Please Don't Bother Trying to Find Her: Legion Election 3012

Apparently there's an election of some note taking place on the other side of our southern border this week. This roughly coincides with the Legion election, of course, which I expect is not a coincidence.

Here's the difference between the two elections: the U.S. election is between two major candidates, only one of which it makes any damn sense to vote for; the Legion election is between roughly twenty major candidates, most of which are plausible on one level or another.

Obviously the U.S. election is outside the normal range of topics for discussion on this blog, but I hope you will allow me to touch on it for a moment anyway.

The Republican Party has largely gone insane and who knows what kind of destructive madness would be unleashed if they were to win? I mean, I don't think Romney himself is crazy, or that there's a lot of crazy stuff that he's really in favour of... but I also don't see him doing anything to restrain the nutclusters in his party. I figure that as long as he's got as much money as possible going to as few people as possible, he's not really going to worry about the other stuff too much. I may be underestimating the man, of course, but then again he's made it pretty easy for us to do so. It's pretty silly, really; it should be possible for a right-wing party to get me on its side. But these guys have achieved an unholy combination of mean, stupid, religious, and dishonest that I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.

The above paragraph is obviously not going to do much to convince those who disagree with me to come around to my way of thinking. But then nothing would anyway. Because these days, those on the right don't trust a word that comes from anyone on the left, and those on the left don't trust a word that comes from anyone on the right. Is there anybody out there who can seriously be talked from one side over to another? (Don't make the mistake, by the way, of thinking that I am treating the left and right as equivalent in this respect. While there are the usual roster of shady sorts, persiflagists, and liars on the left, as has always been unavoidable, there are still factual facts and reasoned arguments to be found there also. On the right, though, is a maelstrom of rabid irrationality and paranoid malice. The right doesn't listen to the left because they think all truth comes from themselves and themselves only; the left doesn't listen to the right because the right is as crazy as a rat in a coffee can. I speak in general terms.) (And what the flip am I doing on the left in the first place? Honestly, I don't belong there...)

In contrast, Obama and the Democrats? They've got good points and bad points. The Democrats are a somewhat cromulent party at the moment, and it's hard to imagine Obama doing a much better job than he's done, given current conditions. I must also admit that Obama's calm and reasonable style is much more to my taste than Romney's condescending-entitled-snob act. I do certainly have some problems with the Obama administration, but at least they aren't trying to ruin everything as quickly as possible in as many different ways as possible.

If you live in the States, you're probably not relying on a blog, about superheroes in the future, written by a guy from Canada, to make up your mind about who to vote for tomorrow. As it should be. There will be many who will tell you that the important thing is that you get out there and vote, and permit me to disagree with them: you should first take the time to inform yourself about the issues, so you know who you should vote for. Then you should vote. If you're planning on voting from a position of ignorance, do everyone a favour and stay home.

Okay, that part's over. I don't expect to be touching on that subject again on this blog.

Last time the Legion had an election, I endorsed Phantom Girl. I still think she's a good choice, but let's run through the candidates.

Legionnaires Who Aren't Currently Eligible: Wildfire, Dawnstar, Timber Wolf, Tyroc, Chameleon Girl, Gates, Tellus, Quislet, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Sensor Girl, Blok, Black Witch, Colossal Boy, Bouncing Boy, Duplicate Damsel, Night Girl, Matter-Eater Lad, XS. They aren't currently active members, you see.

Legionnaires Who Have Been Leader Recently Enough That We Don't Need to See It Again: Cosmic Boy, Mon-El, Dream Girl, Element Lad, Polar Boy (Dreamy, Jan, and Brek were the most vividly-drawn leaders from Levitz's second run, which was certainly a long time ago, but he did a good enough job of portraying them that I see no reason for him to go back to the well with these characters again)

Legionnaires Who Are Too New to Be Good Choices: Dragonwing, Chemical Kid, Glorith, Harmonia

Legionnaires Who Are Kind of a Joke in the First Place: Comet Queen

That leaves these ones:

Brainiac 5 - Let's face it; Brainy works a lot better as the guy who wants to be the leader. I don't know why he does, because he's always complaining about how he has no time for anything in the first place, but he does. I prefer things with someone else as the leader and Brainy sniping at him or her.
Chameleon Boy - Cham's only tenure as leader came during the 5YL era, when conditions were quite different. I think he'd be an awesome Legion leader and I wouldn't mind if he won this time.
Invisible Kid - Similar to Cham. Jacques as he stands now would fit into the leadership role well, but before electing him I'd like to see a story showing that he'd be good at it.
Lightning Lass - A plausible candidate.
Phantom Girl - An excellent candidate, as noted last time.
Shadow Lass - A plausible candidate.
Shrinking Violet - A plausible candidate. Violet was leader for a little while during the reboot era, but there was some jiggery pokery going on with the Emerald Eye at the time, so we never really got to see how she'd do.
Star Boy - Star Boy's having some problems these days, but maybe a stint as leader is just what he needs. Keeps him out of the field. He did okay leading that rescue mission to get Dream Girl and Brainiac 5 back. (Although Duplicate Damsel ended up exercising most of the authority in the end.)
Sun Boy - A plausible candidate.
Ultra Boy - Really isn't giving off much of a leadership vibe these days, is he? Doesn't mean he couldn't do a good job; he's been leader in the past and there's no reason Levitz can't write him as one now.

Looking at this, I'd like to endorse Chameleon Boy, but my arguments from 2010 for Phantom Girl still apply, and I don't see a good reason to switch from them. So once again, Legion Abstract endorses Phantom Girl for the 3012 Legion Election.

Send your votes via postal mail to:

Legion Election
DC Comics
1700 Broadway
New York, NY
USA 10019

The deadline is, what... I don't have it in front of me. November 15th? Something like that. But your vote has to be there by then, not just be on the way. So might as well send it off now.