Bendis' version of the Great Darkness Saga?

So, since the world is low key ending all around us, obviously the other day my mind was occupied with remembering a tweet from Bendis about how he'll be having some character's you wouldn't normally expect still alive and well in the 31st century. The most famous example of current day characters living to see the 31st century in Legion lore is Darkseid in The Great Darkness Saga.

That also just so happens to be one of the most influential stories to Bendis' career (as he's alluded to on Word Balloon before). Bendis said that he was particularly interested in recreating the feeling of anticipation and surprise from The Great Darkness Saga in his other work, so one has to wonder: what happens when he's writing the actual Legion?

If I had to guess, I'd say he's likely not going to use Darkseid. I imagine it'll be like his work in the Ultimate Universe where things are remixed and outright changed to fit the context and modern sensibilities. See something like his version of the clone saga, Gwen's death, or even where Spider-Woman comes from.

So far my guesses for Bendis' version of the Great Darkness Saga are

[B]Mongul[/B] - recently been shown to be effectively "immortal" in a sense, and he has a deep, deep hate for the United Planets.

[B]Lex[/B] - Immortal billionaire fighting the team personification of gen Y and Z energy? Not the biggest leap.

[B]Red Cloud[/B] - *shrugs* I dunno

[B]Leviathan[/B] - They're base was shown in the two part mini leading up to Legion. Plus, their tech would only get more powerful over the centuries, I imagine.

[B]Damian[/B] - I personally doubt this, but it's actually kind of got some legs to it. Ra's actually did show up in the Legion of Super-Heroes because via his Lazarus pits. If Damian ends up becoming whatever the Legion fear him becoming, maybe he takes over the pits in Ra's place? The showdown between Jon and Damian would be quite the headliner for the book.

[B]Thorn/Rose[/B] - Bendis alluded to the fact that right now we have no idea who the dominating persona for Rose Forest is. The idea could be that while Rose has come full circle to be totally rooting for the success of heroes, Thorn may be a straight up nihilist who Rose has been keep at bay? Or, hell, maybe Thorn is actually the one who was eventually won over by the ideals of heroism, and Rose has become a jaded nihilist? The Rose we see in Legion does seem to take little to no sh!t. May be a reformed Thorn?

Or, maybe it's someone else completely?

Vote and let everyone know your thoughts!

Damn. My bad, I forgot to give a bit more on what the original GDS story was, huh? lol

The actual event was 5 issues long. Darkseid uses these sort of heralds to do his bidding before he shows up properly. And the big moment is when Darkseid gains control of the whole population of Daxam-- as in the Kryptonian powered Daxamities-- and he used them to totally devastate the whole galaxy in very little time. The Legion wins via an assist from Orion (who was under Darkseid's control up till them) and Highfather.

You could reshuffle the big Daxamite invasion by using Bendis' soon-to-be-introduced New Krypton. That would be a far more recognizable "oh sh!t" moment for your average modern day reader. In GDS Darkseid also trashes the whole Legion by hand, and looking back at Saturn Girl's vision from issue 3 of Bendis' Legion of Super-Heroes, that may have been a tease possibly?

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[B]Edit:[/B] Just realized that I forgot a possible suspect...

[B]Rogol Zaar[/B] - He's still a dangling plot thread, and he's somewhat the catalyst for the Unity Saga that gave birth to the Legion. He's also the guy that killed Krypton. But maybe most suspect of all: he was in Zod's vision alongside the Legion of Super-Heroes acting as an armada.

Instead of using New Krypton or Daxam for the callback to Darkseid using the Daxamites, maybe the idea is to use the Legion as the big mind controlled army?

Better Zaar then Darkseid in my opinion.

I'm going with Zaar, and voting Other.

Mongul would make tons of sense and it'd be pretty great to see the family dynasty stretch across the centuries (I'm a sucker for that sorta thing).

But Mongul is a poor man's hand-me-down Darkseid. Using him in a repeat of GDS would be on the nose to such a huge degree I doubt even Bendis would go there.

Zaar's no better, since he's just one more entry in that same archetype Mongul already fills. He's actually worse, since he lacks Mongul's history and has even less personality or even charm. But Bendis created him and left that thread loose on purpose. A new GDS could be why.

I do think we may see what's become of the Monguls by the 31st century, but I suspect Bendis will introduce some radical change there. Use Mongul as a threat to the UP today, and show that in the future the Monguls changed their ways, proving the UP was right all along.

[QUOTE=Ascended;4894616]I do think we may see what's become of the Monguls by the 31st century, but I suspect Bendis will introduce some radical change there. Use Mongul as a threat to the UP today, and show that in the future the Monguls changed their ways, proving the UP was right all along.[/QUOTE]

I'm skeptical of that given the fact that Colossal Boy calls Ultra Boy's dad a "Mongul" as an unflattering way of describing how unreasonable and barbaric he was being in issue 3.

At the very least for Zaar I'm fairly confident that his ax is going to find its way into the hand of Persuader. Though, I must say, I'd be really interested in Rose and Thorn being both the Darkseid and Orion for this new version.

[QUOTE=Superlad93;4894645]I'm skeptical of that given the fact that Colossal Boy calls Ultra Boy's dad a "Mongul" as an unflattering way of describing how unreasonable and barbaric he was being in issue 3.[/QUOTE]

Oh I forgot about that. Yeah that makes a change unlikely.

Damn. If Zod's New Krypton ends up being populated using the same genetic manipulation techniques that Jor-El used to make Zaar, then Zaar being our "Darkseid" in this new GDS would be pretty fascinating to explore. Zaar's worst nightmare has come to life--Krypton reborn-- but it's populated because of him.

Then again, if that is how Zod repopulates New Krypton then that may somewhat disqualify Zaar from the running because he'll have thematic representation in the 31st century alongside having his story continue in the present.

Wait, I'm confused at what you're asking. Are you saying that you want Bendis to just simply write an epic story [B]in the spirit of the Great Darkness Saga[/B] or are you saying that you want like a new version of the Great Darkness Saga, like a retelling?

[QUOTE=Zeeguy91;4895222]Wait, I'm confused at what you're asking. Are you saying that you want Bendis to just simply write an epic story [B]in the spirit of the Great Darkness Saga[/B] or are you saying that you want like a new version of the Great Darkness Saga, like a retelling?[/QUOTE]

Both?

That's at least what I'm assuming he'll do. Like, it could just flat out be a modern update of Great Darkness Saga, but from the sound of his interview on Word Balloon I doubt that it'll be just that.

Looking back at his work on Ultimate Spider-Man, you kind of had a 50/50 chance of him doing either.

[QUOTE=Superlad93;4895265]Both?

That's at least what I'm assuming he'll do. Like, it could just flat out be a modern update of Great Darkness Saga, but from the sound of his interview on Word Balloon I doubt that it'll be just that.

Looking back at his work on Ultimate Spider-Man, you kind of had a 50/50 chance of him doing either.[/QUOTE]

IMO, he should not be remixing anything. That's been the problem with DC for the past several years. It's what the problem was with the New 52 and before that. DC is so worried about retelling and rehashing their greatest hits and beating to death old concepts that they've completely forgotten to actually tell [B]new[/B] stories. And I mean [B][U]actually[/U][/B] new stories and not stories that [B]say[/B] they're new and actually aren't

One of the things I've actually admired about Bendis's Superman so far is that at least he's bringing new and interesting concepts into the Superman and DC lore and pushing characters in directions not seen before. I mean, Leviathan Island? The Invisible Mafia? Red Cloud? Moving the Fortress of Solitude to the Bermuda Triangle? Even the whole Lois holed up in a Chicago hotel room writing a book thing. Those are great concepts and, yes, the execution can be somewhat flawed, but I'm happy to see Bendis inject some of that new creative energy into the Superman books. So, I'd rather Bendis actually tell his own story with the Legion instead of rehashing the events of one of their greatest hits.

[QUOTE=Zeeguy91;4895378]IMO, he should not be remixing anything. That's been the problem with DC for the past several years. It's what the problem was with the New 52 and before that. DC is so worried about retelling and rehashing their greatest hits and beating to death old concepts that they've completely forgotten to actually tell [B]new[/B] stories. And I mean [B][U]actually[/U][/B] new stories and not stories that [B]say[/B] they're new and actually aren't

One of the things I've actually admired about Bendis's Superman so far is that at least he's bringing new and interesting concepts into the Superman and DC lore and pushing characters in directions not seen before. I mean, Leviathan Island? The Invisible Mafia? Red Cloud? Moving the Fortress of Solitude to the Bermuda Triangle? Those are great concepts and, yes, the execution can be somewhat flawed, but I'm happy to see Bendis inject some of that new creative energy into the Superman books. So, I'd rather Bendis actually tell his own story with the Legion instead of rehashing the events of one of their greatest hits.[/QUOTE]

No, that's a totally fair opinion to have, and I'm not really gonna argue it. In fact, that's in part why 5G is such an interesting idea to me.

That said, I think it's fair to say that we're well past that point as far as his Legion goes. He's made it no secret that he's approaching this nearly identical to the mind set that he had on Ultimate Spider-Man, so that's why I made the thread, and that's why I think there's a 50/50 shot of him either remixing the story, or doing GDS inspired by the spirit rather than the 1:1 beats. At the very least, I'd say I trust him quite a bit when it comes to doing this Ultimate take on things.

My most anticipated story likely coming up has to be his the first death on the team. Historically it's the Sun Eater story with Ferro Lad. But over in Ultimate Spider-Man the way he did Gwen's death became its own thing while still being Gwen's death. I'd hope for something like that or his really fun Clone Saga take.

Maybe Aquaman who will have mutated after making a deal with the sea titans or something into something else and is now searching for his Trident to bring those ancient horrors to this timeline. :p