The Future of Legion of Super Heroes Franchise & The Bendis Problem

[CaptCleghorn]

It was called the KOOKY Quartet.

Totally changes the content of the post.

But weren't the old versions of the Legion set in the 30th century? This series was set in the 31st, it wouldn't have affected the previous versions if he said the current ones were namesake grandchildren of, say, the post-Zero Hour Legion.

The Legion has always had the 1,000 years in the future focus. I mention this an awful lot, but that leads to shifting timelines as the year itself changes with real time. Start the Legion in the year 3247 and stick with that. 1,000 or 1,200+ years when talking about speculative future fiction doesn't matter much. No more sliding timelines and the year is a nod to longtime Legion history.

[Thor-Ul]

I *think* Thor-Ul was being sarcastic and calling back to those inevitable posters who say that the Legion would totally work if it was set in the modern day, and had a much smaller team, and they didn't have silly names, and *wasn't the Legion at all,* but just another Justice League wannabe.

You got me, Sutekh.

[Dataweaver]

Old Legion, when last published, was entering into the 31st century, I believe.
Of course, there's still a lot of century left after 3012... They could've picked up in the 3060s or the 3070s and just moved the scale from '1000 years in the future' to '1050 years in the future'.
That would probably be too hard to remember, though...

Maybe '2000 years in the future' would be better.
That way they can drop all the conventions of the Legion that writers feel restrained by: the Legion Constitution, United Planets, Science Police, Interlac, Legion Flight Rings, Legion Academy, the planets and races that have been thoroughly defined...

Eh. If you go too far into the future, it's not the Legion of Superheroes anymore. I wouldn't even push it a century further; I like the original Legionnaires enough that I'd want them available for cameos: mentors for the new team, or UP officials, or back home raising families, or out adventuring on their own, depending on the individual former Legionnaire.

Importantly, don't drop all of the conventions of the Legion that writers “feel constrained by”; just move things forward a generation (20 years should do it), and allow things to have naturally evolved a bit — but not so much that everything's utterly unrecognizable.

That's a Legion of Superheroes that I could get behind.

Edit: another possibility would be to retcon the dates so that Clark's Legion was in the late 30th/early 31st century (i.e., 980 years from now), and that the next generation (Jon's Legion) is 1000 years from now.

[Sutekh]

Importantly, don't drop all of the conventions of the Legion that writers “feel constrained by”; just move things forward a generation (20 years should do it), and allow things to have naturally evolved a bit — but not so much that everything's utterly unrecognizable.

That's a Legion of Superheroes that I could get behind.

It's interesting that, as time went on, *many* of the classic Legionnaires had good landing points if one wanted to retire them from the Legion. Garth and Imra got child-rearing to do. Rokk, Lu and Chuck have all worked as teachers / headmasters at the Legion Academy. Nura is in line to be the next High Seer of Naltor. Tasmia is going to have to go home and be Shadow Champion eventually. Same with Thom as the planetary champion of Xanthu. Jeckie should *probably* get around to ruling Orando again. Mysa is already back on the Sorcerer's World. Etc.

It would take minimal logical progression to move Reep into running Brande industries and off of the active team, Dirk into running Morgna industries (something happens to dad?), Tinya into politics following in the footsteps of her mom, Jo back to Rimbor to try to tame that gang-riddled world, Brainy to Colu to try and get their **** together, etc., etc. And so there could be a logical reason why so many of 'the old guard' aren't readily available for day to day missions, and there's a newer younger team of Legionnaires taking up the Flight Rings.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Really? Is that true or it is speculation? I didn't hear that podcast, but there are something than can be a clear explanation or is just an extrapolation from your side?

I couldn't tell you exactly which interview it was, but it was definitely one of his lengthy Word Balloon interviews after it was announced that Bendis was doing the Legion. He specifically stated that he was setting his series in the 32nd Century so that he wouldn't be invalidating any of the previous LSH comics and name-checked Waid's LSH in particular. He was extremely adamant about it at the time.

[Dataweaver]

I couldn't tell you exactly which interview it was, but it was definitely one of his lengthy Word Balloon interviews after it was announced that Bendis was doing the Legion. He specifically stated that he was setting his series in the 32nd Century so that he wouldn't be invalidating any of the previous LSH comics and name-checked Waid's LSH in particular. He was extremely adamant about it at the time.

Hopefully with the change in management, he might be getting another shot at doing so. Though again, I don't think we need a full century added to the date; even a mere 20 years would suffice.

[Thor-Ul]

I couldn't tell you exactly which interview it was, but it was definitely one of his lengthy Word Balloon interviews after it was announced that Bendis was doing the Legion. He specifically stated that he was setting his series in the 32nd Century so that he wouldn't be invalidating any of the previous LSH comics and name-checked Waid's LSH in particular. He was extremely adamant about it at the time.

Well, he could had all the intention, but he did exactly all the opposite thing: he invalidated the previous Legions, affirming there was no previous Legion and then he set his reboot in the same time as the Legion always has been. I don't know if it was because he changed idea or if the editorial forced him to do it. Maybe someday we will know, but what it was printed it was not what he said he would do, in that interview at least.

Hopefully with the change in management, he might be getting another shot at doing so. Though again, I don't think we need a full century added to the date; even a mere 20 years would suffice.

No, thanks. Bendis is better stick to Checkmate and urban and spy stories and that will keep him far from the Legion. he already made enough damage.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Well, he could had all the intention, but he did exactly all the opposite thing: he invalidated the previous Legions, affirming there was no previous Legion and then he set his reboot in the same time as the Legion always has been. I don't know if it was because he changed idea or if the editorial forced him to do it. Maybe someday we will know, but what it was printed it was not what he said he would do, in that interview at least.

It's possible Bendis simply changed his mind, but given how clear he was about not invalidating the previous incarnations of the LSH, it seems more likely that Didio mandated the reboot. And, since DC is under new editorial management in which all past stories are canon again, I think it's only a matter of time until someone confirms it.

[Thor-Ul]

It's possible Bendis simply changed his mind, but given how clear he was about not invalidating the previous incarnations of the LSH, it seems more likely that Didio mandated the reboot.

That is an hypotesis I prefer to support. DiDio was the mind behind of several reboots and it is not misguided to suppose he was behind this last reboot too.

And, since DC is under new editorial management in which all past stories are canon again, I think it's only a matter of time until someone confirms it.

Mmm...I wonder if this new management it was what affected the periodicity of the Legion title right now.

[Lee Stone]

Importantly, don't drop all of the conventions of the Legion that writers “feel constrained by”; just move things forward a generation (20 years should do it), and allow things to have naturally evolved a bit — but not so much that everything's utterly unrecognizable.

That's a Legion of Superheroes that I could get behind.

I wouldn't want them to dump all the stuff that makes the Legion the Legion, either.
However, it seems like the only way to get people who won't stay with the book longer than a few months to pick up an issue. Because it's too full of stuff that is associated with the Legion.
They don't want to read that Legion. They want a new DC superhero team set in the future that they can get attached to, like most of us did in the '80s, '90s and 2000s. They just want it at the expense of the Legion. That's all.

They could've named the Bendis' Legion 'Superboy's Galactic Enforcers' or something spiffy, and the same readers that are reading it now would likely still be reading it. Because they're almost surely not buying it for the Legion.
They're most likely buying it for Bendis and this new team.
I would wager that most readers that picked it up for the Legion, with no interest in Bendis, has probably already dropped it. Because it's not for them, and was never intended for them.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Mmm...I wonder if this new management it was what affected the periodicity of the Legion title right now.

I think it had more to do with losing Ryan Sook on art and taking a break to let the TPBs start building up a wider audience for the relaunch.

[HsssH]

They could've named the Bendis' Legion 'Superboy's Galactic Enforcers' or something spiffy, and the same readers that are reading it now would likely still be reading it. Because they're almost surely not buying it for the Legion.
They're most likely buying it for Bendis and this new team.
I would wager that most readers that picked it up for the Legion, with no interest in Bendis, has probably already dropped it. Because it's not for them, and was never intended for them.

I wonder how that actually would have worked out. Remember when during New 52 we got Justice League 3000 and later 3001? I remember lots of angry fans complaining that DC is publishing this instead of Legion.

[Lee Stone]

I wonder how that actually would have worked out. Remember when during New 52 we got Justice League 3000 and later 3001? I remember lots of angry fans complaining that DC is publishing this instead of Legion.

It would be about the same result as JL 3000 with the about the same result as Bendis Legion.
You’d just be swapping out the readers that came on board for Legion with the readers that came on board for JLI.

JL 3000 would probably have been able to avoid that comparison if DC was publishing a Legion book also.

Bendis Legion gets the comparisons twofold, because DC tagged it with the Legion name and it’s the only Legion type book being published.
If it was called Superboy’s Space Buddies it would sell about the same, and lose about half the negative reactions.
It wouldn’t have the Legion name any longer, but it would still be compared to the Legion because there would still be no Legion book being published.

JL 3000 is like DC letting Batman lapse into obscurity and then putting out Crimson Avenger instead of bringing him back.

Bendis Legion is like DC letting Batman continue to dwell in limbo and then putting out a Batman comic, with Man-Bat being called Batman.

[bearman]

Sort of off topic…at the time, I was hoping the JL 3000 Batman would be Dick… the intervening centuries having mixed up the legends…

[Thor-Ul]

I wonder how that actually would have worked out. Remember when during New 52 we got Justice League 3000 and later 3001? I remember lots of angry fans complaining that DC is publishing this instead of Legion.

That because the Legion always had been the future of the DC universe, it is part of the landscape of DC. Erase them is like to move the x-men to another earth in Marvel.

And as Lee Stone explained, they tried to appeal to JLI readers. Also, it came with the whole "Legion of earth 2" confusion, as if the JL300 was now the real future. But the more you were reading JL3000, the more you understand than it was anything but the future of the main earth or any earth at all or from any era in particular. Giffen and DeMatteis did everything they thought and threw it there.

Even a zombie Legion.