Preview for issue #1 of Future State:
https://aiptcomics.com/2021/01/22/dc-preview-future-state-legion-of-super-heroes-1/

This pathetic being is Tasmia? Seems like this Bendis Future State is even worst than the current series!

As "interesting" as this preview is, I will go into reading this 2-parter with a completely open mind. Fingers crossed!

Tasmia's shadows pack a punch. Hm. I like that, throwback to Reboot Tasmia.

I don't condemn her for her reaction, she did stop. and it implies she's going through something that requires mood stabilizers.

Free mood stabilizers?

Hmm. I'm not super happy with the shift, we barely got to know the earlier Legion. but fine, I am willing to see where it goes...

Interesting, I look forward to reading it as icky as what appears to have happened to the Legionnaires. I get the sense that this is quite some time after where the last issue left off.

Tasmia's cap is sort of odd - part of a uniform? It looks like a stewardess/military thing. She and Jo look humanoid, just a different art style, whereas the cover characters look very machine-like.

Hm. I have no idea where this story is going, so that will be interesting to see.

On another note, I would never have been able to tell that the man is supposed to be Jo. He looks pretty white and blonde compared to his mainbook counterpart.

Practically the first thing we learn from Tasmia is that she knows why Jo reached out to her. Yet a little later in the same scene, she says that if she knew why Jo had called her there, she would never have come. Well she did know. She just told Jo that she knew, and she was right. So, why is she there?

As Cramer commented on Tasmia's costume, I keep expecting us the give us information on the nearest exits (some critics will want those to be from this reboot ) and to materialise a drinks trolley.

Different art style, but had they not used their first names, I wouldn't have recognised either of them. That might be the Ultra Boy symbol on his front (I guess the Legion can't be fugitives then), but he's on Planet Gotham, in a grey/black outfit. So I first thought it was a bat symbol.

I've been thinking flight attendant since we first saw this outfit! I also found the weird contradiction in what Tasmia says a bit jarring. Not a huge fan of the art style generally, but we'll see how the rest of the book is.

I've tried with this Bendisboot, but 12 issues in, and the character we speculated might have been Shrinking Violet is shown shrinking, on a variant cover. I don't even know if she's had a speaking line, let alone is dating Ayla in this boot. Yeesh, and now this Future State business, which will be the first Legion appearance I am not going to be able to force myself to buy in decades.

I'll never not be a Legion fan, just not a fan of *this* Legion. Future State should be over in a few months, perhaps something more appealing to me will follow.

So is this still taking place in the year 5,000 or not?

Not very much in this preview. That's ok with me. I prefer to read the whole story as it was meant to be anyway.

Interlac translations:

Top of page 1
(I am guessing this first one is a standard heading to all Future State books?)

the triumphant victory of
our heroes saves all reality
from the brink of destruction
and shakes loose the very
fabric of space and time. from
the ashes of death metal
rises new life for the infinte
multiverse and glimpses into
the worlds of tomorrow.

Middle of page 1

the first artifi-
cially created
planet. a full
planet-wide evacua-
tion has been or-
dered by the emer-
gency UP council.

good spot. i need to read again. i did walk away with the impression, she "knew" why because she guessed/assumed, but was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. but when her assumptions were confirmed, she lashed out

and with the mood stabilisers comment, i understand

For posterity...

Well that was a hot mess.
At least the 12 issues before had great artwork, the artwork here was atrocious. Character redesigns UGH! A whole lot of WTF??!!!

LOL, well ... if that honest review doesn't make me want to buy and read this tomorrow I just don't know what will?

I have no idea what I just read. I am completely lost.

I'm thinking it would have been best for the Legion to just end with issue #12 and skip Future State.

A question that comes to mind ... Is this Mr. Riley Rossmo ... getting paid to make this hideous art?

I'm not sure that's fair. Everyone has their own style and we may like or dislike it, but that's no reason to be insulting. He's popular enough to get a Martian Manhunter series, the Robin King one-shot and will now be the artist for the next Harley series.

I do agree that he isn't a good fit for the Legion, IMHO.

SPOILERS


FROM


THE


FUTURE


!!!!!!


Future State: Legion #1

That was a very quick read. I ended up wondering if it was a few pages short, and wanting a bit more. I figure I zoomed in on a couple of double splash pages on the phone. But wanting a bit more, isn't always a sign of being short changed.

I feared the worst when Tasmia openly contradicted her reasoning in the opening scene. She knows what Jo wants, but wouldn't have gone there had she known what Jo wants. Um... The art looked like it was going to take more than a little to get used to, with characters rendered unrecognisable.

That's as bad as it got. Perhaps it's being used to the scratchier art of Alt+Legions such as The EGOs and Black Hammer. But I had no problem in getting into the art style. Where the story needed us to specifically recognise someone, Bendis made sure we did, without it getting in the way. The style is distinctive and there's no lack of talent in getting the likes of Lu's sadness or Chuck's rage across. There's clearly thought into the redesigns. Imra's skull mask indicates the threat her mental powers now pose. Gim is wearing body armour, as he's always the biggest target etc. The art also leaves some question over who is in Rokk's tribunal. Lots of more familiar costumes, but we can't be sure. Are there large groups of opposing Legionnaires? time will tell.

There are progressions from characters we've seen. Imra's concerns regarding influencing others, doesn't stop her from mentally stopping Tasmia. Rokk's career path has taken him to the leadership role he craved, in a post United Planets tribunal.
Some characters have taken bold new steps. Querl was a computer mind in a body that was often seen spending far too much time in the lab. In order to be optimal, it would make sense that his physical from was also. Here, he's free of that form and its needs. He can shape his form with his mind. It's led to some interesting changes in his personality.

Chuck has become a krypton class character, making my Bits notes for a Ballistic Boy looking like they'll need some work. From what we've seen of his intelligence in this series, and his powers, a scientific upgrade isn't too much of a stretch.

There are some nice little bits of characterisation: Lu (multiversally destined to lose a self) no longer wanting to merge. The Subs, with no Legion to inspire them have taken their lead from another origin in this version. Whatever the Incident was, it's Jan Arrah they look to. Fire Lad tells a crowd of the UP descending into blame, right after a scene where we saw just that.

There's some interest in the overall story. The Legion lasted 100 days. There's a UK book & Film dramatizing the short 44 day reign of Brian Clough, as a football manager at Leeds. That countdown approach was taken up by an Indy comic, called The United, whose super team formed and self-destructed in 44 days. With a few words, we get a ticking clock when we come back into the regular series.

RJ Brande could well be dead after an Incident, precipitated by Jan Arrah (multiversally destined to be a nut job); The Legion have not all parted on the best of terms. Brainy isn't popular; the suggestion of Sci police/ Horraz collusion. The Legion barely had time to know each other. Bendis even slyly references this, as Jan asks Garth if he remembers his real name. In the origins 2-parter, we also saw that a number of them didn't agree with the concept of either the Legion or the United Planets. The animosity we see between members is form that background, rather than the seasoned colleagues we've come to know.

With only 2 issues, there's a bit of a crush. It doesn't take much for the Legion to get most of its members back together. With them mostly being close at hand, you wonder how they let it all go so wrong. But like the Clough/ United example above, there are always plenty of other factors capable of bringing disaster. Everyone is looking for Jan Arrah, but Arrah coming out of hiding allows the Legion to get to him. Sort of, as Lightning Lad and a couple of others had found out.

Although the series was always going to have its crises and dark moments, I got the feeling that a lot of people were looking forward to some time in that nice, shiny optimistic future. We didn't really get to see much of it this time round. Of course, it can always be rebuilt.

We get a plot, complete with some momentum (yay!), plenty of questions, lots of character tweaks and a stand-off against one of their own next time out. I enjoyed this much more than the fight against the dull-the-first-time-Doomsday stand in the last issue. I'd have been picking up #2 anyway, but now I want to do it, to see the end.

Doe anyone have a clue if the character who looks like the cartoon's Shrinking Violet is a brand new character, or did Bendis!Violet somehow get her skin bleached and her ears mutilated.

So I can't really say I liked this issue, but I also didn't hate it quite as much as I expected to. Maybe I managed to really lower my expectations?

Bendis seemed to do a much better job than he's been doing of (re)introducing the cast and giving them something to do than he's usually done in the regular series. So Jo, Tasmia, Imra, Brainy, Gim, Cham, Rokk, Lu, Blok, Chuck, Garth, Ayla, and Jan all get intros and we get a pretty good idea of their present status. There's a couple of people with the group that show up at the end that we don't know who they are, and I have no idea if all the people who are on U.P. council who look kind of like various Legionnaires are actually supposed to be the Legionnaires or what, but I feel like we did get a pretty good use of the cast for once.

I kind of liked the idea of the Subs being formed as a rival group with different political ends than the Legion, though they didn't come off all that well (being taken down by Duo Durgo pretty much on her own).

As far as art goes, it definitely wouldn't be my top choice for an art style for the Legion, and I'm not a fan of the designs at all, but it was tolerable.

Well.

As much as I was trying to be neutral before reading this, I have to admit that I fully expected to hate it. I still don't like the cover. And yet ... I thought it was not bad (that is a lot better than neutral and edging towards good).

The story has me intrigued. The background hung together. It felt like there was more characterisation in this issue than there has been in almost any of the others. Most of the earlier issues characterisation was largely "I'm so excited to be a part of this!" mixed with "I don't like you telling me what to do!". To be fair perhaps that feeling of youthful enthusiasm was what Bendis was going for but it did lead to everyone (mostly) sounding the same. Here there are several different feelings/reactions/personalities coming out of facing the situation they are in.

Even the art is growing on me. I don't think I will ever be a fan of this angular sort of style, yet I am a fan of any art that conveys clearly and plainly so much of the story and even more so much of the emotions of the characters.

Standouts for me are:
- page 2 Jo and Tasmia - Jo's emotions are good and clear but the three head shots of Tasmia in exactly the same pose and yet the first seems tinged with sorrow and questioning, the second a growing seriousness and anger and the third with rage. Great subtle stuff.
- page 4/5 - Imra's wry humourous expression with "Oh! It's OK. She wasn't going to kill you!" Also I disliked immensely Brainac 5's floating head on a rope from the cover but this scene with his words made it work for me.
- page 7 - Reep looking in the mirror, trying out different face/bodies (I think Rokk, Jo's father, R J Brande his mother) like trying out different clothes or trying to understand what has happened.
- page 16 - Luornu and Blok showing how Blok can convey his sorrow and support without saying a word

Even the final Legion splash page felt right to me.

Stories where the Legion splits in to different factions will always be an uphill battle because of their team and comradeship being such a strong part of their background, but I have to say I liked this more than I expected, both as a comic and as a Legion comic, and I am feeling hopeful for the next issue.

(It also makes me want to go back and look over the previous issues, particularly the two "recruiting" issues to see what bits of character and motivations were portrayed there and how they match with what we see here. Also was Commissioner Sevenbergen the SP we saw during Imra's abortive atempt to interrogate Mordru? More things to check, and great that I want to.)

Interlac translations

(Apart from the first paragraph on page 1 which is the same as at the start of all the Future State comics, each Interlac paragraph is a comment/description of the planet that scene is set on, rather reminiscent of the info boxes Levitz used to use at the start of a new scene.)

GOTHAM
the first artifi-
cially created
planet. a full
planet-wide evacua-
tion has been or-
dered by the emer-
gency UP council.

DAXAM
The first
planet hit
in "the
elemental".

WINATH
The planet hit
hardest by the
Elemental event.

COLU QUADRANT
A horraz armada has been
caught rummaging the dead planet.

Thank you very much for the information, Nightcrawler, I still had time to cancel the order of Harley Quinn 1, and I have done that.

Ok, just read future state, I have not read any other comments yet so these are just my questions and thoughts I have from beginning to end. I understand there probably won't be answers to any of these, I'm just asking anyway. 1) Why is Tasmia's hair now orange/blonde? 2) Why when she came all the way to this location at Ultra Boy's(a fellow legionnaire) request suddenly seem to figure out she is being asked to return to the Legion? 3) why is her darkness now red and why is it seemingly holding and causing pain to invulnerable Ultra Boy. It's light/darkness it blinds, it does not have a physical hold. 4) WTF happened to brainy, his brain is exposed, he is once again obviously insane and seems to be fused to a Protean and now goes by Brainiac 7 and seems to have multiple consciousnesses because he seems to talk to himself later on. 5) Saturn girl is one psychic brain "twitch" from killing everyone. Is she sick, the still part makes this seem its been a problem for a while. Also what happened to her arm? Also she can't read Brainy's mind, however given his state that's probably a good thing. 6) I just thought Planet Gotham was roughed up from battle and war and lack of repair, but I guess the entire planet is "Broken and Unstable" and Brainy thinks they are not safe there. 7) Who are the Horraz? he calls someone highness, someone calls Duo Damsel royalty later on, the first one seems like a joke while the second as a term of worship, but two within a couple panels seems odd. 8) The "good team" seems to think Reep is very important to there cause and although he is powerful I can't see how he would be the key to defeat Element Lad. 9) Reep turns into Rokk, than who is either matter-eater lad or General Nah, ont sure if its either, than his mother, and than nervously back to himself. 10) People I think I recognize on page 8 Cosmic Boy, LoSH TV show Violet, Timber Wolf, Princess Projectra, Mon-El, some sort of superman, Quantum Kid. 11) Cosmic Boy seemed to bring Chameleon to a trial to ask him one question and it feels very intense, but at the very end Chameleon is there so what happened from point a to point b. 11)R.J. Brande is dead. 12)Element Lad is once again insane and evil, why? 12) He seems to have given the entire legion of substitute superheroes there powers. 13) Triplicate Girl is once again Duo Damsel and this is actually the only part I like because it feels more personal and touching writing. It also appears to have happened recently. 14) With no extra powers she double handedly took on an army of subs and was doing just fine even before blok showed up. Love her and Bloks talk.15) Why is chucks face on the top of his body? how does that work, how did this happen? 16) What did brainy do to make BB so angsty, how did everyone's family die? 17) Who is Commissioner Sevenbergen? 18) What is Jan's plan, because it seems he already did the baseline element thing. 19) Why did he think Lightning lass was dead? 20) Finally, is that gold lantern on the final page? Final thoughts: I am not a fan of the art, and also they say that the legion ends on the 100th day, but from cosmic boy Saturn girl and Lightning lads flash back to forming the legion it looks like a lot of time has passed between then and then recruiting Jon, they are a well oiled team and I doubt it went from 3 to 20+ members and everyone got well acquainted and used to working with each other in less than 4 months. I know that by issue 12 they are still new, but they aren?t THAT new.

https://www.denofgeek.com/comics/future-state-next-evolution-dc-legion-of-super-heroes/

OK I seem to be in the minority, but I actually liked the writing in this issue! And I loved the art! Riley Rossmo is an extraordinary talent IMO and I think he's really going to go far. All the criticism and insults [not specifically from here] being thrown his way are giving me huge flashbacks to the reception that Olivier Coipel received on Legion of the Damned. And we all know where his career's gone since then! (God, wouldn't it be amazing to see Coipel come back and draw a Legion story again. <wistful sigh>)

The major problem with this story is that it's come too early in this Legion's run (or more accurately, Bendis didn't effectively use the twelve issues he had). I feel none of the stakes because I don't really know or care about any of the characters involved. That isn't all Bendis' fault though; Future State was obviously forced on him by DC editorial. But it's yet another example of how rushed and last-minute decision-making has contributed to the inferior product that is the Bendis/Sook Legion.

Getting to the redesigns, I like a lot of them (except Bouncing Boy's; God, that's ugly!); I'm just not sure I like them on the character they're attached to. How and why Duo Damsel got access to one of Bumblebee's old rejected costumes is a story I'd like to see some day.

That scene between her, Blok and the Subs was my favorite part of the book though. It was great seeing a lot of those old characters again but particularly, the storytelling in that moment when Luornu talked about not liking to integrate any more because it was too painful made my heart stop for a second. It was so sudden and powerful and leaving the last of the three panels empty while she expressed that sentiment was one of the most subtly moving moments I've read in a comic in a long time. That emptiness really brought home her loss to me.

One last thought is that it must suck to be a Jan Arrah fan! I feel for all of you out there! He has really been shat on in every Legion since 5YL some 30-odd years ago! He's never been one of my favorites (especially with his bad design in this era) but I'm actually starting to root for him because of how mistreated he is.

Anyhoo, according to the article Sarcasm Kid linked above, this is the new normal for this team, and now I'm interested to see what's coming next.

Thanks SK for finding this interview.

It's glaringly obvious that Bendis has no clear focus about what he was originally envisioned to do with our beloved characters. Plus he contradicts himself at every turn.

Surprisingly I did enjoy this Part 1 issue and I am eager to see how it ends.

Yes the art is a bit of a departure from what I'm accustomed to expect for the Legion, but it is unique and special in its own way. And it didn't bother me at all.
Art is very personal and subjective by nature and no two people will ever 100% agree on art anyway.

Via Twitter -

I find the basic idea of Bendis skipping around Legion history really interesting. On the one hand, it allows him to tell a much broader story than he otherwise would be able to. On the other hand, it feels like it ties this version of the Legion even more to his particular vision, making it even less likely that it would survive without him. It also makes it kind of frustrating that he decided to pack so many characters in at the beginning and then not use them. If you're going to be jumping around in Legion history, then why have everyone in their at the beginning?

This is just too confusing.


The guy is white and in DC Nation Presents DC Future State he's identified as "Blast Boy." Of course the "Phantom Girl" identified there looks like Shadow Lass.

I mean, Jo turned white and so did Vi. And the Ranzz twins were looking pretty pale too.

Yeah, we went from one of the most diverse casts to a whitewashed mess.

that's sad

Is anyone surprised? Garth and Ayla being Black was a last-minute change on Bendis's part and that definitely showed when we saw what Winath is like in this timeline.

Of course there wouldn't be any consistency.

Interesting theory ..... you may be correct.

I'm leaning towards thinking maybe, just maybe, Bendis (or the DC management) decided against moving forward with this current Legion. Perhaps due to negative comments or backlash, or who knows what.
And I was a bit surprised to see the sudden unexplained changes in skin tones for a lot of the characters that we have gotten to know over the past year and a half. Although I have been very vocal about my dislike of some of the choices made regarding the skin colour and back-stories of a few Legionnaires (especially Garth and Ayla), I did respect the product as a whole. Regardless of whether or not I ever considered this run to be "true Legion" I did like having the Legion Of Super-Heroes back in the spotlight and top of mind, since this helps grow popularity in today's market and boosts interest in ALL the other versions of the Legion. So win-win situation all around.

I'll bet that we can expect yet another version of the Legion in the near future, ..... probably something more familiar to us long-time readers. Something more in keeping with a more conventional, historical resonance.
Could this be why we see the sudden switch to more familiar skin tones in this Future State 2-parter? To better prepare us for what's coming perhaps?? Some other odd choices such as Brainy's and Chuck's ( to name only a few) physical changes could easily be fixed in the early planning stages of a new series.

I have all these assumptions and questions! LOL
Time (and hopefully next issue) will tell I guess.

I like Bendis' writing, in small doses. And I wish he would give us that, but he falls in love with his own dialogue and starts repeating himself instead of getting on with the story. That's the issue I have.

Now that it's been a few days and I've had time to think, it's clear to me that he really does want to make his own version of 5 Years Later, while ignoring the fact that we've barely had time to get to know these characters. I'm going to keep most of my negative thoughts to myself, except one:

How does Bendis think the Brainiac title works? Querl is the fifth Dox to use the name of Brainiac. He can't declare himself 'Brainiac 7' beceause he 'upgraded' twice or whatever.

Somehow this is what's currently annoying me most. Outside of my distaste for his redesign, which I just find gross.

Don't worry, it annoys me too. In re-boot they solved this better by calling him Brainiac 5.1, but calling him 7 makes no sense. Its passed from parent to child, not yourself to yourself.

This is one of those things that I assume there's some sort of explanation for in Bendis's head, which may or may not ever actually make it into the actual book.

I really think I need to write an article about what Bendis has done with the Legion since 2019 in order to stop getting so anxious about it. I just cannot make sense of what this man has been doing.

As the current artist hasn't made any of the rest of the cast recognisable, it's odd they would have bothered to fall back on traditionally presented ethnicity. Perhaps they genuinely hadn't seen any of the issues in the run before working. But in the world-mind of DC editorial, the important things are that Querl is green, Tasmia is Blue. They don't seem to have blinked an eye at the rest of the cast being white. It does show just how surface level their take on this is.

Yes, they made so many recognizable characters now have crazy skin colours, but barely gave any of the members actual recognizable races in our real world. The Ranzz Twins are black, and Karate Kid is now more clearly Asian than he had ever been before, and Cosmic Boy now seems to be Asian as well, but besides those four and Dawnstar I think it is just Invisible Kid who has only visibly been in one panel. As I grew up I noticed how white the Legion was, but even in 2021 they decided to give everyone crazy new skin colours instead of diversifying with what reality has to offer. I would have liked an East Asian Saturn Girl or bring XS and Jazmine and James Cullen back, or an Asian Phantom girl, or Latina shrinking violet. They would still be there alien species just with human skin tones. Also while I am on this note It would be nice to bring LGBT representation back to the legion. Confirm Chameleon as non-binary, have a trans character, confirm Brainy, Ayla, Violet, and Dawnstar as bi in this universe. Confirm Jan as pan, and since Lyle is gone make IK2 gay. So far there have already been several hetero couples but besides a staring contest between Reep and Brainy there isn?t any LGBTQ.

Sorry for such a long post, I?ve just thought about this for a long time. I miss Jazmine and XS so much, and as a Bi woman it would be nice to see my favourite franchise represent LGBT more.

I think what frustrates me more about the lack of general queerness in the current Legion is how people have tried to justify it by saying "Give it time" and these people apparently do not understand it took like thirty years before they didn't have to hide behind subtext with Ayla and Vi. And they STILL never kissed on panel. By then the only other openly LGBTQA relationship we had were Power Boy and Gravity Kid, and they barely had scenes to themselves.

For most of us who wish things are different, I think our only true hope at the moment is the knowledge of XS's appearance in Williamson's Flash having absolutely no implied connections towards Bendis's Legion.

Yeah. I think the ever changing and still very lacking issue of Race in the Legion is more important right now, but as more and more couples pair off I would like it if just one was LGBT. I love how in each adaptation they always portray Cham very differently but usually as a gentleman, and after that page of him and Brainy (who was briefly bi in the reboot) in issue two or three I wonder if they will be the first of this new adaptation. I like there dynamic.

Invisible Kid II, Gear, Computo Danielle, XS, Kid Quantum (pick one, or both), Tyroc ......
Throw in Brainy, Shadow Lass, Dawnstar, Karate Kid, Cham and what do you get? Enough representation of humanoid diversification to satisfy those that care about that sort of thing. Not to mention painting the picture of an alien future universe.
Bendis could have lead with any or all of these characters. Sure, change up the costumes a bit, but no too much! He could have also touched upon diverse sexual orientations.

But he didn't do any of that.
And don't even get me started on the ridiculous back stories of most of these new reboot Legionnaires!

Why the need to tamper with establaished classic heroes? Was this all another chapter of the Muti-verse universe??
**Hopefully**


My point is would DC allow Bendis or anyone else for that matter, to introduce a "new" Justice League with Asian and south Asian Superman, Wonder Woman and Bats? The answer is a hard NO. And everyone knows it.
So why do it to the Legion? It did not need "re-tooling/re-inventing/re-thinking"!!! It needed a cool new contemporary Legion that was as familiar as it was fresh.

Sorry, but that's how I feel.

Bravo, Catonyx!

We've already seen a Chinese Superman who had his own book, and we're now getting a South American Wonder Woman who may be getting her own TV series as well. Don't tell me that DC would never do it with their top three.

And even Iceman recently (relative to his long history) came out of the closet.

And let's not forgot Iceman was revealed as gay in a book Bendis wrote... where Bobby got outed by Jean Grey who was like "oh honey of course you're gay" with absolutely no consideration to his feelings on making a private matter public.

...or fridge in that case.

Generally speaking I think it works better to add new characters or work to make existing non-white characters more prominent than to radically change the designs of classic Legionnaires. I mean, subtly darkening the skin of Cosmic Boy, or making Ferro Lad black as he was originally intended to be, or consistently drawing Karate Kid as half-Japanese as he was originally intended to be (and I still don't get why the current version seems to have randomly adopted a Chinese aesthetic) all seem feasible, but taking pale ginger characters like the lightning twins and making them black, or replacing Projectra with a giant snake, just doesn't seem to work as well, imo. That said, bring on the alternate reality in which all of the Legionnaires are gender-reversed or apelike beings or whatever and I'm all for it, I'm just not sure I want that to be the *standard* Legion that I'm reading about every month.

It always feels like an afterthought at this point when they try that, because they think simply changing the ethnicities or skin color of a character is enough to make a work more diverse. Yet they don't do any actual research or reach out to find sensitivity readers to make sure the characters don't become racist caricatures before the books are published. They think just the very fact a character now LOOKS Black or Japanese or Cambodian or Indian or Indigenous marks off a section of their "Enlightened Culturally Sensitive White Person" bingo card.

Take a look at how poorly constructed Wally West's New 52 identity was in the Flash volumes. Beyond the fact they stripped Wally of everything that made him unique and important, they also turned him into an angry, maladjusted delinquent Black kid with no parental guidance and put him under the "care and attention" of the well meaning Barry Allen, the whitest white guy DC probably has at this point. I swear to Christ that man's the equivalent of a piece of white bread shoved into a jar of mayo and drowned in whole milk. And at no point did anyone stop to think this might actually look bad.

Even now DC's still doing this outside the Legion. Their Future State books recently introduced a new speedster named Bolt who'll be in the Teen Titans Academy book. She's indigenous Australian and she has prosthetic legs... and apparently she also started out as a criminal as a teenager because her family were criminals too and she wanted to be better than that. And, like, I love her, but maybe they could've avoided having the dark-skinned character start out from a family of crooks and desiring to show she's not like her family? Like is that really the story that needs constant repeating with non-white characters?

It sometimes works better in AU stories because those tales REQUIRE you to do research as part of the world building.

I mean, I'm not saying I'M better than these people because God knows I've made prejudiced remarks in the past. I'm just saying when you're in an official position to create licensed content like Bendis is, make an actual effort instead of doing just enough to justify telling people you're open-minded.

Yeah, it's like there's probably a really interesting Elseworlds story to tell in which Kal-El is black, and one carefully explores the interestingly subtle and not-so-subtle differences in how the character would develop growing up as a black kid in rural Kansas, and the effect that would have on his life. What isn't as interesting is to just make him black and just pretend it doesn't make any difference, or to go to the other extreme and say, well, he's black, so let's give him the most stereotypical background of growing up in an inner city with a single mother instead of being raised by the Kents in Kansas.

It really annoys me when people try to defend Bendis's Legion just because he changed the ethnicities of some characters and then say detractors are against the book because it's "not for us." And it's like, do they even read the comics to see how Bendis portrays the Ranzz twins as Black?

It's the same nonsense with the people who tried to defend Heroes in Crisis by Tom King because he "intended" to portray PTSD and trauma in a superhero book when he really, really, REALLY failed at doing so.

Good intentions in these situations don't amount to jack, because someone else will have to come along to clean up this mess.

When Bendis randomly made Iceman gay, Sina Grace had to basically fix Bendis's damage by portraying Bobby Drake as actually struggling with his sexuality instead of acting like a stereotype and just before Marvel screwed him over he used his last chance to finally address how horrible it was for Bobby to have been outed and then forced back into the closet when the O5 X-Men returned to their own time.

When DC turned Wally West into a racist caricature, they screwed up so badly they couldn't simply make him white again so they had to make the original Wally a separate character and NuWally was just... an accident created by Flashpoint.

So who's gonna be expected to fix what Bendis did with these kids if they aren't simply erased?

Thank you EE!

Hey, so since Christmas I have been working on a Legion of Superheroes fan cast and I finally finished today, because it has a lot of photos I?m going to post it on tumblr in the morning and post the link to it somewhere here. Where do you suggest I post it, which thread/forum, or do I create me own? This is the first time I?ve done something like this on this site.

hi Ivy, definitely Bits, and I recommend creating your own thread Bits is for all sorts of fan creations, be they fiction or photos or more.

Whoever thought it was a good idea to draw the Legion as a combination of rejected Overwatch designs and bad EDM masks should please commit Sepuku. Now.

yeah, that was completely not ok. not sure how that was treated or if there was fallout, but that was super not ok.

Before Marvel finally pushed Sina Grace past his breaking point and he quit, his last Iceman story featured Bobby finally calling out Jean for the dick move she pulled.

Okay so I am writing an article about Legends of the Dead Earth and it's dawned on me that Bendis's not only trying to do FYL, but this whole thing is like an unnecessarily darker rip-off of Wildfire's story where he's trying to keep the Legion's name alive after the U.P. fell apart.

I VASTLY prefer Mike Collins' Legionnaires to Rossmo's.

I actually liked this issue, quite a bit. The Rossmo art was a big change from the preceding series, but on its own, it really grew on me and it's well suited to the mood. It doesn't hurt that I really enjoy post-apocalypse stories.

This felt like a much more complete, directed story than the previous 12 issues. Information was delivered succinctly. The focus was on a few, well-known Legionnaires. Many of them have changed appearances and have been emotionally affected by the Elemental event. Why and how some of those changes happened isn't entirely clear. There may be some inter-dimensional mix-up with animated Violet in the mix.

The scenes with Luornu and Blok were charming, moving and funny (when she dealt with Porcupine Pete). We got a different, edgier take on the Subs ; I especially loved Color Kid's visuals.

Garth got some spine, although he had to be bailed out by his spitfire sister and friends.

Jan's the god-like villain, again. Well, somebody had to be. It makes sense for an elemental event. It's almost not a Legion story unless Jan Arrah goes off the deep end.

The new Brainy didn't appeal to me, he seems a bit manic and just too strange. Bendis' version promised a more emotionally-balanced and human version of the character; this is more machine+Durlan, although his personality is engaging.

Unlike 5YL, these aren't tired, broken Legionnaires trying to get the mojo back. These guys only had 100 days as a team, yet are energized and committed to fixing/restoring the U.P..

that is really good to know, because what Jean did was so not okay!