What's old is new: Earthwar

This story was before I was old enough to read.  I didn't start reading comics until 1982.  Any older Legion stories I read was because they were collected in the DC Digests.  The Legion had very few multi-part epics by this point.  This one seems pretty significant though.  I believe it will be part of the next hardcover Superboy & LSH available next month.  I read it earlier this year from Comixology because I wanted to see what the fuss was all about.  Expect some brutal opinions.

A case of Kem

I don't want to make it seem like I pick exclusively on the female Legionnaires.  They have usually been most of the unrepresented characters in Legion Lore.  You know, 4 males/1 female per team?  It's time to address one of the biggest WTF characters in comic-dom:  Matter-Eater Lad

From point A to point B

I get it.  Legion of Super-Heroes is supposed to be about... super-heroes.  Unfortunately, it's set 1000 years into the future, which means it will have to border on science fiction.  There has always been elements of sci-fi in Legion stories (advanced science, alien races, space travel) but they were never really thought out much.

I've somewhat touched upon this in my transuit and Dawnstar posts.  It's never made sense for Legionnaires to be flying around through space, especially Daxamite/Kryptonians because of this whole speed of light thing.  There have been references how the Legion lore was influenced by Star Trek, especially in the design of some of their cruisers and technology.

Many older fans are familiar with this image.  The parallels to Star Trek are pretty obvious here as it notes Impulse engines, Warp Engines, Transporter Room - all design elements from Star Trek, though I don't really think we ever saw Transporters used much as these ships were capable of landing. It is interesting to note how the Legionnaires have to man the Engineering section.  All things considered, perhaps there were some missed opportunities here.  It was always stated that Sun Boy was one of their best pilots.  What if they needed civilian support staff?  Wildfire was an astro-engineer so perhaps he should have been admitted based on his knowledge of engineering, not what powers he actually had as ERG-1.  

Warp travel aside, we also had hyperdrive technology.  It appears hyperdrive tech is used in the 21st century DCU though but there was one in-panel reference in the 70s to hyperdrive.  In the Dawnstar initiation story, we have Dawnstar following thieves through a space warp.  Now, was that more like a wormhole, something that occurs naturally, or was it caused by the ships?

In the Fatal Five story, we also see Ferro Lad used a jump ship. I would assume that would be based on folding space tech.  This is also noted to be experimental tech.

One of the most used tech used has been Stargates.  They factored prominently during the Reboot and was part of a significant storyline.  Stargates themselves are generally regarded as a type of wormhole travel, although, they could be part of a larger part of some type of tunnel system. Geoff Johns did have the Legion using Stargates in his Superman and LSH story.  

We have also seen transmat used briefly in the Threeboot as a method of instantaneous transport without a ship, but it was noted to be very expensive.

Wikipedia has a very nice reference of different FTL travel methods in TV and other fiction.  Hyperspace   If you do go to the Wikipedia page, it has a see-also to Boom Tube. Boom Tubes currently will allow for point A to point B travel, without necessarily going to Apokolips.  Cyborg has this tech but potentially, it could be incorporated into other tech and make its way to the 31st century.  

The inconsistencies of travel

So this has been one of my biggest pet peeves.  Superman writers have been much more cognizant of his ability to travel near the speed of limit by noting that he can only travel from the Sun to the Earth, in that it takes about 8 minutes. Legion writers, not so much.  We have Legionnaires traveling too distant worlds not using a ship.  A trip to Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our sun, would take 4.22 light years.  YEARS. There really is no way for the "power squad" or whatever you would like to call them to travel to distant worlds without a ship.  And just consider, throwing relativity out the window for a second, that if they could travel several times the speed of light, that they wouldn't be exhausted from their trip?  Even Superman would need to recharge.  Meanwhile, the Legion has SuperBOY,  who hasn't developed the stores of energy that adult Kal has, doing this.  So when it is written that Dawnstar is faster than a Legion cruiser, she potentially could be, until that cruiser engages its hyperdrive.  It makes me question who ever decided that Dawnstar, Wildfire and others should fly along side Legion cruisers.  It's a fun visual, but really isn't well thought-out. Even Stargates require a ship to use to power them up so a cruiser would have to accompany the "power squad." 

And furthermore with Ultra Boy, he should never be able to travel at the same speed as Daxamites and Kryptonians as he relies on a transuit to protect him through space.  If those things can stand the stresses of traveling at the speed of light, makes one wonder why they don't build stuff out of transuit material.  Well, I guess they did with Earth's polymer screen.

The future needs to be imaginative.  I think some writers have been more successful than others over the years. With fantastic technology, the challenge is finding a place for your characters who are supposed to be "super." How to get the Legion to move at the speed of Plot becomes more of a footnote but maybe figuring that out helps to figure out which characters should be in the next version and which characters need updated or need to be moved on out of the Legion.

Should have been a contender, issue 2

Since it is Pride month, it only feels right to discuss the first original Legion character that is openly gay.  No ret-cons, no slash fic, no coy references.  I am of course referring to Tel Vole, otherwise known as Gravity Kid.

A case of Dawnstar

I have always kinda liked Dawnstar even though she can be a pretty terrible character.  Her visual appeal is undeniable.  Winged characters have always been a go-to in comics.  Yes, her costumes are a bit objectifying.  Her personality is somewhat unlikable at times, being totally officious, but then her hot and cold with Wildfire.  She never developed many female friendships and seemed to be most antagonistic with Phantom Girl. Then again, Levitz was not that strong in writing female personalities.

Levitz obviously created her with the purpose of making her tracking abilities a plot device in stories; but she had no offensive abilities.  Her best attempts over the years were dodging and weaving her attackers into destroying themselves. Since many of the Legionnaires had high profiles, one would think that attackers would leave her alone since can't really stop them herself, but instead during a chase, they fire upon each other or go headlong into the sun while chasing her.

She was extremely fast even though were are never given any explanation as to how her wings work in outer space.  This also raises a huge issue with faster-than-light travel.  Unfortunately, details about this have been overlooked in most of the Legion's publication history.  We should never see Dawnstar flying outside a cruiser if that cruiser uses some type of hyperdrive. She somehow survives in space unaided, no transuit or anything.  As I mentioned in my transuit post, they obviously have to protect against radiation in space so much so she must be naturally protected against that.  Early on, she is noted as being extremely tough (you would have to be to survive the vacuum of space) but she has show to be susceptible to physical injuries.  She has also been shown to be immune to the intense heat of Tharr, but not Wildfire's loving touch when he had a more solid form.

At times, her tracking abilities have been inconsistently portrayed, first as not very accurate, and they couldn't work on the moon or on planets, but she could also track people to asteroids.  She also did some interesting things, like sense fluctuations that a world was not in the proper place or sense if there was life in an area.  But no, Levitz loved her tracking abilities especially and that seems to be where we saw Dawnstar used most.  I joke that when he didn't have Dawnstar for vol 7 because she was in Legion Lost vol 2, he had to create a tracking character (Mwindaji) to fill that void because loves his missing Legionnaire stories.

I feel like the identity of Bounty for 5YL was almost an attempt to snub at Levitz for not doing more with Dawnstar, or creating her with such a limited purpose.  And really, there is no reason to believe that Dawny couldn't use her tracking power to be a sniper shot.  Many historical Legion storeis have shown characters using weapons and it would help to give Dawnstar some type type of offensive measures.

In the JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time  animated, Dawnstar had some sort of light abilities, able to create light daggers but able to imbue herself with the energy that she flew into the Time Trapper, knocked him off balance and caused a huge explosion. It's a decidedly different take on her.

It's difficult sometimes to discuss Dawnstar without bringing up Shikari who seemed to be a bit better thought out than Dawnstar, with a retractable body armor, the ability to fight in close quarters, and not a tracking power, but almost a precognitive/ESP ability to see pathways.

It appeared that later writers, Johns and Nicienza, tried to expand Dawnstar's powers, maybe borrowing a bit from Shikari, but she seemed to be progressing more towards cosmic awareness.  This isn't a bad take on Dawnstar and would definitely explain how she was able to ascertain certain events in her early adventures.  The only concern with that is that those powers can overlap with Sensor Girl's to an extent or can just make her a McGuffin like Dream Girl.  It's a shame too that so many "classic" Legionnaires have sensory powers and not combat abilities.

So with Dawnstar, some things need to be finally quantified:  how invulnerable is she?  how fast is she/how does she go so fast?  Are her powers only limited to tracking or is she capable of more?  These are some pretty difficult questions to answer if she ever returns to print.