14
May
My only possible response to learning that DC is cancelling Legion of Super-Heroes
Posted by MGK Published in ComicsSearch
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37 users responded in this post
I don’t think it could be said better, really.
Also, I figure they’ll be back in less than a decade. And probably rebooted again, for better or worse.
Oh, they’re cancelling the Legion? What? Again?
At least until they restart it yet again.
My exposure to the Legion stuff hasn’t left me terribly impressed. I think it’s one of those take it or leave it books with not much space in between.
So is this like some sort of Legion of Superheros clip show memorial?
Didn’t you say that the Nu52 Legion wasn’t very good? Why are we mourning its cancelation?
Wait, Karate Kid was actually canonically Asian at one point? Damn you DC and your regressive whitewashing!
(He -is- supposed to be drawn like Bruce Lee in that one panel, right? Otherwise I’ll just look foolish)
Well it looks like they are setting up some form of L.E.G.I.O.N. or R.E.B.E.L.S. in Threshold so that might fill the gap.
Then again, Threshold is also getting cancelled.
(Also, what issues are these from? Papa wants to start up a collection!)
Wait… Universo is HIS father, too?!
Also: Why isn’t Gotham City listed in that one panel with the big explosion, the one with all the major city names? Did something happen to it before then? Did they just forget?
By the 31st century, Gotham is district of Metropolis, which is so large that it also has absorbed New York City, Boston, and other 21st century cities.
Question: DC approaches you to take over the Legion now that it’s cancelled. Do you do it, knowing that you’ll have to deal with all their terrible editorial interference that the New52 is being plagued with?
(sniff)
Some darn good books in there.
I’d say I read about 80% of them.
LLL
Long live the Legion.
I have never read any Legion but now I really want to!
I’m with Cookie
The last incarnation of the Legion that I acctively followed was Waid’s. When he left, I just couldn’t get into what followed. I’d try here and there but it just didn’t click for me.
Awhile back, though, I did reread Giffen’s “Shattered Legion” series and found it much better than I’d remembered. There was just something fun about it that I hadn’t caught at the time.
The Legion will return. Some things just can’t be kept down for long.
So, Christopher . . . complete reboot, or one of the three established continuities? And let me know if you’re in New York when DC Comics calls you in. Toronto’s been a fun city for me to visit, and maybe I could buy you lunch or something.
The Legion will return. Some things just can’t be kept down for long.
And there is the truth. After all this time, the Legion has a life of it’s own, even if they aren’t releasing more of it monthly or yearly.
And let’s face it, the nu52 version (both of them) just plain sucked. I’ve been a Legion fan almost as long as I’ve been an X-Men fan (since I learned to read) and I couldn’t be bothered reading this version for free.
They’ll be back, likely within a few years, five at the most, is my bet.
And until then, they live on in our hearts.
Long Live the Legion!
This is lovely. Thanks for making it.
I couldn’t in good conscience work for DC at this point if I was guaranteed editorial freedom for a given number of years.
DC’s mishandling of the Legion after all the goddamn hard work Geoff Johns did to make them a presence in the DCU is ridiculous.
Biggest problem? DC effectively SHRANK their Universe when they relaunched the nu52 and turned away from the more traditional comic book(y) elements in favor of more modern and “realistic” story elements.
Doesn’t help that the umpteenth reboot of Superman’s origin means that the Legion’s biggest connection the mainstream present DC has to be restablished (and for whatever reason, DC didn’t feel that the Legion’s connection to Superman was worth focusing on too much this go around, odd considering how much effort they went to push the Legion into the Superman family only a few years ago).
I actually gave you a real life fist pump for the final image on this post. I know that wasn’t everybody’s favorite Legion or the most popular but when the books were firing on all cylinders they could really do some great comics.
I’m not surprised that Legion is being cancelled. It’s been staggering around for at least the last ten years. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge Legion fan and I have nearly the entire run for three decades. I just haven’t cared for the book recently. Going from the darkening of the title right before Legion Lost, to the “We hate Grown Ups” version, to the Johns/Levitz reboot, all of those turned me off. I haven’t read any of New 52 version (partially because it’s carries on the Johns/Levitz version), but Went a new series comes out, I’ll try it.
Sadly, my father was merely Fathero. Sigh.
A2H, they established back in the 1970s that Karate Kid’s father had been a Japanese supervillain, the Black Dragon; his mother was American (I think). And yes, Mike Grell deliberately drew him to look like Bruce Lee (an earlier version by Grell when KK still had his original costume looked a lot like David Carradine, I think).
Sad, even though I haven’t been buying them since the post-ZH reboot. Fortunately that still leaves me 30 years of back issues in my collection which I’m enjoying rereading.
Brainiac 5 is such a unique and powerful character.
Oh,why are they cancelling? Too bad
I hate to say it, but this was a mercy killing.
Totally agree with KD that Geoff Johns did great work resurrecting a viable model of the Legion, which DC then did its best to ignore.
And the few clips from the Waid “threeboot” remind me why I couldn’t stand that version. (Brainy as raging asshole is sadly unavoidable now, especially when Waid’s writing, but Cham cracking a joke about killing him? For being an asshole? Really?)
I hope DC lets the Legion lie fallow for a while. The franchise has been killed by the constant rebooting–every time somebody like Abnett & Lanning or Johns does the yeoman’s work of rebuilding the franchise, somebody else comes along and wipes it clean within a few years. Better not to publish it at all until they have a clear direction and a stable creative team.
Which is to say, given the current editorial regime at DC, better not to publish it at all.
I love the Legion a lot, but it is clear why it isn’t resonating anymore, and hasn’t for some time. It is built on the idea of a utopian future that has fallen out of fashion and the characters and stories are trapped in a 1950’s view of the universe, featuring technology built on a 1950’s view of the future. And it just doesn’t resonate. No matter how interesting the characters and stories are, they are no longer able to overcome their outdated origin. Outside of a core of readers, the very premise is no longer captivating for the average comic book reader. ‘5 Years Later’ gleefully set about destroying that utopianism, but with the end goal of rebuilding, which pretty much contered the point of doing it in the first place. I loved the Legion, but for it to be resurrected, it probably needs a strong reimagining to reflect today’s future, and needs to make sure that fans of it never get their hands on it again to inevitably undo what needs to be done.
Maybe the Legion could get tips from Star Trek on how to adapt and survive?
Glad I’m not the only one who misses the 5YG/TMK Legion. Say what you will about the stories themselves, there certainly was a lot of it packed into those 9 panel grids. Once Giffen left, the book degenerated into fairy generic 90s superhero stuff, with a sci-fi patina.
While I’m at it, you can mark me down as a fan of the post-Zero Hour reboot Legion. I think it tried to tread a fine line between creating something new while keeping it exactly the same, and didn’t always work. The extended 20th century/alternate reality plotlines didn’t help.
@darren K
thats an excellent point. Funny you mentioned that Unstoppable grey mentioned the Star Trek point because when I originally saw the trailer for 09 Star Trek? I said “shit thats how a Legion movie should look”. Epic as fuck with young attractive 20 somethings taking on shit that people twice their age probably couldn’t handle. Nu trek imo hit the theme of ” Ragtag band of Youth taking on huge responsibilities/fighting evil in bright shiny future” among others, why thats a hard concept to sell is a good question; given how successful NuTrek has been.
The next incarnation of the Phoenix has already been lain since the “Legion” will come back as the Justice Legion soon. Now only is the New 52 now short by 4 series, but they managed to kill off several Legionnaires to help shrink the Legion down to League size…..As you might suspect, the Legion aficionado are not happy already!!!
“Once upon a time, history was made on the battlefield. Heroes chose to fight for justice… for honor… for glory and for faith… for survival. And, in time, all the fighting was done. With the help of interstellar alliances, the Earth entered a millennium of utopian peace. Now, at the dawn of the 31st century, all we, our parents, and their parents have ever known is security, stability, and order. We’re so sick of it, we could scream. And we are LEGION.”
(I do have to confess, the 3-Boot Legion is the only one I’ve ever given a damn about, and it being relegated to the never seen Earth Prime team bullshit thing is on the list of things I’ll never forgive Geoff Johns for, right there with restoring the idea that Superman was once Superboy. Although the top of that list is the way he destroyed the very concept of the Speed Force in Rebirth.)
Cancelled again? Some of the greatest comic book moments ever in your greatest hits above – particularly the last. Long live the Legion.
It is an idea – it can never die.
I miss The Legion very much.
Superboy & The Legion of Super Heroes is the first comic I read, back in 1976. It was Superboy # 202. Ever since, I read almost all of the Legion’s adventures, & bought more than 75% of them.
Personally, I believe The LSH has as much potential as X-Men & more. The fact that it hasn’t been fully realised (with some mighty notable exceptions, from The Great Darkness Saga to some standalone stories like the Tabloid size Superboy & LSH back in ’78 to GIffen’s work in the late 80’s-early 90’s) is a sad testament to how DC has had too much shortsightedness & too little respect for this amazing property of characters & their world. My favorite Alex Ross drawing is a huge poster of Superboy & The LSH. It is epic & glorious, even moreso than his Justice League stuff.
Long Live The Legion!
Even DC’s oft-idiotic BS can’t keep The Legion down for long.