Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Visionaries of Tomorrow Legion Elseworlds: Genesis Millenium

This is a revision of the first draft of the story premise posted a few days ago on another thread. Some Legionaires voiced an interest in it and the first draft wasn't together enough yet. This is just the prologue and I'm interested in developing the story on this forum with yu'all good folk. Any thoughts so far would help give a feeling of how such a premise sits within the Legion Universe as perceived here. Sorry for not having much time to become active in a wider rang of topics posted.


Elseworlds
Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes
Genesis Millenium

Prologue:

Jor-el is about to send his only son Kal-el to Earth. With the explosion of Krypton we see Kal-el rocketing towards Earth but we also see something we'd never noticed before in earlier depictions of the scene, thousands of balls of light are released from Krypton with the explosion and they all fly off sailing into all the corners of the universe.

Cut to Smallville, Kal-el crashes and is found by the Kents.

Cut to a Santa Barbara, California hillside overlooking the sun setting on the pacific sometime in 1937. Two young lads sit in awe of the beauty of the sky before them. Thery'r talking and wondering, one of them has a sketchbook and pencil in hand the other is writing on a regular notepad. They've been working on an idea for an adventure hero comic book but can't seem to put their idea together yet. They don't have anything special yet, they just know they want to make a comic book.

The sky lights up for an insant as a light ball bursts through the horizon and heads right at them exploding about them and engulfing them with a warm light for an instant and then mysteriously disappearing, as if it never happened. All's quiet as the two look at each other, their eyes show some understanding or excitement which had eluded them till now. One guy's starts talking a lot and the other starts drawing. We see a familiar figure with a cape coming to life on his sketchbook.

In Smallville, Clark Kent grows up with Ma and Pa Kent and learns of his Kryptonian origin and powers. He heeds his parents and keeps his powers a complete secret, no one sees him use them. But Clark is not at peace with this. He sees the world he's been adopted by and understands the strengths and weaknesses of his fellow men and sees the strife of injustice in the society and civilization they build. He knows that a world with a Superhero like him would be more inspired to forge a path of goodwill and success for all of its citizens. Young Clark knows he must become such an symbol for mankind but he prefers to wait and not to announce his powers as a teenager. He decides to wait until he approaches manhood and perhaps then, he'll be wiser in choosing a path and destiny more fitting of the special super abilities he's been endowed with.

In the meantime, the comic book creators who conceived Superman on that Santa-Barbara hillside have birthed a new mythology of Superhero comic books which are being published by The Daily Comics in Metropolis. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and a slew of other characters have become stars of their own comic books, read and cherised by children around the world. The fledgeling comic book industry becomes a beleagured subculture within the growing television, film and media industries, but it holds its own as more and more of the creative minds who grew up with the superheroes make their way to Metropolis to join in the making of superhero comic books they so loved.

Clark Kent reads these comic books as a child growing up in Smallville. His perprexity over his own superpowers finds comfort in the comic books and the new mythology of superheroes they brandish and who save the world from its strife. As he approaches manood, he knows his destiny is to join the comic book creators in the big city and who've created superheores such as he's destined to be. When the day arrives Clark leaves his parents and Smallville in search of that destiny as a comic book writer at The Daily Comics publishers in Metropolis.

It's here in the formative years as a comic book writer that Clark Kent begins to realize why he hesitates to expose the secret of his powers to the world. Clark doesn't want to become the alien visitor from another planet with extra-ordinary superpowers who saves humanity from its calamities. He'd rather inspire his fellow comic book creators to all become superheroes themselves. He'd rather that the people of Earth save themselves rather than become beholden to and alien Superman who saves them. It's this path that Clark Kent begins to forge in his comic book writing career so as to merge himself into a breed of superhero humans, the creation of which he can inspire within his own fellow comic book creators.

As the popularity of the comic books increases in America, so does Clark's resolve to perpetuate a vision for turning the comic books themselves into tool for breathing new life and hope into a world troubled by the divisive social and political perplexities which have brought the reign of futility, despair and increasing social apathy into the prevailing social consciousness. From the lowest populist levels of street crime atrocities to the corrupt social and political heirarchies which govern the divided peoples of the planet - comic books, unlike any other creative cultural mediums remained somehow unscathed by this despair and futility which has taken over. Clark Kent has spent his first years as a comic book writer convincing his fellow comic book creators that their world is on the brink of doom and that they themselves must take things into their own hand and start showing the world how the spirit of the Superheroes they've created can change the destructive course which their world is falailing into.

The dawing of a new millenium, science and technology on the brink of fantastical advances and achievements - yet all in vain for a civilization choked by its own fall into the thorns and thistles of perpetual wars and unending social strife.

Clark Kent has however, succeeded in sparking a ray of hope within his colleagues and convincing them to take the initiative in maximizing the effects their comics have on the world about them. Soon, more and more Superhero comic books are beginning to tell the kind of stories that read like election campaigns and sociopolitical platforms for a silent revolution in America. A comic book revolution in which the powers that be are caught completely off guard and are helpless to quell the overwhelming popular support that the creators have garnered through the past year's issues of comic books and graphic novels gaining in popularity for their stories of relevance and sympathy for saving the world about them. Within a short time, a grass roots popular movement is rising thriough the comic book industry and the comic book convention circut becomes the most popular and sought-after place for America's youth as millions follow the convention trail thirsty for a look at or a word from their favorite creators. America's wealth is now being slowly absorbed into the once poorest and smallest of the entertainment industries. The television and film mediums are set on fire with a bursting forth of legendary superhero saviours - and within three years of the campaign, The Comic Book Creator's Party is formed and elected to govern the United States as a big hush falls over the international community which tries to fathom what might be happening in the crazy land of the frivolous Americans.

The revolution is swift, worldwide and silent. The greatest creative minds in the world are now at the helm and the world's resources are suddenly put to the kind of use previously unimagined even by the greatest visionaries of the world. Scientific research and social/spiritual forces converge into one entity as the Comic Book Creators Party charts the path, using all of humanity's technological, physical and sprititual resources, combined into a new meta-scientology, endowing the comic book creators with the ability to become far more than mortal men. Previously imaginary powers which they once gave their Superheroes in their comic books, are now becoming a reality for them. Clark Kent merges into this superpowering of the comic book creators as if he received his powers in the same way as his colleagues. He can now be at peace using his powers openly and within another few years, the world becomes populated by a superhuman union of Comic Book Superhero Creators, led by Clark Kent the new Superman, a prime new Superhero who started it all way back at The Daily Comics offices in Metropolis.

By the year 2015, the world now looks just like it does in the comic books, bursting with life and vigor alongside the greatly quelched conflict and strife which once ruled it. A virtual paradise governed and guarded by the Superheroes who've brought it into it's present state of previously unimagined glory.

We cut to one thousand years in the future. The reign of the Legion of Superheroes. One thousand years of a world guarded and led by the generations of Superheroes who paved the way for the conquest of space and the intermingling of the interplanetary races that began to discover each other. We know that in the same way these superheroes came into being on Earth when the comic book creators took on the powers of the superheroes they created, so did a similar social upheaval overcome all of the known universe's populated planets in that era and thus did the galaxies become full of the Superheroes. Now, a thousand years later, the true origin of these superheores has become all but forgotten. All that's left of the glorious Comic Book Creators' revolution is the comic books they left behind. All that's remembered through the many social upheavals that the universe has undergone is the comic books themselves which tell of the imaginary stories that the same superheroes wrote and drew when they were but mere mortal comic book creators. The long forgotten history of the superhero comic book revolutions is now lost and irrelevant. Even Superboy himself has no knowlege of how he's destined to one day, when he returns to the past, to lead his colleagues into the Superhero revolution which changed tha face of the universe.

It's to this background that we begin our saga of the Legion of Superheroes in The Genesis Millenium.

Just so you know, I've read and have been thinking about the premise you propose. I'll try to post some actual thoughts on it this weekend.

Very interesting premise Mike. I've toyed off and on with a similar concept over the years. Earth Prime is the home of the Comic Book Creators and the other Earths are slightly different versions, diverging from Prime because of crucial decisions made or events that go awry.

Earth Prime and Earth 1 diverged because in Prime reality, Jor-El was unsuccessful in saving his young son, whereas in Earth 1 reality, he does.

The Creators, rather than creating, in truth are unknowingly "receiving" the ideas for their stories from these other dimensional worlds.

In my "world" the main character is translocated from Earth Prime to Earth X, where he discovers his powers and becomes the catalyst for the emergence of other heroes, who help him form his Super Legion. Also, because of the stories written by the Creators on his world, he knows how to find some recruits for his Legion.

Looking forward, Eryk. Good to see it's being considered.

Michael

This is the kind of background everyone here can help provide which I've been out of touch with for many years. I'm not enough familiar with the development of DC's universes since the late Seventies. How such a premise fits into today's DC will be critical to helping sell the idea of the project, which I'd like to present.

It's clear that everyone's input will mean a joint venture of this forum and I'm all too open for such a thought. Everyone who brings some input should and will share in it's development, crediting and profits. The logistics of how to solidify such an understanding can be worked out as we go along.

The idea of a joint venture of a forum of fans will make this book of far greater interest to the readership and give us all something even more worthwhile to sink our teeth into.

Forward onto a new day for the Legion.

Michael