Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Omen & the Prophet

After the Great Darkness Saga, the Legion book was firing on all cylinders. Supergirl and Emerald Empress both returned, Karate Kid and Projectra got married and quit the team and even the Shrinking Violet imposter story had wrapped up.

And then we hear about a new 4 part story! What would it be about? Would it be as good as Great Darkness?

Sadly, even now, the answer is a resounding no.

This is basically three issues of the Legion versus Prophet and then the final battle with Omen in part 4. Did I mention that most of the action takes place on Khundia and that Dream Girl saves the day by setting off a bomb.

Basically that's the ENTIRE story.

The biggest problem I have with this is that it almost tried to be a WEAK copy of Great Darkness. I suspect the reason for this is that the Baxter series was about to come out and would lead off with ANOTHER multi-art storyline that we had already started seeing story bits beginning to play out.

There was NO lead in to the story. It just started and there we are in the thick of things.

The other problem was the art. This marked the beginning of Giffen's change of style. He was being more experimental here and it did not come off well at all. Everything looked splotchy and dismal. If you aren't going to have a strong story, at least have it look pretty. This one failed on both accounts.

To be fair, Levitz tried to connect this story to the Legionnaires. One of Invisible Kid's long-time friends was killed by Omen, but even that didn't really carry any sort of emotional attachment, more than likely because we had never heard Jacques mention this man before.

After this, I still don't know who Omen was, nor do I care.

Big thumbs down from me.

Next - the SuperVillain War!

I won't say I actually LIKE Omen & the Prophet, but I feel the same way about it that some people do about Magic Wars (which I think was the worst Levitz story and a dismal way to end his run.) I don't think it's quite THAT bad. I respect both Levitz and Giffen for experimenting (for Levitz seemed to me to be in as much an experimental mood as Giffen) even if their experiment ultimately blew up in their faces like one of Brainy's biggest failures. I will say that this is the point where I theorize that Giffen began to spin out of control to the detriment of the book, as I believe he has tended to do on every project of his, and I think that is probably why he left midway through the Super Villains War.

i actually really liked the Omen and Prophet stories. and i think using a bomb to destroy Omen is about the same as a baby being born with no relation to the legion that defeats Darkseid.

and the Magic Wars is also one of my favorite stories.

and i really like Giffen's style(S). these stories and the art set the mood of the future and what it is like to be there. the visuals and the stories were different, alot of legion history is more like the 20th century in the 30th century and not a true era unto itself.

Omen & the Prophet is not the best story ever but I certainly don't think its terrible, or bad even. It's certainly worth a reread and a welcome part of rereading the Levitz run for the art, character interaction and sheer amount of Legionnaires alone.

The part where the Omen and the Prophet come into play? Er, well, I tend to not think too hard on that. I like the usage of the Khunds a real lot here, and I like the espionage squad members (Tinya & Jacques) showcasing their abilities.

I think its a very fun story arc. And the next big story after GDS should not have been super-serious or complex either, so its a welcome change of pace. The stakes were still quite high within the story (re: to the characters), but we readers understood this wasn't exactly on level with GDS and Earthwar.

I think in the larger context of Legion history, this is probably better than 50% of the rest of Legion stories.

IIRC, I remember reading this was supposed to be a 3-parter and not quite as big a storyline as it turned out to be. Something else else happened where they stretched it out to 4 parts with back-ups stories in two of the issues.

I re-read Omen and the Prophet not too long ago. It's a four-part story that should have been two parts, featuring a villain who was meant to be so alien that we could never decipher his motives. Yes, experimental is the word for it. I think that Levitz and Giffen's ambitions both exceeded their aims.

Power Boy - I'm glad that you like the story as it's good to have someone with a different perspective. Why do you like it?

I will admit that I did not despise it the way I did the first time around.

well HHW: I will try but it's been awhile.

partly may be it's relation in my personal history with the legion, reading it for the first time around i had just missed the GDS the first time around and these were some of my first issues.

I did enjoy the galactic politics, the fleshing out of whole worlds. which was new to me in comics at this point.

Also, the lead up issues were great at building the suspense. (yeah better than the wrap up i guess)

I remember those 5 legionnaires being outmatched by Prophet. (Jo, T-wolf, shady, I kid .. and Vi (?) i forget) but still confident and professional. not so outmatched as they were against Darkseid or Omen. It didnt seem futile, they just had to figure something out.

That cool art where T-wolf flips at super speed to try and take out Prophet with a kick. Shadow Lass being the only one able to hurt him with her shadows. and I love how giffen draw her power effect, it just looked like darkness or shadows. not like a green lantern ring's energy. and poor Jaques, the new guy, who can only turn invisible. who also had a really cool design where he was mostly invisible but the lines in his costume, maybe even specially designed, to show off his power to a cool effect.

personally i do prefer giffen's earlier art, that guy can draw anatomy and intense background scenes, and it was still different .... like how when he drew the flying legion they look like they are being propelled rather than flying sometimes. I appreciate him reinventing things, seems like he asks himself 'how would this really look' rather than i'll draw them to look like everyone else draws them or how comics has always drawn people flying or using their powers.


i guess i just really liked how the story .... didnt turn down to a super hero battle of powers, but they still had plenty of showing off of powers. and i liked the way that the politics, and the future were fleshed ut through story and art.

yeah the later issues of the story the art got kinda wonky. but i thought it was a really cool image when dreamy dove for the bomb to pull the level. using her smarts to defeat a baddie rather than her super strength.

and these baddies were all the legion's not the 20th centuries.

I guess these type of stories are what i really liked about the legion in general, it's not the typical metropolis or new york city where the good guys fight their crazy arch nemesis and it dosn't have anything to do with the real world except random people get their homes blown up and their streets devastated.

when looking at them, even if giffen's later work is out there, it looks different, and when reading them you are immersed in a whole interconnected universe.

I agree with Mattropolis. I hated that story and art and I've never bothered to reread it. I thought it was ridiculous that after 4 issues of buildup, Dream Girl defeats the bad guy by pressing a button. It also made me mad that they ended Dream Girl's one year term after a calendar year in real time. How many years were Mon-El, Wildfire and Lightning Lad leader before her? 3 years each maybe?

I know that it seemed like Lightning Lad had been leader forever, and storyline wise, they made it seem like his tunure was shortened due to his illness at the time.

(I'm thinking of changing my name to He Hoo Wanders, just so people can get the acronym right. You're not the only one who does this. )

Thank you for your insight, PB. I never noticed the details you point out, such as Giffen's depiction of flight or the use of Timber Wolf.

You're right that at least Omen and the Prophet were the Legion's own villains and not connected to rest of the DCU, like Darkseid. Levitz and Giffen deserve credit for at least trying to come up with new Legion villains.

You've convinced me that O&tP wasn't as bad as I thought it was. I may have to re-read it again to see if my perspective has changed.

wel .... i could always learn how to read maybe that would help.HWW. I blame it on those old hooked on phonix commercials.


thanks HWW, i hope you can enjoy giffen more now! (since he's such a big part of legion history now) he's really good with playing with the cover titles too.

i just think when i picked up those issues that 'they look and feel different' just a different atmosphere....like it's the future!

anyways, i do think it is a shame he went so far with his style because he's really quite good at drawing the muscular typical super hero type body, like he did in the early days. i can appreciate it's different-ness and the mood created but, i prefer his clean slick earlier style.

I remember liking the ancillary parts of the story:

- Relnic trying to navigate Khund politics.
- "We're Pregnant"
- A Warlord challenging Blok for the title
- Jan and Shvaughn
- Tinya and Tasmia snarking about T-Wolf
- Val and Jeckie's Honeymoon (and set-up for LSV).

The actual Omen and Prophet stuff was pretty bland, but the other developments made up for it.

I've come to the conclusion that thinking about it as a story meant to be on par with GDS is probably not the best way to look at it. As has been pointed out so far, the best material in these four issues is the background, sub-plot stuff. These issues actually seem more in line with more recent styles of comic-book writing, e.g. the decompressed style of writers like Fan Favorite Brian Michael Bendis. The story plays out over a longer stretch of issues to leave more room for other stuff to happen (I totally agree with HWW that it could have easily been wrapped up in two issues).

As for the art, I have to admit that, at the time, I was pretty put off by it, but Giffen's weirder style really grew on me fast and by the Baxter series, I was really disappointed when he left the book.

Oh, I've enjoyed plenty of Giffen both before and after O&tP--although the art style he employed here was not among my favorites.

No, my main problems with O&tP were with the story, as I mentioned above.

The only good thing that came out of the whole Omen & Prophet story was the great characterization through writing of Dream Girl, in my opinion.
I really grew to admire her more during that storyline and the Darkness Saga one before that, but alas her leadership term as well as the focus on her were both short-lived.

On the other hand the artwork was excellent for me, some of Giffen's best work.