The Ultimate Legion
This account of an unfinished article for Wizard got me thinking it'd be a good post here, something for you to think about over the weekend.
...While the main feature was proving a bit difficult to pull together, Andy and I came up with a killer sidebar we were having a lot of fun with: we'd pick the best members from all the various Legion incarnations and put together our own Ultimate Legion. We had a blast talking that out and would schedule meetings "officially" to talk about the news section or whatever and then have hour-long closed door sessions on who was the best Ultra Boy--awesome.
...Andy and I realized we wanted to include so many characters that our team was going to be huge even by Legion standards. We did not have much trouble mixing it up as far as having a diverse selection of creative eras represented as, while I can't recall our full team, but I believe we had Element Lad and Saturn Girl from the early days, Dawnstar and Wildfire from the Levitz/Giffen run, Gates and Live Wire from the reboot/Legion Lost era, and the Brainiac 5 and Triplicate Girl of Waid and Kitson's team; heck, I think we even threw "Five Years Later" Cosmic Boy/Rokk Krinn and Inferno from Legionnaires in for good measure.
So just for fun, who would be on your Ultimate Legion team? You can have anyone from any era or even any issue, with no restrictions at all on who you get, including multiple versions of a character through various timelines, reboots, alternate Earths, Elseworlds, animated, etc. You can justify your reasons or not.
Well, only one restriction: for tax purposes, you can't have more than 25 members.
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16 comments:
(Assume I mean the original, Silver Age through Baxter run Legionnaires unless specified, or else a name clearly indicates a later version)
Superboy (Kal-El)
Threeboot Saturn Girl
Animated Cosmic Boy
Live Wire
Animated Bouncing Boy
SW6 Matter-Eater Lad
Mon-El (original)
Kinetix
Gates
XS
Animated Vi
Wildfire (w/ containment suit)
Shadow Lass
Threeboot Dream Girl
Brainiac 5 (JLU version)
Phantom Girl (70s/80s costume a must!)
Chameleon Boy
Kid Quantum (Jazmin)
Supergirl (JLU/Superman version)
Oh, and the original Karate Kid.
And maybe Thunder.
Not a full roster, but some characters and relationships I'd like to see:
Superboy (Kal-El) and Superboy (Conner Kent), preferably with Conner trying to be blase and cool around his inspiration and Kal being really impressed with how "cool" Conner is.
Supergirl and Brainiac 5. "I really should have figured it out sooner. It's you. You're too damn distracting."
Violet, after her abduction by Imskian separatists. Confident, badass, and maybe just barely controlling a lot of justified rage. "Violet? *That* was Shrinking Violet?"
Five Years Later Jan Arrah and Senator Tenzil Kem. Calm, serious and spiritual, vs. enthusiastic, insightful and loving life. I think this is a road movie or a comedy of manners waiting to happen.
Monstress. Only read a little of the reboot Legion, but she seemed like a great mix of brute and polite young lady. I preferred her to a great many of the other reboot characterizations.
Kid Quantum (Jazmin), retroboot Rokk and retroboot Lydda. I like the idea of a love triangle that only exists in one of the participant's minds.
Mon-El (original) and threeboot Shadow Lass. I also like the idea of a romance that already happened and perhaps should not happen again... or should it? I'm curious if Shady, who is attracted to the indiscriminate power of Ultra Boy, would find Mon-El's "power balanced by reason" appealing.
Threeboot Karate Kid and Invisible Kid. KK so that MightyGodKing can finally write his "KK fights a planet" story and Lyle so that we can get more of that fanboy-joins-the-Legion groove that Waid did.
Retroboot Polar Boy. See Invisible Kid above.
Fill remaining spots with Kent Shakespeare, Sade, Ivy, Dawnstar (original), and the Five Years Later Subs commando squad.
--that is a full roster, isn't it? My bad.
hza
My ultimate Legion would be:
1. Threeboot Saturn Girl (I like the idea that she can't talk because her race use telepathy for all communication)
2. Original Cosmic Boy. My favourite version.
3. Reboot Lightning Lad.
4. Catpaw from 'Legionnaires'. What can I say, I like cats!
5. Kinetix. If the version with a tail, I can see some amusing interraction between her and Catspaw.
6. Thunder. I'm a fan of the original Captain Marvel!
7. Wildfire. His attitude and his powers.
8. Cockrum Timber Wolf. Caught between Catspaw and Light Lass in an amusing and sometimes violent triangle!
9. Mon-El (original). Because it's not the Legion without a Daxamite.
10. Original Shady. Because she belongs with Mon.
11. Sensor Girl. Because she's just cool.
12. Polar Boy. Cool in a different way.
13. Threeboot Light Lass. I like the power, and I like the attitude.
14. Atom Girl. With blasters, of course.
15. Reboot Inferno. Team rebel.
16. Original Element Lad. Jan Arrah with all his tragic background.
17. Original Superboy. Because the Legion and young Kal go togther!
18.Reboot Brainy. Just because we need a Brainiac, and he's my favourite version. Someone has to blow the Clubhouse up!
19. Andromeda. Mostly to distract Brainy, of course.
20. Threeboot Phantom Girl, trying to keep up her life in both universes and failing in both. That was an idea that was under-used, but fun.
21. Reboot Ultra Boy, trying desperately to get Phant' to keep her attention on him. Frustration might lead him after one of teh other girls, of course.
22.Gates. Non-humanoid with a great attitude!
23. Threeboot Star Boy.
24. Jasmin Kid Quantum
25.Apparition. Two phasers, and Apparition trying to get U-boy to notice her.
If the human race hasn't gotten past imposing taxes in 1000 years, we're frigging hopeless. *libertarian / anarchist sigh* ;)
I'd have been delighted to participate, and have done my list elsewhere, but I could never get it under 35 members!
the 3boot founders
Original Brainiac 5 and Post Crisis Supergirl (Kara)
Pre Crisis Mon-El
Polar Boy
Reboot Invisible Kid
3boot Triplicate Girl
pre crisis Star Boy and dream Girl
Reboot Phantom Girl and Ultra Boy
Pre Crisis Element Lad
Matter Eater Lad
3boot Princess Projectra
White Witch and blok
XS
reboot Shrinking Violet, threeboot Micro Lad (colossal boy)
Original Sun Boy
3boot Chameleon boy
Original Shadow Lass and Night Girl
Gates
A Karate Kid
(I'm on 26 and there is no superboy to kick to the curb, woe! Maybe Giffen will write my team though ;))
Here's the response from moi, the original poster:
http://thecoolkidztable.blogspot.com/2009/05/bens-ultimate-legion.html
Thanks for linking!
I like the idea of picking a standard team from various eras, so I'll be going that route as well. Although I was sorely tempted to include every version of Brainiac 5 on this list, thereby guaranteeing instant success for any mission ever. I know I skew towards the reboot, but that's what I grew up on
1) Cosmic Boy - Threeboot version
2) Lightning Lad - Reboot version (who has gotten a better codename)
3) Saturn Girl - Original version
4) Brainiac 5 - Original version
5) Mon-El - Original version
6) Apparition - Reboot version (I prefer this name)
7) Ultra Boy - Original version
8) Inferno - Reboot version (who may or may not be Sun Girl in Teen Titans. Dirk never seemed very interesting to me)
9) Polar Boy - Original version
10) Wildfire - Original version
11) Shikari Lonestar - Reboot version
12) Triplicate Girl - Reboot version
13) XS
14) Gates
15) Kid Quantum II - Reboot version
16) Invisible Kid - Threeboot version
17) Atom Girl - Threeboot version
18) Micro Lad - Threeboot version
19) Thunder
20) Princess Projectra - Original version
21) Element Lad - Reboot version
22) Chameleon - Threeboot version
23) Blok
24) Karate Kid - Reboot version
25) Star Boy - Original version
Pre-Shooter era
Cosmic Boy
Saturn Girl
Lightning Lad
Shooter ear
Ferro Lad
Karate Kid
Shadow Lass
Espionage Squad
Invisible Kid
Duo Damsel
Phantom Girl
Shrinking Violet
Chameleon Boy
Adult Legion
Polar Man
Action Comics backup
Element Lad
Superboy comics
Wildfire
Brainiac 5
Ultra Boy
Legion v3 comics
Timber Wolf
Lightning Lass
Sensor Girl
Legion v4 comics
Kono
Spider Girl
Tenzil Kem
Legionnaires comics
Leviathan
Post Zero Hour
XS
Legion v5
Lightning Saga
Star Man
Can't do it - I keep coming up with 26. i'd keep all the rest floating in and out as guest stars and subplots too..
Lightning Lad
Cosmic Boy
Saturn Girl
Brainaic-5
Mon-El
Ultra Boy
Light Lass
Tellos
Gates
Andromeda
Phantom Girl
Triplicate Girl
Bouncing Boy
Gear
Dream Girl
Shrinking Violet
Wildfire
Dawnstar
Shadow Lass
White Witch
Blok
Chameleon Boy
Element Lad
Kid Quantum
Invisible Kid 2
Light Lass
Part of me would love to see an all non-(standard Terran looking) Legion:
Tellos
Quislet
Blok
Proty 2
Gates
Shikari
Monstress
Flederweb? (the Khund Spider-man analog)
and as tokens
Wildfire
Crystalline Jan/Garth
al-
throw in:
kinetix (kitty-kinetix OR big rock candy kinetix)
furball
and you *SO* have a deal!
(especially anything to bring candi back...)
OOO! would burning dirk be too gruesome?
green energy celeste?
Excellent additions, Peter. But if we add Burning Dirk is added, could Ferro Lad be added as a token?
Oooo, what was the code-name for the Turtle Boy Jim Shooter added at the very end of the latest run?
Peter - don't forget the zombie legionnaires like "all burnt up karate kid" and "stuck together ashes of Triplicate Girls's third body" sheeesh.
~T
stuck together ashes of triplicate girls's third body could be VERY useful in a fight...
not much a conversationalist, though...
But a real pain if you get her in your eye. Eyeful Ethel, watch out!!!
leeeemur!
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