Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! RESULTS: How would you evaluate Legion #31

Forgive me if someone has already run this poll, but I've seen such varied responses to Keith Giffen's guest shot on Legion #31 that I'm really interested to know what the consensus is.

Edited the title to reflect poll closure - SoM

i gotta say that i loved this issue, the story did seem like a slight departure from DnA's usual story telling procedure. i had no idea that they could be funny the story and situations in the issue kind of remind me of gifffen's story telling technique from his Legion and Justice League days, if i didn't know better i'd swear that giffen either "ghost wrote" the issue or DnA Scripted it from a giffen plot? well what do y'all think?

"Ghost written" isn't the appropriate phrase. A "Ghost writer" is unnamed, and it's telling here that The Legion #31 lists Giffen as a "storyteller" along with DnA. That would indicate to me that Giffen had a significant role in the creation and execution of this issue. Yeah, a DnA script from a Giffen plot sounds about right.

Then again, Giffen is big on collaboration. So maybe the three of them got on the phone, banged out a plot together, threw some jokes around and BANG...

The Legion #31

I can't say I "hated" it (well, one iteration, perhaps) ... but I wholeheartedly endorse the "Will Giffen please leave the Legion alone" sentiments.

Making that retroactive by about two decades would be about right.

Edit: My 1300th post, eh? Cynical enough response for a big-13 occasion, I'd say. ...

Seriously, folks, for those who don't know, my thorough dislike of Giffen comes from outraged protective feelings about the Legion concept, not from personal animus. (Well, apart from what he and the Bierbaums did to Dawnstar. I'm no saint where "my sister" is concerned.)

He turned the after-Magic-Wars, pre-Zero-Hour era into a nightmarish gutting of the Legion's idealism and optimism, along with Gordon and the Bierbaums, and played with both grand concepts and niggling fanboyish twists. All in that horrid, constricting, nine-panel-grid-prison format, with as many as half of the panels on a page being photostatted (in those pre-digital days). He turned the Legion into his personal toy box.

I don't like seeing such disregard for a rich heritage once again, even small touches of it, even for one issue, even with "lesser" characters such as Chuck and Gear, and the humor at their expense doesn't make up for Giffen's storytelling faults. Nor for his being sloppy and clearly uncaring about drawing humanoids. ... Eh, enough for now.

c_d, can we get a close date for the poll? They're not meant to run indefinately.

Thanks for pointing this out. How do I establish a close date? When I tried to edit the post, I couldn't touch the poll.

Keith

Sanity,

As a mod, can you insert a close date? How does April 16 sound?

Keith

Gary or Scott has to "hotwire" a close date into the file for this thread, if it isn't set when the poll is posted. They'll do it, though -- send Gary (Nightcrawler) a private message.

One reason to always set that date at the outset is to save Gary a bit of extra work. And it's needed, as making a poll close on a definite date cuts down on the server load. Or so I believe Gary once said.

Exactly, I was going to send a message to NC when I got the date

Just remember to do it for future reference

Gotcha. Thanks for not coming down too hard on this newbie.

I'll go for the "good issue: vote, though "fair" would probably be closer to my assessment.

Straight pos/neg:

Positive, 8 - 17, Negative

Huge majority didn't like it then.

Breaking it down by the four choices:

Hated it! Hated it! Hated it! Will Keith Giffen please leave the Legion alone, once and for all! - 9 (36%)
Didn't really like it. This issue doesn't work on many levels and certainly doesn't fit with DnA's version of the Legion - 8 (32%)
Good issue! An entertaining pause until the final issues of DnA's tenure - 7 (28%)
Great issue! Giffen is the King! Best issue of The Legion of the past year! - 1 (4%)

Although I'm not surprised that more readers disliked/hated this issue than those who liked/loved it, I AM surprised at the wide margin. I would have thought that the Giffen-admirers would have "represented" more here. While the appraisal of #31 on the internet discussion boards has been generally negative, I've seen A LOT of fans love the issue.

Giffen is the true Cosmic Boy because he polarizes EVERYTHING.

I didn't vote on this one, but you can put me in the "Didn't really like it" category.

Damn me for never visiting this forum!

You may add me to the "I loved it! Giffen is King!" tally.