My Silly Idea: Legion of Super-Heroes, Generation II

[ducklord]

I do think that if you show the next generation as heroes, you also should have some who do not follow that path.

Aside from the notion that some of the children should be civilians, which is totally valid, at least one of them should go bad. For reasons that I can't properly explain, I always felt as though Mon-El's and Tasmia's son should embrace the dark side... so to speak.

[John Venus]

I think you would need to establish the main Legion members first and build a strong foundation before you do next generation characters. That's hard to do when there are 3-4 different Legions.

I still think something like the Legion Academy and the 'Legion of Substitute Heroes' is the best shot at reviving the Legion.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

I've always found the idea that being a Legionnaire will qualify one to become a planetary leader to be ridiculous, elitist nonsense. Fighting the Fatal Five, Mordru, and the Legion of Super-Villains teaches you absolutely NONE of the skills needed to navigate the job of dog catcher, let alone rule an entire planet. There is no way in hell Ultra Boy is going to be the leader of Rimbor, for instance. He's a muscle-bound doofus.

[ducklord]

I've always found the idea that being a Legionnaire will qualify one to become a planetary leader to be ridiculous, elitist nonsense. Fighting the Fatal Five, Mordru, and the Legion of Super-Villains teaches you absolutely NONE of the skills needed to navigate the job of dog catcher, let alone rule an entire planet. There is no way in hell Ultra Boy is going to be the leader of Rimbor, for instance. He's a muscle-bound doofus.

Oh, totally, most of those guys shouldn't be anywhere near the reins of planetary power, even if they were elected Legion Leader by fanboys at one point or another.

Legionnaires Who Can Plausibly Do Big Government/Business Things as they Get Older
Saturn Girl
Cosmic Boy (although he'd *much* more likely be running Legion Academies and whatnot)
Chameleon Boy (he runs Brande's businesses pretty well in 5YL)
Brainiac 5 (if not tactfully)
Princess Projectra (I mean, it's right there in the name)
Tenzil Kem (he's a Senator!)
Jacques Foccart and Tyroc (going by 5YL)
Dream Girl (High Seer and all that)

Everyone else, they're going to have to find other hobbies in their golden years.

[caj]

Oh, totally, most of those guys shouldn't be anywhere near the reins of planetary power, even if they were elected Legion Leader by fanboys at one point or another.

Legionnaires Who Can Plausibly Do Big Government/Business Things as they Get Older
Saturn Girl
Cosmic Boy (although he'd *much* more likely be running Legion Academies and whatnot)
Chameleon Boy (he runs Brande's businesses pretty well in 5YL)
Brainiac 5 (if not tactfully)
Princess Projectra (I mean, it's right there in the name)
Tenzil Kem (he's a Senator!)
Jacques Foccart and Tyroc (going by 5YL)
Dream Girl (High Seer and all that)

Everyone else, they're going to have to find other hobbies in their golden years.

Colossal Boy's mother was Earth President so it's possible he would posess some of her qualities.

[ducklord]

Colossal Boy's mother was Earth President so it's possible he would posess some of her qualities.

I swear, even though I know the classic Legion inside and out, I *always* forget that Colossal Boy even exists.

And seriously, not being able to tell the difference between "girl I've been crushing on forever and a Durlan infiltrator" is a big red flag as far as "smart enough to run a government" goes. I mean, Gim's not Timber Wolf dim, but ouch.

PS While not a huge fan of the Bendis Legion, I heartily approve of turning Colossal Boy into a native from a planet of giants.

[Thor-Ul]

Oh, totally, most of those guys shouldn't be anywhere near the reins of planetary power, even if they were elected Legion Leader by fanboys at one point or another.

Legionnaires Who Can Plausibly Do Big Government/Business Things as they Get Older
Saturn Girl
Cosmic Boy (although he'd *much* more likely be running Legion Academies and whatnot)
Chameleon Boy (he runs Brande's businesses pretty well in 5YL)
Brainiac 5 (if not tactfully)
Princess Projectra (I mean, it's right there in the name)
Tenzil Kem (he's a Senator!)
Jacques Foccart and Tyroc (going by 5YL)
Dream Girl (High Seer and all that)

Everyone else, they're going to have to find other hobbies in their golden years.

Brainiac wpould never become a planetary leader. that would take himtime from his laboratory. No way.

I guess several legionnaries would had gone in more personal or small endeavours, than follow their parents footsteps and one or two still playing the superhero game.
Also not everyone could have childfren. For example, I see Dawnstar and Wildfire adopting children, for example.

[Thor-Ul]

I've always found the idea that being a Legionnaire will qualify one to become a planetary leader to be ridiculous, elitist nonsense. Fighting the Fatal Five, Mordru, and the Legion of Super-Villains teaches you absolutely NONE of the skills needed to navigate the job of dog catcher, let alone rule an entire planet. There is no way in hell Ultra Boy is going to be the leader of Rimbor, for instance. He's a muscle-bound doofus.

Jo Nah was a lot more smarter than everyone could think. But you are right about him not being leader of Rimbor (Hear that Bendis!!??), but the leader of a small gang causing troubles to the corrupt goverment of Rimbor, can be something more plausible.

[Thor-Ul]

PS While not a huge fan of the Bendis Legion, I heartily approve of turning Colossal Boy into a native from a planet of giants.

You could say you took the idea from the Threeboot era.

[Jim Kelly]

I think the idea of the Adult Legion back in the day was always in the back of your mind with the current Legion.
The idea that eventually it would change, become something different. You couldn't count on the members
being there many years in the future. It created a dose of reality that often is missing from comics. I know that
many around here don't care for the romances, but to me the idea of heroes eventually evolving into grownup
people is deeply appealing.

My introduction to the Legion was the Adult Legion in Jim Shooter's classic story. And not in the first part of the story in ADVENTURE COMICS 354 (March 1967) but the second part in ADVENTURE COMICS 255 (April 1967)--well, it had Superman on the cover and on that day I was keen to find any comics in the drugstore that had Superman on the cover. But having that story as my first impression of the team, it's always influenced how I see them and why I want the team to keep going forward.

Tenzil Kem was actually the President of Bismoll in that "Adult Legion" tale--so becoming a senator was just a stepping stone to greater things.

[ducklord]

My introduction to the Legion was the Adult Legion in Jim Shooter's classic story. And not in the first part of the story in ADVENTURE COMICS 354 (March 1967) but the second part in ADVENTURE COMICS 255 (April 1967)--well, it had Superman on the cover and on that day I was keen to find any comics in the drugstore that had Superman on the cover. But having that story as my first impression of the team, it's always influenced how I see them and why I want the team to keep going forward.

Tenzil Kem was actually the President of Bismoll in that "Adult Legion" tale--so becoming a senator was just a stepping stone to greater things.

Free from the tethers of the neverchanging now, the Legion always moved slowly forward. Characters aged, got married, had kids, and the deaths stuck. It was a *great* ongoing space/soap opera. That's why I loved it. Superboy/Girl Crisis shenanigans aside, it never really NEEDED a reboot. All it had to do was keep moving forward.

As far as President Kem goes, my impression is that the entire planet of Bosmoll is somewhat insane. They did turn the government over to a bunch of Computos once, y'know.

[Jim Kelly]

As I recall, Tenzil was drafted into being a senator. So government work was like military service on Bismoll. It's not something you chose, it was something you did out of duty. So President Kem probably got into office not through his own choosing but through bureaucratic selection. Which seems more sensible.

[ducklord]

As I recall, Tenzil was drafted into being a senator. So government work was like military service on Bismoll. It's not something you chose, it was something you did out of duty. So President Kem probably got into office not through his own choosing but through bureaucratic selection. Which seems more sensible.

That sounds about right. Still, the whole planet seems a bit daft.

[Sutekh]

Free from the tethers of the neverchanging now, the Legion always moved slowly forward. Characters aged, got married, had kids, and the deaths stuck. It was a *great* ongoing space/soap opera. That's why I loved it. Superboy/Girl Crisis shenanigans aside, it never really NEEDED a reboot. All it had to do was keep moving forward.

The 80s were decent about change. Legionnaires aged and married and retired. Robin became Nightwing. Batman quit the Justice League and formed his own team of Outsiders. Wally West took over the mantle of Flash after the death of Barry Allen. Etc.

Still, fans grow up and become creators, and some of them want to write stories for the characters that were popular when *they* were kids, and so the reset button gets a workout. :/

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

The 80s were decent about change. Legionnaires aged and married and retired. Robin became Nightwing. Batman quit the Justice League and formed his own team of Outsiders. Wally West took over the mantle of Flash after the death of Barry Allen. Etc.

Still, fans grow up and become creators, and some of them want to write stories for the characters that were popular when *they* were kids, and so the reset button gets a workout. :/

It's not even about "stories for the characters that were popular when *they* were kids" sometimes as it is "prioritizing the era they read when they were kids." The Bierbaums' preferred era for the Legion was the late 60's-early 70's. Levitz respected the past but didn't stay beholden to it. The Bierbaums and Giffen frequently reversed, undid, and/or destroyed much of Levitz's work, including characters and concepts introduced and character development, in the Bierbaums case (and by their own admission) because they felt Levitz strayed too far from their preferred era. See the complete reversal of Projectra's character development from Sensor Girl back to being Queen of Orando, or reverting Polar Boy back to being a leader of characters with inadequate-to-useless powers; the whole "Ultra Boy is actually very intelligent and merely pretening to be dumb" was a refutation of Levitz's later-years portrayal of Ultra Boy as a doofus, and their use of Matter-Eater Lad was a refutation of Levitz's refusal to use him at all.