Sunday, October 21, 2007

Post-Crisis: Now what?

Given DC's current editorial philosophy (as stated in the Geoff Johns interview) that the Legion's history after the end of the Crisis on Infinite Earths didn't happen (as seen more or less in LSH v3 #18), I'm wondering how far we could stretch that.

Certainly the Pocket Universe/Death of Superboy storyline (LSH v3 #37) couldn't have occurred. But if we drop that one story, is there anything else that absolutely cannot have taken place if we assume that the Legion had no contact with the 20th century post-Crisis (not too long after Supergirl died)? Here's the Legion Wiki's publishing history (with everything in publishing order context) to refresh your memory.

  • Tyr/Warworld
  • "Legionnaires 3" miniseries
  • Booster Gold
  • Emerald Empress and the new Fatal Five
  • Mon-El and the Phantom Zone
  • "Cosmic Boy" miniseries and "Legends"
  • The Universo Project
  • Pocket Universe
  • Starfinger
  • Manhunters
  • The Conspiracy (wait, that was about Superboy, right?)
  • Emerald Eye
  • Magic Wars
  • Five Year Gap (Black Dawn, disbanding, etc.)
  • The Re-Formation

It absolutely cannot go past LSH v4 #5, in which Mon-El punched the Time Trapper so hard that he rebooted the universe into the Mordruverse, because that's when the we exchanged Superboy/Mon-El and Supergirl for Valor and Andromeda. Anything from that point until the "End of an Era" arc at Zero Hour is out.

Other storylines with problems:
  • Booster Gold is a little problematical, since he didn't appear until after the Crisis, and interacted with the Legion in the 20th century. It wouldn't take much to retcon him back to just before the Crisis, with his appearances in the Crisis being only in crowd scenes. However, we'll have to see how they handle his origin in the new Booster Gold series.
  • "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" is now out (even though it was about the Silver Age era Legion), since Superman didn't lose his powers and retire.
  • Cosmic Boy going back in time to investigate the post-Crisis changes to history as seen in "Legends" and his own miniseries are out.

4 comments:

Greybird said...

No Five-Year Gap to Zero Hour?

... No Five-Year Gap to Zero Hour?

... No Five-Year Gap to Zero Hour?

... I'm sorry, this thrills me so much that I had to ask again and again, as I fear I'm hallucinating.

The Bierbaums, the degenerated talents of Giffen, the blown-up Moon, the blown-up Earth, the clones, the traitors, the murders, the angst, the denigration by pharmacy, the mutilation of limbs (surely I don't have to be more specific, do I?) ...

All GONE.

Forgotten from continuity, anyway.

At merely the cost of forgetting the likes of, say, the Universo Project? I'll TAKE it.

Too perfect, too delightful, to ever be believed. Well, until we've seen a few of the resulting issues, anyway.

I'll have to be the cynic, and wait a while until Geoff Johns wakes up from whatever they put in his coffee. And I still wonder why his comments are seen to rule the subject in the first place. DC can't have found this much sense.

Anonymous said...

If the last page of Booster Gold #1 is anything to go by, the answers will be provided, some time soon, in the Booster Gold series.

A preview panel shows Brainiac 5 trying to take back Booster's Legion ring.

Anonymous said...

WHOOT! Outstanding. At long last, the wheat is separated from the chaff.

-Sam-

Anonymous said...

The Dark Circle/Dev Em story is probably out, since Dev has been shown as being a crazy bad guy in the Phantom Zone during the (unfinished) "Return of the Superman II villains" story. Which is a shame, as it was pretty great.

Wait, that was a pre-Crisis story--the last Pre-Crisis LSH/Supergirl story. But it still couldn't have happened. What's up with that, Geoff?

I think everything else on your list that hasn't been crossed off (yes, even Booster Gold--remember, those episodes were a flashback and might have happened right before or just after CoIE) could be workable, with the possible exception of the Conspiracy/Time Trapper throw-down. (Which was, again, a fantastic story, but which depends on Superboy's death for the participation of everyone except B5.) Obviously the 5 Year Gap would be with the original Legion, not the Glorithverse version, and, obviously, Johns has pretty much come out and said it's out (I'm not too upset about that), but it could have happened with a few adjustments.

(I'm not too sorry that the Magic Wars are out too. A few good moments, but it was a story in search of a plot with a very gratuitous death. Not a great ending to Paul's run...)