CSBG Archive
The Future of Earth 2
- by Brian Cronin
- in General
So, while reading the Legion of 3 Worlds thing, it occurred to me that a simple solution (and what certainly appears to be the solution Geoff Johns is going for) is to have each of the various Legions be the Legions of a different Earth.
And that made me wonder, have we ever SEEN the future of Earth 2 before?
- Posted on August 23, 2008 @ 02:46 AM






31 Comments
wwk5d
August 23, 2008 at 3:00 am
Wouldn’t having all those Legions be confusing? As much as I love the Legion, I’d rather we just had one version.
With regards to the topic……..I don’t think so. I don’t know if someone may have a done a story that took place in the future of Earth-2, but I don’t think we ever saw the Earth-2 version of the Legion.
WhySoSerious?
August 23, 2008 at 4:15 am
No..I think there’s one from the future and one from the Mutliverse, i’m guessing Geoff to go to the not-so-obvious route.
Ajit
August 23, 2008 at 6:36 am
I don’t know if someone may have a done a story that took place in the future of Earth-2, but I don’t think we ever saw the Earth-2 version of the Legion.
Toward the end of the Golden Age run — right in Legion territory — the Justice Society helped the citizens of 31st century New Modernia against the Chameleons in All Star Comics 56.
Sijo
August 23, 2008 at 6:49 am
Having multiple legions would only be confusing if they were used simultaneously. Just pick one as the “official” Legion for the series, and the rest show up occasionally on Justice League and such. (As long as there is a Multiverse, there will be room for more Legions.)
jccalhoun
August 23, 2008 at 7:24 am
I’m not sure why but from my years of being active in Legion fandom that pre-Crisis there was no Earth-2 Legion. Post Infinite Crisis, however, I had always thought that “legion of 3 worlds” implied 3 different earths.
Greg Geren
August 23, 2008 at 8:09 am
There was a glimpse of the Earth-2 future during the first Crisis, and noted at the time that the era had no Legion. Of course since it was Crisis, then we must either ignore it or change it.
Hangmanjury
August 23, 2008 at 8:13 am
I think they’re all futures of New Earth. Consider:
Kal is connected to the main, Pre-Crisis Legion.
Kara is connected to Threeboot Legion.
Bart is connected to Zero Hour Legion.
All three characters are from New Earth, so it could be that the other Legions are all alternate futures of New Earth. Makes just as much sense as anything else.
M Bloom
August 23, 2008 at 8:14 am
Ever since Infinite Crisis and Johns and Meltzer bringing back the quasi-original Legion, I’ve assumed that the three Legions are from different multiverses. The current Threeboot Legion would be the future of New Earth, the Lightning Saga crew is from Earth-1, and the Zero Hour Legion is from… somewhere else. Of course, this was before DC changed their minds and New Earth and Earth-1 became the same place.
Rob M
August 23, 2008 at 9:39 am
There was this one, which was sort of the Earth-2 Legion. Without digging it out and rereading it, I can’t say for certain, but I think it involved a hoax created by the Time Trapper.
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=92749&zoom=4
thekamisama
August 23, 2008 at 11:00 am
They could even do those yearly teamups!
Matt Bird
August 23, 2008 at 11:22 am
Back in the day (late 70s, early 80s) fans would always write in asking to see the Earth-2 Legion, but we never did.
Dalarsco
August 23, 2008 at 11:39 am
@wwk5d: The problem is that every Legion (especially the first) has some crazy fans that refuse to accept any other version. I know it won’t happen, but I’d love to see Legion become a giant-sized anthology book featuring stories of all three Legions.
Kelson
August 23, 2008 at 12:08 pm
@Hangmanjury, that works for me. But DC seems to be intent on cataloging everything and giving each universe a simple, consistent timeline.
Of course, there are only two ways to maintain that: (1) Never do any future and/or time travel stories, ever. (2) Treat future stories as the same level of canon as past stories. That means not killing off characters who have been seen alive in the future, not bringing back characters who are still dead in the future, and not allowing anyone to change the past.
Once you allow time travelers to start changing history, any semblance of a consistent timeline goes out the window,
freakshow
August 23, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Somewhere it’s was established that the zero hour legion was the E-2 legion . i think it was in 52.
Omar Karindu
August 23, 2008 at 2:41 pm
There’ve been lots of futures for E-2. Knodar, the Last Criminal who bothered the E-2 Green Lantern, was from E-2’s 25th century; this may be why a similar villain, the Professor Zoom/Reverse-Flash, was also said initially to be the “last supervillain” of his 25th century. (Gardner Fox loved working in Golden Age references to his own and others’ work; Flash #137 is practically a love letter to All-Star Comics #37.)
The Golden Age Flash also did some forwards time travel now an again, and the JSA had a few adventures that sent them into the future besides the on Aijit mentions above.
Now, it’s almost certainly true that no one developed a consistent future for E-2 beyond the occasional reference to one of those old 1940s tales….
Omar Karindu
August 23, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Oh, I forgot the GA Flash’s enemy Dmane, a future criminal like Knodar, and Mr. Terrific’s 1940s enemy Black Barax, a future time traveler all but forgotten until Geofff Johns built a couple of JSA stories around him.
There’s also a GA Starman story in which mad scientist villain the Light pulls back “Futurites” from an undisclosed later time period; they’re bulletproof giants who can’t breathe 20th century air without their special masks.
Daniel
August 23, 2008 at 7:13 pm
That’s just plain wrong. There was nothing in 52 about the Legion. And nothing about there being an Earth 2 Legion anywhere else.
Jack Tango
August 23, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Zero Hour Legion was shown fighting on “Earth-247″ during Infinite Crisis.
Honestly, easiest way to say it is that they’re alternate futures of the same Earth. Because once we start basing the other Legions on other Earths then you have to come up with a reason for them to all go back to New Earth and blah blah blah blah.
Alternate Futures, Alternate Legions. The End.
Daniel O' Dreams
August 23, 2008 at 9:28 pm
On the Earth 2 future front…
Did Roy Thomas ever say when exactly Mekanique’s “Metropolis” timeline was supposed to be? Did they suceed in preventing that timeline or did the efforts of the All Stars somehow CAUSE that timeline?
I can’t remember.
Jack Tango
August 23, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Ugh, just read Legion of 3 World — it was awesome, btw — but I see what’s going on with the Parallel Worlds Thing…
I’m not too big a fan of the other two Legions being from parallel earths, because they’ve all been accessible from New Earth at one point or another.
Oh well, I’m sure it has something to do with all their time travelling and what-not; every future exists attached to a future Earth and that just gets shuffled around whenever they travel back in time and change something.
OR whatever.
Paul Newell
August 24, 2008 at 12:01 am
And to tie it in to the Superman mythos even more:
Kon is connected to Zero Hour Legion.
SageShini
August 24, 2008 at 12:57 am
Geoff explained the existence of the three different Legions, but even if you haven’t read the half-dozen interviews in which he’s asked how they exist and he explains it, its not necessary ’cause its in the title. (Legion of *Three Worlds*.)
As far as HOW they’re going back to New Earth instead of their own, Geoff set that up back in Booster Gold (and in Lightning Saga but I can hardly blame anyone if they didn’t read THAT). While time traveling, it is apparently easily possible to be shunted to another Earth. Now as far as WHY they’re all going back to New Earth instead of different ones…hell if I know.
But I will say that they’d be better off making the Threeboot team the one for New Earth then the one that knows Superman from Earth-2.
Graeme White
August 25, 2008 at 3:48 am
Maybe it’s a case of, they allwere the futures of New Earth at some time, but due to seperate events (ie Zero Hour & Infinite Crisis) they became futures of other Earths. Anyway, I though what with the Threeboot Legion being inspired by comic books, that they were the Legion of Earth-Prime. I know this suggests overlap, but if an Earth has several different possible futures, that it stands to reason that at some point those possible futures would overlap.
Graeme White
August 25, 2008 at 3:49 am
Please forgive my poor grammarand spelling.
Graeme White
August 25, 2008 at 3:49 am
Please forgive my poor grammar and spelling.
Stephen
August 25, 2008 at 6:07 am
“(and in Lightning Saga but I can hardly blame anyone if they didn’t read THAT)”
Crossed over with JSA. I didn’t have a choice, dammit.
(And, well, it was the vehicle to bring Wally back, which I approved of at the time since I thought it meant Barry was once again safely sealed away. Whoops….)
But, yeah, the LSH fans are so fanatical about their preferred version that it’s almost impossible to tell ANY type of story without royally pissing off some significant group of the fanbase, which is why it’s so hard to get an LSH book selling well these days (the threeboot version had just about everything possible going for it, with the Teen Titans push and a big-name creative team, but even that didn’t work because LSH fans were dismissing it before the first issue was even published).
Graeme Burk
August 25, 2008 at 12:33 pm
It’s not an in-continuity in-comic statement, but certainly an articulation of editorial intent can be found in this: Bob Rozakis stated in an Answer Man column in DC books during the ’70s or early ’80s that there was no Earth-2 version of the Legion.
Billy Ray
August 25, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Two Words:
Hypertime Bubble.
Apodaca
August 25, 2008 at 8:42 pm
“Crossed over with JSA. I didn’t have a choice, dammit.
”
For shame. You always have a choice.
wwk5d
August 25, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I think DC is trying to appease as many fans as possible…not just people who are fans of all 3 versions of the Legion, but also to have adult and teen versions of the LSH. I may not agree with their decision, but from a marketing standpoint, I can understand it.
FunkyGreenJerusalem
August 25, 2008 at 11:29 pm
I’ve only read the Waid reboot of Legion, and no other appearance from them, and that’s what I assumed was happening when I heard the original Legion showed up in the JLA/JSA crossover.