Legion of Super-Heroes Appreciation Thread 2024

[kcekada]

I've always compared the Legion to the X-Men more than any other franchise. Although it never quite reached the levels of the X-Men, the Legion had a very fervent fan following and was very successful in the Silver Age, early 70s and early 80s. I will say that DC mismanaged the property to the degree where it is unlikely to ever be as successful again. But it should look the success of the X-Men as a template for what to do going forward.

NO MORE REBOOTS!

Add new characters and keep the membership slightly fluid. Look into characters' past, upgrade powers where needed (the Silver Age female mostly got the shaft in that regard -- but I like that Duo Damsel became Duplicate Damsel, and think Night Girl needs to overcome that vulnerability to artificial light). Well, I have lot of specific ideas, but I think any writer worth a grain of salt who is interested in revising the title could come up with stories that were engaging. That's where Levitz failed on his last run. And to be honest, Bendis had the same problem.

[Sutekh]

I've always compared the Legion to the X-Men more than any other franchise. Although it never quite reached the levels of the X-Men, the Legion had a very fervent fan following and was very successful in the Silver Age, early 70s and early 80s. I will say that DC mismanaged the property to the degree where it is unlikely to ever be as successful again. But it should look the success of the X-Men as a template for what to do going forward.

NO MORE REBOOTS!

But it keeps on failing! Doesn't that mean you are supposed to lower your head and charge the wall *yet again* until it does?

Add new characters and keep the membership slightly fluid. Look into characters' past, upgrade powers where needed (the Silver Age female mostly got the shaft in that regard -- but I like that Duo Damsel became Duplicate Damsel, and think Night Girl needs to overcome that vulnerability to artificial light). Well, I have lot of specific ideas, but I think any writer worth a grain of salt who is interested in revising the title could come up with stories that were engaging. That's where Levitz failed on his last run. And to be honest, Bendis had the same problem.

While I wasn't thrilled with a lot about the Threeboot, Shooter (IIRC?) re-introduced Night Girl and had her able to use her powers under artificial lighting, it seemed to mostly be sunlight that canceled out her strength, which would at least open her up to a lot more utility inside, underground, etc. not just 'at night' or 'in total darkness.'

Alternately her super-strength could be soft-retconned to be enhancing her strength with some sort of tangible darkness the same sort of way that Conner used to 'fake' super-strength with his tactile telekinesis. If that got amped up to being able to shroud herself in an exoskeleton of 'dark armor' that could move Night Girl into a different sort of direction than just another super-strong Legionnaire.

The Legion setting has *tons* of 'adjacent' characters who never quite made prime-time who could be focused on, like Lamprey, Crystal Kid and Nightwind, etc. as well as newer characters who could be fleshed out, like the sorcerer's world character Harlack (a Khundish magician, and friend of Gloriths), or one-off characters introduced all throughout the Legion's rich history, like those other heroes trapped on the prison planet during the Universo Project, like Silver Sword and Xera of Manna-5. I'd be intrigued by a Legion title that had different teams of five to eight characters running in short mini-arcs, maybe an issue, maybe a half-dozen issues, at most, each introducing one or two new characters (instead of a whole batch of newbies at once!), making it feel like the Legion is indeed, an actual Legion, with *dozens* of members, that almost never have to 'all hands on deck' and summon the entire membership, from all over the United Planets, to fight any one threat.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

I'm going to post a possibly controversial opinion: Night Girl just doesn't need to become a Legionnaire. Her power (super-strength) is redundant several times over, and her limitation (it fizzles out in the light) is really the only interesting thing about it. And every suggestion I've ever seen about getting around it is basically a violation of the rule against powers dependent on external sources. Honestly, if she weren't involved with Cosmic Boy, I doubt many people would care about her.

[M@Bowers2014]

I'm going to post a possibly controversial opinion: Night Girl just doesn't need to become a Legionnaire. Her power (super-strength) is redundant several times over, and her limitation (it fizzles out in the light) is really the only interesting thing about it. And every suggestion I've ever seen about getting around it is basically a violation of the rule against powers dependent on external sources. Honestly, if she weren't involved with Cosmic Boy, I doubt many people would care about her.

Well she has already been a Legionnaire so it's a little too late to stop her from becoming a member. That happened in 2007. Also I love her regardless of her connection to Cosmic Boy and love that she finally was able to join the team.

[marhawkman]

Well she has already been a Legionnaire so it's a little too late to stop her from becoming a member. That happened in 2007. Also I love her regardless of her connection to Cosmic Boy and love that she finally was able to join the team.

I kinda liked having her as a reservist they don't have full-time, but have as backup when they need it.

[Sandy Hausler]

Well, that version, the Post ZH Reboot Legion, is my favorite version of the team, however, THEY were not inspired by the Legend of Superboy, but by the Age of Heroes of the 20th/21st Century, and by the Legend of Valor, the World Seeder. I actually prefer the distancing from the Superman Family. IMHO, it helps make the LSH stand out on it's own (however, I don't have anything per say against the more traditional Legion history. I've been a huge fan of the group ever since the mid-70's).



There are many Legion artists I really love, however, despite how brief it was, Dave Cockrum's run is still, arguably, my all-time favorite. LOVED most of the redesigns.

Peace

I am SO with you on that. Coming right after Cockram, I thought Mike Grell was a terrible artist.

[GreyFox]

It is interesting to see at least 2 people liking the post Zero Hour legion in this thread, in the same page where another poster wants them to be wiped out even from alternate universe existence, except for a few characters to steal.

I sometimes wonder if someone should start a start a separate appreciation thread for the reboot and threeboot, because they get little to none in this one, or the ones from previous years.

[M@Bowers2014]

It is interesting to see at least 2 people liking the post Zero Hour legion in this thread, in the same page where another poster wants them to be wiped out even from alternate universe existence, except for a few characters to steal.

I sometimes wonder if someone should start a start a separate appreciation thread for the reboot and threeboot, because they get little to none in this one, or the ones from previous years.

The Reboot was really good overall until it wasn't. I was really angry about it at first but it won me over really quickly. By the time it became the Archie Legion I found myself still buying both books but not really reading them. Then DNA and Coipel came out of nowhere and made the Legion interesting again. The Threeboot really pissed me off honestly. But I still gave it a chance and was really put off by so much of it. At the end of the first year I realized that I had very little memories of those 12 issues and dropped it. Seems like I gave it another chance when it became Supergirl and the Legion but don't really remember any of those stories either. When Shooter came back I too came back to mixed results. It was definitely way more interesting than what had come before with the Threeboot but that's not saying much. I was more than thrilled when it was gone and Geoff Johns brought back the classic team.

[Sutekh]

At the end of the first year I realized that I had very little memories of those 12 issues and dropped it. Seems like I gave it another chance when it became Supergirl and the Legion but don't really remember any of those stories either.

It was joked at the time that there was a certain irony that the 'big bad' of the first Threeboot arc was a guy who had the super-power to be forgotten (Praetor Lemnos), since so much of that run was forgettable.

[kcekada]

There are definitely good things to be said about the Reboot -- even the Threeboot, but since both were temporary, they are less unlikely to come up in an appreciation thread. Most of us who were around for the original Legion liked many aspects of Reboot and would like to see characters created for that version find their way into a new series that used the original team. Kinetix was a very interesting character -- even though I'd guess she was loosely based on Life Lass who had similar powers. I did not like Sensor. Sensor Girl quickly became a fan favorite in the 80s before essentially being ignored in the 5YL run. So it was annoying that when the character was finally brought back -- she was a sentient snake.

[Sutekh]

There are definitely good things to be said about the Reboot -- even the Threeboot, but since both were temporary, they are less unlikely to come up in an appreciation thread. Most of us who were around for the original Legion liked many aspects of Reboot and would like to see characters created for that version find their way into a new series that used the original team. Kinetix was a very interesting character -- even though I'd guess she was loosely based on Life Lass who had similar powers. I did not like Sensor. Sensor Girl quickly became a fan favorite in the 80s before essentially being ignored in the 5YL run. So it was annoying that when the character was finally brought back -- she was a sentient snake.

Sensor Girl was an odd choice, since she'd been so interestingly adapted in the 'recent past.'

There seemed a fair number of Legionnaires who hadn't gotten too much development (and certainly not much *recent* development) that they could have tweaked in that manner, like Invisible Lyle or Chemical King. OTOH, I wasn't a fan of the arm-less snake in general, preferring aliens who don't need assistive technology to open a jar, like Gates or Tellus.

But gosh, I loved Kid Quantum 2's whole everything, and Gates' ascerbic personality, and Monstress' bubbly upbeat personality. I'd love to see some 'classic' continuity versions of some of these great Reboot characters (or even some of the Threeboot additions, like Gazelle, Theena, Turtle, Dream Boy, etc.), rather than see Garth and Imra and Brainy and Jo and Violet 5.0.

I *love* me some OG Legionnaires like Phantom Girl and Shadow Lass and Ultra Boy (some of my favorite 'classic' Legionnaires), but am more than willing to see them move aside for some of the fresher faces like Tellus, or even some of the even more 'newbies' like Glorith and Dragonwing.

[marhawkman]

ooooh Gazelle was fun! Sizzle was weird but also good.

[kcekada]

I *love* me some OG Legionnaires like Phantom Girl and Shadow Lass and Ultra Boy (some of my favorite 'classic' Legionnaires), but am more than willing to see them move aside for some of the fresher faces like Tellus, or even some of the even more 'newbies' like Glorith and Dragonwing.

I always preferred Phantom Girl, Shadow Lass and Ultra Boy to the kinda dull founding members (Lightning Lad being the exception).

[signalman112]

Some of these retro-mock covers are really cool.

PhantomGirl.jpg

[kcekada]

It's ironic how futuristic I thought PG's outfit was in the early 70s -- not realizing it was based on MOD fashion of the late 60s.