DC Comics has revealed that it will be rolling out a new Legion of Super-Heroes title from Joshua Williamson in March 2026. I figured it was time to examine how DC Comics should reintroduce the Legion of Super-Heroes back to the current DCU.
You can check out my initial reaction to the October 2025 announcement of a new Legion of Super-Heroes comic book from Joshua Williamson. I did want to loop back to a couple of quotes from Williamson before laying out my view on how DC Comics should reboot the Legion.
Table of Contents
- Inspired by Superman/Superboy, Not Dominated by Them
- Which Version of The Legion Should Be The Template?
- Go Big
- Avoid Unnecessary Character Retcons
- Embrace Positivity and the Legion’s Core Values
- Avoid Current Day Trends
- The Telenovela
- Overall
Inspired by Superman/Superboy, Not Dominated by Them
I want Williamson’s new Legion of Super-Heroes title to have one focus: The Legionnaires. Personally, I am fine with this new Legion title not starring Superman, Superboy, or Supergirl. For me, the Legion of Super-Heroes is far superior and shines brighter when a character wearing a red S on their chest does not appear in the comic book. I would far prefer DC Comics to focus on the Legion as its own entity, independent from the Superman franchise.
I have no problem with Superman having a connection to the Legion from his past as Superboy. And I have no problem with Superman remaining the inspiration for the Legion. However, I do not want any version of Superboy or Supergirl starring in any new Legion of Super-Heroes title. The spotlight needs to shine on the Legionnaires rather than them being treated as mere background characters to the star of the show in a Superman family character.
Which Version of The Legion Should Be The Template?
There has been no franchise more grossly mishandled by DC Comics than the Legion of Super-Heroes. The result is that this franchise has suffered complete and total reboots multiple times. This presents a unique problem for Williamson as he must decide which version of the Legion is going to serve as the template for his new version of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
I do not think this is even remotely a tough choice. The version of the Legion with the longest publishing history is the Pre-Crisis Legion. This version of the Legion ran for 40 years from 1958 to 1986 and then from 2007 to 2019.
As a comparison, the Reboot Legion ran for 11 years from 1994 to 2004. The Threeboot Legion ran for 6 years from 2004 to 2009. The Fourboot Legion ran for just 4 years from 2019 to 2022. As you can tell, with each successive reboot, the runs were shorter and less successful than the prior version of the Legion.
Since the Pre-Crisis Legion is obviously the most successful version of the Legion, this is where Williamson should turn for his new version of the Legion. However, the next question is which version of the Pre-Crisis Legion should Williamson use as his template. The answer is clearly the Paul Levitz Legion, as that is the most iconic version of the Legion, and it is simply not even close.
Now, I am not saying that Williamson should mindlessly reproduce the Levitz Legion. I am simply stating that the Levitz Legion should be Williamson’s inspiration for the new Legion. Williamson would be wise to read Levitz’s entire run on the Legion and use that as his North Star in plotting the course for his new Legion of Super-Heroes. No writer has better understood the world of the Legion and the dynamics and challenges involved in writing the Legionnaires than Paul Levitz.
Go Big
The last rebooted version of the Legion we got from Bendis was laughably small. This was an obvious result of the fact that Bendis has struggled to write a comic starring more than four to six characters during his entire career. Bendis’s best work always came from solo titles or comics with just a few main characters.
Since Bendis struggled under the weight of a roster of characters with just six members, we all knew Bendis was going to crumble under the weight of the Legion’s roster. We all knew that Bendis would avoid employing stories boasting a large cast of characters.
Williamson must avoid this with the new Legion of Super-Heroes title. The magic of the Legion is its massive roster. Williamson is a talented writer, and if anyone is up to the challenge of handling such a monstrous roster, it would be Williamson.
Again, Williamson should turn to Paul Levtiz for the blueprint on how to handle a massive roster of characters. Many writers have tackled the Legion. From Otto Binder to Jim Shooter to Mark Waid to Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning to Brian Bendis. None of them could come close to Levitz’s uncanny ability to juggle a huge roster of characters.
Levtiz had an ability to smartly split the roster up into smaller teams and construct stories that would employ multiple different teams of Legionnaires handling different missions. Occasionally, the missions were totally separate. Every so often, the missions were smaller adventures that tied together into one overall larger storyline.
Williamson must view the Legion’s massive roster as a strength rather than a weakness. Williamson needs to embrace the fact that the Legion has a large roster rather than running away from it. I know this is a real challenge, but I feel that Williamson has the skill necessary to pull this off.
Avoid Unnecessary Character Retcons
I have collected a list of the various characters who have served as a Legionnaire in the past. I may have missed a random character who was a Legionnaire for a brief minute. I have identified seventy characters who have served as a Legionnaire in the past. These seventy characters should serve as the pool of characters for Williamson to work from in re-establishing the Legion of Super-Heroes.
The Brian Bendis Legion was fundamentally flawed. It was obvious that Bendis had no understanding of the Legion and its core values. We criticized the decision to allow Bendis to reboot the Legion based on a series of interviews he did before the debut of the Fourboot Legion. It was also clear that Bendis had limited knowledge of the various Legionnaires who had served in the Legion over the decades. This was evident by how Bendis felt it necessary to racially retcon some characters or alien retcon some characters.
An example of a racial retcon was making everyone’s favorite Ginger in Garth Ranzz a Black character. An example of alien retconning a character was making Element Lad look alien rather than White humanoid, or Phantom Girl looking like a total nightmare rather than a White humanoid.
Bendis’s lack of knowledge of past Legionnaires was also clear in that he created “new” characters who were terribly unoriginal and boring, like Doctor Fate, Gold Lantern, and Monster Boy. None of this was necessary when Bendis had seventy characters to choose from in constructing his roster. A lack of diverse characters is not a problem when it comes to a Legion of Super-Heroes comic.
Brian Bendis took the approach of cranking up the alien look of the various other colored aliens. The result was some terrible character designs. Chameleon Boy looked goofy. Dream Girl looked bland and more like a cosmic god than an alien in her early 20s. Both Shrinking Violet and Princess Projectra looked absolutely horrendous. The odd-looking White Witch, Star Boy with his gold skin, Element Lad as a green alien, and Ultra Boy with a tan and frosted hair were all poor and unnecessary character redesigns.
I know that modern editors and writers are convinced that Marvel and DC superhero comic books need “fixing.” The result is a slew of mantle swap characters or racial retcons in lieu of creating new characters. However, none of that is necessary for the Legion of Super-Heroes. The Legion is a unique franchise in that it was already diverse well before it became a talking point for modern editors and writers. That is part of the beauty of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The incredible diversity of characters helps set the Legion apart from its contemporaries during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
I want to take a look at the seventy Legionnaires and break them into various categories to highlight how diverse the roster of Legionnaires is without having to pull off any racial or alien retcons.
White Aliens
The Legion of Super-Heroes has twenty-three White aliens. These Legionnaires include the following:
Cosmic Boy
Lightning Lad
Saturn Girl
Triplicate Girl
Phantom Girl
Star Boy
Laurel Gand
Shrinking Violet
Ultra Boy
Mon-El
Matter-Eater Lad
Element Lad
Light Lass
Dream Girl
Karate Kid (Val Armorr)
Princess Projectra
Chemical King
Timber Wolf
Polar Boy
Kinetix
Night Girl
Firefist
Glorith
White Earthlings
The Legion of Super-Heroes has nine White Earthlings. These Legionnaires include the following:
Colossal Boy
Invisible Kid
Sun Boy
Bouncing Boy
Ferro Lad
Spider-Girl/Wave
Impulse (Richard Kent Shakespeare)
Neon
Reflex
Richard Kent Shakespeare is a mix of White alien and White Earthling, but since he was born on Earth, I placed him in this category.
Now, there is one Legionnaire in this list that I definitely would racially retcon when DC Comics reintroduces the Legion of Super-Heroes. That would be Ferro Lad. Jim Shooter has stated in the past that he originally wanted Ferro Lad to be Black. However, DC Comics blocked Shooter from doing so. Therefore, I would recommend that Williamson reintroduce Ferro Lad as a Black Earthling.
Total White Legionnaires: 32 (46%)
Black Aliens
The Legion of Super-Heroes has five black aliens. These Legionnaires include the following:
Kid Quantum (James Cullen)
Kid Quantum (Jazmin Cullen)
XS
Catspaw
Gear
Black Earthlings
The Legion of Super-Heroes has three black Earthlings. These Legionnaires include the following:
Tyroc
Invisible Kid (Jacques Foccart)
Computo (Danielle Foccart)
Total Black Legionnaires: 8 (11%)
Asian Aliens
The Legion of Super-Heroes has three Asian aliens. These Legionnaires include the following:
Karate Kid II (Myg)
Dragonmage
Chemical Kid
Asian Earthlings
The Legion of Super-Heroes has one Asian Earthling. That would be Harmonia.
Total Asian Legionnaires: 4 (6%)
Native American Aliens
The Legion of Super-Heroes has one Native American member: Dawnstar. Dawny is from Starhaven, which is a world colonized by Native Americans. So, her people are Earthlings, but they have been living on an alien world for generations. So, I classify Dawnstar as an alien.
Total Native American Legionnaires: 1 (1%)
Other colored Aliens
The Legion of Super-Heroes has sixteen other colored aliens. This includes aliens who are blue, pink, yellow, orange, red, and green. These Legionnaires include the following:
Blue Aliens
Shadow Lass
Infectious Lass
Crystal Kid
Turtle
Green Aliens
Brainiac 5
Lamprey
Visi-Lad
Yellow Aliens
Nightwind
Kono
Blood Claw
Orange Aliens
Chameleon Boy
Chameleon Girl
Pink Aliens
Veilmist
Dragonwing
Red Alien
Sizzle
Ghostly Alien
White Witch
Total Other Colored Aliens: 16 (23%)
Non-Humanoid Earthlings
The Legion of Super-Heroes has one non-humanoid Earthling. This would be Wildfire. Drake has no body as he is composed of anti-energy.
Non-Humanoid Aliens
The Legion of Super-Heroes has eight non-humanoid aliens.
Blok
Tellus
Quislet
Gates
Monstress
Comet Queen
Fiederweb
Gazelle
I put Gazelle in this group because she looks like an animal/human hybrid alien.
Total Non-Humanoid Legionnaires: 9 (13%)
So, let’s look at the breakdown of the Legionnaires to fully understand the impressive diversity of its roster.
Total Legionnaires: 70
Total White Earthling and Alien Legionnaires: 32 (46%)
Total Other Colored Alien Legionnaires: 16 (23%)
Total Non-Humanoid Alien Legionnaires: 9 (13%)
Total Black Earthling/Alien Legionnaires: 8 (11%)
Total Asian Earthling/Alien Legionnaires: 4 (6%)
Total Native American Alien Legionnaires: 1 (1%)
Now, just for fun, let’s compare the diversity of the Legion’s roster with the diversity of the United States population.
White Population: 75.8%
Black Population: 13.6%
Asian: 6.1%
Native American: 1.3%
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.3%
Two or More Races: 3.29%
That is pretty astonishing, right? The Legion has always been ahead of its time. As I said before, I would racially retcon Ferro Lad to a Black Earthling. This would give the Legion nine Black Legionnaires, which would constitute 13% of the roster.
At any rate, the Legion is more diverse than the United States of America. Again, diversity is not and has not been a problem with our beloved Legion of Super-Heroes. There are tons of incredible, diverse characters for Williamson to choose from in constructing the newest version of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
How about the blend of male and female Legionnaires?
Male Legionnaires: 38 (54%)
Female Legionnaires: 32 (46%)
Huh, once again, we see that the Legion’s roster has remarkable balance without any need to tinker with the characters.
How about the blend of Earthlings to Aliens in the Legion? Let’s take a look.
Total Alien Legionnaires: 57 (81%)
Total Earthling Legionnaires: 13 (19%)
Personally, I think having 19% of the Legion being Earthlings is a bit high. But I am fine with this. After all, Earth has always served as the center for the DCU. So, I am fine with Earth being overrepresented in the Legion compared to other planets.
Embrace Positivity and the Legion’s Core Values
The Legion of Super-Heroes is not just a superhero comic book. The Legion is an action/adventure tale that blends elements of superheroes and Science Fiction with a strong flavoring of telenovela romance and drama. That is a sentence that Williamson needs to repeat over and over again as his mantra for how to write his new Legion of Super-Heroes comic.
But the above statement is the general bird’s-eye view of the core of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Williamson needs to do a deep dive and fully examine the various aspects that come together to form the Legion’s core values.
First and foremost, the Legion of Super-Heroes is a franchise rooted in positivity. The Legion is all about a better future than our present-day reality. The Legion offered readers a world where everything was better than what we have today. Medicine and technology in the Legion’s world are so far advanced that it makes their world awe-inspiring. The Legion was designed to inspire the reader that the future would bring a better world.
This is at direct odds with modern comics, which prefer to deconstruct everything in the superhero genre. Modern comics prefer to focus on the negative. The view of the superhero’s world is one that is jaded and cynical.
In fact, the few times when the Legion deviated from its positive and bright tone are what directly led to the Legion becoming irrevocably broken and having to be totally rebooted.
The first time this occurred was during the TMK Legion from 1989 to 1992. After Paul Levitz left the title, the franchise was left in the incapable hands of Todd and Mary Bierbaum and Keith Giffen. Giffen worked best when paired with Levitz so that Levitz could veto Giffen’s stupid ideas. However, when Giffen was paired with two fan fiction writers, the results were disastrous.
The TMK Legion was dark and grim. The TMK Legion ran contrary to the very principle of the Legion, rooted in positivity and hope. The result was that the Legion franchise became irreparable, leading DC Comics to completely reboot the Legion and start it over from scratch. Fun fact, I was at Chicago Con in 1996 when Paul Levitz stated that his reading the TMK Legion was the most physical pain he had ever experienced outside a hospital. Brilliant.
The second time a Legion comic deviated from the Legion’s positive and inspirational tone was the DnA Legion from 2000 to 2004. The Reboot Legion can be broken into two parts. The first is the Archie Legion, which was brighter and more positive in tone. This version of the Reboot Legion embraced the positivity of the Legion franchise. However, the second part of the Reboot legion is the DnA Legion. The DnA Legion became dark, cynical, and brooding. The result was that the DnA Legion broke the franchise to the point that DC Comics had to once again completely reboot the Legion and start over.
Williamson must avoid this deadly trap that has led to the Legion’s dramatic downfall in the past. Williamson should focus on the Legion’s world being rooted in positivity and hope. This is not to imply that fearsome threats cannot exist. This does not imply that we cannot get drama and conflict. The point is that the setting of the Legion is always one of positivity and hope. The Legion is a comic book that people read to have fun and to be inspired that the future will be spectacular.
There are some other core values of the Legion of Super-Heroes that Williamson needs to follow. The Legion should always have the goal to preserve the peaceful life of sentient beings throughout the universe. While the Legion should certainly deliver action in dealing with super villains. The Legion should also deal with threats from the United Planet’s enemies looking to harm their planets. The United Planets is basically the United Nations. The main enemies in the Khunds, Dominators, and the Dark Circle are basically China, Russia, and North Korea. The Legion should also deal with peacekeeping missions and rescue missions.
This leads to another important core value. The Legion operates as an independent organization, responsible only to the President and the Council of the United Planets. Active Legionnaires are deputized as officers of the Science Police and cooperate with the Science Police.
Williamson should establish the working relationship between the U.P. and the Legion. Williamson also needs to have the Legion have a healthy relationship with the Science Police.
Another core aspect of the Legion is yearly elections for the position of Leader and Deputy Leader of the Legion. This was a huge deal for the Legion and was a great way to shake things up and keep things interesting. DC Comics used to let readers vote on who would be the next Leader and Deputy Leader of the Legion. I hope that Williamson allows this to happen. It was always fun to see the readers stick the writer with a random character and see how the writer would react. It led to some incredible and unexpected character growth for the character who got to become the Leader.
Lastly, Williamson should embrace the tradition of having Legion Committees. The most famous one is the Espionage Squad. This team usually consisted of at least Invisible Kid, Phantom Girl, Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Shrinking Violet, and Triplicate Girl.
Lastly, the traditional code names are a vital and unique aspect of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The biggest mistake of the Reboot Legion was Mark Waid’s embarrassment over the classic Legion names. The result was some poorly chosen, unpopular code names. Shadow Lass became Umbra. Lightning Lad became Live Wire. Phantom Girl became Apparition. Chameleon Boy became Chameleon. Lightning Lass became Spark. Colossal Boy became Leviathan. Nobody wanted it or asked for it.
Yeah, the Legion names can be a bit corny. But that is why we love them so much! Imagine a Masters of the Universe movie where all the characters get modern names instead of names like He-Man, Ram Man, Fisto, and Buzz-Off. It goes against the very foundation of the franchise.
The same applies to the Legion of Super-Heroes. The code names for the dude Legionnaires are a single descriptor followed by either boy or lad. Code names for the lady Legionnaires are a single descriptor followed by either girl or lass. It is a classic formula that is part of the very foundation of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Hopefully, Williams has more confidence than Mark Waid did and understands that the classic code names for the Legionnaires are part of what makes the Legion so unique and special. These code names are a badge of honor and, hopefully, Williamson understands that fact.
Avoid Current Day Trends
This goes hand-in-hand with much of what is listed above. Williamson needs to remember that the Legion always takes place 1,000 years in the future. Nothing that is a current-day trend should be appearing in the Legion’s world. That would be akin to writing a comic set in 2026 that reflects societal and political trends from 1026. That would be insane. Williamson needs to fully understand this.
Whatever the hot-button issues of 1026 would not make for good reading in a comic set in 2026. Likewise, Williamson shoehorning 2026 hot-button issues into a Legion comic set in 3026 would be horrendous. I know it is asking a lot of a modern writer to do this. But this really has to happen with the new Legion of Super-Heroes title.
The Legion was designed as escapist entertainment in a wild and inspirational future world. If readers want a comic book full of 2026 hot-button issues, then there is literally almost every other comic book on the market right now that will deliver that product. Hopefully, Williamson will focus on delivering fun, escapist entertainment in a setting designed to inspire and fill us with awe.
The Telenovela
While the Legion of Super-Heroes has always delivered an action/adventure tale with a blend of superhero and Science Fiction themes, there was another critical aspect always present in the Legion’s stories. That is romance and drama. The Legion absolutely should have some plotlines that read like a telenovela targeting readers between the ages of 18 and 28.
Nobody understood this fact better than Paul Levitz. Levitz was able to breathe a unique personality into each of the Legionnaires. This is part of his secret sauce in making the Legion so appealing. Once each Legionnaire had a fully fleshed out personality, Levitz was then able to add in a heaping helping of romance and drama. Who was dating whom? Who was cheating on whom? Who was nursing a broken heart? Who was solitary and cold? Who was angry and hostile?
You had classic pairings. Cosmic Boy and Night Girl. Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl. Mon-El and Shadow Laws. Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl. Wildfire and Dawnstar. Block and White Witch. Star Boy and Dream Girl. Karate Kid and Princess Projectra.
You had cliques! In any large organization full of young people, you are going to inevitably have cliques! The Mon-El, Ultra Boy, Shadow Lass, and Phantom Girl clique was a famous one. So was the Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Night Girl clique. You had classic buddy pairings like Wildfire and Blok. And you even had grouchy loners like Timber Wolf. All of it led to some delicious drama!
The point is that the Legion first focused on high school-age kids during the Silver Age. Then the Legion morphed more into college-aged kids during the 1970s and 1980s. The Reboot Legion in the 1990s turned the clock back to more high-school-aged kids. Of course, when the Pre-Crisis Legion returned, the Legion went back to being more like college-aged kids. Even the Fourboot Legion felt more like college-aged kids.
With any group of characters of these ages, there should always be plenty of drama. It just goes together like peanut butter and jelly. Hopefully, Williamson understands this important aspect of the Legion and delivers it with his new version of the franchise.
Overall
I remain suspicious of this new version of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Williamson is a talented writer. However, based on his comments that we have gotten up to this point, I am unsure if he fully understands the task at hand. Moreover, the fact that the same idiotic editors who thought the Bendis Fourboot Legion are still employed at DC Comics. I am unsure why I should trust any editorial staff who thought the Fourboot Legion was a great idea. In addition, the Legion of Super-Heroes is a franchise that DC Comics has bungled epically multiple times in the past. I have a hard time believing that DC Comics knows how to get the Legion franchise correct this time around.
Having said that, let’s hope for the best and prepare for the worst. I will certainly be reading every issue of Williamson’s Legion of Super-Heroes and reviewing them here at the Comic Book Revolution. Long Live the Legion!