LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES issue #3 Preview/(spoiler) discussion

[Superlad93]

The interlac on the first page has been traslated, and it seems to give us some intresting world building and more of a look into Dawnstar's character. Credit for the translation goes to j9ac9k

-- dawnstar tied with lightning lass as the most popular legionnaire among children of the galactic. dawnstar has been the most outspoken member of the team on the subject of what the role of the united planets should be. while president brande has made a strong case for a firmer hand, dawnstar feels that power will only corrupt. "it is the only lesson history has taught us over and over."
-- dawnstar merchandise available now. think here.
-- do not feed the drakes. seriously.
-- we live by the code of the bat

If Bendis ends up doing some sort of timeskip for the Legion like 5 Years Later, maybe Dawnstar will end up becoming the new president of the United Planets?

[Journey]

It wasn't a terrible issue. Not really spectacular either, really hoping Jon doesn't get shoved in some cliche relationship but this is Bendis so.... Yeah.... Also this issue was just throwaway truthfully, Damien served absolutely no purpose. And the thing with Jon and Mon-El he's probably his grandson or some **** like that. Also last nitpick this series just feels so cluttered too many characters that I just don't know or really care about.

[Korath]

I'm really interest in this Mon-el. He seems to be somewhat arrogant, but also easily frustrated, which could denote some form of self-consciousness, possibly some form of fear that his ancestor will upstage him ?

Jo Nah also seems really sympathetic to me. He's clearly conflicted about his place in life, as the son of the King of Rimbor (at least, its leader) but has strong values and want to change his world for the better thanks to it. As a side note... I find his Father One (Crav Nah ?) very funny !

Also, it is me or Colossal Boy has some unresolved tension with Cosmic Boy, or at least doesn't like to take orders from anyone ?

Also, I find Planet Gotham quite strange. Almost as if the Bat had been "erased" or something and it somehow made the place better than old Gotham, you know ?

[Jackalope89]

I had to take a look at Legion 3 to see why it had the other Damian fans in an uproar. No wonder. Bendis is making Damian into "baby Hitler", as he so "eloquently" put it.

The more Bendis writes, the more I want his stuff, through all of DC, erased or ignored altogether. He enjoys wrecking other characters for his own, poorly thought out storylines, and somehow people gobble this up.

[Korath]

I think he made pretty clear that this "baby Hitler" jab wasn't realistically who Damian Wayne is, thanks to Brainiac 5. Furthermore, I think that the knowledge of the Legion about the past is patchy. And they want Damian to remain a hero.

[manwhohaseverything]

Damian clearly has issues. It might be just be starting thread to solve it. 5G and supersons of tomorrow, both touch on future damian plot line. I hope this isn't just a throwaway line. It needs to be expanded. Jon going nuclear is the reason, He went to space as well.

[Sutekh]

I'm really interest in this Mon-el. He seems to be somewhat arrogant, but also easily frustrated, which could denote some form of self-consciousness, possibly some form of fear that his ancestor will upstage him ?

Yeah, his comment to Rokk about not knowing that he was dating Tasmia was funny, for us older fans, who are used to seeing them as a couple (which may never have happened in this continuity, making it a completely meta joke).

Jo Nah also seems really sympathetic to me. He's clearly conflicted about his place in life, as the son of the King of Rimbor (at least, its leader) but has strong values and want to change his world for the better thanks to it. As a side note... I find his Father One (Crav Nah ?) very funny !

'Father One' is interesting in that it implies that he might have a Father Two out there, as well.

His Frizzy Tag thingie states his various ultra powers, which seem in line with his previous versions, but on page 12-ish, he seems to create a greenish-white force field around the team, and the next panel shows him seeming to maintain it, while Mysa is clearly doing something else (so that it's clear that it's not actually Mysa creating the green shield). I wonder if that was an artist's mistake (meant to be Mysa creating the shield), or intentional in that this version of Jo can do other stuff with his ultra-energy than just duplicate Superboy's powers one at a time, and they just forgot to put that on his Frizzy Tag... (that would be neat, within reason, if he could do other stuff with ultra-energy, so I'd be cool with it, so long as he stuck to a one-at-a-time limitation, and wasn't stomping all over other Legionnaires specialties by using ultra-magnetism or ultra-duplication or ultra-shrinking or whatever)

Later on, Brainiac 5 is shown creating force restraints out of his force fields, which is also neat, but leads me to wonder, if both Brainy and maybe Jo can create energy constructs, what the heck does the Gold Lantern do? He's not even got a speaking line, and those two have already drunk his milkshake all up!

[protege]

I never thought this will connect damian issues. This seems interesting, now.i hope it gets developed. If jon is meant to stop it. It would be interesting and it will also tie back into supersons of tomorrow. Where jon went nuclear in a future where damian went rogue.

The major problem I have with Damian is how all the writers seem to want to make him the darkest robin ever. Given his lineage, why isn’t Bruce supervising him more closely? The kid really has no adult supervision, and he doesn’t really try to curb his darker impulses. This is why I just can’t get into him as a character- in fact all of Batman’s sidekicks seem to be messed up to some degree.

[protege]

Damian clearly has issues. It might be just be starting thread to solve it. 5G and supersons of tomorrow, both touch on future damian plot line. I hope this isn't just a throwaway line. It needs to be expanded. Jon going nuclear is the reason, He went to space as well.

I might be willing to see Jon as Superman if he actually has to deal with future Damian.

[manwhohaseverything]

The major problem I have with Damian is how all the writers seem to want to make him the darkest robin ever. Given his lineage, why isn’t Bruce supervising him more closely? The kid really has no adult supervision, and he doesn’t really try to curb his darker impulses. This is why I just can’t get into him as a character- in fact all of Batman’s sidekicks seem to be messed up to some degree.

Well, he has jon, dick.. Etc. Damian like jon has problems. Averting the dark future was always the crux of the story.

[Jackalope89]

The major problem I have with Damian is how all the writers seem to want to make him the darkest robin ever. Given his lineage, why isn’t Bruce supervising him more closely? The kid really has no adult supervision, and he doesn’t really try to curb his darker impulses. This is why I just can’t get into him as a character- in fact all of Batman’s sidekicks seem to be messed up to some degree.

Damian hasn't killed anyone in a long time. And really, pointing at Bruce when Clark himself let Jon go with Jor-El, Lois abandoned him there, and so on?

Pot calling the kettle black.

[Korath]

All Damian "problematic actions" stems from a very heroic root : he does want to make the world better. And I think a competent writer (and I think Bendis is one - at least I like what he writes) could make use of it to develop a far more complex Damian than just an evil or good one.

We currently live in a world dominated by a highly corrupt and destructive kind of society, which rest on vices while pretending to uphold virtues, which kills trillions of living beings each years not to survive but indulge itself (and I'm not even a vegetarian), with world eladers far more concerned by Growth than forging a sustainable and healthy world for the future.

Would it be truly a wonder if Damian, who was birthed by talia al'ghul, who has always professed to want to destroy the current society to forge a better one (at least since Damian was created) and Ra's al'Ghul, an eco-terrorist who rightly sees what's wrong with the world but as lost faith in humanity's capacity to correct itself - that Damian, as I was saying, would also choose to act in ways which may seem evil to others, and even evil in the fullness of time, but in the end helped save the world. I mean, today robespierre and Saint-Just are presented as bloodthirsty monsters in the story of the French Revolution, and yet, without them, it would have probably floundered and been utterly crushed. They did unleash the Great Terror, but situation of the country was such that half-measures would have probably doomed the Revolution. In that light, were they monsters or evil ? I'm not sure the answer is yes.

And today, Damian is exactly in that spot ; his actions may seem evil to many, but if he did less, wouldn't he just be looking away while he knows the world around him get sicker and sicker ?

Also, on a totally unrelated note... Qwayne Foundation... it's the alliance of Queen and Wayne Industries, right ?

[Robanker]

The major problem I have with Damian is how all the writers seem to want to make him the darkest robin ever. Given his lineage, why isn’t Bruce supervising him more closely? The kid really has no adult supervision, and he doesn’t really try to curb his darker impulses. This is why I just can’t get into him as a character- in fact all of Batman’s sidekicks seem to be messed up to some degree.

It's because people like him being Robin-in-name-only who is a jerk. I don't, but Damian sells so he gets to keep doing what he wants. DC doesn't consider Robin Batman's junior partner anymore. Sidekicks are more of a sponsorship now anyway; you don't actually get mentored by the hero, you just get to do your thing in their brand and get photo ops now and then.

[Superlad93]

Just remembered that Bendis confirmed that he'd be using Zod's New Krypton in not just Superman but also in the 31st century with the Legion.

* If Mon-El is Jon's descendant as he and Triplicate girl seem to imply in this issue, and New Krypton is around in the 31st century, then why isn't he flying the House of El crest? Reading his name tag, it does confirm that his real name is Lar Gand and he's from Daxam (even vulnerable to led), and "Mon-El" is his chosen name. I was thinking that maybe the Daxamites may be as xenophobic as they usually are, but then I realized that they are not only part of the United Planets, but also it's home world. Maybe they're still xenophobic in the sense that they want their blood to remain pure, so Mon-El doesn't wear the S for fear of criticism from his people? But then why would he still call himself Mon-El as a very clear homage to the House of El?

* Heck, maybe New Krypton turned into the xenophobic ones! I noticed that they don't have a Legion rep on the team. They don't even have someone who ran away to join them like Ultra Boy. Maybe they're stonewalling Mon from using the crest of his bloodline because he is of Daxamite heritage? Maybe it's New Krypton's way of getting back at the galaxy for turning its back on them when old Krypton died. You let our world die without lifting a finger? Fine. You don't have our blessing to use the crest of our most famous house.

Dang, maybe Bendis is going to do his version of the New Krypton war, but set it in the 31st century?

It's also worth noting that when Jon brings up the idea of being in a bottle city, every other member of the team on the page chants "long live Kandor" almost like a prayer. So there's some continued reverence for Krypton in the greater galaxy, but, oddly, still no New Krypton Kryptonian representative on the Legion.

Very fascinated by this.

[dietrich]

Damian clearly has issues. It might be just be starting thread to solve it. 5G and supersons of tomorrow, both touch on future damian plot line. I hope this isn't just a throwaway line. It needs to be expanded. Jon going nuclear is the reason, He went to space as well.

Damian has issues but being a hero isn't one of them.

5g says he needs his sister's help which could mean anything.
Supersons of Tomorrow is a story by an unreliable narrator that has future Tim saying how Damian bunt down Gotham and did whatever to Jon but what we see is Tim blowing up Gotham and Tim trying to kill Jon. The only thing we know for facts about that Damian is that he gave up his soul in exchange for the safety of the people of Gotham.

I'm sick of some writers trying to do the Robin who turns bad with all the Robins. Enough already. I don't buy a kid who gave his life twice to save others suddenly going bad especially when that kid choose the hero path even when all odds were stacked against him.

Maybe they are confusing Damian with the Robin who worked wit a fascist and was trying to set up a police state.

How come Damian suddenly inherited Rebirth Tec RR's and TOT's Batman's history?
We also know that Damian's current crisis is due to the JL losing a planet. Something they've all moved on from but which Damian can't live with.