A new series? An appearance in Superman/Action Comics? Something else else else? We should know something later this week.

https://www.newsarama.com/45510-ben...s-millennium-announcement-this-week.html

I wonder if the 30th century will be free from the cookies and scripts all over places like Newsarama.

I always thought the '80s Millennium was just crying out to be about the LoSH.

Finally! That long-awaited sequel to the Laurel Kent as Manhunter story!

Seriously, we've had so many years of hints and teases, it's hard to get excited until something firm is announced.

It's interesting that Bendis teased other future DU lore in the MIllennium teases with OMAC and Batman Beyond. It seems he might be architecturing the whole of DCU's future and connectinf it to the Legion in some way. It's an intriguing notion, but we all know that tying in the Legion more to the rest of the DCU has been a double-edged sword. Hopefully, Hypertime, or Metaverse rules or whatever will spare the Legion from the ripple-effect of anything that happens in the current day DCU going forward.

Man, i hope Bendis isn't actually writing the Legion...he's good with writing teenagers and gritty street-level stuff (it's about the only time I can stand his writing tbh) but he's terrible at giving his characters more than one voice and he's even worse at writing non-street level stories.

I feel like he'd capture the spirit of idealistic youth that's been missing for a while, but every single good guy would be a chatty smartass and all the bad guys would be some variation of a mob boss or the mob boss's goons, and they'd all be really petty...and I don't feel like he'd do any justice to the other elements that make the Legion unique.

I’d give up on that hope. He’s been dropping so many LSH teases since he came to DC it’s clearly in the works. In fact, wasn’t it shortly after he came to DC that they lifted the Doomsday Clock embargo on certain characters, including the LSH?

Perhaps Bendis will only do full plotting and scripting on the first LSH arc, then gradually turn it over to someone else?

I don't think that's a completely unrealistic hope.

Of course, I've been wrong before.

Let's hope he doesn't decide to make Starfinger his Teacher's Pet and feature him heavily for no reason...

I’ve enjoyed all of his DC work, albeit to varying degrees. So I’m content to just let it roll out and see how it goes. Making up your mind in advance to hate Bendis’ Legionis going to guarantee that, well, you hate it.

https://comicbook.com/dc/2019/06/13...-sook-legion-of-super-heroes-millennium/

This too from Newsarama:
DC's LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES Returns in New Ongoing

The article at Comicbook.com has a lot more information and an interview with Bendis. (and some Sook art)

I am excited that Sook's on it and that this launch is a much bigger deal than the last one. Sook's design though .... might get a bit of getting used to. Still, Long Live the Legion!!

Here's the images we have so far.

It at least sounds like he's doing the work to try to create a coherent future timeline. That's already an improvement over the previous incarnation.

I'll at least check it out.

Can't say I'm loving the designs, but I don't hate them, either.

I agree. I wish they'd just stay with classic styles, maybe Giffen-era. Also, it looks like I need to come out of semi-retirement around here and start updating us for the future series. It's been awhile.

Saturn Girl's the most far-afield in terms of the design, but the rest are still totally recognizable. (and of course things might change by the time the book comes out) It seems they're keeping all the "Lad" "Lass" names too!

I am hoping to see more modern Legionnaires, some new ones, some more diverse alien races too mixed up in there.

Saturn Girl just looks so bland and generic.

She really needs the classic Saturn symbol.

What did they do to them.

A few random thoughts:

- Tasmia has long hair, and that's all that really matters to me about the designs.

- Agreed with those who have already noted that Bendis deserves credit for at least putting some effort into building a cohesive future history.

- At the very least, I'll buy the first issue. If it was Hickman, I wouldn't. If it was King, I wouldn't either.

This may draw me back to buying comics again. I'll give it a shot, at least.

I hope that this "future history" includes the full gamut of mid-3rd-millennium DC characters - I know OMAC, Kamandi and Tommy Tomorrow are involved, I hope we also see Hex, Chris KL-99, Star Hawkins, the Star Rovers, Space Cabby, Space Ranger and the Space Museum, at least in shout-out form. I know that some of those were in the New 52 "Threshold" series as existing in the present day, but so was Tommy Tomorrow, so hopefully these fellows are back where they belong.

I'll admit at first glance I thought Imra was Dirk or Jan. This was on a different site and small picture. Then I realised the white part of the uniform WAS Saturn.

IDLE

Well I agree about the designs - they're not terrible

And I'm looking forward to seeing what the build is - I miss the Legion

I'll give it a chance. I'll probably be disappointed, but when haven't I been in the last 10-15 years?

I'm actually surprised that they're sticking to tradition as much as they are so far, unless they're just rolling out the more familiar characters first. They kept the old code-names and they're recognizable despite the redesigns. (Imra less so, but she's the only one)

I'm looking forward to seeing how they incorporate the newer or original characters. Let's hope there isn't an "Earth Man" in the bunch...

From Bendis:"It's funny because there are 34 lead characters. There are a lot of perspectives that the story is going to be handled from. So, so many perspectives that almost no story will be left unturned. Not every character will see things the same way. It's like every great team: some will be on the same page, some will not. It's going to be a time of great chaos and struggle in the galaxy, and it's up to them to get to work and figure it out as they're going; they're young."

I like this...it has potential.

From the Bendis interview, I'm more excited ... hopefully optimistic even

Eh, trying to remain hopeful. They look about as different as Kitson's redesigns, just taken in another direction. Shady looks best, to my eye, although I also like that Cosmic Boy seems to have gotten even more Asian in appearance than the last time he trended that direction. Brainy evokes Jor-El, somehow, the classic 'comic book scientist.' Maybe it's the tunic?

Not really a fan of the looks for Garth or Imra, but it's the far future, and the Legion's 'classic' looks include stuff like bell bottoms or pixie shoes, so I'll take it.

Given that the orange-antennaed form has already been retconned into being a form that Durlans take off-world to make other humanoids more comfortable around them (rather than their 'normal' green tentacle-mass in purple tatters look), I'm not really caring about the tweaks to Cham's look, only intrigued by the possibility that it will carry over to Yera as well.

It might bring me out of Limbo lol

I’m willing to give it a chance, at least.

I'm speculating that Naomi is the character who will be moving to Legion.

ETA: or maybe the female character from his Dial H for Hero, whose name escapes me right now.

Continuing to think through the possibilities, based on Bendis saying it’s a female character he currently writes, whose move to Legion won’t disrupt the current DCU. Could it be Amethyst or Jinny Hex? Both have connections to the future. And he has said this initial Younf Justice lineup isn’t going to stay static.

I'm slightly excited. Bendis says there will be 34 lead characters. Now, I guess not all will be Legionnaires. But he seems open to the idea of having a massive team. And the chances are high that some members, at least, will not be from the usual "debuted in Adventure Era and have been there in pretty much every reboot" crowd. Which I welcome. Some promising latter-day Legionnaires should get their due!

True that. Thirty-four is a huge number!

There are slightly more than that, but I'd discount those whose membership is sketchy (like Infectious Lass, called a Legionnaire once, but apparently forgotten ever since), or who are dead at the moment (Rond Vidar, Myg) or even more recently dead (Star Boy, Sun Boy, both perhaps due for a retcon?), or retired from the team for various reasons (Matter-Eater Lad, Bouncing Boy, Blok, White Witch).

Of those that remain, that I can recall;

The classics (in order of me thinking of them...);

Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Brainiac 5, Phantom Girl, Duplicate 'Girl', Shadow Lass, Mon-El, Ultra Boy, Colossal Boy, Chameleon Boy, Chameleon Girl, Night Girl, Element Lad, Tyroc, Invisible Kid 2, Star Boy, Dream Girl, Sun Boy, Wildfire, Dawnstar

Baxter 38 'new class - Sensor (Projectra), Polar Boy, Tellus
New, new class - Glorith, Comet Queen, Dragonwing, Chemical Kid, Harmonia Li

That's still not even 34, but leaves room for non-Legionnaire characters of significance like RJ Brande and Shvaugn Erin and Gigi Cusimano and stuff.

Granted, I'm keen on more of people we haven't seen as much of over the years, like Tyroc or Tellus (and would like for Harmonia Li, like the deaths of Sun Boy and Star Boy, or even Myg and Rond Vidar, to be conveniently forgotten and never mentioned again), but obviously the Founders + Brainy are going to be center-stage, at least to start.

Hopefully he can write for 34 characters without anyone getting the short end of the stick. I would rather have a smaller cast used well than a large cast that gets neglected. Paul was great at keeping everyone involved in the narrative with subplots, somtjat even if they weren’t part of the main story they were playing a part. Not everyone is good at that.

Is Bendis' Legion of Super-Heroes a Reboot?

Sure sounds like it.

Cover of Superman #15 has the three founders plus Wildfire and someone who looks to be either Ultra Boy or Colossal Boy.

Solicitation list then as being from the 32nd century???

The Legion will actually debut August 14 in Superman #14

And if this IS indeed a Reboot, there's no reason why characters from other continuities (Reboot, 5YL, Threeboot) cannot appear. Kinetix, XS, Gates, Kid Quantum II, Gear, Monstress, Dragonmage, Computo, Gazelle...

for that matter,even if it is set in the Retroboot continuity, there again is no reason why these characters cannot be introduced!

So what will this one be called--the Bendisboot?

I wonder who will be the Legionnaire to have a nervous breakdown, kill a couple of teammates and then wipe a species out of existence...

Ah, nothing like sitting down at the end of the week in my bell bottoms and pixie shoes to catch up on some posts...



>betrayed gasp!<

I'll finally get to do a review on a current Legion issue!

Assuming that Millennium doesn't tank and they delay the actual ongoing, that is. Gods forbid they ever launch a bloody book without endless teaser appearances and an Event comic.

This must be the first book I've read that sums shows parts of DC history leading up to pivotal Legion related events since...gosh...last month when there were some big revelations in Electric Warriors #6. Really, there are things in that book that could lead right into the classic Adventure tales of the '60s, with minor tweaking.

Tying the future of the DCU together was also done in The history of the DC was another book that did this. Howard Chaykin's Twilight also pulled together a lot of DC's sci-fi characters into a coherent whole.

The haircuts in this new Legion also seem to have come from the same barber as Warcry in Electric Warriors. Perhaps it's a tribute. Chameleon Boy looks awfully like the Martian in Quantum Age/ Black Hammer. Too early for a company crossover? Quantum Legion has a nice (flight) ring to it.

Sure, they may all become smartbutts with endless panels of heads (surely Giffen is best suited to draw that in a 9 or even his old 16 panel format) finishing each others sentences with snarky remarks. But I have read a lot worse than a Bendis book before, so I'll give this every chance. I'm surprised that the characters look to be so identifiable. A nice nod to what has gone before, and a way of keeping old fans interested.

I noted that the Legion is coming together "Our Legion is coming together out of what they think is dire necessity. Things are starting to crumble, and they're crumbling fast, and it really feels like it's time for a new Age of Heroes for the first time in a millennium." That was the premise of the TMK run too. Also, if this is the first age of heroes in 1000 years, then the end of Electric Warriors seems leaves a few questions. Not in a bad way, but in a plot seed way. I'd be a little disappointed if the reason that series wasn't pushed was because it was going to be obsolete for this launch. That sort of thing always showed DC at it's organisational worst (see Final Crisis/ Death of the New Gods)

They also seem to be wanting to build up to another great darkness type of event. The GDS was quite early in Levitz's run. It cast a big shadow, but it didn't stop Levitz from writing plenty of other top comics. I guess this is the DC anything for an Event mentality kicking in.

This might be very good, I enjoyed Bendis on New Avengers and the X-Men. I am not surprised that it is being rebooted as the last Legion book of the Retroboot was published in 2015. That means there are people whose only reference to the Legion is from the TV shows or animated movies. A fresh start sounds good and people can always continue and/or follow their favorite versions in fanfic.

My money is on Rokk.

I’m going to try to be optimistic and open minded, but I still haven’t forgiven him for what he did to the Scarlet Witch. It took literal years to get her back on track.

Meh. Genocidal Rokk was a couple of 'boots ago!

Don't name the baby before it's even born.

In the 2019 edition of the DC Comics Ultimate Character Guide (available in hardback) there are entries for The Legion of Super-Heroes, Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5, and Mon-El.

All now completely out-of-date.

Heh.

Let's hope it lasts more than 23 issues?

-- WILDFIRE!!! I am super-pumped that we won't have to wait to see him back on the team like other iterations or runs of the Legion title. Not a huge fan of the redesign so far, but at least he has the visor.
-- I literally had Rokk's haircut in my twenties.
-- Great to see Garth front and center rather than Rokk. I always thought he was more suited to be the front-person.
-- No idea who that last person is ... I hope it's not Jo. Based on the other designs, they've been pretty recognizable. New character? I am looking forward to seeing brand new characters as well as returning faces.

My initial thought was Naomi, but the preview pages all seem to show a caucasian woman with reddish hair. I don't think the character "moves" to the Legion though - if she's immortal it seems we're just following her long life into the 31st century so it's the future of whomever that character is, not that she's time traveling. (that's my take anyway)

Agreed on the long life, nonetheless bendis’ wording “For those who are worried, it's a character that can leave the DC Universe and walk a thousand years, and not mess up your favorite comics” makes it sound like this character won’t be around in present day books.

I am excited, but not necessarily because I think I will enjoy it myself. I am excited because it has the potential to bring a lot of new fans into the "franchise".

Firstly there is the name draw of Bendis. Like him or hate him he is well known enough and being highlighted enough (shades of John Byrne and the 1986 Superman revamp) to garner attention.
Secondly the idea of a mini-series exploring DC's future and linking lots of characters is a draw card in itself.
Thirdly some of the new Legion characters (it sounds like a reboot to me) will be appearing in the pages of Superman before the launch of the new series as well.

So I am hopeful that this might invest some new life into the fanbase and that is worth the risk.

Other reactions to the art work: not sure, particularly like everyone else about Imra. She looks the most different. It took me a while to see the Saturn image in her costume. The hair styles will have to grow on me but then I am an old fogey. Also they look much better in action on the Superman #15 cover than in the character sketches, naturally I suppose. I also took a while to notice that there is a similarity to the costumes in legs and lower body, perhaps semi uniform like the Reboot was?

Oh and I love that first issue cover. It looked good straight away with the figure in the devastation but it took me a bit to see the whole thing as the Legion logo. Very nice.

The Superman #15 solicit is suggestive: "At last, it’s the return of the Legion of Super-Heroes! The greatest super heroes of the 32nd century have travelled back in time not just to meet the heroes who inspired them, but to make an offer…but to which hero? And why will that choice tear Superman’s life apart?" Since Jon Kent is also on the cover it sounds to me like it's a new take on the recruiting of Superboy to the team but perhaps with it being of a more permanent nature?


I was wondering who this could be as well. I like the Naomi idea although the skin tone is different. It appears from the images that she changes her appearance a bit over the centuries which makes sense. My first thought was that it would be Lois Lane but that would fit into him "messing up your favourite comics" so pretty sure not. Who else? The female villain acting as a reporter in Superman?
Anyone else with ideas?

I thought it might be Timber Wolf.

Ahhhh yes, now I can only see Timber Wolf looking at him.

My first thought was Lois Lane too. Which would be so good, but also so not possible - it would make her new monthly title a very different spin than what most expected. Sigh.

Naomi would also be cool - but she doesn't look like the character appearing in Millennium previews. Bendis seems to have a bigger vision for Naomi and I could see him deciding to build her like he has with other characters in his runs at Marvel.

I think it's probably Jinny Hex. The hair color and the guns fit. Also, Jonah Hex had his whole HEX phase in the future and the use of Jinny could be an homage to that. Also, he indicated that this character would play with grey moral areas - or shifting moral areas - which makes sense for her character.

I thought for a second it could also be Scarlet but I can't believe he would give up ownership of the character to the DCU (or that DC would want a character they'd have to pay every time they use her).
I'm not familiar enough with his Superman run to see if any of that cast would fit the bill

So happy that despite misgivings for some, the tone of this board is mostly hopeful. My LSH FB group is tearing itself apart right now.

I suspect/hope that the newly immortal female character moving to the Legion is Amethyst. She makes the most sense:

1. She already has a connection to the Legion via Gemworld;
2. Bendis says it's a character he's writing at the moment and isn't she in his 'Young Justice'?;
3. I think she has red hair now like this character seems to;
4. Being a sort of other-dimensional character she could be very easily removed from the DCU without too many repercussions.

Other thoughts:

1. These are some terrible costumes. The only ones I like are Brainiac 5's (love that headpiece thing and his short-haired, youthful look) and Shadow Lass' (although this one is at the very lower end of her always great costumes). Saturn Girl's would be greatly improved by a circular half cape on the shoulder like what Captain Marvel and Power Girl used to wear. That would give the circular planet effect a more three-dimensional quality. The unnecessary lines all over everyone are so ugly though. I really do not understand the thought process that goes into adding them. And if that unknown character is Gim, Brin or Jo then that will easily be the worst costume that any of them have ever worn.

2. I'm not normally a fan of race/gender/species-bending characters but I'm OK with this change to Rokk. Dark-haired characters like he, Salu and a few others have always seemed one colorist's shade away from the comic-book depiction of 'Asian' anyway.

3. That said, I don't think it's a good look that as soon as he becomes 'Asian' Rokk gets demoted to secondary/tertiary focus out of the original 3. An 'Asian' leader of DC's biggest and best super-team would be a great message for the POC (especially Asian)-starved DCU and Garth and Imra already have their own love affair storyline, let Rokk keep his leadership one.

4. Thirty-four members sounds very exciting!

Apparently somewhere in all the press or solicitations, it refers to the Legion as coming from the 32nd century. Bendis has verified on Twitter that this is not a mistake. Speculate away! I’ve seen everything from “children of the LSH from the first Supergirl story” to “the future team that recruited Cos in the three boot” to “Bendis made an arbitrary change to feed his own ego and putting it in a different year ruins the Legion foreverrarrgh.”

I actually like the new costumes! They are different and sort of look like what a superhero might wear 1000 years from now. The haircuts are also complimentary to each other, and this evokes a kind of "style" that everyone in that era would sport since it's in fashion at the moment. Loving what I see so far.

The true test of my loyalty will be the story. It has to be the BEST part of this new iteration of the Legion. Period. Nuff said.

It could be that in writing the fistory* of this team, he just had to insert an extra hundred years to get everything he wanted to in there. Maybe it was move the Legion to the 32nd or leave out Tommy Tomorrow or something.



*future history, in hip LW slang.

Millennium seems to be a massive project to unite all the various space titles DC has put out in the past 80 years. They are placing Kamandi in this timeline, and even if they update it to be more realistic (maybe a pandemic instead of nuclear explosions since people know more about radiation now), the Earth will need time to recover.

The thing about trying to tie so many DC properties together into a coherent timeline is that it unravels the first time someone comes up with a cracking story about Space Rangers pet, Cryll. Omac and Kamandi are also candidates for this sort of thing.



I’m happy to see that go from Legion Lore. A group of people forced to wear a symbol to reveal their heritage has terrible real world connotations. Having a design on the shoulder, and hopefully removing any trace of everyone from there wearing the same outfits will do nicely.



This is really the big worry answered by the previews. They’ve not been shy of sticking to a design that worked for the character.







Hope so



Yeah, but technical sciencey things like… well counting… were never one of DC’s strong points. They did seem to get mixed up.



I guess we’ll see how long it lasts . Fourboot/Neoboot rather than a writer’s name would seem more appropriate.



Crumbs! I had each of those down for a different Legionnaire this time.



Imra: Right Jinny. Here’s your flight ring. Just in time to capture those crooks over there while I take you through some basics.
>Bang! Bang! Bang!<
Imra: … um… like our code against killing…
I like the idea of a nod to Hex though.

Why? I’d be interested to hear what people find to be the problem with what we’ve seen so far.


I hadn’t picked up on the ethnicity change and repercussions in Rokk’s role. But I did pick up on Rokk not being the one in the lead. This probably means I’ve read too many Legion comics Perhaps it’s just that without that quiet, determined leadership quality there’s not quite as much to Rokk as there should be. That getting picked as optimal leader (out of 3 people delivered form a kid’s toy ) was a big moment for him.


I like the first one, and have some Bits to post at some point about that. It could just be that the events in Millennium show the old Legion era in a bit of a mess, and it’s picking up from that which leads them to recruit Superboy.

There was also the old story about them being kids in their ‘40s, so there’s always that.

I see Emily and EDE’s have come up with solutions on this too…



Very much this. I just want a decent story.

Honestly, there’s not much to the upset people. Just blind hatred of Bendis, mixed with the same costume/haircut discussions we’ve had here. Lots of complaints about too much dialog, frequently from the same people who complain about comics today being too quick a read. And cracks about who’s going to go nuts and murder half the team, or complaints about aging Jon, as if that was in some way going to keep Legion from being a good comic, that kind of thing.

It’s a shame those people haven’t read any of the Wonder Comics line, because those are some great books, and very unlike typical Bendis work.

Thanks for giving some detail BFOB.

I've not read much of Bendis beyond Powers and a few scattered Avengers things. Early Powers work was a step up in writing from most of the books around at the time. I think there might have been some scheduling issues, that meant the momentum faded a bit. Having a really good artist obviously helped a lot (Retro Girl for the Legion!)

I've read a few Avengers issues. While things like Disassembled had a visceral punch, I can understand and agree with any Avengers fans were upset by what happened. I was reminded very much of Ellis wiping out Stormwatch because he really wanted to tell stories about his pet characters without having to go to the pesky bothers of launching a book on its own merits and building up a fanbase that way. Not that it wasn't a good read, but... I seem to recall lots of talking heads from Bendis' Avengers and I couldn't tell you a single thing that they got up to. I quite liked Dark Avengers issues I read. I'm not sure if he was the writer on them though.

I had a quick glance at Naomi in the shop last week. It was just the one issue and a quick skim (issue #3 I think). But it was fine. It was all building up to a cliffhanger at the end. But the relationship changes because of that cliffhanger, snippets of character history (a red herring reveal) and DCU connections were all solid.

On the killing half the team thing, I think at least one previous writer has joked about doing just that. Another writer split them into groups and punted them across the galaxy so as not to deal with them all at once. Levitz was looking to $*!$ with the characters (using his own expletive). Bendis has hinted that it's going to build up to a GDS sort of level. So, there will be things going on that are going to impact a lot of the cast. And not in a good way.

How old in Jon? If he's older than Superbaby then it will be fine, without having to age him at all. Why this should be an issue as he waves off Elastic Lad into the future though is a mystery.

Jon was 10 when Bendis took over, And he did a story that left him trapped in the crime syndicate universe for 6-7 years while only a few weeks passed in DCU time. Many people are understandably upset that this effectively kills the Super Sons, or at least changes the dynamic betweenJon and Damien hugely. But it in no way reflects on his ability to write a good Legion. Now of course, many suspect that he was aged specifically to make him Legion age so he can join.

I’m enjoying the Superman books, although with caveats. But Naomi, Young Justice, Wonder Twins and Dial H for Hero have all been fantastic stuff.

I should add for people that haven’t read his DC stuff that while Superman in particular is recognizably Bendis, he has made a real effort to bring DC to his voice at the same time as he brings his voice to DC.

Brain-Fall-Out Boy explained things well. There are a lot of people upset about how Bendis treated Jon, but I have thought about it and it is minor compared to things Legionnaires has been subjected to before and after they became members. Princess Projectra and Element Lad have both had their home planets destroyed (albeit in various versions). Mon-El was trapped in the Phantom Zone for 1000 years and he is somehow a functional being. Timber Wolf and Wildfire both have terrifying origins on a physical and psychological level.

The way Jon is hand-waving his years of absence in the comics seems like this just a plot device for Bendis to get him old enough to be in Legion.

I would've just set the Legionnaires at 10-ish!

I can get that if you absolutely hate a certain writer's work, you wouldn't be very enthusiastic about him taking over the LSH. And, I don't know. I'm jaded enough to be somewhat skeptical about any relaunch. But there are things about this that look promising, and other things not so much. But, a big relaunch after five years of no Legion book be published? I figure it's worth at least checking out.

Ah, that does seem to have kicked Super Sons in the teeth a bit. It would seem to suggest he was aged to fit in with the Legion too. That doesn't sound good as I remember the dreadful Bart Allen ageing and the dreadful way they waved it all away.

Had the idea been to fit him in with the start of the Legion, then it wouldn't have been that much of a stretch. They were all early teens. If he's joining years later when Wildfire gets there (assuming that this chronology has Wildfire not joining at the start) then it's a wider gap.

What Bendis' involvement with the Wonder Books? I quite liked an issue of Dial H, but I don't think he was writing it.

I think he is full writer on a couple. Definitely Naomi. I think he is co-writer on the others, but I’d have to look them up to be sure. He is definitely the “curator” of the line, as seems to be the new buzzword for such things.

I wouldn't read too much into the arrangement on the cover. It's the founding three and they are all bunched together. Garth is a bit in front but that fits with a brashness to his character that has often been portrayed. It doesn't mean he is the leader. Cos or Imra could equally well be the leader and be happy to let Garth be in front.


Absolutely. I also want it to be good enough to get rave reviews and draw in new fans. We need the new blood. Get them interested and some will dive back into the past and discover the rich history of the team. Even if they don't, even if this is the only version of the Legion they know, if this one is inspirational I will be happy.

I hadn't thought of Jon being aged specifically to fit in with the Legion before but it makes a bit of sense if Bendis had the Legion in mind all along. Still it doesn't feel that sudden. Jon has been back and aged for 6 issues now (which with the biweekly schedule is only 3 months, feels longer) and although it initially felt a bit frustrating (something which the characters of his parents very much acknowledged) it has also fitted with he story and the character's development.

A move to the 31st/32nd century would also fit. Have to catch up on the weird Young Justice thing with Connor. I haven't really got my head around the whole Titans/Teen Titans/Young Justice thing yet.

I suspect that, for impact in this first appearance, the front & center spot went to the Legionnaire with the most recognizable new costume. Lightning Lad is clearly Lightning Lad. We'd be wondering who the new Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl were.

The obvious choice to go all Scarlet Witch would be the White Witch, but that might be a little too obvious.

And Brainy's already been there, done that. Rokk-as-Time-Trapper, too. We've done the rampaging Daxamites thing to death, since the Great Darkness Saga, Ol-Vir and lately Res-Vir and the 'super-dominators,' so, hopefully not Mon-El!

Dreamy would make a freaky villain, having somehow foreseen that her teammates have to die for the future to survive...

There is already speculation that Jon Kent may be an impostor from Earth-3, in which case I welcome the Legion of Super-Lords.

Ugh. The last thing we need is another evil Superboy.

To be completely fair, I don’t know that I’ve actually read much of Bendis’s work besides Disassembled. I was not a fan of the Avengers books that came out after that, but a lot of that had more to do with Marvel trying to blend all of their lines together into an unrecognizable mess than who as actually writing them.

And we all know covers lie anyway

But I agree with Legion Tracker, the cover is not necessarily indicative of the leadership dynamics within the team.

[quote=Brain-Fall-Out BoyMany suspect that Jon was aged specifically to make him Legion age so he can join.[/quote]

I was speculating to myself whether it was possible that the Retroboot Legion was still more or less canon, and that this was a Children of the Legion book-- Superman would have been a member of the Retroboot Legion, and now Jon will be asked to join the Legion Kids. It would make sense that this book would therefore be set in the 32nd Century... the only problem with this theory is that he's still called Brainiac Five, rather than Brainiac 6, or 5.1, some other number.

^^^THIS!!!^^^

LIKE!

It appears from Bendis' twitter account that we might have already seen the Legion? Is this the best place for Twitter news/speculation or should we make a new thread?

That’s news to me. Do you have the wording of the tweet?

I have captured and saved the the screenshot, which is attached below.

^ Well spotted! Definitely some recognizable Legionnaires in that pic:

* Lightning Lad arcing his electricity in the middle (another hint that he's taking Cosmic Boy's place as the front and center member );
* Saturn Girl to the lower right of Lightning Lad based on the hair and position;
* Bouncing Boy in the middle right;
* There's a larger figure to the upper left of Lightning Lad but it looks a bit smaller and thicker than how most artists depict Colossal Boy in group shots, so Blok maybe?;
* Gates to the far left of the group;
* Mon-el looks to be to the upper right of Gates;
* There's an alienish figure almost directly underneath Lightning Lad which I guess could either be Chameleon Boy or Tellus with weirdly long arms;
* There's another alienish figure with what looks to be extra arms in the upper middle right of the pic which I guess could either also be Chameleon Boy or the Weirdo Legionnaire making his long-awaited return!

For better speculation!

How did I miss that? I read that comic! This is part of some weird waking dream/hallucination Supes has in the Fortress showing pretty much every hero (and the Zod family) there to honor him for something called World Peace Day. It even includes Lois in an "S"/"El" outfit and a young man who appears to be Jon Kent and a young woman, possibly another child of Kal and Lois?

Just after Zod arrives, this happens ... and then he "wakes up" with Jon and Lois asking him if he is alright - and that's all we get. There are some comments about him not really needing sleep but apparently needing it anyway and the story moves on.

With all this group thing happening right at the end of the "dream" I just ignored it and moved on. Silly me.

Bendis has something in mind but I have no idea what. His story seems pretty good but it feeeels sooo slooow. We just had the 12th issue, not counting the "Man of Steel" mini-series or Supergirl searching for answers in her series, and we are just now told that we will learn the REAL truth about the destruction of Krypton and Jor-El/Mister Oz in the NEXT issue.

Still it is keeping me reading so I guess it is working.

Oh and a couple of other things, the young woman does call Kal "Dad". Several of the other heroes appear to have kids including Wonder Woman and Aquaman and some sort of Flash family and even Jimmy Olsen is with a woman and they have a young red-haired freckled boy.

And the last scene shows Lois and Jon (who has lost an eye and has a cybernetic arm) being attacked (?) by energy beams? That happens immediately after the emergence of the group we are speculating about so it appears to be them attacking but it is unclear enough that they could also be coming to the rescue.

I agree with the ids suggested so far. The lower figure definitely looks like Cham. The larger body looks more Blok-ish to me. The caped figure near Gates could be Mon-El or possibly the Threeboot StarBoy? There is also a long haired figure near the top with a large cape that to my mind says Sensor Girl. Near the possible Gates figure looks to be a large feathered wing so Dawnstar I guess. The rest seem to me pretty generic male and female heroic body types. I also can't spot anything like Quislet.

Does anyone else think that perhaps the reason why they are now in the 32nd century is because this Legion will be the children and grandchildren of the original team?

Unlikely the children would have the same powers. I assume they would be a mixture of powers like Garridan Ranzz's mental lightning and codenames like Brainstorm. Again though all we have seen is costumes so anything is possible.

Ha ha. This is comic books.

Point taken.

They might also get kids with no powers if there are enough recessive genes (I use that excuse in my fanfics). Bendis will get what he wants, there is always a plot device.

It seems like if it would have to be at least great-grandchildren or more to really justify the extra 100 (or at least 80) years into the future.

I'm thinking that there is a different reason for putting the Legion a century ahead. It's clearly deliberate - but the expectation that people would have similar personalities and power sets 2-3 generations out just seems ... odd.

It's probably something far simpler - like losing 100 years from a Super Punch!

Oh, right, wrong writer.

Here's hoping there's a better reason for the century jump

http://www.legionworld.net/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=805&filename=Superman #9 (2019) pg 6.jpg


I see more than 45 silluettes in this pic.... Maybe the 50 legionnaires core is not a dream....

I count 50 myself assuming some of it is powers being used as well.

I believe Bendis said 34 leads but that may not be counting former members, reserves, honorary ect.

Does anyone here listen to the podcast Bendis is on? I saw he was asked questions yesterday, but I don't want to waste time if it is the same stuff he posts on twitter.

I don’t, but if you point me to it I’ll take one for the team.

I misread the Twitter feed, the podcast doesn't seem to be posted yet. However, there is a mention of "this weekend" so I will post the link:

http://www.wordballoon.com/

Thank you kindly for your help, Brain-Fall-Out Boy.

I am so looking forward to a new Legion comic. Trying not to get my hopes up too much, so I can try to read it for what it is. 2013 was the end of the last book, so in my mind I'm calling this one Six Years Later. Heh.

I subscribed to the podcast so that when it shows up it will automatically appear in my feed.

Someone pointed out that Melody Moore, the Fire Chief from Action Comics, has red hair and meets all of the requirements. I don’t think I’ve seen her listed here as a possibility, but I may have missed it.

Legion World is alive again!

ikr? So many of my discussion groups have been blowing up. I fear the comedown when the initial surge dies down and they all go back to normal levels while we wait for the debut.

Bah! Where were they all during the Five Year Gap...not not that Five Year Gap, the other one... oh, never mind....

FYI, Bendis' twitter has gotten hacked. He says it was shut down, nevertheless I advice caution until we get more news.

The Legion conversation begins at 22 minutes in of part one, btw.

Posted to Twitter. Apparently will appear in Previews July issue. Brian is trying to get a higher res version posted.

Hmm...

Blok, Star Boy, Cosmic Boy, Light Lass?, Chameleon Boy, Brainiac Five
Mon-El, New Character?, Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Lighting Lad, Element Lad?

I'm thinking the last one is Sun Boy. And if purple girl is an established character, my guess would be Dream Girl.

Oh yeah, I see Sun Boy now.

*Sees Light Lass*

*eye twitch*

Ugh. I hope not.

So I tried staying off here because I didn't want to be a buzz kill and ruin everyone else's hope but screw it I feel nothing but hate for these redesigns.

I hope that purple girl can be Veilmist

I’ve got the interview in my feed now. Will listen tonight at work, hopefully post something in the morning, depending on how much listening time the job let’s me have.

I listened to all of part one and most of part two before I had to get some sleep. Not much is revealed about the Legion that we already don't know.

However, this is a completely new take on the Legion "for this generation" and the main reason for setting it in the 32nd century was not to infringe on any of the Legion stories that came before. He's not saying those stories happened in his Legion's past, but they also necessarily didn't happen.

This Legion is the only Legion for the current DC's continuity. And these stories will be the first time we are seeing them. Like his Ultimate Universe, Bendis will be taking inspiration from the stories that came before.

Also, he pronounces "Millennium" weird.

Well, that's a dumb reason for setting them in the 32nd century.

The interviewer wonders - not too seriously - if he was saying Mi-LANE-ium and the mystery character is Lois Lane. It did sound like that.

The 2-part interview is long - haven't finished part 2 myself - but worth a listen for general Bendis comics talk. Bendis does sound quite enthusiastic and acknowledges that the Legion often starts out strong with a new team and later falls apart (not his exact words); he of course hopes to avoid this.

Purple lady - maybe Shikari? or new character. Veilmist could be a possibility. If they've made Dream Girl look like that there will be howls of anguish.

For the purple legionnaire, I think it might be Shikari due to the costume (I can't think of any other legionnaires that a starfield would work for). My other first thought was Drura. Then I had a thought that might cause a bit of rage, what if it's Shrinking Violet?

IDLE

Shrinking Violet is being bandied about as well as Infectious Lass. Hopefully, when Previews comes out tomorrow, we'll get some better ideas. This does bring us up to 14 full designs seen (including Wildfire and mystery guy from the Superman cover).

I still count over 50 for the mystery group.

Based on my numbers -

4. Purple Mystery Girl
5. Starboy
7. Mon-El
10. Light Lass
14. Superman Cover Mystery Boy
20. Blok
24. Sun Boy
25. Shadow Lass
30. Lightning Lad
31. Cosmic Boy
39. Wildfire
41. Chameleon Boy
48. Brainiac 5
50. Saturn Girl

That means there's likely going to be a Bouncing Boy, Gates, Dawnstar/Quetzal, Guy with multiple limbs & Biron or other centaur.

...so they HAVE said that it's possible that the past Legion stories DID happen?

Look I mean guys I've mainly been upset about this because I thought it would've wrecked the plans I had for Legion stories, and I still don't like those designs but if there's room to say the Johnsboot, and therefore the Reboot and Threeboot Legions, weren't just wiped out, I can live with that.

I still don't trust Bendis. I'll look, but I don't know if I feel comfortable enough to support it. I don't trust anyone they would've used as long as Didio and Harras still have control.

The best guesses I have heard for Purple Skinned Mystery Girl are a new Infectious Lass, or a 32nd-century distaff version of The Parasite.

I love the new design for Blok, FWIW.

Oh! And apparently, Saturn Girl in Doomsday Clock is the same one as here somehow as Bendis said he wasn't disrupting that series at all.

Oh there is absolutely nothing attractive about what this means at ALL.

I'm starting to lose my optimism that this isn't going to be a complete mess continuity-wise.

I thought of Violet as well. It has been confirmed that there's new characters, so I'm still putting my 5 ergloks on it being someone new.

Which is pretty much the other reason why I was against this. I kept saying making a new continuity would make things more confusing.

Think about this Legion the same way the Mark and Barry's threeboot Legion was. It's own unique version.

Someday, maybe we'll have a Legion of 4 Worlds to enjoy.

Well, the Legion was already a complete mess continuity wise in the past couple of incarnations, so...

I did like the fact that he said he would draw upon aspects of all previous incarnations and creative teams.

I suppose the centaur could be Wild Huntsman from the Devil's Dozen. The guy with multiple arms reminds me a bit of Forager from Young Justice but more so of a scorpion. Maybe Insect Queen? Winged one could also be Ornitho/Aviax.

As long as Superboy-Prime doesn't murder any more Legionnaires in that story

As for purple girl - I also thought of Violet, Shikari... and Projectra. The mask reminds me of Sensor Girl, and purple = royalty (like Threeboot Jeckie used)... Drura would be great, though!

Just to throw the possibility out there:

A gender-swapped version of either Power Boy or Magnetic Kid I?

He said in the podcast that he has 0 plans to use Superboy-Prime and with Conner in Young Justice and Jon in Superman and Legion, he has enough Superboys to play with. Then, he later clarified, that HE has no plans, but that doesn't mean someone else might want to use him.

Ultra Boy is confirmed. The images are of Ryan Sook's sketchbook via Instagram -

So, it won't be much like the Legion of 3 Worlds then. :smile :rimshot:

Well, it was just one big fight scene, with seriously dodgy continuity "fixes".

Great to see the by the numbers Legion diagram. I picked up that issue form the shop last week, but I've not read it yet. It will give me a Bendis taster.

Pushing the Legion into the future certainly gives it its own space to breathe and doesn't directly discount the previous stories. but the logic of all that seems wobbly if...

a) a lot of things leading up to this Legion are shown in Millennium and there's a Legion sized gap
b) that the stories of this Legion become retreads of old Legion stories, which may have already happened in this continuity
c) the cast become the same characters as previous boots.

It's a tough one. Keep the old continuity and it's a struggle to break new ground with the book's sales. Start form scratch and lose some core fans of the old versions. It looks as though they're threading the ground between the two. It's their own fault for not noticing that the Interlac sign on that path said minefield.

I've no issues with the redesigns. It will be interesting to see them in action. The "Star Boy" reminds me a lot of a Marvel character. Did Quasar ever look like that? Bouncing Boy and Gates to look forward to too. That does look more like a Quetzal than a Dawny. A bit of Cockrum love would be a nice touch.

I think Bendis was saying his Legion is the only one from the current DC continuity created by Doomsday Clock. If the other Legions exist, they do so in the Multiverse/Metaverse sense and not in his Legion's direct history.

That's how I understand it as well. But then it doesn't make any sense that he would feel the need to leave a hundred year period where other Legion stories *might* have happened (only in a different universe).

Maybe it will make sense once the comic comes out.

Violet! You're turning violet, Violet!

Someone on Facebook suggested the purple girl is Kid Quantum.

I've decided I'm going to like everything about this new Legion until the book itself changes my mind. I've read the Legion faithfully since 1969 (they don't call me Legion Tracker for nothin'), and I've liked some versions more than others. But a brand new bunch of Legionnaires inspired by (not cloned, not paralleled) the previous versions (yes, versions) makes me happy. I appreciate continuity, but it's fun to play with good characters in new ways.

But... you're supposed to irrationally hate everything about the book before it comes out, and then continue to buy and complain about it throughout the run! I mean... what kind of comic fan are you?

LMAO!!!!!

"Current DC continuity created by Doomsday Clock"

Yeah I knew that was too much to hope for.

Because that's just what all fans need, a Legion spinning out of the sequel to Watchmen that no one asked or.

Screw it if I can't do stories in the continuity I planned for I'll try to save a handful of Legionnaires.

Just finished part 2 of the podcast and XS is mentioned and Bendis plans to have her meet up with Impulse at some future point.

Yay! one of my favorites is making the jump from the Reboot. something else to be excited about.

XS, Gates... I would love to see all the Reboot originals, but I would initially settle for Kinetix and Kid Quantum II to join XS and Gates.

Here's the relevant pages from DC Previews #15, July 2019.

I'm more interested in this Legion now that I know it's a radical redesign set in a new century with new characters and continuity and so on.

I feel like the "original" characters (whoever they even are at this point) are so tainted by all the reboots and threeboots and retroboots and so on that to continue any of those storylines would just invite unfavorable comparisons to what came before and conflict among the fans of the different versions.

Better to just scrap it all and start over with a completely clean slate. And now that I'm OK with that idea, I wish they'd pushed the limits of these new conceptualizations even more. I mean, why is every Legionnaire revealed so far a 2 armed, 2 legged humanoid? Why are they all more or less the same height and weight (short Sun Boy and heavy Blok excepted) and have the same fashion sense? I would've liked to see some more creativity in alien design here along the lines of what some creators have done with the Green Lantern Corps.

Also, if they're wanting to start a whole new Legion with all the promise and possibility that that entails, I don't get why they are grafting it so tightly to the DCU character who is THE MOST LIKELY to be wiped away whenever DC does it's next reboot; Jon Kent. I mean, people don't seriously think Superman's teenage son is going to be around forever do they?

Blacula:

Valid points, although this may be expecting too much. We do see quite a few "aliens": humanoids with different-colored skin. (I count six our of twelve) So they're trying.

Complete new alien character designs like Tellus and Gates tend to suffer badly from artist to artist-- just consider at the deterioration of the representations of those characters in the "New 52" Legion Lost.

I repeat myself, but I do like the "boulder" Blok look.

As for Jon Kent, everyone always believes that *this* continuity will last...

"I always think there's a band, kid." -- Harold Hill, in The Music Man

Personally, I'm down for this new Legion and all it entails, but I'm always confused as to why Superman can look and act pretty much the same even after he's rebooted, but it's too much to ask for the Legionnaires.

Everyone expects that they have to look and act differently and date different people than the previous incarnation in order to be "fresh and new!" Young Justice is back from being blinked out of existence and yet Robin, Superboy, Impulse and Wonder Girl were able to look and act the same way they did before. Sure they'll change but they are being introduced as if they stepped out of the last series. The JSA is coming back in their old costumes and with the old powers, no one is a girl now, no one is a snake...but that's never how the Legion are treated. "Let's make them unrecognizable! That'll get old and new readers for sure!"

Anyway, I will support and I'm sure enjoy this new Legion no matter how they look (and act), but I do always wonder why everything Legion has to be made brand new again and again over and over and maybe that's why these boots never last. Instead of the changes occurring organically from a standard base they are thrust upon them and us. Even the retroboot came with so many fundamental changes that it couldn't keep an audience.

Now that I got that out of the way, let's enjoy this new Legion!

I think Bendis will introduce some new characters (the purple girl might be one of them). He said 34 characters in the book so that offers a lot of room. We also don't know how long Bendis will stay on the book, he was on Guardians of Galaxy for 18 issues before he moved on.



Once I started digging into twitter, I found quite a few angry Jon Kent fans. I don't know if he gained a following with kids or their parents, but there is an audience out there. They don't like that he was aged up and want him back as a kid. If this Legion fails, DC would probably just give him the Franklin Richards Treatment.

All very true. And there is the old canard that some readers find it harder to identify with non-anthropoid characters too. I'm actually more happy than unhappy with these revitalizations now. I love how diverse the team looks now. Only 5 of the 12 characters in the DC Previews ad look human and of those 5, only 3 look Caucasian (Mon-el looking Hispanic to me and Rokk looking Asian).

I'm excited to see how the rest of the team has been re-imagined now.

I have no objection to greater diversity in comics, but if Mon-El's origin is still going to have Superboy mistaking him for a previously unknown brother, he should probably be Caucasian enough to look like he's likely Superboy's brother.

I do agree with all this too though! I would have loved to see the original characters' story keep going (even with some minor variations) just like Batman and Superman and others' have.

But now that I've been out of comics for a while I'm OK with thinking of the old Legion as book that's now finished. All stories come to an end eventually and sure, that Legion's ending was messy and drawn out and unsatisfying but I still have happy memories of all of the earlier chapters.

I'm sure Jon Kent has his fans (and I hope they come with him to this book to make it a success) but removing Superboy from its history was a blow that the original team's storyline never recovered from, and started the snowball of retcons that eventually killed it, so it just disappoints me that the new writers seem to be about to make the same mistake here.

Disappointing. And expected.

I've never read a single comic with Jon Kent, but the idea of aging him to fit in with the Legion sounds horrible to me.

Had they made the Super Sons a couple of years older right from the outset, then it wouldn't have been an issue just to move Superboy as he was into the Legion. They spend a lot of time planning in DC, but there always seems to be fudges like this one. Not having read any of it, I wonder if the attitude of the younger Jon was too childlike to make a move into the Legion possible. If he acted more like Pre Crisis Superboy, then there was still the option just to move him into the team.

Happy with what I've seen and good to see DC take advantage of getting more of an ethnic mix into the team. A Kid Quantum (that survives more than 5 minutes) would be a bonus.

Thanks for the Previews pics Nighty! I peeked in the shop, foolishly picking up the heavy big book rather than just taking out the little DC bit.

I made a comment about Dark Horse's Quantum League having a crossover with the Legion. I noticed that Black Hammer is having a crossover with the Justice League. I can't imagine that a crossover between the tow Legions hasn't crossed their minds. I imagine that will make an appearance once the new team has bedded in a bit.

Polar Lass for the lady in blue!

Did anyone mention yet that Bendis said in the podcast that Jinny Hex is getting an upcoming Wonder Comics series? It seems to make her less likely as a Millennium candidate

I'm looking forward to the Millennium issues since that 1000 year gap was never really settled as a coherent history in the DC universe. I suppose with the constraints of two issues they'll stick to established characters and not fill in the gaps. The summary mentions "disparate DC futures" so I'm not sure if this will be one continuous Earth history or they'll throw in some alternate Earth stuff. Never been able to reconcile Kamandi with any version of the Legion (where did all the talking animals go?).

Talking animals? There were never any (burrrrp...) talking animals around here.

I could be wrong, of course, but I think “disparate futures” just refers to the fact that various versions of the future were created without reference to each other, or thought on how they fit together.

I understand the frustration, yeah. On the other hand, I guess if they are going to reboot the team anyway, might as well go the whole hog... and I do appreciate the greater diversity. From a nostalgia point of view, with my favorite heroes, I can live with "similar enough" to previous versions - but then again, what is similar enough? Threeboot Brainy is not at all the same as Reboot Brainy.

Dilemmas, dilemmas.

I don't like very much the idea to change the etnic origins in the classic legionnaires, because we have enough diversity in the originals ones...

Chameleon Boy, Brainiac 5, Ferro Lad (original idea), Karate Kid, Shadow Lass, Tyroc, Dawnstar, Blok, Invisible Kid II, Tellus, Quislet, Kono, Veilmist, Kid Quantum, Dragonmage, Catspaw, Computo, Gates, Gear, XS, Monstress, Harmonia.
We really need more?

If the Legions fans wants another thing full of amazing beings ...read Captain Carrot or Green Lanterns Corps...

Yeah, it's a balancing act. On the one hand, you don't want to just rehash everything that came before (or else what's the point?), while you also don't want to change things so fundamentally that they become unrecognizable. And, of course, what seems like a minor change to one person will seem like an unforgivable alteration to another.

Yeah, I guess famine was a possibility after all those horrible world wars we read about in the Soljer story.



Makes sense & I hope that's the case, but it should be a job fitting them together. I'm quite looking forward to the whole thing as a new take on the Legion concept - was wondering if I'd even live long enough to see another LSH from DC.

I've completely mixed feeling about this. On the one hand, I'd much prefer to just keep various futures separate and just set them on different Earths or something, but, since they are doing it, I'm also weirdly fascinated by how they are going to try to tie all of them together.

Of course, if you're doing that, then why not also go ahead and add in a sort of uber-Legion continuity in which all the previous versions of the team (or at least analogues of their stories) take place?

I'm not sure why Bendis decided to reboot the Legion whole instead of going back to prior continuity--does he explain why in the podcast?

It feels a bit odd since he resurrected the Young Justice to their classic selves and added a few new/newish characters. Of course, DC says everything is canon (therefore there is no canon) nowadays so other writers could dig out those versions in the future. I'm also looking forward to double Legion as I pray Hickman will do a Shi'ar Imperial Guard book if the X-Men relaunch goes well.

Hey Eryk, I highly recommend the Adventures of the Super Sons, of which the last issue of the mini series will be out in a week or so.

I, for one, welcome our new thirty second century overlords.

Crumbs! Sue Pergirl has figured out that they're all Computo constructs!


I'm see all sorts of characters in the Superman #9 image from Jeckie and Laurel to Dreamy and Jenny. It would seem odd to have Chuck and not Lu. Likewise to have Wildfire without #29 being Dawny. #40 has green in their costume - Chemical Kid? Element Lad? Jimmy Olsen: Turtle Boy?

Somehow I missed this, sorry if it's old news to most of you.

Are those 8n chronological order? Because setting OMAC after Booster Gold seems kind of weird.

For those upset with the older Superboy... he can leave the "present" and join the 32nd century LSH. Then, the younger Jon can return from an earlier time period and be the "Super-Son" again.

Lor-Zod/Christopher Kent should have emerged from the Phantom Zone in the time of the Legion to become that era's Superboy.

Per established lore, OMAC should come before Kamandi because Buddy is his grandfather. So I think the list the list is random.

Lor-Zod/Chris Kent is a victim of DC Editorial. They can't seem to make up their minds as to whether or not Kryptonians can have children with humans. Maybe it is better for him to be a decent villain than to languish in limbo? I loved Drax-Zod in the cartoon.

*gasp*

What have they done to Matter-Eater Lad?

Millenium #2 Cover plus Character Designs for Blok, Dawnstar, MEL, and Dreamy

I'm just glad there is one.

Actually, all things considered, that's a relatively minor change compared to some others.

I like how they are portrayed on the cover. This is going to be our most alien Legion ever.

There are a few interesting faces looking at the crowd behind Superboy.

I think Ultra Boy wears some armour to give some protection when he uses strength, much as the flight ring allows him to fly and use another power.

I wonder if MEL's armour means that he has Calorie Queen's powers, where his nomming turns into super strength.

Good to see Chuck and Gim in there. That might be a version of Jan. The girl in the visor reminds me of Lori Morning. Lots of possibilities suggested with this version of Dream Girl. If Imra hands out the rings, I wonder if she'll be leader for a while.

EDIT: Yup, it's Jan. Thanks for the image Nighty. I didn't see it at first in the scroll through on CBR. I'd have preferred the Interlac E and not the Elastic Lad E though.

Blok does have a face after all.

Still not sold on supporting on this, but the Dawnstar redesign? Yeah that, THAT, I would get behind. Not the wing thing which I guess is so Ryan Sook doesn't have to keep drawing them in every panel, but the costume and the fact her boobs aren't likely to fall out anymore. I have NEVER understood why in God's name nearly all her costumes had those ridiculous boob windows because they just never fit her personality. It's why I preferred her Magic Wars era costume. That was still skimpy but at skimpy to an understandable degree.

Also what the hell did he do to Jan and why do I feel like I'm looking at Brother Power the Geek.

Is that Mysa at the back?

I thought Brother Power too Sarky. There seems to be chemical reactions going on in his costume as well. A sort of Brother Power/ Chemo/ Chlorophyll Kid combo.

I was happy to see the end of Dawy's boob window too. I preferred the Magic Wars one over a lot of the others too. I'm not sure on my stereotypes regarding the costume as it is now. It does strike me a bit like that, even now. She's cheering on the cover, so she might have had a personality change too. Or perhaps Wildfire leaves her alone in this version.

WILDFIRE and Dawny are standing pretty close together, so maybe - maybe not. Maybe they're actually happy??? So far, it looks like the Wildfire design is a lot closer to the traditional than a lot of the others, which makes me wonder what else they changed about him - maybe he's an alien energy life-form? (rather then an angsty human who lost his body)

Matter-Eater Lad's "armor" looks more like bracers to me - like he might need them for some reason. Maybe his form drastically changes depending on how much he eats?

I get how these redesigns can turn off long-time fans, but I do appreciate the greater variety. It's all going to boil down to how they're written for me anyway.

Dreamgirl (now one word) seems almost to evoke Dream (Morphius) of the Endless. Her traditional power might be more akin to Destiny, but we could be in for a re-thinking of her power-set.

Anyhow, just mindless speculation on my part.

I like all the designs I have seen so far. I wonder if Dream Girl is going to be some sort of energy/spiritual being?

Element Lad's face seems a bit off, but I like the choice of costume and skin color (the blue reminds me of his evil phase, which is the best idea I have heard from the Reboot). Trom was always depicted as not human (i.e no concept of marriage) so giving them that extra distinction helps.

Can we just pause for a second to admire that excellent Ryan Sook cover. It must be SO hard to come up with a Legion cover that:

a) works well visually;
b) depicts all or most members of the team; and
c) is original.

And this one does all three! I love it! It feels instantly iconic and the type of cover that might get imitated in the future.

As for the new look of the team? I love that too! As Nighty said "This is going to be our most alien Legion ever" and I AM HERE FOR IT! This feels like just the potion to grow a fanbase that this book needed.

Dawnstar, Matter-Eater Lad and especially Dream Girl all look excellent (though I can see Dream Girl looking very ugly and boring in the wrong artist's hands) and Blok looks OK. I'm not keen on the surfer-boy Element Lad though. I hope his skin and costume change like elements or something to keep him interesting.

I can't believe no one's made a guess as to who all is on the cover yet so I'm gonna make one myself.

So we've had visual confirmation of the following members so far:

1) Blok
2) Brainiac 5
3) Chameleon Boy
4) Cosmic Boy
5) Dawnstar
6) Dream Girl
7) Element Lad
8) Light Lass
9) Lighning Lad
10) Matter-Eater Lad
11) Mon-El
12) Saturn Girl
13) Shadow Lass
14) Star Boy
15) Sun Boy
16) Superboy
17) Wildfire

... and all of them are visible on this cover. That leaves 12 characters to identify. Let the guessing begin!

1) Asian Male in yellow/black (far left): The costume kinda looks like Invisible Kid II but I'm guessing Karate Kid maybe?
2) Blonde Female in pink/white (center Ring left): No idea. New character maybe?
3) Black Male in white/blue (center Ring left): Definitely Bouncing Boy (and I love this new look!).
4) Black Female in pink/green (center Ring right): No idea but I'm getting a magic vibe so White Witch maybe?
5) Tan-skinned Male in green/green (far right): Invisible Kid or Chemical King? Whoever it is, I'm almost positive this character is going to be LGBT.
6) Yellow-skinned Female(?) (middle far left): No idea. Kono?
7) Purple-skinned Female (middle far left): Triplicate/Duplicate Girl?
8) White-skinned Female (back far left): The crown makes me think Princess Projectra.
9) Brown-haired Male (back middle left): Has to be either Ultra Boy or Timber Wolf.
10) Yellow-skinned Male(?) (far back middle): No idea.
11) White-haired Female (middle back): The tiara thing could point to Princess Projectra but it reminds me more of that thing that Big Barda wears, so a New God maybe?
12) Brown-haired Male (middle back): Obviously Colossal Boy. (Yaaaaayyyyyyyy!)

Yeah, I was wondering if maybe he bulks up by eating. We'll see!

I'm enjoying the gradual release of character designs, but I'm definitely ready for confirmation as to whether the team includes any characters introduced later than the 1980s...

Absolutely agree. Wonderful cover, love the reflection of Saturn Girl in the ring, and being the second part of Millennium could also help pull in new readers to Legion.



My daughter was looking at the cover and suggesting other legionnaires and mentioned Shrinking Violet. Could Violet be violet?

I count all 34 being present. (BTW, I had 7 twice on my other image, so the total for that was 52).

1. White Witch?
2. Sun Boy
3. XS?
4. Chemical King?
5. Gates?
6. Kid Fate?
7. Ferro Lad?
8. Colossal Boy
9. Phantom Girl
10. Timber Wolf
11. Princess Projectra?
12. Matter-Eater Lad
13. Polecat?
14. Brainiac 5
15. Polar Boy?
16. Blok
17. Mon-El
18. Dawnstar
19. Wildfire
20. Dream Girl
21. Saturn Girl
22. Chameleon Boy
23. Shadow Lass
24. Ultra Boy
25. Light Lass
26. Karate Kid
27. Bouncing Boy
28. Star Boy
29. Lightning Lad
30. Element Lad
31. Triplicate Girl
32. Shrinking Violet
33. Cosmic Boy
34. Superboy

Also, Brian Michael Bendis on Twitter -

It does seem strange that no characters introduced later than the '80s have been revealed yet (apparently). Although XS and Gates have both already been confirmed haven't they so we know there are some out there. Personally I really hope Dragonmage and Kinetix make the cut. They haven't been given enough time to shine.

On Gary's list, I think the following characters are definitely correct: 2, 12, 14, 16-23, 25, 28-30, 33 & 34.

I think the following characters are very safe bets: 8, 10, 26 & 27.

For me, the real mysteries are: 1, 3-7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 24, 31 & 32.

I'm enjoying this gradual roll-out though.

guesses: 01. white witch, 02. Sun Boy, 03. xs, 04. chemical king, 05. Gates, 06. tyroc, 07. ferro lad, 08. Colossal Boy, 09. phantom girl, 10. timber wolf, 11. princess projectra, 12. matter eater lad, 13. invisible kid, 14. Brainiac 5, 15. Polar Boy, 16. Blok, 17. Mon El, 18. Dawnstar, 19. Wildfire, 20. Dream Girl, 21. Saturn Girl, 22. Chameleon Boy, 23. Shadow Lass, 24. ultra boy, 25. Light Lass, 26. Karate Kid, 27. Bouncing Boy, 28. Star Boy, 29. Lightning Lad, 30. Element Lad, 31. Triplicate Girl, 32. shrinking violet, 33. Cosmic Boy, 34. Superboy.

Looks great, very upbeat cover. Matter Eater Lad looks like he isn't going to get played for laughs anymore, I like the surfer dude Element Lad (who knows? he may turn out to be the most serious of the group), Dream Girl's strange (like the suggestion that she's one of the Endless) and Dawnstar's spirit wings are distinctive.

It appears to me that there are Heroes of a number of different ages. MEL in particular looks like he might be an Adult Advisor of some kind. Many of the as-yet unidentifieds look quite young.

If this is the Legion Superman belonged to, and to whom he is now sending Jon, it seems reasonable that at least some of them would be his age. Training the youngsters?

I like Element Lad on the cover vs. the character design

I am getting excited by the possibilities
Leaving my cynic to the side so I can enjoy the first 6 issues or so (at least!)

Love Gary's guesses - thanks for doing the painstaking work of numbering all the characters

It's possible some of those tiaras are for Comet Queen or Quantum Queen

Okay this bothered me all night but from the moment I saw Tenzil's redesign... I-I dunno, something about it creeps me out. You guys probably think I'd be into it and God knows I'm shocked too but there's something about it I can't put into words other than a vaguely unsettling feeling. Even my dislike for the other designs hasn't generated this feeling.

Actually, I think I'm leaning towards your list now.

I'd reverse White Witch and Projectra, but it's really only a guess.

This team kind of reminds me of the threeboot Wanderers, which also had more "alien" looking versions of familiar characters. It's like they took that concept and applied it to the main team.

Someone commented whether or not the redesigns are just for the sake of being visual gimmicks

I MEAN, if they don't really add to the characters beyond just making them look weird

Me too, me too

1 White Witch
2 Sun Boy
3 XS
4 ?
5 Gates
6 ?
7 Timberwolf
8 Colossal Boy
9 Violet
10 Ultra Boy
11 Projectra
12 ME Lad
13 Kono/Invisible Kid/ Stealth
14 Brainiac 5
15 Ferro Lad/ Polar Boy
16 Blok
17 Mon El
18 Dawnstar
19 Wildfire
20 Dreamgirl
21 Saturn Girl
22 Chameleon Boy
23 Shadow Lass
24 Chlorophyll Kid
25 Light Lass
26 Invisible Kid / Karate Kid
27 Bouncing Boy
28 Star Boy / Kid Quantum
29 Lightning Lad
30 Element Lad
31 Lori Morning
32 Triplicate Girl
33 Cosmic Boy
34 Superboy


But there could be new ones in there. 31 Could be Visi-Lass and 13. Kid Voodoo.

If 25. is Light Lass then I suspect that she might have light based powers and the visor is there for protection for her eyes?

The post-80s characters might be getting introduced later on. That first issue of Millennium had a lot of rubble on it, and there's no telling when it was Superboy actually joined. It may be before some disaster that the team has to emerge from. I'd not be overly worried about them not appearing if the series is a success. Bendis doesn't come across as beholden to the Adventure days as TMK did.

Light Lass with light-based powers was first done in Superboy's Legion, and Ayla kicked tons of nass!

So, I have been thinking, maybe the pink/purple aliens we have been seeing could be Korugarians (Sinestro's species)? I know the original planet was destroyed, but they created a New Korugar (if Bendis even tries to place it within canon).

The rubble on the Millenium cover could be metaphorical. “From the rubble of the past rises...” kind of thing.

Good question. With the way DC plays with continuity the current Superman may have never met any version of the Legion before. Yes he is meant to be the pre-Flashpoint post-InfiniteCrisis Superman brought through Convergence but his timeline was later merged with the New52 Superman and DC have been (perhaps understandably) reluctant to clarify what this actually means. Since the original Crisis, Superman has met the original Legion in the Death of Superboy crossover and again in the Time and Time Again story, the 5YL Legion in Time and Time Again and a few during Zero Hour, the Reboot Legion when they were in the 20thC around Final Night, possibly heard pf the Threeboot Legion from Supergirl, the Retroboot Legion as a youth post Infinite Crisis and in the Lightning Saga and Superman and the Legion and during the Last Stand of Krypton, and all three (excluding 5YL) during Final Crisis Legion of 3 Worlds. Oh and Lois hosted a party for him and the Retroboot/Original Legion (when was that again?).

Bendis version appears significantly different to any of the previous versions, so has he met them before? If he has will he recognise them as being the same or wonder why they are different?

Since Superman's own timeline is so convoluted and poorly defined it is now wonder that it continues to impact that of the Legion.

There was the "It's going to be a time of great chaos and struggle in the galaxy, and it's up to them to get to work and figure it out as they're going; they're young."

There was also a quote around things crumbling and doing so quickly. To balance that, Bendis did also mention a hopeful age of heroes so the cast will be looking to retain that or get to it as quicklyvas possible.

I only hope that purple skin girl don't be Phantom Girl. Veilmist is the best option.

My guess is that the Legion will represent hope and optimism in a time of darkness, much like the first year of 5YL.

I'm not sure I like some of the new designs that were just released...…artistically speaking it seems Bendis and Sook have taken on a "literal" representation for some, if not most, of these 32nd century Legionnaires. For example, Sun Boy looks like an active sun, Shadowy Shadow Lass, Dream Girl (or Dreamgirl as is now stated) looks ethereal, the new coloration on Element Lad almost gives him a Metamorpho feel. And is it just me or does he look a bit goofy and/or stoned?

I dunno guys, I honestly don't dig everything I've seen thus far. Some I do like however (the founders' new looks are great in my opinion).

We'll see. The one thing that I DO know though is I will give the new series a good, honest chance and will try to be objective in my views. I owe the Legion and its new creators that much at least.

Element Lad gives me more of a Chemo feel than Metamorpho.

I like some of the reimaginings and I hate some of them (I already miss classic Dreamy & Tenzil) but like Catonyx said, I'm gonna give it a chance. It's exciting that we even have a Legion again, and if these guys do turn out to be legacies of the original characters or something along those lines I think that's a really elegant way to get them out of the shadow of umpteen other reboots (and also makes it MUCH easier to deal with any changes)...and honestly, I never thought we'd see a Legion again that had Matter-Eater Lad and Bouncing Boy as proper non-joke members so that on its own has got me more on side. Will be interesting to see how this goes!

Supergirl #32 came out today. At the end, the next issue blurb promises “a special visit from the future.”

Superboy may well join the Legion, but that doesn't mean Supergirl can't be recruited first.

Via Instargram

That's a very busy picture, and I like that it's got Krypto in it! (Just saying the first positive thing to pop into my mind.)

Superboy to join L.E.G.I.O.N. in Bendis shock surprise!

Precursor to the United Planets?

Galactic Party - everyone's invited. And yeah, Krypto! Appears to be set on Thanagar...they're handing out the cosmic goodies previews to us junkies bit by bit.

I’m sure it’s the climax to the Unity Saga and the big conspiracy around the destruction of Krypton. Although Jor-El is conspicuously absent.

Jor El did it! All those prototype rockets with Super moneys, dogs, amoebas and porcupines weakened the structure of Krypton!

Poor Superman. His knowledge of Krypton all comes from the guy who edited the only surviving history that was stored in Super Foetus' rocket. Obviously Jor-El would make himself look good in it.

How will Superman deal with it? On past adventures expect a split personality and some amnesia.

Read Superman Blue/ Superman Blue to the point of joining a Blues Band Blue.

Quite seriously, I’m leaning to the theory that the destruction of Krypton was retaliation for something the skeevy Rebirth version of Jor-El did. And the reason no one would listen is that he couldn’t tell them WHY someone would want to destroy Krypton.

I wonder how many times I’m going to have to type Jor-El before autocorrect recognizes it and stops changing it to Joe-El?

All of them?

Do you think Bendis' TV appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" Thursday will give us any news or will he just list the titles he is working on?

Hmm... hart to tell. Meyers is apparently a big comic geek, so he may actually ask him worthwhile questions.

It sounds like an excellent opportunity to sell some Legion books.

Via Tom Burkert on Facebook -

Weird story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

http://www.startribune.com/revival-...in-the-not-too-distant-future/513041452/

I wonder which of the unknowns is Ultra Boy.

From Mike Shoemaker of Late Night with Seth Myers.

Well, that's a pretty obvious Ultra Boy. And Visor Girl appears to be Triplicate Girl.

Looks like a Doctor Fate in the bunch as well. Gold Lantern girl reminds me of Naomi.

So who is in the green deathly looking environmental suit? Infectious Lass?
Who is sitting on Colossal Boy's shoulder? Ferro Lad? No he seems to have an animal head symbol on his chest and his own head has texture like his arms and legs like scales?

And a tail.

skeleton member could be a female invisible kid (skin is already invisible). Member with lion tail could be catspaw.

Triplicate Girl looks like she is wearing 3-D Glasses.

I really like this image! Say what you want about who's who and the character designs, but I like that it shows plenty of personality and has a fun, playful tone to it. As I've said before, I could go for a new Legion that incorporates some lightheartedness, and this image certainly promises some of that.

Not really anything of substance beyond the picture, but Bendis describes them as "the greatest super-hero team of all time", and describes them as teenagers 1000 years from now who get to together to live the ideals of the Age of Heroes.

Looks like a hazmat suit so i'm thinking Chemical King.

I'm still loving the color, diversity and energy of this new team but I don't know, somehow I'm less excited by this group shot than I was of the one on the Sook cover. I wish they'd stuck with their decision to make Chuck black, rather than the Ranzz's, or at least left him with his original hair color; now all three non-Superboy white guys on the team (Chuck, Gim and Brin) are similar-looking brunets. Seems like a rushed decision. Speaking of Timber Wolf, 'bulked-up' seems like a weird look for him. It almost looks like he's wearing a suit of armor? At least his colors are back to their classic best rather than that weird mix he had on the other cover.

I am absolutely in love with Triplicate Girl's zany visors for some reason. I wish she'd been given a more interesting color combination than pink, yellow and blue though.

So it seems like the team has been split right down the middle between those who've been significantly re-imagined and those who've only been slightly tweaked:

Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Saturn Girl, Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5, Wildfire, Colossal Boy, Triplicate Girl, Timber Wolf and Dawnstar (10 characters) all look more or less the same.
Cosmic Boy, Dream Girl, Element Lad, Blok, Sun Boy, Light Lass, Star Boy, Ultra Boy, Matter-Eater Lad, Lightning Lad, Karate Kid and Chameleon Boy (12 characters) all look like brand new characters in those identities.
And if any of those unidentifiable (8) characters are updates of pre-existing ones then that'll add a few more to the 'significantly re-imagined' list.

TOP 5 characters this pic makes me want to see/learn more of (in no order):

1. Green skeletal Atomic Skull-looking character: Who IS that?! Radiation Roy? They look more like a villain than a hero but I like that disconnect.
2. Dream Girl: I really want to know her back story and whether she's from the 'Dreamlands' or something. And also see if she can dissolve into sand or something.
3. White, scepter-holding girl in the middle: Princess Projectra? Comet Queen? (Please, no.) Whoever it is, this is a striking look that is always going to stand out in the crowd.
4. 'Squirrel-Boy' on Colossal Boy's shoulder: Surely a new character? I can't think of any pre-existing characters who could be rebooted into that. I like the idea of an animal member of the team though.
5. Karate Kid: I just really like this new look on him and it's great that we've finally got an Asian character (who's actually depicted as Asian) who seems like they'll last longer than the blink-and-you'll-miss-them-tenures of Dragonmage and (ugh!) Harmonia.

TOP 5 characters this pic makes me want to see leave or at least get a radical make-over (in no order):

1. Ultra Boy: Actually this one is in order. This is my least-favorite look of them all. Yuck! The costume is beyond terrible and whoever gave him those ugly blonde highlights needs to be arrested.
2. Element Lad: I am just not liking this at all and I hate the English 'E'.
3. Black purple-mohawked girl behind Star Boy: I don't know. She just looks too fervently over-happy in every pic for some reason. Like she's just about to proselytize to me for hours about her religion or these great new skincare products she's selling.
4. Wildfire: I'm just not a fan of 'skinny' Wildfire and this one has all these distracting extraneous lines to boot. My favorite Wildfire look will always be that bulky Reboot one. <wistful sigh>
5. Superboy: Can he die early on please? I have no interest in anything to do with the rest of the DCU, especially an artificially aged (how original!) son of Superman and Lois Lane who is going to become a continuity nightmare in less than 3 years.

I saw a suggestion somewhere that Green Atomic Skull could be Phantom Girl, which is just wild enough that I'd be into it lol

I am with you on Triplicate Girl's visors, I kinda get the appeal of making her primary colours (especially if they change colour when they merge so eg we'd get orange from red and yellow) but I'll miss the purple and orange.

Dream Girl is starting to grow on me...I'm wondering if Purple Girl is Vi, though it seems like she's got a halo so I feel like that could be significant? I'm really into the Gold Lantern and Polecat/Porcupine Pete/Hyena Lad sitting on Gim's shoulder...and I would frikkin love if that golden regal lady is a revamped Quantum Queen!

REALLY not feeling stoner Element Lad, chunky Timber Wolf and whatever Mr Nebula did to poor Ultra Boy...I think we need to see these guys in a story now to keep the anticipation going

Chunky Timber Wolf seems like more of a football player than an acrobat. Dream Girl still a flirt or Mon-el's girlfriend? I thought the white sceptre girl is White Witch. Brainy smiling - maybe he won't be a jerk in this version. Trip wearing 3-D glasses - they should hand those out at the launch along with the flight rings. I like her different hair colours too. Lots of visual variety in this team.

I'm curious to see what Bendis does with M-E Lad and Bouncing Boy, traditionally the joke characters.

Has the pink woman been identified? There seems to be something regal in the costume, which makes me think Projectra.

The millennium 2 cover is probably the final version that has white lightning lad, white light lass, black bouncing boy, ultra boy with the more traditional green colors, princess projectra with the more traditional look such as white hair, skeleton member is yellow. Star boy and sun boy are quite similar to the Imperial Guard designs which also has purple members in Gladiator and hobgoblin, mentor has circles on the forehead.

Hi everyone! It's been awhile since I've logged in, but count me among those who are excited by the new Legion. I would not have counted Bendis among my favorite writers before he came to DC, but I like a lot of what he's doing now (Young Justice is a fave), and I have always loved Ryan Sook's style. I'm eager to see what they've got in store, and I'm really enjoying the guessing game as to who's who in the group shots (and thanks everyone, you cleared up a couple of them for me).

I am liking Dreamgirl, Dawnstar, Star Boy, Sun Boy, Karate Kid, Shady... I'm into the "more alien"-looking Legion... happy to see Blok & MEL...diggin' Triplicate Girl's colors and costumes and shades... really intrigued by the animal guy, Kid Fate, White Witch (maybe), Element Lad, Phantom Girl (?), (is that?) Amethyst, and Chemical King/Radiation Roy... not so fond of beefy Timberwolf, Cos in orange (he'll always be my favorite legionnaire, but I like Cos in purple/magenta/whatever) or Ultra Boy's costume as depicted in the most recent group shot.

Hmmm.... I'm not loving the Ranzz twins appearing to be dark-skinned. In the initial photos, plus the cover of the upcoming Superman issue and the cover of Millennium #2, they both look Caucasian. Plus Garth's hair style is very different in this latest group shot.

I wonder if we are looking at just one early sketch that has since been modified?

Legion content begins about 4:15.

Thanks for the video, EDE.

Sounds and looks promising to me.

I chuckled at the "There IS going to be a future" bit.

I was wondering if pink woman is Projectra (would also tie in with DNA-era Sensor's coloring). but the staff held by the golden woman to the left also makes me think of Jeckie...



was thinking the same thing. looking at the female Legionnaires, I haven't clearly seen who could be Tinya. Among the Preboot/Adventure Era lineup, I don't see anyone who is obviously Invisible Kid either. Or Chemical King, or Tyroc, or Ferro Lad.

If not for Timber Wolf in the bottom right, I would have picked Squirrel Boy on Gim's shoulder as Brin! The chest logo looks vaguely like Brin's.

Still holding out hope that Kinetix is here somewhere... and Gates! Would also love XS and Kid Quantum II along for the ride... Monstress would be nice too

I think Pink Girl is Jackie, Staff Girl is Mysa, Purple Girl is Tinya, and Purple Hair Girl is Violet.

Could that be Kinetix on Gim's shoulder? She did have a tail at one point...

Also of note: If that's the lineup of 34, then they seem to be counting Triplicate Girl as three characters.

Invisible Kid is there as a dust up in front of Element Lad, who just bumped into him.

oh yeaaaah! missed that! Thought Element Lad was just laughing and leaning back or something, silly me.

Or maybe trying to flirt with Cos...

Snake Sensor was colored similarly.

Since It's become a tradition...

1. Colossal Boy
2. Ferret Boy?
3. Blok
4. White Witch
5. Princess Projectra
6. Chameleon Boy
7. Triplicate Girl
8. Chemical King
9. Shadow Lass
10. Ferro Lad
11. Sun Boy
12. Tyroc
13. Bouncing Boy
14. Karate Kid
15. Dream Girl
16. Mon-El
17. Saturn Girl
18. Shrinking Violet
19. Superboy
20. Brainiac Five
21. Phantom Girl
22. Lightning Lad
23. Dawnstar
24. Cosmic Boy
25. Element Lad
26. Light Lass
27. Star Boy
28. Ultra Boy
29. Wildfire
30. Matter-Eater Lad
31. Timber Wolf
32. Invisible Kid
33. ???

Morning thoughts:

What is going on with Element Lad in that picture? He seems to be reacting to someone but no one in the group is doing anything for him to react to. Or does he not like crowds and Cosmic Boy is having to force him to stay there? Or is he inebriated? It seems like they're going to really lean into the Reboot's 'space-cadet' Jan characterization which, really, was anyone a fan of that?

That really does look like a Dr. Fate in front of Blok. What do we think of that? Unless I'm mistaken, we've never had a JSA connection in the Legion before but it does have a certain symmetry to it - DC's first superhero group to its last. And if anyone or anything is going to survive the millennium I guess it would be the Fate helmet.

Who is the black character with the golden mask in front of Sun Boy and the scepter-holding character? I don't think I've seen any speculation on him/her other than a Lantern of some sort. I guess the symbol does look vaguely Lantern-like. Gold/yellow would be a strange choice though. And why the need for a mask in this era? Could it be Reflecto carrying on the mysterious identity legacy?

I hate it when artists don't account for the bottom half of Colossal Boy's body. Is he standing in a deep hole? Speaking of, I wish they'd taken the opportunity to update his hairstyle; maybe shaved his head and given him more of a boxer/MMA fighter look. 60 years is a long time to go without changing a hairstyle. Is Gim the longest-serving member who hasn't ever really changed their appearance? I guess he did have a beard for a while in the Five Years Later era at least.

One thing that needs to be updated for the new era, and which I really hope Bendis has made plans for, is the Legion Flight Ring. At the moment, with the exception of flight, my phone can do more than a Flight Ring. It can translate languages (albeit painfully slowly) through Google Translate. It can point me in the direction of anywhere I want to go with the various map apps. It can monitor my vital signs (sort of). It obviously provides video, audio and a rudimentary 3D communication. It can instantly display any and all types of news, information and calculations. It can be used to control other devices around me. It can be programmed to have automatic responses. It can record my surroundings. It can locate people and places and things around me to an almost exact accuracy. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of other stuff too. The point is, to be a realistic and impressive piece of 32nd (or whatever) century design, the capabilities of the Flight Ring really need to be greatly expanded.

If all of your guesses are correct Gary, does that mean that every Pre-Crisis member up to and including Blok is accounted for on this new team? Or is anyone missing (other than the one-off/temporary members)? If so, I guess either #2 or #12 could be Nemesis Kid.

Edit: Oh I just remembered Tyroc. Maybe he's #12. That symbol does look vaguely 'sound'-like.

I like the idea that the flight rings could basically be portable AIs, which of course would cause massive problems when Computo shows up.

2 is a re imaged Koko

Element lad is maybe just reacting to the telepathy of saturn girl. My guess on skeleton member is invisible kid (in the millennium 2 cover, the skeleton member seems to be yellow). Skeleton member could also be similar to radiation roy, negative man and negative woman. A lantern could be rond vidar altho I would prefer him to be chemical king but a yellow costume could also be invisible kid (the mask also reminds me of tyroc). Dc seems to want more members who look african american so tyroc is probably there somewhere altho the art has fewer members than the cover of Millennium 2. The more final millennium 2 cover has more members such as gates.

Isn't 27 and 32 to same character? Also, I don't think Immortal Girl will be joining. Maybe she'll become Shvaughn Erin?

Ah yes on 27 & 32. I had seen 27 as sort of sunken eyed at first. But the new image makes it clearer. I'll tweak along with the 2 number 14s as I go. immortal Girl is there as a sort of place holder. But you never know. She might well join. She's certainly being introduced to the team.

I do get the feeling that she's meeting them when everything is going well. That group might not all survive what comes next. That's when the likes of Gates and XS might join.

I thought #s 27 and 32 were the same character.

The more I think about it, the more I think Gary's list is 100% correct, with the obvious exception of #2. Therefore this seems to be an accurate recreation of the Legion membership up to the Bronze Age, with the only characters missing being Supergirl/Andromeda, Nemesis Kid and Invisible Kid II. Since it appears they want this to be Jon Kent's team, Supergirl is out, and since Jacques is unnecessary while Lyle is around, that only leaves Nemesis Kid missing from the roster. I can't imagine #2 being him though. I feel it has to be a new character.

Maybe we are just seeing active Legionnaires and XS, Gates and others are currently inactive members.

Yeah, we have no idea how much history this team has when Superboy joins them.

Maybe the one on Colossal Boy's shoulder is Proty?

^ That's a possibility. He does seem to have white, lumpy bits.

I wonder....the pink mohawk chick with the third eye on her forehead, could she be Sensor Girl and the pink queeny looking character could be an Amethyst legacy? Pink lady kinda looks like she could be made of gemstone? Maybe Bendis stole my revamped Diamond Damsel hahahaha

I also totally missed that there's enough room in front of Element Lad for Invisible Kid and suddenly E-Lad's weird pose makes so much more sense, like he just stumbled into him...which in turn makes me think it might be kinda cool if I-Kid is permanently invisible and we only ever see his effect on the environment and not the character himself!

Invisible Kid being invisible in front of Element Lad but kicking up dust is great spotting.
I think I am changing my mind on the purple girl not being Vi but instead Tinya and Violet being the girl with the mohawk.
The skull/armoured one being Chemical King is also a good call.
Of the two regal ones I think Mysa having an Amethyst vibe and being the pink/purple one makes sense which makes the one with the sceptre Projectra.
The colours and appearance of Triplicate Girl look terrific but I can't help thinking that pretty much all her successful missions were because people mistook one triplicate for another so the hair colour difference could be a problem.
I'm hoping that the Ranzz twins' skin colouring is what we have seen on the actual covers, not this darker skinned group pose. I don't mind more ethnicity and difference thrown into the mix, that's great, but red hair and dark skin don't really go together. I'd be happier with a dark Superman than this.

8/33 = Nemesis Kid
12/35 = Rond Vidar

I suspect they might have this version of Triplicate Girl follow the model of Trio from Dave Cockrum's Outsiders, and have each body with a separate powerset rather than just triplication as the power.

I think Mysa is the white one because it’s very similar to Dream Girl

Invisible Invisbile Kid - that does make sense for Element Lad being unbalanced - better than him being too stoned to stand up straight - and to never see the character, just the effects would be a nice twist on the character.

Trip having three different powers would be cool. I wonder how many of the powers will be modified. They've been tweaked in the various versions, but no substantial changes.

Now I'm looking forward to the villains - all new, or the old ones reworked?

That would be cool. Though I wonder which powers they would give her? They would need to strike a fine balance between it being a nice upgrade, but not so much that they overpower the other Legionnaires.

Maybe each trip gets a different physical / mental attribute boosted. One has enhanced strength, one has enhanced senses, one has enhanced intelligence... something like that.

I would be very happy with that. I just realized that, as long as Kinetix is included, I don't care too much if she gets a tail again. At least she's there!

And she and Gim had a mutual crush/flirtation too...

I wonder if there is some significance to the fact that MEL and TW are standing together. They both have similar build and the armor bits that unique to their designs. Maybe there's a connection between them?

Stocky Brin is interesting. He could very definitely still be all acrobatic even with that build...

I'm happy at the idea of many relatively-obscure and underused Legionnaires getting new life. Blok, ME-Lad, Bouncing Boy... and possibly Mysa, Condo, Gates, XS.

Timber Wolf's build is weird, but less jarring to me than skinny Ultra Boy. I mean... did *anyone* guess that's who this character would be when the Millennium cover first appeared?

I was thinking Chlorophyll Kid, so no. Mind you, I thought the lady behind him might be a Polar Lass, so what do I know?

With the exception of not using the Interlac E on Element Lad, I'm looking forward to seeing these designs in action (or Adventure ). Heck, Element Lad may be more like Metamorpho and use his powers to stretch, making the E a tribute to Elastic Lad. So, there may be a reason for it.

Mon-El and Dream Girl. Just good friends?

It's really tough for me to analyze the new art/designs on my little screen, and with my eyesight going, but... it seems promising.

If I really think about it, the traditional look of Legion costumes, where there was almost no design unity apart from belts and rings, is probably a big drag on artists constantly racing deadlines. Simpler and more unified, without literally putting everyone in the exact same uniform, is probably best.

I'm kinda' tired of being led over the jumps by DC. I probably won't be checking this out. But I wish the creators well.

Yeah, skinny just doesn't fit with any of the past Ultra Boys...

he's probably the one Legionnaire I most expect to be big and muscular (excepting Blok and Monstress of course :p)

Ibby, I'd just be happy to see an artist who could draw more than one type of body. Even on an American football team, you'll see people with different sizes/shapes, depending on what their function is. But artists are schooled very young to simplify, and settle on one "ideal" type. (This is worse for female characters than male, but...)

I like the designs so far. My favorite is the skull design; it probably is Radiation Roy or Chemical King. As I said elsewhere, if Wildfire is older and at terms with his nature, he could guide the other. That would make for good story-telling. The different body-types could reflect different ages of the characters. Jon Kent was aged up to about 17 so we will see if the rest of the Legion is high school or college age. I am leaning towards college age because it would it more acceptable for Lois and Clark to let Jon go with them.

Also, it is good to remember that while this is the initial cast, it could change throughout the years. Bendis is hoping to lead up to a "Great Darkness" level epic event, so we will see if we get there.

I'm digging it and getting excited - even going so far as buying the S books now just in case

I agree that the pink gem character is probably Projectra - maybe with a nod to Gemworld now

I would love if the golden staff lady was Quantum Queen, but I suspect she's Mysa (White Witch? Is that applicable?)

I'm intrigued by the Fate character and the Lantern (I think it's a Lantern - wondering if it's a Yellow Lantern - possibly a statement with how much fear rules the universe at this point)

Atomic skeleton seems most likely a Chemical King/Kid.

The way Saturn Girl is holding Element Lad's hands makes me think he's terrible at crowds and publicity (maybe hearkening back to his Mystery Lad days?) and it takes Imra and Rokk to get him on stage

I love M-E Lad but really don't feel Timber Wolf bulky or Ultra Boy with his greens and slim look

Purple mohawk is probably Vi with the green outfit

I'm guessing Cat's Paw on Gim's shoulder. Maybe they're a couple?

Dreamy may just be leaning against Mon-El so she can take a nap standing up.

I was thinking that if she's part of the Dreaming then perhaps Mon El, having been in the Phantom Zone for 1100 years would have the most interesting dreams so she'd hang out with him. Just an idea, but we don't know is she's going to be as vampy as we are used to seeing so this would be a new take.

completely agree, cleome. heroes can come in all shapes and sizes!

I am really looking forward to this new version of the Legion of Superheroes.

I am just glad that we get all the silver age characters without having to wait for them to appear
or be victims of false hope as happened with the Waid/Kitson version (Dawnstar, Tyroc, Wildfire?)
I think that making the characters updated serves two purposes...it makes them interesting to new
readers and I can more easily accept that this is a new version of the Legion and so whatever
happens to them, does not tramper on my memories of the silver age Legion.

I, too, like to think that the Legion I grew up with are somewhere out there, and one day, they might
return. But for now, I am willing to see a Legion of Superheroes comic again after all these years

Long Live the Legion!

Well said Merlion Man.

Hey, gang, haven't been on the boards in a long while. I do hope you all missed me terribly. LOL

Anyway, has anyone yet put forth a theory on why Lightning Lad has two different designs? In the earlier promo shots, he's sported his traditional look -- Caucasian ginger -- albeit a bit bulkier, perhaps, and with his hair in a mohawk. But in the most recent group images, he's become black/African, with a much skinner build.

Do we suspect:

A) The design has simply changed,
B) The ginger dies in the initial storyline and is replaced by some other Winathian lightning wielder, or
C) Something else else entirely?

Just to pull an OG Legion World Deep Cut, I'm going to go with #14 being not Karate Kid, but SUPER-PHRENOLOGY LAD!!

He said at one point they weren’t final designs, and I think most of us are assuming that’s the cause. Now it’s just a question of which version actually show up in print.

Honestly, it would be kind of funny to me if it turned out to be a case of “oh, you think that haircut is too different? Well here, have a black lightning lad instead.“

And, actually, it looks like Ayla has switched from long Caucasian to also being black, with an afro do pulled back into a bun. Not also that Chuck appears to have switched from black back to white. It seems clear that a lot of things are not yet final.

It could be that, in the 32nd century, things like skin pigmentation are as easily alterable as dying one's hair is today.

Now this is a good answer and one I can get behind.

Well. this certainly makes sense. I mean, in a world where profem is a thing, a serum that alters the amount of melanin in one's skin certainly would be an easy enough leap. Heck, such an alteration may have been a necessity from the early days of space exploration, depending on whether colonists made camp on equatorial or polar regions of a planet, and/or how close or far said planet was from the so-called Goldilocks Zone. It could well be that some/most genetic lines evolved/retained the ability to switch back and forth at will, although such an ability, due to its commonality, is not considered any more of a super-power the a Trommite's third eyelid. In fact, if pigmentation is fluid, it could well be BMB's metatextual commentary on racism, i.e. everybody can be anything, so race/color does not matter.

In fact, I've been kind of struggling with how or why Tinya would be purple in this iteration. If Bgztl is still an alternate Earth (rather than just some other random planet in the galaxy as shown in The Terrifics) then how could its natives be purple, given there are no purple people on Earth-1? But maybe fluid pigmentation is a thing on Bgztl as well, with purple an added option?

Maybe she is from a different planet in Bgztl's dimension? Some of us have speculated both here an in our fanfics that there could other inhabited worlds in that dimension. I don't think other writers, with the exception of the early Threeboot, bothered to explore Bgztl's dimension in-depth.

The shadowy figure 33 must be RJ Brande, right?

That's a good point about the possible purple Tinya. Since the Superboy and the Millenium connection are tying this to the main DCU continuity they have to reconcile this with the Phantom Girl in the Terrifics.

Either they are not from the same place, or they can change skin pigmentation, or the native population has changed in the millenia, or purple girl is not Tinya, or some other reason that I haven't thought of yet. It's probably not a huge issue really and can be explained away one way or another.

CBR's guesses as to the new roster.

Via Instagram -

#12 definitely looks like a Lantern now.

Double damn. A) I have never liked any Green Lantern mythos in the Legion and B) I was really hoping for Tyroc.

And triple damn - it looks like the Ranzz’ are staying black. I’m all for more diversity in the Legion but giving yet more black characters electrical powers is ridiculous. Between Black Lightning, Thunder, Lightning, Black Vulcan, Static Shock and whoever else I’m forgetting it’s starting to seem like a genetic trait in the DCU. And now the twins are always going to be mistaken for their much more famous (in popular culture) doppelgängers. This is a major misstep IMO.

Although, weirdly, it looks like Ayla still has the old white design so who knows what they’re doing.

Also, what’s that behind Karate Kid? Does he have a long ponytail?

Maybe it is Tyroc...Troy Stewart descendant to John Stewart?

Looks like they are definitely basing this Projectra on DnA's version of Sensor.

mohawk member has downward arrow on costume so could be shrinking violet. My guess is final version of lightning lad is the white version to make the founders look more familiar. Princess projectra looks more like the version on the millennium 2 cover.

I thought OMAC in that big group shot was Marvel's Gladiator for a second and was highly confused lol

I hope it's a Gold Lantern as opposed to a Yellow Lantern...I feel like having a connection to the Lantern mythos is gonna be much more manageable if it's really tangential (ie: there ARE no Gold Lanterns in the 21st century yet so it's easier to not have to be enslaved plot-wise to what's happening in 21st century comics)

I'm kind of intrigued by Kid Fate or whatever they're gonna call the one with Nabu's helmet, though I kinda doubt we'd have Fate AND Mysa on the same team so maybe no White Witch yet?

Also the Ranzzes being black I'm kinda torn on after what Blacula said...they actually look really good and I'm hella in favour of aliens not all being magically caucasian but "black guy with electric powers" really does describe a lot of characters at DC. Also, for diversity to not feel tokenistic you need to actually nurture the characters; long-term I think it'd be better to reintroduce Tyroc, Dragonmage, Invisible Jacques, his sister Danielle, XS or even commit to the black Star Boy from the 3boot rather than arbitrarily racebend a couple other characters we all know are gonna be back to their traditional whiteness in the next reboot imo..

Skin dye could again be the answer. Perhaps by the 32nd century, dying one's skin purple is no more or less unusual than dying one's hair blonde. And it could be a daily choice. Take a pill or use a spray bottle and be metallic purple today, and brown tomorrow for the beach, and flourescent electric blue later when going clubbing.

I was pondering something similar for Jed Rikane, who is from Earth, and yet has pale purple skin. Perhaps he's from an enclave of people with some tiny percentage of Kryptonian DNA, many generations removed from any pure blooded actual Kryptonians, and some of them, like Jed (or Laurel) might have some singular Kryptonian power, or a smattering of such abilities at well below Superman/girl/boy levels, but, in cases like Jed's, lack the gene necessary to absorb solar energy the way that Kryptonians do to fuel those potential powers, leading to some getting a skin treatment (that turns them some other color) to absorb and metabolize more sunlight, and kickstart their powers.



Thirding that. I'd rather have pre-existing black characters like Tyroc, XS, Invisible Jacques or Danielle Foccault, or the new Glorith, than racebent Ranzzes. Tyroc, XS and Dannielle Foccault would be my top choices, because they've got pretty classic powers (sonic blasts, super-speed, machine control/cyberpath) with a good range of utility and ease of use (more so than invisibility or Glorith's somewhat squiffily-defined time magics). Then again, to totally contradict myself, I'd also love to see Kid Quantum II back, and she's pretty much the poster child for squiffily defined time powers.

And while I've got nothing against Cosmic Boy or Shrinking Violet looking more Asian, or Phantom Girl looking more like she's from India, as various artists have flirted with that in the past, but I'd also much rather see Dragonmage show up. (Less desirous of seeing Harmonia Li, Chemical Kid, Otaku or Dragonwing again, 'though...)

Bryan Hitch posted a larger version of the interconnected covers.

Bryan Hitch Legion covers

Thanks Ken!

...his symbol does not match any of the established Lantern Corps.
https://geekandsundry.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/lantern-corps-970x545.jpg

Seems like its being speculated Mysa could be the Legion's Doctor Fate. I think its conceivable Gold Lantern could be Troy Stewart/Tyroc like others are saying. I think the one with a tail is Catspaw we can see some stripes in the B&W pic.

I don't really see the point of having *both* Mysa and Kid Fate.

I agree.

Another numbered addition...

A. Tommy Tomorrow
B. Batman Beyond
C. Booster Gold
D. Supergirl
E. Kamandi
F. OMAC

1. Colossal Boy
2. Cosmic Boy
3. Tyroc?
4. Phantom Girl
5. Bouncing Boy
6. Dawnstar
7. Star Boy
8. Shadow Lass
9. Triplicate Girl
10. Light Lass
11. Sun Boy
12. Shrinking Violet
13. Dream Girl
14. Element Lad
15. Brainiac 5
16. Ultra Boy
17. Superboy
18. Wildfire
19. White Witch?
20. Catspaw?
21. Princess Projectra
22. Matter-Eater Lad
23. Saturn Girl
24. Karate Kid
25. Blok
26. Mon-El
27. Chameleon Boy
28. Lightning Lad
29. Timber Wolf

Also, it should be noted that Jim Cheung is confirming that it's Rokk Krinn as Cosmic Boy. There's been speculation that these characters were not going to be the originals and be descendants of some kind. I don't think that's the case.

I wonder why Supergirl is on there.

Probably why....

Ugh stupid phone won’t let me quote

i wonder if Kid Fate could in fact be Ferro Lad... as the only masked member traditionally, it just popped into my mind ...

My thought is that it's Kinetix under the Helmet of Nabu. Recall, she did have an archeological interest in magical items. So, if anyone in the 31st century is likely to have dug up the helmet somewhere, it's her. And while we do seem to be missing the reboot Legionnaires -- XS, Gates, Monstress, etc. -- Zoe was initially based on a preboot character, Life Lass.

Meanwhile, I feel pretty strongly that the character many are suggesting might be Tyroc is actually Rond Vidar. Who's to say he has not internalized the ring energy somehow, and/or that the various lantern symbols have evolved over time. Sadly, I don't think Bendis likes Tyroc any more than Levitz did. However, he may have read my fanfic. I mean, if we have Fate's helmet in the Legion, it could be that the ring Rond slings is not from the Corps, but the one worn by Alan Scott. It could even be that the life-death-power cycle of that ring has wound back around to life by the time it gets to Rond, making him unkillable a la Immorto.

Finally, in regards to the final unidentified member, I don't think it's a male Catspaw. I suspect Bendis is playing a game of elevating the worst reject he could think of. I think it's Polecat.

Either that or an anthropomorphized Koko.

The dr fate member seems drawn as a female.

If that's Polecat, I will have to assume Bendis stans my groundbreaking work on the Subs in my fanfic and I'll take back every bad thing I ever said about him

Good catch. I've updated the image and my original post.

I saw someone suggest "Pharoah Lad" for a Ferro/Kid Fate combo.

It's interesting since, as stressed in Superboy's Legion, iron is traditionally considered resistant to at least some types of magic.

Deep beneath Metropolis, a discovery is made that unleashes a new, golden age of heroes... Batch SW6! Other discoveries from a bygone era bring the wearer of Nabu's Helmet and the Golden Ring of Power onto the team.

Not sure if anyone else has suggested this, but while unlikely, one possibility for the mohawked woman with the glowing mark on her forward is Glorith II from Levitz's most recent run. The mark is not identical, but it's reminiscent, and she'd be the only "new" character from that era represented in this lineup.

I know speculation is that she is Shrinking Violet, but Vi could be somewhere else in the picture but shrunk down so that we can't see her.

The lantern member and dr fate member maybe is bec dc wants more connections to justice league and justice society maybe to facilitate team ups with the justice league and justice society in the future. The retroboot title also started with a lantern connection maybe in order to help boost sales.

A pic on our homepage reminds me that Chemical King might be Mano.

If not Radiation Roy or Chemical King, the skull-faced hazmat member has a green/yellowish color scheme like Nemesis Kid maybe?

The female skeleton member is yellow in the millennium 2 cover and seems like white costume which I believe to be the final version. Could even be phantom girl since looks like a ghost.

ah, I saw someone mention that character as possibly being invisible kid. A yellow colour scheme, as well as the invisible fleshy bits, would support that. But it would be interesting if we had a Nemesis Kid in there. Just to mess with people.

I really hoped Ultra Boy was going to be Nemesis Kid!

New Word Balloon with Bendis.

Legion conversation begins around 43:00, but only lasts a few minutes. 1:23:00 is another part about Legion news that lasts a minute or so. There's a few other mentions here and there, but not a lot of Legion content in general.

Timber Wolf's look is based on the Darick Robertson's Wolverine designs. That is a Dr. Fate character and a Gold Lantern. 4-5 new characters were added for this new team.

The plans were to showcase some Legion news at SD Comic-Con, but he decided to go to Seth Meyers Late Show instead.

Justice League introduced the ultraviolet lantern so maybe bendis also decided to invent his own type of lantern called gold lantern.

So maybe we can just assume the ones whose identities are troubling us the most (Kid Fate, Gold Lantern, Skeleton Kid, and Catboy) are all new characters.

New characters hey? Why not? The more the merrier as far as I'm concerned.
Maybe this version of the Legion doesn't care as much about the team member's power being "natural" and doesn't care if the power is based on a gimmick or accessory, etc. A hero is a hero, and bravery and commitment to a cause is more important than a technicality for enrollment into the Legion.

New team, new rules! I love it.

same!

So, given this hypothesis, it looks like we're missing Lyle, Condo, and Andy, who were pre-Baxter Legion deaths, plus the rarely appearing Tyroc. Then we've got everyone else pre-Baxter except Jacques.

So it's pretty close to the GDS lineup, but with resigned members active and some new folks.

If it's an Invisible kid that Element Lad is reacting to, then Jacques might be there, leaving just the Lyle, Condo and Andy deaths as per Preboot. It shows a team that has had past casualties, when this Superboy joins.

Although if Kid Fate turns out to be Mask Man, then there will be a higher body count shortly.

If Bendis is building to a GDS that's close to the original, then Kid Fate may meet a messy end as powers are taken away.

In the cover of millennium 2, there are more members shown which could be gates, polar boy, etc. Hopefully, XS will be included. gates is clearly shown in superman 9 plus another arthropod member with maybe 10 limbs.

The more the merrier indeed. I am open to new characters, but I'm also a bit sad because I was hoping there was space for more "old" Legionnaires to show up.

Thoughts on some of the missing:

Poor Condo can't catch a break, but I'm still thinking he could be Skeleton Kid. Although I can see how Element Lad sort of makes him redundant (like with Mysa and Dragonmage)...

Although I like Lyle a bit better, Jacques would be nice too.

Poor Polar Boy! I really hope he makes it in this time. He can still have been a former Sub. Guy deserves a break.

And definitely holding out hop for Gates and XS, both great characters with great powers.

And Kinetix and Kid Q II of course still

Tyroc would be cool too, but hopefully they just leave him with more traditional sonic powers like in the Retroboot.

could 10-limb member be Tellus?

although could also be Cham using his shapeshifting...

It could also be...

Jimmy Olsen as Hat Lad (don't rule out it being him under Nabu's helm, even if the gender appears different.)
Catspaw turns out to be a Beast Boy - more Gar Logan than the old Legion version.
Quislet possessing something and giving it lots of arms.
Chameleon Girl. Both she and Cham were members in v6/7

10 Arms Dude is the new updated version of Arms Fall Off Boy, who has many arms now, which he can detach and throw at people!

^^I love that idea!

I love that idea, too!

He's *armed and dangerous*!

Thank you, I'm here all weekend. Tip your server.

I will look at the comic, but honestly everything is to different and weird for me to support. This will most certainly be the only Legion series I wont own. Best wishes to those who like it. It's just not for me. I'm too old and jaded to adjust from this part of my childhood. I would rather the Legion remain a distant memory.

Feel pretty much the same way but i will give it a try.

I would encourage everyone who can to follow this new version of the Legion. Exercise your freedom while you still can.
My caregivers disapprove of my interest in comic books, and I will not be allowed to spend my hard-earned money on such frivolities.
Perhaps if it comes out as a Trade Paperback in the future, I can borrow it from the library.
(They also disapprove of my personal paracosms, imagining it to be unhealthy for me to live there so much of the time. But die gedanken sind frei).

PM me your address and I'll post them to you, surely they won't mind yoy receiving presents?

In color! Via Alex Sinclair's Instagram/Twitter.

Bryan Hitch confirmed that the Lantern is "not yellow", so I think the Golden Lantern predictions are correct.

This might be higher resolution (i got it from previewsworld): imgur image of 2 covers together:

Now that we have a clearer look at costumes, it looks more likely that the other mysterious golden girl with staff is Mysa (behind Kamandi ‘s arm),

that pinkish girl (below Booster) is Jeckie,

and purple hair girl (below Shady) could be Vi (many other Legionnaire costumes and reminiscent of past ones, and Vi wore green for a while...), but i’m still hoping for Kinetix due to all the green...!

and purple girl in white (below Chuck) has armbands that remind me of Tinya...

which would account for pretty much all of the Preboot females, as we already have Imra, Lu, Ayla, Nura, Tasmia also covered and no Supergirl in the Legion

I reckon you're right IB, those glowy discs around MaybeTinya's waist and the shoulder cutouts remind me of Phantom Girl's costume from the 70s/80s too...Vi and especially Jeckie look way like them too.

I say you're also probably right about MaybeMysa too, although I kinda hope she's someone else if we've got a Dr Fate as well

yeah, i'm still wondering why we would have two magical beings in the Legion.

Maybe golden girl Mysa is Kinetix, then? I've been guessing Mysa because the dress looks a bit like White Witch's costume when she joined up... and the color scheme is white-ish too. and of course I'm biased and hoping for Kinetix somewhere

How are they going to explain the sudden pigment change from light to dark in the case of the Ranzz twins? Superman #11 is set to come out next month and it clearly shows Garth as "Caucasian" in appearance.

Also, there were those promo costume sketches that were released in segments to the public …. Garth, again is light skinned as is Ayla.

I think one artist draws them this way, and another artist draws them that way. Or is it the colorist that's to "blame"?? LOL

I'm cool with whatever is the final decision for the twins' skin colour, but I guess I'm more of a traditionalist when it comes to The Founders and their look. I think it's important to canon that they, at least, appear instantly recognizable.

Most likely will be changed on the cover once it comes out. Promo covers are changed all the time.

Lightning Lad’s costume looks (from memory) exactly like the one Cress Williams wears in ‘Black Lightning’. I still think that race change was a really bad decision. And obviously a rushed one considering Ayla clearly has her old Caucasian appearance there but has been colored darker to match Garth anyway.

I find Matter-Eater-Lad to be one of the more intriguing members of this new team for some reason.

Via Instagram/Twitter -

I agree with you on all that Blacula. I also just don't get why the need to make the Ranzz twins a darker skin tone with this iteration of the Legion. If you wanted to make them more "authentically alien", why pick a colour that resembles a typical south Asian hue? Why not a golden hue, or a yellow one? I know, I know ….. the artist has given many of the previously Caucasian Legionnaires new skin colours (pink, light green, gold, etc) , by why change everyone??

Maybe the creators are trying to parallel what is happening in some of today's global communities with this shift in race equality? Speculation on my part.

I'm sure all will be explained in due time.

Seriously... Who buy The Legion comic books? Real people of the planet Earth . And so.... why to change the skin color of the iconic characthers previously causasian.
The classic Legion always has diversity....

Caucasian Legionnaires: Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Triplicate Girl, Phantom Girl, Sun Boy, Colossal Boy, Bouncing Boy, Invisible Kid, Matter Eater Lad, Element Lad, Ultra Boy, Mon-El, Superboy, Supergirl. Light Lass, Shriking Violet, Star Boy, Dream Girl, Projectra, Timber Wolf, Chemical King, White Witch, Polar Boy, Night Girl, Kinetix

Afroamerican Legionnaires : Ferro Lad (The original idea), Tyroc, Invisible Kid 2, Kid Quantum, XS, Gear

Asian Legionnaires : Karate Kid, Dragonmage, Catspaw, Harmonía

Native american Legionnaire ; Dawnstar

Alien Legionnaires ; Chameleon Boy, Brainiac 5, Shadow Lass, Infectious Lass, Blok, Tellus, Quislet, Comet Queen, Chameleon Girl, Gates, Monstress, Veilmist, Kono, Lamprey, Crystal Kid, Nightwind.

I don't want a purple skin Phantom Girl or a Green skin Element Lad, but I can accept an asian Cosmic Boy or afroamerican Bouncing Boy, because are like the real people.
If the creators wants more alien legionnaires put new characters in the team..but not change the beloved ones of a lifetime...

When I saw an earlier group shot, it seemed to me that there was an absence of a heavy hitter black male character. I had expected it to be Star Boy, after the threeboot, and was a little surprised to see him a metallic sort of being (Captain Atom tie ins?) Then I wondered if there would be a James Cullen Kid Quantum. There just seemed to be a diversity gap there.

Garth would fill that role, and I thought that the skin change was going form black to Caucasian, explaining that gap. I'd have probably preferred it to have been Star Boy or Kid Quantum, simply to get away from the noted electricity powerset. In this iteration, Cosmic Boy could have been black and Lightning Lad and Lass Asian, if they'd wanted.

I don't mind them introducing new minority characters but the Rannz twins change doesn't sit well with me. Cosmic Boy on the other hand...I confess for some reason I thought he looked asian when I was a kid. So that didn't bother me.
I really don't understand the changing of race of a classic character if it's not a new character. It alienates many people...including the people of the race they were changed to.

I am also not a big Bendis fan. But the art and excitement has me interested. It's been so long since I enjoyed something Legion.

Interesting that Bendis is wearing the ring old-school style on the right ring finger rather than the middle finger which is how it seems they wear it in his own book.

Somewhere on Facebook, someone noted that the possible Projectra (between Booster Gold's left leg and OMAC's right arm) seems to be wearing a snakeskin design on parts of her costume. That long skirt(?) is snakey too.

And Ibby, between Colossal Boy and Booster, that green-garbed, red-haired female makes me think of Kinetix.

I wonder why Brainy has 3 lights on his pelvis.

Everyone in the pic thinks that Brainy has been working on a weapon to defeat the Big Bad. Instead, he's been working on his Lurv Machine. Note how it's pointed at Kara.

He always did like his lumna-organ.

Bendis' run opens on Colu...

"You'll go blind!" shouts Mrs Brainiac 4 through the lab door, suspicious of some intensive lumna organ playing going on.

Realising the wisdom of his mom's words, Brainy instead begins work on a time bubble...and the rest is future history.

Makes it easier to find in the dark.

The lights on Brainiac 5s pelvis might be a replacement for his belt which had a force field.

I think this guy finally got a name...


Link to Twitter

From Adv. 350:

That would rock if he was using old Bits suggestions for the new Legionnaires.

Probably just a coincidence, but now I'm tempted to go through the lists to figure out skeleton guy.

While EDE looks up Death-In-A-Can Lad, from the Bits of Adventure #244, I shall pause for a sad moment as Monster Boy didn't turn out to be The Weirdo Legionnaire.

Is this real information? If so, doesn't this duplicate Chameleon Boy's power?

Is that the best they could come up with in creating this new character?? Wow, I hope not.

I think this is all fan speculation. He asked the fans what planet Monster Boy should be from but did not mention who he is in the released images.

And I wouldn’t necessarily assume the powers won’t be changed/tweaked from what bits had to offer

I would be *very* surprised if Bendis's Monster Boy is in any way inspired by the character from the old Bits column.

Though if skeleton guy turns out to be named "Pajama Pat"...

There is a Legion preview at the end of this week's DC comics:
- Cover (1 page)
- A 2-pages spread named "Legion of Super-Heroes - Who are they ?" with an interview of Bendis and 2 illustrations: the one from the tv show and on its left, there is an illustration of the Legion's characters taken from the cover of Superman #15 where Ligthning Lad has been redrawn to match his change as shown on the tv show picture (he's now black instead of white, like he was on the 1st version of the cover of Superman #15).
- A 2-pages spread about Millenium with interview from Bendis and the different artists of the Millenium issues.
- A 2-pages spread named "The Team" with interview of Ryan Sook. the page on the right show character designs of Superboy (Jon Kent), Lightning Lad, Princess Projectra and Shrinking Violet!
- A final page titled "The Road to Legion" with interview of Bendis and a checklist of the books on the bottom part of the page.

The character designs confim the pink skin colored character with white hair as Princess Projectra and the black character with pink or purple hair (green clothes) as Shrinking Violet.

Did you mean "this week's recalled Superman comic"???

No, like i said, it is in every DC comics coming out this week.

No matter if it is Detective Comics, Justice League odyssey, Event Leviathan etc...

I think it is disrespectful to all Legion fans, to introduce ourselves to Garth and Ayla first as they always have been, and then change them for African Americans.

They're presumably from Winath - not Africa, or America. So it's not about culture, it's literally just about skin tone?

Is not for the skin tone.... is for the change. I buy Superman 15 with the caucasian Garth in the cover. This last-minute change offends me as a Caucasian guy. Or can we not feel discriminated against too?

Oddly enough, the first time I saw Lightning Lad, I thought "why did they make him white in the comics?" (I thought he was Black Vulcan from "Superfriends") I do wonder if they're concerned about people confusing him for Black Lightning at this point - especially with keeping the color scheme and two downward lightning bolts on this chest.

And yes.... I don't like Purple Tinya, Green Jan, Pink Projectra... My Legion is dead. Long Live To The Legion!

I know I complained about this before but I'm going to give the new Legion a try and I'll hype it at my store.

I still fully intend to do my stories with the other Legions at some point, but, I can't stand by my belief that all the Legions deserve the right to exist alongside one another if I'm not willing to give Bendis' group my support too. He wants to do his thing just like I want to do my thing.

And I do like the White Witch design and I'm wondering who the Lantern is.

...just really wish Garth and Ayla were still redheads instead of having brown hair with a slight red tint.

The Legion is interesting to me because we all have a version of "My Legion" which is the template that we approach all other versions of the team. I'm not sure any comics idea/character/team can survive being kept stagnant. As a longtime fan, I've had to be open to shifts in the Legion with each reboot/recreation/revisiting. Even Levitz's return to the Legion was a different version than the one he wrote in the 80s.

I personally hope that the redesigned Legion speaks to a new generation of readers.

I don't know how the new alien species stuff will be sorted. We do see how the portrayal of race/difference/alien species has changed over the decades. We no longer have the Shadow Lass or Ferro Lad hints at being Black, we don't have Tyroc's heavy handed introduction (although I will miss his original outfit). We've had Tellus and Quislet as Legionnaires. We have had a Black Star Boy. I'm not sure what the changes in these characters indicates about this future. I'm looking forward to reading it.

As for Bendis, he's on/off for me. There have been high points, but his part in orchestrating company-wide crossovers just put me off Marvel in the end (since the Civil War). His pacing is inconsistent for me; sometimes I feel like I missed an issue - or at least a few pages. I'm hoping that his Legion is more in line with some of the insights and relative consistency he's brought to Superman (and WAY before that - his runs on Ultimate Spider Man, Daredevil and Alias/Jessica Jones).

The more Legions out there the merrier, as far as I'm concerned.

I can’t say I've seen anything about this version yet that's wowed me, and generally I'd prefer more classic designs for the classic characters, but whatever. I'll give it a chance...

My main thing was always that making a new continuity would just muddle the stories I want to tell professionally someday, and I've been afraid creating a new one would only alienate more fans and potential new ones.

At this point, I think the best bet is to embrace the complexity. Acknowledge that there are tons of different versions of the Legion out there in the multiverse, and use that fact to your advantage. Have the Legion periodically visit alternate versions, both established and new. Go wild with it.

I’m open to new characters, but part of me feels a bit sad that we got new characters while so many great ones are not being redesigned / reimagined for this new version.

of course from a practical point of view, we can’t have too many characters on the team... too difficult to write.

will definitely give this a chance.

Hey there, Legion fans. I for one am really excited about this new Legion. I just take the attitude that the Legion is the stuff of myth. Each writer and artist is interpreting that myth as they see it. For me, the essence of the Legion remains through all the interpretations. I'm just happy to see all the Legionaires back again. There's a comic book shop in the same building as my office. Now I finally have a reason to visit.

Technically this is the first confirmation of Triplicate Girl as well, not that there was much doubt.

Did anyone notice that in the article, they kept referring to the "31st century?" Is this the first time they seem to have ditched the "32nd century" setting?

Updating my guesses now that we know more...

1. Colossal Boy - not confirmed
2. Monster Boy - new (Robert L. Chambers' (Caro, Mich.) "Monster Boy can assume any wierd form he chooses." - ADVENTURE COMICS #350)
3. Blok
4. White Witch - not confirmed
5. Princess Projectra
6. Chameleon Boy
7. Triplicate Girl
8. Barbara Reed's (Yuma City, Calif.) "Atomic Kid - he has the power of atomic radiation and the explosive force of an atomic bomb." - ADVENTURE COMICS #309 - new
9. Shadow Lass
10. Kid Fate or Gary Haught's (Akron, Ohio) "SPELL BOY - he has the power to cast a spell on any outlaw." - ADVENTURE COMICS #312 - new
11. Sun Boy - not confirmed
12. Gold Lantern or Dale Jenkins' (Chicago, Ill) "DAZZLE DANNY - has the power of temporarily blinding any person or animal with blinding colors. - ADVENTURE COMICS #314 - new
13. Bouncing Boy - not confirmed
14. Karate Kid - not confirmed
15. Dream Girl
16. Mon-El
17. Saturn Girl
18. Shrinking Violet
19. Superboy
20. Brainiac Five
21. Phantom Girl - not confirmed
22. Lightning Lad
23. Dawnstar
24. Cosmic Boy
25. Element Lad
26. Light Lass - not confirmed
27. Star Boy
28. Ultra Boy - not confirmed
29. Wildfire - not confirmed
30. Matter-Eater Lad
31. Timber Wolf
32. Invisible Kid - not confirmed
33. Mystery Immortal Woman

supergirl 33 by kevin maguire:

Here's the 5 page spread, Nightcawler

I think Emerald Empress has made it clear he’s not a fan of any of these major visual changes to the Legion, so it’s not fair to call him racist for joining the discussion about Lightning Lad IMO.

Especially since it seems to be a discussion that has created speculation beyond Legion World too:

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/0...l-33-destroyed-racial-concerns-spoilers/

I also hate the racial change to Lightning Lad but as I’ve previously mentioned, I think it’s ridiculous that DC doesn’t see the issue with creating yet another black lightning-wielding character. Good luck to any future costume redesigners keeping them all looking distinct. Garth’s costume already looks almost exactly like the one in the Black Lightning TV show.

It’s also totally boring. Black characters are already a minority so why pigeon-hole so many prominent ones with the same power set? How many black telepaths are out there? Why couldn’t Saturn Girl be “the black one”? Which is also exactly how tokenistic this change seems to be to me - “Oh look, now we have one black, one white and one Asian as founders. Racial harmony!” /s

And on a final note, I also think it’s disappointing that just because they’ve made Garth black, they seem to have moved Chuck back to white. I thought his new design with the dark skin and white dreads looked great on the Ryan Sook cover and it was also refreshing to see a black hero with that body shape in the DCU.

Anyway, let’s wait and see what the reprinted issues show us. As Rich Johnson says, it is weird that they’ve only pulled those two issues.

Only the gods and the future know if we are getting the black lightning lad legion or the white crew cut lightning lad legion. It does seem like the gods play dice with white and black.

People keep saying Lightning Lad is Black. I'm looking at the three last scans.

I don't see it.

I will say this: this is not MY Legion. And I'm glad. I'm an old man. Let this be somebody else's Legion.

(Not that I won't want to read it.)

So Supergirl #33 isn't listed in "The Road to Legion" checklist. So, Legion content or not?

Well, you're already a white male going by a female name, so you'd think you'd be more flexible.

(Personally, I'm curious as to why redheads seem to be the apparent obvious choice when a raceflip is wanted. It's a curious thing)


Because this is "the same" Saturn Girl who's been appearing on-and-off since Rebirth, officially.

(Exactly how they reconcile this version of Phantom Girl with he Btzgl seen in Terrifics is a separate question...)

Hey! Where is the "Ginger" representation in the Legion now?! The Ranzz twins were the only representation of this significant minority. No redheads? Oooh!

Just kidding. I am not a redhead myself. I admit to feeling uncomfortable about the darkening of the Ranzz twins and wait to see how their hair colour turns out. I guess by the the 31st (32nd?) century racial mixing will be fairly extreme and then there is the question of whether they are Home Sapiens Terra anyway or is their colour any different to green, pink or blue?

So no it is not about race for me. I didn't even blink at Threeboots dark Star Boy, but perhaps that was because I found that incarnation of the team so far removed from any of the previous versions that I just saw them as an "Elseworlds" type.

I feel equally uncomfortable about Cos's asian look. Where I live we have lots of asians and darker indian-asian skin tones, many of whom are close friends. it is more like I was looking forward to reading new adventures of characters I was familiar with and the visual imagery is different enough to make them a new character instead. Others such as Karate Kid flipflopped between asian-caucasian and I didn't care but the core group? I don't know. Perhaps I am more stuck in the past than I thought. While I read all the New-52 Superman he never completely felt like my Superman to me even though I thought he was a good character, and pretty much all they did to him visually was make him younger.

Still I look forward with excitement and interest to how this version plays out.

I am especially excited about how much DC is pushing this. We haven't had publicity for the Legion like this for years if ever!
Bring on the new fans and let them catch the fever. This will be "their" Legion and the previous ones will be the alternates but it doesn't matter. Just make it a big deal again and let more people enjoy it.

Sooooo, NONE of the "core" DC titles released this week here in Canada had those pages at the back of the comics, as stated by some on here! What gives???
Which issue(s), exactly, did you pull those images from Nightcrawler because I would like to pick up a copy.

Anyways, once the new Legion comes out I will only refer to the former Lightning Lad as Black Lightning!
.... you know, so as to help "support" Bendis's need to alter the founders to the point of non-recognition! It makes sense though if you think about it. The Founders are now made up an Asian/Oriental male, Caucasian female , and now finally after destroying thousands of perfectly good copies of Supergirl/Superman, we have an "African American/South Asian" male! That rounds out the Big Three!

Congrats Mr. Bendis for covering all your bases! Good job!

Thank you!

My wife and child are red heads. I tend to think of Lightning Lad as pretty iconically a ginger, more important than Cosmic Boy’s whatever ethnicity and even Saturn Girl’s icy blondness. And I agree that the DC needs another electrically powered black man like I need another 10 pounds on my midsection. But, I’m willing to see what BMB has in mind. I think it’s incredibly important for people of all types to see themselves reflected in art and pop culture and heroes. It’s why the Legion, even in its original white incarnation, appealed to so many of us nonconformists—the large cast gave us more opportunity to find a character with which to identify. I do wish the Legion had a red head, just for old time’s sake.

A totally random thought: the seeming association of Triplicate Girl’s distinct selves with color perception makes me think of the Martians from the 1950s George Pal adaptation of “War of the Worlds.” The aliens had a trilateral symmetry and an eyeball with the same 3 part color wheel structure as the new Triplicate Girl’s symbol. Also, the 1950s aluminum Christmas tree illumination lamp. Coincidence? I THINK NOT.

But to be even fairer, he did say:



So they're not exactly making up identity politics here.

Okay but it does creep me out a little they gave Karate Kid that weird "Bald but braided" hairstyle that was frequent in older martial arts characters, like Stuff the Chinatown Kid. Wasn't that hairstyle rampant in old Western stories or something?

^ Well yes, that does sound similar to the “poor, persecuted white people” mindset that seems to be prevalent in certain circles these days, but I give him the benefit of the doubt because:

a) I can understand EE’s frustration when a favored visual depiction of a character (which is, I think, a valid concern in a very visual medium like comics) gets snatched away at the last minute;
b) his prior criticisms of all of the changes to this Legion, not just Garth; and
c) I think we all recognize that English is not his first language and that sometimes his intent gets muddled.

But I don’t know EE so this isn’t a hill I’m planning to die on.

But I think this conversation (not exactly this specific one, I mean the general one about race-shifting characters and “what is too much change?”) is interesting and I’ve got strong thoughts about it.

First of all (though this mainly applies to depictions of comic characters in other media) I think it is a very valid complaint when the appearance of a character you have been looking at every week or month for however many years is changed, either significantly (such as race, gender, etc.) or insignificantly (such as hair color, costume, etc.). So it really annoys me when people hand-wave those complaints away as the petty grievances of someone who’s afraid of change, or worse.

Unlike books, comics are obviously fueled by both words and pictures so the visual appearance of the character you are reading about/looking at is clearly vitally important. And for many people, the visual depiction of the character IS the character. Batman must have about a hundred similar brooding, loner, urban characters who both pre-date and post-date him, but only one of them has all the features that make up Bruce Wayne/Batman. So IMO it’s perfectly reasonable for a fan to want and expect that consistency across mediums. Especially if that character has never (or rarely) been depicted before.

But it’s also obvious that society is only becoming increasingly more diverse these days, and in order to meet the expectations and needs of a contemporary readership, comics have to grapple with the problem that most of their most popular characters stem from a “whites only” period in time.

I personally prefer the approach the Reboot used. Keep the original characters as created but introduce and promote more diverse new ones to fill the void. I just wish they’d applied a bit more to the effort. XS and Kid Quantum II were great and Gear had potential if the story had run longer but they really should have built Dragonmage up more to fix the embarrassing lack of Asians on the team, and also introduced even more characters to represent some of the many other ignored cultures of the world.

I HATED the approach the Threeboot used. That was Tokenism with a capital ‘T’. “Oh no! We have an all-white Legion. Let’s randomly make...... Star Boy black! Great! Problem solved!”

I actually also like the approach Bendis is using - throw out everything (or almost everything) that came before and visually recreate the Legion from scratch. Change races, change species, don’t be beholden to anything but what suits the story. It feels organic rather than change to fill some quota or something.

I can definitely understand why for EE and others like him this huge departure from everything they’re used to would be an alienating example of “too much change” though. And if I was still at all attached to the Legion as an ongoing property I might have felt the same way. But luckily(?) for me, the story of the Legion and the entire DCU ended in 2011 with the damp squib of a finale that was “Flashpoint” so I’ve got no trouble looking at this new series as a new beast and a departure from everything that came before.

Blacula has right. I always love Tyroc, Invisible Kid II, Computo, Dragonmage Gear, XS and Catspaw and all the diversity in The Legion.... Kono, Veilmist, Tellus, Quislet, Gates.
But this 4boot changed everything... and the iconic characters...
Princess Projectra is no more the beautiful platinum blonde , now is a strager being with pink skin. Element Lad is a Green zombie.
But really ...if the reboot of Justice League.... has an afroamerican Superman, an asian Batman, a platinun blonde Wonder Woman, skin purple Martian Manhunter, skin yellow Hawkgirl, a cat Green Lantern readers would still buy the comic book? I do not think so
Is the same with the classic characters in The Legion.
And my complaint is ... if I had been introduced to Garth with dark skin first, I would have no problem. But they presented it with their classic appearance. They also did the same with Bouncing Boy, but vice versa, and I'm not very funny either ..
I just hope this version is not successful and return to the originals.
By making so many changes distort those created by artists in 60 years.
But it is sad that young people now, do not respect those who grew up with these characters. And I, like Blacula, think that The Legion died in 2011.

I’m changing my guess back to Amethyst. After the interview it’s clearly a pre-existing character, so rule out his creations. It’s someone who didn’t know immortality was part of her power set, so it’s someine who already has powers. And it’s someone who doesn’t know something was done to her “in her other life.” Amethyst had a dual existence, plenty of funky stuff has been done to her over the decades, and if it’s a pre-existing power she didn’t know she had, it would make sense that the magic that aged her aged her to a specific age and then KEPT her there. And of course, as we’ve been bringing up since we started guessing, there’s the pre-existing connection.

Nightcrawler, can you please let me know which DC titles had the 8-page section focusing on the Legion (at the back of the book)? I would really like to know so I can pick up a copy.

The only Legion ad I saw in the main DC titles that came out yesterday in my comic shop was just a one page ad showing the first page which is the cover of Millennium #1. There was nothing more!

Thank you.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08/14/the-legion-of-super-heroes-preview-dc-comics/

Thank you Reboot …… I saw the Bleeding Cool ad this morning too!

Possibly Relevant

Really excited about the team coming back! Seeing Matter-Eater Lad in his colors and looking like a tank makes this one of the best revamps already! Given that this team has some type of Lantern and a Dr. Fate I wonder if Lightning Lad could be a descendant of Black Lightning? There seems to be a lot more ties to the current DCU, Lighting Lad could be another one.

I think Emerald Empress being called "racist" on this site is absolutely rude and uncalled for. Those responsible owe him an apology here on the forum.

As he has stated, and I am in complete agreement and will echo similar statements...if Lightning Lad had originally been introduced with darker skin, if Cosmic Boy originally looked Asian, if Princess Projectra originally had pink skin, when we first met the characters then we have no complaints.

However to make such significant changes 60 years later because of our real world "everything has to be politically correct BS" is wrong. The characters should remain essentially the same, that is what the Legion was built upon.

There is always more room in the Legion for new characters. These individuals can appear as alien and diverse as the writers and artists want in order to create the diversity they feel is necessary.

Fast forward 40 years from now when these new characters are redrawn the fans will once again be upset that the characters were changed. That is not racism, it's about tradition and what we as fans are use to seeing.

If someone is racist then they are going to expect and want all of the Legion members to be represented one way. Nobody is saying this on this site including Emerald Empress.

So take your racist accusations and shove it. We dont need to be falsly accused. We love Tyroc as black, we love Brainiac 5 as green, Shadow Lass as blue and so on. If these characters suddenly appeared Caucasian we would be just as upset.

Its reasonable tradition we want. We are accepting of alien looks with new characters. Get this through your head....that's not a racist view point.

Anyone who feels the need to scream "racist" over this is the one with the problem.

OK I know we’re all passionate about the Legion but let’s all embrace their spirit of harmony and remember that we’re all friends here and no one is intentionally trying to offend anyone.

Radical change is always difficult to accept and when you combine that with a nuanced topic like enforced racial diversity then it’s very easy for meaning to be misconstrued in the quick back and forths of message board communications.

So let’s all come together and turn our anger toward the real enemy...

Dan Didio.

I agree with you Blacula that this site is better off when people get along and I support that.

I will however stand up for people that are being singled out and their comments being taken out of context. Especially when accusations are made.

I also agree that Dan Didio is a concern. I wish he would reign things in rather than have such a liberal approach to the new comic.

I'm doing my best to warm up to the changes I dont agree with in order to still enjoy the comic. Hopefully after 6 issues or so I will choose to continue purchasing it as I have a complete collection already and would hate to see that come to an end.

I will also state that even though I have not kept up with Superman since the early 80s the way I understand it this new Superboy is supposed to be Clark Kent's son. If we can't get Clark back then I think it's an excellent subsitution.

Is Lois Lane the mother?

Thank you, Phantom Girl and Blacula for your words.

Yes LL is the mother.

The Post-Crisis Superman and Lois married in the mid 90s after getting engaged in the late 80s.

Then in the big DC crossover event Convergence in 2015 characters from many no-longer-existing universes turned up including this Clark and Lois who was pregnant and near term. She gave birth to Jonathan Kent (Jr I guess) during the event. Then somehow the three of them found themselves in the New52 universe. When the New-52 Superman died, (and later the New52 Lois died as well) the post-Crisis versions took over. Eventually due to the manipulations of Mr Mxyzptlk the timelines of the post-Crisis Superman-Lois and the New52 Superman-Lois somehow merged (kind-of sortof in a not really ever explained way) and we just carried on.

Finally Jor-El (yes Kal-El's father) turned up and offered to take Jon with him to explore the universe to help him to grow into his powers and knowledge etc (He was now about 10 or12 perhaps?). Reluctantly but surprisingly Clark and Lois agreed. Unfortunately amongst their many adventures Jon was separated from Jor-El, lost in space and time, and ended up on Earth-3 captured by Ultraman and apparently spent several years trapped in a volcano before escaping with Jor-El's help. Hence when he was brought back to the current DC Universe and time he had aged several years and is now reunited with his parents (who are glad to have him back but a bit pissed at missing all his growing up).

There you go. Simple isn't it? Actually there were some really good stories in there and Bendis can only be blamed for the last part of Jon going off with Jor-El. All the rest was by previous writers. Is it any more confusing than describing Validus as the time-lost twin son of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl thrown back in time distorted by a vengeful Darkseid to become an unrecognisable villain before his parents had even marrried?

On the racial change angle I will add that I was at first pretty shocked by the trailers for the movie "Man of Steel" that showed Perry White had changed race. However in the movie itself the actor nailed the character so well that it didn't bother me at all. I highly approve of the choice of actor. I guess that will be the final deciding element here. Can we believe that this is Garth or not? Of course it is a bit harder in the comics medium and Garth's personality hasn't been consistent in recent years compared to earlier years anyway, but as uncomfortable I feel with the change at the moment I will be fine with it if only the writing and the story presentation sells it.

There is nothing wrong with disliking the new designs, or disliking the fact that these designs differ so radically from the "classic" incarnations of the characters. A lot of people have expressed that sentiment, including Nightcrawler.

What was problematic about the Empress's posts was the claim that white people are somehow being discriminated against by these changes. That is, quite frankly, the sort of language typically used by racists.

This, just now from DenOfGeek….
The first cover is from Legion Of Super-Heroes #1 and the second cover is a Variant.

WOW! Thanks Catonyx!

I'm really liking Ryan's art and especially his covers.

Also, it looks like this will be the Ultimate version of the Legion. The founders are still Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl and we'll be getting new Legion symbols.

https://www.facebook.com/262733448333/posts/10157392907248334/

That's the article that goes with those images on a fb group.

Also if anyone's is still wonder it's a reboot. Bendis makes it pretty clear.

Also, they need to finalize the time period.
Is it 32nd or is it 31st? Interviews say one thing all printed material thus far seems to say otherwise.

Looks like the earth gets blown up again. I do like what I'm hearing about a more optimistic future. Personally on the race changes I think DC messed up with what appears to be a last minute switch. The mostly all white Legion of my youth was that way because of racism though. It's past time for that to change.

Those covers look great! I've always loved Ryan Sook's artwork. Is he the main interior artist for this new series too or is he just doing covers?

Well it looks like a decision has been made in relation to the hot button issue of this thread. I can't say I'm not disappointed. I wonder if Rich Johnson was correct in this new article and there was (presumably well-intentioned but ill-advised IMO) pushback against the plans to reverse the change to the Ranzz'? What an all around cluster***k either way?

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08/16/flip-flopping-dc-comics-legion-of-super-heroes/

The second cover is very interesting. Love that the members are finally getting new symbols! Some of them (especially those male/female symbol ones like Phantom Girl, Shrinking Violet, Colossal Boy and others) have always been so bad.

So the Earth has been destroyed again? I wasn't expecting that. Not sure if I like it.

I wonder if there will already be any fallen heroes from the team when the story starts, and if so, who?

Earth may be destroyed, but between evacuations and colonies I think there are still plenty of humans around. The Threeboot started with the destruction of Orando so this does not surprise me.

I will stay out of the human race debate, as it seems well played out. However, I think for the members that are not of Earthly descent, such as Element Lad, it is better for them to appear more alien than less. It shows new readers at an instant they are not descended from Earth. Trom is extremely different culturally from Earth (in the original continuity), for example they have no concept of marriage. In the case of Princess Projectra, I think (this is based on illustration) that they decided to split the difference between Sensor and Princess Projectra by making her a reptilian humanoid.

This most certainly had been asked but as usual I missed it.

The new comic...are they suppose to be a new reboot universe/Earth group or are they continuing characters of one of the previous Legion comics we have had?

If they are a continuation...which Legion is it? Please list the years the comic was published so I know which one your talking about. It does no good to tell me this Earth or that Universe because I wont know what your taking about.

I just am wondering which previous Legion comic these characters are suppose to be or if we are starting over with a new Legion group.

Interestingly, I've seen one of the FB groups post a checklist to this event showing supposedly all the tie-ins. (I think it's from DC house ads within the monthlies.) It omits Supergirl 33 and has a typo that lists Superman 6 instead of 16.

Also, there's a larger house ad that was supposed to be in this week's publications giving a lot of info about the Legion. It's been left out, supposedly because of the Lightning Lad race thing that Bleeding Cool thinks is why Superman 14 and Supergirl 33 have been pulped and pushed back.

But I just want to go on record that I have ZERO issue with the decision to diversify the new iteration of the Legion with different ethnicities and more aliens. I also have ZERO issue with those being characters who were formerly portrayed as caucasian.

I, for one, wouldn't want DC to do what some suggest--use entirely new characters to achieve this diversity instead of changing the races or making more alien existing characters. To me, it wouldn't be the Legion without Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, etc. While I would welcome new characters, like we got in the postboot, such as Kinetix, Gates and Monstress, I want as many of the classics as possible, even if they don't look the same or are necessarily all that similar. This is a new beginning after all, and the last attempt to give us what we supposedly want didn't work out so well.

It hasn't been 100% confirmed, but all indications are that they are a completely new continuity, with no reference to previous Legion comics. They are certainly interacting with the rest of the DC universe for the first time when they first show up in Superman.

My biggest issue is that the lineup is entirely "classic" focused, except for the brand new characters. And even given tthat they seem to only be using pre-Baxter characters for some reason, the fact that the two historically black characters from that era are conspicuously absent (unless Jacques is invisible) is disconcerting. I definitely have some sympathy with those who complain that they seem to be hemming and hawing over whether Bouncing Boy or Lightning Lad will be black, while all the various pre-existing black characters from various continuities are sitting unused.

I can see that point. There's no reason Jacques or Tyroc (or Computo or either of the Kid Quantums from later eras) couldn't be used. I can only assume that Bendis wants the characters and names that he considers Legion essentials, and is working from there. Either way, I'm not worried about it, only whether it will be entertaining.

It would be interesting, going only on my own conjecture, if this new Invisible Kid is actually always invisible, and we are never shown any of the usual artistic cheats to see what he (or she) actually looks like. Theoretically, we would never know Invisible Kid's race, unless we meet the biological parents or if the character discloses the info.

As far as changes go generally, as Superboy explained to us many years ago:

[Eryk Davis Ester]As far as changes go generally, as Superboy explained to us many years ago

Well said, thank you.

https://www.cbr.com/new-doctor-fate-legion-of-super-heroes/

A new Dr. Fate joins as well.

NOT...A WOMAN?!?!

Yes. This!

The Legion has no shortage of popular minority characters in it's history so it seems to me that the simplest way to solve the diversity issue would just be to mix the membership order up a bit. That way we get both: a) interesting new character dynamics and relationships between characters who haven't really interacted before (say Dawnstar and XS or Ferro Lad and Tyroc); and b) a chance to see those Legionnaires that always miss out when the universe gets rebooted before it gets to their period of membership.

I’m all this debate about whether caucasians are oppressed, we’ve lost sight of the most important thing: that haircut is gone!

It's the small victories...

Seriously, that 'do was offending me!

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON BUT IF SOMEONE STARTS A NEW 'DO THREAD I WILL BE THERE

ALSO: DEAN BAIT, SENTIENTS. YOU WANT SKETCHY BACK? 'CAUSE THAT'S HOW YOU GET SKETCHY BACK

I'M SUPER-YELLING (OF SPACE) AND I DON'T KNOW WHY!

ALSO PLS LET ME KNOW WHEN LESTER IS SCHEDULED TO APPEAR. THX.

I still get a thrill seeing the entire team flying.

Nice cover for #1

This! while I am open to new characters, the Legion has so many unused great ones who always get left out.

when will poor Polar Boy get a break again???

I always thought it would be funny if Invisible Jacques and Chameleon Girl were either 'officially retired' from the Legion, or never officially recognized as a Legionnaire ('just Gim's wife'), while covertly functioning as part of the Espionage Squad, and often working behind the scenes, scouting out areas, or infiltrating bad-guy groups, and raising no suspicions, because 'everybody knows where all the Legionnaires are, we don't need to worry about Invisible Kid spying on us, because he's retired...'

Double bonus coupons for Cham occasionally pretending to be Yera, and providing her with cover when she's, in fact, undercover, somewhere else. A Legionnaire impersonating Yera (to provide her an alibi) would be too funny, and surely get Violet's goat.

That said, Invisible Kid direly needs another power or permutation of his current power, because just invisibility is kinda sad. *Killed by friendly fire Lad* was taken, cause that's the last power I want on a team that's flinging lightning and fire and anti-energy blasts around, and has a few people zipping through the combat with ultra-speed or Daxamite strength, to turn invisible so that my 25 allies have no clue that I'm standing between them and a place they are moving or shooting or both... Something else related to his invisibility, like the ability to turn other people (or gear, such as body armor or weapons) invisible, or to detect and 'make visible' otherwise unseen things (perhaps even seeming to 'create fog' clouds by making the air visible in an area?), or to otherwise affect light. Just not teleportation. They did that already, and the team already has teleporter options aplenty with people like Gates, the White Witch or Veilmist, or a half-dozen other Legionnaires who would more logically develop teleportation (Star Boy makes a wormhole, Dawnstar *finds* a wormhole, Phantom Girl takes a shortcut through Bgtzl or the Phantom Zone, etc.) than Invisible Kid.

Legion Diversity Over The Last Sixty-Two Years
(and by "human" I mean, 'of Terran descent")

Characters who looked human, but weren't
Gear
Impulse / Kent Shakespeare (possibly part-Kryptonian?)
Kid Quantum (at least one version was an Antarean Protean)
Laurel Gand
Laurel Kent
Mon-El
Phantom Girl
Princess Projectra (at least one version had two hearts)
Sensor Girl
Shrinking Violet
Superboy
Supergirl

Characters who didn't look human, but were
Catspaw
Dawnstar
Ferro Lad
Furball (Timber Wolf transformation)
Infectious Lass
Lamprey
The Murrian Spies? (Xaxan (Magnetic Kid) / Aarl (Size Lad) / Graah (Blackout Boy))
Neon (Celeste Rockfish-McCauley)
Nightwind
Porcupine Pete
Power Boy (Jed Rikane)
Visi-Lad
White Witch
Wildfire

True Non-Humans / Aliens
Antennae Boy
Beppo
Blok
Blood Claw
Brainiac 5
Chameleon Boy
Chameleon Girl
Color Kid (at least one version)
Comet
Comet Queen (her natural form was not human)
Echo
Fire Lad (at least one version)
Firefist
Flederweb
Gates
Kid Psycho
Koko
Kono
Krypto
Lynk
Matter-Eater Anteater
Mog Yagor of Vasmeer
Monstress (her natural form was not human)
Proty
Proty II
Quislet
Scales
Sensor
Shadow Lass
Shikari
Sizzle
Spunge
Tellus
Turtle
Umbra
Urk
Veilmist

Characters who were represented as other than caucasian
Dawnstar
Dragonmage
Dragonwing
Ferro Lad (original concept, never appeared)
Gear
Harmonia
Invisible Kid II
Ivy
Karate Kid (at least one version)
Karate Kid II
Kid Quantum I
Kid Quantum II
Mwindaji
Timber Wolf (some people said he looked hispanic)
Tyroc
XS

I'm sure I'm forgetting someone. Probably several someones.

Not to beat a dead horse or anything but, as far as Lightning Lad and Bouncing Boy are concerned, they should have kept them BOTH Caucasian I know BB is now white, ...but for how long? . Just my opinion.

Lightning Lad looked better in the original promos (yes even with that hairdo). This revised version looks, and will ALWAYS look like Black Lightning to me. It's more about the new costume which now with the new skin tone, really drives the point home for me!

I would add Element Lad to the 'Characters who looked human, but weren't' list, as Jan as made so many comments that indicate his culture is very different from Terran culture. For example, in the Retroboot, he was shocked that humans could turn part of Xinjiang (Western China) into a toxic waste dump.

There are a lot of one-note 'True Non-Humans / Aliens' and 'Characters and who were represented as other than caucasian' in various versions of the Legion Academy, but I don't know if you want to list them. One of the reasons people are probably reluctant to create new characters is because they often get sent to Limbo once writers leave the book. Another reason is copyrights, though I think Bendis has a more favorable relationship with DC (I think Naomi is creator owned?).

Polar Boy, Ral Benem, and Nemesis Kid were all presented as non-human (or at least humanoid of non-standard colors) in the threeboot. Possibly some others as well.

He may simply feel that creating new legionnaires is an important part of the legacy. Most memorable runs have included at least some new characters. I don’t know what the terms of Naomi are, but it seems unlikely that special ownership terms would apply to characters created specifically for the Legion book. But I’m not a lawyer or a creator, so don’t trust me.

I’m sure that any writer / creator would also be thrilled at the prospect of creating new characters who might one day become iconic members of the Legion. hence the desire to create totally new Legionnaires.

I know I would be.

Although now each time Legion comes back previous new Legionnaires don't make the cut.

Ooh, so many! Very cool!

Add Glorith and Chemical Kid to that last bit, since you've got Dragonwing and Harmonia Li already. Ooh, and since Mwindaji is there, Otaku should be as well.

I'd love to have seen Tyroc, Dragonmage, Kid Quantum 2, Computo/Danielle Foccault, Karate Kid 2/Myg, G.E.A.R., XS and maybe Dragonwing, for some diversity, instead of changing the ethnicity of previously-caucasian folk. (That said, I've always felt that Cosmic Boy and Shrinking Violet looked a little bit either Asian or Latino, and that the Superboy's Legion version of Tinya, who looked East Indian in coloration, was very cool. But Garth being black? Wow, that's as out of left field for me as Threeboot Star Boy being black.)

Although it could be controversial if Garth isn't 'African-American' at all, but, in the 31st century, people dye their skin pigment as casually as we do our hair, and he's *literally* a caucasian in blackface...

Gosh, not a lot of Latinx in the Legion, are there? Three or more continuities of them, and a dozen or more black or Asian members, but no Hispanic/Latino members, or Middle Eastern members.

I suggested of being able to easily change skin pigmentation by the 31st century way up thread somewhere. I'm increasingly fond of the idea. I suppose it has precedent in the SW6 issue where Tenzil impersonates a Sklarian, though that's better remembered for the gender swap.

Not that I don’t think it will be an actual possibility in a thousand years given where the cosmetics industry is already at, but having Legionnaires in ‘blackface’, ‘yellowface’, ‘whiteface’, etc. would probably be the absolute worst approach to take at the moment IMO.

Can you imagine the controversy? People who get caught painting their skin to that of another race get named and shamed regularly in the media these days. For DC to seem to condone the practice...?

Also, race is a lot more than just skin pigmentation. I don’t think minority readers looking for a character to identify with would consider a white character who’s just been painted to look like them an acceptable substitute.

Lack of representation from India-Pakistan-Nepal, the South Pacific, or Australian Aborigines, either.
Of course by the real 32nd century, most humans will look more-or-less Filipino.

Oh, and eleven hundred years ago (1Oth century C.E.) Spanish was just an obscure dialect of Latin, and Spain would be Muslim for another five hundred years. Eleven hundred years from today...?

In the science-fiction game Civilization: Beyond Earth, it speculated that planets would be colonized by regional groups (I.E Franco-Iberia). I think Legion has hinted at it too with planet names such as New Shanghai and Kirinyaga (it shares it's name with a region of Kenya). Now, how they would evolve with 1000+ years in space would be fascinating to read about! It would be nice to get a Encyclopedia Galatica issue if the main series does well.

Oh, I agree. I'd much rather they used people like Tyroc, Myg, Kid Quantum 2, Dragonmage, Danielle Foccault, XS, etc. than racebend previously white people anyway, for a similar reason.



There's also that. Garth and Ayla are *from another planet* as is Rokk. Changing their skin pigmentation doesn't really mean anything, when none of them are really representing 'black' or 'Asian,' so much as 'an alien that looks like a black or Asian human.'

I remember thinking much the same when the Threeboot introduced a black Star Boy, and, in his first appearance, pointed out that he was Xanthuan and couldn't process sugars, meaning that he was not even remotely 'representing' anyone of any ethnicity. It was like, 'ooh, diversity!' and then, 'snap, just kidding, he's just an alien that only *looks* like a black man!'

I guess I'm just salty that characters like Tyroc and Myg and Kid Quantum 2 and Dragonmage seem to get ignored or excised, in favor of racebending all the white dudes (some of whom, frankly, could use a rest and be retired for a bit, making room for some more diverse Legionnaires).

You're right, of course, but I still find myself weirdly fond of the idea of characters who treat race, gender, etc. as incredibly fluid concepts that could be altered at whim. Maybe an alien species?

For me it is simple, I have already decided. I will not buy the Bendis Legion . I'm going to stop buying all the DC comics titles (22 in total), because I don't like being scammed. I love The Legion since childhood, I grew up with it, but I am not going to buy this that only uses the names of my favorite characters to capture new readers. If DC comics does not respect those who have kept the business for more than 50 years, it is that they do not deserve to spend my money on them.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08/17/editorial-back-forths-legion-of-super-heroes/

Rich J appears to be suggesting Black Lightning Lad was rejected by the higher-levels of DC editorial, Superman editorial (and Bendis?) deliberately ignored that, and that's the cause of the pulping (and they're now "stuck" with it because too many have seen it).