I might have mentioned this one before in passing, but since today is my Property exam I’m going to cheat a bit and use it.
There was a bit of a minor fan kerfuffle (nothing along the lines of the recent “that’s not how Dr. Doom talks” kerfuffle, you understand – this is the piddling, smallish sort of kerfuffle) recently regarding Shadow Lass in the most recent issue of Legion chopping an alien monster baddie thing to death with a giant poleaxe. You know, the “wait, Legionnaires aren’t supposed to kill” sort of kerfuffle.
And it’s fair that generally speaking, Legionnaires should not kill, even if they are the mean type of badass Legionnaire, and that generally killing in the pages of Legion should be reserved for extreme circumstances, like when Projectra needs to take care of Nemesis Kid in an old-school manner.
But Shadow Lass interests me, because Shadow Lass is from Talok VI, which is generally recognized in Legion lore – throughout pretty much all the reboots – as a semi-barbaric warrior culture. They’re not the Klingons of the DC Universe (we all know that the Khund are the Klingons of the DC Universe). But the Talokians are pretty direct when it comes to dealing with people they consider enemies. So, although I’m sure Shady isn’t going to go around executing people willy-nilly or even busting out the deadly weapons in a tougher than average fight, I can understand where her response to “oh shit a giant killer monster” is to go all Ripley on its ass.
And Talok is a warrior culture, and every Shadow Champion of the Talokians has died in glorious battle, and…
…wait, all of them died in glorious battle? How’s that again?
Well, it’s simple. See, the Shadow Champion has the shadow powers bestowed upon him or her when they’re selected. And then they have them until they die. (That thing a while back where other Talokians were challenging Tasmia for the shadow powers? Yeah, that’s kind of a ritual. The Talokian elders all know the real deal – that’s why the Shadow Champion never loses to the putzes who weren’t good enough to qualify.) And they have to die in battle –
– because that’s the only way they can die.
See, shadow powers in the DC Universe have a proud pedigree. There’s the Shade, and his evil opposite Culp. And Obsidian. And the thing about shadow powers is this: for some reason – maybe it’s their tie to the entropic forces gradually tearing apart the universe – if you’ve got them, you don’t age. And you’re definitely tough to kill. You tend to heal up from most wounds, although not exactly at Wolverine speed or anything like that.
Now, Talok’s a warrior culture. Warrior cultures tend to have Valhalla-type afterlife beliefs. You get to go to the good afterlife by dying in battle (or by ritualistic “battle”, no doubt, for the aged warriors on their deathbeds). But the shadow powers (which, needless to say, Shady and the other champions have never used to their full potential – the Shade is terrifyingly powerful, you know) make it essentially impossible to die normally in the course of battle, as is well and proper. Which is why most Shadow Champions grow progressively more suicidal as they figure out what they’ve become, flinging themselves into more and more dangerous attacks.
Now, this in and of itself is quite interesting (to me, anyway). But I’ll add on something else: Shady’s going to be needed for an adventure at the literal End of the Universe, temporally speaking. She has to learn to be the last Shadow Champion. She has to come to grips with living forever – something her culture, her entire upbringing, deems abhorrent. Something fundamentally opposite to who she is.
This is where one Richard Swift, Esq. steps in – because when life deals you a bum hand, often the best possible friend you can have is someone who’s already used to it, and who can help you deal with it, get used to it. Possibly also pass on his exceptional sartorial taste. (Well, that last probably won’t happen, much to the Shade’s chagrin.)
NEXT TIME: The biggest badass in the Legion.
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I’m surprised that was so controversial; of course, I don’t read the Legion now, but when Abnett and Lanning was writing it (and even back to the Waid/Peyer days, I believe) they had set Shady up as a warrior-woman of sorts who wasn’t especially pleased to be leaving her world and gallivanting around the cosmos with the LSH. Maybe Waid (the second time around) and Shooter haven’t been writing her that way, I wouldn’t know.
I think a tea party with Hob Gadling would be a fun one-off issue.
Vandal slurps the tea, though, so you shouldn’t invite him. 🙂
The only problem with futuristic storylines that utilize modern day, supposedly immortal or long living characters like this is that the futuristic story runs the risk of nullifying any exceptionally dramatic storyline that the modern storylines write about him (eg a totally badass self-sacrifice or a complete psychological and philosophical defeat). If the character survives for a hundred or a thousand years and is still doing the same shtick over and over again, then we know that any dramatic life-changing storyline that occurs to the long-living character, in the modern time, can never really be viewed as canon.
Robinson already established that the Shade survives to work with the Legion during his Starman run. Of course then he tells Jack how to make it so that event doesn’t happen. And I think the Legion’s had at least one full reboot since then. Argh. DC time travel is head achey…
Zen, there’s a reason I’m using the Shade here, rather than, say, the Martian Manhunter (who can arguably live just as long). The Shade is a fairly minor character. (His last appearance was in JSA, and that was, what, four years ago now?)
That would so totally kickass. Shade is by far one of the coolest DCU (and thankfully under-utilized) characters.
I want Vandal Savage versus the Legion. So much better than Ra’s.
Endless Nights should’ve had a Hob story. Y’know, as the most lovable Sandman character. Perhaps he’d date Barbie or Rose.
I haven’t read enough Legion or Starman to have much of an opinion on this post, but thanks for the link of Projectra snapping Nemesis Kid’s neck. Making Shadow Lass do something completely antithetical to her character is interesting.
Talok VIII, surely.
I have a visceral rejection of the Shade only because I dislike James Robinson’s work in the DC universe so very much. (The JSA’s reaction to Rag Doll’s threats presage the JLA’s hysterical panic in Identity Crisis, for example.)
That being said, in other hands, the Shade could certainly be an interesting character. And I am on Superheroic Destiny like intellectual dishonesty on a creationist. So, really, this sounds pretty darned cool.
Heh. Even makes sense, of a sort, of the Tas/Lar relationship. An immortal barbarian champion destined to die in battle at the end of the universe? Even among the Legionnaires, who is a more worthy peer than the single most powerful mortal being in local space?
While I can see the thematic necessity of using the Shade (and I think it’s both a wonderful and fairly self-explanatory idea), the irony is that Hob Gadling, of all the immortals in the DC universe, would be the best for talking a fellow immortal out of suicide. This is because Hob Gadling has never succumbed to ennui, despair, or nihilism. He’s like some patron saint of optimism; he understands, at the core of his being, that it’s always worth being alive to see what tomorrow brings. Despite being immortal, he’s never stopped being just this dude, who thinks the universe is really awesome and wonderful and keeps chugging along.
Either him or Destruction. But Destruction can cheer anybody up.
NEXT TIME: The biggest badass in the Legion.
Superboy?
I would read this issue.
In fact, I would buy the variant cover of this issue.
I would buy the trade that collected this story. In hardback.
HEAR ME, DC??
My thought when reading the scene where Shady killed an adversary was, “Wait, do we know whether the Waid/Kitson Legion even has a constitution, let alone one with a ‘no killing’ clause?” I honestly couldn’t remember whether they do or not, so I just kind of shrugged it off.
I guess I’d have to go read the issue, but I have trouble grasping getting up in arms about killing something you’d call an alien monster without any qualifiers about its intelligence, sentience, sapience, and all that. I could get it (I wouldn’t agree with it, but I could get it) if everyone was upset because she’d killed some kind of intelligent, reptile species with a culture and all of that jazz, but it kind of makes it sound like she just killed something that was essentially a wild animal.
NEXT TIME: The biggest badass in the Legion.
I gotta be honest here if this isn’t Brainy I’m gonna be real suprised.
MGK: I understand the use of a minor character in this case (and I couldn’t tell you about the last time Shade popped up since the last DC series I collected was Lobo). However, Screaming Mimi was a third string Marvel character for nearly 15 years until Thunderbolts made her an A-lister as Songbird.
Would the legacy of Mikkal Tomas still be in play, like in Starman #50?
Here’s a question… what’s with that conspicuous bulge in Shadow Lass’s hot pants?
Never been a fan of the Legion personally, but I’d buy every single issue if MGK was writing it. And I hate buying single issues.
It’s not like she’s human, vonDread. Quit projecting your humanocentric ideals onto alien babes….
biggest badass = star boy, aka “i-am-a-black-hole lad.”
Oh, Jesus, am I late to the game, but I would personally hire you *just for this plotline alone*. Cannot … cope … with the awesome …