Legion Of Super Heroes fans - what would you like in a new book?

[Lee Stone]

My choices:

D) continue where Crisis On Infinite Earths left off
Or actually, after 1988/1989.
Pull a JJ Abrams and just go in a different direction from that point on.
This would be the easiest route, and with trade paperbscks of the Levitz run available, it would also be accessible to new readers.
Why 1988/1989?
Simply because DC could release the Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes, along with the Secret Origins issue that came out the same time, in a nice single trade paperback.
Almost all of the major Legion characters are from before that time, as well as all the major storylines and history.


F) pick up right where Paul Levitz's most current Legion left off
This one would work, too, as originally this was similar to D, above. The cut-off point was the end of Magic Wars, which still included the majority of Legion's history.

[caj]

F) pick up right where Paul Levitz's most current Legion left off
This one would work, too, as originally this was similar to D, above. The cut-off point was the end of Magic Wars, which still included the majority of Legion's history.

I was actually referring to the Legion book Levitz wrote in the 2010s

[WillieMorgan]

I was actually referring to the Legion book Levitz wrote in the 2010s

I wouldn't mind a Legion title that picked up the reins where the last series ended, as long as it didn't reference that title too much. It was some of Levitz's worst work on the Legion.

I'd be happy with a new Legion book full stop. It WILL arrive one day, just a question of how long we have to wait. I don't really want a reboot though. And I want a Legion title set in the present day even less. That's just a waste.

[Lee Stone]

I was actually referring to the Legion book Levitz wrote in the 2010s

As far as I remember, the 2010 Legion picked up sometime after Magic Wars, which was the end of the Baxter run.
I was just stating that it would still include a lot of the history that D would cover, as well as the stuff from the 2010 & 2011 runs.

I might not have made that clear in my previous post. I assumed the 2010 & 2011 runs would be included.

[Lee Stone]

I wouldn't mind a Legion title that picked up the reins where the last series ended, as long as it didn't reference that title too much. It was some of Levitz's worst work on the Legion.

I'd be happy with a new Legion book full stop. It WILL arrive one day, just a question of how long we have to wait. I don't really want a reboot though. And I want a Legion title set in the present day even less. That's just a waste.

There's not really a lot to reference from the 2010 or 2011 runs, though.

All that really happened is Earth Man joined, was a ****, redeemed himself in sacrifice, a few Legion Academy members got promoted and a few popular members got stranded in the past.
That's literally three issues of content and would've made a great mini-series.

Note: I stopped reading before the deaths.

[CaptCleghorn]

I'd like to see as wide a variety of legionnaires as possible. I want Gates, Tellus, and Quislet. Andromeda and Kent Shakespeare. It's a Legion of Super Heroes. Obviously they can't all be in the book at once, but rebooting and building up from the original three has been done so many times before. And we know who many of those new legionnaires would be as well. Start big, fill in and explain as needed. We don't need a written out history on day 1. We need something that's thought out and planned and i really hope DC is planning this well.

[WillieMorgan]

There's not really a lot to reference from the 2010 or 2011 runs, though.

All that really happened is Earth Man joined, was a ****, redeemed himself in sacrifice, a few Legion Academy members got promoted and a few popular members got stranded in the past.
That's literally three issues of content and would've made a great mini-series.

Note: I stopped reading before the deaths.

I wish I had too.

I probably should have been a bit more specific with that. I really meant the disbanding of the Legion, the aforementioned deaths and destruction and the half arsed attempt to place the whole thing in the future of Earth-2. All the nonsense that took place right at the conclusion of the last title.

[Lee Stone]

I'd like to see as wide a variety of legionnaires as possible. I want Gates, Tellus, and Quislet. Andromeda and Kent Shakespeare. It's a Legion of Super Heroes. Obviously they can't all be in the book at once, but rebooting and building up from the original three has been done so many times before. And we know who many of those new legionnaires would be as well. Start big, fill in and explain as needed. We don't need a written out history on day 1. We need something that's thought out and planned and i really hope DC is planning this well.

Well, with Bendis coming to DC, mid-Rebirth, to take over Superman... There's a possibility that the Legion's future is in a flux again.
Johns probably had everything regarding the JSA and Legion planned out to follow Doomsday Clock.
And DC, in its usual form, is probably having to re-write the ending of Doomsday Clock, especially anything regarding the Legion, to accommodate Bendis.

[Zero Hunter]

I wish I had too.

I probably should have been a bit more specific with that. I really meant the disbanding of the Legion, the aforementioned deaths and destruction and the half arsed attempt to place the whole thing in the future of Earth-2. All the nonsense that took place right at the conclusion of the last title.

The ending of that series made no sense anyway. All along Levitz was writing the book like nothing had really changed with the NU52 and then all of a sudden they are fighting the Fatal Five for the first time?!? It was just such a shift from what had been going on it was like someone else came in and just slapped something together.

[Lee Stone]

I wish I had too.

I probably should have been a bit more specific with that. I really meant the disbanding of the Legion, the aforementioned deaths and destruction and the half arsed attempt to place the whole thing in the future of Earth-2. All the nonsense that took place right at the conclusion of the last title.

Yeah, that should be scuttled.

I'm okay with Earth Man being a member and redeeming himself in sacrifice, the new members joining and the few being stranded as part of the history. I just wouldn't want to subject anyone to having to read a whole year of Earth Man & the Legion or Legion Lost in the process.

I think the best parts of the 2010/2011 runs were actually the Annual and the LoSV Special.

[CaptCleghorn]

Well, with Bendis coming to DC, mid-Rebirth, to take over Superman... There's a possibility that the Legion's future is in a flux again.
Johns probably had everything regarding the JSA and Legion planned out to follow Doomsday Clock.
And DC, in its usual form, is probably having to re-write the ending of Doomsday Clock, especially anything regarding the Legion, to accommodate Bendis.

That's certainly possible. The only good thing about that possible development is it would exonerate Johns from DC delay blame somewhat. Still, Bendis' strengths are far from what the Legion is. I suppose we might see something, even if not much, next week in Action 1000.

[WillieMorgan]

The ending of that series made no sense anyway. All along Levitz was writing the book like nothing had really changed with the NU52 and then all of a sudden they are fighting the Fatal Five for the first time?!? It was just such a shift from what had been going on it was like someone else came in and just slapped something together.

Were they facing The Fatal Five for the 'first time' in that storyline? That's not how I remember it. Am I remembering that wrong?

That last series did see Levitz collaborate with Keith Giffen at times. I have a feeling that Giffen may have been behind the 'Let's fudge the issue and pretend that the whole shebang was actually set in the future of Earth-2' stuff. It just seems like the sort of thing he'd dream up. It seemed really peevish at the time.

Yeah, that should be scuttled.

I'm okay with Earth Man being a member and redeeming himself in sacrifice, the new members joining and the few being stranded as part of the history. I just wouldn't want to subject anyone to having to read a whole year of Earth Man & the Legion or Legion Lost in the process.

I think the best parts of the 2010/2011 runs were actually the Annual and the LoSV Special.

Yeah, I think you're right. We have actually had the Legion Lost team reunited with the main team and returned to the future. It happened in the Justice League United series. At least that plot hole wasn't left dangling indefinitely.

[Sutekh]

I would like to pretend that some of the egregious bone-headed stuff from that last run was ignored. In the first issue or two, Titan is blown up and Saturn Girl is shown trying to stop a falling pillar from crushing people and smashing through a window with telekinesis, despite her not being Jean Grey and being 'only' a telepath, and not a telekinetic. Then in Legion Lost, not only can Timber Wolf regenerate and track by scent, but now he has claws, because apparently he's now a Wolverine knock-off. Star Boy and Sun Boy's deaths were just bad. Phantom Girl's inner monologue about how Sun Boy's death *made her look bad* as Legion Leader, and then abandoning the team to phase home to Bgtzl was just horrible writing for a character who was the fourth or fifth Legionnaire.

That said, some of the changes I did not mind. Tyroc being a sound manipulator instead of having 'magic shouts' that do random stuff like teleport, control winds and set stuff on fire, was a neat tweak to the character and made him more usable, IMO, than somebody with arbitrary powers.

It probably would be easier to just start at the post-Crisis Legion, and kind of forget most of what has happened since, cherry-picking stuff to include, like Chameleon Girl, Night Girl and perhaps Infectious Lass (who referred to herself as a Legionnaire before she was eaten by rats in the 21st century or whatever lamearse nonsense happened to her) being Legionnaires. I kind of like the new kids introduced in Adventure (Dragonwing, Chemical Kid, Variable Lad, Gravity Kid and Glorith), but they aren't, IMO, ready for prime-time Legionnaire status. Nor was Harmonia Li, who seemed bizarre in execution. (A millennias-old Chinese elementalist who controls the four *European* elements of air, earth, fire and water, and not the five *Chinese* elements of earth, fire, metal, water and wood? I don't get it...)

I also wouldn't mind seeing at least some of the Reboot characters lying around folded into a larger Legion. Gates and XS kind of / sort of have already been, at various times, but allowing some of the others to make it out of limbo, like Kid Quantum II, Dragonmage and Shikari, etc. could be interesting and add some diversity organically, rather than inventing a bunch of new diverse Legionnaires.

[Sacred Knight]

Well, with Bendis coming to DC, mid-Rebirth, to take over Superman... There's a possibility that the Legion's future is in a flux again.
Johns probably had everything regarding the JSA and Legion planned out to follow Doomsday Clock.
And DC, in its usual form, is probably having to re-write the ending of Doomsday Clock, especially anything regarding the Legion, to accommodate Bendis.

You mean typical Johns form, not typical DC form. Any huge departures from whatever Johns intended to come out of Doomsday Clock, if necessary, will be his fault, not the rest of DC and Bendis's fault. If the ending of Watchmen 2 has to be rewritten to accommodate writers who can actually get their stuff done on time with these characters instead of leaving them languishing in development hell for 2 years, that's just the breaks.

[Alpha Male]

Play up the "legion" part of the name by expanding the scope and membership. The United Planets covers a large area of space so having the Legion all based on Earth could be abandoned. Now Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl could be in charge of a team based near Winath while Cosmic Boy, Dream Girl, and Brainiac 5 could be based in other areas of space. And to keep their enemies guessing the membership could be rotating. Mon-El, Wildfire, or Ultra Boy might be stationed on Earth this month but be on Winath next month and Colu next Tuesday.

This would allow a writer to really play with the team roster. One arc might focus on the Big Guns facing off with a Khundish invasion fleet near Rimbor and the next might be Chamelion Boy leading a more cereberal group investigating disappearing miners in the asteroid belt.

This approach makes sense and it will really fit with the LEGION definition like you said! Having them be an expansion unit like the military will open a ton of possibilities for all types of stories. Have the membership number be a mystery adds a whole other element of intrigue. Now if the Legion you're proposing is branched off on other worlds, do they operate independent of each other? What degree of autonomy they have?