The Four Color Media Monitor

Long before the cult of transsexuality became a sad staple of the past decade, there was a storyline in the Legion of Super-Heroes from 1992 that exploited an already established character for an embarrasing female-to-male retcon, that being Shvaughn Erin, a lady cop created in 1978 who'd been involved with Element Lad. And in this Book Riot puff piece from 2 years ago, the writer gushes over the retcon at the time to a woman, which, some could validly argue, contradicts the "feminist" positions the news site is said to build upon, and whether they actually support more female representation in comicdom:

The Legion of Super-Heroes is a long-running DC team of young heroes from the 30th-31st century. Shvaughn Erin was first introduced in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #241 (July 1978) and was created by Paul Levitz and Jim Sherman. She is a member of the Science Police and an ally of the Legion in Commissioner Gordon/Maggie Sawyer fashion, and she’s (arguably) the first trans character in the main DC universe, though she was not initially presented as trans.

Shvaughn was a regular but minor character for years, eventually developing a romantic relationship with Jan Arrah, AKA Element Lad. This didn’t go over well with some fans, who had long read Jan as gay. In fact, as early as 1976 — 12 years before DC’s first out gay character — a fan asked if he was gay during a DC panel at a con. The question was not answered, but DC continued to leave Jan single and ambiguous, perhaps in deference to queer fans. Even Jim Shooter, longtime Legion writer before he became EiC at Marvel, said in a fanzine that he assumed Jan was gay (though given Shooter’s track record, it’s probably best that he never put it in the actual comics). So Paul Levitz giving Jan a girlfriend was not well received by queer readers.

Umm, and why exactly was Levitz expected or supposed to please "queer" readers? Not to mention that, if it's such a big colossal deal, create your own characters to serve the purpose, and stop acting like only mainstream superhero fare is where it all matters. The independent scene as we know it has become bigger than one might think in the past quarter century, and here, when somebody writing for an ostensibly professional site had the opportunity to put a clearer emphasis on something that really mattered, she sticks solidly to blabbering about what she thinks best for established creations owned by corporations.

She may not realize this, but when she indicates she believes it's okay to retcon a woman character into a man, she's supporting the erasure of a woman from the cast. She already did something like that at least 3 years prior to this more recent puff piece, and as a result, I'm not convinced she's really a "feminist", so much as she is a liberal who cares more about LGBT ideology, and puts it on a higher level than that of women's own dignity, right down to doing it at the expense of a fictional character in mainstream comicdom.

This was, um, “fixed” in Legion of Super-Heroes #31 (July 1992), written by Keith Giffen, Tom Bierbaum, and Mary Bierbaum and drawn by Curt Swan and Colleen Doran. During this story, Earth has been taken over by the alien Dominators. The occupation means that it’s impossible to get certain medications — which is when it’s revealed that Shvaughn was born Sean Erin, and has been taking a drug called Profem to transition. With the drug running out, she detransitions — a process that is painful both physically and psychologically.

Jan insists that he doesn’t care, even heavily implying that he would have preferred Shvaughn to have been a man all along, which is…probably less reassuring than the writers think it is. The characters then go their separate ways. Shvaughn only appears twice more in that continuity and continues to go by Sean and he/him pronouns. In his last appearance as Sean, however, he rushes to Jan’s bedside when Jan is close to death and agrees to nurse him back to health, with the implication that the two are getting back together.

Legion continuity was rebooted shortly after this, wiping out Jan’s history with Shvaughn/Sean. Post-reboot, Shvaughn goes by she/her pronouns, though whether or not she is trans is never addressed. Meanwhile, Jan was rebooted back to being a teenager, while Shvaughn is an adult, so their romantic relationship has not resumed.

Wow, it sure sounds like the writer really buys into this retcon so wholesale, she's practically willing to revisionize history if that's what it takes to justify her disappointing beliefs. This is just so embarrassingly bad, and just because this is a heavily science-fiction title we're talking about, does that make it instantly and inherently acceptable to exploit an established character for such a ghastly "everything you know is wrong" direction? Absolutely not. One can only wonder if the columnist would've thought it ludicrous if a male character were written turning out to be a woman by contrast. Sadly, the answer there is probably not, even if that did offer an example of introducing more female representation she's obviously not interested in. Most fascinating is the participation of leftist Doran in the proceedings, as though it weren't bad enough Swan, one of the most well-regarded artists for Superman, had to stain his portfolio with something this humiliating towards the end of his career.

But the saddest part of all is the realization that co-creator Paul Levitz, perhaps based on his past politics, was possibly not troubled at all with the storyline Giffen stained his resume with, and not necessarily because they planned to jettison it anyway post-Zero Hour. On which note, whether or not Legion continuity should've been rebooted, an event as ghastly as ZH turned out to be was still entirely unnecessary in which to do it. There's only so much where such steps could be done "quietly", without needing a whole line-wide crossover to justify these steps. And back to the Shvaughn Erin issue, it's chilling to think of how, if such a sex-change were done today, chances are much higher it would've remained permanently till the bitter end of time, no matter how misogynistic it was, and one of the contributors to this fanblog says in the comments section:

The sex-change of Shvaughn was the most annoying story point I have ever come across. I can't tell if it was misogynist or just plain stupid.

The one who posted the topic, however, says:

It was an attempt at trans representation. 5YL had a lot of LGBTQ+ representation, and the important part of that story is how it didn't matter to Element Lad. Still, once the Dominators were ousted, Shvaughn should have been able to get more ProFem and live her life as she was meant to again, so that it ended oddly.

Ahem. If it's really, truly, absolutely, positively that big a deal, then again, create your OWN characters for that goal, and don't exploit somebody else's. That's just taking advantage of other people's hard work, no matter their politics, and Levitz really made a fool of himself letting this go by sans protest, as did artist Sherman. Now back to the main item:

Like Wanda’s, Shvaughn’s story is well-intentioned but deeply problematic. It seems to be far more interested in heavily implying Jan’s queerness — the language both characters use to talk about Jan’s desires and identity is very loaded — to the detriment of considering what any of this means for Shvaughn. Charlotte Finn argues that Shvaughn is depicted not as trans, but as a cis gay man who transitions solely to pursue a relationship that would be forbidden by his culture of origin otherwise, and also highlights the writers’ use of the “trans character as inherently deceitful” trope.

Shvaughn hasn’t been seen in some time, and Jan is still not technically canonically queer — in fact, a later continuity gave him a crush on a female character. The Legion doesn’t currently have a book, but the next time they do, DC is long overdue to let Jan be canonically queer and Shvaughn be canonically, unequivocally trans, whether or not they’re together.

And here, it sounds like she's saying DC is literally obligated to follow her instructions, whether they like it or not, and no matter what the wider fandom thinks of all that. She even implies it was wrong to portray Element Lad in a heterosexual relation, no matter what sexual preference/orientation he was characterized with. Again, this is a case of somebody trying to "wag the dog", to say nothing of somebody who's so obsessed with DC/Marvel from a political perspective, she's not really interested in merit-based storytelling. Yet she presumably continues to lecture on and on about what's good for the Big Two even today, long after they ceased being relevant, and it's clear hardly anybody reads the Legion at this point, mainly because of how the Big Two wound up becoming left-wing propaganda arms worse than in prior eras.

CBR also spoke in 2012 about this retcon that came mainly at the expense of an established recurring character, and their writer says:

Ever since 1964's Adventure Comics #326 (written by Jerry Siegel) had Element Lad say he was "out of his element" when it comes to girls, fans have speculated that Element Lad was gay.

The idea was picked up and developed by fans of the Legion, and it became a common topic for discussion at the Legion fan magazine, Interlac (which began life as LEAPA, LEgion Amateur Press Association).

In the second issue of the fanzine, there was a piece of fan fiction involving Element Lad's homosexuality, and in the third issue, longtime Legion writer Jim Shooter gave his thoughts about different members of the Legion and for Element Lad, Shooter mentioned that he had always assumed that he was gay, partially for the aforementioned line from Adventure Comics #326, partially because he did not seem all that interested in repopulating his race (Element Lad was the lone survivor of a planet) and yes, partially because of the outfit Dave Cockrum gave him, where he had a giant arrow on his chest....

"Speculated"? "Assumed"? Hoo boy, some people sure know, again, how to conduct arguments that're otherwise defiant of logic. First, what if Siegel characterized Jan as shy, which, if memory serves, was a personality trait applied to Superman in his Clark Kent guise, based on how Siegel and/or Shuster said they were shy around women? What if the former characterized Jan as simply awkward with social skills, and knowing how to best communicate with the fairer sex? How do these so-called fans, who sound more like entitled ideologues, jump to these ludicrous conclusions? Even Cyclops in X-Men was characterized as shy/socially awkward in early years, and there were other heroes, teen or adult, whom Stan Lee wrote in similar fashion. But even more telling has got to be if Shooter actually believes what he said. Also, I don't think the arrow design on one of Jan's outfits really symbolizes anything, though what about that arrow drawn on Marvel's Jack of Hearts - a Bill Mantlo creation - in Avengers during the Bronze Age, and on the lower part of his costume? Such a design, based on the setting, did a horrible disfavor to the character of Jack Hart (notice the pun on the name? Good grief). The column about Shvaughn and Jan continues, and on the issue of having a girlfriend:

Well, Keith Giffen and longtime Interlac members Tom and Mary Bierbaum (who became the scripters for Giffen on Giffen's "Five Years Later" Legion of Super-Heroes) did not agree with that idea, and in 1992's Legion of Super-Heroes #32, they revealed that Shvaughn Erin was actually SEAN Erin, and he had taken a drug that changes you into a woman, as he was under the impression that Element Lad was heterosexual.

As could be wholly expected, we're hammered with that shoddy cliche of "revealed", instead of "retconned". That aside, look how here, it's the writers/artists who're said to be the ones disagreeing with the notion of giving Element Lad a ladyfriend. But whether writers or readers, it's an utter embarrassment how certain fandoms become swamped with entitled, greedy ideologues who think it's perfectly acceptable to hijack other people's creations, misread and misinterpret certain meanings of dialogue, to assume specific characters are what they perceive according to their one-sided beliefs. One could say this particular retcon was the sad result of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, some of which, again, was retconned away in the post-Zero Hour era. But again, if this is what they really think is such a big deal, they could've at least created their own new characters to serve these roles. As the 1992 retcon makes clear, they're creatively bankrupt.

It could also be said all involved missed a golden opportunity to explore what might've been more plausible in how to characterize Shvaughn Erin - with a name like that, she could be characterized as being of Irish or Scottish descent, with the last name first and the first name last (and that was possibly the intention of the prior writers, based on the futuristic setting). They could've developed a tale where Shvaughn's portrayed as proud of her ethnic heritage, loves to eat traditional Irish dishes like colcannon and boxty, which could be a great way to depict how certain national traditions of dining survived or were revived well into future centuries. So again, we instead have a classic case of allegedly professional writers taking the almost hilariously cheap route, and how do we know the LOSH fandom was all in the same boat on the Shvaughn-to-Sean retcon? Do they realize they're putting words into other people's mouths?

Next, since we're on the LOSH topic, more of recent, Comics Archaeology brought up some of the contributing writers of the Legion's past stories, including Jim Shooter, and what's revealed here - which may come from a Facebook group discussion - about how Shooter talks of the cast of characters is nothing short of grating. For example, what he reportedly said about Cosmic Boy:

Kind of a yutz – manly, strong, secure, and yet no one suspects that he isn’t bright enough not to be. Questions of a philosophical nature rarely form in his mind. He is a good counterpart to Bouncing Boy, having that dumb ego B.B. lacks. He will shave around his ears forever. On the good side, he is dedicated, direct, and reasonable, he knows his lack of high intellect and delegates the thinking, rather than attempt it himself. He is a good leader, a quick thinker if not a deep thinker, and one who relates well to those behind him. Even as a leader he is a team player.

And on Dream Girl:

I never believed that she scientifically changed Light Lass’ power. It could only have been White Witchcraft – and for some reason W.W. didn’t watch the Legion to know about her. Dream Girl is dumb. Her power is more or less hit or miss in value (though it is always accurate) and I’m sure her main service to the Legion is in her quarters after dark. She needs constant reassurance of her value, and since her Legion career has been less than stellar, the only way to get psychologically stroked is to allow herself to be physically stroked. By anybody. She has a need for love, adoration and reinforcement of her narcissistic self-image. Star Boy is either too dumb to realize this, or has resigned himself to it. His most fervent wish is to get her off to some godforsaken observatory somewhere, alone. Forever.

Now you could say it's tasteless how Shooter - and the Bierbaums - inject allusions to sexual fetishes into the mix. But that's got to be mainly because of how they insult the above characters as "dumb". Good grief, what are they thinking? Oddly enough, if anybody alludes to the topic of shyness here, it's Shooter, not to mention the Bierbaums, who also allude to the unfortunate retcon in later years where Shrinking Violet was depicted as a lesbian:

Painfully shy, insecure and possibly not quite competent in the early years. Probably was dealing with issues of sexual identity, not able at first to accept her lesbian nature. Never really had it together until she found Ayla, but after that, she becomes one of the Legion’s best.

Now isn't that odd how shyness is only brought up in the context of homosexuality, not heterosexuality. And they don't acknowledge that, Comics Code or none, this was stuff that simply wasn't explored by most writers until the 80s, and when they did, they acted like it was all something that should be inherently accepted, not whether gays and lesbians should be encouraged to learn how to best relate to the opposite sex. And look how it's implied that opening the closet somehow makes one a master warrior, to say nothing of a "better person". Gimme a break, and let us be clear. Both men and women alike can suffer from shyness, and difficulty to relate to the opposite sex, based on any number of problems that have nothing to do with homosexuality. Once again, talk about hijacking serious psychological issues for the sake of a narrow belief!

And back to the subject of Shvaughn Erin, a terrible shame she had to be victimized by the results of insularity, and cowardice at creating new characters for mainstream comicdom. Similar points can be made about Shrinking Violet too (who, by the way, was another Siegel creation, with artist Jim Mooney). There's just simply no excuse, and aside from all that, it's stunning how more creative potential like ethnic/national backgrounds is thrown into trash bins for the sake of PC belief systems, which only goes to show there's no true respect for national cultures and such. Shvaughn and Violet deserve far better.

Labels: crossoverloading, dc comics, dreadful writers, golden calf of LGBT, history, Legion of Super-Heroes, misogyny and racism, moonbat artists, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, politics, women of dc