One of the reasons I think the Waid/Kitson threeboot version of the Legion was fatally flawed from the outset is that its concept of making the Legion an oppositional force was wholly at odds with the core Legion concept, which tends to be utopian and status-quo defending rather than revolutionary and game-changing. Sure, you could argue that the revolutionary nature of the Legion was heroic in and of itself since they were rebelling against a stagnant society which needed them, but Waid started sabotaging this practically from the first issue by writing numerous Legionnaires’ characters as dilettantes, thugs or cynics. More realistic, maybe, but it’s the type of realism I think is somewhat misplaced in my comic book about teenaged superheroes in the far future.
Worse is that in practice, the revolutionary concept only really has one story hook to go with it, which is “Legion versus entrenched authority.” Comic creators of all stripes have come back to this trope again and again and largely without exception the stories are subpar. (Example of an exception which proves the rule: the v4 Earthwar saga, wherein the Legion fought entrenched authority that was corrupt and evil, namely the Dominion which had quietly taken over the Earth. That is fine. Of course then about twenty issues later we had the “outlaw Legion” arc, which sucked so hard it created its own portable vacuum.) The Legion, from my perspective, is interesting when they fight supervillains – the concept is primarily one with its roots in space opera and traditional superheroics, and I don’t think it lends itself well to stories attempting to deconstruct social politics in this regard. (In others, it can excel.)
Truthfully, I think a large part of the fondness for Geoff Johns’ “I Can’t Believe It’s Not The Paul Levitz Legion” exists because the current Legion seems so fundamentally detached from the traditional superheroics typically associated with the team. Jim Shooter’s run has largely been marked by a vivid feeling of jumping through hoops to give the new conceptualization of the team lip service, resulting in the joyless vaguely-superheroic process stories that I loathe combined with soap-opera plotting.
But the answer to all of this is simple. It is painfully simple.
Shove the series forward a year.
After all, back during the “One Year Later” event post-Infinite Crisis (which almost entirely backfired, but that’s not really relevant here), the Legion was unique in that it didn’t advance a year, presumably because Waid didn’t want to bother and because in a series a thousand years apart from the rest of DC continuity there wasn’t any need. But a one-year gap gives a writer carte blanche to change the social status of the Legion as he sees fit, because in a superheroic universe a hell of a lot can happen in a year’s time.
What’s more, the one year leap creates a jump-on point for new readers, if handled correctly, and stimulates excitement among older readers. Legion fans may now debate the merits of the Keith Giffen v4 “five year gap” Legion, where Giffen (and Tom and Mary Bierbaum) shoved the series forward five years, but when they debate it they’re arguing about the execution of the story and whether the plotting and characterization were good or bad. I’ve never seen anybody suggest that the five year gap wasn’t a good idea in and of itself. Creating an instant in media res situation for all readers is exciting, and with proper followup can become epic.
Imagine, the first page of a new issue. A starfield on inky black, with thick white text covering the page, not unlike a still version of the scrolling text in Star Wars movies.
It is one year since [insert events of previous storyline here.]
The Legion of Super-Heroes is stretched to its breaking point. The Controller Virus decimated the Science Police in every major star system, and now the newly-named Science Pirates attack interstellar shipping routes with every passing cycle. Sensing weakness, criminals and outlaws now attack throughout the United Planets constantly. Only the Legion stands between them and the starvation of every outlying frontier colony on the Rimward Fringe, thanks to a desperate United Planets giving them full enforcement authority.
Other problems abound. The Khund, silent for centuries, renew the operation of their warfactories. Scientists report an increase in inexplicable gravitic anomolies. The genius race of Coluans faces near-extinction in the face of the Lemnos Plague, even with Titanian medipaths working around the clock for a cure. Orandian refugees cluster on Earth, demanding recognition and planetary allotment as the independent nation of New Orando. Rumours swirl that the Robotican Front has finally built the M.E.S.S.I.A.H. which will free them from organic bondage.
And Brainiac Five has been missing for seven months.
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SWEET.
Once Shooter is gone, they better damn well give you the Legion. To hell with Johns.
I might be wrong, but didn’t the threeboot Legion advance a year during One Year Later? I could swear that they even made fun of it with “One Thousand and One Years Later!”
The threebooters didn’t advance the year. The cover of their issue had “One Thousand And One Years Later,” but their storyline remained immediately after the previous issue.
seriously, they should give you the series…
As always: I’d read that.
I don’t know how well of a “jump-on point” your particular example really makes… I’m not really a comics reader (though I did enjoy the Civil War series), and most of the factions/bad guys/villainous types you were talking about had no effect on my curiosity.
But, for the record, I would still read it, and only because I want to know where Brainiac is. =D
While I agree with the concept, you’re quick summery intro is not how I would approach it. It depends on people knowing who the Khunds and Braniac and such and such are, which isn’t the best way to intro new readers. I would start it off with a simple “outside coming in” story that foreshadows a larger plotline — say, the story opens on some generic colony planet, there’s an emergency or invasion or attack or whatever and we’re introduced to the Legion as they enter the scene, done entirely as if this was the first time we’ve ever seen the characters. I would also bring in a “companion type” character, someone who isn’t in the know and hence everyone can exposit to, providing how with no only what happened in the last year but what things we’re like before the events of the time skip. It doesn’t have to be a new character; perhaps a legionnaire merely took a leave of absence or had a family emergency. We learn what happened over the last year as it applies to the unfolding plot, secretes and surprises coming out as they become relevant to current events. This is the only time I’ll say this, but I think Naruto provided a fairly good formula for doing timeskips.
Of course, if you want to make Legion into Star Command, then maybe introducing new character isn’t a bad idea, either. As big as it is now, the Legion would need serious manpower to patrol all of known space. Enough manpower that actual powers and planets of origin become redundant. Sure, you have the leaders and you have people like Karate Kid, Ultra Boy, and Brainiac who have truly extraordinary abilities, but going the same way Green Lantern Corps did with the Legion wouldn’t be a bad idea.
But that all depends what you want to see out of the characters, I suppose. It does take the limelight off the core Legion. But, hey, I’m just farting here.
One of the reasons I think the Waid/Kitson threeboot version of the Legion was fatally flawed from the outset is that its concept of making the Legion an oppositional force was wholly at odds with the core Legion concept, which tends to be utopian and status-quo defending rather than revolutionary and game-changing.
You make a good point, but what I’d say to the above is that the Legion wasn’t just trying to shake up society; they were trying to shake up society through superheroics, which I think a lot of people entirely missed. I think there were quite a few flaws with what Waid actually did with the title, but I like/liked the premise very much, and I wish we could have a do-over.
What I appreciate about your approach is that if you’re new to the book, there’s enough context in the description to explain what’s going on without knowing who Khunds, Science Police or Coluans are; but if you’re already a fan, the description whets the appetite.
Shit, man, I’ve been away from comics for seven or eight years, and was never really into the Legion (possibly the only DC book I didn’t read at the height of my addiction), but I would TOTALLY read this.
My biggest beef with the Legion was always the size of its cast/history. Too many characters and too much backstory to be easily navigated by a new reader (I never bothered with the X-books for the same reason). I agree that a simple one year skip forward would provide a perfect jumping-on point, whether one knew the characters or not. Properly written, the large cast of characters will take care of themselves through context, and possibly even allow for some truly surprising story developments for those that don’t know the characters inside and out.
Called it!
If I saw that on your intro in a comic I would so start buying Legion again. Hell it would make me actually buy a comic again. It sparks the fan boy in me.
NCallahan said:
“While I agree with the concept, you’re quick summery intro is not how I would approach it. It depends on people knowing who the Khunds and Braniac and such and such are, which isn’t the best way to intro new readers.”
I would have to disagree with your comment. When Star Wars opened no one knew who the Rebel Alliance was or who the Empire was. You learned that in the first few minutes of the movie AFTER that intro.
Comic books have forgotten how to foreshadow and build subplots. I blame it on an era of “special effects and gimmicks” to sell books than good writing. I mean no one with any common sense should let Jim Shooter write a comic book (yeah I said it) look at his hack work on X-Factor and Star Brand. I honestly don’t think he understands subtlety.
“I would have to disagree with your comment. When Star Wars opened no one knew who the Rebel Alliance was or who the Empire was. You learned that in the first few minutes of the movie AFTER that intro.”
But on the other hand, all the names in Star Wars were beautiful demonstrative. You knew the Rebel Alliance were the rebels and had to be good thanks to the connotations of Allies (the Rebel Axis being evil and such), while the Empire was the big government and had to be evil, because monarch and dictatorship offends modern sensibilities. The Death Star was a bad thing because, well, death is right in its name.
On the other hand, “Khunds” tells you next to nothing. “Science Police” and “Science Pirates” work, Robotican Front kind of makes sense at a glance, but Orando suggests a more complex political history that you aren’t immediately privy to and there’s no indicator of who Brainiac 5 is or why we should give a damn.
I think there is ample information to spark the curiosity and provide enough information to form basic assumptions.
“The Khund, silent for centuries, renew the operation of their warfactories.”
Sure we really don’t know who the Khund are but we know they haven’t been heard from in a long time and they are proficient in either war or creating weapons of war.
“Orandian refugees cluster on Earth, demanding recognition and planetary allotment as the independent nation of New Orando.”
Sure we don’t know who the Orando are, but they are obvious political refugees giving us a basic starting point to connect with them.
To use another example of using association to elicit a connection. Joss Whedon’s Firefly has the Independent faction and the Alliance faction. I think is genius that he refers to one of the groups as the Alliance but casts them as antagonists. Sci-fi fans immediately think of Alliance as ‘good’ because of Star Wars. Making it difficult to determine if the Whedon Alliance are actually ‘evil’.
MGK’s intro doesn’t give the reader the answers to who or what these things are. He simply states these premises to spark the curiosity so people will buy the book. The ultimate question that needs to be answered is asked last, to remind the reader that they don’t know.
Now for those who are familiar with the names used the questions isn’t “who are these people”. The question instead becomes “why has this happened”.
How did the Coluans contract this plague?
Why did the Khund fall off the grid?
What importance is the M.E.S.S.I.A.H.? (I noticed the subtle nod to the L.E.G.I.O.N.)
This becomes the importance.
As a side note how come Kent Shakespeare isn’t in everything Legion related? Why? Why? Why?
Not only would I buy your Legion, I’d pick up multiple copies and give them to everyone I know who can read. I really hope DC gives you this book.
This entire series of articles is clearly biased in favor of the Legion of Superheroes. We all know the real candidate for change a thousand years in the future is the Fatal Five.
Validus/Emerald Empress in 3012!
Stark, the Lemnos thing was explained in some Waid issues.
WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE SILVER AGE??!?!?!?!!!
Thanks for stating so concisely why I’ve hated Waid’s reboot version of the Legion.
I know this has nothing to do with anything but…”ultra-coffee”? Is that from a real Legion comic? Because it sounds awesome.