Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Adventure Comics #516 - SPOILERS

Preview up at CBR:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=5729&disp=table

Looks like a bit of a crossover with the main books timeline after all.

Well, it looks like fans of Legionnaire-slapping should be satisfied!

It's only an arm slap though...

Love the Naga.
Maybe we'll see a retroboot version of Sneckie!
Yum!

The presence of Garth and Brainy together places the story after the events of "The Choice." Considering how much the Espionage Squad interacted with Mon-El at Brande's behest, kind of surprised he was not included in the will reading.

I like it so far!
Can't wait to hear the rest of Brande's story.
This two Legion comics a months could really grow on me, provided Paul Levitz keeps writing them of course.
I'm off to my local CBS to pick up my copy.

Uh... so why was it necessary to get <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Superboy to listed to Brande's will and not Superman...</span></span>

I feel that only made things more confusing, as opposed to serve an actual plot point. Unless something is coming up next issue...

On another thread, I expressed some displeasure for comments Levitz made distancing himself from Legion of 3 Worlds and other recent stories. Maybe I was wrong. The Legion story in Adventure #516 clearly tried to pick up on plot lines from L3W and Last Stand. The result was convoluted. I also agree with the confusion expressed by thinbaliion in the spoiler box above.

This further revision of the Legion's origin story serves only to distance this version of the team from previous incarnations. I've been rebelling against the notion that this is a return to the "original" Legion for a long time now. This story just reinforces my position. The new take on Brande's speech pattern is irritating beyond belief.

On the plus side, we get the welcome return of a classic supporting character. We also get a new take on Durlan powers that is helpful in explaining past inconsistencies.

I enjoyed the Atom second feature. I debated, while at the comic book store, on buying the Atom: Brightest Day special that leads into this story. I decided to read this issue first, and go back later for the special, if warranted. I will be going back for it. It's not needed to understand this story. However, the back up feature was tightly scripted and interesting. It is still occasionally possible to find clarity and straightforward storytelling in comic books.

This story was unnecessarily confusing.

I hope there's some payoff later on as a result, but I can't see how this story would make the Legion any more accessible to new readers if even us veterans are feeling this way. Paul should really concentrate on stories that don't contradict the past and just tell us some great stories.

Okay can someone tell me what is with Brande's new speech impediment?

It's hard to speak clearly when you're dead?

Paul Levitz mentioned something about giving Brande the same speech patterns as a old sci-fi character he's fond of. I'll have to look for the interview to tell you which one & from what book.

Overall I liked what Levitz did to the traditional origin in giving it more background. Tweaking/expanding pre-existing continuity is probably what Levitz does best. I like this better than the usual 3 kids save RJ Brande...if I had to read it again.

The deal with Superboy instead of Superman is confusing. I chalk it up to them going and getting a younger version of Superman than the one they had most recently teamed with at the request of Brande.

Technically speaking they could have gone all the way back and brought the Superboy from Adv 267 if they had wanted. Actually they could hacw gone and brought a pre Adv 247 if they had truly wanted. Yes it is confusing but I imagine they are used to this sort of thing with all the time travel they do.


BTW, I don't see a thread for it, but the Subs/Inferior 5 team up in B& B was a really fun read.

Perhaps he's talking about Scotty from Star Trek?

just think of this legion as superman is now....restored somewhat to his pre-crisis history....somewhat..not an exact analog but very very close. after all Ma kent is still alive... she wasnt in the original history when Clark became Superman (and i'm sure one of these days we'll see Jonathan back to life as well). So yes ...its the 'original' legion but with some history tweaks for the new Infinite Crisis timeline.

by the way did that brave and the bold issue with the subs come out?????


I did like some of the new bits of history we got to what we already know...that will keep the title boring. I admit i want RJ to talk normal like he "used too" but i'm sure it will grow on me. I wonder if Superboy is wondering why his friends are so old looking LOL.

The B&B issue with the Subs came out the same day as Adventure #516, but it was sold out at my LCS so I called and went to another comic shop across town to get it. It's a fast seller.
I won't spoil the fun for you about the story!

I was also left a bit confused and surprised after reading #516, but you know what, it could have been worse. It was a "soft" change to Legion history compared to everything else in my opinion.
Let's not bash Paul too hard for his attempts to rectify and tie together a gajillion different writers' messes made by recent Legion storytelling in the past few years.

Vatinhell??

Brande sounds like a cross between Gambit and Jean Clod Van Damme-he's-a-poor-actor.

As well as the Superboy rather than Superman thing which really seemed silly, I was jarred by the flashback of the founders going into the headquarters and talking about whether they could achieve ... and there was Brainy and Superboy - both of whom joined well after the founders had proven the worth of the Legion.

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Brainy may have joined the Legion later but he is shown here having a relation with Brande before the Legion started, which isn't against cannon, origina or retroboot, that I can tell anyway.
And I like the idea, it makes sense.

Bringing Superboy to the adult Legion was a little confusing at first, but easily gotten past, I feel.

I LOVED the Brande story of Durla, the Bottle City and the 6 Minute War that changed them from the golden people we've seen in the recent Brainiac story and the original take on them outwardly, into the beings we sort of remember from the reboot.
Nice job, I think, combining the two.

I soooo enjoyed seeing Brande's original self and his trys to leave Durla.
Dragons are a favorite of mine, as well as Nagas, so I was in heaven.
(Some of his incarnations remind me of dragons I posted in the Legion Worlds and other Bits threads!)

We've had discussions of how Durlan powers work here and this story certainly encompassed those ideas!
It leaves things totally open for Cham and Yera, imo!

The beginning of the Time Institute was great, and I think we even see the face of one of the Super Companions, don't we?

The accent even stopped bothering me, too.
Instead of Scotty, maybe Paul is thinking of the Chef from the Muppet Show?!
lol

I'm not sure when this takes place in the timeline but I'd guess it's before Mekt and the blowing up of Titan.
Does it say?
I'll have to read it again anyway!

I feel so blessed this week, with Adventure, dotREBELS and Brave and Bold!

I, myself, think it's a wonderful hopping on spot for newbies.
No one ever said that Superboy couln'd go to the adult Legion time period, after all!
The adult LSV came to the teen group of Legionnaires, didn't they?

I loved it, although the art was spotty.
It was a nice, simple vehicle to spotlight the Legion's origins for new readers.
It was great to see Marla Latham & Circadia Sinius!
I found RJs odd speech patterns rather charming by the end of the story.
I think Superboy was used becaused the story in Adventure is more or less from his POV.

I don't think this was any different than Secrets of the Legion right?

I thought it was a decent story that served well to introduce newer readers to the Legion's origin and give them a little insight into the characters that make up its foundation. Nothing really surprising for the long-time readers, though. I was really hoping that there would be some surprising bequeathals in the will. What we saw was pretty unsurprising overall, and there seemed little reason for all those Legionnaires to be present.

Brande's stipulation about Brainy being there was pretty cute, though! I also enjoyed how Brande was so grateful to Brainy for having made the technology possible to bring Superboy to him. (I wonder how those comics got on the New Durla, though?

well he did meet the legionnaires when they were clearly in their early 20s while he was still 16 (remember the legion of super-heroes 300?) )

=not talking about first meeting just that issue.

I am surprised that the issues most people seem to have with the story were Brande's odd (and annoying) speech pattern and Superboy rather than Superman being used. Superboy made sense since it was primarily the younger Kal-El that Brande knew. And (while annoying) the speech patterns of a character (unless it is iconic like Yoda's style of speech) can be grouped with clothes and hair styles as far as importance/consistency goes. My biggest dissapointment was that Levitz contradicted his own story (from LSH Annual #2 Vol 2). He was the one that established that the 6 Minute War occured durring the time of the ancient Greeks and now he has moved it to sometime in the future? Further, he establishes that the mutations after the war are responsible for the Durlan ability to shape-shift.... What about CiJi and every other Durlan that has been shown to be a shape-shifter in the current DCU time? All in all the story was very dissapointing to me and I would think confusing to the new readers that it is supposed to be aimed at.

So, an entire issue dedicated to expanding the Meltzer and John's Earth-is-for-bigots retcon all the way back to pre-Legion founding.

What a freaking waste. Twenty pages of explaining away an ill-conceived retcon. It's like Pocket Universe Superboy all over again, entire comics devoted to trying to explain senseless changes.

Other thoughts, after a re-read;

Brainy came to Earth to join the Science Police? Whoa. That's new. This boot continues to diverge. Imra's an orphan. Garth's parents are alive. Brainy was in police training. I wonder if anything major has changed about Rokk? Perhaps he's got a sister named Polla who's gonna hook up with Ayla? Maybe he's a Carggite / Braalian hybrid and we'll see a third of him in R.E.B.E.L.S. soon? Maybe he's really a clone of Xorn, pretending to be the real Xorn, impersonating Magneto?

Cockroaches, cockroaches, Circadia Senius is described as a 'big cockroach.' That's gotta be deliberate. Is Brainy's anti-cockroach thing some sort of lingering resentment of Senius?

I like Brande's secretary with the four arms and the spots-for-hair and funky hair-jewelry-horns-stuff. He's got a hell of a lot of Livestrong bracelets on, 'though. For a race with a snake-bottom, you'd think they wouldn't have that much trouble with testicular cancer...

Did Brande think he was fooling anyone with that speech? He must have given away that this was a live performance and not a recording three separate times, most egregiously when the 'recording' reached out to take his secretary by the arm. "Oh, at this point in the speech, I'm gonna impulsively reach out to grab you. Make sure to stand right here, or else it'll look like I'm having some sort of seizure or something. And don't die before me, 'cause I'll totally have to reshoot this with the new guy..."

(Just gonna let the fact that a hologram grabbed someone slide, since maybe it's one of those Star Trek 'hard light' holograms, no matter how silly that notion is.) Everything about that screamed 'Brande is still alive,' even without Cham's ridiculous wink and look-at-the-camera moment at the end with the quip about bribing Cerebus.

Cham didn't help, looking alternately bored and annoyed throughout the speech, followed by being in an inexplicably good mood and all smiles at the end.

Imra, "I know you were upset during the speech, being reminded how your deadbeat dad abandoned you on Planet Hell with his sister while he flew off to explore the universe and become a mega-gazillionaire, but why are you smiling now?"

Reep, still smiling, "I remembered he's dead."

Universo was in the collection of time-scientists queued up for Brande's grant-money, in the panel below the surprisingly buff Marla Latham. A cute detail, given his son's later work for the Time Institute.