Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Bendis Legion, likes and dislikes.

I guess this is kind of my post mortem on this run.

I do have some likes. I think Sook's art...it's fantastic. Great depth, nice design, very imaginative. The art problems I had were that while it was very original, very imaginative, it seemed to sacrifice some of the intrinsic traits of some of the characters. Wolf...he's lean and acrobatic. Yet this one was bulky and just didn't seem to fit. I dug MEL's look, but again, it just didn't seem to fit. Triple G...very nice look, a cool nod to the original. I didn't care for some, like Dream Girl, Shrinking violet, but that was more personal taste, I freely admit. I think the work that went into the redesigns was great. You can see the love and care, but it wound up being very hit and miss for me.

The coloring for the characters was great, but at times the overall look of the first series and the mini seemed washed out.

The writing. Truth be told, I'm not a bendis lover or a bendis hater. I've never really read his stuff before. Problem the first....much was promised. A lot was promised. The hype in the comics world at least was MASSIVE. And what I felt we received was a lot of talk, a lot of dialog...that didn't really say anything about the characters individually or much as a group, really. The group seemed young and optimistic, which I LIKED because I'm effin sick of doom and gloom. But with a cast that large, not much was done with long time legionaries beyond a couple. We got several new group members, like Monster boy and Dr. Fate and Gold Lantern, and I defy you to tell me anything about who they actually are except for a tiny bit about Gold Lantern, a character that was supposed to be a linchpin it seemed.

We got what....three main story endings for the eighteen issues, and I can't really remember them. I get that not every story is gonna end with a galaxy spanning epic that changes the nature of comics themselves, but man, you gotta have a little punch. Even if it's supposed to be a quiet story, you still gotta have an emotional punch to hit it. I'm still not clear on what Rose was supposed to be in all this. A bridge to...what? Where?

Art...admittedly fine, but much of the character connection for me was lost. I'd give it a technical A+, but an emotional connection of a C-.

Writing...I'm sorry to say that this has been a D across the boards. I don't have a problem with the re-imagining of the characters, but to many basic departures and not enough on way to many other characters combined with lackluster stories... I just can't give it any higher.

I think there was a great intent, I think there was a lot of work and love put into it by the creators, but I think it was mostly a whiff.

I think this is the end stage of decompression. We've gone from six issues to tell a story that used to be told in one or two, to six issues to go absolutely nowhere.

Rick, I think I'm pretty in line with your view. I came to this after most of it had been published and like you was also completely unfamiliar with Bendis, but in doing my research before jumping back in I saw that there was a lot of media attention around this. But then I would read this and quickly realized that it was not for me. I wasn't a fan of the snappy patter dialog or the future-talk (which I don't think really helps), but there were a lot of people talking but no one really saying anything.

As has been mentioned before, this was the absolute wrong way to introduce a team, especially if you are doing a fundamental redesign of the characters. You have to focus on different characters at a time in order for the reader to be invested in such a large team; otherwise its just a few main characters and a bunch of background players.

I was okay with the redesigns, but we never were given a lot of background on the characters to get to know who they are. It's quite telling that the most character development Salu Digby received was in the DC Pride special.

There were several reviews online about Bendis taking the Legion that had warnings that all came true. He couldn't handle a big cast. But so many people seem to love Bendis that I needed to understand things. A few weeks ago I read Alias (vol 1) and thought it was great! However, there were only a handful of characters, and one protagonist, so he was able to focus. Similarly, the Future State issues had a much more focused story and was much more readable (although I hated Rossmo's art). The only thing I can conclude is that if Bendis isn't given any kind of rails on what he can do, he tends to go way off them, or at least he did with the Legion. That's why its a D- for me. Not a total F due to the story in Future State.

I have to admit I have similar views.
I loved ALL the redesigns. They promised new and interesting directions for the characters. There was a little of that, with one-page introductions ever issue, and spotlights on the Ranzz twins and Winath (although what exactly were Ayla's powers?) and Ultra Boy and Rimbor. But if there was little character-building (did Shrinking Violet ever have a word of dialogue?) there was even less world-building. A lot of it came off as "this is so alien and futuristic you cannot possibly understand what is going on". While likely true if we were actually transported to the 31st century, it is hard to wrap one's head around in storytelling.
There was also a repeating pattern of "this character, clearly a favorite of the author, is really really important to the DC Universe, now and going forward! It changes everything! (Jon Kent; Rose/Thorn; Gold Lantern) And then... somewhere the ball is dropped.
I also think there is a fundamental problem in trying to write over the former Legion over and over again. It seems this is a general problem with DC-- there is no depth of history or history of character development, and yet we are expected to follow a story over multiple issues and multiple titles... until the Universe resets itself again.
Which might be OK if the stories were more... engaging?

Honestly, I don't think Bendis knows what to do with the Legion or how to write them. This is why the 12+ maxi series he put out was awful (IMHO). It was wrought with problems and last-minute changes even before it debuted. So, after that bad and unnecessary experiment in reinvention Bendis saw an opportunity to push his creations Gold Lantern and Naomi and disguise this shameless plug in JLA team up. No surprise that this mini-series was delayed month after month! (I could go on and on about this). It was just no good, from beginning to end.

This last appearance of the Bendis Legion really damaged this new iteration of the Legion for me. Yes, yes, any Legion is better than NO Legion and all that, but this was not a good experience for the Legion mythos as a whole (again IMHO).

I want to say, for the record, that I truly wanted this new Legion to be a huge success. Even though I didn't exactly like all of the choices made with the characters and back-stories etc, I still did want it to be a hit.

My kitten just erased everything I wrote. I guess that's her verdict on the Bendis run.

This version of the Legion could well continue, with its redesign, membership and basic premise, if it could get some solid/compressed stories and character development. I did like most of the characters who did get attention (notably Saturn Girl, definitely not Mon-el); there just weren't many of them. Those issues with the one-page origin stories left me wanting more detail, which never came. There's a lot of raw material there for someone to develop. The Future State two-parter was a good read, coherent, concise with a mystery that got solved in a manner that made sense.

I freely admit I went in not liking what Bendis had done with the Avengers, and thinking he works better on single characters of his own invention like Jessica Jones and Miles Morales.

And yet, while a Levitz Legion fan for life, I found much to enjoy in various other 'boots, like the amazing new characters in the Reboot (Jasmin, Shikari, Gates, Dragonmage!), some of the fancy ideas in the Threeboot (Micro Lad comes from a city of giants! Brainy (with an ancestor famous for shrinking cities full of people) and Imskians have a connection!), even one-offs like Superboy's Legion, and so I was hoping to find elements to love in this 'boot as well.

And yet, the only thing I really liked was Ryan Sook's art. The new characters consisted of a new (Slyggian?) Dr. Fate, who died, and then was alive again, for no apparent reason, Gold Lantern, who I don't even know what was up with, and Monster Boy, who seemed promising, but got lost in the background. I end up curious about 'X-Ray Lad/Lass' or 'Radius Lad' or whomever else was supposed to also be a member, but we learned nothing of (other than one has a cool look, with a green glowing skull for a face!).

Overall, I went in not expecting much.

And still I was disappointed.

I feel sad because I wanted this Legion to succeed. Yet, unlike with all the other versions, I take away almost nothing from it. The rest: Preboot, 5YL, SW6, Reboot, Threeboot, even Retroboot I walk away with many pleasant memories... Bendis' run, almost none. It was just executed badly.

I think you all are nailing it here - We all wanted it to succeed. But it wasn't well written. Well illustrated? For the most part, yes. But you can't have a comic book that just looks good to get past the critics and make it a success.

When the best thing one can say about a comic is "the art is pretty":... sigh! (the art was pretty though!)

Great point Ibby how all the other versions have left lasting legacies and fans (and critics) whereas this last one has nothing of a story nature to remember.

From a DC continuity point you could completely remove them and have almost no effect. They had a minor role in the creation of the UP in the 21st Century but that has had little mention outside the Superman and JL books. Even Jon Kent's own title makes no mention of them.

So a friend of mine on twitter just coined a term that describes the Bendis Legion all over, and should be used in further discussions about failed attempts at rebooting and revamping fictional properties

Weaponized Progress: When a story tries a weird new take that no one likes and was never likely to like, but tries to defend itself because it's new and different.

That's interesting. One could make that charge against the Threeboot, but that at least had decently told stories for most of the run.

At least in Waid's case he cared enough about the Legion to try and get the personalities right and gave them focus instead of treating them like a giant, pulsating lump of mouths