#batch sw6

[evilhorse]

Legionnaires house ad (circa March 1993)

[lesterspiffany]

Beautiful!

Legion of Super Heroes: End of an Era (1994)

The ending of the original continuity of Legion of Super Heroes, spanning 36 years, and the final appearance of the Batch SW6 Legionnaires

[dc-polls]

"That Really Happened?!" DC Comics Tournament Entry #34

Shvaughn/Sean

[ID: Cover of Legion of Super-Heroes #1 that says Young Romance. Shvaughn Erin cries into a handkerchief and says, "*choke* He spends so much time saving the world... When will he find time for me?" In the foreground Element Lad looks off into the distance. A narration box reads, "All my life, happiness eluded my grasp... and nothing I ever cared about lasted! Was this the way it had to be with Jan, too? The Elements of Heartbreak!" /END ID]

What Happened?

Shvaughn Erin was a member of the Science Police, the 30th-century cops who assisted (or hindered) the Legion of Super-Heroes. During the Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen run in the 1980s, she became romantically involved with Legionnaire Jan "Element Lad" Arrah. This upset some members of the Legion fan community who had a theory that Jan was gay. The character wasn't traditionally masculine, wore pink, and had curly blond hair (look, this just how gay coding worked in the 70s and 80s).

When Giffen and married couple Tom and Mary Bierbaum (who got their start in the Legion fan community) took over the title with 1989's vol. 4 (aka, the "Five Years Later" run), one of the things that Giffen wanted to do was kill off Shvaughn to establish Element Lad as gay. They were already using Jan's archenemy, the criminal Roxxas who years ago had genocided the rest of the his species, the matter-transmuting Trommites, as the villain for the first arc. Shvaughn was eventually spared this fate, but the writers still had to square the circle of why a "gay" character would be involved with a woman. Their solution? What if "she" was a "he?"

I'm going to try to explain the rest of this story in as sensitive a way as possible. This is a story that was written in 1992 by, as far as I know, three cishet people and your millage will vary (and as a cis person myself, I can't really speak to how well this holds up). I will generally be using she/her pronouns when the character is presenting as Shvaughn and he/him when presenting as Sean.

In Legion of Super-Heroes, vol. 4 #31, the Earth is recovering from the devastation of losing the moon due to the machinations of the alien Dominators who have infiltrated and subverted the planetary government (note also, the Dominators have an extremely problematic "yellow peril" design so there's a lot going on here). In the midst of this, Jan and Shvaughn meet for the first time in a while. Jan finds out that Shvaughn is going through withdrawal from not being able to obtain the drug Profem. She explains that she had been born male under the name Sean on a very conservative planet. While growing up, Sean developed a crush on Element Lad, who as a teenager was intergalactically famous as a member of the Legion. Thinking that the only way a boy like Jan would find him attractive, Sean started taking Profem, changed her name to Shvaughn, enrolled in the Science Police academy, and eventually became the liaison to the Legion. Now, without access to the drug, Shvaughn is reverting back to her more masculine appearance.

Jan takes all of this in, before telling his former lover that "anything we ever shared physically...it was in spite of the Profem, not because of it!" Shvaughn later runs into the teenage clone of Element Lad from the Dominator's Batch SW6 (we can't get into that right now), and in future appearances shows up fully presenting as masculine and going by Sean. The adult Element Lad goes into a coma and Sean is at his bedside.

Then the Legion gets rebooted in Zero Hour, all of the Legionnaires are teens again with new continuity, and Shvaughn (when she shows up at all) is back to presenting as female with no indication that she was ever Sean. Element Lad (unless I missed anything) is only given female love interests or sexual partners by later writers, or implied to be asexual with a spiritual bend.

While Shvaughn is far from the first female love interest who gets her storyline derailed to support a gay headcanon, it is surprising that it 1. happened in canon and 2. the solution was not to kill her off, but to reveal she is trans (ish?) so the character can detransition back to a man so that his love interest can be gay. What's really weird is that Giffen and the Bierbaums also made canon a romance between Light/Lightning Lass and Shrinking Violet, but never felt a need to invalidate their previous relationships with male partners, which maybe points towards the culture of the time's perceptions of male vs. female bisexuality.

--

Tournament polls will be posted after all entries are up. As always you can find all posts related to the tournament using #dc-polls-trh

[orange-s-mario]

concept: batch sw6 jonathan samuel Kent

everyone wins

[judedeluca]

For goldsperyid - Leviathan’s First Night

Not part of the holiday gift prompts, this is for @goldsperyid as part of the Legion of Super-Heroes gift exchange organized by @nuranalknowsall

Goldsperyid asked for something Hanukkah related and suggested using Gim Allon or the Ranzz Twins, so I went with something set during the Five Years Later era

It felt weird, seeing the menorah lit. To the younger Gim Allon, it felt like years and years since the last time. That was actually an appropriate thought, since it HAD been years and years since the last time he saw this menorah lit.

“Yera and I were lucky to get this off Earth before everything went wrong,” the older Gim Allon explained. “There wasn’t that much we could transport with us.”

By “everything went wrong,” the older Gim was referring to the complete annihilation of the planet Earth thanks to years of ongoing destruction inflicted by the Dominators via their secret conquest of the Earth sphere.

Everything about this first night was so strange, so bizarre. It was Gim’s, well, Leviathan’s, first Hanukkah without his parents. He was celebrating it with an older version of himself, and said older version’s wife.

None of the Legionnaires could figure out if the group referred to as the “SW6 Batch,” discovered in a secret Dominator lab, were the original Legion of Super-Heroes or cloned duplicates. The whole thing was terribly confusing and awkward to comprehend; even Brainiac 5 with his 12th Level Intellect was stumped.

Tonight was not a night to get into semantics about who was “real” and who was a “copy.”

“It still feels good to see it,” Leviathan openly acknowledged, “Even if Mom and Dad aren’t…”

“I know,” Colossal Boy sighed, placing his arm around the younger man’s shoulders. “But, thank you for spending the first night with us.”

“I didn’t really have anything else to do,” Leviathan blurted out absentmindedly. “Wait! I didn’t mean for it to sound like-“

Colossal Boy laughed and assured Leviathan, “It’s okay, Gim. I get it. I know it gets a bit lonesome this time of year even with the rest of the team.”

For a group that was so diverse in terms of planetary origins, the Legion certainly lacked some diversity in regards to religious and spiritual beliefs. During December, Christmas was mainly the feeling to pervade the hallways of Legion HQ. Gim was certain he was the only Jewish Legionnaire, but since he was able to celebrate Hanukkah with his family it wasn’t that much of an issue.

That was back when Earth still existed and they weren’t living in domed cities on a giant spaceship.

However, as the Allon Family’s menorah attested, they could handle whatever was thrown at them.

Suddenly, the doorbell chimed and Colossal Boy said “Gim could you get that? I have to finish up with Yera in the kitchen.”

“Sure,” Leviathan went to answer the front door but was surprised to see who was waiting on the other side.

“Hi!”

“Gossamer?” Leviathan was startled to see the gravity-defying Legionnaire standing in the doorway to the Allons’ apartment, and behind her was “Live Wire?”

While Gossamer appeared as perky as always, her twin brother remained just as sullen as usual and had an expression like he was being expected to suck a particularly sour lemon. That seemed to be normal for Live Wire these days.

“Is this okay, Gim?” Gossamer asked. “I called ahead and asked the older Gim if we could join the three of you for tonight. I didn’t want us to intrude since we’re not Jewish, but he said it wasn’t a problem.”

“Um, yeah, it’s okay,” Leviathan replied. “But, why’d you want to join us?”

Gossamer shrugged and explained “Wanted to make sure you were okay and everything. I know you’re still feeling beat up about what happened with Mordecai a few months ago.”

Leviathan tried to answer with “B-but you didn’t do anything wrong. I’m the one who-“

“Stop right there,” Gossamer held up her hand as she cut her teammate’s thinking off. “We didn’t know how tough Mordecai was, AND he blindsided us. It could’ve happened to any Legionnaire.”

“I guess…” Leviathan admitted, even though he sometimes still fantasized about how badly things might’ve gone after that creature abducted Gossamer.

Seeing the unsure expression on Leviathan’s face, Gossamer pulled Live Wire in front of her and continued with “And I believe my brother has something to say, right, Garth?”

Somehow looking more annoyed than usual, Live Wire muttered under his breath “Geez.”

Gossamer nudged her brother with her elbow, repeating herself more firmly “RIGHT. GARTH?”

“Okay, okay,” Live Wire gave in, shrugging off his sister before he addressed Leviathan with “I’m… sorry.”

“About…?” Gossamer added.

Rolling his eyes, Live Wire began to apologize in a way that definitely sounded as if it’d been rehearsed. “Look I’m sorry about the way I acted when Ayla was taken by that Mordecai creep. It could’ve happened to anyone and I know you didn’t let her get snatched on purpose.”

“And…?” Gossamer dragged out.

“AND,” Garth continued while giving his sister a dirty look, “I shouldn’t blame someone else for what does and does not happen to my sister. She’s her own person and even though we’re a team I know you did the best you could to look out for her. She’s not a doll that needs to be watched over and she can take care of herself. Is that good?” Live Wire added that last bit while turning to his twin for approval.

Gossamer patted her brother on the back and gave him “As long as you behave yourself tonight, that is good.”

“Thanks, MOM.”

“Watch it.”

Leviathan couldn’t stop himself from laughing at the sibling dynamic between Live Wire and Gossamer. It almost made him wish he had a sibling of his own, though he kind of did.

“Come on, don’t just stand out there,” Colossal Boy ushered everyone inside, “we’re just about to start dinner.”

“Oh your menorah’s beautiful,” Gossamer complimented. “Is this real gold?”

“So Yera,” Live Wire asked, “I heard you were an actress. Ever been in any horror movies?”

Leviathan let out a happy sigh and joined Colossal Boy and the others as they sat down to eat for the first night of Hanukkah.

[sprockyeahlegion]

The origin of BATCH SW6?

Superboy #206

[senshilegionnaire]

THAT LAST THO i feel personally called out

Seriously, though, everyone needs to read the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Like Classic Star-Trek-style idealism, people from very different worlds building communities, and strange new life forms? That’s the foundation the LSH is built on.

Did you enjoy DnA’s Guardians of the Galaxy? They had a run towards the end of the Reboot Legion that’s every bit as great as that one.

Do you want a large cast with a lot of female characters? The Legion has that.

Want more queer relationships? There are a couple in the Five Years Later run.

Do you enjoy stuff with superpowered teenagers making really dubious life choices? Because there’s quite a lot of that.

You should all get into the Legion and then cry when all the characters you’re invested in get retconned, possibly more than once dependuing on where you start.

[multiverseforger]

Val Armorr was the son of one of Japan's greatest crime lords, Kirau Nezumi, also known as Black Dragon. When he was born, his mother, the American secret agent Valentina Armorr, tried to hide him from his father, but she failed and was killed for her effort. Japan's greatest hero Sensei Toshiaki (the White Crane) eventually killed Black Dragon for his crimes and adopted the infant Val. He raised Val as if he were his own son, and trained him in all manner of the martial arts. Val became the youngest warrior ever to earn the title Samurai, and he went to work for his local shogun. However, after trying his best and failing to please his supervisor, he quit and searched the galaxy for new forms of battle to master.

Legion of Super-Heroes

Main article: Legion of Super-Heroes

When Val returned to Earth, he found that the Legion of Super-Heroes was searching for new recruits to battle the Khunds. He applied, and, although he had no superhuman powers, was accepted when he challenged Superboy to single combat and so impressed the Boy of Steel with his unexpectedly formidable skill that Superboy vouched for his admission to the Legion. His Legion career almost ended ignominiously when fellow recruit Nemesis Kid framed him for betraying Earth to the Khunds, but Nemesis Kid's own treachery was discovered in time, and Val went on to become one of the greatest Legionnaires ever. As Karate Kid, Val was the Legion's leader for one term[4] and once took on the entire Fatal Five single-handedly, clearly defeating the Persuader, Emerald Empress, and Mano (though Mano was largely a matter of luck as the Kid admitted to himself). At one point or another he launched solo flying kicks at villains whose power level far exceeded Superboy, including Validus, Mordru, Omega and even Darkseid. Though they had little effect, they showed the degree of his fearless courage. Karate Kid's best friends in the Legion were Timber Wolf, Chamelon Boy, Dawnstar and Ferro Lad. Timber Wolf's acrobatic abilities made him a natural sparring partner against Val and Karate Kid had a calming effect on Brin Londo with his discipline.

Val fell in love with Princess Projectra, who joined the Legion at the same time he did. In order to prove his worthiness of the princess' hand, he took a leave of absence and spent about a year in the primitive 20th century (during his visit there, Karate Kid was featured in an eponymous, short-lived comic book series: Karate Kid #1 debuted in March 1976 and lasted for 15 issues). He returned to find Projectra's father dead. With Val's and the other Legionnaires' help, she won the throne from her cousin Pharoxx. Val officially became Projectra's consort soon afterward and resigned from the Legion.

Wedded bliss did not last long. He and Projectra returned from their honeymoon to find that her planet, Orando, had been taken over by the Legion of Super-Villains. Val, Projectra, and several other Legionnaires were captured by the villains. When the heroes escaped to oppose the villains, Val fought their leader, Nemesis Kid. Nemesis Kid beat Val almost to death, and Val wanted to continue to fight so that he could die in battle — the ultimate honor by his cultural standards. But at Projectra's urging, Val instead used his remaining strength to destroy the power source for the machines that were moving Orando into a strange dimension. In revenge, Projectra killed Nemesis Kid soon afterward. A memorial to Val was built on Shanghalla.

Myg of Lythyl, one of that planet's Three Judges, later applied for Legion membership and dedicated himself to carrying on the name of "Karate Kid." Like his predecessor, he possessed superior martial arts skills. He became a member of the second Legion of Substitute Heroes while training in the Legion Academy. Myg later joined the Legion during the "Five Year Gap", the gap in-between Legion books before he resigned.

During the "Five Years Later" storyline following the Magic Wars, Earth fell under the covert control of the Dominators, and withdrew from the United Planets. A few years later, the members of the Dominators' highly classified "Batch SW6" escaped captivity. Originally, Batch SW6 appeared to be a group of teenage Legionnaire clones, created from samples apparently taken just prior to Ferro Lad's death at the hands of the Sun-Eater. Later, they were revealed to be time-paradox duplicates, every bit as legitimate as their older counterparts. However, this version of Val Armorr was killed in battle (along with SW6's Princess Projectra and Chameleon Boy) fighting Dominion troops. Myg, however, resurfaced as one of the many people mindwiped by the Dominators. They unlocked his meta-gene, giving him sonic abilities.[5]

In his 2007 return in Justice League of America, Starman (Starboy) refers to Val having previously died without elaborating on how he returned from death

[evilhorse]

Brainy, you can’t quit the Legionnaires!

[smartshipfriday]

“Self-Portrait” Life’s an easy game Too clever by half. I probe The white teeth of death

Happy 60th Anniversary to Querl Dox, aka Brainiac 5

[yeomanstuff]

I mean, batch SW6 exists so… they’re kinda right on this.

That one was for the 90’s Legion fans. All four of us. 😁

Legionnaires trapped in tubes. Again. This sort of thing happens every few years.

[orange-s-mario]

Jonathan samuel kent should pull a batch sw6

[splooosh]

In the first pulse pounding issue of All New X-Men , the original members of the team are transported….to….what……waittaminute?

[senshilegionnaire]

i can respect that. i hate rokk's uniform and haircut, i miss the legionnaires we got in postboot that never came back, i miss the sprousefits, i miss the Giffbaum trauma recovery and ongoing awesome drama and lgbtq representation, i miss the SW6 batch... but damn if i don't get behind a Legionnaires 3 OT3.

Losh Week Day 6: Panel or scene rewrite/redraw

I will stand by Retroboot purely for the fact that, purposely or not, Paul Levitz spends the entire time setting up polyfounders 

[evilhorse]

Legionnaires #18

[evilhorse]

Oh, uh, thanks.