Retcons, the Way They're Supposed to Work

Some thoughts on the animated Legion.

You may recall that the final issue of Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century featured the revelation that the whole animated continuity didn't actually "happen" but was one of original-Legion Brainiac 5's simulations. The idea was, the three founders were going to go back in time and meet Superboy for the first time, and Brainy came up with this simulation to get a sense of how this could play out, whether it was safe or not. (My review is here; note that writer Jack Briglio, who is an excellent fellow, visited the comments to basically confirm this interpretation.)

It's kind of a cool idea. Sort of gets in the way of future crossovers between the original/reboot/threeboot Legions and the animated Legion, but if we're honest with ourselves we can admit that that was never going to happen anyway.

But what I want to talk about is, the story also implies that Brainy had a considerable amount of knowledge of future events right from the beginning of original-Legion continuity. Consider:

- he saw the Sun-Eater story play out with the Fatal Five's betrayal and Ferro Lad's sacrifice
- he knew that Timber Wolf was Brin Londo
- he saw a bunch of Legion rejects organize themselves as the Legion of Substitute Heroes

...and so on. Now, some of that stuff doesn't really get in our way. The thing with the Subs, for instance; it's not a problem that has to be solved, so Brainy is not to be faulted for not investigating just what the rejects all get up to. So it's fine for the Subs to exist for so long in original-Legion continuity without the LSH knowing they're there. When they finally did reveal themselves, I imagine Brainy would be like, "What? We're doing this now? All right. Where's the kid with the spikes?"

The Sun-Eater story is more problematic, and, to me, it's only saved by the fact that Brainiac 5 doesn't appear in the original comics story. There are lives at stake here, after all. Brainy must have beat himself up afterwards for not having contingency plans around for what if the Sun-Eater showed up in real life; Ferro Lad might still be alive! Still, not everything in animated continuity happened in real life, and Brainy is a busy guy, so I can't criticize him too much for it.

But there's one place where it helps us!

You remember in the famous "Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes" story in Action Comics where Brainy tells Polar Boy and Wildfire that Saturn Girl used to screen out some applicants for reasons other than their powers? (She can't have been reliably good at it; look at all the troublemakers who got past her.) Why didn't she screen out Nemesis Kid? Guy was an evil traitor, working with the Khunds. She couldn't spot that?

Well, maybe she couldn't, because of Nemesis Kid's powers... but maybe Nemesis Kid had Brainy speaking up for him, saying something like, I saw this guy in one of my simulations, and he turns out to be a good Legionnaire. I know, I know... the LSH31C writers were eventually going to have him betray the animated Legion just like every other Nemesis Kid. But they never got around to it, and it's better this way. Makes all the sense in the world.

Action Comics: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes (Part 3-#860)

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

The Just Not League has discovered Superman's arrival in the future, but decides to stay the course. Superman, Colossal Boy, Wildfire and Dawnstar raid an alien holding camp, rescue some people (including Polar Boy), and trace Brainy to Colu. Colu seems to be even more xenophobic than Earth these days. Then they go to the Legion's new clubhouse, an underground-railroad kinda place where the Legionnaires use stargates to evacuate aliens from Earth. They set up a stargate trip to Colu, but then the Justice League attacks, and Superman, Wildfire, Dawnstar, and possibly Colossal Boy and Polar Boy only just get away through the stargate. They crashland on Colu where some zombielike Coluans try to eat their brains. They're brought before the new Coluan leader, who is, unsurprisingly, Brainiac 5. Brainy sentences Superman and the other Legionnaires to death.

Not Quite a Review:

I'm falling more and more out of love with Gary Frank's art with each succeeding issue. Maybe it's unsophisticated of me to dwell on this, but I just can't get past how he depicts the characters' faces. Everybody has a bad case of the Manson Lamps, everyone's an unsettling veiny mix of pale and shadowy, and even the bodies often look awkward. I think it was the full-page shot of Shady and Lydda where I finally decided that Frank just wasn't doing it for me.

I'd have to check, but is there a resemblance between the Legion's new underground-railroad clubhouse, and Nightowl's Owlcave from Watchmen? Maybe it's just me.

The story advanced only a little this issue. Really, the only thing that happened worth mentioning was that they got to Colu and met Brainy. The rest is just more of what we already had. We've already had the setup; I hope there are actually some intriguing developments to come before the final resolution. We've got three issues to go, and I don't want the next two to be wasted.

Speaking of the final resolution, I hope we haven't met the main villain yet. 'Earth-Man' doesn't cut it. Polar Boy seems to agree with me that these Justice Leaguers aren't much of an opposition. Look at how Storm Boy is characterized--he's totally insecure about his position as a 'superhero'. Calling the Legionnaires 'bullies'. I don't object to characterizing him that way, but it's not going to be satisfying to have the Legion knock over these yutzes--they need a foeman worthy of their steel.

For now, though, they're the only real villains we've got in the story, which doesn't bode well for the Legionnaires and refugees Superman and crew left behind in the underground lair (Night Girl, Shadow Lass, Lightning Lass, Timber Wolf, at least); the JLA can't lose this fight or it lets a lot of the air out of the plot. I presume Earth-Man will be adding their powers to his own in short order.

I've run into the notion that this is the best Legion story since the Robotica story early in DnA's The Legion series. I have a couple of problems with that. First, this is primarily a Superman story. That doesn't mean it can't be a Legion story, but it does mean that it might not be. We'll know more about that once it's over, anyway. The other thing is... how much of this is really new? We've seen the Earth turned against the Legion before, we've seen Legion rejects banding together for revenge before... the Superman angle is kind of cute, though. I'm certainly willing to admit it's the best extended Legion story since the Lemnos arc, anyway.

Running Legion Count: We encounter Polar Boy, Shadow Lass, Night Girl, Lightning Lass and Timber Wolf this issue, and get news about Mon-El (back in the Phantom Zone), the White Witch (prisoner of Mordru), Chameleon Boy (back on Durla), the rest of the Subs (deep underground), and, not that he was ever a Legionnaire, Double-Header (dead). I'm going to assume that Night Girl is a Legionnaire now (Colossal Boy does hand her a flight ring), although I'd like it to have been said a little more explicitly.

(New entries this week in bold)

Bouncing Boy*, Blok*, Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy*, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Dawnstar, Dream Girl*, Element Lad*, Ferro Lad*, Invisible Kid I*, Invisible Kid II*, Karate Kid*, Light Lass, Lightning Lad, Matter-Eater Lad*, Mon-El*, Night Girl, Phantom Girl*, Polar Boy, Princess Projectra/Sensor Girl*, Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Shrinking Violet*, Spider Girl, Star Boy/Starman*, Storm Boy, Sun Boy*, Superman, Timber Wolf, Triplicate Girl/Duo Damsel*, Ultra Boy*, Wildfire (33) (* only in brief flashback or non-speaking background appearance: 18)

Action Comics: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes (Part 2-#859)

The review of Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century #8 will be delayed. When I went to the comic shop today they hadn't unpacked it yet. If I can get it before next week I will, otherwise it'll be next Wednesday. The management apologizes for any inconvenience.

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy are exploring the Batcave, looking for Batman's old kryptonite ring. They want to use it to prove that Krypton existed, because the propaganda these days is that Superman was a good alien-hating Earthman and Krypton was just a lie put around by those evil alien Legionnaires. But the Justice League, which in this case means a bunch of Legion rejects, raids the place and captures them.

Back at their headquarters, the Justice League learns about last issue's skirmish between the Legion and the Science Police, that someone who looks like Superman was involved, and that the wreckage of a time sphere was found there. The League’s leader, Earth-Man (the former Absorbency Boy) already has a bunch of Legionnaires preserved in tubes, including but not limited to Invisible Kid, Phantom Girl, Ultra Boy, Shrinking Violet and Blok, and it seems he’s absorbed their superpowers.

We also hear that the xenophobia on Earth has gone so far that Earth is on the verge of seceding from the United Planets.

Colossal Boy, Dawnstar, Superman and Wildfire figure they'd better track down Brainiac 5 to get some answers about what Superman's doing there and what to do next. Dawnstar only has a cold trail, but they follow it to an alien internment camp, where she says that even if Brainy isn't in there, there's another Legionnaire who is in there and who might be helpful.

Not Quite a Review:

The one thing I noticed most and couldn't stop thinking about?

Tusker.

Tusker is a former Legion reject and (with Golden Boy, Earth-Man, Storm Boy, Spider Girl and Radiation Roy) one of the Justice Leaguers throwing their weight around in the future. Tusker's info-caption said that his powers included an 'unbreakable skeleton'. Yet there he is with one of his tusks chipped. Which didn't bother me; maybe there's some kind of story behind that. Maybe an already-existing Legion story! I don't know. But then there was one panel on the very next page that seemed to show him with both tusks intact. Now, I don't expect everybody creating comics to get everything right every time. I know there will be mistakes. But there shouldn't be any mistakes about the things that the reader’s attention is specifically drawn to. (I’ve looked closely at it and I think it’s a colouring error.)

The other thing I’m wondering about is, whose plan is this and why?

Colossal Boy believes, and the story is presenting as a working assumption for us, that the Justice League of Earth-Born Legion Rejects (and, yes, Spider Girl was born on Earth, according to people I trust. Hadn’t known that) has engineered all this xenophobia out of resentment towards the Legion. I think Bruce Springsteen said it best when he said, “Man, I ain’t goin’ for that.” This crew of bozons, nosebleeds, weirdsmobiles and yipyops couldn’t organize a game of tag. Someone has to be behind it, someone who benefits from Earth seceding from the United Planets, maybe someone who really does hate aliens. Universo? Regulus? I suspect Regulus because of the sun thing. Alexis Luthor? It has a kind of a Luthor touch, doesn’t it?

Anyway. It’s certainly clear what it is that’s going on, even if we don’t know why, or what exactly our heroes can do about it. That’s the kind of situation I like. It’s a good premise for a Legion story, in that it makes good use of the Legionnaires’ numbers and lets them show what they believe as well as what they can do.

There have been a number of new takes on characters in this series so far—costumes mostly, although sometimes more than that—and I thought I’d go through some of them.

Lightning Lad, Phantom Girl, Ultra Boy, Invisible Kid: Not a big fan of the sleeveless look. Maybe it’s warmer there with the red sun?

Radiation Roy: Creepy, man. Is that better than just being a loser the way he used to be?

Saturn Girl: She must have cut her hair that short as a personal choice rather than because of the rigorous demands of being on the run. Because Lightning Lad’s is a lot longer. It doesn’t look good on her.

Spider Girl: See, I liked it when she became a Legionnaire in the 5YL stories. They even kept her as kind of a one-buttocked hero in the reboot. But I guess with this story and her appearances in the cartoon, she’s back to villainy. Sic transit.

Wildfire: I like Wildfire’s new costume. I do! He’s had some good ones over the years (and some bad ones) and this is one of them.

Dawnstar: There’s no excuse for not having Dawnstar in the original costume. That’s just what she should look like. Nothing else is quite right. Strange about Dawny: in the past she didn’t always seem completely committed to the Legion… but she is now.

Early Reaction: Haven’t seen any comment on this issue yet, but criticism of last issue has mostly centred around Frank’s wild-eyed art and Clark Kent’s characterization. One or two people have perceived inauthenticity in this Legion, but that’s very much a minority opinion. Overall this story is being very well-received.

One other not-yet-fully-formed thought. It kind of seems like Johns is implying, deep down, that the Legion is not the Legion when it’s cut off from Superman. In this sense: Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy may have been the Legion founders, but they have no access to Superman. They’re trying to get help from Batman’s symbols (a ring, specifically), and whatever Batman’s virtues are, he’s not Superman and he’s got nothing in particular to do with the Legion. And so they can be taken down by a bunch of drips whose only claim to fame is that they have Superman’s symbol on their arms. Still, it’s more than Garth, Imra and Rokk have, and the future-faux-JLEarth wins the fight.

On the other hand, Colossal Boy, Wildfire and Dawnstar are similarly on the run, but they have Superman with them and so they win their fight (last issue) and get a whole box of rings. Superman rings, sorta. They are the Legion.

As I said in the introduction to this thing, I don’t subscribe to the notion that the Legion is just a satellite concept to Superman; I think they stand on their own just fine. But I don’t deny that it’s a legitimate position to hold, and it’s producing very readable results here.

Running Legion Count: (New entries this week in bold)

Bouncing Boy*, Blok*, Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy*, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Dawnstar, Dream Girl*, Element Lad*, Ferro Lad*, Invisible Kid I*, Invisible Kid II*, Karate Kid*, Light Lass*, Lightning Lad, Matter-Eater Lad*, Mon-El*, Phantom Girl*, Princess Projectra/Sensor Girl*, Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass*, Shrinking Violet*, Spider Girl, Star Boy/Starman*, Storm Boy, Sun Boy*, Superman, Timber Wolf*, Triplicate Girl/Duo Damsel*, Ultra Boy*, Wildfire (31) (* only in brief flashback or non-speaking background appearance: 21)

Action Comics: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes (Part 1-#858)

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

Brainiac 5 recruits Superman to travel through time to the 31st century, because everything's terrible and only Superman can help. Superman arrives as Colossal Boy, Wildfire and Dawnstar are retrieving a box of rings (flight rings, one must assume) from an abandoned Legion HQ, and the Science Police raid them, destroying the Time Sphere Superman came in. Apparently the 31st century is now very xenophobic and the xenophobes are using Superman's name and symbol to strengthen their brand identity. Even worse, Earth's sun is red now, so Superman isn't exactly at full power. A couple of intriguing references in this issue are to a 'Justice League', and Brainy's mention of a 'fictitious discovery in the Arctic' as the start of all these problems.

Not Quite a Review:

Certainly some intriguing choices here. Casting the Legion as the embattled champions of diversity is kind of a six-inch putt, in that it's a role they're pretty well-designed to play. The red sun is a cool idea, and a useful one in that it keeps Superman (and, theoretically, Mon-El) from running off with the story. I wonder if it's going to pay off in other ways? I presume that the fictitious discovery in the Arctic is some kind of fake Fortress of Solitude...

The Legion logo used on the splash page was the one from Legion of Super-Heroes volume 3, the 'Baxter series' of the 1980s. And yet... there's a similarity between this story and the infamous 'Five Years Later...' stories of Legion of Super-Heroes volume 4. Both were separated from Levitz's run by a few years of in-story time. Both intervening periods featured significant events involving the sun (it turned red in this story; during the Five Year Gap was a little thing called Black Dawn, which was a turning point for the Legion's fortunes). And both stories are set in a future significantly more dystopian and depressing than is usual for the Legion. I wonder what the thinking is... is it a tribute to 5YL, or an attempt to do it 'right'? Or coincidence?

I’m a little unclear on what’s going on with Superman’s memory. I know that time travel is supposed to fog up one’s memory, but… he remembers the Lightning Saga, but Brainy has to remind him of how he first met the Legion? I’m not sure that scans.

It seems that I am willing to accept these Legionnaires as almost-original, deep down. Certainly when Colossal Boy was fighting the SPs I had more confidence that he could handle it than I would have for Leviathan or Micro Lad. But they don't feel completely right. Part of it's the costumes, and the unfamiliar art style, I guess.

I'm not sure what to make of the opening sequence, in which an alien couple on a civil-war-wracked planet send their kid to Earth in a revisit of the famous Jor-El-and-Lara scene. If it's a plot point that's going to be revisited later, then that's one thing. But if, as it seems, it's a vignette to show us just what the 31st century is like, then I don't like it. It's just mean. It implies, not that this is how bad the worst of the 31st century has gotten, but that this is how bad the best of the 31st century has gotten. I may find reason later to change my mind about the scene, but right now it's leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

Some points I’ve seen other people make, and agree with: Saturn Girl was being quite the flirt in that flashback, which is quite out of character. This was before Lightning Lad, of course, so no-harm-no-foul, but still out of character. Oh well; she was young. Also, Brainy mentioned “traveling to the proper vibrational plane”, which supports the notion that Superman and this Legion don’t come from the same Earth. (Which makes me even more curious about Mon-El’s story.

I know a lot of people were looking forward to Gary Frank's art in this story. I wasn't previously familiar with his work, but he acquitted himself well. Some of the characters look a little scrawny and/or wild-eyed, but that's okay.

Anyway, it's early days yet. The story hasn't really started getting going. We've had the premise established but not much else.

Early Reaction:

Seems to be uniformly positive so far. (Except for some qualms about various characterizations at the Daily Planet, which I believe is outside of my scope.)

Running Legion Count:

Bouncing Boy*, Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy*, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Dawnstar, Dream Girl*, Element Lad*, Ferro Lad*, Invisible Kid I*, Karate Kid*, Light Lass*, Lightning Lad, Matter-Eater Lad*, Mon-El*, Phantom Girl*, Princess Projectra/Sensor Girl*, Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass*, Shrinking Violet*, Star Boy/Starman*, Sun Boy*, Superman, Timber Wolf*, Triplicate Girl/Duo Damsel*, Ultra Boy*, Wildfire (27) (* only in brief flashback: 19)

Action Comics: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes (Introduction)

Originally my idea was that I'd review the upcoming Action Comics arc 'Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes' after it was done. But then I thought, well, maybe I should check in on it every issue. I might even get more people looking in here. (Not that you guys aren't enough for me. I'm just following point two of this blog's mission statement (1. The Legion is good. 2. More is better.).) So, I don't plan on doing actual reviews of these comic books, because they're Superman comics and I'm no Superman expert, but I do expect to have some thoughts.

Here's what I expect from this storyline:
- I expect it not to be a Legion story, but a Superman story (in fact, I'm not sure the Legion will appear at all in the first issue of the arc!)
- I expect it'll probably be pretty good
- I don't really expect this version of the Legion to remind me of the original Legion too much
- the most interesting thing to me will be fan reaction--who likes it, who doesn't like it, why they do or don't like it

I've been involved in considerable discussion on the ComicBloc boards about this version of the Legion and whether or not they're the original Legion. My position is (as I've said here and here) that the cumulative effect of all the evidence as presented in the JLA/JSA crossover 'The Lightning Saga' is that they are not the original Legion, exactly; they're a variation on the original Legion, and when DC calls them the original Legion they're being... not dishonest, exactly, but a little disingenuous. Geoff Johns has been kind enough to contribute to the ComicBloc conversations but hasn't said anything to change my mind.

But I have learned one thing. I knew that some Legion fans insist that the presence of Superboy is essential to the Legion, and some insist that the Legion's better off without him, and some are okay with it either way. I'm sort of in the last group; I would never say that Superboy was essential. What I've learned, though, is that this schism in Legion fandom is an important factor in these discussions about what makes the Legion and which versions are worthwhile.

See, there are a lot of people who see the Legion as, basically, Superboy's supporting characters. For them to have their own title without any Superboy presence is just a stupid idea all around. It's like having a Lois Lane comic that Superman never appears in, or an Alfred comic that Batman never appears in. That's the thinking. So when I raise the objection that the version of the Legion can't be original because we've already had the post-Crisis Levitz Legion and the Five Years Later Legion to cover that part of the Legion's history, fans of this school of thought will have the response, who cares about those comic books? Superboy wasn't in them, was excluded from them, so they're of no consequence whatsoever. And for Johns to write this arc in which Superman's relationship to the Legion is reforged... well, that's the original status back again, isn't it? And all the rest is just details.

If Superman is the point, then that makes sense. To me, Superman isn't the point, and so my conclusions are different.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this story. I'm not sure it'll end up appealing to all the old-school Legion fans, but that's just a guess really. I'm quite curious to see just how much of the pre-Crisis-Legion feel Johns manages to recapture.

Another thing I'm going to be paying attention to: Johns has said in an interview that, over the course of the story, we'll see "pretty close to" everyone who was ever an active member of the Legion. By which he means, I presume, that we'll see pretty close to everyone who was ever an active member of the pre-Crisis Legion, but let it pass. By my count, there had been 37 active Legionnaires pre-Crisis, at one time or another, and 79 active Legionnaires across all versions (some of whom we might also see--the Subs, for instance, or Danielle Foccart). So I'm going to keep track of who all we see. (I wonder if Johns will introduce any brand new Legionnaires in this story? I don't mean like Night Girl, I mean completely new. Because that would be cool.)

First issue in two days!