Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Pre-Zero Hour Legion making a return?

I would never have thought we would ever see the return of the preboot Legion. It just seemed ridiculous that DC would waste ten years of investment on a comic and start back over again. It would be like admitting they made a mistake.

But with the recent news that Hal Jordan is returning as Green Lantern, it is apparent that DC has no problem taking back mistakes that were made ten years ago. Now don't get me wrong... I don't like Hal one bit. But the way he was written off the scene was a slap in the face to anyone that had followed him for years.

The list of relaunches and retcons frows even greater. Let's see what they've done lately -


*Green Arrow returns from the dead.
*Hawkman returns from near comic book oblivion.
*Superman's origin and powers look increasingly precrisis.
*Lex Luthor has returned to his mad scientist ways.
*The Doom Patrol has been relaunched with (apparently) its entire history conveniently forgotten!
*The REAL(???) Supergirl has returned in the pages of Superman/Batman.
*Aquaman gets his old costume back (OK, not exactly groundbreaking, but it's yet another example of a return to the past)
*It seems as though every year at least one old JSAer returns to active duty.
*And now the news that Hal Jordan is returning.
*Also don't forget Mark Waid's mention that he is involved in an exciting new relaunch coming up.

Guys, there is a real, I mean a positively legitimate possibility that the preboot Legion could return sometime soon.

And I don't really know what to think about that.

Sure, some of the above relaunches were great, but others have left bad tastes in my mouth. I would love to see Jacques, Mysa, Blok, Dirk, and especially Dawnstar gracing the pages of Legion again. But I'm not sure if I'm ready to trade in Zoe, Gates, Ferro, Lyle and especially XS for another fling with the past (though to be fair, if Waid is involved, Jenni will probably show up soon. She's his creation, and he really seemed to enjoy writing her).

I don't know if I'm getting my own hopes up or not. Maybe re-rebooting the Legion is just too complicated to consider doing. But they've made the JSA interesting again. Hawkman came back and that was something NOBODY thought could be done. And if Hal Jordan can be successfully brought back into the fold again, anything's possible.

Besides, what can be done with the current Legion to top what DnA have tried to do? The recent Foundations story gave the Legion the biggest threat they've ever had to face in their history - how are we supposed to care when they take on Starfinger or the Fatal Five?

I've come to the conclusion that we as fans don't have as much invested emotionally in the current Legion because the writers haven't had much emotional investment in their creation. Try as they might, they just weren't writing about THE Legion. They have been telling stories (some very good ones I might add) about some super-powered teens from the future, but not the ones that they knew as fans growing up. Anyway, if you've stuck with my rambling this long, thank you for your attention. I'm just trying to sort out my thoughts after hearing the Hal Jordan announcement.

So what do you guys think? Is the time right for a return to the preboot Legion? Would you want to see it? Would it work? Could it really, really be possible this time?

I think, for the first time in ten years, I'm going to get my hopes up a little. I kinda' want to see someone call Tasmia Mallor Shady again.

I dunno about an ACTUAL return of the pre-boot Legion, but I *do* think a strong effort is being made/will continue to be made to make the current Legion seem JUST LIKE (or VERY like) the preboot Legion. (examples: Superboy joins, Lar returns to his Mon-El costume)

I don't think there'll be a reboot. Gail Simone mentioned that she's picking up some strands from DnA and that her arc, in turn, will intersect with Waid's first story.

Tell you what, though -- I wouldn't be surprised if Waid gradually remodeled the characters after the pre-boot Legion he seems to love the best, the Silver Age. I expect a brighter and shinier universe and a lot more humor during his run.

The $64,000 question: will he be bold enough to reintroduce the new Kara Zor-El into the Legion?

I doubt they'll wipe away the current continuity either, but we probably will be seeing a lot of preboot elements pop up soon. I just hope they don't go too far with that; I'd like to see how Waid and company take this Legion without rehashing old plots.

I have made no secret of the fact that I am a silver age fan and love all that Superboy, Legion of Super Pets, Brain Globes of Rambat nonsense. Yet I would be reluctant to see a total reboot back to that era, or the Levitz era or TMK or whatever. There are a number of characters from after the reboot I have grown rather fond of and would be reluctant to lose.
Lets hope we get a brighter future with echoes of the past rather than a rehash.

Originally posted by Super Lad Kid:
Maybe re-rebooting the Legion is just too complicated to consider doing. But they've made the JSA interesting again.

And, thinking about it, it's _exactly_ what has been done with the Legion in the last two years.

Besides, what can be done with the current Legion to top what DnA have tried to do? The recent Foundations story gave the Legion the biggest threat they've ever had to face in their history - how are we supposed to care when they take on Starfinger or the Fatal Five?

The most powerful enemy, you mean. Yeah, possibly. The biggest threat ? It depends. What hurts the most, a cosmic brutal slugfest or a little personal crime ?

I've come to the conclusion that we as fans don't have as much invested emotionally in the current Legion because the writers haven't had much emotional investment in their creation. Try as they might, they just weren't writing about THE Legion. They have been telling stories (some very good ones I might add) about some super-powered teens from the future, but not the ones that they knew as fans growing up.


I TOTALLY disagree. Do those legionnaires remember all the stories about them I read when I was a kid ? No. That's better, whe lost trillions of tons of dead weight.
Do these legionnaires feel the way they did ? Is the Legion ideal still alive ? Personally, I think THE LEGION as a concept hasn't been this strong, this compelling, this powerful but a couple of times in the last fourty years.


Is the time right for a return to the preboot Legion? Would you want to see it? Would it work?

I think it would be a nightmare it it returned.
Don't misunderstand me, I absolutely love the preboot legion (most of it at least).
But if I wanted to read the same stories I read as a Kid, I'd take those old cominc books and read them again. I do it sometimes.
But I want to read new stories. I don't care if every microscopic detail is exactly like in that old comics. I just want to read good stories, with good characters, with respect to an entire mithology, and as long as the original concepts are still there, I really couldn't care less if Brainiac 5 doesn't remember to have loved Supergirl, as long as he's stille Brainiac 5.
That's why i really like The Legion.
(And no, DC Comics didn't pay me...not much, at least...)

Read and view what's in our own Bits of Legionnaire Business section, the LegionFiction page, Fanfiction.net, LegionPics and other sites ... and then tell us that there's any prospect of the pre-Zero-Hour era "making" a return, present tense.

It's made one already. More to the point, no Legion era has even gone away.

It's simply that the prospective centerpiece, an ongoing printed Legion book from DC Comics, isn't telling those stories. Yet.

We're still getting some echoes, "Superboy's Legion" being the best yet, and I hope Jurgens and the others return to that tack of storytelling. In another 20 years, they may get to Wildfire and Dawnstar action figures, but until then, fans have already brought back the earlier Legion.

I believe the effects of the Crisis story will eventually all be reversed, though DC will never corporately admit its mistake. We'll get nearly everyone back. It's still easier to bring back classics than to create from scratch.

[Super Lad Kid]
{[...] I would love to see Jacques, Mysa, Blok, Dirk, and especially Dawnstar gracing the pages of Legion again. }

We Starhavenites thank you. More partisans out there than one usually thinks ...

If they say "relaunch," they mean "new #1". They wouldn't be stupid enough to reboot again (or better still, DEboot. To what anyway? The 5YL stuff is as devisive as the reboot, and if you go back to pre-gap, that's FIFTEEN YEARS AGO! They are NOT going to pick up stuff as-it-was 10 or 15 years back - forget it. The closest you'd get is stuff like forcing Superboy on us to make the reboot Legion resemble the preboot more, and sticking M'Onel back in his old costume while ignoring the story consequences. And remember, Waid himself was the guy who hit The Button anyway.)

And, before anyone pulls up the newDP, Byrne's rebooting the Doom Patrol in the way the Legion was rebooted in 1994. From Day One - not picking up the plot threads as they were the issue before the team blew themselves up. And Waid set up this Legion HIMSELF. I doubt he'd press The Button again (and remember - Gail said his issues would tie into hers, albeit in a not-immediately-obvious way. Hard to do if they've been whited-out.)

[Originally posted (with slight modifications here ]

I am in COMPLETE agreement with "Sanity or Madness?" (and by the way "SoM?," the answer to your username is "Madness").

Super Lad Kid, your hope that the upcoming "Rebirth" mini-series indicates DC would be willing to bring the tales of the Legion back to where it left off in 1984 (or 1989 or 1994 or whenever) is interesting, but where your analogy falls apart is the fact that "Rebirth" will NOT be wiping out 10 years of Green Lantern history. The intention of
"Rebirth" is to re-establish Hal as Green Lantern WITHOUT refuting the existence or history of Kyle Rayner as GL.


Yeah, this is just my opinion, but I've had enough of "Universe-annihilating" threats. I'd LOVE to see stories that focused on a small group of Legionnaires that had to deal with a smaller-scale threat on Winath or Bismoll or wherever.

SLK, although I don't think there will be another reboot (or going back to TMK or Levitz era), I think you're very right about the current trends in the DCU about going back to the way things used to be in the core DC titles.

With Waid coming on, I believe we'll see changes that are similar to his new origin of Superman. I expect to see Dirk Morgna, Blok, and hopefully Dawnstar down the road, in addition to other things that will make this Legion similar to the old Legion, in a way that fans can hardly tell the difference anymore. Just like Superman was still Superman after Crisis, albeit changes, I think there will be a conserted effort to make the Legion the Legion again, with little major changes as possible.

At least, I hope so .

I suppose, realistically, a return to the preboot Legion (of the pre TMK Legion for that matter) is probably out of the question. In fact, whenever the subject has been brought up, I was often among the naysayers that said that is couldn't happen. But when I heard the news that Hal Jordan was returning, I couldn't help but imagine scenarios that would allow the Legion's return.

And if I could change my mind, how many other fans might there be that would suddenly entertain an idea that was unthinkable? Already, the voices on the DC Messgae Board are growing for the return of Barry Allen (a bad mistake IMHO). It seems as though the flood gates have been opened.

Grey - I see your point about the preboot Legion being kept alive. It's easy to overlook fan art and stories as not being legitimate, yet it is the same devotion to the Legion mythos that have kept it alive for as long as it has.

Tromium Crystal - Good point about Gail Simone's comment about her stuff correlating with Waid's. I forgot about that.

I think our best bet would be slowly changing characteristics of the current Legion to mirror that of the preboot Legion. We've seen that a little with current writers' attitude toward Widfire's origin.

This seems to be the route that Superman has taken. It began slowly with little elements like Krypto. Now Kara has returned and Lex Luthor is a mad scientist again. I think this could be an acceptable approach for the Legion.

It would be a bad idea.

The problem is that it's so easy to do. Much easier than whatever they'll pull to being back Hal.

You want... Superman/Batman as a template for the Legion. Did you actually READ that tripe?!

Thankfully, it looks like Azzarello's removing Lex from mad scientistdom ASAP.

I didn't say it was done well in Superman/Batman. Yeah, Luthor's return to being a mad scientist was very poorly done. I think the business-man Luthor was played as far as it could go, but the Superman books had been building to a full-scale revelation of Luthor's evil for so long. That was a pretty crappy payoff. I have been enjoying the Supergirl story so far, though.

I just think a gradual return to preboot characteristics could work in Legion. Some clamour that the reboot Legion should be different and we should not just be reading rehashes of the same old stories. While there's a validity to that argument, DC doesn't seem to want to hear that right now about Superman, Doom Patrol, etc. So why should the Legion have to trudge along unfamiliar grounds? Why not have some preboot elements slowly work their way into the reboot - maybe reintroducing the polymer screen (which would make complete sense given recent events on earth) or Medicus One. Let Timber Wolf undergo some major plastic surgery. Kill off the new Mysa and reintroduce Dream Girl's long-lost sister. Give Tinya her personality back!!