Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Legion of Super-Heroes #21 Preview/Review (SPOILERS!)

The United Planets themselves have suffered from this.

Apparently all it took to collapse civilization as they know it was a power outage, because they have literally *no* redundancies, and even worlds that had been previously portrayed as behind-the-times rat-holes, like Rimbor, are now composed exclusively of buildings so big and fancy and ultra-modern that they can't even stand up under their own weight without gravity control.

I guess 'redundancy' or 'backups' don't happen any more in the future, and nothing at all is 'built to code.'

I could totally get a near equal amount of damage from all the falling sky-cars (since recent portrayal of the future have sometimes shown the sky to be filled with hundreds of vehicles that don't look very aerodynamic, and would turn into people-occupied bombs if their power systems failed, barring some sort of mechanical or chemical backup systems, like parachutes or deployable wings or emergency one-shot landing rockets), but the buildings themselves? Falling? Stopping falling when the power comes back on, and then falling again when the power goes out again?

How does gravity even work in the future? Wouldn't the buildings have just fallen down in one dramatic moment and then stayed fallen? Why would they fall for what appears to be hours (since various non-super-fast Legionnaires have time to get from world to world to stand around helplessly and watch it happen and / or get beaten up by the Fatal Five) stop falling and then fall again?

After awhile, you'd think anything that was going to fall would have gotten around to doing so...

god, i so want to back to the 60's 70's and 80's and read decent stories about the characters I care so much about.....not this crap that we have to put up with now.....5 yrs later killed the Legion.

I read the issue again, in about 3 minutes. It's a bit more action-packed then the first couple issues in this storyline, but it's still sad. Violet and Dream Girl and Harmonia just sort of stand there; nobody (not even ultra-fast Jo!!) takes advantage of Ayla's destruction. They should have taken Persuader down fast! He didn't even have the advantage of surprise!

This is such a big contrast to the old Levitz story where Polar Boy, Colossal Boy, Dream Girl and face off against the Emerald Empress' new Fatal Five (Flare, Caress, Mentalla). No good tactics, no sense of drama - with the Legionnaires fighting so stupidly I don't really care what happens.

So is the prophecy of death uttered by Ferro Lad a prophecy for Jacques and Brek? Or death in general? Right now though I don't even care much for who will die - the Legion won't be around anymore anyway.

and agree about the whole last page thing. Would have been more dramatic if several other long-time missing Legionnaires had showed up.

And as EmeraldEmpress pointed out, where the heck are Dragonwing and Comet Queen? Are they counted among the dead now?

And Shadow Lass irks me to no end. "YOU?!" I don't like Chemical Kid much but he IS trying to help you!!

I would be so pumped if the Legion Lost team showed up for the fight, but alas, I think if they do return at all it will be in #23.

I don't think Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl are the only ones that Brainy summoned. It looked like he was putting some kind of plan in motion before his team landed on Earth.

I know there has been a lot of criticism of this issue so far from fellow readers, but I'm not going to worry about some of the finer critiques. Sure, this tale may not be as good as Levitz's work in his glory days, but it is a fast paced action packed read. I agree Levitz has stretched what had probably had been planned as a 5 part story into a 6 part epic, but I think that was because of the upcoming cancellation. At least this is fully a Legion story and not a forced crossover like the last few issues of Legion Lost turned out to be where DC threw in Superboy and the Ravangers along with the kitchen sink to either beef up sales or to try to lure Legion Lost readers to those other two titles. In Legion Lost the Legion got lost in their one title as they got crowded out by all of the guest stars. I feared that would happen here too with the Justice League coming in to save the day, but alas, after Giffen's comments stressing that the two books will have no connections whatsoever, I think we are safe with the Legion solving its own problems.

I do think Ferro Lad, Invisible Kid, Earth Man and probably Sun Boy from the dream dimension will team up with Polar Boy and Invisible Kid II to help save the day. Beyond that, I'm not sure who Brainy might have called up for reinforcements. I'd love to see Colossial Boy, Sensor Girl, Bouncing Boy, Night Girl and the seven members of the Legion Lost team make an appearance. This might even be a good time for Quislet to reappear. I bet he could do some damage on Tharok.

All in all, I've decided to just let Levitz take me on a ride for the next two issues. I know the end is coming, but I'm very interested to see how Levitz ties this all up.

If Levitz can write things so that Sun Boy and Star Boy and Mon-El and Duplicate Damsel and Phantom Girl all show up alive and well, the Legion Lost Seven return; and all former Legionnaires mentioned (Colossal Boy, Sensor Girl, Bouncing Boy, Night Girl, Matter-Eater Lad, Quislet) do too, IN A BELIEVABLE MANNER, I'll recant my expressions of dislike for the storyline.

Looks like somebody wants the Legion Archives for the holidays.

Think of it this way: Has this particular run ever been your beloved comic?

Either way, there's no need to feel like it's the end of the Legion. It's only on hiatus.

I feel like the Legion has been on hiatus for the last 20 years.

Actually, this whole retroboot Legion run from Geoff Johns work in Action comics through Paul Levitz' LSH and DeFalco's Legion Lost has felt like part of my beloved Legion from the 1980's, only the next generation of stories. Back then not all of the stories worked either, and I have to admit the revolving artists of today were better than when Keith Giffen rebooted everyone's costume right before the Magic Wars storyline. The art was so bad then that I hated to read every issue. Maybe that is why I dropped the Legion back then when Levitz left the book and Giffen took over.

Anyhow, while the current stuff may not have satisfied me all of the time, it is a worthy next chapter of the Legion and will be missed.

I'm sure others have said complimentary things of this run but I haven't really run across them to my memory. So I'm glad it pleased someone, but sorry for the fact that therefore you'll miss it.

I remember being excited about this run near its start, during the Superman in Action Comics run when they were facing off against Earth-Man and company. The Legion Academy stories were good too, and Legion Lost had a decent start. But around the time Titan blew up and the new Legionnaires were shoehorned in, I started being meh.

Here's an interesting review of LSH #23 from SciFiPulse for you all to read and argue over... http://scifipulse.net/2013/06/in-review-legion-of-super-heroes-21/

It seems this reviewer has a totally different take on this issue from many who have posted here at Legion World.

You do realize that some reviewers get paid to do a review, right?

Actually he's admitted to being to being a die hard Legion fan before, so it's no wonder his excitement gusheth over.

I just like to give folks another perspective to think about. Actually, I think this reviewer must be smoking something this time because Jeff Johnson's art isn't THAT exciting! Portela's cover might be though... I love how he does such detail on Ultra Boy and Brainy's hair for them being drawn so small. Plus this cover sure reminds me of Legion Lost #10. Even the sky is the same color. Levitz and DeFalco were on the same creative page here. It makes me wonder who inspired who or were these two plotting together some of the time about the future of the 31st century.

Just finished it; it was a decent battle issue, but it's still very difficult for me to have any kind of excitement or outrage or really much feeling whatsoever, knowing that it is going on hiatus.

In an effort to say something positive about this issue;

I kind of like the scene of Harmonia using her whirlwinds to lower herself and Nura to the ground.

I did like that, and also the scene of Lightning Lass blasting the Persuader, and Element Lad taking on the Empress.

It's a bit of a shame that nearly all of Tinya's run as leader has her being overshadowed by other Legionnaires.

(oh drat, so much for being positive :p)

Again, it was an OK issue, but not great nor terribly exciting.

I thought the issue was ok both in story and art. Considering the sales numbers are down and cancellation imminent, I don't think we can expect anything but fill-in art quality, but Mr. Johnson surpassed that - good for him (and us).

I enjoyed the action scenes. I am still disappointed a few questions have not been answered:

Where's Mano? What the heck do the Promethean Giants have to do with this story? What is the status of many Legionnaires (as mentioned in previous posts)?

There have been SO many loose ends unanswered the past three years in this title I am not expecting any resolution in the next two issues, but I hope we get to a satisfying stopping point in this run.

Bold predictions for the end of this saga, based on nothing:

Phantom Girl, while traveling through her phantom dimension. discovers the descendants of Lex Luthor and Mr. Mxyzptlk, who assist her. Answering Brainy's distress call, all the current and ex-Legionnaires magically appear, as do Phantom Girl and Lex thanks to Mxyzptlk. Mano also appears, quickly revealing he is the twin brother of Mekt Ranzz and in repentance offers to help the Legion. With amazing leadership skill from Phantom Girl, Lex Luthor takes down Tharok with a brilliant invention. A suddenly appearing Promethean Giant devours the Emerald Empress and after a green burp, suddenly disappears. Persuader is reduced to a bloody pulp by 20 angry Legionnaires.

Brainy entombs Tharok in his force field belt after removing the Tharok chip. Harmonia and Mxyzptlk reveal they have been dating for centuries and will leave the legion to get married, but not before all the dead and injured Legionnaires and the entire United Planets are magically restored to normal.

^ I would love for that to happen (although it does make liberal use of magic). At this point I've stopped caring too much about stories being resolved without deus ex machinas that I'd be happy for the chance at this run having a satisfying ending.

Might as well have the Heroes of Lallor also come to the rescue and make it a big end-of-series party. Or Tenzil saves the day by eating Tharok, since Tharok doesn't seem to be remotely human anymore.

I did like the use of Chemical Kid as medic under Brainy's tutelage and Shady showing some concern for Mon-el (final panel of #23: these two wrapped in embrace?).

Ugh. I can't even look past the hideous art to care what happens in the story.

And they might as well have the Legion Lost seven, the Subs, the Wanderers, XS and Kinetix, and the former Academy students (Nightwind, Lamprey, Power Boy, Gravity Kid) all show up and make it a mega party! Star Boy is found using his powers to make himself super dense under the rubble of Legion HQ, Comet Queen is cured of her brainwashing and comes on in, and Sun Boy is magically still alive somewhere.

Don't leave out Lightning Lad's missing original arm! It comes back and puts a strangle on one of the Fatal Four.

I just love how all of the readers jump ship once a title is cancelled. Check out the June sales figures: http://www.icv2.com/articles/markets/26148.html

At least Legion isn't selling as bad as Threshold, Batwing, Dial H and Vibe!