You’re right, sorry. In my mind, I was thinking of Hannibal King, for some reason.
-r-

My challenge was to explain exactly why they DIDN’T just do it that way, rather than reboot again for Waid.

Oh, okay. In that case I think it’s because Mark Waid had a few bright ideas that were incompatible with the original Legion. First, his characterization of the individual Legionnaires was quite a tricky and subtle thing, and while it was good stuff it was also very definitely not how the original-version Legionnaires were characterized. Second, he wanted to use his teenage-revolution premise to explain how there could sensibly be a Legion of Super-Heroes in the first place, which you can’t apply to the original Legion because we know their origins perfectly well, and Waid’s idea wasn’t it.

This is also the reason, I think, why Waid didn’t just stick with the reboot Legion. There was nothing about that version of the Legion that necessitated getting rid of them; they just didn’t fit with what Waid wanted to do.

How the hell is it the book that is set in the future, that needs no ties to the past, the book that has the most continuity problems of them all?

The Legion doesn’t actually have that many continuity problems now, and the ones they do have are quite manageable. The big continuity problems of the past have for the most part been swept away by reboots. But the reputation lingers.

How the hell is it the book that is set in the future, that needs no ties to the past, the book that has the most continuity problems of them all?

Well, that seems to be *almost* what Geoff Johns is doing. And it would have been a fine solution back around the time of Zero Hour.

But if all you want is a Legion book about superheroes, you can do that with the current Legion. And, in fact, that’s what Waid and Bedard and Shooter are doing with the current Legion. So why change anything at all? Every time you reboot or deboot the title, you alienate more people, and it’s time for DC to stop doing that.

Oh yeah, obviously they’re NOT gonna do it.

My challenge was to explain exactly why they DIDN’T just do it that way, rather than reboot again for Waid.

Who Is It? Frank Drake of the Nightstalkers, who is related to Dracula and named his Exorcist Gun “Linda” (after Linda Blair).

Correct!! Chuck T mentioned it, too, but I figured I’d wait for someone to specifically mention the gun part.

Richard, Frank was not a vampire.

And I’m stumped for answers myself. Please enlighten us?
-r-

In order to achieve what end?

The goal of doing a Legion of Superheroes book featuring superheroes, which seemed to be the goal of both the first and the second revamps.

If you make the Five Years Later Legion a “possible” future, then you can go back and revisit the characters and do whatever you want to do with them, while still keeping the history of the characters intact.

Well, that seems to be *almost* what Geoff Johns is doing. And it would have been a fine solution back around the time of Zero Hour.

But if all you want is a Legion book about superheroes, you can do that with the current Legion. And, in fact, that’s what Waid and Bedard and Shooter are doing with the current Legion. So why change anything at all? Every time you reboot or deboot the title, you alienate more people, and it’s time for DC to stop doing that.

Not the most appropriate of comments for a snark-free corner!

Ha! That’s not snark, it’s genuine surprise. Happy surprise, too.

Snark would be trying to figure out on what remote far-western Pacific island the CSBG servers are hosted. One which brushes up ever so closely to the international dateline…

Waid’s Legion has been good, agreed. But would it really have been any worse if Waid was writing the original Legion?

I’ve been pretty happy with both retcons. I enjoyed them more than all but the very earliest issues of “Five Years Later”. I think the Waid/Kitson run has been the best Legion run since the “Reflecto Saga”. (Yeah, yeah, I know; but I never really liked the Levitz/Giffen Legion.)

I have more to say about the way DC is dealing with the Legion right now… But that gets me close to violating the Snark-Free Zone.

But yeah, I think it is a bit of a reach for a theme. Clever thinking, though!!

Actually, he’s still Robin. Earth-2′s Dick Grayson never became Batman, even after Bruce died (which was years after that comic was published).

Legion Archives Vol. 2. http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=63407&zoom=4

In order to achieve what end?

The goal of doing a Legion of Superheroes book featuring superheroes, which seemed to be the goal of both the first and the second revamps.

If you make the Five Years Later Legion a “possible” future, then you can go back and revisit the characters and do whatever you want to do with them, while still keeping the history of the characters intact.

I don’t have any answers, I’m just floored by the fact that the Monday feature got posted before 5am on Tuesday. That has to be some kind of new record!

Not the most appropriate of comments for a snark-free corner!

As for the Five Year Later Legion, I wouldn’t want to see a reboot of the Legion that picked up from volume 3 and ignored (although that sure seems to be what Meltzer and Johns did with the Lightning Saga). It might not have been everyone’s favorite, but it is pretty well loved by a lot of fans. It was a pretty bold era that tried a lot of new and controversial stuff, and it deserves to be remembered.

That’s the point, though, Matt. So far, it is NOT being remembered. It has already been “erased” TWICE. So if it already is going to be ignored, why not just bring back the originals rather than keep doing revamps?