posted
Having seen some of his pencils I'd really love to see this cover without the inks. At least it IS busy, I always hated the empty backgrounds in so much of Mike Grell's art.
From: Smallville Sector : Greater Metropolis | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
I liked the story but admit was taken back with some stuff.
The Clark/Legion meeting was certainly too much of a difference. I am one of the ones defending Geoff's "original" Legion comment but will no longer do so.
As for Gary Frank? I like him but don't love him. I agree with Pariscub that he draws crazy eyes on everybody! Don't love the new costumes but don't hate them either. If this version of the Legion gets their own comic I would certainly like new costumes.
What won me over? It's somewhat like the PC Legion. We haven't seen the "original" anything from DC in decades. It's not the original JSA, JLA, Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman. I just hope there are not too many retcons with this Legion.
The characters in this story are some of my favorites. Colossal Boy, Wildfire and Dawnstar!
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by reckless: I was confused about the changes to Dawnstar and Wildfire. From the story, these Legionnaires are only slightly more than six months removed from the Lightning Saga. So it seem weird that Dawnstar's and Wildfire's looks would have changed so much. I hope they don't change every Legionnaire's look after using the silver age looks to convince the readers that this is the same as the pre-boot Legion.
I love Wildfire's look actually! Kudos to Frank on him. One of the best Wildfire's I've seen.
Colossal Boy? Eh. What do they have against the headgear. Dawnstar? There isn't much you can do with her costume but all the lines and stuff? eh.
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
I'm starting to get excited about the Legion again. This seems to be the closest to the "original" LSH that I've seen in years. The Dawnstar costume looks like a variant of whatever she was wearing in her first appearence when R.J. Brande sought her out to join the Legion Academy
-------------------- Long Live the Legion!!!
From: Sayreville, NJ | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by MYG: I'm starting to get excited about the Legion again. This seems to be the closest to the "original" LSH that I've seen in years. The Dawnstar costume looks like a variant of whatever she was wearing in her first appearence when R.J. Brande sought her out to join the Legion Academy
I know what you mean. The JSA/JLA crossover made me buy LSH 240 to 350, the complete baxter run and the complete 5 years later run that I had sold after being so disappointed by the Archie Legion.
Dawnstar's first appearance? Wasn't it in the story with the pirate when she joins the Legion? I don't remember Dawnstar ever going to the academy. Which issue was that?
-------------------- Ze Frainch Legion fan
From: Edinburgh, Scotland | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Just piping in to say I really liked the first issue of the LSH ACTION arc. I think the new outfits look awesome, how they really might have evolved over the years with those characters.
And I always enjoy seeing a modern-day artist do a rendition of the classic ADV-era outfits.
quote:Originally posted by Pariscub: [QUOTE]Originally posted by MYG: [qb]
Dawnstar's first appearance? Wasn't it in the story with the pirate when she joins the Legion? I don't remember Dawnstar ever going to the academy. Which issue was that?
Wasn't Dawnstar's first appearance in the issue following Chemical King's death where Wildfire brings her in to track down his killers (the Dark Circle I think?)
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
Hee-hee... I was still slowly scrolling as I read the last post and I thought KryptonKid was saying that Dawnstar was *mooning* Chemical King after he died.
posted
My main complaint (already aptly identified here) was the lame, abbreviated first meeting between Clark and the Legion. It should have been momentous, and instead rushed. I can undertand not doing the whole hazing/tryout thing, but it might have been fun to have the original 3 trying (and failing) badly to meet Clark with secret identities. Anyway, it should have been fun, and instead it was peremptory.
I also thought the Clark at the Daily Planet seens were WAY offbase. For one thing, Johns is just copying $&!^ from the Superman movie. Two, it is completely out of character with the current portrayal. Criticize Clark for being lazy, absent, unreliable, but not unlikable. Obviously, this was done to emphasize the contrast with his friends in the Legion, but it was still out of character.
The final thing that was wierd was seeing the Adventure Era costumes. I know these things are sacred around here, and I cherish them too, but I have increasingly come to regard the Adventure Era imagery as a period piece. Seeing it in a contemporary comic is...weird. After all, as someone said above, the Silver Age, Earth-1 Superman doesn't exist anymore, but all of a sudden his Legion does? Weird.
Speaking of weird, that's what Frank's art is. I can't believe people would complain about Dennis Calaro but rave about Frank. The 3 founders looked like they just left an all-night Ecstasy party or something. Man. Those eyes are SO freaky.
Having said all that, once Supes arrived in the 31C, I really enjoyed the book. Seems like an epic, important story, and John's scripting of the Legionnaires themselves was fine, and the Wildfire costume kicks nass! The red sun thing seems cool.
I don't mind the xenophobia storyline. Frankly, this is an important type of story to tell these days, and as long as Johns can wrap the message in something exciting and character-driven, I'm down with that. The prologue WAS horrific, but I think that's the point, and I loved the Twilight-Zonish irony of it. It's always been one of those interesting questions: did the Kents keep Kal-El because they were so kind, or because he LOOKED exactly human? What if he had looked like J'onn J'onzz, or that poor alien kid? Would they have loved him anyway, and hid him away, and protected him, and made Smallville accept him?
Another point is the "bright future" thing. I've always been a dissenter in the complaints about the future of the 3boot, based on actual Legion history as much as anything. Just because the Silver Age Legion had a 9 Planets Ice Cream Shop doesn't mean it was all sweetness and light, just like the real 1950s were as much about repression and suppressed fear of annihilation as they were about sock hops and panty raids. Nuclear war, alien invasions, mind-controlling dictators, murderous machines, Great Darknesses, fireballing, pervasive surveillance, economic collapse, chronic underemployment, interplanetary starvation. All were an integral part of that original Legion. The important thing is the LEGION to be hopeful and optimistic, not necessarily the larger society it lives in.
-------------------- ...but you don't have a moment where you're sitting there staring at a table full of twenty-five characters with little name signs that say, "Hi, my superpower is confusing you!"
From: Chicago, IL | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Originally posted by doublechinner: The important thing is the LEGION to be hopeful and optimistic, not necessarily the larger society it lives in.
posted
Overall, I enjoyed the issue. My quibbles were small.
Despite the Lightning Saga euphoria of seeing the Levitz Legion back, there are more and more clear differences emerging, but that's okay. It is still ringing truer to LSH than most recent versions, and not just because of costumes.
Gary Frank's Superman does not look as robust, as demigodlike as others; the KC Superman appearing in JSA is a striking contrast to Frank's. That said, despite Frank's odd eyes, I do enjoy his style.
I was glad when the mild/meek Clark was nixed (the single best thing Byrne did), and am not a fan of the shy geek (having been in the biz myself, I cannot imagine such a person being a successful journalist at all, let alone one of a major urban paper's top journalists). But I can accept it; it's been part of the mythos so long. I have no idea what the current CK portrayal is like, and outside of All-Star Supe I'm not likely to find out.
The Brainiac robot intro seems a bitover the top to attract Kal's attention, but it made for an action-y visual, rather than just being summoned to a remote time bubble (or whatever they were calling it this issue).
I liked the flashback; since there was no secret ID, the whole secret-ID name-calling bit wouldn't have worked (the best they could have done there is imitate the scene in Foundations pt. 1 anyway).
So the first meeting was not that 247ish, but it worked, and it was enjoyable. Just as the Action annual with Mon-El was not 100% true to "Superboy's Big Brother," it worked - with enough linkage to the past and enough differentiation to offer a new take as well.
The Silver costumes are now Retro enough to work in their own right; whereas the new (post-)Levitz costumes intro'd here also worked (much better than advance art suggested). The feel of this LSH's world hints of TMK bleakness, which is appropriate for a post-Levitz-ish era as it is. You have a team that grew from teen to young adult together, and defended the galaxy against an array of threats and menaces; sooner or later one can't simply "top" the previous menace (be it Darkseid or the ultimate Trapper scheme), and eroding the socio-political support base is a logical next step in the story: How does a now-matured team fight to uphold a good that is no longer an institutional one?
A presumably artificial red sun makes perfect sense given the Lightning Saga: how else could the future truly not be safe for Superman? Obvious but clever. So why did Brainy send for Kal? Based on L-Saga comments, clearly the sun was already red... did Brainy have a way around this? Was he compromised before his disappearance?
I'm enjoying the story thus far, and look forward to more.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Dec 2003
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![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Dawnstar? There isn't much you can do with her costume but all the lines and stuff? eh.
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
(weighing my the options) It may be worth it?
