Tellus affronta Mon-El in "Legion of Super-Heroes" (vol.III) #26, disegni di Greg LaRocque

Come sottolineato di recente dallo scriba legionario Geoff Johns, negli ultimi mesi la collana “Superman” sta ospitando numerose trame di vivo interesse per tutti gli amanti del franchise futuribile DC per eccellenza. Autore della serie è il bravo James Robinson, salito sugli altari negli anni Novanta per il suo celebre impegno su “Starman” (vol.II) e da poco tornato al mondo dei comics dopo una pausa come screenwriter hollywoodiano.
Lo sceneggiatore inglese è alle prese con un compito difficile, quello di trainare una collana priva del suo stesso protagonista. Infatti, l’azzurrone ha lasciato la Terra per New Krypton, abdicando il ruolo di paladino di Metropolis ad alcuni fidi gregari come il nostro Mon-El.
Jeffrey Renaud di Comic Book Resources ha svolto con Robinson una lunga chiacchierata su questo tema, il cui risultato è l’articolo leggibile per intero a questo link. Eccone, intanto, i soli estratti Legion-related:

CBR: In “Superman” #687, Guardian says of Mon-El, “He’s not as elegant as Superman in the way he handles things… but he gets the job done.” Do you think that pretty much sums up the character?

James Robinson: The one thing, unfortunately, that really isn’t going to be a big surprise is that at some point, down the line, Mon-El is going to have to face the Phantom Zone, so that he can be the Mon-El that we know in the 30th century. Now, it occurred to me that it seems very inconsistent. Mon-El is actually an explorer. He’s not a superhero. He arrives on Earth and he’s almost immediately put into the Phantom Zone. And he’s stuck in there and when he appears in the future, and I know this is comics, but he’s pretty much fully formed as a Legionnaire. So this explains how he left to become the hero that he will be.

Metropolis of the 21st century is Mon-El’s training ground to become the legendary Legionnaire of the 31st century?

Yes, this is his training ground and it takes, through Superman, his powers, his abilities and the experience and wisdom of Jim Harper, the Guardian, to prepare him to just about fill Superman’s shoes. And you’ll see how, as book goes on, he becomes more and more the hero we know him to be in the future.

The book you’ve created has the feel of a team book. You’ve got Guardian, Mon-El, Black Lightning and Steel. Superman’s shoes are big ones to fill, but are you having fun with all these other toys from the DC sandbox while making them into a de facto team protecting Metropolis?

It’s a lot of fun. At the moment, it’s me getting all the pieces in place. Mon-El falling out of the sky at the end of the issue you just read [“Superman” #687] has ramifications that will make him a very different character. I place a lot of the credit on the shoulders of Dan DiDio. He didn’t want me to just write a Mon-El book. He asked me what is it that makes Mon-El unique? What makes him special? What makes him interesting and not just a watered down version of Superman? He really sort of set me some challenges. And I think I rose to the occasion but it was really him sort of pushing me to do more. As you see with the next issue and as we’re building to the crossover in August there’s more shades to this character than you might have thought.

Superman has to come back to “Superman” at some point. Is the hope that Mon-El is ready to star in his own book when that happens?

Well, honestly, I personally feel that he only has a certain sort of shelf life before he has to go back into the Phantom Zone. There are some stories that could be very nicely told about him that are less sort of Metropolis-centric. My ideal goal is to make him popular enough so that when Superman does return to the book, Mon-El at least gets a maxiseries or a miniseries that will lead to him going back into the Phantom Zone.

Colto da un raptus pubblicitario, Robinson ha inoltre diffuso i primi dettagli su “Codename: Patriot”, il crossover che coinvolgerà tutte le collane dell’Uomo d’Acciaio il prossimo agosto. La storia, realizzata a quattro mani con Greg Rucka, coinvolgerà inevitabilmente l’alter-ego di Lar Gand, anche se il personaggio non viene menzionato dagli autori nel corso delle interviste rilasciate a Newsarama e Comic Book Resources.

Ma il giovane daxamita non è l’unico eroe del XXXI° secolo ad aver trovato posto nel cast di “Superman”. Nei numeri in uscita nei prossimi mesi, infatti, avrà spazio anche l’alieno xenomorfo di nome Tellus, creato da Paul Levitz e Steve Lightle nel 1985 su “Legion of Super-Heroes” (vol.III) #14.
A confermare questo gradito ritorno, se non bastassero i numerosi indizi già disseminati da Robinson nelle sue storie degli ultimi mesi, ci ha pensato anche Johns, che così ha scritto nella sua pagina personale sul social network Twitter:

With @JamesdRobinson at a Mexican Bar plotting Legion stuff. No food, just drink and Tellus.

La prossima uscita di “Superman” sarà il #688, previsto nella checklist per mercoledì 27 maggio.