Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes The Essence of the Legion

I think the optimism and heroism is a key component that stretches across most of our responses Oh, for the bright shiny future and the sheer joy of being a hero!

Loomis: Is it me, or did everyone involved in this Legion thing turn out a little nutso?
Jath: People do crazy things for lots of reasons, Loomis. Principle, honor, friendship, love.
- Legion v4 #2

For me:-
It’s being able to build a future with like minded people where ideals become reality. Ideals of decency, respect, freedom, hope, diversity and curiosity.

Certain characters have been written better than others and have become key in carrying those stories across. But every character has stories in them, just waiting for a decent writer to find them.

A large cast allows for a number of different story types to be told. It does allows for all those lovely sub plots. But the focus could be on nay number of that larger group.

By the nature of the setting, the stories range from the intimately personal sub plots through to universe destroying entities. So, there's generally plenty of Action & Adventure to go round.

The tryouts, rejects, elections etc add some lovely recurring touches to the book. But any new reader could enjoy them as something different.

The thrill of seeing a Legion of heroes working together for a common goal/ideals beyond that of just smashing bad guys' heads together means a lot. That's why I'd love to see the Legion involved more in politics, diplomacy, research, social causes and relief operations too (which I've been doing in my fics, shameless self plug :p)

I think part of the essence of the Legion for me is the era I grew up reading, the bad ass designs that Cockrum came up with, the sort of Star Trek vibe mixed with the legacy of Kal-el, a bright optimistic future that seemed to calm my childhood thoughts of the Cold War that was looming over us at the time.

Friendship, brothers and sisters working together to make the universe a better place, the rich history that I soon discovered through reprints of stories before my time, so many characters that I wanted to know more about, who is that guy? what are her powers? what planet is he from? who is she dating?

Science Fiction and Superheroes in a Future that was inspired by the Greatest Superhero ever! who himself in turn was inspired by a Legion of Super-Heroes!

The essence of the legion?

Space opera with super-powers.

For me it's about a good bright future and trying to protect that from those who want to ruin it. I'm sick of cities/worlds that are already destroyed or corrupted and the hero needs to fight to bring something back.

Thanks all for sharing your ideas. If I were to summarize this thread, I'd say the key themes are:

1) A bright, shiny, optimistic future that is a lot better than our present

2) A super team that upholds the legacies and ideals of heroes from the past (though not necessarily with direct links to said past, as we seem split on whether or not the Super-cousins should be members and whether time travel should be common)

3) A large, diverse cast with good camaraderie and a unified purpose... but also with some drama. Each member is valued and has a unique contribution to make, no matter how "silly" or "weak" the power

4) A science fiction background! We want to see crazy future inventions and interesting alien cultures

5) "Looking towards the future"; that is, we want to see our characters grow and change through time

Looks good to me! Send it off to DC! ...at first I meant that as a joke but now I think you should really do it! We need an open letter to DC from Legion fans or something.

Thanks, WangLung! Maybe we should. Even if DC doesn't act on it, at least we'll make our voices heard.

But I am glad there are so many themes common across all our posts.

Due to its large cast, the characterization of the Legionnaires were mostly mere thumbnails-- and mostly based on their powers.

However, because they were so sketchily defined, it was possible for the reader to project their own personality traits on a "favorite" Legionnaire...

When characters are more completely developed by later writers, the cry of "they ruined my favorite Legionnaire" is often heard.

Still, the larger the cast, the more chance for a reader to find someone to identify with.

Well put.

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Probably also true to an extent. From my own experience, as I matured I came to appreciate the efforts to "mature" the Legion, as well. The Legion became the one series I most connected with because they grew up as I grew up.

That's a good and interesting insight, Klar. Certainly true of the early Adventure Era at least.

Definitely a strong point of a team book in general.

Either you like Batman or you don't like Batman, and that makes whether or not you buy Batman books a binary choice.

With the Legion, a lot of the characters are pretty wildly different. There are magical characters (like Mysa) and fantasy-medieval-themed characters (Jeckie) and martial artists (Val) and pure sci-fi characters (Brainy) and more super-hero-y characters (Ultra Boy) and strangers in a strange land (Blok, Superboy, etc.) and last survivors of dead worlds (Jan) and comic relief (Quislet) and 90's-ish moody loners (Brin) and romances ranging from happily married (Garth & Imra) to a little bit scandalous (Yera & Gim) to forbidden / star-crossed (Drake & Dawny).

There's literally something for everyone, which can be a problem when the 'something' you favor might not get a role in any given issue (or even story arc!), but at least gives a wider range of fans a reason to pick up the comic.

It could be seen as a downside (particularly by the company) that the '1000 years in the future' setting can insulate and segregate the Legion from the 'event of the summer,' and keep stunt-casting appearances by Batman or Lobo or whoever gets the kewl kids moist this week to a minimum, but, for me, that's the hugest of advantages, as every time an event has crossed over into the Legion, be it Laurel Kent becoming a Manhunter, or the impact of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the results have sucked beyond the telling of it.

Has anyone looked into Surveymonkey.com? supposedly there are free surveys you can do. Would be kinda cool to get one out to the Legion crowd.

I've used Surveymonkey for school projects before. I think they've added to their features since then. It's been a while though.

I don't think I have the time to look into it but it some of the questions you had about the Legion would be great for a survey. Not just for Legion fans either. We need to see what it would take to get new fans as well.

Maybe we can start here on LW. We could create a poll right here. Do you have any questions to add?

Jeepers. Reading through this thread reminds me of a lot of conclusions I made to myself a decade ago, pondering why the Threeboot felt like it was missing so much that made it like the traditional Legions before it. A pretty neat and comprehensive list, gang.

I also oddly now want to read the Threeboot again. I may be alone on that.

And we have the Future seal of approval (good to see you around more often, Future!)

Er, well, every time I read the Threeboot I get a migraine and the urge to work on my Postboot Legion fanfic. So I'll pass

It is the only one I get to re-read regularly, since it was 'recent' enough that it isn't stored away in long boxes, and is all in a neat stack somewhere.

(Although I also keep the Universo Project issues and Superboy's Legion out to scratch those itches.)

We could do it here but I think it’s too limited a number and maybe biased. That’s why I thought of survey monkey and getting it to the various facebook pages and any other fan sites. We can get also the not-yet-legion-fans as well.

Well, you do have a point. Would you be up for starting the survey yourself? I don't really think I have the time for that now, though I could help you with questions. There definitely needs to be a new set if we're going to be asking non-Legion fans.

Actually, we probably couldn't ask non-Legion fans about what makes the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Legion of Super-Heroes.

That's something I see a bit on other forums. Ways to 'fix' the Legion by moving it to the 21st century, or by cutting the team down to seven-ish people, or by getting rid of the 'silly' names.

That's not 'fixing the Legion.' That's writing a completely 'nother book, and putting the Legion name on the cover, IMO.

Similarly, I wouldn't 'fix' the Fantastic Four by having there be twelve of them, and they not be a family, and they all be drafted soldiers fighting in some sort of gritty war / invasion / plague scenario.

There's plenty of room for a good story set in the present day DCU with a smaller team of young heroes. We can call them Young Justice, or Gen 13, or Teen Titans, or the all-new Outsiders, or make up a completely new name for them. Just don't call it 'the Legion' or make up lame connections between the eras. (R.J. Brande was secretly an immortal and part of both teams! And possibly also Martian Manhunter and / or R'as al-Ghul and / or Vandal Savage! OMG, I are a jeenyus!)

Yes, and besides, non-Legion fans don't have any experience with the team - nothing to draw on when they make their suggestions!

I think you already have good start with the questions in the original post. How about we just add to that? They could also have multiple answers.

Here's a few that could be added. Please fix any wording you think is wrong or not clear.

How many characters should be members of the Legion?
A. More than 20
B. 16-20
C. 11-15
D. 5-10

What percentage of Legion characters should be non-humanoid.
A. 100% No humans allowed!
B. 50%
C. 25%
D. 0% No alien scum!

What kind of future setting should the Legion be based in?
A. Bright future utopia
B. Mostly has its act together and most of the people have good lives but still has some corruption and problems
C. Gotham like, dark and brooding with corruption everywhere.
D. Most of society has been destroyed and only the strong survive.

Should characters have romantic relationships with other characters?
A. Sure no problem
B. Yes but nothing permanent
C. No. They must all act total professional at all times and avoid romantic relationships