Wizard World Philly '08, Day 3: The Story That Paul Levitz Wants to Forget
From the DC Sunday Conversations: For the Love of Comics panel at Philly, via Monsura:
This prompted DiDio to talk about the three kinds of continuity at DC. There are three levels. The first is immutable, can’t be changed, stuff like Krypton blew up and Bruce Wayne’s parents get shot. There’s a middle level of things that can be altered or played with, and then there’s the third level, where things are ignored or forgotten. He brought up the example of the Paul Levitz Legion of Super-Heroes where Superboy learns the Legionaires are really hundreds of years old. Levitz said of the tale, "I’m not going to undo the story, I’m just never going to mention it again."
In that third continuity category is where that Legion story goes...
(Newsarama and CBR briefly mention this (without the Legion) in their DC Sunday Conversation writeups.)
I don't think they ever said "hundreds" of years, but yeah, it was a WTF? kind of story.
If you could erase a single story or plot element from continuity (or just "never mention it again"), what would you do?
I think I'd have to choose the issue where it's revealed that Proty's mind has been in Lightning Lad's body since his "resurrection".
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The fugitive Legion storyline from just before Zero Hour, when they all got supposedly "cool" names like NRG, Wave, Pulse and Polestar. Ugh.
Oh, and the whole dead-rising thing. And Wildfire in Dirk's corpse. And the new Khund Legionnaires.
Boy, Zero Hour arrived just a little bit too late, huh?
S&LSH 235 certainly didn't say the Legionnaires were hundreds of years old; it just said that anti-aging therapies meant that they were still adolescents into their twenties (or possibly longer).
in a word: fortresslad
well you can put that proty-garth story in its place in legion history as being valid only in the Glorith-Verse. Anything before V4 Lsh 4 is Garth Resurrecting. Anything after is Proty-In Garth's body...well until the contiunity waves wash over Garth (you know when Imra gets her Pink Bathing Suit costume agin) That's when Garth is back in his Body again.
I would erase the whole Shvaughn Erin actually was Sean Erin plot twist. That one always seemed too forced to me, that the Bierbaums wanted Element Lad to be gay as per Legion fandom speculation (Was that based on anything other than his original pink and white costume and his lack of a steady girlfriend during the early days?), and so obviously Shvaughn must have once been a guy or else Jan wouldn't have found attraction. Besides, I've always doubted that even 30th Century science could create a pill (or injection or whatever Profem was supposed to be) that would completely alter one's anatomy in such a way.
I don't have a problem with, "people live to be 150 in the 31st century, so to us they are still boys and girls at age 22."
It's certainly better than Mon-El lands on Earth holding a blue dwarf star.
I guess I'd erase the profem story too, at least until the upcoming L3W hat trick. That, I think, will be the Legion's true shark jumping moment.
I's say blowing up Earth in the 5YL storyline ranks up there.
Moments I would like to forget...the Circus of Death and Dr. Mayavale - basically a period of 6-8 months around then.
The death of Chemical King. Adult Legion be damned - I liked him!
Definitely the whole Shvaughn Erin turning out to be male. So forced, so daft. Earth blowing up in 5YL wasn't so bad. Bit silly, but that's all.
Though the post-Crisis 'Superboy edict' that wrecked the Legion's continuity is another matter entirely. I breathe a hugh sigh of relief that's gone!
Blok's death in early v4 is what I would wipe. Since it was so apparent that the writers could care less about the character, given the outpouring of grief from the characters. "And you head that Roxxas killed Blok?" Yeah, pity, how 'bout that Venturan Moopsball game, though! Wacky!"
infinity 13307 wrote:
I've always doubted that even 30th Century science could create a pill (or injection or whatever Profem was supposed to be) that would completely alter one's anatomy in such a way.
Unfortunately, that cat was already out of the back with the Subs Special where they fought Stargrave. If Grandian Gender Reversal Germs can do it, it's hard to say that 31st century science couldn't replicate the result. (Unless you want to wipe that story, too. Which I could understand, I suppose.)
Man, I was gonna say the Sean Erin reveal! I always found it kinda insulting the way readers chose Element Lad as the gay one (stereotype much?) but it was fan wank at its worst when it saw print. Guess I'm gonna have to go for my second choice: The deaths of Chemical King and Invisible Kid.
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