whither the legion

(This was originally published on August 21, 2013, on the eve of the hiatus.)

I've been pondering the place of the Legion in DC Comics, their fate this time around (as well as the fates of other versions), and the fact that the Legion just can't seem to find a mass audience in today's comics world.

I wonder if it's not inevitable. I can't say I understand what today's comics readers are looking for, other than blood, guts, and boobs. What seems to succeed violent, sadistic, misogynistic, simplistic, and childish.

I don't think the Legion can be any of those things.

(This was first published in 2013. I'm pretty happy to see at least some of my reasoning also occurred to the DC higher-ups.)

I did not see any Legion content in comics this week.

I have been pondering the Legion's popularity. In this post over on Legion Abstract, Matthew worries that the Legion is going to be cancelled, and wonders if "...the audience for the Legion of Super-Heroes may have permanently shrunk to the point where these characters just can't support their own title anymore."

I've also been cataloging the Legion's appearances from their first cancellations, the run in Action Comics and Superboy, which has got me thinking about Superboy.

They kept trying to ditch Superboy. He resigned, then came back. He resigned again, then came back again. He finally left permanently...and came back again. Eventually, he died.

The Earth-247 Legion eventually gained Superboy (Connor this time) as a member. There was Superboy's Legion. With the Earth-Prime Legion, Supergirl took the place of Superboy. The renaissance of the current Legion started with adventures involving Superman.

Why? What is it about Superboy?

(This was originally published on October 9, 2011)

I've been looking around at reactions to Legion of Super-Heroes #1 on the web. They fall into two categories.

First are the Legion readers, who seem to be relieved and delighted that the reboot has left the Legion reasonably unscathed -- and, especially, that there hasn't been a Fourth Reboot.

Then there are the non-Legion-readers. I will summarize their reactions below:

(This was originally publioshed on July 23, 2009)

Well, the dust is settled and we finally know the fate of the Legions, Superboy-Prime, the Time Trapper, and all the other related characters and institutions. What a long, strange trip it's been.
 

THE LEGIONS

Everyone thought that this series would end with only one Legion in existence. Happily, that was not the case.

(This was originally published on November 2, 2008)

As I see it, there are three basic possibilities at the end of L3W: (1) All three Legions wind up in separate universes; (2) Some stay and some go away; or (3) All three Legions stay in the same universe.

Let's consider the third possibility: three Legions (or, at least, their surviving members) all in one universe. What to do?

(This was originally publoshed on September 20, 2008)

I'm sure this is just wishful thinking, but everyone is speculating about what will happen after Legion of 3 Worlds, so I thought I would throw in my two bits.

Way back when there was a DC Multiverse, the Justice League of Earth-1 and the Justice Society of Earth-2 got together every summer for a two- or three-part adventure. These JLA/JSA crossovers were very popular, and they ranged all over the multiverse (the Legion even co-starred in one of them). Eventually it all culminated in Crisis on Infinite Earths.