Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! LSH #50 Spoilers

I liked it. Too bad we couldn't have Francis Manapul art on the inside. <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Dream Girl's back at the end.</span></span>

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Am I on Super-Crack or did this issue bear almost no resemblance to the solicit, right down to the creative team?</span></span>


The summary as seen on the DC Website:

It's the final issue! The climactic conclusion of the Universal Annihilation War is here and every Legionnaire, every reservist and even the United Planets' Young Heroes battle to save existence. Also featuring the return of Cosmic Boy, the death of a longtime Legionaire and a gorgeous wraparound cover!

Wait...gwuah?? Okay now I gotta go get this book.

Probably the same stuff I'm apparently on. This issue is nothing like that at all. I found it to be rushed and unsatisfying for the most part. No Shooter story to end his Legion run, no Manapul art which made it distracting. No conclusion to most of the plot threads that have been lying around for months. No Princess, no Timebr Wolf, no Cos, no "every Legionnaire, ever", no Young Heroes.

The only 2 positive points are a one panel shot of Wildfire and the return of Nura.

I for one am very disappointed and how this was handled.

Sounds like Shooter and Manapul told DC to f-off and went on strike. Don't blame them, really.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">It wasn't what I was expecting, but I am glad they brought Dream Girl back if nothing else.

Eh...I'm glad they didn't kill Phantom Girl as well. I wasn't really too excited about that.

It's actually kind of a happy ending for this Legion.

I'm really amazed they didn't bring Cosmic Boy back though....that is the huge difference to my thinking.

That could be revealing as to just what has transpired...they decided to use that Cosmic Boy subplot in L03W or elsewhere and rewrote the issue to remove it. This could be basically everything Shooter intended minus the return of Cos, the death of whoever(Phantom Girl I assume) and the huge suppoorting cast. If they did redo this issue on the fly, leaving out the huge cast makes sense for time purposes. And I'm kinda glad they didn't kill Phantom Girl.

It was a hokey hacked out ending but it could have been a lot worse. It could have been a senseless death filled hacked out ending.

No doubt...we'll hear from Shooter at some point exactly what was supposed to happen and what didn't.</span></span>

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">I do think it's ironic that one of Shooter's creations takes center stage in the conclusion of Final Crisis this week, yet Shooter himself is regelated to a complete afterthought as a writer in the same exact week.

Not to mention the Parasite takes the stage in Superman this week...and he's also a Shooter creation.

I'll bet they end up using some of Jim's stuff from this run elsewhere in the DC Uni and in future versions of the Legion though...they always have before. And that's the true indicator of Shooter's talent and creativity.
</span></span>

Wait, what happened? I don't get my comics till this weekend (LCS is too far from where I work for me to go on workdays) so I was debating, to be spoiled, not to be spoiled, and now it sounds like the spoilers I'm getting are all all wrong.

So serious, what's the lowdown because I think my expectation bubble just got burst.

"Justin Thyme" = Just In Time. No such comic book writer exists. See this link for previous uses of the name:
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/06/12/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-159/

Dan Didio is a contemptible fraud. I am mailing this issue back to him, demanding my money back. He took it on false pretenses.

I hope Mr. Shooter will join us someday and tell us how *his* story was supposed to end.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">
First of all, Cos didn't return, there was no appearance by all major supporting characters and other superteams from this run, and no good guys died except for a UP Diplomat who was deleted.

Basically, the plot is like bad rewrite of Tron or the Matrix. The Destroyers are souless virtual beings who don't actually exist in reality and only exist in a virtual reality of their creation because they uploaded their consciousness into that virtual reality long ago and their physical forms are long since dead. They consider reality evil and are out to eliminate all life from the real Universe. Anything they find of interest or of value is scanned up into their virtual reality while it's physical form is destroyed. Brainy uploads the consciousness of Garth, Imra, Violet, Invisible Kid, Ultraboy, Starboy and Gazele into avatars in the virtual reality to fight them, since the Destroyers can't be fought in reality as it is sort of a virtual virtual reality to them. As this is happening Invisible Kid hands Brainy a cd rom disc and asks Brainy to alter his avatar, making him more adult, muscular and handsome to impress Gazelle since she has never seen him.

Meanwhile...Colossal Boy and Chamelon Boy are embroiled in some meaningless side battle of little or no true consequence to the story.

Back in the virtual reality, heroes are doing ok but starting to lose the battle, the Destroyers converge on Brainy and the unconscious real bodies of the Legionnaires in his lab. The Destroyers pileon on Brainy and whup up on him and kill the real bodies of the Legionaires but as this is happening, Lyle who hasn't been able to keep Gazelle off of him with his artificial enhancements, and is getting kind of sick of not being liked for himself, tells Brainy to undo the changes to his avatar. Brainy, now protected by his force shield from the onrushing Destroyers, tells Lyle that he doesn't have time for such nonsense and then Lyle points out that the program he gave Brainy to change his appearance contains the code to create changes in the virtual reality, so Brainy goes a-ha and uploads his force shield into the virtual reality to protect the Legionaires.

So the good guys win but their real bodies were all destroyed. Luckily for us though Brainy had created perfect clones of their real bodies and now downloads the Legionaires consciousness back into the cloned bodies. As he is doing this he also hooks himself up to the machine and downloads Dream Girl from his conciousness into a perfect clone of her body and she's back and she can see again. She says the gang is invited to a wedding and Brainy sheepishly agrees. Smiles all around.

The End.


Oh yeah, when Brainy uploaded his shield he actually did change Lyle back to his true appearance in the VR and Gazele while pretty upset and stunned at first, gets over it once he proves he is an alpha male in spirit by saving all their virtual butts with the program he gave to Brainy.


That is the first summary I have ever written so apologies if it is lame.


Basically the run ends on Dreamy's prediction of her and Brainiac being married coming true.

If I didn't know better I'd think Mark Waid ghosted this issue.

Who is Justin Thyme(the credited writer for this story) anyway? </span></span>

Wouldn't surprise me if Justin Thyme was Mark Waid...

Edit: or Tony Bedard

"Justin Thyme" sounds like the comic book world's answer to Alan Smithee (the official DGA pseudonym used when a director pulls his name off a film and unofficially used in other entertainment industry credits).

This issue sounds incredibly lame after all that build-up. <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">So you're saying there is no resolution to the Projectra plot? She just nearly kills Tinya, scrambles Imra's brain, and sends Brin away -- and none of that is addressed? I suspect TPTB were concerned that the outcome of Shooter's run would have messed up Lo3W (especially if they killed a character), so they rewrote Shooter's original story. Hence, the pseudonym for the writer.</span></span>

How is the art inside?

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Is Dream Girl still blind and powerless? Does Nura look good in the issue?</span></span>

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">so a member dies, who is it? </span></span>

Yeah it's definitely a fake name, and we have no idea who actually wrote the story. I've been pretty surprised to find out some of the writers that have written these sorts of stories under a fake name before though.

The reason I think it might be Mark Waid or Tony Bedard is that with a book that has fans like the Legion, not to mention the large cast, they usually bring in someone who knows the book and they give them a fake name because the story is going to suck and the fake name protects the writer from embarrasment and fan backlash....I assume it's still a paycheck though.

For instance...when James Robinson "allegedly" nearly left the Superman title a few months ago, the first guy they called for damage control was, "allegedly", Mark Waid, because he knows Superman like few others. And he's been the company man when it comes to the Legion ,since, well pretty much his entire Legion career has been towing the company line.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">
Somehow, the happy ending(read no deaths), the marriage prediction come true...I just sense Waid's presence here. </span></span>

That's exactly what we are saying. But you know...it may actually have been a necessity because of LO3W, not just an insurance policy.

You know now that I think about it...the end result is kind of sinister even though I don't think it was intentional.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Since the Destroyers were soulless because they uploaded their conciousness into their selfmade VR and their physical forms died...that means the 7 Legionnaires(and Dream Girl) that went into the VR and had their physical bodies destroyed are now soulless as well. Unless Brainy can clone souls. </span></span>

I don't so much mind that Shooter chose not to write this issue -- in fact, I applaud him for not wanting to write the story on DiDio's terms.

However, I wish DC had had the decency to tell us that this comic book didn't match its solicitation.

I have bought almost 10,000 comics over the past two decades, and this is the first time I've ever wanted to return a comic book for a refund.

I don't know if Shooter will be doing more DC work but Francis is a DC exclusive and is working on several projects for them:

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/010926-Manapul.html

And man does his stuff look nice:

To bad I didn't read this first because I bought 4 issues with the plan to get them signed by Jim Shooter at the NYC Comic Con next weekend ... well that was a waste of money ...

it's the worst Legion story I've ever read and an absolutely horrible way of ending this run ...

the Shooter legecy deserves better ... like this run or not there is no excuse for this and I don't blame Shooter for not putting his name to it ... DC has shafted LSH fans once again!

It's extremely unprofessional...unfortunately I am used to it with the Legion to the point that it doesn't even faze me anymore...

It's not like the Reboot, 5YG or even Pre-Crisis Legions were given proper sendoffs either. The Reboot was unceremoniously erased by the guy who created it and was even handling the 3boot.

I wonder whether that even was the case, or whether Shooter did write a story that was pulled after his "come clean" interview a couple of months back.

Either way, I am just disgusted at the way this was handled. It was an absolute bait and switch.

I have no words for what this junk means. The only thing that makes me glad is how right I was from the beginning on the hack job TPTB were doing to Shooter and Manapul's run.
I doubt Mark Waid would do such a crappy stuff (for one, he is not a DC employee anymore, and he would come back to be a wirter for Superman, his dream job, not to be Justin Thyme).
I'd say it is someone so ashamed of doing this thing he wasn't man/woman enough to put his name on the cover. So I don't really care who wrote this because DC was too coward to admit and apologize for this mess.

To add insult to injury, this issue is a crummy, rushed, poorly written, illogical piece of hackwork. Given the very high expectations I had for this issue, I have to say it probably is the worst Legion story ever.

I hope no one needs any further proof that DC doesn't give a shit about its customers.

hmm. i flipped through it. solely because it was the last issue of this boot. i wish they would've done a kicknass 12 or 24 issue elseworlds and left it at that rather than this trailing off.

edit: DISREGARD THAT, I AM BAD AT READING.

but no, manapul did not tell dc to f-off, he's got a lot of stuff lined up with DC <3 recently announced superman/batman 2 parter, for example, and he did the origins and omens thing in action comics 0 next week

No offense, but every other time in Legion history something like this has happened...Mark Waid has been a part of it. He has been the hatchet man on the outgoing version of the Legion, every time it's been hatcheted. Even if all he was there for was the hatcheting.


IMHO...this is freaking Shakespeare compared to the Zero Hour hatcheting, and I didn't even like the 5YG.


And while it's no longer his dream job...it is his pet, just like we go to the vet when it's our pets time to go, Mark Waid always seem to be around somewhere when a Legion dies. He calms it while they give it the injection, tries to make the transition smoother so to speak. And he is the foremost Legion expert in the industry. And Waid didn't leave DC because he wanted to(and neither did Jim Shooter), they stopped giving him assignments...or so I heard(he didn't willingly leave the Brave and the Bold). Mark Waid would love to get more assignments from DC, I'm sure...and so would Jim Shooter. It's much more important to them than whether or not this version of the Legion gets hacheted IMHO...if it was that important to them they'd have never been a part of it in the first place.