Even putting aside my personal dislike of Johns, it's along the same lines as Paul Levitz coming back to the Legion in middle age. So I doubt this is going to be any better than the Retroboot. I hope those of you who will be following this are pleasantly surprised, but I just cannot bring myself to care anymore.
To be fair Johns has never written a monthly Legion book, to my knowledge. The Retroboot may have largely been his idea and execution (via the trilogy of Lightning Saga, Superman and the Legion, and Lo3W), but it was then swiftly handed off to other writers after he brought them back. The Retroboot spun it wheels and went no where pretty quickly after Johns stopped spearheading it. I would like to see his take on longer Legion stories.
I hope to be pleasantly surprised as well. I enjoyed the Retroboot for the most part. My biggest concern (outside of certain writers and artists being attached) is that the Retroboot 2.0 will likely bring back a lot of deceased characters, which Johns has a long-established history of doing (Barry, Hal, etc.). There are many traits that set the Legion apart from other superhero franchises, and permanent death is one of them. I might miss Star Boy, Sun Boy, and others, and also felt that their deaths were sudden and pointless, but...
they died. They need to stay dead. In my opinion the classic Legion stories are defined by change, progress, and consequences in the narrative. I don't want to see it become like other cape comics where characters die but come back to life just to restore the status quo every few years. The narrative has to move forward at all times and not get stuck in a status quo.
I guess we'll see? I'm hopeful for something good. Fingers crossed!
My dream scenario is still that Johnathan Hickman comes back and writes it. I doubt it will happen though since he seems happy with his Substack book and still has Marvel projects in the pipeline. Rumor has it that his original plans for the Rebirth Legion after Doomsday Clock (when he was briefly working for DC, before Marvel sniped him away) were basically used for his recent X-Men work. Apparently Moira McTaggart's role was to be R J Brande's. I hope he has more ideas and comes to the book. He's my favorite superhero writer.
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