Legion World
Posted By: Mattropolis Kinetix - 04/18/10 03:47 AM
Does anyone else hope that we get a version of Zoe in the new Legion?
Posted By: Eryk Davis Ester Re: Kinetix - 04/18/10 03:48 AM
I'd love to see that, as long as they don't screw her up as badly as they did in her previous incarnation!
Posted By: Mattropolis Re: Kinetix - 04/18/10 03:50 AM
Well yeah, she really did have a great start though. She had a lot of potential that was squandered, I think.
Posted By: Cobalt Kid Re: Kinetix - 04/18/10 09:54 PM
Loved her in the reboot. I was so dissapointed when they started screwing her up and just never stopped.
Posted By: Mattropolis Re: Kinetix - 04/18/10 09:58 PM
It was like they knew that she was the "blank slate" and they could try anything with her.

The sad thing is that her original "state" was fine the way it is and actually added something to the Legion.
Posted By: KryptonKid Re: Kinetix - 04/18/10 10:09 PM
It might be interesting to have XS curious about counterparts in her new dimention. She could drag along Gates searching for a Zoe and the rest. Might make a good Annual story.
Posted By: Mattropolis Re: Kinetix - 04/18/10 10:11 PM
KK, that's the perfect hook! I love it!
Posted By: Set Re: Kinetix - 04/20/10 12:23 AM
I wouldn't mind reading the adventures of the 'Forgotten Legion' with members like Devlin O'Ryan and Danielle Foccart and Dragonmage and Dream Boy and Shikari and Kinetix and Gazelle.

A few from each of the 'missing' groups.

Note that I know nothing about Devlin or Kinetix, and reserve the right to hate them. smile
Posted By: Quislet, Esq Re: Kinetix - 04/20/10 12:27 AM
I loved the initial Kinetix - smart and assertive. That Kinetix I would want to see.
Posted By: Pov Re: Kinetix - 04/20/10 12:54 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Set:
Note that I know nothing about Devlin...and reserve the right to hate [him]. smile
Oh, and you -would-...! The TMK "Reflecto"... shudder
Posted By: Eryk Davis Ester Re: Kinetix - 04/20/10 01:10 AM
[devlin]Ya hates me because of me accent![/devlin]
Posted By: Pov Re: Kinetix - 04/20/10 01:34 AM
nod
Posted By: Cobalt Kid Re: Kinetix - 04/20/10 01:43 AM
You guys just hate him because he totally hooked up with SW6 Vi off-panel.
Posted By: Mattropolis Re: Kinetix - 04/20/10 01:48 AM
Who didn't?
Posted By: Candlelight Re: Kinetix - 04/20/10 05:02 PM
I love the idea of XS and Gates doing a little searching for former teammates in this DCU!
I'd really enjoy an older version of Gear, Kid Quantum II and Sizzle in the retroLegion!

The reboot's Zoe, with her life force and power, are in Mysa, and perhaps her thoughts, too.
I'd like to see her released someday and either stay in the retroera or join the New wanderers.

I'm one of the few (maybe only) Legion fans who seems to think that she wasn't handled so badly considering her given personality.
I liked most of her troubles and changes, actually.

Avarice and hunger for power gets people in strange places in real life, so I should think that it would in the DCU, as well.
That need to get better and more powerful is a major part of her personality.
If that's taken away, she's pretty much just a pretty redhead with Life Lass powers.
Which might be okay, if a little boring.

I have to admit that I didn't care, at all, for that last Terra storyline transformation, but crossovers are always doing stuff like that.
I just think that she should have changed back to some sort of semblance of her original form afterward.

Anyway, to answer the question, yes, I'd like to see a version of Zoe in the retroLegion.
Posted By: Eryk Davis Ester Re: Kinetix - 04/20/10 05:09 PM
Hmm... even though I've never bought the "Zoe is a reboot Life Lass" argument (their powers are actually quite a bit different), it would be interesting if their search for Zoe actually led them to Life Lass...
Posted By: Set Re: Kinetix - 04/21/10 01:14 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Candle:
Avarice and hunger for power gets people in strange places in real life, so I should think that it would in the DCU, as well.
One of my favorite super-heroes, Booster Gold, got to the 'super-hero' stage through some fairly convoluted contortions, and still isn't exactly the poster-child for 'boy scout' superheroes.

A few members on the team who came there through non standards 'superhero' motivations, like Ultra Boy (former gang-member), Night Girl (got her powers to impress a boy) and Chameleon Girl (yeah, sorry Vi!), add some fun personal interactions, IMO.
Posted By: Eryk Davis Ester Re: Kinetix - 04/21/10 01:17 AM
What's fascinating about Kinetix is, though, that hers was never a selfish desire for power. She wanted power in order to be able to better help others, which seemed to me kind of unique.
Posted By: ActorLad Re: Kinetix - 04/21/10 02:19 AM
One of the things I miss most about her is her friendship with Violet.
Posted By: Mattropolis Re: Kinetix - 04/21/10 02:20 AM
SOmething about her just... worked for me. While I don't see myself as power hungry, I did see a lot of myself in her...
Posted By: Blacula Re: Kinetix - 04/21/10 02:48 AM
Another big Kinetix fan here.

Her character was going so right until they sent her into that anomaly and she came back a tall (which, :wtf: )brain-dead vegetable for about a year. A completely useless and pointless character turn.

Then DnA came on board and in that Worlds issue brought back the fun, bubbly, can-do Kinetix that we all knew and love. And showed that they really got her character too. I was thrilled. And then all of a sudden they went and turned her into that terra-morph zombie thing and that was the end.

Geoff Johns' killing of her was an act of mercy IMO.

Poor Kinetix. Kinetix

What could have been. frown
Posted By: Candlelight Re: Kinetix - 04/21/10 06:49 AM
There's a lot of that, 'what could have been' in the DCU.

I almost said her TK powers, but went with Life Lass because that's what I rmember from her introduction.

And I agree that her motives were usually okay, but she wanted the Eye pretty badly and her almost trance-like attitude around artifacts suggested something deeper going on, which is a plus, really.

Zoe had flaws and we identify with flaws, I do anyway.
I love Cos, but he's as remote in his perfection as Brainy is in his super-intellegence or Imra is in her cold self-control.

Zoe's more like 'us'.
imo
Posted By: kcekada Re: Kinetix - 04/25/10 01:55 AM
Kinetix and XS were the two best things to come out of the 90s Legion.

Unfortuantely, Kinetix was ruined with all of the ridiculous changes made to her. But aren't her orginal powers very similar to Quislet's abilities? I guess she'd be a bit redundant. And I wouldn't want to see her as a sorceress -- that's the White Witch's department.
Posted By: Eryk Davis Ester Re: Kinetix - 04/25/10 02:19 AM
Yeah, her powers are pretty close to Quislet's, though the current Legion seems to have completely thrown out the "duplication of powers" rule.

For the record:

1) Kinetix = telekinetic who can restructure objects at the micro-scale.

2) Quislet = inhabits inanimate objects and restrutures them at the micro-scale, plus what he inhabits disintegrates after a certain amount of time.

3) Life Lass = brings objects "to life", basically turning them into semi-anthropomorphic versions of whatever they were.

One big difference between Life Lass and the others is that her animations seem to be largely autonomous. It's not clear if there's a time limit or she has to de-animate them, but I kind of like the idea that there's all these things that she brought to life just wandering around Lallor.
Posted By: Jerry Re: Kinetix - 04/25/10 03:32 AM
I liked Zoe's original green outfit better than the orange/reddish one. It was kind of fun when she had a tail.
Posted By: Set Re: Kinetix - 04/25/10 06:13 AM
Green went better with her hair.

Jean Grey figured that out!
Posted By: Blacula Re: Kinetix - 04/25/10 07:55 AM
Kinetix definitely looked better in green... but since her, Jean Grey, Maxima, Mera (and whoever else I'm forgetting) are all redheads that the artists put in green I'd really like to see future red-headed characters in a different colour.
Posted By: Set Re: Kinetix - 04/25/10 07:59 AM
Good point. Even Spider-Girl's in a green tunic last I saw (although she's no longer a redhead, go figure.)

Gold goes well with red, and a dark blue outfit against flowing red hair might be neat. Alan Davis managed to make Looker pretty distinctive with the mass of red hair and purple leotard. (I don't recall, but I think Marvel's Medusa is also usually wearing purple...)
Posted By: Candlelight Re: Kinetix - 04/25/10 08:41 AM
Medusa's royalty, so she wears purple one way or the other, and she never looked good in green for some reason.

I'd go with gold, I think.

I love the idea of animated creature chairs and mops and things running around Lallor.
I remember a fairy tale when I was a kid of a girl who learned how to clean up after herself when her fairygodmother animated all of the things in her cottage to talk to the kid and hit her over the head, etc. until she did the chores.
smile

Also, they might run around breeding all sorts of stranges things!
The dish really COULD run away with the spoon!
Posted By: jimgallagher Re: Kinetix - 04/25/10 01:28 PM
In a word, No. Never liked her.
Posted By: Mattropolis Re: Kinetix - 04/25/10 02:12 PM
I would make her younger than the others if she joined in this universe, about the age that the founders were when they started the team.

Considering what happened with Pol, Cos would eb against her joining and would send her on BS missions to keep her safe.

Until one of those missions, leads her right to the Fatal Five. She holds her own until the rest of the Legion arrives.
Posted By: KryptonKid Re: Kinetix - 04/25/10 02:56 PM
If, somehow, the reboot universe survives, Thanot Saugin might become Kinetix 2.
Posted By: Mattropolis Re: Kinetix - 04/25/10 02:59 PM
I would rather start fresh with a Zoe from the retroboot universe.
Posted By: Invisible Brainiac Re: Kinetix - 12/30/15 10:42 PM
If they could just reverse the Terrorform-ing, she would have been OK, I believe.

And her death by Superboy Prime (whom I despite) and absorption by Mordru is not irreversible either.

I agree that green looks best on her.

And I would rather Zoe Saugin, than anyone else taking the mantle.
Posted By: Fat Cramer Re: Kinetix - 01/02/16 11:02 AM
I've been thinking about Kinetix after reading the "It's 2004" thread and Reboot's ideas for her, as well as Sarky's story outline in the "Legionnaires You Love" thread. Maybe Invisible Brainiac's love for the character has affected me to the point that I'm becoming a Kinetix devotee.

Kinetix wasn't my favourite by a long shot; too flighty, seeking power through mystical objects, although she had moments of reflection which were more endearing. When the Legion was split up under DnA, she joined the Science Police and, as we saw when she met M'Onel in Legion Worlds #1, hadn't changed. It almost seems that the writer was punishing her; you'd think that on joining the SPs, with all the experience and training that the Legion provided, she'd be given more important duties than getting coffee for everyone, even as a junior officer. Bring Zoe down a peg, was my impression.

It's curious that she is always described as "seeking power" or even "greedy for power", despite the added caveat that she means to do good. Brainiac 5 upbraids her for this in LSH #81 ("It seems the call of duty has little regard for your fanatical power lust"). One could easily level the same criticism at him, although he seeks scientific knowledge rather than mystical power. In fact, Kinetix could have been reframed as one seeking knowledge through mystical means. I think our society generally considers a quest for knowledge as more noble than seeking power (despite the Faust story), even if both lead to destruction.

Kinetix is the unsung hero of the Robotica story. She was the among the first transformed by hypertaxis (trying to save two reporters) and immediately used her new powers to help her team mates: warning them, advising them, saving M'onel's life. She had become something different (again), but didn't go off on an exploratory tangent; she remained devoted to helping the Legion - and Earth. Even as Robotica overtook her being, she warned Shvaughn Erin to get away, in one of the most sad and haunting panels of that story. In the end, it was Kinetix that enabled the Legion to get to Earth, essentially by sacrificing herself. She would have had no idea if she could return to human form if the Legion triumphed, or what would become of her if they failed. She did what was needed and what she could, in the moment, with no thought to her ultimate well-being.

The Robotica story ends with Computo transcending to a new state, all dark and petty emotions gone. I think the same should have been done with Kinetix. Her cumulative experiences with mysticism and Robotica should have given her gravitas, if not the enlightenment that Computo apparently achieved. However, she seldom appeared in the rest of the series, and then, only to utter a few Hulk-like observations.

In Lo3W, she is consumed by Mordru, a gruesome end, although not necessarily permanent. Sarcasm Kid proposed that she be restored, separated from Mordru, and left with a hatred of Mysa, blaming Mysa for abandoning her. That's a reasonable and compelling storyline, given the circumstances. Wouldn't something like that drive you a little mad, at the least? I would prefer that Kinetix never had been put in that position to begin with, but, had she been given greater serenity/insight/consciousness after the Robotica experience, she would be more likely to recover, find her balance, understand Mysa's position and transcend or dissipate the anger.
Posted By: Invisible Brainiac Re: Kinetix - 01/02/16 11:18 AM
I am pleased to see my love of Kinetix rubbing off on you, FC! Good points that you have raised.

In the Hypertaxis storyline, she also rallies the other Terrorforms to prevent the Moon from crashing into the Earth.

In my fanfic, she is extracted from Mysa in much the same way that Sarky proposes: both she and Mordru come out at the same time, as Zoe cannot be restored without restoring Mordru. However, she is able to overcome her torment, and instead of being angry, she is grateful for the second chance at life. She also comes to terms with her power lust by realizing that she can do good AND be "perfected" even without wielding such awesome power.

There is precedent for that: In LSH v4 113, she pulls herself out of her post-Anomaly funk by deciding that the quest for power is not worth it, if it means losing herself and her family and friends. In Legionnaires 48-50 and LSH v4 121, she encounters the Emerald Eye without becoming enthralled by it. In Legionnaires 42, where Mysa restores her to her "human" form, she also reflects that the quest for power was not worth it.

She can, and has, learned from her mistakes.
Posted By: Fat Cramer Re: Kinetix - 01/03/16 04:20 AM
Given the examples you list of her earlier moments of insight, it's all the more disappointing that DnA turned her into a cipher of a character. I hadn't even remembered that she was in the series after Robotica arc, so minimal was her presence, until I flipped through the following issues. It's peculiar, given their scifi approach, that the writers wouldn't have exploited her experience as part of machine kind and the implications of hypertaxis, even if they didn't like Zoe's mystical background.
Posted By: Invisible Brainiac Re: Kinetix - 01/03/16 06:34 AM
Yes, that's a good point. There was a lot of potential growth for her if they had let her turn back to normal. And the mystical background was really confined to her origin; for the bulk of her history, her affinity for magic was ignored. Writers mostly focused on her telekinetic powers.

Her presence became even more unremarkable because DnA mostly ignored her original sassy, bubbly personality after she became a Terrorform. It's especially sad because they showed, in her very few pre-Terrorform appearances, that they had a good handle on her (Legion Worlds 1, Legion 4 and 6).
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