If you were curious what would happen to your favorite teen heroes from the future, DC shared news yesterday that Paul Levitz is teaming with artist Yildiray Cinar for a brand new Legion of Super-Heroes series.
I think I would characterize it by saying that we’re picking up the story after some gap after my last issue and what we saw in Geoff’s work in Legion of Three Worlds and “Superman And The Legion of Super-Heroes.” Something’s happened in that time that Quislet came back, Tyroc showed up, other stuff has happened – I don’t have a complete list of things to be revealed, but it’s quite clear that things have happened in people’s lives. There’s at least one major Legion romance that’s gone to hell in the time inbetween. And that’s a great liberty as well, it’s not leaping forward but stepping forward just enough so that you have some abiguities to work with.
Levitz said his first story will pick up from the end of the “Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes”.
I think this is pretty good news and will certainly show up on my pull-list in the very near future.
What say you, Legion of Spoilerites?
28 Comments
Good news! My favorite “team” book of all time and with the “original” characterizations. Definitely something to look forward to. There may be something to this “Brightest Day” thing!
No, he said there was some gap since his run, Legion of Three Worlds, and Superman and The Legion of SuperHeroes.
Every time I get attached to a particular Legion, they cancel it and start over. This time, I don’t think I’ll even bother. I’m probably not going to pick it up.
That’s the way to keep it from getting canceled!
lmao I applaud that comment.
I think you missed my point: I don’t care if it gets cancelled, because I won’t be following it.
You can throw your money at it if you’d like, but there’s only so many times I’ll hop on board a title when, after I’ve read it for several years, they cancel it and restart it saying “That stuff you read about before? Didn’t happen or, at least, didn’t really happen quite that way. Those characters you liked? Well, they’re still here — at least in name — but their personalities may be somewhat different than you’re used to and we’ve tweaked they’re relationships to other characters a bit.”
And then, after a few more years, do the same thing.
And then, after a few more years, do the same thing.
Imagine if they’d done that with, say, the Avengers. “Nope. This is still Steve Rogers and Tony Stark and Hank Pym, it’s just not the Steve Rogers and Tony Stark and Hank Pym that you’re used to. This Hank never married Janet, for example. And, yes, Tony’s an African-American now. And, Steve fought in Vietnam alongside Frank Castle rather than WWII. But, don’t worry, you’ll get used to the changes …”
This is, by my count, the fourth different incarnation of the Legion since I began picking up the comic back before they crossed over with the New Teen Titans title and, as a result, I no longer have the interest in finding out how they’ve tweaked the characters to fit this new vision of whatever alternate future these particular Legionnaires are supposed to be from.
No, I caught the part where you won’t be buying it. But, DC seems to be making a conscious effort to keep the Legion in the spotlight, your completely welcome to not buy the series but they could be doing far worse to the Legion then they are now. *cough*Alpha Flight*cough*
Imagine if they’d done that with, say, the Avengers. “Nope. This is still Steve Rogers and Tony Stark and Hank Pym, it’s just not the Steve Rogers and Tony Stark and Hank Pym that you’re used to. This Hank never married Janet, for example. And, yes, Tony’s an African-American now. And, Steve fought in Vietnam alongside Frank Castle rather than WWII. But, don’t worry, you’ll get used to the changes …â€
I don’t have to imagine it. The Avengers has been through as many revamps and reworkings as the Legion. While I can see your point about the reboots being off-putting (and, indeed, they are) using the Avengers as an example undermines your point. :) Hell, there are FOUR Avengers ongoing titles right now, each one with a different team, a different feeling, and supposedly different aims involved.
Still, opinions are by definition always valid, and there’s no reason that anyone would have to read a comic that causes them such distress.
So when this run gets cancelled, I’ll be able to blame little martyr wannabes like you for it. Thanks.
Jacin’s right on, Mela… So you don’t have to be like that, and you can blame whoever you want when they cancel this round. The result will be the same. For whatever reason, the powers at DC have decided to keep experimenting with this title, thumbing their noses at “canon”, and each of these experiments were sustained for only so long. I’ve tried to follow each one and they didn’t work for me – and plainly they didn’t work for lots of other fans either. So now they’re bringing back the old legion in a slightly altered format from where they were in the early eighties… Whatever. Maybe I’ve outgrown comics, I don’t know. My old teammates just don’t appeal to me they way they used to. Ultimately, I think some level of adventure and mystery about the 30th/31st centuries has been lost over the last 15-20 years.
So when this run gets cancelled, I’ll be able to blame little martyr wannabes like you for it. Thanks.
Play nice, Mel. :) If and when this run gets cancelled, we’ll all be able to blame the archaic and ridiculous publishing theories of modern comics (Write for the trade! Decompress! Lots of dialogue means better books! And for god’s sake, don’t do one or two issue arcs!!!) for it’s demise. Jacin’s displeasure is not only perfectly acceptable, it’s really not all that unexpected.
I notice Night Girl is featured on the cover. Did I miss something? When did she join the Legion?
Night Girl joined at some point after we last saw this Legion historically (roughly Legion Vol. 3 #27 or so, back in 88 or thereabouts) and the point where the original Legion returned in Action Comics a couple years ago. Polar Boy disbanded the Subs when he joined the Legion, and Night Girl was revealed to have joined during the lacuna wherein we were watching the alternate reality Legions of Volume 4, the Reboot and thereafter.
Between this new series and the co-feature in Adventure Comics, that’s a lot of Legion of Superheroes to go around. Here’s hoping the franchise is able to sustain itself.
Every time I get attached to a particular Legion, they cancel it and start over. This time, I don’t think I’ll even bother. I’m probably not going to pick it up.
Indeed.
Besides, there’s about 50 reasons why I really wanted to see the next Legion re-boot written by this guy.
I would say “SQUEEEEEEEEEE,” but that’s not manly enough for a guy my age, so I’ll simply say:
I just soiled my pants!!!!!
God, I hope it doesn’t suck…really, please, please, please don’t suck.
What are the odds it’s going to suck?
I notice Night Girl is featured on the cover. Did I miss something? When did she join the Legion?
Wasn’t she a Legion member in the Action/Earthman-JLA storyline? I see Chameleon Girl is in there too.
I’m wondering what the new Tyroc costume is going to look like — if every a character needed a redesign…..
Shadow Lass isn’t wearing clothes…. again.
Whatever happened to her reboot costume? It had that nice cape and it wasn’t one of those bikini-thong things.
If I remember correctly, at one point they tried the “Power Girl’s costume is feminist empowerment” approach for Shady by saying that her lack of clothing was traditional formal wear in her culture or something like that….
As long as she’s not wearing her hair in that god-awful Giffen widow’s-peak-skull-cap style she had when she first started wearing the full-body outfit. Blech!!!!
Although I’ve never been keen on having Brainy as the centerpiece of the Legion, I do love that this poster doesn’t put the big three in the center: It’s nice to see Shady and Wildfire and Brin and Ayla given such prominent focus here.
I agree with Jacin B. I wont be picking it up either. You had the great Legion time during the Darkness saga and then the baxter print paper era. Then it went to that small panels twenty per page experimental mess and you had to get cliff notes to figure out what the art was in each panel. That was ridiculous. If I want abstract I will go to a Picaso exhibit. Then that Archie Legion b*&^%%*&. I dont care if the writting was out of this world. That was crap. Now that is part of the Legion continum. I hope that mess goes to one of the other earths and we never hear from it again. I wont waste my money to be disapointed. I will just wait for the trade. At least then I can read all at one time and not have to wait for three months for an issue like I did with Legion of Three worlds. I hope DC reads this and really feels the consumers’ frustrations. I dont think it would matter to them.
as an OCD fan since SLSH #221 (NOV, 1976), I can honestly designate belts with “L”‘s on the buckles as completely hokey… Especially since it’s not even an Interlac “L”. My favorite team never needed that cheese around their waist… they were all in olympian form (except Chuck) and were in tights or less, for the most part. They already had rings with “L”‘s on them… that was enough to show they were a united team, and that was cooler then cool. Their costumes emphasized their individuality. Saturn Girl already had Saturn on her costume, Light Lass had a feather, Ultra Boy had that great eagle. Sorry everyone… Gary Frank is an amazing artist in most respects, but his redesign of the costumes of the team I idolized since I was eight years old simply rots. Yes I realize we are talking about a campy team of make-believe teens form the future, but Mr. Franks, you don’t have to clobber us with camp. The team’s lost cred (again), IMHO.
PS: Dawnstar’s sports bra/vest and matching ensemble is probably the worst of the lot. She used to be a sexy, stoic, Native American angel. Bring her back for God’s sakes.
Hail Darkseid
an OCD fan since SLSH #221 (NOV, 1976),
221? Grimbor? Mike Grell puts Charma in that disco bondage babydoll bikini? Naked Cos AND Naked Gim? Awesome!
No reason for you to believe me, but I did that without Wiki’ing. :)
Oh, I totally believe you. Love does that sometimes.
Hmm, I didn’t even notice the “L” buckled-belts on everyone’s costume.
I have found Franks’ costumes to be one of the most exciting visual aspects of the Legion resurgence, and I wish he would redesign the entire DCU. I love how the costumes look like actual pieces of fabric sewed together, and not like the colored, skin-tight Saran Wrap leotards that everyone else wears. In particular, I love the way he replaced all the guys’ undie-trunks with pants — this change looks so much better that I can’t take trunks seriously anymore (d’you hear that, Clark and Bruce?).
Of course, I do like it when the guy heroes show some skin…. ;)
The one thing I think (hope) all can agree on is that all of these posts, in their own way, show what love and passion we all have for the Legion. Even if we don’t agree on the specifics or direction, we all seem to agree that the Legion is (or should be) one of the best creations ever in comics.
Long Live The Legion
This might start a kerfuffle, but hey. Why not? In sports, oftentimes athletes are noted as having “great potential” but, for whatever reason(s), said potential goes unrealized. I’m starting to wonder if that’s the case with the LSH? Some of you like “thing X” and some like “thing Y”, and most agree that they’ve been mishandled… Which sounds like an agent/fan talking about his big-money client/big-play player.. So I posit the following: Is the LSH perpetually doomed to be better “on paper” than it actually turns out to be “for reals”?
The thing I find funny is that when I re-read the stories I grew up with (late 70s, early 80s), a lot of them really aren’t that great — the Legion fighting a space circus? And if you look at websites that review the classic Legion of the 60s, you’ll see that fans freely scoff at how ridiculous some of the early stories were, and how annoying the characters were. (Was it Keith Giffen or John Byrne who hates their first appearance because it’s just a big practical joke? Notice how DC keeps trying to retell their first meeting with Clark to make them more suitably heroic, i.e., not teenage jerks.)
I think we love the characters and the cool setting (at least before the 5-year gap) and the soap opera of it all. It may be that our imaginations are simply bigger than any writer/artist team can match!