I haven't seen any discussion or threads about this yet (if there are, please let me know where)...

In the backup History of the DCU in 52-3 there are several mentions of the Legion...all of which confused me. Were we supposed to glean some kind of info/insight/hint into the current Legion (cos I didn't)? Or was this just an acknowledgement of the different versions in the multiverse?

cheers

I think they were still just showing glimpses of the Pre-Crisis Earth-1 and it's timeline. They showed the Adventure era Legion, followed by the Grell/Early Giffen stuff. Donna asks "Did the Future survive?" and the answer was an ominous "some of it".

Nothing we didn't already know or suspect.

****UPDATED FOR 52 #4*****

-- The Legion makes an appearance again as part of the "History of" segment (recapping "Crisis")

-- DEVEM makes an appearance!! He's part of the Cult of Krypton - not much else known about him. Could *he* be Supernova?!?!

Dev! Cool! Worth the price of admission.

Actually, "Devem" is more than just a member -- he's certainly knowledgeable in things Kryptonian (he apparently taught Cassie a thing or two - did he recruit her? Did he leave that message for Ralph?), but his planet of origin is a mystery for now. That devilish smirk doesn't bode well - I hope he's not revealed to be some David Karesh (or Tom Cruise) type...

looking forward to getting this tomorrow !!

and it's interesting to hear that Dev Em is mentioned !!

Matthew.

(Was Dev-Em in 52!!!) anybody know about this? is it LSH related Dev-Em?

I just read the last two issues of 52. Wow. Devem??? Wierd. He was always a favorite of mine. Very wierd.

The history part is...interesting.

Haven't gotten my copy of 52 #7 yet, but I was told by others there's a conspicuous omission in the 'History of the DCU' backup segment that addresses Zero Hour, i.e,

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">the Earth-1 Legion doesn't appear in it at all.</span></span>

I find that a little odd.

The character's name is "Devem", we don't know for sure it's Dev-Em (it could just be a Waid trick). The guy we saw in issue 16 named "Klar" looks a hell of a lot like Klar Ken, the Superman of 2965, which would be another Waid-ism.

The Time Trapper does appear in one panel of the History of the DCU in issue 7. The Legion didn't appear here because they went through Zero Hour in the 30th century, not the 20th.

Yeah...you never know when something like that is really just an in-joke not meant to be taken seriously. Keep watching, I guess.

Well, the SW-6 Cosmic Boy, Livewire, and Saturn Girl, and the adult Jo Nah were in the 20th Century for part of the series, though by the end (when both the adult and SW-6 Legionnaires were merged nad that timeline was ended) they were back in the 30th.

Previous installments have emphasized the stability of the future through various changes, so one would have assumed that they would have mentioned it being radically changed in this installment. I suspect that it will be next issue, however.

At least it didn't appear to be "The Mad Daxamite" version of Dev. I know our old friend and very early member of the LMBP really liked him but I never cared for that particular reboot.

Maybe this is the groundwork for Waid to reintroduce him with motivation and a mission that's more believable (than his past counter-espionage agency job) in the near future?

...and speaking of Daxamites (I'd better go back and reread those passages) were they mentioned during the "Alien Invasion" section of the history lecture? If so then Waid's laid the grooundwork to bring Mon-El (mOnel, Valor, Lar Gand, whatever) back to the ranks of the Legion too.

No Legion again in issue #8, which contains a compressed history of the period between Zero Hour and Identity Crisis.

Hmm... I wonder if the new Legion's origin will be told in one of the Waid-written back-up features in 52?

I hope not. I read somewhere - Newsarama? - that the origin-features in 52 are only going to be two pages long. I'd rather have an actual comic book story that does justice to the origin rather than being in a big rush to hit the high points and get out.

I could live forever without seeing the origin of the Legion retold. I don't care how they change it, spice it up, redecorate, or have exciting guest stars, I am over the entire concept. Let's move on, people.

Now, the origin of the Legion secret handshake, that I'm game for....!

From a Newsarama report of the SDCC "52" panel:

Will the Legion appear in 52, aside from the two page origin? "Yes, it does, yes they do," Rucka said.

Just as I was about to drop it.

Yeah, but this time around, I think the origin could be entirely different. And therefore I want to read about it. Sure, we've all read the Brande assassination attempt dozens of times, but I don't think that's what we've got here.

I'd really love to see what the origin is for this incarnation of the LSH. Part of me actually thinks the origin hasn't been decided on. After decades of the Brande assassination origin (with the various tweaks and iterations along the way), I'm not entirely sure Waid has a final idea of what the origin could be. Will it be another iteration of the old origin (Brande) or not? On one hand, you have the been-there-done-that origin while on the other you potentially have a brand-new origin that could alienate "older" Legion fans.

By publishing the book 1(+?) year(s) later, they have ample time to see how people picking the book up are reacting to this re-imagined LSH before they put the final touches on an origin. It buys them time and I hope it likewise bought them insight.

Last Fall, Waid disclosed in an 2-part interview (found here and here ) that he and Barry knew the team's origins. Recently, Barry said he hoped it was coming soon and hinted about a "Special".

What little else we know thus far:

Waid said "... if I never, ever again have to read a Legion origin story where people ride a futuristic interstellar starship that still requires you to return your tray tables and seatbacks to an upright position before landing, I’ll be happy. The core of the Legion origin holds up, but the details tend to date badly ..." (So we can probably scratch the shuttle aspect of the story.)

Also, "There’s an enormous clue in issue ten ...". (Most readers believe it's the revelation the Legion's first HQ was a prison.)

Barry teased that "the charter members might not be the same as in previous incarnations." (Despite numerous in-text references to CB, LL and SG as the charter/founding members and "the first three Legionnaires".)

No word yet about R.J. Brande. (Unless, perhaps, he's the Grandpa memorialized in "Eat it, Grandpa")

That's about it for now. Personally, I'm more interested in their ultimate origins vis-a-vis Infinite Crisis and New Earth continuity but I'm not holding my breath for any answers, especially not in "52".

Rucka mentioned at Toronto that the Legion will be in 52…

Because this is based on an oral question and answer, I have no idea if they are talking about the LoSH or L.E.G.I.O.N…. hmmm…. Any thoughts?

In this team's origin, the founders were probably *trying* to assassinate Brande.

OK, that's too villainous. They were maybe going to 'paintball' him in a symbolic assassination... yelling 'Eat it, Grandpa'.

Perhaps Brande - by any other name - owned/ran/was the major shareholder in a company that the UP contracted to house and "re-educate" delinquents who managed to evade the Public Service. If the [insert # here] Legion founders defeated said facility and the liberated delinquents became the original squatter legionnaires then the housing structure (read: prison) would be a constant reminder of their triumph if it was commandeered as their HQ. Thus, the beginnings of the LSH predilection for taking trophies.
That's brilliant, Mystery Lad! It makes perfect sense and ties up so many loose threads.
Grife, I hope Waid doesn't read this. I really have become quite paranoid that if we accurately predict anything that he changes it at the last minute...

For anyone *not* picking up 52, there was a *major* Legion connection (decades in the making!) in the most recent issue!

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">We meet Ekron, as in the Emerald Eye of..., in #20!</span></span>

I could buy something like this, except that I see no reason to assume that R.J. Brande is a character in this reality.

My idea is that a bunch of Legionnaires, including the founding three but maybe some others as well (I'm thinking Phantom Girl), were inmates of this prison, because of their youthful incorrigibility and stuff. And Rokk, Garth and Imra became friends, and got to talking about how messed up society is and what they could do about it. We know Rokk is a big fan of old comic books, and Tinya (if she was there) is a history buff herself. At some point someone brings up the idea of becoming superheroes.

Then there was a prison riot in which some of the really dangerous inmates were getting wildly out of hand. Rokk, Garth and Imra decide that it's now or never, form the Legion on the fly and recruit a bunch of other good-hearted rebellious-youth-type inmates to help put the riot down. I could see Ultra Boy being part of this group.

They do so in such a way that makes the building kind of useless as a prison from then on, and when the smoke clears the Legion is in control of the place, and the guards and SPs are all on the outside looking in, surrounding them with their space bullhorns and future SWAT teams and stuff. Obviously the Legion doesn't want to fight its way out through that, so they use their political connections, like Imra's mom, to negotiate continued possession of the prison for a whole new use, plus probation for all Legionnaires for whatever minor trumped-up charges landed them in the pokey in the first place, in return for all their help in quelling the riot.

Does that work for anybody?

I think I read that it says "Emerald HEAD of Ekron", correct? Isn't Ekron a planet?

Says who?

I've always thought we'd see an untold tale of the Green Lantern Corps or the Manhunters in which they are forced to battle the rogue Guardian of the Universe, Ekron. In order to fight an army at once, he uses his power to grow to 50 feet or so and loses an eye in the process.

He's either killed or imprisoned on OA, with his eye out in space somewhere wandering around looking for trouble.

Anyway, that was my little origin of the Emerald Eye.

Hmmm I thought that the origin of the Emerald Eye would do with Nekron, the undead in the space whom Captain Atom fought and I believe Green Lantern did. as you can see, take "N" away from Nekron and you get Ekron....he was missing one of his eye...hmm. I remember seeing him in hmmm Green Lantern Corps Tales? can't remember

The Emerald Head of Ekron looks interesting. No body though. Is it possible someone's taken Ekron's head and his reamaining eye and fashioned a ship from it? The mix of tech and organics makes me wonder (and the lack of body too...).

The Head of Ekron was looking pretty deomposed there. Wonder how it got separated from his body?

Heh...you should go to Comic Bloc and there is a thread devoted to that one...as a joke. But funny thread it is!

Haven't read this yet, but it started me thinking again about something that has bothered me. "52" has been hugely successful, perhaps more so than Infinite Crisis and the Countdown stuff.

If Legion is supposed to tie-in to "52," isn't it a no-brainer to, you know, ADVERTISE that fact? Something else else like "Bursting from the Pages of the Smash Hit 52" on a Legion cover might be a good start, or "read more about it in the next issue of S/LSH" in 52 would be nice, too. Just saying.

Let's see... an artifact of great power, shaped in the form of an eye, torn from an undead entity. If the Empress is wielding that Eye, will they retcon in that Mano isn't a mutant, but instead the wielder of the Hand of Ekron?

This isn't a slam against your theory, superboymddjr. Just that I'd played AD&D on and off since around 1982, so saw the parallel.

Is that you, Vecna?

From Newsarama's weekly Q&A with Steve Wacker.

Hmmm....one of stars of 52? Booster Gold? Seems like a very logical thing to me since Booster Gold has a small connection to the Legion - his legion flight ring. I cannot think of any connections among those 52 stars - Steel? Ralph? Renee? Question? Black Adam? - to Legion, so Booster Gold has to be it. Now, I am curious.....aside from Emerald Eye.

Is Skeets a star? I'm convinced he's behind the whole robot uprising.

is mon-el showing up in 52?

And the Emerald Ass of Ekron is still out there...

Where's Kid Therod when you need him?

How about if Rip Hunter shows up in SLOSH?

ETA: possibly visiting his descendant Dav...?

Funny, I always thought of the Eye as female.

I agree Ekron appears to be some sort of ship. If you look at the top dome of it's head, you can definitely make out a humanoid figure in there. At least I can.

Quislet? Brainiac? The last surviving Oan? The unholy bastard love-child of all three?