Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Tell me why I should still be excited about the Legion

Long time site visitor, very infrequent poster.

After 27 years of not missing a Legion Story and collecting all back issues back to the brief Action back up stores and having a good portion of the late Adventure run, I have finally grown tired of the Legion and am looking for inspiration to keep this title for the next incarnation.

I do not need to retread any previous ground over reboots, threeboots, retcons. Etc. It has all already been beaten to death.

Here is where I stand about the Legion and mainstream superhero comics from both companies these days.

No story means anything anymore.



-We have writers who willfully reverse the previous storylines.
-No one actually stays dead anymore or out of the storyline. The old Crisis maxi series has been rendered pointless with recent developments and who expected Thor to stay dead in the Marvel universe.
-Writers are continually refreshing the past and not creating anew (Mon-El, again).

Now I realize that money plays into this a great deal, but I cannot take it anymore and am at the point where my only books will be about three Vertigo books a month at this point.

So, why should I be excited about Adventure Comics and the next version of the Legion?

I wish I could help you, but I'm kind of in the same boat.

I feel your pain, tyrociscool. That's why I don't read comics at all these days (that and the huge price tags).

I get my thrills out of reading novels.

If you aren't enjoying it, you shouldn't be reading it. It's as simple as that.

There's so many more satifying forms of entertainment, imo.

The future of the Legion - or our degree of committment to it - is uncertain. If you're tired of the Legion, maybe just set it aside for a while and check it out in a year or so. As others have said, there are plenty of other things to read, many of them free at the library.

I haven't entirely shut the lid on the coffin yet regarding the Adventure series, although I don't feel too hopeful. There was an interview with Russell Davies who talked about the importance of getting the Dr. Who series right, and it is apropos to the current situation of the Legion:

My main worry, because I've been a Doctor Who fan all my life, so my worry was, if we get it wrong, then it'll disappear, really disappear, and might take another fifty years to come back or something. So, I really was aware that, never mind the forty-year-old men out there who remember it, there's a whole generation of children out there who didn't have Doctor Who, didn't have a Doctor, that they were the ones to reach. That's who we targeted, because we wanted everyone to have this British, eccentric, pacifist hero... Such an icon, I think, and such a role model for children. And so, there was a lot at stake for me. I really, really wanted it to work. And it did, if I can say so myself! I can say it now.

Maybe it's something about the nature of comic books, but people seem to take this as the total end of the Legion. Personally, I don't share that view. I still reread Sherlock Holmes and Nero Wolfe. There are fan clubs and societies devoted to these and other past works. We may not get the monthly fix and the enjoyment of a continuing series, but the past 50 years have provided lots of re-readable material for me.

Good point, Cramer.

Davies mentions a fear that a lot of comics fans have: namely, that if we don't support the current series, the characters might go away for good.

But this fear only causes fans to support work they are not enjoying. What gets lost here is a reality that many fans don't want to face: the characters they love may already be "dead." This reality is illustrated by another Davies point, when he says that Dr. Who was aimed at kids, not "forty-year-old men." Audience expectations today are different than they were when most of us were kids. Furthermore, the expectations of kids should always differ from those of 40-year-olds.

As negative as that may sound for some of us, it has distinct advantages if we give up our monthly fix. We may gain a newfound appreciation and insight into the earlier stories we read. We may have the time and money available to explore new interests. We may even get some peace of mind.

hmmm, not buying it.

How many of us "40" year olds jumped on the Legion Adventure bandwagon?

Message Boarding is part of the capitalist system. I'm perfectly comfortable hanging on a bit to a story I'm not totally enjoying even while complaining about it on a board because the characters still bring on fond emotions and memories or even loyalty to a writer or artist. I'm a "fan." I didn't ditch the Tigers in bad times or the Pistons or the Lions, uh, well maybe the Lions. Even when they were doing badly, they brought on fond memories.

Quite honestely, I do not recall terrible riots over "bad stories." Slow stories and mischaracterizations, yes. Bad stories, not so much.

I would miss even "bad" Legion. Other characters with "Legion" names? Not so much.

Well, as long as you're getting some enjoyment out of the current Legion stories, my comments do not apply to you, BB.

What current Legion stories, lol? And which of your comments were you referring to? I thought you were posting comments by someone named "Davies?"

Because they're awesome, of course.

I don't know if Adventure is going to be any good or not as a Legion comic. Maybe it's not. But either way it won't last long in macroscopic terms. There will be more good Legion comics someday. As for this:

... I wouldn't worry about it. All stories matter while the book's open and none of them matter when the book's closed. DC continuity is an elusive beast; you can chase it all your life and you'll never catch it. But you can pick up the glittering scales it sheds as it passes.

You've never heard of the NCAA rules committee?

Actually, I covered that thought also in my post, as far as MY preferences were concerned.

Each their own middle ground. Some have stated, "My" Legion or the highway. Other's to the other extreme, as long as the uniforms are nice and there are bunches of them in the future. I'm not gonna grieve someone else's choices, what they like.

Like is a funny thing. Some like being punched in the face. If so, continuity has become the hobby for them. If it's advice on how to handle not liking a comic series we're giving, then mine is, don't take my advise.

Sports to me is an excuse to drink beer in the open air. Outside of that, there's not much sentiment involved. As outdoor pursuits go, I prefer gardening. But it bores my friends to drink beer in the yard and watch me prune the hibiscus. So, baseball it is.

If I ever had a reversal of fortune so complete that I can't even sit here and imagine how it would happen, I'd have a whole lot of back issues to track down and read. Which would be nice, because odds are with that much material, there'd be something out there that I enjoyed. Hell, I enjoyed the Waid/Kitson stuff I got to read. That seems pretty rare around here.

Now you're just being pedantic.

This thread is going around in circles.

For my part, I care about the Legion because they have been a rich part of my life for over 40 years. I really care about the characters. this is due to many, many great stories over the years that I still posses and go back and read and enjoy.

Should I STILL care. Of course. Those stories are still in my collection and I still go back and re-read. But equally:

a) Legion of Three Worlds continues to stagger to its conclusion but despite the delays I am desperately awaiting each issue.

b) Mon-El and Tellus are building up nicely in Superman. It may be only two Legionnaires but for the first time in many many years I am looking forward to the publication of the Superman title.

c) Adventure Comics will bring us something new. It may not be much but it will be something. If it is written and drawn well then it will be really worthwhile. Just like those Action and Superboy back-ups all those years ago.

Like everyone else on Legion World, I want a 'good' regular Legion series that I can look forward to each month. But the definition of 'good' is the stumbling block for DC. Some Legion fans want the threeboot to continue, others the DnA or TMK version back. Me I'm old school, the Silver Age through Levitz is my Legion and I want them back - which is why I am probably more optimitic than some.

Whatever happens with Adventure and an ongoing series, of course there are still good reasons to be exited about the Legion. Without it this message board wouldn't exist!

So we're in kind of a "Phantom Zone" of our own here. Not one of us knows what is going to happen with Adventure, which versions of the characters are going to be regulars nor where or when the new series is going to pick up.

I understand wanting to throw your hands up and walk away, I almost did, however we already know the Legion will share the book with Superboy (Kon-el) and that (theoretically) it will be a continuing series. That may not exactly be exciting but it's something to look forward to and speculate about.

I know I'll be buying the first few issues at least and I generally plan to support a book for the first year to give it a chance...but so help me if DC puts Joe Staton or Jimmy Janes on the Legion features I'm done..

Nah, Phantom Zone we could see everything that's going on. We're in the Twilight Zone baby!


I also will give the book "a chance" but admittedly also buying it because I think it might be interesting.

It's decided. I am done.

that's too bad ... I thought I was done with the Legion a couple of times, but I always come back ... I am looking forward to the new Adventure Comics, and it will be the first regular series that I collect in a very long time ... truth is, the Legion has always been a part of my life, whether I was actively following them or not, and I like it that way ... LLL

And that's where I am. I may not be buying any comics about the Legion right now, but they'll always be important to me.

I went through a huge dry spell between post-Crisis and the 'threeboot,' so I know that I can handle an off-decade and be excited to come back fresh.

Same here.

I was touched by Silver Age Lad's post on the previous page of this thread because I've been following the Legion for nearly as long (36 years), and they will always be important to me, as well.

I've taken two previous "vacations" from following the Legion on regular basis. The first lasted from 1990-93, during TMK, and the second lasted from 1994-98, during the end of the 5YL period and the early years of the reboot. Each time, I came back to the Legion with renewed appreciation for what was truly important to me about them and a willingness to let go of my deep-seated ideas of what they "should" be.

That's how I feel about the current Legion(s), which I have followed only sporadically since 2004. Neither the threeboot nor Lo3W have interested me at all, but a few years' hindsight may change that. In the meantime, I still have the old stories, characters, and ideas to enjoy.

I'm in the same boat with comics in general. 2.99, 3.99 a title, continuity has become an end in itself rather than something to attract fans to other titles, TPBs offering an cheaper alternative, even if they don't have the same immediate impact as holding that hot'n'fresh comic in your hand...I'm down to two titles, and don't know how much longer I can justify those. I used to break out in hives if I wasn't in the comics store less than 48 hours after new comic day...now, I barely get there once a month to pick up the pathetic remains of my once ludicrous pull list.

What I wouldn't give for a nonrebooted, single-issue story for less than $2 a comic...even if it was on newsprint paper, even if it wasn't shiny, even if it didn't directly reference anything with the words "Crisis" or "Crossover" or "read all of these crummy other X-titles to know what's going on."

(snip)

armsfalloffboy wrote:

Quote

...What I wouldn't give for a nonrebooted, single-issue story for less than $2 a comic...

Preach it, Brother. Though trades are nice, too, because they end up in the library where I can actually read them. But, yeah, death to tie-in-crossover-variant-infinite-secret-crisis-war-o-rama.

Honestly, some days I feel like the industry's taken everything I hated about comics when I bailed out before and magnified it 50,000-fold, just to make sure that I'd never seriously consider coming back-- even if I did have a cent to my name right now.

Feh.

As a kid My cheap-o dad gave $1/week for an allowance (1964-5 etc.) and shopping on-base I could buy 8 comics..and get 4cents change.
-heh

Of course now that's ..um.. $128 bucks plus local tax. Ouch.

But then again, I wonder what would I be buying if I were picking up 32 different titles every month?

$1!!!!!