Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business Pitch your One-Issue Legion fic ideas!

I like both those ideas IB...superhero families always tend to be other superheroes or supervillains, I'd like to see how the ones with normal families (whatever that means) go...eg with the preboot: what was Dawnstar's home life like to make her how she is? How are Tinya and her brother these days?

I'd also like to see some exploration of the weirder worlds; what is society on Hykraius like? The Subs special played Bismoll's gluttony patrol for laughs, but on a world where people can eat anything inorganic, is that actually a serious consideration? That kinda thing

Thanks, raz! Yeah, there are still a few Reboot Legionnaires whose families have NEVER been seen or mentioned, that I can remember.

Violet (no insight whatsoever into her origins!)
Star Boy (even his origin story starts with him leaving Xanthu for the Legion!)
Karate Kid (we just know he was raised by his sensei)
Gates (though he did say that Vyrgans get a little care after hatching, then become independent soon after)
Dreamer (she just says she's the first precognitive Naltorian born in seven generations)
Timber Wolf
Gear
Wildfire (we know his "component" entities in the Reboot have families, but that's it)

There are others whose families have only been mentioned in passing. But a panel or two is enough to give us a good idea!

Ultra Boy's mom meets Apparition, and we learn that she doesn't know who Jo's dad is. She didn't even know Jo was a Legionnaire; and Jo's said several times his only "friends" were his gang. Would that affect how he treats Cub?
Umbra's mom is dead, and she was raised by priests while her mom was alive so no single incident could kill both of them. Her origin issue explores well how that shaped her worldview and ambitions.

And so on and on.

Single issues exploring life on individual homeworlds sounds fun! What are other snake-people on Orando like? How does the typical Xanthusian react to Xanthu's reputation as a backwater world? Do Lallorians feel like a second-class Earth? How similar is Aarok to Earth? Enwans have big eyes so they can function in the "four-cycle" night; how do they cope with the long darkness? Does Enwa have a special relationship with Kathoon, another world with similar challenges?

And I could see a single issue showing us what everyone on the team does for fun. Legionnaires 59 in the Reboot did that, but some (M'Onel, Kinetix, Brainiac 5, Umbra, Gates, Star Boy, Monstress) were on missions. Still, we know enough about them to guess what they'd do!

I felt like there was always going to be something there, with her name meaning Life and his name meaning Death (and her having Life Lass sort of powers, at one point, imbuing a life-like animation to unliving objects). Would Thanot eventually have some sort of de-animation, energy/momentum-draining or 'death' related powers?

I also wondered about Rokk's brother Pol. Rokk has been, in some iterations of the Legion, abnormally strong magnokinetically for a Braalian (and / or abnormally skilled, in versions where he was a world champion Magnoball player). Pol, as far as I know, was neither abnormally powerful *or* abnormally skilled (i.e. not a world-champion / best on Braal). Did he sort of slide in as a legacy, despite not being particularly awesome? Would that result in massive guilt, and not just on Rokk's part, if Pol didn't go on to have a long and heroic career, but instead a quick death, because 'my brother was a founding Legionnaire' turns out to not be enough to pass muster?

Imra's sister might be in a similar boat. Imra's clearly amazingly powerful *and* skilled, able to broadcast over a planetary range and perform all sorts of complicated telepathic feats like rearranging memories and mental blasts and psychic illusions and seizing control of other people's minds. Presumably the average Titanian is no more capable of this than I am of singing for 2 hours straight or shattering glass with a perfect note (things that *can* be done, vocally, but I sure can't do!), and Imra's sister is no exception, which could lead to resentment on her part. Anything she can do, Imra can do better. Anything she could *learn* to do, Imra has probably already mastered. That could be frustrating, and lead to her being an underachiever, as a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. "I'll never win, I might as well not play." Or it could lead to Jancel deciding to become good at something Imra is not doing, to avoid competition, such as becoming an artist or a performer of some kind, or a scientist, or a doctor, or even getting into politics, using her sister's fame to springboard her own career, rather than complaining about it.

At least in the Reboot, Pol Krinn is shown several times doing extremely well on the magno-ball courts. There at least, his status is unassailable. But yeah, in the Preboot his skill wasn't demonstrated quite as much.

Jancel definitely was affected by Imra being such a prodigy. In the Reboot, she was maybe a little older than Lori Morning (Lori was 10/11, Jancel seemed maybe 12/13). Her mechanism was trying to steal Garth away from Imra, to get the one thing she could have over Imra. But she was dealing with it in an unhealthy way, and Garth finally had to tell her off by saying she should get her own life. This relates to your idea: that she could find something else of her own that Imra couldn't do.

I was also thinking about Thanot being able to steal momentum/energy, though with Kid Quantum II showing up might have dampered THAT plan. I was also wondering if he could become the Emerald Emperor; and maybe he and Zoe could battle over how to use the Eye. Zoe might try to use it for good, while Thanot might be more nihilistic and try to destroy life to end suffering, or destroy society because it's evil, or some such.

I feel like Garth and Mekt already have the 'good sibling/evil sibling' rivalry down, so, going with how Zoe isn't 100% idealistically 'good' but has some negative traits not often associated with heroes (her desire for power, and occasional willingness to cross some lines to get there), making her more morally complex (and realistic) than someone like Captain America or Shazam, who can come off as 'boy scouts' or 'goody two-shoes,' I would rather that Thanot, even if he goes a little dark, still be more complex than say, Mekt, and have some good traits, making him, at worst, more of an anti-hero than an actual villain. (Although I like the idea of him being opposed to his sister in some way, and not quite the same as the Garth / Ayla dynamic, where they both are heroes on the same team. Perhaps the nature of his powers are antithetical to Zoe's, and they cancel each other out, or react adversely, or even cause some sort of subconscious antagonism between them, so that it's better if they stay apart.)

Goodnesss, that was an unreasonably long run-on sentence up there. No one use me as a writing example!

Hahaha!

You make a good point about Zoe's moral complexity, though. Maybe this could be developed into Zoe and Thanot both wanting to help people, but Zoe is more positive and "people are inherently good so we guide and help", and Thanot being more "people can't control themselves so we need a heavy hand".

Halloween Issue- Candy Night

A trade discovers a container floating in outer space and discovers it is full of mushrooms. The crew decides to sell them on Mars, and before you know it, parasitic mushrooms are taking over the planet. It might be more fun to make this a Legion Academy or Legion of Substitutes issue.

An ordinary 31st-century Earth boy discovers Superboy's Ugly Yellow Costume. When he dons the costume, it provides him a sort of invulnerabilty, preventing all injury to him. (At least, from the neck down.) Embarking on a career as 'Substitute Boy', excitement and hilarity ensue.

"It was a nice idea, but it didn't work! I'll never wear this costume again!"

I always thought of having a one-issue story where the Legionnaires handle some kind of natural calamity on Earth. Weather control is hacked or something. And each panel features a Legionnaire in a different 30th century city. This would allow us to see how varied locales such as Paris, New York, London, Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo, Nairobi, Tashkent, Moscow, Sydney, Fiji, Rio de Janeiro, Cairo, Madagascar, Nepal, etc. have changed in 1000 years.

The Pre-Darkness Preboot Legion is threatened by a new villain, Ultimax. His power is to create convincing illusions of the most negative, nihilistic future fates possible for each Legionnaire, to the point where they don't know what's real and what isn't, nor what's present and what is future. He is defeated by Projectra and revealed to be descended from Orandian "modernist" exiles who had settled on another planet and turned it into a dystopia.

Too late now obviously, but a day in the life of Tellus or Quislet would have been a good idea for a one-shot story to really explore how they're different from the more humanoid Legionnaires

Reports are that Timber Wolf has gone berserk and attacked some visitors from off-world in Neotokyo! But Timber Wolf is on mission monitor duty, and receives this call?

Legal misunderstandings and bad press abound, and finally an android duplicate of Brin is taken down, only for a few similar sightings to be made near the site of the takedown, and the response team shows up just in time to stop Brin from angrily smashing the rest of these android imposters ruining his reputation as it is revealed that not all of them are androids! One or two are brainwashed innocent people wearing holo-disguises, and whoever the big bad* is who sent the androids to sully Brin's reputation was, they also sent in some brainwashed innocents to (hopefully) get mangled by an angry Brin!

*Is it Karth An? It's Karth An, expert in android duplicates, brainwashing people into thinking they're something else, and hater of Brin!

I am a big fan of Karth Arn being developed as more of a nemesis for Timber Wolf!

I'd like to know what you all think of my idea.

I'm always ready for a good dragging of badly executed ideas via the characters reacting "Oh God why would you do that to me?!" but with a character who has more potential beyond a one-note role.

Good point well taken, Sarky.

Perhaps he might have potential for greater development in subsequent appearances? Like, for example, going into greater detail about his origin and his ancestors, the self-styled modernists who broke away from their medieval world?

He could be used for an interesting metaphor about the dangers of gentrification and the illusion of progress rather than ACTUAL progress

Agreed 100 percent!

Tryouts idea I lost interest in;

Tryouts – Ballet Boy / Balleteer / Ballerino
Judging – Timber Wolf, Lightning Lass, Chameleon Boy, White Witch
Powers – minuet = 500 MPH dash, flying leap = flight, pirouette = tornado, hoist = anti-gravity lift, swan abreast – invulnerability, en pointe = ???
Someone comments that the tornado thing at least counts as a 'unique power' but White Witch demonstrates that she can create a (tiny) tornado as well, conjuring a minor air elemental spirit, and stresses that 'Ballet Boys' powers are not relevant, he is a performer and a showman at heart, not a champion or a hero, and that he has no place on the Legion.

He *wants* to be rejected because he merchandizes his ‘adventures’ and intends to milk the grievance of the ‘jealous’ Legionnaires rejecting him. Mysa read his online stuff during his exhibition, “I was not born on the Sorcerer’s World. On Naltor, we have healing crystals and incense, yes, but we also have computers and starships…”

Cham tricks him into thinking that he’s been accepted, but needs to go through a six month trial period at the Academy, knowing that he has a tour planned and wanted to milk the grievance of Legion rejection to get free advertising to boost turnout. He storms out, denied the flouncy exit he had planned.

I just liked the notion of someone who is trying out mainly because he's an 'influencer,' and wants to be soak up the publicity of grousing about his 'unfair rejection.'

A one-issue or half-issue 'backup feature' not about a Legionnaire, but about a Legion *villain.*

The Emerald Empress is confronted by three floating figures. Clad in battered golden armor and orbited by the three surviving fragments of the Topaz Tear of Tybalt, the cruel warlord known as the Topaz Tyrant. An older woman in a silver metallic skintight suit, over which she wears flowing blue robes, the Sapphire Star of Sintar hovering by her side, atop an ornate silver staff, the cold and calculating Sapphire Suzereign. And eyeing them both suspiciously, clutching like a wand the cabochon-cut Ruby Rod of Rotepi with a miser's grip, the capricious and paranoid Ruby Regent. They call her usurper, not the rightful holder of the Emerald Eye, but she refutes this, saying that she won the Eye, and so earned it, as they all earned their own symbols of power. In any event, the four of them must work together, as the enigmatic Diamond Doge (Dauphin? Daimyo?) has chosen to eliminate all others, and nearly slew the Topaz Tyrant (and shattered the Topaz Tear, which still functions, even broken into three fragments!). Only working together can they keep the power to which they have grown accustomed!

And yes, they are all bad people, in different ways. (The Suzereign being the least 'evil' of them, but she's still 'lawful' to the point of being darn close...) But this Diamond whomever? Not someone we want with the power of all five of these artifacts, or to be unopposed in their own ambitions, by these 'devils that we know'...

I love making lists for no reason. (OCD much?) So I had a blast exploring the dozens of different names for different titles of royalty or nobility (like Empress or Tyrant or Regent) and for different precious stones. Pearl Pharoah? Jacinth Justicar? Onyx Overlord? Amethyst Amir? Sard Sultana? So many options, but I really wanted to stick to the 'big' gemstones. Emerald, ruby, topaz, diamond, sapphire. And yes, I know at least two of those are just different colors of corundum, but Corundum Count just doesn't sing, yanno?

The notion that there might be more than one of these 'Emerald Eye' type artifacts, and nothing so boring and predictable as a second eye, amuses me.

Then again, I've already tapped this well by proposing the notion that there are more weapons like the Atomic Axe out there, left behind by it's creators, so perhaps I've spent too much time dipping from this well...