The Legion's involvement with Clark has always been more of a "bragging point" than an actual story point, but yeah....it's an objective loss. And I feel like we've lost enough.
Again, and I cant stress this enough, I've enjoyed Bendis' run a lot more than I expected to (and I had hope he'd do a good job when he signed on). I trust him with Superman more than most creators at DC, and infinitely more than anyone in DC's management. I'm (mostly) sure he'll end up spinning this in a way I'm willing to accept. Even if he somehow botches this, the UP and President of Earth stuff should keep me quiet and relatively happy, because those are big gains that could more than equal out what we're losing if done right. But gods damn it to oblivion I'm sick and tired of seeing Clark lose things so other people can benefit from it.
I always figured you couldn't truly measure Clark's influence on the world/universe until he was retired/dead (who knows what he's yet to accomplish?), but I'd say things like being the first hero of the heroic age and the reason heroes are trusted like they are, defeating Imperiex, and all the other things he's done in-story were a good start. This is, yeah it's definitely adding one big thing the Legion can point to and say "Damn how cool is that??" but I don't feel like Clark's list of feats is so lacking it was needed for him to be remembered. Everyone else.....no one is gonna remember Batman and how he failed to save one city (they might remember him as how Nightwing got his start, I refuse to believe in a 31st century that doesn't recognize Nightwing's greatness! ). No one is going to remember that space cop who was better at being a cop than the other guys....no one is gonna remember the Flash's biggest wins mostly because they happen in weird timelines and alternate dimensions.Technically he's still their inspiration. Lightning Lad says. "We each dedicated ours lives to the ideals superheroes in direct honor of this very day." Because again, in a shared universe, as a hero, what specifically about Clark would inspire the Legion that Wonder Woman, MM, Flash, and GL didn't do in some from if we're just talking about them being heroes. They usually just pin it on the nebulous idea of "he's inspiring" or "hopeful." And that has no tangle distinction from Wonder Woman, GL, Flash, or even Batman if we're honest. But now they're inspired by to uphold the ideals of the age of heroes (which Superman shares with all his peers) specifically because of a situation that Clark and only Clark could've pulled off.
Ha! That's true.I'm sure that'd be the case, but at the very least the Legion stay in the family. More than we could say during the New 52 past Morrison's.
I mean, this is far from the worst thing that could happen. I'm just very annoyed and very tired of stuff being taken out of Clark's story. I get where Bendis is coming from but I really don't feel like this was necessary, or that Clark's story is somehow improved by moving these concepts out of his history.