Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes BREAKING: Everyone off LSH but Levitz for #13

I don't dislike Kolins work on some titles (Flash), but his style is not suited for Legion. I hope this time I'm proved wrong.

Here's hoping someone else is chosen as regular artist for the book.

It will be interesting to see Kollins on the Legion now. His style has continued to change over the years.

Kollins is the type of artist where the inker can make all the difference. I guess I'll wait and see--not exactly thrilling news but not horrible news either.

I think the good thing Kolins will bring is a style unlike other Legion artists have brought to the table, so it won't remind you much of this one or that one. And most of what I've seen of Kolins' stuff the past coupla years has been pretty darn good. Don't think he's ever done much work on team books either, so that could be interesting to see.

Maybe he'll get to draw another Bizarro Legion tale!

I'm can't recall how long Kolins' previous run on the reboot was, but I'm guessing it was fairly brief and was also during that version's lowest point. Since then, his style has evolved into something more distinct and memorable. So I won't really be comparing it to what little I recall of his previous stint on the Legion.

As for Portela, I hope we see him on a high profile book really soon, preferably something at Image!

I don't think he's an appropriate choice, but maybe they'll assign him an inker that will give his pencils a futuristic look. My only problem with Portela was that the faces were too cartoony. But the writing has been dreadfully dull. And what ever happened to the Karate Kid subplot from Adventure Comics? That was probably the most interesting thing Levitz introduced.

So, Giffen co-plotting with Levitz, and Kolins drawing a 3-issue arc?
Sounds great to me!

Though I did not think much about some of Kollins cover work at DC, his more recent work (he did a JSA special for example) really was a totally new level - he really has grown as an artist and I'm looking forward to seeing his work on the LSH now. Sorry to see Portela go, though, as I thought he was a major improvement over Cinar. Legion has not always had the best artists in the last two decades, and I feel that hurt the book a lot. Of course you can't always have Perez, but if the Legion is done by some average artist, the book simply cannot shine - and thus, I fear, not survive...

I have become a big fan of Portela and will be sorry to see him leave the Legion. He was very talented in portraying beautiful and diverse images of the 31st century, whether it was Earth, Daxam or the Dominion.

My gut feeling is the main Legion title is sink or swim with Levitz at the helm. I hope the title takes off. There may be a mandate in place where some of the older Legionnaires are to be replaced by newer characters. Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Duplicate Girl, Bouncing Boy, Matter-Eater Lad, Sensor Girl, Colossal Boy, Chameleon Boy are relegated to part-time status. The development of the new characters will determine the success, or not, of the Legion in the near future.

This is what I never understood about the mandates. Why must 'new' Legionnaires be forced on the buying public? If established characters are loved why replace them with newbies? I mean the fresh perspective of a 'Kitty Pryde' makes for an interesting story arc and it is good to see a Sub or tryout member make the team but give the people their favorites. You don't see DC replacing Bruce because we need new characters. I want more Garth, and to think some new unknown character is going to do as much for sales and interest as a well loved respected character would is beyond stupid, in a business sense and storyline sense. You waste time getting to know characters you might never care for instead of diving in to new great adventures.

As with so many things, I see two sides;

On the one hand, a writer signs up for a job to write a book called the 'Legion of Super-Heroes,' he darn skippy should be planning on writing about the characters that fans of the Legion of Super-Heroes have known and loved for decades, and not just making up a bunch of new characters and sidelining the old ones (see, Liefield, Rob, taking over a book called 'New Mutants' and replacing four of the five characters with his own lame creations in the first month...).

On the other hand, every writer has favorite characters and concepts to explore, and characters and concepts that just don't 'speak' to them. Given a choice between reading a re-characterized version of a beloved character, that has gone through all sorts of changes to be more relatable for the writer who didn't get any inspiration from their original characterization and having that writer admit that 'Character X does nothing for me' and just writing them off-stage for a few years, and focusing on the characters that *do* speak to them, I think I'd rather have a writer focus on a pre-existing Legionnaire that they *do* 'grok,' than have a writer who never liked a character totally change them to suit their own personal aesthetic. (Jim Lee's redesign of armored British fashion model into an Asian ninja / acrobat springs to mind. How freaking hard would it have been for Wolverine to run into an *actual* Asian ninja with a psychic knife, who had nothing to do with Betsy Braddock?)

I can see where adding new characters can be a breath of fresh air, and I can also see where, at times, fans-become-writers, and drag everything back to the way they remembered stuff from their childhood, even if it means resurrecting Barry Allen or whatever.

Given a choice between someone coming along and replacing half the Legion with new characters, or someone dragging the Legion backwards and trying to recapture some previous era, I'm in the 'six of one, half-dozen of the other camp.'

One part of me loves new characters and concepts, fast and furious. Another part of me loves the continuity-porn of backwards-looking writers like Kurt Busiek.

In a team this big, new characters, IMO, should be added in small doses. There's already a *ton* of characterization that needs to happen, in a deconstructionist era where it takes 10 pages to tell two panels worth of story. The addition of a half-dozen new Legionnaires in a single year is just crazy, IMO, and slows down the pace of the actual story-telling, as so much more space (ideally) needs to be devoted to character beats.

Personally I'd hate to see Portela leave the Legion. He's done a great job this past year at the artistic helm.

Levitz has struggled in story telling a bit, but part of the problem is that he had just introduced the new Legion title just 16 issues before the big "new 52" relaunch. It's tough re-launching a re-launch. If management had just left the Legion alone since the book was just beginning to get it's footing instead of making Levitz stop and start again, the stories might have had better flow by now.

I think bringing on the Legion Academy as new members was a mistake, but I'm sure it part of the mandatory reshuffling that Levitz had to do to make the Legion "new" again. I personally hope that instead of killing off the new kids that most of them get sent down to the Legion Academy for more training.

Sales will go up with compelling story telling and artwork. Levitz and DeFalco just need to work together to make both Legion titles consistent and top notch.