Finding Family: Hayden Sherman Talks “Legion of Super-Heroes”
Long live the Legion! Everyone’s favorite futuristic teen metahumans are back, with the first issue of the new Legion of Super-Heroes series arriving September 2. Written by Joshua Williamson and illustrated by Eisner-winning artist Hayden Sherman, the DC Next Level title is one of the year’s most highly anticipated comics, and it’s not hard to see why. We recently caught up with Sherman, who told us what we can expect from the Legion’s return…
How did you discover the Legion of Super-Heroes? Were you a longtime fan?
It’s interesting, my awareness of the Legion. I’m a lifelong DC reader and Batman was my way in. He’s such a launch pad for everybody, right? You come in through there and then you find this whole wider universe. Legionwas always this corner of it.
I didn’t have comic shops easily accessible to me when I was growing up. I was aware of Legion of Super-Heroes as very much a ’50s/’60s property that expanded out through the ’80s. I had this sort of institutional awareness of what was going on there while I was coming up. The word I would associate with it would be “daunting.” It was daunting to read because it’s very encompassing. It just encourages a certain amount of commitment.
There was something very appealing about what Josh [Williamson] started talking to me about. It was this open approach, this new approach, this origin approach. A chance to come in and start from a designated beginning and build from there in a way that’s very inviting to me as both a reader and a creator. As long as we play our cards right, the hope is that it’ll be inviting to longtime readers to see a new take on things they love and for that wider readership of new readers that have never touched a Legion book to see something that is different, exciting and a way into enjoying their long history of books.
I’m learning a lot through doing. Josh knows his Legion backwards and forwards in a way that I don’t, as specifically. But we’re able to play off of each other really well. I don’t count myself as a new reader, but I’m not as deep into it as you. I’ve got to give credit where credit’s due!
Can you describe the approach you and Josh are taking?
We’re really emphasizing that there isn’t a billionaire or trillionaire who has assembled these kids together to work as a superhero team. In this world, we have these teenagers finding each other. They are all in their own worlds and their own corners of existence, with that feeling of looking out into the sunset and saying, “Who am I in two years? Who am I in five years? Who do I want to be when I reach a certain age and how do I want to affect the world? What do I want my footprint to be on the world?”
All these characters really think about that at this age. It’s that turning point of being a teenager, especially at 15, 16, 17. You’re looking at the world and you don’t like parts of it and you want to be a force for change, and you see adults who are making leadership choices that you just can’t comprehend or agree with, who are making things actively worse. So, you want to push.
These kids all have that desire to push. They’re not content to wait, which I think is part of the joy of Legion—they have that desire now and they’re going to do something about it. They’re all finding each other. The emphasis is a lot more on their agency and their own action to pull each other together and find that sense of…maybe a word for it could be destiny.
These characters are meant to be together. They’re worlds apart and they’re finding each other and finding people to believe in a common cause and pushing for it. Telling that story with superheroes—in terms of the style and visuals—there isn’t oversight necessarily. So, we get to give it a slightly scrappier quality, which is very appealing to me personally.
I really enjoy the breadth that science fiction allows for because there are desires for them to all feel local to their worlds, but they all come together. So, design-wise, they all get to feel unique and different. You know teenagers, they’re dressing themselves, having fun, but not in your classic superhero way. They’re just a little different.
Who are your favorite Legionnaires?
There are so many! But because there are such oddball qualities to Brainiac-5 and Lightning Lad, they’re both up there.
Legion of Super-Heroes #1 by Joshua Williamson, Hayden Sherman and Tamra Bonvillain will be available in print and as a digital comic book on September 2, 2026.
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