I have been waiting for more information concerning the new Legion of Super-Heroes from Joshua Williamson with a combination of hope and dread. There is no franchise that I love more than the Legion of Super-Heroes. But, there is also no franchise more mishandled to the point of comic book malpractice by DC Comics.
Back in February, I posted my Advice for Joshua Williamson’s New Legion of Super-Heroes. I laid out seven major points that Williamson would be wise to follow when rolling out yet another full reboot of the Legion of Super-Heroes. This will officially be our fourth reboot of the Legion of Super-Heroes and our fifth version of the Legion in total. Let’s check out the advanced solicitation for Legion of Super-Heroes #1 to see what Williamson has in store for us on September 2, 2026.
“Legion of Super-Heroes, by writer Joshua Williamson and artist Hayden Sherman, is set in a dark future when superheroes are banned, the brutal Persuaders enforce martial law, and R.J. Brande has been murdered. To find the killer, Brainiac 1 of 5 scours the universe to put together a team of young superheroes. The 40-page Legion of Super-Heroes #1 will have a main cover by Sherman and variants by Mark Spears, Yasmine Putri, and Hayden Sherman, card stock and foil variants by Jim Lee, a Michael J. Fox cameo cover by Dan Mora, and a 1:25 cover by V Ken Marion.”
Welp. Just from this advanced solicitation, I am already worried about Williamson’s take on the Legion of Super-Heroes and his understanding or lack of understanding of the Legion’s core themes.
The opening line immediately set a warning sound. “…set in a dark future when superheroes are banned, the brutal Persuaders enforce martial law…” Right off the bat, we learn that this is a dark future. One of my seven points that I laid out in my article was that Williamson had to “embrace positivity and the Legion’s core values.” And here in the very first sentence of the advanced solicitation, we see that Williamson did just the opposite.
This is not the first time that DC Comics has made this fatal error. We have received dark futures for the Legion of Super-Heroes twice before. The first time it occurred was during the TMK Legion from 1989 to 1992. This disastrous decision to make the Legion dark ran contrary to the very principle of the Legion, rooted in positivity and hope. The result was that the Legion was irrevocably broken and had to be canceled, and the Legion had to be completely rebooted and started over from scratch.
The second time a Legion comic made this fatal error was the DnA Legion from 2000 to 2004. The result was that the dark future of the DnA Legion broke the franchise beyond repair. The result is that DC Comics had to once again completely reboot the Legion and start over again.
Despite the fact that we have objective proof that every time the Legion goes dark, the results are terrible, we still have Williamson choosing to go dark once again. This is beyond discouraging. This shows one of two things. One, that DC Comics and Williamson are willingly choosing to go down a path that they know has been disastrous in the past.
Or, there is a complete lack of institutional knowledge in DC Comics’ editorial staff, and they are ignorant about the Legion’s past. And that Williamson failed to fully research the Legion of Super-Heroes and lacks a full understanding and command of the Legion’s continuity and what has worked and what has failed in the past.
I do not care which of the two is true. Both indicate a disastrous situation and sap me of my confidence in DC Comics and Williamson to successfully roll out a popular Legion of Super-Heroes.
The fact is that the Legion of Super-Heroes has always been a franchise rooted in positivity. The Legion has always been about a better future than our present-day reality. The reader has always been treated to a world that was better in every possible way than what we have in the present day. The Legion was always designed to inspire the reader and fill them with the hope that the future would bring a better world.
However, Williamson is either ignorant of this core theme of the Legion or willfully ignores it to give us another uninspired “modern” take on the Legion of Super-Heroes. One of the biggest defects of modern comics is that writers and editors have a bizarre fetish with deconstructing everything in the superhero genre. Over and over again. Editors and writers are obsessed with focusing on the negative and the dark.
We are also told that superheroes are banned, and the brutal Persuaders enforce Martial law. Sigh. Even more red flags. Are we really doing the whole superheroes are banned storyline again? This tired concept is what Williamson thought would be fresh, original, and exciting?
Again, this flies in the face of the very foundation of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The Legion has always been an unabashed celebration of the super-hero. The Legion has always been a shining beacon of hope where these young superheroes inspire the entire universe. Instead, we get another tired rehash of the superhero being outlawed theme. It is discouraging to say the least.
We also learn that the Persuader is going to be radically changed. The Persuader has always been the badass enforcer of the Fatal Five. The Fatal Five is easily one of the most iconic Legion villains. Now? Williamson has decided it would be more interesting to turn the Persuader into a mantle for a group of generic foot soldiers, akin to Stormtroopers in Star Wars.
What a massive downgrade for a character that used to be a part of the coolest Legion villains.
We also learn that martial law is in place across the universe. Oh yay. Another oppressive regime storyline. Can we also hope to get a bunch of 2026 commentary in a future universe set in the 31st century? Again, the Legion’s future has always been one that is inspirational. The Legion’s future treated the reader to the United Planets with Earth as the center of power in the universe. It was a positive analogy of the United Nations with the United States as the center of power and hope for the rest of the universe.
We then learn that R.J. Brande has been murdered. Ugh. At this point, Williamson is just tripling down on the darkness and the grimness for this new Legion of Super-Heroes. R.J. Brande is an iconic character who serves as the avuncular benefactor for the Legion of Super-Heroes. While R.J. Brande did not get much panel time, he was an ever-present force in the Legion. It was Brande’s positive vision of the future and his belief in young people to lead the universe forward into a better tomorrow that served as the reason for the Legion’s formation. Brande was also one of the richest men in the universe, and it was his vast wealth that financed the Legion.
By immediately killing off R.J. Brande at the very start, Williamson totally guts the core reason that the Legion was ever formed. This also destroys the positive message of hope in the young heroes to make a better tomorrow, which has always been a central theme of the Legion. Again, either Williamson is ignorant of this core piece of Legion history or is willfully ignoring this core theme of the Legion. Again, I don’t care which one is true; both are bad signs.
We then learn that Brainiac 1 of 5 scours the universe to put together a team of young superheroes to find Brande’s killer.
I mean, whatever. Who cares at this point? Killing off Brande at the start radically and fundamentally changes the origin of the Legion of Super-Heroes that has remained constant through all prior four versions of the Legion.
Every single version of the Legion that we have gotten has the foundation being some variation of the following. Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl, all being 18, leave their homes to go make it in the universe. The three end up in the same area while traveling. The three of them don’t know each other. The three of them instinctively step in to save R.J. Brande from being assassinated. Brande recognizes how heroic the three teens are and their potential to serve as superheroes for the universe and act as a symbol of hope.
Williamson has now broken the very foundation of the Legion of Super-Heroes that we have gotten in the prior versions. Now we have Brainiac 5 as the central person responsible for founding the Legion of Super-Heroes for a completely different goal and reason. Great.
And can we talk about the stupid new name Williamson gave Brainy? Brainiac 1 of 5?! Could he have come up with a clunkier name? Brainiac 5 is a cool name that didn’t need any tinkering. It created a clear lineage from the original Brainiac down to Brainiac 5. Codename 101 says do not make a codename any more convoluted or clunky than you have to. Williamson failed the mission with this pointless codename tinkering for Brainy.
Maybe Williamson can pull this off, but I am skeptical based on the information that we are given in the solicitation for Legion of Super-Heroes #1. Of course, I am still going to give this new version of Legion of Super-Heroes a shot. And I will try my level best to do so with an open mind. But everything that I read in this solicitation leaves me crestfallen. I feel that once again, DC Comics has utterly no clue what to do with the Legion of Super-Heroes and that this title is doomed to fail and get canceled in short order. I hope that my fears are unfounded and that I am proven wrong. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. LLL!