Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Worst Plot Twists in the Legion history

Here, you go.

Here's my top ten.

10. Shavaugn Erin....MAN.

9. Laurel Kent...ROBOT.

8. Elemental Lad Garth: Dude...you not only kill Elemental Lad after corrupting him but you make him a Metal Man.

7. Proty Garth: ....it would have been much worse probably if they'd ever touched on it.

6. And everyone you know is a CLONE: The whole Legionaires plotline is disturbing to me most in the fact that it's the plot of the Spiderman Clone Saga yet somehow is ONLY the sixth worst twist.

5. Five year's later: It was bold, it didn't work.

4. Sneckie: I didn't mind Sneckie, because I like snakes but a lot of Karate Kid fans and Jeckie didn't mind it (frankly I'm rooting for him and Tinya this time around) plus I thought 'humanized sneckie' was kinda cute.

However, we all know that current version if FABOO!

3. Superboy is a Pocket universe entity: The thing that started the whole ball rolling. It was actually a great plotline though and its rather sad that it started the snowball effect to Worst Plot Twist 2 and Worst Plot Twist 1

2. The Time Trapper and Glorith are responsible for your mother's sister's mermaid's kitten's education: The ridiculousness of the whole retconning business was just horrible.

1. Zero Hour Reboot: Hands down, the worst decision of all of Legion history. The "New Legion" wasn't bad, by any stretch of the imagination (it was Weird but that's another matter entirely)

Not a bad list. The only thing I strongly disagree with is Superboy-as-a-Pocket-Universe-entity. I actually thought that was a clever idea, and would've preferred to have him come from the Pocket Universe all along. There's just no drama in having Superboy there if you know that he's just going to grow up to be Superman, and so nothing else can happen to seriously change him. With the Pocket Universe version, anything could've happened.

I also don't think the 5YL was an inherently bad idea, though it had a number of bad consequences.

I'd probably put a number of things that happened in the reboot (Kinetix as terrorform, for example, maybe Emerald Vi) on the list.

Oh, and I'd put DC's decision to let Waid reboot the title again rather than giving us the preboot team back rather high on the list as well.

The "Threeboot" occupies the odd position now of being an improvement over what was before but not as good as it could have been. Given that it was 10 years and no reference to the original Legion, its difficult to reintroduce everyone (I'm pretending Marvel didn't and doesn't do that constantly like the Nightstalkers and Blade plus other concepts)

So I don't think it deserves to be on the list.

10. Shavaugn Erin....MAN. This one never really bothered me until I recently considered, "Well, what if Drura or Jeckie or Nura were revelaed to be a man? How would you like them <Adams> apples, Lash?" So yeah, this wasn't a great idea.

9. Laurel Kent...ROBOT. Agreed. Stupid BAD companywide crossovers!

8. Element Lad Garth: Dude...you not only kill Element Lad after corrupting him but you make him a Metal Man. I'll agree.

7. Proty Garth: ....it would have been much worse probably if they'd ever touched on it. I'll disagree. IMO, there should be consequences for fooling around with the natural order of things. Had no problems with "Garth has Proty's mind" and it made the SW6 Live Wire the guy to WATCH.

6. And everyone you know is a CLONE: The whole Legionaires plotline is disturbing to me most in the fact that it's the plot of the Spiderman Clone Saga yet somehow is ONLY the sixth worst twist. Blasted editorial interference. Still, I rather enjoyed the Legionnaires series & characters. It was around this time that I became a rabid Legion-lover.

5. Five year's later: It was bold, it didn't work. I'll disagree.

4. Sneckie: I didn't mind Sneckie, because I like snakes but a lot of Karate Kid fans and Jeckie didn't mind it (frankly I'm rooting for him and Tinya this time around) plus I thought 'humanized sneckie' was kinda cute. Agreed. Didn't care for the Jeckie-is-a-snake thing. Wouldn't have mnded an all-new "snake" character, though.


3. Superboy is a Pocket universe entity: The thing that started the whole ball rolling. It was actually a great plotline though and its rather sad that it started the snowball effect to Worst Plot Twist 2 and Worst Plot Twist 1 I'll disagree. This was the only way to keep the SUperboy mythos part of the LSH. And not long after, even THAT was wrenched from us. Nowadays, I don't mind as much and prefer the LSH stand on its own two feet.

2. The Time Trapper and Glorith are responsible for your mother's sister's mermaid's kitten's education: The ridiculousness of the whole retconning business was just horrible. I'll agree, it got ridiculous.

1. Zero Hour Reboot: Hands down, the worst decision of all of Legion history. The "New Legion" wasn't bad, by any stretch of the imagination (it was Weird but that's another matter entirely) I'll agree. The 5YL era should have been MADE to work, or a return to the LSH after the Magic Wars would have been better, likely.

Actual Plot *Twists* that *I* think are the worst in Legion history (though some of them occur in stories or eras that were otherwise 'golden').

1. Element Lad as Progenitor. Aack.
2. Sun Boy's fall and death in the 5YL era.
3. Gim Allon's heart's desire was a death wish (reboot).
4. The 5YL leap-- I *still* feel that the years in those characters' lives we missed held more potential interest than what we leaped *to*.
5. Squire Burroughs-- what a gyp.
6. Tellus joined the Dark Circle. Wha?!
7. Atmos' 'seduction' of Dream Girl.
8. Garth-in-Jan-- no resolution? No good.
9. Saturn Girl's puppet mistress tendencies (re: Cosmic Boy and Ultra Boy/Apparition- reboot) No payoff.
10. Any story-ending revelation that Lex Luthor or Mr. Mxtplk(whatever) was the face or faces behind a threat to the Legion.

The problem with Five Years Later is in my mind, less a problem with what they did with the characters but the fact that they ended on such a titanic freaking downer. I honestly think they should have done it as a miniseries and guaged fan reaction first before having the timeline "catch up" with the Legion.

If it had worked it might have spun off into a new series "Legion of Superheroes: The War Years" or something akin.

The Earth is destroyed, Dirk and others are dead. Having the Earth repaired or remade and slowly building UP the Legion again might have gradually made it better.

Honestly, we'll never know.

Let's see...
In no particular order:
The real villian of Dream Crime turning out to be Universo after we get teased with Darkseid.

President McCauley turning out to be Ras Al Ghul. Keep your twentieth century characters away from my Legion dammit!

The Progenitor turning out to be Element Lad.

How many times did DnA have to pull the bait and switch before we learned?

Gonna dissagree with you on that. The last reboot had lost it's way but it was keeping with the core legion story. What we have now is ultimate legion change for the sake of it with the supposed new reader being the pimary audience. I have yet to see how a black starboy has given me any more entertainment or quality story telling then the last one who for all intents and purposes could be slotted in for all the character has done in 6 months.

I wasn't crazy about the destruction of the Earth in the TMK days--although I really ended up liking the Legionnaires spin-off.

But the plot developments I've hated the most over the years are the ones where legionnaires are killed off. And what ticks me off is that this has been done far too frequently.

Think about it: Blok, Chemical King, Element Lad, Ferro, Invisible Kid, Karate Kid, Leviathan, Live Wire, Magnetic Kid, Monstress, Quantum Kid I, Quislet, Sun Boy, Superboy, and Supergirl have all died (for good) at some point. This surely must be a record, since I doubt that any other book has ever had fifteen--count 'em, fifteen!-- of it heroes killed off.

Beyond this, six other characters have also been (frustratingly) written out over the years, including Bouncing Boy, Dream Girl, Duo Damsel (I think), Magno, Quislet, Star Boy, Thunder, and Tyroc, not to even mention the fact that none of the reboots have ever had all fifty-six Legionnaires appear in the group at one time (yes, I realize that there have been other Legionnaires, too, but I'm referring to the one's who joined with pure hearts and who weren't simply honorary or reserve members, or simply referred to as being off-panel "5-year gap" members).

10. Shavaugn Erin....MAN. I like this story.

9. Laurel Kent...ROBOT. Stupid!

8. Elemental Lad Garth: Dude...you not only kill Elemental Lad after corrupting him but you make him a Metal Man. Horrible!

7. Proty Garth: ....it would have been much worse probably if they'd ever touched on it.
Don't like me the idea.

6. And everyone you know is a CLONE: The whole Legionaires plotline is disturbing to me most in the fact that it's the plot of the Spiderman Clone Saga yet somehow is ONLY the sixth worst twist.
I don't care who are the clones, I like very much two legion teams.

5. Five year's later: It was bold, it didn't work.
Good in some things, and bad in anothers (Like Block and Dirk deaths)

4. Sneckie: I didn't mind Sneckie, because I like snakes but a lot of Karate Kid fans and Jeckie didn't mind it (frankly I'm rooting for him and Tinya this time around) plus I thought 'humanized sneckie' was kinda cute.

I'll agree 100%.

3. Superboy is a Pocket universe entity: The thing that started the whole ball rolling. It was actually a great plotline though and its rather sad that it started the snowball effect to Worst Plot Twist 2 and Worst Plot Twist 1
Not bad at all.

2. The Time Trapper and Glorith are responsible for your mother's sister's mermaid's kitten's education: The ridiculousness of the whole retconning business was just horrible.
Silly!

1. Zero Hour Reboot: Hands down, the worst decision of all of Legion history. The "New Legion" wasn't bad, by any stretch of the imagination (it was Weird but that's another matter entirely)
Not really necessary erase all the legion history!

And for me

The combo Kinetix-Violet-Emerald Eye.
The Emerald Vi (Horrible draw for Lee Moder).
The Empress (Silly character never has the shine of Sarya).
And the useless death of Gim Allon.

The all Apparition Soap Opera.

Cruel mother, gambler father,cargg origin, two parts lost in past and limbo, burnig death, ghost resurrection, merged with PHASE, the jelausy plot with Brin and Imra (for only one inocente kiss) and the nasty Cub. It's too much for a lovely character like the previous Tinya.
I really hate her in the reboot.

The Top Ten list is pretty good, all right. I agree that the 5YG didn't work, but it could have been made too. The Zero Hour reboot was pretty unnecessary. I liked the "new" Legion, of course, since I only started reading at that time, and the tone of the stories worked for me. But a full reboot was pretty bad.

I agree. Only a handful of the deaths on that list were well-written and necessary. I'd add the pointless deaths of the SW6 Karate Kid, Projectra and Chameleon to that list, as well as the deaths of supporting characters like Nightwind and Dr. Gym'll.

Let's also not forget Matter-Eater Lad's being drafted, returning to save the day only to become insane, and pretty much never showing up again until TMK brought him back. At least Chuck and Luornu still made regular appearances during that time.

The way Dirk Morgna was treated in the reboot was awful too. First they had him tortured and gave him powers which he couldn't control, then his situation was left unresolved for about half a year, then they brought him back only to have him lose his powers a few issues later. After around two and a hlaf years they brought him back and made him a host for one of the elementals, which left him with heat-sensing eyesight, then they left him in limbo AGAIN. Booo.

A few clues were dropped during the reboot about RJ Brande being the Martian Manhunter (including blatantly giving him telepathic abilities), but this went nowhere.

(These may not be plot twists in the usual sense of the word, but these plotlines have bothered me quite a bit.)

The Cub plot was useless and evolved into a horribly boring one. Star Boy's fluctuating powers and Ferro's becoming stuck in his iron form both fizzled out. Kid Quantum II was turned into a deus ex machina, which, combined with her suddenly being foisted on us as leader, made her character difficult to redeem. Ra's al Ghul's incarceration on Legion World was pointless and a very stupid decision.

Umbra specifically asked that a threshold to Talok VIII be maintained on Legion World, but this was never followed up on. The Credo storyline stretched on for-fricking-ever, but the end result was a major letdown. (Big surprise there; it felt like an afterthought).

Magno lost his powers, and nothing more happened. This just made it seem like the writers wanted to write the character out of the book or something.

Leland McCauley and Amilia Crugg being killed off=panel. These two were fairly interesting characters who could have been utilized effectively.

Finally, Kinetix's zombification and her terrorformization never went anywhere, were unnecessarily prolonged and ruined the character horribly. She already had cool powers, a great look and a very unique and well-written personality, as well as being an interesting member of the team, especially in her interactions with Violet, Jenni and a host of others. Her being neglected was just unforgivable.

Huh, what? Did I miss something? I think you get to take this one off your list. I don't recall Tellus joining Dark Circle?

I remember that he did, after the 5YG. He didn't take part in anything villainous, but he had become sympathetic to the Dark Circle's views after he left the Legion, which is why he joined.

Ultimately, I note that the Reboot is going to be something innately flawed from the beginning. Both reboots were a mistake but I'm willing to state that they may be the lesser of two evils necessarily. I'm also willing to give them all the chance in the world. Mostly by taking a moment to think of all of the adventures of the Reboot, Legion, and now the Threeboot are failed representations of some REAL Legion out there in my mind ;-)

So I'm willing to just stick with what I've got and enjoy what I have.

On a related note, the worst "twists" are really what I call Character Assassination for the Sake of Artificial Drama. The above plots are crazy really but they all happen outside of the continuity of the character's personalities.

Here's some of what I mean...

1. Cosmic Boy's Animated Comatose Body is used by Imra as a sex toy

This is where I was lost as a fan of the Legion. Ironically, I became a fan of the Legion very briefly because I had only limited experience with them through a few old issues and Superboy but Imra/Cosmic Boy sizzled with chemistry. When it was revealed he wasn't dating her at all (thus making the whole "We're from two warring planets" arc squat and Imra close to a necrophiliac) I dropped the title like a hot potato.

2. Ultra Boy and Imra Ardeen's psychic affair

The irony is that this seemingly stupid idea was used by Imra Frost (sorry, that's my name for the Reboot Imra after all the insane schemes like this)...err Emma Frost and Scott Summers in the X-men. Ultra Boy however was essentially molested by a woman pretending to be his wife. How can someone so grossly violate another human being and it goes unpunished.

The story where Clone Ferro Lad and Invisible Kid are created by the Legion are too bizarre to take seriously and Brainy making a robot Supergirl are laughable about (SUREEEE...he built it in his sleep...uh huh) but this was just vile.

3. Dirk Morgan

I don't mind actually the idea that a Legionaire could be dooped into becoming a spokesmen for the Dominators. Also I don't mind the addition that Dirk Morgan is a glory hound. Timber Wolf being Wolverine is something that's been stated. Making Dirk Morgan be Jonny Storm is almost appropriate as well. However, the lack of dignity before the end is pathetic. I'll use the Legion Help for this one with what Circe did to the poor fellow...

Keeping him happy by fulfilling his sexual fantasies, which often involved her dressing up like other former Legionnaires or Legion associates, became part of her duties (Legion of Super-Heroes (3rd series) # 2, 28).

Over the weeks of her rebellion, she had come to the realization that she truly loved him, and she refused to see him suffer any more. Out of her love for Dirk, she shot him, and then herself.

Wonderful end for the man. I'm reminded of Captain Triumph murdering Liberty Belle's husband.

The reboot is my biggest complaint. Even though TMK (V4) was very challenging and had lots of terrible things going on, I believe it could have been settled down, and a bright shiny interesting new Legion could have emerged. It could have been a Legion made up of characters created back in 1958, side by side with characters created in the 1990's. All of the settings and creatures and tech and politics of Legion comics could have been referenced to build the lushest, most complete era ever. Instead, there was a complete wipe-out, a reboot which we were asked to accept. It took me MONTHS to get out of denial that it actually was a reboot. I wasn't on the internet yet, and there were NO letter columns or messages from editors. It was a complete shock to me.

I went on to accept the reboot, but it has never resonated with me the way the original did. This threeboot is just another era to me. That's just how it is with Legion comics. S'fine.

Yes, I do wish it was possible to pick up the *original* Legion series and show the continuing adventures of those characters. Whatever needs to happen should happen. I don't even remember what the problems were. Superman? Valor? Just wipe away what needs to be wiped away, and tell the stories of what's left. I know there's a lot.

Wiping can have drastic consequences. Valor and Andromeda just did not work. At least as patches for Superboy and Supergirl.

Actually, I think the flaws of the Reboot were pretty manifold. This isn't going to be a bash, these are just some problems i had with the Reboot.

What I think were its issues were...

1. Bad Art

The whole thing was just Ugly to look at. All the characters seemed slightly deformed in some way and creeped me out on some unconscious level.

They all looked like they were 14, which is what many of them WERE but I don't like the Power Pack either...

(Kitty Pryde looked adult even when she was a sprite)

2. Bad characterization

Ultra Boy is Apparation's Man whore, Imra is toting around comatose bodies to marry her, Garth has the worst personality on the planet, Element Lad is a psychopathic warlord, etc etc.

A lot of characters did just nonsensical stuff when they weren't doing outright horrible things to their so called friends.

3. An endless stream of new characters

Some of the X-men's worst problems is when they tout out numerous new characters rather than try to deal with the ones they've got. I've got nothing against Monstross, Shikari, Gates, XS, Kid Quantums I and II, Thunder (Captain Marvel from even FURTHER in the future), and so on but they rapidly displaced many of the recognizable personalities of the LSH.

The Legion is bigger than any few but is it bigger than all of them?

4. Incomprehensible plotting

Complain as you will about the glacial pace of Praetor Lemnos' plot to start a war in the Legion but its fairly easy to understand than President Chu's wars, what the hell was going on in the future Darkseid plot against his past self (yes, I said that correctly), the White Triangle affairs, and other politically charged but bizarre works.

5. Absolutely Weird Twists

Garth is trapped in the body of Elemental Lad, The Legion getting their own planet and becoming a paramilitary army, RJ Brande now President, Ra's Al Ghul is the President...(that's actually a cool plot twist, where it became incomprehensible plotting was when he was no longer an environmentalist but wanted to break the moon into an evolution machine)

And so on and so on.

6. The fact that somehow in all this distilling of everything that made the Legion good...they also retreaded a lot of stuff.

The Fatal Five, the Suneater plot, Garth loses an arm, etc. Almost all of it seemed to be retreading when it wasn't new.

"Yes, I do wish it was possible to pick up the *original* Legion series and show the continuing adventures of those characters."

The thing I've been telling friends lately is, I DON'T see why it ISN'T.

In the years immediately following the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, there was an obsessive narrow view that "that was then, this is now", and the "New DCU" is ONE universe and ONLY one universe. But that's pretty much gone and done by now, isn't it?

So, if we can have THIS universe and THAT universe and THAT OTHER universe... WHY THE HELL NOT have Earth-1 ?????


So I say to everybody... go read BATMAN: DARK DETECTIVE by Steve Englenart, Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin. They're ALREADY DOING IT. With all the hype over "All-Star" versions of some characters, Steve beat everybody else to the punch. it's clear to me on every page so far that his story is picking up somewhere, sometime after the CRISIS, but most DEFINITELY in the SAME universe as their old stories were back in the 70's.

If they can do it with BATMAN, there's no reason they "can't" do it with the LEGION. (They only need someone who really WANTS to do it! Hey-- look at what happened with Hal Jordan!)

So your solution at this point is to drop the 6 issues of build and immediately go back to the original comic series? That's another reboot yet still.

I'm reminded of "Return of Donna Troy" and its abyssmal Titans of Myth.

I think the Prof is suggesting that there's no reason they couldn't publish the continuing adventures of the preboot Legion alongside the current version, as an "All-Star Legion", similar to the "All-Star Batman".

Then I stand corrected. I do find it a tad odd though that they're publishing essentially adventures of another age though.

I'm not unhappy with it though.

I am split on that one. Once I heard the rumors of Jan possibly being gay...I wanted him gay. But I was hoping Shavaugn would've moved on with Jo or someone. Making her a guy? Well it sure made me think hard but not sure I liked it at all.


Much like Shavaugn I had the hots for Laurel Kent. Her becoming an evil robot hurt. In hindsight I understand they needed to remove her as Kent but geez.

Yes. I loved the DnA latest Legion series but that along with cub I just hated. Horrible mistake. One of the reasons I honestly think DC editors let them reboot the ZH timeline (along with cub).

I liked it. Much like the Sean Erin thing...it was shocking and made me think. If I was a big Garth fan I wouldn't like it so I understand those who don't. But personally I thought it was really cool.

The Legion is a hard book for many just to jump on. Bringing the clones into did not help at all. They wanted to bring back ONE cloned member? The Dominators cloned...Invisible Kid??? And the clone IK decides to start a NEW Legionnaire's team on New Earth (or whatever it was called) with new members? I would've liked it. But for me that is when v4 started going down hill. Still if they would've left the kids as the clones and developed them much differently than their counterparts it would have been cool. I also blame the appearance of the young Legion who seemed to have outsell the adult Legion for a couple months the reason DC decided to make them teens again...and again. *sigh*

Mixed. It was bold and in hindsight certain things needed to be thrown out. The Levitz's LOSH IMO wasn't at the point it needed a drastic change like that in the first place. Get a new artist or even a new writer and keep telling tales with the classic team was fine with me. Five year's later was a nice Elseworld's.

The snake sucked.


I've never been a big Superboy fan. I was a Mon-El fan and Ultra Boy fan. Why these cool futuristic superheroes wanted this cornfed superpowered Archie was always a mystery to me.

Do not ridicule the Trapper or Glorith. They are responsible for all of us...right now.

The ZH reboot? Rebooting itself didn't bother me. The stories, art, characters...did. I hated the stories. horrible. What we see now should've been the reboot. Sad but true.

May I ask what Cub refers to?

Charles, Cub refers to Ultra Boy's and Phantom Girl's son last reboot.