Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Legion #29 - Spoilers

How long is that aproach likely to keep new readers, though?

And I repeat:

The dense Legion history has kept more readers than lost them. No, I don't have any proof. All I know is that continuity wouldn't be so damned important in the comics world if people who read comic books didn't give a damn about it. I twenty issues of TMK before I had ANY idea what was going on, and I had read Legion for years before I had a relatively good grasp of Legion history. The point is, it was more fun to figure out a dense book than it is to flip quickly through a book drenched with splash pages.

Okay, okay, I was 18 when I started reading those TMK issues and so was a little more likely to spend the time than an eight year old, but those issues were certainly denser than those Superboy and the Legion books you guys were talking about. Plus, there was a roll call at the beginning of every Supes/Legion issue, and let's face it, you can pretty much guess what everyone's power is by looking at them.

Point is, why the hell are editors and powers that be so scared of continuity?

Oh, for the days of backup stories and "done-in-one" issues!

TMK may have been more densely layered than the early '70s Superboy & the Legion stuff, but I want to clarify that those stories had a depth and complexity of their own. It used to be a requirement of story telling that you didn't have to have picked up back issues to know what was going on (which was mandated partly by necessity; back issues were pretty scarce until the proliferation of comic shops). But you still got a complete story in one issue. Multiple story arcs were rare -- and because of that, they were special.

Superboy # 197 was one of the first Legion stories I ever read. It still stands out as a favorite.

[Spoiler space for those who haven't read it or the Archives reprint.]
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Superboy is summoned to the 30th century and wonders what sort of menace the Legion needs his help fighting. Instead, he is confronted by Timber Wolf -- a Legionnaire recently believed dead! There is a joyous reunion, but then something goes wrong. While being decorated for heroism, Timber Wolf tries to kill the President of Earth. He is captured by Superboy and Mon-El and recovers with no memory of the incident. Later that night, he stalks the Legion's HQ and activates its automatic destruct sequence. Saturn Girl witnesses this, but is stopped from interfering by Tyr, the villain who brainwashed TW. Things look bad until a stray shot from Tyr's weapon snaps TW back to normal. He shuts off the destruct mechanism, but Tyr flees.

The story has a few problems (such as why the Legion would have an auto-destruct mechanism in its hq in the first place), but it's still memorable to me. We don't need to know a lot of back story to know who these characters are and to care about them. We don't need a 12-issue arc for the story to make sense. We don't need half a dozen splash pages. Why, we've even got room for a backup story!

Granted that I was nine years old when I read this story. Perhaps nine year olds today are far different than I was. Perhaps they have very short attention spans and can't be patient with a story that develops gradually. Perhaps they need splash pages and multiple-issue arcs and a complicated back story to hold their attention. In the early '70s, those elements were all present, but they served the story, instead of the other way around. They were the icing on a very well-baked cake. Some of today's stories could be compared to a plateful of icing attached to a few crumbs.

Better dust off the old memory chip, HWW. Tyr was captured in that story. It was his gun/hand which fled, leaving Tyr behind.

See, the best part of the story was inventing the ending.

Thanks for the correction, Jim.

If you want to make comics more accesible to first time readers, don't dump the past or ignore it, but WRITE ONE AND DONE STORIES, at least every now and then! Sure, give us some ongoing back up stories or subplots, enough to keep long time readers going, but what young reader would have picked up an issue of Legion Lost and not been, well, LOST?

And remember, a lot of Legion continuity was built on those one and done stories...

"There's been a lot of dumping on DnA and I still like what they're doing, I guess it's the pace of the stories and the fact that they seem to drop a lot of character developments that's been disappointing.

Batista did a great job though -- lord knows how much of a pain it must've been to draw all those huge crowd fight scenes."

I agree! I did love the Darkseids' interactions: Rule at all cost, even if you have to kill yourself to do it. There was not a lot of dialogue, but I guess there's no time for snappy banter in big galactic battles when you are up against an army of hundreds, including super powered beings. I'm sure dodging death rays, super-powered punches, etc, will take away from any really serious conversation except planning strategy and warning your buddies to duck.

Garth actually got noticed and Superboy showing leadership skills are good notes. Otherwise, I'm waiting impatiently for the last installment.

Hm... I would have preferred it if the Legionnaires were shown taking out or being taken out by some of the Servants so that there would have been a sense of drama as well as a sense that something more happened in the issue. As it stands, it looks as if they hadn't even planned anything before they rushed in, and it looks like they pretty much wasted their time by beating up common lackeys.

I sure hope this arc doesn't end with Jazmin and company changing time so that none of this "ever happened"...

What's the history on Darkseid as "Uxas"? This was the first I'd heard that name used - did I miss something in another Darkseid story? Or is Uxas some mythological god?

This was also the first time I'd heard of Darkseid being referred to as "Uxas," but it seems that he's had the name for a while now.

A Google search reveals that Darkseid was Uxas in a number of Fourth World stories from years past.

(Edited to add: apparently, Uxas is also the name of a place in Sweden... but that's neither here nor there. )

Count me in as being dissapointed by this issue. It had several good moments (Darkseid killing "himself" using Orion was particularly memorable) but it just didn't do much for me. Nice art though.

To sum up my reaction to issue #29...

When I got done reading it, I felt as if I had read ONE or TWO (at most) final pages from #28! Not an entire issue NOTHING of any consequence seemed to happen. I felt robbed (and I don't like feeling that way about Legion stories!)

I get the feeling that we're just marking time until the new creative team takes over.

I, for one, can't wait.

Killing your future self doesn't seem very logical to me, no matter what the provocation. It seemed like old Uxas could've ducked down a boom tube to escape having his mind replaced instead, but that's just me.

I too am ready to say sayonara to D&A.

I wonder if DnA had wrote JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES #28, whether they'd have made it a five parter or would the first three pages or so been the whole story?

Does it bother anyone else that Jarth can protect three active and animated legionnaires in the time stream, but Jan could not do the same in the rift?

Great Point! Maybe the next writing team will address these inconsistencies.

I was SO late getting my comics this month! I guess I'm joining a majority opinion in that I thought this issue was a lot of not much.

I'm kinda new on this board. I've recently returned to the Legion after being a bit disappointed with the issues after Legion Lost.

But I'm getting back in and this arc's been a great way to return.