Legion Of Super-Heroes: 5 Things You Need To Know

1. It's Set In The 30th Century

Did we mention that? We're pretty sure we mentioned that. The Legion Of Super-Heroes exist in the far-flung future of the 30th century, in a sort of Star Trek utopian society where a large portion of Earth's population has superpowers, we've colonised a whole bunch of other planets and made contact with a bunch of friendly (and some less friendly) alien races, and for the most part everything is hunky dory. Besides all the things that the Legion themselves get called up to deal with, obviously. That again seems like something that's a little out of step with the general mood at DC, with Man Of Steel going for a decidedly gloomy vibe, and the comic books currently mired in an event called Futures End which predicts a post-apocalypse for its characters to suffer through before too long. The 30th century of the Legion is pretty great. It's bright and colourful and fun, in keeping with the general vibe of the team, with every member coming equipped with sweet futuristic technology, like the ring issued to all recruits which lets them fly. It's like a jet pack, but so much less unwieldy! Their future seems a heck of a lot more civilised than ours, too, with the team lacking the sort of in-fighting that made up the first hour or so of Marvel's Avengers Assemble. Instead everything is very diplomatic, with the Legion's leadership constantly changing according to votes and people vacating the seat to let somebody else have a turn. They clearly learned to share as kids. Even if they are still technically, sort of, kids. It's this that makes us pretty pumped for a potential Legion Of Super-Heroes film, and hopeful that the rumours are true. Considering the sorry state the galaxy finds itself in most modern films which take a look at our future, coupled with the trend for downbeat comic book fare, it'd be a breath of fresh air to get a relatively optimistic, upbeat and youthful bunch of superpeople on the screen. Especially if one of those people is Matter-Eater Lad. We're sad we'll not long enough to see his kind become a reality, but if DC can give us him on the big screen before that, maybe - just maybe - we can die happy.