So if the Legion is on [SPOILER], where does that leave...?

Spoilers for Legion of Superheroes 23. You've been warned!

So in the final issue of Legion, there are a few mentions of Superman... specifically, how he was speared and killed fighting Steppenwolf, which seems meant to imply that the Legion has been Earth 2's future all along (or, rather, since the beginning of the New 52).

This presents a few problems with the Legion's present-day appearances, though -- for one thing, the Legion Lost members (and Alastor, and Harvest) appeared on the main Earth. Okay, I guess, since Brainy couldn't find them -- maybe they were shunted to another dimension during the trip.

But they also appeared in Action Comics, both in the main story and in a backup. The Legion looked a little different there -- IIRC, Jeckie was a snake again, for one thing -- so maybe they're the main Earth Legion. Then again, however DC re-envisions the Legion, I hope they won't feel bound by those appearances. (I'm sure they won't.)

Bart in Teen Titans (I heard his name might not be Allen?) is also from the Legion's time, though I'm not sure if the Legion was ever mentioned in relation to him.

I'm not altogether upset with this retcon. It frees DC up to create a new Legion someday -- which they were bound to do anyway -- while keeping these characters on the shelf, rather than overwriting them.

I guess from the stand point of everything else that DC has done--junking all their history and making everything over and different, to bring in new readers (I guess)--to have the Legion be the one hold-out makes them out of place. So they have to get with the program, too.

But forget being diplomatic and seeing everything from other people's point of view--which I find myself straining to do all the time these days--from my personal point of view I was happy when Levitz took over the Legion. He didn't do everything I hoped for, but I was about 90% satisfied.

In fact, his was the one book that I really wanted to keep buying. But when the new 52 started, I knew I had to make a clean break. It was always those one or two titles that required me to come into the LCS two or four times a month and sucked me into buying more comics. As long as there was one DC that i was buying, I was going to be in the shop every month--so I had to clean house and drop LSH.

But the beauty of Levitz's approach was that he already set up Flashpoint months in advance. I don't know what he did when the title was rebooted, but he had created a perfect bubble of continuity for the Legion to continue as it always had done. Since they were in the future and beyond the Flashpoint, it didn't matter what happened in ancient history. The Legion could continue to preserve its own history.

And, if the new 52 didn't work out, whatever change happened to DC in the 21st century didn't matter. Legion could continue.

I always felt it was a mistake after Crisis to try and make the Legion fit with the continuity of the other books. They should have just kept the continuity separate and its own thing. The book's greatest strength was its loyal readers, who read all the back issues and knew every in and out of Legion continuity. By throwing out that continuity they were throwing out something that had united fandom all those years.

In that way it was a lot like X-Men. It had set up the fan culture that X-Men was later able to exploit.

To treat Legion as though it's not that. As if it's just some random concept that can be revamped and relaunched over and over is to totally miss the point. When Levitz took over, it was already twenty years too late fo salvage that fan culture--which had been scatterd to the four winds. But there was at least a chance of rebuilding it in some form.

Now I don't think there's any chance for Legion to be what it was. And it seems like a totally uselfess concept otherwise.

So it's a good thing I cut my losses when I did.

Replies

Philip Portelli August 22, 2013 at 10:55pm

If they do start the Legion again, please let be from Day One and let us see it grow gradually!
Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man August 22, 2013 at 11:04pm

Having read your description, Rob, I feel kind of like Brainy on the cover of that book...
Jimmm Kelly August 22, 2013 at 11:56pm

I guess from the stand point of everything else that DC has done--junking all their history and making everything over and different, to bring in new readers (I guess)--to have the Legion be the one hold-out makes them out of place. So they have to get with the program, too.

But forget being diplomatic and seeing everything from other people's point of view--which I find myself straining to do all the time these days--from my personal point of view I was happy when Levitz took over the Legion. He didn't do everything I hoped for, but I was about 90% satisfied.

In fact, his was the one book that I really wanted to keep buying. But when the new 52 started, I knew I had to make a clean break. It was always those one or two titles that required me to come into the LCS two or four times a month and sucked me into buying more comics. As long as there was one DC that i was buying, I was going to be in the shop every month--so I had to clean house and drop LSH.

But the beauty of Levitz's approach was that he already set up Flashpoint months in advance. I don't know what he did when the title was rebooted, but he had created a perfect bubble of continuity for the Legion to continue as it always had done. Since they were in the future and beyond the Flashpoint, it didn't matter what happened in ancient history. The Legion could continue to preserve its own history.

And, if the new 52 didn't work out, whatever change happened to DC in the 21st century didn't matter. Legion could continue.

I always felt it was a mistake after Crisis to try and make the Legion fit with the continuity of the other books. They should have just kept the continuity separate and its own thing. The book's greatest strength was its loyal readers, who read all the back issues and knew every in and out of Legion continuity. By throwing out that continuity they were throwing out something that had united fandom all those years.

In that way it was a lot like X-Men. It had set up the fan culture that X-Men was later able to exploit.

To treat Legion as though it's not that. As if it's just some random concept that can be revamped and relaunched over and over is to totally miss the point. When Levitz took over, it was already twenty years too late fo salvage that fan culture--which had been scatterd to the four winds. But there was at least a chance of rebuilding it in some form.

Now I don't think there's any chance for Legion to be what it was. And it seems like a totally uselfess concept otherwise.

So it's a good thing I cut my losses when I did.
Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) August 23, 2013 at 10:11am

While I definitely agree that DC has done its best to dismantle the wonderful grassroots fanbase the Legion traditionally enjoyed, I can't sign on to the idea that it's a "totally useless concept otherwise." Whatever its history -- even with a completely rebooted history, right out of the starting gate -- teens of the future, banding together to fight evil is a great idea. And the concepts that ride alongside it -- the importance of cooperation, working together despite cultural differences, and that even people with less-impressive skill sets can make a difference -- speak to me in a way that few other superhero groups do. The only other group that carries that allegorical weight is the X-Men.

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