#Winath

[lenbryant]

My command of facts is more like Calvin's.

And he even remembers to use the appropriate hyphen in "super-heroes."

[jasposeyblog]

My commission of Lightning Lad preliminary sketch by Jason Adams (for my sketch cover)

[radioactive-earthshine]

Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #3

[lesterspiffany]

Legionnaires Homeworlds

[cantsayidont]

January 1990. The dilemma with crowded team books like LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES is that even if there's a consistent creative team with coherent plans, the sheer size of the cast means that some characters and plot threads tend to fade in and out. The first third of the previous LEGION book, by Paul Levitz, had indicated that there was something going on between Lightning Lass (Ayla Ranzz) and Shrinking Violet (Salu Dibgy), but by issue #51, following the death of Superboy and a bunch of other events, it appears to have cooled, and Ayla began quite aggressively hitting on Rokk Krinn's younger brother Pol (Magnetic Kid), who was considerably younger than she and seemed dismayed by her attentions. It's not exactly clear what happened with her and Vi: After the death of Superboy (on whom Vi had had a doomed and distant crush as a kid), Vi became significantly more brusque and abrasive with her teammates, but I'm not sure if Levitz intended to suggest that her harsher attitude was because she'd had a falling out with Ayla or if Vi's attitude was the cause of their subsequent distance; either way, it's tempting to read Ayla's flirtation with Pol as a reaction to it.

Pol died at the end of that series, and the first issue of this one revealed that during the five-year gap, Vi had been drafted into the Imskian army, fought in the war between Rokk and Pol's home planet of Braal, been involved in a war crime, and ended up in the stockade for refusing to keep quiet about it. During that time, she and Ayla had begun writing to each other, and the issue culminates in Vi, newly released from the stockade, deciding to join Ayla on the ranch of Ayla's brother Garth (the former Lightning Lad) on their home planet Winath. In the page above, from issue #3, Vi is now on Winath with Ayla, and they're clearly together. Here they are in issue #20, after rejoining the reformed Legion:

(Vi got her leg blown off by Roxxas in issue #10, and is grousing because Brainiac 5 has arranged a synthetic replacement that's obviously the wrong color. The reason their quarters look like this is that the new Legion headquarters on the Talus asteroid was previously a brothel.)

Ayla and Vi remained together after this, until the post-Zero Hour reboot in 1994 wiped out this timeline and no-homo'd them. They've been back together in some but not all of the various subsequent reboots.

[machabre]

maybe I do secretly have all these

-tier headcanons about Coluan development, Brainiac's aging, reason for their species-wide asshole personality but it's insane

[actuallyadcfan]

it probably wasn't, considering the mess that was continuity in the early silver age comics, but that's still so cool

i wonder if this was intentional

[eeveedee]

Drawing every silver age legionnaire day 2

Lightning Twins

It’s day two so you get two of them <3

Design notes:

Since being a twin is really important on Winath I made Garth and Ayla identical with slight costume differences

Garth has shorter hair and has more “sharper” facial features while Ayla has longer hair and has more “rounded” facial features

They both have the same hair style with the lightning bolt cowlick

[argitscumdump]

me again with my questions hahaha,

Is there any place where you talk about the lore of the children of Timber Wolf and Lighting Lad? I always wonder if one of them died, because of the little animatic you made.

Hehehehehe

.

.

.

…I do not😅

But I’ll talk ab them rn! Unfortunately I don’t have much new art in way of their human forms, but here’s their beast forms!

These guys are Finn (Darker) and Gail (Lighter), Lightning and Timber’s kids. They’re most prominent in my Wolf AU, but in general they kinda just float around.

(Side note: they only ever have tails in the AUs where they��re experiments, otherwise they’re like Brin, but I maintain that lil shit wasn’t joking ab losing his tail, but the reaction it got made him think it wasn’t something he should’ve said)

As far as lore goes, it changes depending on the AU, but the canon divergent one is that they were born with a mixing of their dads’ powers, ending up more stable than Timber and not as powerful as Lightning (who does eventually lose his lightning as a result of the bulk of it getting passed to them, and retires from the team to work for the Academy). This makes Mar want to be a fucking nutjob grandpa, and after several kidnappings, it’s decided the boys would be safer with their GRanzzparents (hehe).

They grew up on Winath, hanging out with their dads, aunt, and uncle whenever possible, and eventually manage to get accepted into the Legion Academy on merit. From there they get adopted by some of the upperclassmen (Io, Kell’s…spawn? Duplicate? Nobody knows. Thris, a Durlan with a death wish, and the Phantom/Jo-Nah kid, Ronin), get into various life-threatening hijinks, and then Gail proceeds to get skewered by rebar in his very first field mission, at the very young age of 17. In full view of his brother and father.

He survives this, somehow, but it gives Timber a whole new patch of white hair and Finn a lifelong fear of falling debris. Ever stubborn, though, the two truck on, eventually becoming full members of the Legion alongside their father and upperclassmen buddies.

They do normal Legion shit for a few years, get some scars from some jackass with a giant sword and a god complex, and almost get yoinked by Mar several times, but for the most part things are going decent. At least, until Timber’s final mission.

A diplomatic mission gone awry, Timber, Gail, Cham, and Saturn were outnumbered and beaten to hell and back, and only saved by the grace of some Deus Ex Machina bs. Unfortunately, that Deus Ex Machina bs got Gail shish-kebabed. Again. With far more than just rebar this time.

He was far less lucky, and passed in his father’s arms on the way to a hospital at 21.

Timber stepped away from the Legion after that, joining his husband at the Academy and blaming himself for the entire thing. Lightning drew away from his old friends entirely and threw himself into work instead, spending more time ghosting around and grading than sleeping and interacting with people that weren’t his family (which ended up working him into an early grave). Finn stayed with the Legion, but became more closed off and vicious than before, nearly getting booted for almost the exact same reason as Timber in season 2 (though he actually succeeded in offing Mar after the man caught him at the wrong time. The case was let go due to a self-defense ruling, but only barely).

So, there it is! The abridged chaos of the LightningWolf twins’ lives, and the shit they put my favorite idiots through 😅

Thx again for the questions!!

[sebeth]

Legion of Super-Heroes #4 (Bendis)

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

We open with Triplicate Girl and surprise, surprise, she’s gushing over Superboy. Might as well change the name of the team to “the Legion of Jon’s Cheerleaders” at this point.

Luornu recaps her origin:

“We are Luornu Durgo! Legion code name: Triplicate Girl! Originally from the great planet Cargg. For those of you who do not know, I/we are split but merge into one body. I/we then gain the accumulated memories and knowledge and experiences! It’s a full life. So when you refer to ‘us’ as different people it’s a little insulting. I/we are the same people.”

The specifics of Luornu and Cargg change with each reboot. The “accumulated memories and knowledge and experiences” sounds like Bendis is taking a Madrox-style approach to Luornu.

Jon is doing his best to memorize the Legionnaires code names, real names, and planets of origins. Jon states “My day would make it a point to know everyone’s name by dinner.”

In fairness to Jon, the Legion was much smaller when Clark was introduced to the team.

Lightning Lad makes a reference to his “mothers” so I’m guessing the twins are now the children of a lesbian couple. Is this another diversity “paint job” by Bendis? Instead of going for cheap brownie points of lesbian parents why doesn’t Bendis bring Ayla and Vi back as a couple? Or pair the long-speculated to be a couple Invisible Kid and Chemical King? Or return Power Boy and his partner to the team? Or reunite Element Lad and Shavaughn/Shaun Erin?

The Legion is one team that has a long of history of confirmed LGBTQ couples. Why is Bendis making insignificant minor characters his LGBTQ special when he could instead focus on one of the numerous couples that could impact the story?

Garth and Rokk take Jon to Computo who will give him the Legion orientation presentation.

Computo is now a “mixture of technology and category nine humanoid biology”.

We get glimpses of the founder’s past.

Titan is now a “mind collective” that Imra leaves when she receives an offer from the United Planets.

We switch to Winath where the twins are defending a group of people from the Science Police. Ayla is clearly the more brazen of the twins which is a switch from the reboot where Garth was the hothead.

The twin’s mothers are not happy about their actions. One mother seems to be made of energy. Is this how the twins received their powers? The twins seem to have four younger siblings. No sign of Mekt, their older brother known as Lightning Lord.

Ayla mentions they were born with their powers. Do all the children have lightning powers? She also mentions the mothers have six other children to worry about. Neither are pictured in the scene. One could be Mekt.

The President of the United Planets invites the twins to join the UP Youth Delegation. Garth joins. Ayla does not.

We turn to Braal, home planet of Rokk, where “one percent of the planet’s population has control over magnetic fields”. In all other versions, every native of Braal has magnetic powers.

Rokk is fighting the metal creatures native to Braal in an arena. In previous versions, Rokk was a magno-ball champion, now he battles creatures in an arena.

Rokk refers to his dad as “Prime Father”. Rokk was aiming for the Inter-Galactic Olympics but Prime Father convinces him to join the UP Youth Delegation.

The founding trio meet on a space shuttle.

Imra is different from her fellow Titans as most don’t leave the planet but she couldn’t wait to get out of there.

The trio meet with the President of the United Planets and save her from an attack by the Horraz.

Jon is pulled out of the orientation due to “Justice League-level emergency”. The Trident has been stolen and the Science Police has arrived at the Legion HQ: “By order of Madamhonor President, the Legion of Super-Heroes is locked until further notice.”

Pros:

Cosmic Boy received some spotlight.

Cons:

I believe in diversity and representation, but I don’t like cheap “paint jobs” that will be undone in the next reboot. Garth receives the focus of this as he is now of color and has lesbian parents, but I guarantee in the next reboot Garth will be white and no longer have lesbian parents. In the long run, these changes are nothing but “cheap points”. I mentioned the Legion’s LGBTQ couples above and for characters of color: XS, Kid Quantum I. Kid Quantum II, and Tyroc are in limbo waiting to make a comeback.

The pace is glacial. We are four issues in and the story we’ve seen so far would have taken less than one issue in the 1980s.

[spandexinspace]

Winath mention 👆

[jasposeyblog]

My commission of Lightning Lad sketch cover by Jason Adams

[radioactive-earthshine]

I got distracted by something no one will care about.

Legion Worlds #2

Winath really is a fascinating place in its niche and people that reproduce in twins naturally, and bless Abnett for attempting to give us an approximation of where Winath actually is in our galaxy.

To note; those numbers he provided (237:661:727:001) are literal gibberish and is useless for pinpointing any solid location. We do have a Galactic Coordinate System that is based on our own observations and the format those numbers provided are not anything resembling what they should be.

Real galactic coordinates look something like this: RA: 6h45m8. 9s Dec: -16°42'52.1"

This is however scifi, and a comic, and the numbers he provided could just be what they use in this particular story and future - it could be a direct serial number for their planet, a coordinate system, or the numerical classification of their star or local cluster. We don't know.

He does however give us which spiral arm Winath is located (that part is real) which is on the Centaurus Spiral Arm - which is one of the main arms spanning a very large reach of our galaxy.

In relation to us (we are located on the Orion Spur)... this tells us nothing because Winath is located on the Centaurus arm, which as you can see has an arching formation covering over half the galaxy.

So... Winath could be anywhere from ~approximately~ 15,000LY away to 60,000LY away from Earth.

I'll keep a lookout to see if distance is ever mentioned which may give us a better idea of where Winath is supposed to be but I'm not holding my breath for any of this to be consistent.

And always remember; space is huge, unfathomably huge.

Here is a simplified map showing the galactic arms that may be easier to distinguish.

My classmate once said we were on the "dick of Sagittarius" and it's never left me.

[disgustedorite]

I mention winath once and learn my dad has Very strong opinions on the poor handling of race in reboots and adaptations I barely knew existed

[protytwo]

LoSH Appreciation Week Day 2 - Legion Fashion

There have been many interesting twists and turns in Legion fashion over the years, but one of the more interesting ones was the casual nudity among the inhabitants of Winath.

They came close to depicting it in Legion of Super-Heroes vol 3, but it looks to me like censorship decisions added tops for the women. Note that they are crudely drawn in all black, as though an afterthought.

By LoSH vol 4, DC seemed more comfortable with the readers knowing that they wore very little, and it was depicted several times during this run.

So if you ever tire of trying to figure out whether your Legion look needs a bubble space helmet, a pink bikini, a black corset, or any of the other weird fashion choices over the years, you are welcome to shed these problems and your clothing on lovely, carefree Winath.

[cantsayidont]

November 1989 (set October 23, 2994). The first issue of the relaunched LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES series reveals that during the five-year gap following the end of the previous series, former Legionnaire Shrinking Violet, whose real name is Salu Digby, had joined the military when her homeworld of Imsk went to war with the planet Braal, homeworld of fellow Legionnaire Cosmic Boy (Rokk Krinn). By this point, several years later, Imsk has won the war and is occupying Braal, but Vi is in a military stockade.

As the page above alludes, in 2991, Vi and her unit were involved in an Imskian war crime, and she's been imprisoned because she refuses to retract her official protest or agree to keep her mouth shut about what happened.

In the previous series, Vi had expressed a romantic interest in fellow Legionnaire Ayla Ranzz (Lightning Lass), who hesitated, briefly seemed receptive, and then made a panicky dive into an aggressive hetero flirtation with Rokk Krinn's younger brother Pol (who was then killed in the final storyline of the previous series). We learn here that during her imprisonment, Vi and Ayla have been writing to each other, and Ayla has invited Vi to join her on the family's agricultural commune on the planet Winath, where Ayla has gone to live with her brother Garth (formerly known as Lightning Lad) and his wife (Imra Ardeen Ranzz, formerly known as Saturn Girl) since the Legion disbanded. Newly released from the army, Vi finally agrees.

This is an example of the radical shift in the complexity and sophistication of this phase of Legion history. The previous series had had some elaborate plots and characterization, but at the end of the day, it was still a superhero comic. This was something else, and not only in storytelling style. It's regrettable that a pointless series of editorial battles ended up making it such a mess, and even more regrettable that DC later decided to abandon it in favor of a return to cutesy adventures of cute teen heroes with no history. The point in this series was that the characters had BEEN cute teen heroes, but they grew up, and so did the universe around them — both for good and for ill.