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judedeluca · 3 months

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I've put a lot of time and effort into the concept of Roy and Lian Harper becoming associated with the preboot Legion of Super-Heroes, because to me I see the Harpers and the Legionnaires were abandoned by the narrative when it was decided they didn't matter to a larger name character.

The Legionnaires went for several years without needing Superboy in their book. Hell, they basically kicked him out of his own comic. They were one of DC's most popular teams and managed just fine without his ongoing presence.

Roy was developing just fine as Arsenal without Green Arrow's presence. In fact Ollie was dead for most of the period where Roy really came into the name. While Lian grew beyond her role as the cute infant prop she was in the 80s, gaining an insightful personality and a legitimate presence in the Titans books.

Then all of that went down the drain as soon as some editor decided none of it mattered. The Legion was screwed over because DC never bothered to consider what would happen to them after they removed Superboy entirely from Superman's history, at which point the Legion's entire existence was thrown out of whack. Despite their strong fan base and deep lore, DC couldn't stop to factor in how they'd be effected by John Byrne's Man of Steel. It would be over 20 years until DC finally allowed the Legion to be part of Superman's history again, and then that was quickly screwed up when they overhauled his history AGAIN in the New 52.

Roy and Lian were screwed over because DC decided they needed to overhaul Green Arrow and Black Canary thanks to the failure of the GA/BC marriage. Even though Lian had little to do with the Green Arrow comics - she only appeared in ONE Green Arrow before she died - she was deemed unnecessary by editorial. Lian died, and Roy was twisted into a parody of himself to make him another failure to haunt both Ollie and Dinah's consciences. While he was running around with Jade in Deathstroke's bastard Titans, his parental figures were free to mourn how they failed him without ever really grasping just how deep that failure ran.

As of right now, the Legion's status now hinges entirely on how relevant they are to Superman's history. Instead of the childhood friends of Clark Kent, they were replaced by a bastardized copy which gleefully took Jon Kent away from his family to try and mold him into their perceived image of how he needed to be, solidifying the loathed age-up.

The idea of Roy and Lian being a family again seemed like actual poison to DC's editors as Roy spent years deemed an accessory to Red Hood, of all people, while Lian was randomly picked to be Catwoman's new protégé in a poorly executed story which only made the timeline more confusing. Even when it looked like father and daughter could finally reunite, it only happened when it was convenient to Green Arrow's narrative. They don't get to be near each other unless Ollie benefits from the interactions. Roy knew Lian was alive again for over two years but wasn't allowed to do anything to find her until they were both in a Green Arrow book. And they still were torn apart from each other, with Roy's status being used to once more haunt his mentor while Lian's the one doing... whatever.

To me, I've seen how the Legion and the Harpers have both been failed by the narrative of the DCU. Their accomplishments and their roles were deemed inconsequential if they weren't in service of some other A-List character (or B-List in Red Hood's case), and despite how DC keeps promising things will change the same problems keep repeating.

#dc comics #anti-jayroy #anti-shoes #anti-bendisboot #anti-green arrow #anti-red hood #roy harper #arsenal #lian harper #green arrow #black canary #legion of super-heroes #losh #lsh #legion #legionnaires #superman #superboy #clark kent #jon kent #man of steel #red hood #catwoman #jason todd #selina kyle #anti-outlaws #titans #teen titans

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