Another ‘Legion’ Ends

Alan Kistler

Alan Kistler is a freelance writer who has contributed to MonitorDuty.com and PopCultureShock.com. He is a freelance video editor who occasionally acts in independent film projects. His blog is located at alantkistler.squarespace.com.

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11 Responses

  1. Johnny Bacardi says:

    Actually, the post Zero Hour reboot occurred in 1994; the newer codenames such as "Livewire" and "Alchemist" were first used when Tom and Mary Bierbaum and Chris Sprouse created the Legionnaires spinoff in the early 1990's, well before Zero Hour. I always though the new named sounded a hell of a lot better than the "Kid", "Lass", and "Boy" etc. names did. Apparently I am in the minority.

  2. Rick Taylor says:

    I gave up hanging with this about three…or was it four Legions ago.

  3. Dave says:

    The 5-year jump pretty meuch did me in.I've glanced at the various revivals since then, but I've never been hooked.

  4. Rick Taylor says:

    It was a huge mistake to disconnect Superman from the Legion during the Byrne reboot.Had the powers that be has the brains/talent to at least keep Superman as the inspiration for the super team and not come up with the stupid 'no time travel' mandate they might not have thrown away their audience. Now the have a generation or two who just plain don't care.The Legion in Adventure Comics were one of the REASONS I started comics.Now we have another highly polished turd.

    • Dave says:

      I agree.The series really started its downhill slide during issue 38, of that time's Legion of Super-Heroes series, when Superboy died. I never bought the explanation in that story and I don't think most of the other readers did either.The stories were still enjoyable for another year or so (while Paul Levitz was writing), but the last 4-part story, "The Magic Wars", at the end of that volume was barely readable. The 5-year jump which began the next series was too much and I was gone.

      • Rick Taylor says:

        The recently canceled cartoon series had a better 'take' on how to deal with moving the Legion forward.Due to the lawsuit the 'Superman' thing was a real turn-off.Although closer to the concept, still not my Legion.Seems like I say this a lot as they try to take the DC characters 'forward' as they stray farther and farther from their core concepts.

        • Arthur Tebbel says:

          I have to disagree with you here pretty completely. My first exposure to the Legion was through the old archive books and I adored them but I didn't get into reading the floppies monthly until the reboot. The reboot Legion was my Legion. I never thought it was a deviation thematically from the original Legion, least not what I read.My problem is I'm a 24 year old who has been reading comics almost literally his entire life and I have no connection at all to the Legion they're bringing back. The stuff has never really been in print, not the stuff past the 60s and 70s. I feel like my generation is being asked to give up everything so that older people can have their icons back. I lost my Legion, I lost my Green Lantern, I'm losing my Flash it looks like. Don't get me started on the dismantling of everything Peter David did.I don't feel like the comics I grew up with were these huge deviations from the classical mold, certainly not when they were in the hands of competent writers. It was just a different lens.

          • Dave says:

            Sometimes looking through a different lens works. I enjoyed the Justice League International stories (at least at first). I like Kyle Rayner as much as Hal Jordan (Oh no, blasphamy!). I loved Barry Allen until the last 5 years or so, and I've always loved Wally West.I'm not saying the Legion hasn't had any fun stories, but the constant reboots (3 or 4) has really diluted the series and characters. Histories have been restarted and classic stories have been redone. The sense that these characters could be real people with lives that progress is gone.Regarding the other series, the stories have moved forward and the continuity has remained.Personally, I think it's wrong to have Barry return and relegate Wally to a background character as they've done with Kyle and John – don't get me started on the Flash changes :) – but these are the same characters with their histories intact. DC is just taking the stories in a different direction – as they've done before and will do again.This isn't the case with the Legion.

          • Rick Taylor says:

            Well, on that vein, when I grew up reading comics I was stunned to discover they had existed since the late 30's. The Justice League wasn't the first super-team, neither was the Legion.I was really confused.Luckily, there were numerous books on comics history that lead me uncover as much of the past as possible.There was also hobby shop in my neck of the woods that dealt in old comics. In those age golden age books didn't cost a fortune. I discovered there were companies that didn't exist any more and my favorite character, Captain Marvel. I grew to love this wacky line. It was about a FUN super hero (in the midst of the Marvel Universe really taking off). My world as a fanboy (before the term existed) expanded. I grew to love this wacky lineSo I had the past and the now.I guess what I'm trying to say is at that point comics had turned over two, arguably three times.Now that they're turning over in sometimes less than a year (*cough* Wonder Woman *cough*), I can't bother investing the energy in this week's Legion. It won't be there next year. So they (the publishers) really have to fight to get my attention. Similarly, there's not many really new things they can show me about some of my favorite characters. Even then I settle for an Elseworlds retelling of the origin of the League that 'borrows' heavily from everything as 'new'.As that constant 'Universal Turnover' happens it tough to see IF they have a plan for their respective characters and how they fit together. So much that the parallel earth theory looks simple in retrospect. But even THAT reassembly needs a fucking roadmap.It's become acceptable that Kid Rock can combine 'Sweet Home Alabama" and "Werewolves of London" and call it his song.I see your point in that Martha would always tell me what you were reading and why you liked what you liked. I smiled that you were going through your own discovery.I guess my frustration is that there doesn't seem to be time for that in these day of 'sound byte' comics reality.Not much real room for fun.