Legion of Super-Heroes Appreciation 2019 [Long Live the Legion!]

[Comic-Reader Lad]

XS is part of a Legion in an alternate universe. It lasted a heck of a lot longer than an Elseworld, so she's as much a Legionnaire as anyone, but the Legion of the original continuity didn't have any speedsters.

Well, they weren't on the Legion team, but Barry Allen's kids, the Tornado Twins (Don and Dawn Allen), were a part of the Legion's original continuity.

They were introduced in Adventure 373 in 1968 by Jim Shooter.

[DevilBat66]

IF this is true it will be the first time in my life that I will not buy a new Legion book. I already watched Bendis destroy the Guardians of the Galaxy over at Marvel so there is no way I want to see him ruin my all time favorite property.

Same here. He will ruin the Legion.

[J. D. Guy]

Not very differently, I would hope. I don't think the Legion is all that difficult to apply to the modern era.

Not doing it differently could potentially put it in similar straights with past iterations, though, which as mentioned, could run the risk of being dated (and not in a positive manner) or tone-deaf or worse.

I think that Bendis will likely use the future era of the Legion to tell stories that metaphorically relate to our current era like a lot of science fiction does.

So, I can see Bendis making the United Planets prominent in the book in order to tell stories about immigration, how great a one-world government is and how the "patriarchy" (i.e. entrenched system) is evil, etc. In other words, all the things that SJWs love and their detractors despise.

If Bendis gets too political, the Legion could be yet another SJW-comic failure. If these story elements are lightly seeded in the background and the focus is on the character interactions among the Legionnaires and their incredible futuristic world, then it could work.

A lot of writers, when they feel a need to send a message and "teach" their readers their agenda, often go overboard and get heavy-handed. I hope Bendis doesn't fall prey to this because the Legion should not be yet another polarizing comic of the type we've been getting for the last several years.

The Legion really can't survive yet another cancellation. A Legion comic should be as broad based and inviting as possible.

I guess, but this feels kinda particular to stress on in and of itself. As well, using "SJW" is usually not advisable when making points, because the term is so loaded and simultaneously definition-less and meaningless.

As for what counts as being polarizing or as inviting as possible, that, too, depends. And given what I've heard and read about LoSH, everyone seems to have their own idea of what they feel makes a perfect Legion story, and it is so divided that no one group would likely be able to be made happy, regardless of how the creative team manages things. Part of me feels that's why there hasn't been much of anything LoSH in forever. It would also explain the various LoSH "reboots" throughout DC history I've vaguely heard about.

So I don't know.

[Scott Taylor]

Off the top of my head:

- Not a good job of juggling characters.

- Meandering plots.

- Rushed or nonsensical character arcs or conclusions to said character arcs. Or no character development whatsoever for some characters.

Thanks. None of those are straight up dealbreakers on their face for me at least, but I can understand the frustration especially when comparing to Levitz who quite easily juggles characters and is capable of deeply layered storytelling. But of course it will depend on the actual product. Some of those weaknesses I've tolerated in other writers - Snyder comes to mind. And King, for that matter.

I stuck with Snyder on Batman largely because of Capullo and because Snyder was so good in the middle part of his stories. So far I've stuck with King because his stuff is so unpredictable that its fun to see what happens next. Like I said, I'll give Bendis a chance. Hopefully others will, too. I'm pretty confident in him because I've liked his characterization of Superman. I'd be ok if he didn't juggle characters but instead chose to use each issue to focus on one character or a small subset of the Legion.

[DevilBat66]

I haven't read a ton of Bendis's work at Marvel, but I've heard the complaints. I've also seen that people keep buying his series, limited series, and events even though they're complaining about them.

My question for those who don't like his writer's tics from his Marvel days, how do you feel he's doing with Superman so far?

I've heard people like him better on solo characters like Miles Morales so that may mean he's better than normal on Superman, but are any of his annoying habits in evidence on Superman so that it rises to the level that you can't enjoy it?

If not, then maybe I'm hoping against hope, but maybe his bad habits only extended to the Marvel characters where he was able to write them as he saw fit, but with the DC characters, he'll write them as close as he can to their established voices rather than putting his own voice into the characters' mouths.

I'll answer since I have read a ton of his work, unfortunately.

Avengers Dissassembled and New Avengers so ruined the Avengers for me that I dropped the book after collecting it for almost 40 years straight. It plus Civil War ruined the charcaters o bad I have not and will not buy another Avengers or related book again. Sold of my entire Avengers/Cap/Thor/Iron Man/ et al.

X-Men. I have had a love hate relationship with that franchise over the years. Bendis killed it for good. Sold all that suff off too. ( not just Bendis' fault. He just nailed the coffin shut )

Guardians of the Galaxy was a book that I had bought whenever it came out since the 70's. I LOVED the movies. I hated his run and couldn't stand it once he took it over.

Ultimate Spider-Man was so bloated and decompressed I couldn't make it 12 issues. Made bank on selling them off though.

Thank the Gods his Moon Knight run was so short,but, even then, it was the worst 12 issues of MK that I have ever read and I have every book he's ever been in.

That being said, I was enjoying his Superman run until the recent revelation that Jimmy slept with Talia Al Ghul. It's that kind of stupid garbage that ruins all of his books for me. That and the fact he can't write more than one or two distinctive speech patterns. His lack of any respect for previous characterizations and history or that his characters must service the plot no matter if they would say/act that way has really spoiled his writing for me.
Was really hoping that wouldn't be the case at DC but, it's looking like nothing has changed since he came over.

That being said, I do like Bendis as a person and as a fan. I just wish he would not write characters that I like.

[Lee Stone]

If he does write Legion, I hope they don't give him a 'Bendis-style' artist.

Maybe if they at least give the book an artist that can draw dynamically, it may counter his 'multi-panel nothing happens' or 'single panel filled with too much dialogue for the amount of time possible in the scene'.

I agree that he is better on street-level characters.
It seems that he doesn't grasp superpowers well enough and the artists he is usually paired with are poor choices for super-powered action scenes.

That said, if Evan Shaner or Steve Rude can get lulled into doing the art I would be interested, no matter who is writing it.

[AJpyro]

I've enjoyed my reads of the Reboot and DnA years. The Silver Age and GDS are still my big whales of buying.

Long Live the Legion!

[Lee Stone]

DC celebrates the 30th Anniversary of the Legion...

With a special Anniversary issue, an issue of Secret Origins and one of the only two 'title-specific' Who's Who series to get produced (the other was Star Trek).

It even spread to Mayfair Games, which had the license for the DC characters in the role-playing world. They published a two-volume Sourcebook for Legion, with parts written by then-writer Paul Levitz and thoroughly researched. The books rivaled the Who's Who in depth.
Meanwhile, at the same time, the Legion was also featured in Mayfair's only multi-part adventure, which was comprised of four books.

Unfortunately, after such a big celebration of Legion, it's characters, world and history, it all came to a crashing end in just two years with the cancellation of the Baxter run.

A page 'tabloid' ad in Dragon Magazine, promoting Mayfair's Legion output timed around the Anniversary.
The Who's Who series was teased as a "New DC Comics Legion of Super-Heroes" series.



An ad for the Mayfair Sourcebook.



DC Comics' in-house ad for the Legion Anniversary books.

[Lee Stone]

The three books from DC, celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Legion.

[Zero Hunter]

The three books from DC, celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Legion.

I still have all 7 issues of Who's Who in the Legion. I loved that series so much. They should give a copy of it too every new Legion writer when they come on so they can really brush up on the history of the team before taking over. I wish DC would do series like this again

[Tony]

That being said, I was enjoying his Superman run until the recent revelation that Jimmy slept with Talia Al Ghul.

Reading this gave me a really good laugh. I stopped reading his Superman even for free so would have never enjoyed this moment, thanks for the laugh.

Bendis wrote a couple great books that both petered out despite him staying on and on and on. If you've read a lot of his work you can't escape the dialogue or the fact whole issues go by with little to nothing happening, terrible at plotting. He's not the only writer to stop me from buying a new LoSH series but he's at the top of no way will DC get my money. I might try it for free but probably still drop it as my time is valuable to me.

[Lee Stone]

I still have all 7 issues of Who's Who in the Legion. I loved that series so much. They should give a copy of it too every new Legion writer when they come on so they can really brush up on the history of the team before taking over. I wish DC would do series like this again

I have both it and the Star Trek Who's Who (which similarly managed to cover a large history, theirs being just over 20 years at the time), and I agree.

I had such high hopes for the 2010 series when I found out that everything after Magic War was scuttled and everything before the end of the Baxter run was back in canon.
Sadly, there were too many things working against it.
Cinar's art was very good, though.

[Sutekh]

Well, they weren't on the Legion team, but Barry Allen's kids, the Tornado Twins (Don and Dawn Allen), were a part of the Legion's original continuity.

They were introduced in Adventure 373 in 1968 by Jim Shooter.

Yes, there are speedsters in the future. Another great thing about the whole universe that has built up over the fifty plus years of Legion continuity is how many interesting characters and cultures and worlds exist to explore, even apart from the Legion itself, such as the Heroes of Lallor, or the people of Murra, or the exact nature of Bgtzl, or what the current status is of 'Great Mother Ocean' inhabited by the Hyrkraians (and, at least for a time, subjugated by the Gil'Dishpan).

[Tazpocalapse]

Does anyone have any links to LOSH siteson the web. I'm looking for a old site that had a bunch of star maps of the locations of various planets in the LOSH universe and the distance they were from Earth? I remember Legion Outpost but i don't think that is the one of with the maps.

[Lee Stone]

Does anyone have any links to LOSH siteson the web. I'm looking for a old site that had a bunch of star maps of the locations of various planets in the LOSH universe and the distance they were from Earth? I remember Legion Outpost but i don't think that is the one of with the maps.

Here's a few:

https://www.cosmicteams.com/legion/
http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspot.com/
http://bitsoflegionnairebusiness.blogspot.com/
www.legionworld.net
http://paulfrench.ca/losp/
http://longlivethelegion.blogspot.com/
http://legionabstract.blogspot.com/
http://www.readersadvice.com/lsh/lsh.html
http://www.idyllmtn.com/rac/dc/lsh/lsh_res.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20000608.../mmbentry.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20000519...willi/lsh.html
http://www.infiniteearths.org/lsh