Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Legion in X-Overs!! Pt. 5 War of the Eclipsed Gods:2001!!

Ok, we now enter a period of comics in which I had pretty much dropped off the comics scene for awhile. After the Levitz Legion was cancelled and turned into the V.4 Legion, I quit comics out of disgust. During the time I was gone, DC produced 3 crossovers that seemed to continue the formula of producing a story that appears big, but leaves little of consequence at the end. The Legion was left out of these three since it was still trying to explain what had happened 5 Years Later. This is a good idea, since I can't possibly see how the Legion could have crossed over with these three stories. Let's take a look-see shall we?

Armageddon 2001 -

The story - Waverider has arrived from ten years in the future where the earth is ruled by a despot known as Monarch. The twist is that Monarch is really a superhero and Waverider must find him before he becomes evil.

Legion in it? - Well, I only have the first issue of this one, but I don't think there's anything Legion related in the conclusion. Let me know if otherwise.

Legion crossovers - L.E.G.I.O.N has a great crossover in which Dox becomes pretty much worse than anything Monarch will be. Definitely recommended reading. Also, The Justice League Europe crossover has a funny Silver Age Legion appearance when the time-tossed Blue Jay accidentally interrupts some Legion try-outs. "Shrinking Violet with wings?" "What am I supposed to do with a flight belt?" Good stuff but not terribly essential Legion reaing.

Review - Can't say much about this one since I haven't read it all. Making Hawk turn out to be Monarch seemed like a silly idea. His villain identity (Extant) seemed even lamer. Is he even still alive?

War of the Gods -

The story - Circe tries to take over the world in this celebration of Wonder Woman's 50th anniversery.she does so by pitting pantheons of gods against each other.

Legion in it? - Again, I have only the first issue so I have no idea if anyone Legion-related shows up or not. Let me know if there were any appearances.

Legion crossovers - L.E.G.I.O.N. has one issue in which Lobo fights Captain Marvel. That seems to be about it.

Review - Having read the first issue, I can say that George Perez can do no wrong as an artist. Even though I have no clue what the heck is going on, it just seems grand and important because he drew it. As a writer, however, he left me confused and befuddled after one issue. I had no clue what was going on because I had never read an issue of his Wonder Woman before. I'm glad the Legion was kept out of this one.

Eclipso -

The story - Eclipso uses his black diamonds to turn various heroes into darker version of himself.

Legion in it? - I have no issues of the Eclipso series, but I understand that Valor is introduced to the DCU in it. I can't find copies of it anywhere. Can anyone tell me what kind of role Valor had in the series?


Legion crossovers - The L.E.G.I.O.N. annual had a pretty nifty story where Lady Quark gets "eclipsed". I picked this one up on a whim, became a L.E.G.I.O.N. fan and eventually came back to comics and the LSH for good.

Review - I have no clue about this one. Please tell me about it!


Next review - Legion crossovers return to the DCU just in time for Bloodlines!!!

The L.E.G.I.O.N. crossover ( Annual # 2 ) was the very first L.E.G.I.O.N. story I ever read, and I think it's one of the best. It's what got me into that book. My review of it in the L.E.G.I.O.N. thread was one of the longest I wrote, because I was so happy to be writing about it.

As for Armageddon 2001 # 2 -- there was nothing Legion-related in it that I remember. I resold it a long time ago because it's so bad. But it's a shame, because it probably was a good story until it was re-written and re-drawn at the last minute.

What happened was that Monarch was originally supposed to be Captain Atom, but some %%#%#$%##$ leaked that information before the issue was published. So they went back and turned him into Hawk.

The less I say about Extant and Zero Hour, the better, except that it turned Dan Jurgens into one of my least favorite writers in the world. Where is he now? Working at McDonalds, I hope.

I bought all four issues of War of the Gods, but none of the crossovers except for L.E.G.I.O.N. # 31. That's a great stand-alone story, because Alan Grant and Barry Kitson kept it simple -- Captain Marvel shows up, Lobo doesn't like him, they fight.

George Perez has frankly describes War of the Gods as "a cursed book." DC downplayed the 50th Anniversary of Wonder Woman, the crossover's original editor, Karen Berger, went into labor just as the books were being written and drawn, and her replacement (Tom Peyer, if I recall correctly) forgot to tell the other editors that there were supposed to be crossovers.

Perez should have simply done this story in the pages of the Wonder Woman monthly book, because there was potential for a good story here, but it went to waste.

I thought Eclipso was so bad, I've blocked any memories of it. As with Armageddon 2001, I re-sold the bookend issues a long time ago.

Interesting that both of us got into L.E.G.I.O.N. through an Annual. The thing that bothers me about Annual # 3 is that it has no ending, it's continued in...sorry, I can't remember right now which Annual had the next chapter. But the Armageddon 2001 crossover was different, it worked as a stand-alone story. That's why I reviewed Annual # 2, but not Annual # 3, because I didn't see the point of doing it, if it continues in another comic.

The story itself is actually pretty good. The best scene is the conference where Dox just can't help but act patronizing towards the people of Earth.

Yes, I loved that scene where Dox purposely bungles any chance at diplomacy with Earth. I think that was what sold me on the issue. Well, that and seeing Phase/Phantom Girl and Lady Quark - two characters I really liked at the time.

You're right about the open-endedness of the annual now that I remember. I can't recall being interested enough to see where it led, but I do remember leafing through the Eclipso book in the comic book store and noticing Valor/Mon-El. It's probably the one crossover I know the absolute least about. Oh well, doesn't sound like I missed much.

Great review on the Armageddon Annual, btw, Stealth. Just read it and I enjoyed it very much!

About 12 to 14 years ago I borrowed a friend of mine's L.E.G.I.O.N. issues and read them all for the first and last time. I remember really quite enjoying them at the time and would love to read them again one day.

To this day only 2 issues stick in my mind though - the issue which ended with Stealth getting a sword stuck through her by some blonde woman, and the Armageddon 2001 Annual. I have no idea why those 2 issues remain in my memory when I've forgotten all the rest but it must mean they were pretty good.

Re: Armageddon 2001, War of the Gods and Eclipso. Of these 3 big events Armageddon 2001 is definitely my favourite!

War of the Gods had so much potential to be good (I'm a huge George Perez fan, a huge mythology fan and Wonder Woman was my favourite comic at that time) but it was just a muddled mess.

Eclipso I only read a few of the Annuals of, but I didn't think much of it. It annoyed me that each Annual's story was continued somewhere else and I just got sick of seeing the same story retold endlessly - hero fighting friend to free them of the influence of Eclipso.

But Armageddon 2001 led to some very creative and interesting stories and I really liked the central device of having Waverider touch all the different heroes to reveal their futures. And I don't know if its just because I was in my own little comic-reading world back then and so had no idea that Captain Atom was so "obviously" going to be Monarch but I had no problem with the revelation that Hawk was the baddie. The motivation given made perfect sense to me and I loved the twists. Sure, it was a shame to lose a good character like Hank (and Dawn) but would people really have rather seen Captain Atom's character destroyed instead. He's a great character too and it would've been a shame to lose him. And if it hadn't been Hawk my then-favourite character (Roy Harper - Speedy) wouldn't have had the chance to say of Hawk "But he's one of us! A Titan!". I let out a whoop when I saw this scene. I think that was the first time Roy had popped up in a comic in about 5 years and I was thrilled!

And Armageddon 2001 was like Watchmen compared to the next crossover on SLK's list - <shudder> Bloodlines! Uuuugghhhhh that was BAD!

Waverider seems like a good enough character to resurrect for the upcoming INFINITE CRISIS or will that wussy Pariah be the focus as he was in the COIE maxi-series?

Thanks for the feedback on the review, SLK.

Blacula, the blonde woman who almost killed Stealth is named Ig'nea, and the issue it happened in was # 49. It mostly features Ig'nea and her merry band of murderous mercenaries. They even pushed the heroes off that issue's front cover (one of the best covers Barry Kitson has ever drawn.)

This Ig'nea, Stealth, was she nastier than Lydea Darkstar who killed her own mother (i thought nothing could top that piece of matricide!)?

Yes, Ig'nea was way nastier. Lydea had been brainwashed by Pulsar Stargrave into killing her mother, whereas Ig'nea was malicious through and through -- she escaped by threatening to kill Dox and Stealth's baby in front of them.

Dox almost lobotomized Lydea, but decided in the end to give her a chance at redemption. Lydea could have been a great anti-heroic character, but unfortunately, the book's creators brought in a truckload of new recruits and Lydea was unfairly neglected from then on. I'm thinking I might center my first Legion World fanfic around Lydea. By that time, the Infinite Crisis should be over and I won't have to worry about continuity.

Oh, what a bee-yatch!

War of the Gods - No Legion involvement, but Lobo's involvement went a little past L.E.G.I.O.N. # 31, he tracked Captain Marvel to Earth and fought some Amazons in Wonder Woman # 60, and then in the climax of the story, he was revealed to have a part in Shazam's master plan, though for the life of me, I can't remember what it was.

Armageddon 2001 - No Legion involvement, but the shame of it is, it would have been a GREAT place for a Legion crossover. That was the year that the Legion Annual featured the origin of Valor. Wouldn't it have been cooler for the "frame" of that origin story to have been Waverider looking into the future of the 20th-century Valor than that lame Dark Circle business we got?

Eclipso - It was Valor who discovered Eclipso's base on the far side of the moon, and he was the first hero to get "eclipsed." Then Eclipso held him in reserve until the story's climax, so he'd have someone who could figut Superman. When Bruce Gordon and that bunch de-eclipsed all the Eclipsed heroes, Valor's prolonged possession still linked his mind with Eclipso's and enabled him to sense that while everyone else was escaping, Bruce Gordon was still inside Eclipso, prepared to sacrifice his life to detonate a sunlight bomb, and he saved Gordon.

In that issue, Superman had a throw-away line that was meant to imply that this was when Lar Gand first took on the name Valor, but there are actually usages of the name for him that pre-date the Eclipso crossover (JLIQ # 5 comes to mind).