Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business The Writers' Discussion/Ideas Thread

I like the ideas everyone has come up with for Prism Lad....I was thinking something along the lines of Sizzle from the threeboot where if he's hit with one type of energy he could refract it as a different form of energy which is similar to what Set came up with I think. Another idea I had probably doesn't really fit with what you're going for Emily, but it is very in the Legion mode of weird powers that need a bit of creativity to use effectively; what if the prismatic effect is a kind of telepathic thing?

eg He would look crystalline, then when someone looks at him he can reflect different aspects of their personality on a different one of his surfaces as a kind of interrogation technique...maybe the Persuader doesn't want to tell the heroes his big plan, but there must be some part of his personality that is basically altruistic that he buries and Prism Lad could project this part of his psyche so the team could get answers from him...I will put some more thought into it and maybe resurrect the heroes of other worlds thread with him

Bit late to the party on my next point, but I like what peeps have said about differentiating Tellus and Saturn Girl's similar powers. It's not something I make a massive point of, but I do try to always describe Tellus's telepathy as being like a tide or washing over someone, or mentioning him diving into someone's mindscape etc....whereas when I write Imra's powers I try to be more direct and less flowery about it as fits her pragmatic personality. Similarly when I had Shadow Lad join the team, I gave him a weapon that he used occasionally and had him use his darkness to compliment an aggressive attack style whereas Tasmia tends to use hers defensively to hide or cover her teammates...it is actually kind of challenging writing someone who CAN be a kickass fighter but prefers to be indirect when the option's available, I like it!

As one who tries thinking outside the box, I would note that a prism is also a mathematical construct: a polygon. So maybe Prism Lad can create solid-light prism-shaped forcefields… for keeping things in.

That is a cool idea, Klar Ken! I will give it some consideration as I may have a second light power user on the team. If one of them uses their powers mostly defensively, it would be different from standard light blasts.

Legion convention would suggest Prism Lad, Prism Kid, Kid Prism, etc. There's also derivations like Prismatic or Prismatix. And it's certainly possible in a universe with three or four people having been named the Flash, and thousands sharing the name Green Lantern, for there to be a couple of Prisms 1000 years apart.



I don't think it's needed. The original five X-Men didn't have a tank. The second Avengers lineup, 'Cap's Kooky Quartet' of Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye and Quicksilver also did without. Ditto the original Teen Titans, and the Perez/Wolfman team's 'tank' was Donna Troy, who certainly didn't fit the Hulk/Thing mold of being an obvious (hypermuscled) tank.

It's certainly a 'standard' though, along with a 'blaster' (like Starfire or Cyclops) and a 'scrapper' (whether powered like Wolverine or Wolfesbane or 'awesome human' like Nightwing or Captain America). A standard brick makes for some ease for both the writer and the reader, as, particularly when there are those in the group with 'thinkier' powers like telepathy or chemical manipulation or magic, writing (or reading) about someone whose 'merely' strong and bulletproof can be a bit of a brain-break or palette-cleanser.

Plus there's the option of messing with expectations and having the bruiser be a gentle artist (like Colossus) or have a non-traditional look (like Molly Hayes, of the Runaways).

Or strapping other powers onto the brick, as with Wonder Man (also able to fly) or Superman (flight, heat vision, super-speed) or Martian Manhunter (oy vey!), etc.

Could be "Prism Prince", a la Chemical King?

And a tank isn't _needed_, but Set raises a good point in that they're bread-and-butter powers. I seem to recall Major Spoilers calling powers like Colossal Boy and Ferro Lad as 'linebackers', which I think is apt; bricks run interference while the fingerwigglers and the big brains try to work out the situation.

So this is what I am thinking:

Final Name will be Prism Prince; I just introduced the character so that is an easy change. I think I will combine the crystalline form idea with the light force fields to start. I might have his powers expand as he learns more about them.

Not-So-Bad Lad, in case my newest series (It's the Facets one) goes far, do you think you could share with me more of your friend's Color Kid power ideas?

Prism Prince has a cool ring to it.

Love the Prism Character ideas, sorry I've been away for a while so missed that conversation, not that would have much to add really.

I've a question as I'm considering something for my fic: how 'real' should the characters lives be? I mean, for instance, we've seen Tenzils dad is a drunk gambler, Gim and Yera had domestic violence issues, Brin had drug problems. So I guess I want o figure out -How real is acceptable? Are there any limits to what would be acceptable?

Hmm. Personally I think almost anything could go as long as its depicted tastefully. And of course, it is developed well. Each writer can gauge how "real" to make things based on the overall tone of his/her work. Some of us have more "optimistic" universes than others.

When was the Gim/Yera domestic abuse stuff?

I don't remember any Gim/Year domestic violence incidents, either. Was this during the Retroboot? (If so -- bad Levitz, bad!)

In answer to Harbi's question, I think the keys to successfully depicting true-to-real-life situations in fiction are plausibility, restraint, and most importantly, to make the characters accountable for their actions. The reason why Vi's coming out and Rokk's violent outburst are among my least favorite Legion moments are because the former was so heavy-handed and the latter had no consequences.

When is Hal Jordan going to be punished for putting us through Zero Hour?

I don't understand. I thought you were a fan of his.

No, I am a huge fan. I was just mocking how bad Zero Hour was and how bad of a decision it was to make him the main villain.

Zero Hour was awful, I agree.

Maybe it was the hints dropped in Legion Lost v2? I don't have the issues handy so I can't pull out the dialogue, though.

Plausibly, restraint and accountability, I agree. Realistic events should have realistic consequences.

Gim and Yera got into physical fights just before she left to go on the Lost mission. While everyone made fun of her smacking him into the ceiling with something that looked like a giant hinged penis I just felt sad that such an established decent character like Gim could be shown in such a poor light...

I agree, Harbi. I'm outraged! Gim was one of my favorite male Legionnaires, precisely because he was a nice, uncomplicated guy who respected strong women (such as his mother, who was once President of Earth.)

Nearly everything about the retroboot was terrible, imo.

I remember that being hinted at by the villain. It was so outrageous I refused to believe it was true.

It was terribly frustrating for me, because it seemed like Levitz was reading our posts here, and trying to give us some of the things we'd wanted, like more ethnic diversity in the Legion (Glorith, Dragonwing, Chemical Kid, Harmonia Li *and* the return of Tyroc!), exotic locales, etc. and yet, it just kind of fell apart in places. (Pretty much everything about Harmonia, for instance, starting with the Titan blowing up intro to her controlling the four western elements instead of the five Chinese elements. Ditto Earth-Man's entire arc. The Legion blowing up a dozen Dominator ships, and the one Cham *randomly* picks to infiltrate is full of Dominators, indicating that the Legionnaires just killed hundreds of people... Brainy grousing internally about wanting to pillage some tech from the Time Institute while, all around him, people died. Saturn Queen building a little fire in outer space for her weird ritual. Yikes.)

I wanted to like it, but it was pretty messed up.

And then Giffen showed up and killed some people, and, pretty much, the title. As is his wont. Ugh.

Harmonia controlling the four elements instead of the Chinese 5 wasn't something I complained about. Avatar: The Last Airbender also used the Western elements despite being heavily Asian, but they did it well. With Harmonia It was everything else about her I disliked.

I also hated everything else you cited though. And I like to pretend Giffen's story didn't happen.

One weird thing about Harmonia is that her first name was also decidedly Greek as well, so who knows what was going on with that.

Thank you, EDE. My sentiments exactly. It was a travesty! I'm just glad I stopped reading it after the sixth issue and learned about most of the worst stuff second-hand.




LOL

Very well put.

As I've always said, Set, when you and I agree on something, we agree 100%. Cheers.

Maybe Levitz wanted to diversify as much as possible. Chinese lady, Greek name, Western classical elements, totally annoying...