Tavola da "Legion of Super-Heroes" (vol.VI) #1 (Clicca per ingrandire)

Mancano ormai pochissimi giorni all’esordio della nuova collana della Legione, e in rete inizia a farsi sentire sempre più forte il suono dell’inevitabile tam tam di interviste e anteprime promozionali (ammirate ad esempio le splendide illustrazioni di Yildiray Cinar a corredo di questo articolo, tratte dall’albo di imminente uscita).
Così, dopo essersi concesso a CBR come già riportato su queste pagine, ecco che lo sceneggiatore della serie, Paul Levitz, parla anche a Newsarama dei suoi piani per il rilancio del celebre franchise futuribile DC. Tra i soliti accenni alla trama, che potete leggere da voi a questo link, preferisco però citare una più interessante considerazione dello scrittore newyorkese, a proposito del suo personale approccio alla fantascienza:

Newsarama: Paul, I think what makes the Legion so fun for me as a reader is the combination of dramatic relationships and the futuristic sci-fi stuff. As you look at the series, what elements stand out to you as a writer, and are you going to play up any of those in particular as you begin the series?

Paul Levitz: Well, the thing that the science fiction offers you is to tell your story against a broader canvas. There was a Roger Zelazny character in one of his famous novels, Creatures of Light and Darkness, named the Prince Who Was a Thousand, who was a teleporter who could go to any world he could imagine. And at one point during the book, he muses about whether he really was a teleporter, or whether he was actually creating these worlds as he went there. Because if he could imagine it, he could get there. Had it never existed before?

Science fiction gives you that same kind of opportunity. You can imagine anything remotely plausible and place stories there.

Un altro “quote” levitziano è da segnalare, infine, come implicita risposta a un recente articolo di Comics Alliance sul tema dei clichè razziali nei comics d’oltreoceano: l’autore del pezzo, Chris Sims, ha infatti incluso – a mio avviso ingiustamente – l’attuale incarnazione della Legione tra i supergruppi che meno rispecchiano la varietà razziale del meltin’ pot. Un punto, questo, che in effetti tocca molto da vicino la storia del team, ma solo negli anni della piena Silver Age (gli aficionados ricorderanno, ad esempio, l’affaire Ferro Lad). Fortunatamente, però, da allora le cose sono molto cambiate, come dimostra l’interesse manifestato nella questione dallo stesso Levitz:

Nrama: We’ve talked before about how you are introducing more than one new character in the first issue. These characters have gotten older, and there does seem to be a lack of diversity, as far as Earth-type ethnicities, so are you gearing the new characters toward age and race diversity?

Levitz: I haven’t played so much with bringing in a younger set of characters immediately. The Legionnaires are still relatively young people with their lives at fairly early and interesting stages. There are a couple of married couples in the group, and a couple of seemingly rather settled relationships, although one will be unsettled immediately.

The diversity is more important to me, in part because we’re living in a different society than we were when I was writing it 20 years ago. And it’s really important to be reflective of all of that. I can’t say that I’ve solved all of it in the first handful of issues, but hopefully it will lead in a set of directions. And I think the Legion as always a bit better on those issues than a lot of other titles.

Tavola da "Legion of Super-Heroes" (vol.VI) #1 (Clicca per ingrandire)

Per concludere, una citazione da un’altra intervista ancora fresca, sempre ad opera dello staff di Newsarama. Questa volta il tema dell pezzo è la serie di Red Robin (sigh), in procinto di passare nelle mani del mediocre Fabian Niceza. Nel descrivere il legame tra l’alter-ego di Tim Drake e i suoi (ex?) compagni di squadra dei Teen Titans, Niceza si è lasciato scappare una frase che potrebbe anticipare il futuro di “Adventure Comics”, una volta terminato l’attuale ciclo retrospettivo dedicato alla Legione:

Nicieza: [...] I think now more than ever, consistent contact between Tim and his metahuman friends, even if it’s done solely as cameos in Red Robin, is important. We would all very much like to see a more smoothly coordinated flow between the Red Robin and Teen Titans books. I have just begun discussions with the various editors on how to more effortlessly work the Titans characters between books, including even early talks of a direct crossover story between the titles for a month. I’d like to do the same thing with Superboy’s creative crew over on Adventures once that’s settled down. A three-way crossover would be just as fun at some point too!

Che sia dunque previsto il ritorno su “Adventure Comics” di una feature tutta per Conner Kent? O Niceza si è semplicemente confuso, estraendo frettolosamente dal cappello della memoria il titolo dell’ultima testata che ha associato a Superboy? Per ora, la risposta è ancora un mistero.