adaptations of their stories now that they have done Flashpoint and will lead to the New 52. No thanks.

Another alternative would be to take a "Firefly"-like approach; not every planet that you see is going to have all of the futuristic bright sparkly qualities as the next. Rimbor would probably be at the lower end, tech-wise, from Colu, which would probably be very tech-heavy. Would have made for an interesting story along the way, too.

New Legionnaire on the block... from a tech-backward planet but one resource-rich (admitted to the UP to help it deal with it's economics and protect it from those who would exploit it, etc, etc)... First time in the big city of quark relay tech and trying out for a team who all wear flight rings...

Sort of an everyman character that we could relate to from the 21st century point of view.

Now tell me that there are no more new stories to write.

I can understand that maybe you're tired of all the ups and downs the Legion has been through these years. Maybe you're jaded by the terrible flop that was this last Fatal Five story. I disagree though, that there are no stories left to tell - a skilled writer could tell five stories with the same five Legionnaires fight the same five-member Fatal Five, and highlight different aspects of the character relationships every time. The relationships are what you cited as the only interesting stories, after all.

Off the top of my head -

1) Murder mystery. Five Legionnaires split into a trio and a duo and search for clues.

2) Fatal Five challenge the Legionnaires to an all-out brawl.

3) Fatal Five lead a revolution which the Legionnaires have to undermine.

4) Crazy treasure hunt - the Legionnaires have to beat the 5 to an arcane artifact/powerful weapon on a weird new world.

5) Let's go political - the Legionnaires suspect the 5 are secretly pulling the strings of a puppet politician up for re-election on a rich planet.

Just saying, I don't think we should lose hope. Any writer who puts in enough time and effort could come up with a whole lot of new ideas.

Just read #23 ... AND I TOTALLY LIKED IT.

First of all ... this is only my second actual issue read of this boot, but bear with me.

It had some problems but for the most part the characters sounded like they should and it is a long time dream of mine to see them drawn by KM, even in this reduced capacity.

We got to see several different members touched on.

I have loads of questions that remain unanswered ... like why is Jeckie's hair not platinum? and is it really such a big deal to not have Dirk's body yet? and Brainiac 5 comes off hysterical and I don't really care if the blame the Fatal Five on him or not.

Did Tasmia and Mon get back together and/or why is she taking his body then?

I liked Gigi breaking the news to them instead of a new character.

Regarding the epilogues, I thought they were good except I don't need to know if this is the Earth 2 future or not ... I wish Dreamy's epilogue had gone last and instead of saying it seemed like it was all a *bad dream* she said it was a *great* dream.

Of course the founders get the last word.

Also Val what?

overall, I guess Tinya got the shortest of a bunch of short straws ... and I find it really hard to believe the Legion would just give up because they were supposed to yet leave us with a big splash page about them living on.

uh ... not really, you're all retiring like robots because the UP said you should.

A better ending would be to have a one page new crisis or alarm ... with Tinya leading a small band of LSH members ... truly a story that never ends.

Well, apart from the wonderful artwork - the kind of artwork I firmly believe would have kept the Legion alive much longer - I was not very happy with this last issue.

It was rather fading away, not burning out, it was not very believable (why exactly did they say the Legion was disbanded???) and for a final issue, it left too much dangling (Where is Phantom Girl? Sun Boy dead? Where have the Academy Kids suddenly gone who played such a big part in this run?).

I hated the classic Legion go during Zero Hour, but hey, they went down with a bang, gave me some tears in my eyes back then. This? No feelings at all.

One question I really would like to get an answer to is... why is Karate Kid alive? Didn't he die during Countdown? What's the official statement about Val??

Well the sales figures are out for Legion #23...
http://www.icv2.com/articles/markets/26668.html

You can tell the Legion had an actual fanbase, because it didn't completely tank like other DC final issues this month.