Finale.

[odditycollector]

And here is the final chapter of the Legion of Super-Heroes: Everyone Survives to the 31st Century.

(It turns out that I did not need a couple months away from the series, which is why my estimate was so ridiculously off. But, hey. *Early*.)

If you haven't been following along at home, this will probably read better after Issue One and Issue Two.




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Notes:

0. If you want to see what I've changed, click on an image. Sometimes the answer is "nothing", though.

1. I find this is a very different story than the one that existed before I took a brown crayon to it.

2. When I decided to leave Triplicate Girl as one of my token white people, she was a set of undefined figures in a single panel of issue one. And, after I'd started work on issue two, she was one of my excuses for why there would be no more after it.

I was explaining to a friend - probably caia_comica or vagabond_sal? - about how if I *did* have intent to continue, issue 3 would be full of white people, and what would be the point of that? There already exist Legion comics full of white people.

Well, countered the friend, it was kind of hard to tell for certain what my intent was for Triplicate Girl from the corner of that one panel. And hey, maybe she could be *three different races*!

No, I said. No, she *cannot*. I mean, obviously. That is the whole... point....

The ellipses here are placeholders for the moment I realized that there would be a reason to do this story after all.

3. Sometime, I will have to ramble about things I've realized while working on this project. Even if they were probably already obvious to people who aren't me.

4. Mekt traditionally has white hair. This is not relevant *yet*.

 
5. No. I couldn't just leave things there. There's a Coda.
 

Comments

[caia-comica.livejournal.com]

This does make it a different story. An awesome story!

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

It may in fact be the story they were actually going for. But, dudes! Double-check your context!

Everyone Survives To The 31st Century

[avalon's willow (from livejournal.com)]

It continued to be amazing to me, what a little shift in features and skin tones does to making me feel invested in a story. Also I just looked at the Coda, and SP looks... I can't even get into it. Just Thank You.

It's always surprising to me when I pull back and finish reading here, to remember this is all DC. Seeing SG in the Coda brought that up even more. They're as identified with white, middle class men as Feministing is white middle class women (het, cis, temp able bodied).

It's odd as well, how the message of fear of change equaling a shutting off to wondrous experiences and growth actually gets through, when every flipping person isn't white in a reflection of the creators' own fear of change.

PS:

[avalon's willow (from livejournal.com)]

Triplicate girl looked Eurasian to me in several panels. It didn't ping to me that she was strictly white. And I did find myself thinking that each of her three immediate selves had subtle differences of facial shape as if to reflect differences of personality and how one person viewed by three people is perceived in three different ways; which then echoes what she discovers about how people view the Legion.

So I wasn't reflecting on white society when I saw her outcast from her colony of selves. If she had pinged for me as white, or more if I was reading the original, my snark at the 'poor white girl can't fit in with the other white girls anyone' would have been tremendous and extremely acidic.

------

Since you've declared the project done, would it be ok of I promoted it on the blog now? I still worry someone'll try and hit you with a cease and desist. (Actually I'm going to attempt to put them in a zipfile so I have them to look at always, just in case - unless you can sendspace a zipfile somewhere for download?).

Re: PS:

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

Triplicate girl looked Eurasian to me in several panels. It didn't ping to me that she was strictly white.
That's a tendency I noticed about a lot Barry Kitson's (white) women early into figuring out what needed to be changed about who. And, it's really interesting that she pinged as not necessarily white to you because (iana artist; thing I have realized doing this:) comic art is actually fairly simple, so just changing the *default* assumption from white does a lot of my work for me. If you'd have read it in the original, I'd be very surprised if you had seen her as other than a white girl(s). I have never heard of anyone bringing up the possibility, even among posters "defending" the "increased diversity" of this lsh version. (see: "...and Atom Girl has started to look increasingly Asian!")

So I changed nothing, but if people read her as Eurasian now, then hey. It means I've *won*.

If she had pinged for me as white, or more if I was reading the original, my snark at the 'poor white girl can't fit in with the other white girls anyone' would have been tremendous and extremely acidic.
"Every race was brand new to us!"
It is a *good thing* Star Boy happened to be flying by in the background during that shot, because there is only so much "Diversity Is Great!"ing you can do sitting in a clubhouse with thirty people you need the uniforms to tell apart.

Feel free to promote it. It's about as good an argument as I can make, but it's more useful if more people see it.

I can put them in a zipfile for you, if you like. Probably tomorrow, though. It is lateearly.

Combined Reply

[avalon's willow (from livejournal.com)]

(iana artist; thing I have realized doing this:) comic art is actually fairly simple, so just changing the *default* assumption from white does a lot of my work for me.

On the cover and in several of the earliest panels she looked Asian to me, then later she started looking white and in one panel one version of her looked a little Latina. So I think my mind combined them all into Eurasian, mostly likely, as you stated, because the default assumption with your versions was no longer white. And for me personally had actually become Chinese.

--

Re: Kara

I understood what you meant by 'my hero'. It is the same identification behind your experiment in the first place; how much everyone deserves to have heroes which are theirs.

--

Whatever happened in the original universe, I bet the surviving (white) people felt very, very bad and learned many very, very important lessons.

Given the Coda, it would have seemed very: well of course the all white Earth and thus all white Earth Gov would embrace the all white Legion and make them official.

Of course the picked Legioners least likely to make trouble (and see SENSE) would all be white.

And of course one of their premier heroes of the old days come to the future would be a long haired blonde girl in a miniskirt (however much an individual loves the concept of Supergirl as her own entity).

Not to forget the: of course the new generation being given visions, being aware of trouble on the horizon, taking up arms to save the universe and being preactive against being the supposed chaff adults throw to the forefront of wars are white teenagers.

--

My take on your Legion has so much more depth. A society in stasis because it believes it has evolved to the ultimate. In actuality it has lost passion and also wariness and wonder. And there is a group of said society's younger generation who inspire themselves from the past, seeing all the good that can come with embracing a purpose to do more always as if more and better can come.

And then it makes perfect sense that the ones to see the coming danger, who've been awakened and are mentally prepared is this diverse group of youngsters who take pleasure in each other's diversity and uniqueness and sees or believes it's possible for such a group to hold to a single overreaching goal.

Y'know? Instead of 'White teenagers save the day because they are white and adults just don't listen.'

I like your version so much more. It kindles love for space opera odyssey. It is very much the opposite of ''

Re: Combined Reply

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

the default assumption with your versions was no longer white. And for me personally had actually become Chinese.
Hah! Well that works; I expect there will be a lot of Chinese genes floating around in the Future.

Re: Kara I understood what you meant by 'my hero'.
I'm glad. It's just that I've *seen* the other interpretation online.

It is the same identification behind your experiment in the first place; how much everyone deserves to have heroes which are theirs.
You would think that would be one of the benefits of having a superhero team with 25 kids on the roster!

Of course the picked Legioners least likely to make trouble (and see SENSE) would all be white.
If you mean the 3 boys kidnapped by Ayla's brother, excepting Ultra Boy, the other two are actually the only originally brown kids in the group. (Well. Karate Kid depending on what mood the colourist is in.) I had rolled my eyes on reading because this is what happens when you make *one* character black. You pick Thom - the kid with the decades long history of being nice and bland and inoffensive, because that is safe. I mean, okay, if they had picked Ultra Boy to represent black kids everywhere, it would have been a disaster. (But *I* could have done it - having more than one POC is *less stressful*.) And if they had picked Cos, well. Someone might have *cared*.

But I didn't make the connection to the "good" brown kids being the brown kids let in the Legion.

And of course one of their premier heroes of the old days come to the future would be a long haired blonde girl in a miniskirt (however much an individual loves the concept of Supergirl as her own entity).
And that was why I had to change her. It would have gutted, maybe not the story, but the message. Supergirl is *their* hero.

Anyway, I've uploaded a rar for you here (http://www.sendspace.com/file/w9uepz). Also, someone actually talked about the first issue in a university lecture (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TFLlg-GwbE8/SrKZ1Q4MwcI/AAAAAAAAAGU/XK7JxDIpGIM/s1600-h/Coppa_poster.jpg). I haven't seen it, but if you're interested I'll let you know when the video goes up.

Re: PS:

[softestbullet (from livejournal.com)]

And, it's really interesting that she pinged as not necessarily white to you because (iana artist; thing I have realized doing this:) comic art is actually fairly simple, so just changing the *default* assumption from white does a lot of my work for me.

*claps* Yesss.

Re: PS:

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

Or because I had once been a little blond girl, and Kara was *my* hero.
Which, after napping, is a clumsy way to put it... I don't mean she is mine I will not share, but that it is easier to think about fixing the things you love less.

Re: Everyone Survives To The 31st Century

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

It continued to be amazing to me, what a little shift in features and skin tones does to making me feel invested in a story.
Whatever happened in the original universe, I bet the surviving (white) people felt very, very bad and learned many very, very important lessons.

Seeing SG in the Coda brought that up even more.
I've mentioned this to a few people, but I actually had a moment's pause, wondering if I was "allowed" to change SG. Because she is so closely tied in with current DCU. Or because I had once been a little blond girl, and Kara was *my* hero.

But you know a secret? It didn't hurt.