Quote Originally Posted by mathew101281 View Post
But aren’t most superhero stories really separated from reality? I agree with the names though. (Apparition is a cooler name then Phantom Lass) then again I’ve always felt the hippie sexy Legion of the 70’s was better then slot of the darker stuff that came after.
Maybe the fact that people don't seem to know that her name is "Phantom Girl" is also a problem.

As far as the "super-goofy" aspect of anything, I think people are just fixating on a minor part of the Legion. Same with the large cast and long history. The writers need to take time with the introductions, but they often don't and just skip to the "good stuff" without laying the proper foundation.

GI Joe has a large cast with goofy names, and it does just fine. The large cast and the specifically-descriptive names are part of the appeal of Legion, GI Joe, and, to a lesser degree, X-Men.

The mandate that the Legion had to be disconnected from the Superman line and the constant reboots/retoolings -- beginning with 5 Years Later is what hurt the Legion. Trying to repair it now is too little, too late -- especially when the current Legion isn't one anyone had ever seen before. There's no reason for an old fan to come back to form a fanbase-foundation for the series to build upon.

Also, some writers are too fanboyish with the team and either lean too heavily into Silver Age goofiness or try to go the other way too dramatically and make the team too edgy or try to make too much social commentary.

At its best, the Legion was really just a straightforward superhero series that just happened to take place in the future. Writers shouldn't really add too much on top of that. That's when the series starts to feel remote and unrelatable.