Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Legion #16 Preview

I'm pretty sure (per interview with Levitz?) there's supposed to be a "5 Week Gap" or something like that between this and the new series...

GD? Great Darkness?

someone ought to ask Paul Levitz to see if he actually uses the scorecard like he used to use when he was writing in 80s. Without scorecard, I can see how bad it is....tsk tsk.

oh is there the backlash or harsh word against Paul in facebook?

Harmonia Li. Didn't all this mess start because of the foolish experiment she and her colleagues did at the Time Institute? Now after lives are lost and worlds are wrecked, she takes Brainy's arm and says, "Perhaps we shall see if I belong with the Legion."

Earth-Man, now her. Are there no consequences for people who kill or cause the deaths of others?

Levitz can weave together some interesting plot ideas, but the core of the story seems to be hollow. Or maybe I'm missing something. I should read this 16-issue run as a whole and see if I feel differently.

In her defense, Harmonia Li half-heartedly suggested it was a bad idea, before letting them do it anyway.

While her actions were anything but heroic, that day, the dudes who are actually responsible for turning on the time-viewer both died in the aftermath.

IIRC, they were aliens as well. Kind of odd after a storyline about earth-xenophobia for so many consistent portrayals of alien prisoners breaking out of Takron-Galtos and all the prison guards being human, of a human-looking time researcher trying to talk some obviously alien researchers out of blowing up Titan, Durlan assassins killing the human SP chief, etc.

These last 16 issues seem to be suggesting that the xenophobes are right...

If she could wave her hand and slam Dream Girl against a wall, she certainly could have stopped her colleagues from completing the experiment. And with her "immortal" wisdom, she should bear the greatest responsibility for the consequences.

So EM just gets a power boost from the last Green Lantern... suddenly he can absorb everyone's powers at once...blue guy & EM go boom! No explanation of how Star Boy Dreamy & Harmonia Li show up or what they are doing

Partially cross posted from the DC LSHMB.

Compare this issue with the last chapter of The Great Darkness Saga, I counted 77 word balloons in 20 pages in LSH #16, LSH #294 hits 77 word balloons at 10 pages. Doesn't Paul get paid by the word?

Ah, got me there. I didn't know she had any super-powers.

(The largest city in backwater NH doesn't get comics until Thursday afternoon, so I haven't seen it yet.)

That's actually a surprise. Li having had the power to stop this whole thing from happening in the first place, ends up making the story *even more lame than I'd thought.*

What projects did Phil do for DC after they pulled him off of Academy?
What a mistake!

I think that Paul really needs a Phil or a Barry, someone with ideas and the ability to 'fix' all of the inconsistancies and lame stuff, either with suggestions or illustrations, before they turn into a mess, like most of the last 16 issues.

Tasmia, since she blames everyone for not liking EM, what an idiot, sigh, she'll probably be one of the Legionnaires who resigns.
She'll go home and become a nun because of her deep, undying love of a psycho, that spanned a couple of months.

I was prepared after reading comments here to hate the issue, but oddly enough I didn't. Not that I adored it, as it was a fast and predictable read, but I did find it adequate to the purposes of wrapping this randomness up. The bad guy was defeated (even if I don't even have a name for him) and somebody died, which was about all I expected coming into the issue. With those standards, low as they were, I don't feel as cheated.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">I'd mourn Earth-Man, except I always think back to Johns' Earth-Man and the crimes he committed. Really sours anything heroic he's ever done the whole book and I still don't buy into him as a genuine hero, no matter how many tears Shadow Lass cries.</span></span>

I think a lot of the things that people are harping on I've just grown used to from the book already. It's easier for me to digest too knowing that there's a bit of a new direction coming to hopefully add some interest back into the team. With our deceased Legionnaire gone and the Green Lantern story elements removed, things can only go up in my opinion. I'm more worried about the cast of Legion Lost than the cast of the core book right now anyway.

I haven't read this book yet - but am I correct in thinking that the blue baby never gets a name? So the big bad of this whole series is just some random unidentified blue baby? What a joke!

As disappointed as I've been with Levitz's writing though - I wouldn't blame this on him. I think it's been as plain as day to everyone that that baby was meant to be Krona - who also happened to just be killed off last month in 'The War of the Green Lantern Corps' story over in GLC. I wonder if an editor didn't step in here and prevent Levitz from using that character since he had just been killed off so recently somewhere else?

Blacula, I can almost buy that, I think... Plus, I seriously doubt Levitz was wanting to write a Green Lantern story and can't blame him for turning Absorbancy Boy into a well-known character... I can almost believe TPTB forced the GL and Earth Man stories upon Levitz and us.

So I'll spread this blame equally between them.

That I enjoyed LSH ACADMEY so much more is likely because of less interference by TPTB and more Levitz being able to do what HE wants to do, and especially with the assist of a Jiminez-level talent to co-launch with.

I think it's really ironic that...

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Earthman's forarm is shown on the first issue of this series as well as the last.</span></span>

Oh well, it's over. On to the new NEW series #1!

It's not clear if the blue baby (now grown) is Krona or not - he mentions "evil loosed on the universe by Krona's crime", but is he talking about himself in the third person, in that tried-and-true villain (or Sodam Yat) fashion, or is he something else?

It was a wrap-up issue; as others have said, a quick read and not entirely fulfilling. After such a long battle with Saturn Queen, it's suddenly over, with a lot of nothing-really-happening pages.

One problem is <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">I never warmed up to Earthman, and never thought he was really trustworthy - and there was that reference in the previous issue about how he could easily be brought over to the LSV. So his death didn't have much impact other than good riddance. If he'd been around longer, proven himself, established friendships with someone besides Tasmia, it might have been different. Also, I haven't really enjoyed Tasmia's behaviour in this run.</span></span>

I hadn't thought about the fact that Harmonia Li could have stopped the destruction of Titan, based on what she's done since - maybe it's just a glitch we have to overlook. Or maybe she can't interfere with free will.

Still, it was okay to see her arm-in-arm with Brainy at the end, whether they're just companions or she's making a move on him.

It looks like the GLs are going to be around in the 31st century. I hope they keep to the background.

One more thing: the art in these "final" issues sometimes leaves something to be desired, but I thought this artwork was fine. Thin on the background detail (which I like) but no complaint otherwise.

Some say ironic, others say nicely circular...

So, for Legion 'endings,' we've had;

A badly drawn children's watercolor version of Mon-El punching the universe out of existence.

A conga line of Legionnaires fleeing the universe they failed to save.

A writer so ashamed of his work, he signed it 'Justin Thyme' failing to deliver anything from the solicit.

And now this. I guess, in retrospect, it's better than the average Legion 'end.'

I think I'm gonna stick to the definitive Legion 'end' being the last page of Superboy's Legion.

This felt very much like "wrap up everything before the reboot", even if Legion's not actually being rebooted much. The entire GL plot is probably abruptly cut off because of the NewDCU--there's no way to use GLs in the future if we don't even know what the GLs are like in the present, or if Paul even still has permission to use GLs at all.

The Earth-Man "redemption" was also stupid (and I still haven't seen a good explanation for Shady liking him) and incidentally got rid of another pre-NewDCU loose end.

And what's Harmonia Li doing as a good guy? Helping blow up Titan should disqualify anyone from Legion membership. (Of course, if she's immortal, she does have a power.)

Jim Shooter had his story abruptly cut off by management 4 issues from his intended ending. Don't blame him.

well to be sure Ken...i'm not sure it would have been well received if Jim's plans saw fruition such as having Invisible Kid have a sex change....*totally serious...read Jim's ideas he wanted to fulfill on his blog*

I didn't. I have no idea who wrote that issue.

Whoever wrote it thought so little of it that they wouldn't sign their name to it, which is all I was saying there. Nothing about Shooter.

Lyle was supposed to have a sex change, but worse, much worse, imo, was Jeckie going insane, turning Brin into a lap dog and raping one of the heroes (Superboy, IIRC) and getting pregnant from the act and that was somehow going to allow the future Legion to have a possible chance to save the future.

That sounds like utter garbage of a story!!

If this is true, I can see why DC pulled the plug.

A supposed outline of that story was posted here:

http://www.legionworld.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=11;t=000911

I have to say, it actually sounded interesting on paper.

...though it would probably have made a better Elseworlds, what with all the drastic changes to characters like Lyle, Jeckie, Brainy, Brin and Cos.