Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Legion of Super-Heroes #7 (2020) - Preview and Spoilers

Via Buzzcomics.net which is via Adventures In Poor State -

Translation for the Interlac -
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ENERGY RELEASE
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IS NOT A THING.

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Heh, well. It was a nice speech from Cos (almost like the Cosmic Boys of old). But whoo, the timing.

Are we missing Jeckie (and the always-invisible Invisible Kid) from that splash page?

I like the reference to "why were these villains searching for the trident in the first place?!?!?!" in Wildfire's narration. Also the reference to his Preboot origin, interested to see if the no-dupe clause thing will still be in effect...

I think Cos just comes off as really buffoonish here.

I do agree its nice to see the mystery of why everyone else wanted the trident acknowledged.

I wish we had a clearer idea on how long this Legion has been around. I thought they were supposed to be newly formed, but apparently Wildfire has had time to be rejected and then earn membership?

Bendis-speak really doesn't suit Wildfire much at all.

I also find it a bit odd that Cos is using his powers the ENTIRE time he is speaking. And yes, I agree re buffoonish: it's not like it's a matter of life-and-death urgency, common courtesy and common sense dictate that they would, I don't know, ask the President privately if they could address General Nah... and bringing the whole Legion along? uh... yeah. These kids make me roll my eueseyes a lot.

Yes, Cos certainly does like to announce that he's leader of the Legion and present his agenda wherever he goes.

Maybe he is just bragging, but if Wildfire loses his suit, it's not just dissipated energy but nuclear winter?

Translation of the interlac in this issue #7:

Note that i wrote the translation the exact same way it it written in the book.

Please, Read the issue first of course, as i used what was written on the page in the issue (the location the action takes place on that page!) to describe from what page i was translating !

LOL at the vaccination bit.


Hrm. More ambiguity as to whether Ayla is Light Lass or Lightning Lass. Though judging by the art when she uses her power, she's Light Lass... Kind of annoys me, it's an important detail about the character!

Fritchman tag annoyances for me -

Gold Lantern is shown with a GREEN lantern icon and not his own?!? That was also the perfect opportunity to give his name, homeworld and powers instead of just an icon there was plenty of space.

Phantom Girl is shown with Princess Projectra's icon even though we've seen her real one in issue #2.

And would it have hurt to give readers a chance to vote for the leader? I guess it would have screwed up Bendis' "storyline," but I feel like it was a missed opportunity to engage and invest the readers more.

Why have we've been introduced to Crav more times than the we have the Legionnaires? Tell me who skeleton-person is! I mean not even an icon when everyone else and their brother gets one.

What I did like -

The Legionnaires all avoiding Rokk and Imra's argument.

The Heaven scene(s) reminded me of Lightle/Levitz era gatherings. Missed those. And the art in general had a bit of a Moy feel, so I missed Sook, but enjoyed the art.

Lot's of "Long Live the Legion!" moments.

Yeah, I'm disappointed with the lack of reader leader elections as well, though considering we've barely met 3/4 of the team, I'm not sure how well they'd work. Apparently this version doesn't have a Constitution to determine when it's election time?

Wasn't Mon-el already introduced to Superboy as "Mon-el"?

Random thoughts:

1) No obvious differences between the Trips' trips. I do appreciate the (slow) focus on other Legionnaires...

2) I agree, the President has something planned... that was quite an 180.

3) Imra is fast becoming a favorite. love how she yelled at Cos... this Cos is probably the WORST version of Cos ever. Indeed, I agree with Imra, he's a whiny athlete. Guh! Glad he pointed it out though: Brainy indeed doesn't ask, he just does! But that's more a sign of Cos' weakness than anything else... Not sure what to think about Imra excusing Brainy not asking though. Yes, I agree he's the smartest, but... Man. Neither Cos nor Imra nor Brainy have any emotional intelligence whatsoever. This isn't going to go well.

And yes, Rokk running at the end. I can get he's upset, but past Cosmic Boys would have been upset yet stood their ground. Sigh. This Rokk is realistic, but so different from Past Rokks.

I did chuckle at how only Tasmia (girlfriend), Supes (new guy) and Garth (still the best friend) voted...



4) I did LOL at all the references to cultural exchange. I applaud how Legionnaires preface things with "well on MY world it's offensive..." Having been in a very international Master's program, I had to go through that a lot.

5) "You got us OFF Winath." Heh. Coming from a developing country that has at least 10% of its population abroad... I can relate. My gosh. I know so many Filipinos who would do almost anything to be able to migrate out of the country. And other countries too, I know many people from India, Brazil, Nigeria, Indonesia, Pakistan etc. who feel the same... Bendis definitely got that part right.

6) The Ayla/Garth convo felt very real. Just like a brother and sister.


7) Having so many snacks and drinks at the Legion meeting was both funny and reflective of real life practices.

8) Ugh, still annoyed about the whole "Mon-El's secret connection to Sueprboy" thing!

9) Respect to Ultra Boy. This one's not a dunderhead, but also not a Gary Sue like the 5YL one turned out to be. I like his sense of responsibility re the whole Rimbor situation.

The group shots and scenes are great; I like the chatter and banter in the Heaven/vote scenes. In fact, I like all the dialogue: good exchanges between the Ranzz family, the Trips and Monster Boy and the argument between Imra and Rokk, with Brainy butting in. The cultural exchange moments are good, they're light; the group must not have been together very long based on some of the questions asked and the way they keep introducing themselves. Yet we've seen them fight, in previous issues, in a manner that suggests some teamwork.

The team is very impulsive, but maybe that's following Cosmic Boy's lead. I do not like this Cosmic Boy, which is okay; there's some personality to latch onto and dislike. At this point, only Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Ultra Boy, Brainiac 5 and the Ranzz twins strike me as distinctive personalities. We haven't seen or heard enough of the others as individuals. The first page in which individual members appear gives us information about them, but I don't get much feel for what they're like. President Brande is also distinctive but she's slippery, as a politician might be.

Stephen Byrne's art flowed smoothly from Sook's - none of that jarring difference when new artists arrive on a book.

We just haven't advanced very far from the first issue in terms of action. The fight with Crav has been simmering all along, the friction with Brande keeps going back and forth. I'd like to see a resolution. All that fuss about the trident and the oceans seems like a side issue now, unless it's going to be picked up and have some importance later.

I recently caught up with the Bendis-Legion starting from their first appearance on Superman all the way through Millennium and the latest issue of the new ongoing.

I've mostly enjoyed all of it. Plots moving at a glacial pace are part and parcel of a Bendis comic but for the most part he manages to keep things entertaining. I'm a very recent Legion fan and while I have grown to love the original team thanks to my recent read-through of the Levitz and Giffen runs, I guess I still have an open mind about seeing different interpretations of the characters.

I do however think back to Mark Waid's Threeboot Legion and think he did a much better job fleshing out a bigger number of characters, adding clever spins to their origins and personalities in the same amount of issues, while under Bendis most of the team is still a total tabula rasa to the point I still don't know who some of the characters are just by reading the book unless I cross-reference previews, character designs from Sook and interviews.

One thing we've been spoiled with is the art: I have already praised Ryan Sook in previous posts and I'm glad to say the guest-stars, whether it's Janin or Byrne, have been just as top-notch. I'm very much looking forward to the jam issues coming up, and also hope they will provide a proper intro to every single character which is long overdue after almost a year.

A couple of thoughts:

1) Cham puzzles me. I found his "alien clueless about basic stuff" schtick a bit amusing (though I feel like we've seen it before, so...), but I'm not sure how it fits with the idea that his mom is President of the U. P. You would think he would be a lot more knowledgeable about other cultures, given that fact.

2) Imra's casual invasion of the minds of others kind of annoys me. I mean... her going to far with her powers and invading the privacy of her fellow members is kind of a standard Imra story, but it usually starts with a background of "she ought to know better". For it start as a cultural norm for her just feels off to me.

v8 Issue 7

From Wildfire's introduction, there seems to be more of a past to a lot of the applicants to the Legion. We're seeing them on their first day or so, as Superboy arrives. Prior to that, Drake has not been cherry picked. He's applied, has been rejected and subsequently proven himself to be Legionnaire quality.
It's a bit of a wasted page, as the 6 prior issues have consisted of skirmish with some grunts called the Horraz, with Jo's dad, and use a Aqua-Macguffin to restore oceans around Earth (which sounds more exciting typing it, than the payoff was in reading it unfortunately). Nothing you couldn't build into a panel or two of dialogue, if required.

I thought Rokk got thrown under a Mayavale Space Train a bit. He's no real need to apologise. But he sees a bigger picture of galactic understanding, and diplomatically tries to accept any blame if the Legion were at fault for any misunderstanding. He's dismissed by the personality flipping Brande. Yet, when Jon does it, Brande is cooing away at his every word.

The Legion were happy enough to follow Rokk into the UP chamber to do this. Brainy's more direct approach didn't work out either. Yet, Rokk's the one who's told that it's fine for Brainy to act alone, that he's wrong to have any concept of thought privacy, that there should be another election (how long after the initial election is this one?) 5 minutes after the full team has gathered. He's then voted down in favour of a guy who has issues with the way the Legion "declared war" on the villain. That's not to mention Brainiac 5, who a number of the team think is really in charge anyway.
It's a shame he left, without being able to get his point across. Perhaps this version has to take a few knocks before he's seen as leader material by the others. Having flown away, he's in the perfect position to save-the-day against Jo's dad. He has Shadow Lass and Garth on his side at least. A couple more friends would have added a fuller split in the team dynamic.

A confrontation with the UP Chamber and an election is about all there is story wise this issue. A last page appearance by a possible villain may provide a bit more action next time round. As the entire Legion seems as though it has to be within five feet of each other, or they explode like a Terrifics/ Suicide Squad crossover, I don't give the new villains much of a chance. The team could do with a challenge though, and there are (fatal) five of them.

There are lots of fun character moments, and cultural friction. Mon's reaction to Supes being nominated; foodstuffs and voting protocols. Imra's telepathy allows the reader to get a deeper character infodump, and through her conversation, we get to know more about Brainy's approach too. We learn little morsels of several of the cast and more on Garth and Ayla's family. The group scenes allow for lots of snipes, but when they go anywhere, it's a bit mob handed.

The art continued to be very good, not dropping off too much from Sook. It's another issue that would be more enjoyable in the trade than a stand alone.

The Gold Lantern variant cover was going for ?40 ($52.32)! I laughed, but then started wondering if the shop knew about the amazing origin Gold Lantern is supposed to have. I can't wait to hear about it!

Yeah this group was doing ok for me until this issue. Reading Thoth's comments and thinking back it gave me a bit of a Threeboot vibe where they all do their own thing and don't show much in the way of maturity. Only a bit. Nowhere near as much but a bit. Fair enough in a way I suppose, they are meant to be young and still maturing and most of the issues have shown more camaraderie and excitement than otherwise.

I do feel Rokk got thrown under the bus. As Thoth says I don't think there was that much difference between Rokk's speech and Jon's yet the writer obviously intended for us to see them as night and day. Rokk's comments were apparently a bit ill-timed but he had no way to know that and modern fiction is full of people making heroic speeches in spite of being told to be quiet they are interrupting.

Still Rokk flying off in a tantrum was one of the most character driven moments we have had yet (even if it felt a bit off) which perhaps shows how much this team has lots of "young, excited, occasionally angsty" moments but very little to distinguish between individuals and show character development. Bendis is doing much better over on Superman but I suppose those are all developed characters so he and all of us know how they are likely to react and his writing fits well. Perhaps that is the problem. Maybe he doesn't have a very good grasp on the team's characters and personalities himself and is making it up as he goes along. Don't know, but it's interesting that the President has had as much or more showtime as any individual legionnaire and yet, apart from Cham's comments to Brainy, we still don't have any real grasp on where she is coming from. In fact, as Thoth said, her personality flip-flops. I still hold out hope that Bendis has some larger plan that is working out at his glacial speed but we have seen from other writers how much character can be developed in very few pages. Oh well. Still glad to have the comic and better than nothing, even better than some previous iteration in my opinion.

It seems to me that the Legion works best when the core Legionnaires, at least, fit into fairly well-defined archetypes (often ones that correlate with their powers). So, Cos typically has "a magnetic personality", Jo is "the kid from the wrong side of the tracks", Brin is "the lone wolf in search of a pack", Tenzil is the "one with a big mouth", etc. One doesn't need to stick slavishly to these, and there's plenty of room to add nuances or subvert our expectations in different versions, but I think it's a good idea to keep most of the Legionnaires fairly consistent across different versions. And it usually doesn't take that much to signal who's who, or who fills which role. The thing is that with most of the current version of the Legionnaires, I don't feel like I have any feel for who they are at all. And the small number that I can, like "teen activist Ayla", just don't seem to have much in the way of connection to prior incarnations at all. So I'm just not feeling much connection to any of them at all.

Interesting. I had never thought of connecting legionnaire's powers to their personalities. Food for thought. That's it exactly. Personally I can see "teen activist Ayla" connecting to her portrayal in the later Levitz run and can view her Adventure portrayals as more reflecting the viewpoints of the tale tellers than her "real" personality, but your point still stands. Seven issues should be more than enough to begin to get a feel for at least some of the legionnaire's personalities and for most of them it just isn't there.

I've been going through these issues on readcomiconline because I'm a glutton for punishment, and it amazes me again how no one was apparently editing these issues before their release.

I'm seeing Garth and Ayla arguing in one panel, then in the next the two are suddenly hugging. But in the panel afterwards it's Garth being hugged by the two Ranzz moms, and I think Byrne got confused and was supposed to draw Garth hugging his flesh-and-blood body mom in the second panel.

A few pages later Ayla's sitting next to Garth out of costume, then is seen standing next to Triplicate Girl in full costume. Then she's out of costume again. Then Garth somehow votes for Cosmic Boy as leader AND votes for Ultra Boy.

Either no one cared or Bendis's scripts are nigh-incomprehensible

reading through this thread now (including some of my own posts in it), I'm surprised at how little I actually remember of this run.

or perhaps not: a lot happened, but not really...

Based on things I've heard from a friend who is acquainted with Bendis, I have the impression that the guy writes his scripts very fast, leaving it to the artists and the editors to sort out the details. That would seem to corroborate Sarky's theory.

About as far from Levitz's detailed notebooks and plot outlines as one can get, I'd say.

Amen to that, EDE, amen to that.

Compounded with editors who can't or won't call out the "Big Name" on bad writing choices.