You Are Not Alone. You Were Never Alone.

The Legion has fallen on hard times recently, but they're making a return appearance soon. And the fandom is also making its presence known, as per the announcement of the Legion of Super-Bloggers above. And there are already a fair amount of posts on their blog. Go over there and say hi -- and let 'em know your thoughts on the Legion.

I first happened into Legion fandom through my classmates at school. We all collected comics, but some of them really latched on to the Legion and other titles. I, because of my Superman / Superboy fandom back in Grade School, was passingly familiar with the title and even knew a fair amount of trivia due to a Superman Quiz Book (whose answers I'd memorized at a young age). And in that pre-Internet era, I felt I'd invested enough time to jump into collecting it.

It's always a thrill to meet another fan, and to share your fandom. Even if they don't like the Legionnaires you do. Even if they're not as into your favorite era of the Legion. Even if they don't delve into the trivia as much as you do. Even if they do, to a stunningly obsessive degree.

And sometimes, sometimes you don't even now they're fans -- until you post something and they casually reveal themselves in droves. As though it had always been a part of them you'd never seen, or never asked about. And maybe that's true.

There's something about the Legion. Let's explore what that something is for each of us, and share it.

Justice League United and the Infinite Man?

According to the Nerdist, the Legion of Super-Heroes returns to the DC Universe via Justice League United Annual #1.

The solicitation copy says:

"The Infinitus Saga begins as the Legion of Super-Heroes arrive with the shocking news that the 31st century has been destroyed! Now it’s up to the Justice League United to save the future!"

What catches my eye is the mention of Infinitus. I'm not that up to date on the Justice League, but I didn't catch any mention of Infinitus yet.

As a long time Legion fan, however, the name Infinitus calls up memories of Professor Jaxxon Rugarth, a poor, doomed volunteer for one of Brainiac 5's experiments (well, Rond Vidar was also primarily involved in its origination and conception), also known as The Infinite Man!

The Infinite Man was born from the exploration of time, and testing its cyclical nature. Unfortunately, Prof. Rugarth discovered that time was cyclical (something that the Time Trapper would certainly take issue with) -- an infinite cycle! Rugarth gained immeasurable power from that infinite cycle of death and rebirth, and became a creature with control over time and faced off against the Legion!

I can't remember where I encountered this story first; memory tells me I read it in one of the digests that made its way to Philippine shores, or perhaps it was one of the 'bootleg' copies reprinted by National Bookstore (legal at the time, I think, due to some loophole governing intellectual property) that I read at the barber shop.

Later on, the Infinite Man would indeed face off against the Time Trapper as personifications of two theories of time.

And it was also revealed that the existence of the Infinite Man shielded the 30th Century future from the ravages of the Crisis for a time. But when the Infinite Man lost his abilities (and left Rugarth a comatose vegetable), they were suddenly vulnerable to sudden shifts in reality with time being more mutable now.

I think it's significant that hypertime is mentioned this early on in the history of the Legion -- perhaps it's what spurred Morrison on to come up with his own theory of hypertime.

Well, we'll see what Justice League United shares with us about the future to come, won't we?