Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Let's talk about Legion Of Super-Heroes #3...[SPOILERS]

She woke up alone. The planet was pretty much trashed and completely deserted. She was attacked by some kind of beast. She suddenly spawned two duplicates of herself to fight back! She (I'm not calling her Lu until we have confirmation) learns that she can continue to duplicate but eventually finds an upper limit. The duplicates form their own society and rebuild the planet. Whenever they remerge, their experiences are combined.

The UP eventually comes to Cargg. Three of the dupes are sent to visit the UP. The have some very different experiences. When they return to Cargg, the other Carggites refuse to re-merge, finding the others too different. The three leave for Earth and become the first new member of the Legion of Super-Heroes as Triplicate Girl.

She had already been a Legionniare by the time her people rejected her.

And I think you're only inferring that she was the first new member after the founders because the three were there on the ship (and because of preboot history). You're right not to assume Lournu is her name and I don't think you can state with certainaty the order in which she joined either.

Blacula, Phantom Girl mentioned Vi was shy in this very issue. That is why I assumed she is going to be.

Tough Vi is not a cliche. The Legion Adventure era women already get a bad rep for being...non-aggressive. Yes Shadow Lass, Dream Girl, and Triplicate Girl have all already showed off side kicks but I am talking their actual powers.

A tough female Legionnaire like Vi isn't a Napolean complex cliche b/c in my knowledge we have never seen a female comic book character with a I'm small but overcompensate with toughness. Maybe a few female characters without powers that overcompensate with toughness. But ohwell.

I notice lots of Adventure fans here...I'm not one of them. I'm a Levitz fan and since the Levitz name was ivoked before this series...just for hype it seems...to get the thousands of Levitz fans out there to buy this...I just think it's not right.

Teen Titans recently launched a new title that resembled the glory days of Wolfman/Perez...not the glory days of when the title originally was launched. Waid has opted (like the FF) to go to the "source/core" of these characters. Sadly i disagree with it though b/c X-Men go to the Claremont days for their "source"...Daredevil to the Frank Miller days...Teen Titans to the Wolfman/Perez days. The last reboot was already too Adventure for me especially the Archie era. With guys like Jim Lee, Loeb, Geoff Johns, Pacheco...all fans of the Levitz Legion...I guess I have to bide my time for the next creative team.

With all this said I enjoyed this latest issue. As in I can read it and not get upset...but since Legion is my favorite all time I can "stomach" this version...still think it can be much better.

Sorry for the rant.

Jorg, we can all relate. At one point or another we've all had "our Legion" destroyed only to be reinvented in a new version that just didn't feel right. Best advice I can give you is hang in there! Soon enough you'll get to really like these guys and while they may not be "your Legion" they'll be enough to keep you going. And who knows, one of these days, you legion may be back.

How and in what way was Levitz' name invoked to hype this series? Other than it being stated that he gave his blessing, which as Top Dog at DC, I would assume he would have to do anyway?

I'm just not getting your problems with this new book. Mainly because you seem to be enjoying it, yet you just can't seem to let yourself go because of a (somehwhat irrational, it appears to me at times) hatred of the Silver-Age.

And comparing the Archie era Legion to the Silver-Age Shooter/Swan heyday is.... well, just NOT right, and I'll leave it at that.

There's lots of Adventure fans here, sure... being a fan of that era doesn't mean you can't love the others, and vice versa.

Just keep enjoying the new book. That's all that really matters.

I know. You mention it in nearly every post. For the record I'm a Levitz fan too. Among a number of other Legion eras.

Re: Vi - I'm going to save any more discussion of her until we actually see her.

I'm also a Levitz fan, mostly because I came into the Legion (with a few random issues prior) just prior to GDS. Since I own all the archives, I recognize that Legion began to develop during the Adventure Era. It seems that if the Legion started to grow in that era then it's a good place to start in the new version.

Ahem, just because a girl's shy doesn't mean she can't be violent.

My guess as to the identity of the bad guy starting the upcoming galactic war - Power Boy.

Why? He was the only reject out of 75,000+ Legion applicants in this reboot, and he wants REVENGE. Otherwise, I'm just pulling this out of the ozone.

... But I wanted to be first on record in this prediction!

I wouldn't say that this reboot is more influenced by the silver age than the levitz era. From what I can see, the only particularly silver agey thing about the title at the moment is the cast, most of whom featured in Levitz's run anyway, and the old skool codenames which, likewise were used in the 80's also. In terms of character, Waid appears to have taken his cue from Levitz's run as well, which in my opinion was the major reason for Levitz's success at writing the legion.

I'm not sure where all these "silver-age" reservations are coming from.

I think the summer hype and interviews made readers think Waid was going to attempt to shoe-horn all things Legion into a mock-up Silver Age framework like DC tried to do with golden age chatacters throughout the eighties. Consequently the fans are being a little overly sensitive about it.
I still feel Lu's origin was like a Twilight Zone episode from the sixties, "Picture if you will..."

Cosmic Boy has so far been constantly shrouded in darkness and intrigue in this series. We've known Cos for so long that we take his competence, his dedication and his do-or-die attitude for granted but there may be something to this new version that surprises us.

Much of Levitz's best writing was distinguished by a genuine fondness for the characters, a premium of character-driven interraction and drama, and gentle humor and irony. I think Waid has done a fantastic job of emulating that spirit without slavishly copying it. A downside of Levitz's stories (and this may be more my projection on to them than an objective analysis) was a tinge of weariness with the characters and premise -- the sense that the Legion had been around a long time (which it had!), therefore the only way to make the characters interesting was to start "messing" with them. Usually, this still produced great stories (the Vi/Yera story, Dream Girl's changes, Who is Sensor Girl?, Conspiracy). I think one reason why Levitz-era characters like Jacques, Blok, Tellus and Quislet were popular was because Levitz wrote them with a freshness and enthusiasm that he didn't always apply to the longer-term characters. What I enjoy about the new series is the Levitz-quality characterization combined with the youthful enthusiasm and energy that the best Shooter-era stories had.

I agree with what Doublechinner said to a large extent although I do not see Levitz's writing of established characters as 'weariness' at all but development. The reason for Levitz's success in handling the characters is that they develop along lines which do not detract from what makes them what they are in the first place. This is a vital fact which latter writers failed to grasp (Progenitor?) And while he introduced changes, none of them are so drastic that it throws readers off a curve and make the characters totally unrecognizable to readers (Shavaugn-Sean, Garth-Proty II) Another charm is his style of telling us what is happening to other characters using a one-page update developing secondary plots which takes central stage no more than a couple of issues down the road. This element of closure is what was missing in the DnA era. Given the 30 pages of story WaK has to weave their magic and the fact that they basically have worked out the storyline for the next 3 years, I hope that this is emulated. I mean I much rather have a page catching up on, say, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl on Rimworld, than a splash page on Brainiac's reaction to Element Lad's report in LSH #2.

SW6 Vi was also pretty good... Shy, but realistic.. cute, and powerful. Reboot Vi was very similar to that one for a few issues, then she went psyco-bitch.

Dear god, I never want to see that word ever again...Proginator....*blech*

Creedo....*doubleblech*

Okay, I admit I'm an anal-retentive Legion geek. Now that that's out of the way, the copy of Batman 122 I ordered to put in my Legion collection arrived yesterday. And while the cover shown in LSH 3 is Batman 122, the scene with Bruce presenting flowers to Vicki Vale doesn't appear in that book. Anybody have any idea where that came from?

I was wondering why ol' Bruce was giving flowers to Vicki in a story where he was marrying Batwoman. Millionaire playboy indeed.


That is pretty dang AR, RJ. But at least you admit you have a problem. That's the first step to recovery. I'll see you at the meeting.

Well, I never said it was a problem, just a fact.


Besides, it's important we learn what other social skills the Legionnaires gleaned from this issue:

The Rite of Vegetation (reinforced)


Some missions are too dangerous for a girl.


Every girl crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man.


The importance of a Wing Man.

Not too sure how convinced I was by the premise of this issue - Triplicate Girl's been a member for two years, it's hinted that Sun Boy has been around for a while too, and yet they know suprisingly little about each other.... just didn't make sense to me

loved the art, loved a few of the gags, loved the sneaky brainy sub-plot, thought the rest was contrived....

Speaking of contrived ... Cos has a telepath on the team (conveniently off duty in this issue), yet he recruits Triplicate Girl to suss out the motivations of three teammates in an elaborate dating ploy. If the information was so vital to his plans why didn't he have Saturn Girl (who was at HQ in issue #1) handle the job earlier in a more discrete manner? If it wasn't vital, then he could have waited for her return. TG's ruse made made for a cute story and a nice character spotlight, but it fails the internal logic test ... unless it turns out Cos doesn't trust SG or knows she would not cooperate, even with the survival of the team at stake. Possible, but it doesn't sound kosher.

Or she could be on an important mission with LL out on one of the Rim Worlds. Cos might have felt that he'd like the information now rather than later. Also, Imra might not be willing to invade the minds of her teammates without permission. IMO, this _doesn't_ fail the internal logic test without a lot more info.

If they do address this point later (I won't hold my breath), I hope they also explain why Brainy thinks he has a chance in hell of carrying out an internal coup with a telepath on the team.

If it turns out that Saturn Girl is Brainy's co-conspirator ... well, it wouldn't be the first time.

I'm not sure if its an acutal coup-type situation or if it's just Brainiac saying, "Hell with it, I'm doing what I think is right."

Well the subplots is the good stuff isn't it. In my classic Legion upbringing we seem to have a conspiracy of sorts and telepaths on important missions. You can bet your credits that Imra is probably spying on something else...but is it for Cos or Brainy? Cos gave his speech about the founding three but Imra usually sides with Brainy in Legion history, no?

To quote Cosmic Boy: "... Brainy's arrogant enough to think I don't recognize the makings of an internal coup ..."

Jorg-Em, I don't know about Saturn Girl always siding with Brainy, but she did conspire in secret with him and two others to kill the Time Trapper, and defended him when he was charged with the murder of Jaxon Rugarth (sp?). So yes, they have a history.