Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Who *isn't* a "fan favorite"?

Good question about what constitutes a "fan favorite", since that's pretty much an industry promotional term. You see it in the company solicits and in Previews, for characters and creators. How does somebody win that designation? More than 10 letters to the editor, asking for a character's return? Higher sales figures every time that character appears? Sometimes I've read that blurb pushing a particular character/creator and can only think, well some fan somewhere must like him.

Artists and writers are also called fan-favourites in solicitations and advertisements and news items all of the time. How do they know? I always find that funny. If I've never heard of them, I think, "Oh no! What have I been missing?"

As for characters, I didn't like Monstress but DnA made impressive use of her in Legion Lost. I didn't like Kid Quantam II, but DnA also pulled her together. I never liked Thunder, and didn't think any amount of using her would rectify that, so I was glad when DnA got rid of her in a panel or two. Dragonmage and Catspaw were borrring, included rebooted Dragonmage. Gear was ok. So were Kono and Celeste, in my opinion. I read the Khund Legionairre story but don't remember the characters, but I think it's silly to have to list them as official Legionairres.

I"ll tell you who are definitely fan favorites: Sun Boy and Dream GIRL! What are they thinking in getting rid of them?

I think you'll all find that the correct answer to the original question is Magno.

Dream Boy = Re-imagined Magno.

I have a certain fondness for Command Kid. He was the "villain" of the first Legion story I ever read, and, after being purged of the demon, he seemed like a decent bloke. Too bad he lost his illusion powers when the demon left.

At a time when all the Legionnaires were fairly polite to each other and acted like a middle-aged man's opinion (e.g., writer Edmund Hamilton) of what teenagers should be like, Command Kid was refreshingly arrogant, haughty, and manipulative. He added inter-group conflict. The fact that he preyed upon the Legionnaires' insecurities only shows that he was more than competent as a villain.

Besides, how can you not love a bad guy with a Moe haircut?

I'm sure some will disagree, but I think certain older characters who have never reached the level of "fan favorite" include:
- Sun Boy
- Blok
- Star Boy
- Invisible Kid (I and II)
- Colossal Boy

I would guess Colossal Boy probably has the weakest fanbase of the Adventure Era characters.

Invisible Kid I actually won the last reader election, so I'd definitely classify him as a "fan favorite".

You just named 6 of my Top 12 Legionnaires Drake so I'm firmly in the camp that disagrees!

As for Sir Tim Drake's list -

Computo
Dragonmage
Kid Quantum I
Magnetic Kid II
Magno
&
Spider-Girl

are all firm favourites of mine too.

I think the number of fans most of the members of this team have is in direct proportion to how much page-time each member gets. So the short-term (like Magno, Computo, Spider Girl, etc) and little-seen or spot-lighted (like Colossal Boy, Invisible Kids I & II, etc) members will of course have less fans than perennial panel-hogs like Saturn Girl and Brainiac 5. (The opposite can also be true too though - I for one HATE panel-hogs. So Imra and Brainy and all the other Legionnaire that start monopolising the storylines to the detriment of the others immediately shoot to the top of my hate list until we get a break from them.)

And just because a character has less fans it in no way diminishes them as a character. All it takes is one writer who's a fan of said character, write a killer story with them in it and BAM - instant fan favourite.

Don't believe me? Well just take a look at Catman then! Now, he's LOOOONNNNGG been one of my favourite Batman villains but I could probably have counted on two fingers how many other readers would've shared that opinon. Then suddenly Gail Simone comes along, revolves an extremely popular story around him and WHAM - he's suddenly Wizard's best character of 2005 (or whatever it was). If you'd told people that Catman would be as popular as he is today to comic fans just one year ago they'd have laughed in your face. But here he is being one of the very few characters to get a back-up origin in 52.

Fan-favourites change. And I actually find it kinda exciting waiting to see which obscure character no one likes and everyone disses is gonna get dusted off and given a fresh take and suddenly becomes popular again.

Magno is one of the ultimate non-fan favourites! But then even he was redeemed slightly in that Legion Worlds story.

For me, Thunder is still the ultimate non-favourite. She joined at a time when I felt desparate for the titles to have some solid direction to them and to develop their existing line-up. And then she never got a solid sense of characterization. Most of the other nonfaves had a moment somewhere. Her best scene was the note she left behind when she left.

Same here. According to the artist (Grell? Cockrum?)who drew the story where Lyle was killed, the editors warned him they were about to kill off one of the fans' favorites.

Sun Boy was very definitely a fan favorite during Adventure era, particularly pre-Shooter, and eclipsed Cosmic Boy and many other male Legionnaires in popularity for a time. He's near the top of the list in Silver Age appearance counts and did pretty well in the first leader election. He's suffered much neglect and poor characterization since then, but when (not if) he does return to the WaK team after his Terror Firma gig, I think he'll finally be ready for the strong leadership role denied him for so long.

Star Boy is one of my all-time personal favorites, but he's spent too much of his existence in Dream Girl's shadow. Still, he has some credit outside of Legion circles because of his ties to the Starman legacy. He could be a "star" if they ran with that ball.

Referring to Kid Quantum I...

Considering the way James was written in that story, I figured he got what he deserved. He disregarded his personal safety, since he knew the belt's charge was running low. He disobeyed orders -- and worst yet, those orders involved rescuing the survivors. And James did all this for his personal glory... so that he could show the Legionnaires that since he was an Amazer, he was better than them.

While I titled this thread "Who *isn't*...?" I could have called it "Just about every Legionnaire's a...."

As for the term fan favorite:

What's the difference between fan favorite and favorite? One word, three letters. But it's all about the fans, or customers, if you wanna get all business. Who else is there?

"Fan favorite" makes a bit more sense when applied to something that the CBC (comic book company) didn't anticipate. I'm thinking of reports of how the SA Spider-Man team was surprised that Mary Jane was getting such positive notice in the reader mail. Gwen was Peter's sweetheart then, and I seem to recall that the interviewee (sorry, forget who) said something along the lines of "why do people like Mary Jane so much?" There may have also been something about writing her to make MJ slightly unlikeable, or unsuitable for Spidey anyway, but don't quote me.

Applying fan favorite status to a title like Spider-Girl (it's said that letter-writing campaigns helped save it from cancellation, possibly twice?) seems to make sense, but how about when you compare it to something in the Top 10 that hasn't "needed" a letter-writing campaign because its circ numbers are high in the first place?

There's the idea that fan favorite = cult favorite, but when you get down to it, aren't comics in general a cult favorite?

You could say there's the difference between comic-reading fans and non-comic-reading fans. There are plenty of people who don't read comics but like Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Spider-Man, and the X-men due to their movies, TV shows, et cetera, but it was these characters' popularity in comic books that catapulted them into the movies, onto TV, et cetera. So that particular idea tends to go in circles for me.

My guess would be that "x is a fan favorite" doesn't correlate to raw numbers of people who like x, but has more to do with how many people are talking (positively) about x.

*gasp* Sun Boy and Colossial Boy are indeed fan faves!!!

Out of the "classic" members I think Triplicate Girl isn't a fan fave. Basically all the current members are fan faves IMO. They are missing one fan fave though...and his name is Wildfire!!!

I'm trying to think of Legionnaires I actively dislike and it isn't easy to come up with any.

Dream Boy, for one.

I never really got into Tellus and Magnetic Kid, but didn't dislike them.

I couldn't get past the nonexistence of Jeckie to let myself like Sensorsnake.

I don't really count Blood Claw or Firefist as real Legionnaires (though I *do* count Flederweb and Veilmist because they wanted to remain with the team and were forced off by Khundia). Veilmist is a big favorite of mine and was the first teleporter I saw that was able to 'port from a spaceship to a planet's surface (it's my belief she could pop around from planet to planet if she so desired).

I definitely liked James Cullen (TMK version) and didn't mind him being retrofitted as the first Legionnaire to die since he ended up NOT being the first Legionnaire to die. The postboot James Cullen was written out quickly but did make a valid case for the instituting of a "natural powers only" clause in the LSH constitution. I didn't like his switch from the Bierbaum's sweet guy to Waid's narcissistic jackass though.

So now that I've read the thread and seen support for Veilmist (YAY!) and jeers for Dream Boy (does ANYone like this character?), I had to comment on THIS list:


1. Blood Claw -- I don't really count him.

2. Catspaw -- I'm an April fan, mostly because she was different than anything else the LSH had seen at the time, and because she was betrayed by a hottie!

3. Celeste Rockfish -- Would have liked her more if her story had ever been EXPLAINED.

4. Command Kid -- Not sure I count him.

5. Computo -- I *loved* Danille. IMO, THIS is how the LSH should have evolved, with younger siblings and previously seen younger characters growing up and onto the team.

6. Devlin -- Loved him.

7. Dragonmage -- liked the Bierbaum version.

8. Firefist -- Don't really count him.

9. Flederweb -- Wasted potential (killed off once the Bierbaums were fired).

10. Gear -- The template for AniBrainiac? Didn't see enough of him.

11. Kid Quantum I -- See above post.

12. Kono -- Didn't hate her but she was never a big favorite of mine either.

13. Magnetic Kid II -- Pol Krinn? yeah, not a huge fave.

14. Magno -- Not enough done with.

15. Monstress -- I liked her.

16. Sensor -- Couldn;t separate her from Projectra enough to really enjoy her.

17. Spider-Girl -- Shirley, you jest! Nobody doesn't love Su!

18. Superboy II -- Clone-El? Well, he died a heroes death and I liked him in TEEN TITANS (plus that DnA/Giffen issue) so I shant disparage him now.

19. Thunder -- Not enough done with her, though the scene where she flees the horror of the post-DAMNED to return to her parents always rang true to me. A lot of people would have done the same if they could with one magic word.


20. Veilmist -- BIG fave, see above post.

Well, just going by leadership elections, Gim has consistently ranked near the bottom while Lu came in third in the most recent one.

I suspect that's fairly indicative of their overall fanbase. There's a reason why Levitz, for example, flirted with retiring Gim and with bringing Lu back.

I'm a big fan of Veilmist and Spider Girl!
Maybe they needed a new place in the currente team.
But Thunder and Monstress can go to Limbo this time.

I actually really liked Computo. I included her in the list mostly because she was a Legionnaire for such a short time.