Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Let's talk about LSH #13...(spoilers aplenty)

In the anticipation of LSH #13 coming out next week (Jan. 18th--cross fingers that it WON'T be delayed any further), I thought I'd start the thread right now...what the hey!

Here's the solicitation:

Written by Mark Waid; Art by Barry Kitson and Mick Gray; Cover by Kitson

The dramatic endgame of the intergalactic invasion leads the team to the Fifth Dimension where Lemnos and Terror Firma make a final, deadly stand!

And here's a link to the cover...

http://www.legionworld.net/images/NewLegion/LegionofSuperHeroes12.jpg

Let the discussions begin...

Aw man -- when I saw this topic, I thought it meant 13 was coming out tomorrow... jump the gun much?

It's called "wishful thinking".

Well, while we're waiting we can talk about other stuff.

I'm worried that the Legion seems to be less punny that it used to be.

Seriously, I think I've run out of goofy things to post about. The Super-Moby Dick, Sinde, Iresa, Tyroc's elf booties, slap-happy Rokk, the word "stupid"... it's played out, all of it played out.

I'm frightened.

I don't know Lash, I think the new Legion has a goodly helping of goofiness, most of it involving Brainiac 5:

- Star Boy's sugar intolerance

- Projectra's penthouse (OK, it's gone now, but it WAS pretty funny)

- Sun Boy's parents

- Element Lad's dating rituals

- Goats!

- Brainy talking to a rock

- Dreamy's matrimonial prediction

- Cosmic Boy

We urge you to turn your considerable talents toward these worthy topics.

Well, there was my idea for giving all the goats super-powers, thus creating a Legion of Super-Goats...

LOL Go for it!

I'm sure you'll feel much better when you get some new material next week.

So if we send a flying injection of glucose into Starboy's system what would happen? lol. I mean shouldn't Brainy make a glucose-tolerant serum? I mean he's made anti-lead & anti-kryptonite serums.

Sun Boy's parents on the other hand...were very annoying. d'oh! I will take super-goats before them again!

C'mon, we all know that, sooner or later, the new Star Boy will be attacked by the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man ... of Space! Star Boy knows that contact with ol' Pufty is certain death for him, so he uses his power to deflate the tasty monster into a flat pile of goo... and is kicked out of the Legion for killing unnecessarily!

But wouldn't the Stay-Puft MM of Space be a job for....new Legion recruit Tenzil Kem? Or, in the very least, have Sun Boy take care of the Man of Marshmallow, fire him up, grab some graham crackers and Hershey bars, and have some S'Mores.....of Space!

Yes, of course you are right, armsfalloffboy, I just couldn't think of another sugar-based super villain.

Jillikers! Don't fret, Lash! Sometimes it takes years to realize just how silly a particular era of the Legion actually is! I've just recently begun to appreciate the cheesiness of the Levitz era! Sacre bleu!

How can we forget about Nurse Flora, whose thread I'd be bold enough to say, was my greatest single contribution to Legion World, outside of the first statue of the Legendary Poster known as Cobalt Kid

a.k.a. Bidet Boy.

*Spoilers*
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<blink>Lemnos' invaders are all beat up or surrendered, revealing in the process that they're generally not bad folks, but (as Lemnos said earlier) the descendants of UP-shunned races who were told the Legion would be sympathetic to their cause. Sun Boy quit as threatened and went off to help them do something more constructive than revolution. Cosmic Boy relinquished, or was about to relinquish, control over the Public Service, but they haven't yet decided what to do about it permanently.

Dream Girl is still mostly dead. Brainy captured Lemnos and apparently intends to make him fix her.

A fairly forgettable flashbackup story with Dream Girl seeing more own-death-related stuff and also hinting that she's got more interest in/hope of dating Star Boy than Brainy.

And yes, Jane Austen & Jonah Hex were there. And, for that matter, Polar Boy was too. The Holy Trinity together again!

Overall, didn't have as much punch as I'd hope from the wrap-up issue of a story arc...probably would have worked much better if part of #12 had been in it. </blink>
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Over all I was satisfied with the conclusion. There was a lot of action almost every Legionnaire had a moment and or a funny line. Sunboy's decision was sudden but logical. I hope we've not seen the last of him and his new team. The stage is set for a new status quo for the Legion's relationship to the society at large.

The Brainiac scene at the end felt like the Saturn Girl scenes with dead Garth. Now imagine how pissed Imra would have been if he'd come back and said he was interested in Star Boy.

Sorry, but this issue felt pretty "by-the-numbers" to me. There were a few good character moments, mostly in the form of wisecracks during the otherwise rote punch-up scenes. The bit about the Terror Firma members being descended from UP Penal Colonies was news to me - was this mentioned before? I missed at least one issue a few months back.

The backup story really has given me more to think about. It has a nod to the prior two Legion continuities in that Dream Girl is seen telling Imra (3 hours before her death) that she was really more interested in Star Boy than Brainy. I appreciate the old Star Boy/Dream Girl shout-out, but I really thought it was in sort of poor taste to those of us who were entertaining thoughts of the Brainy-Dream Girl pairing that's been hinted at in the new series. It also makes Brainy's frustration and sadness seem for naught. I'll hate it when Nura gets revived and then goes for Thom.

The big "out" here is that Nura was only seeing the short remainder of her future, during which time Thom was kind toward her. It might be that it made her feel more strongly toward him than she would have otherwise. In other words she could see that he was imporant to her in the future and spoke to Imra as such. Her powers pro-rated out her emotional interactions with Thom such that they seemed like a large part of her future, which they were, sadly. I hope she'll be back though - Barry does draw quite a nice Nura. So did Ken Lashley for that matter.

The letters page was almost entirely for laughs. Us Polar Boy fans will not be satisfied with his appearance there. Hear us roar, etc.

OK, I give up. Where's the Crisis related material in this issue?

What to say...

My parents always taught me "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything"...so...

The letter column was kinda funny.


This may be one of those issues that require things to sink in and some contemplation before it starts to fit. Right now, having just read it through for the first time all I can say is..





Okay, maybe it wasn't quite THAT bad but it certainly feels that way after the long delay. I saw nothing IC related that would/should have delayed the issue so I won't buy that excuse.

I'm very disappointed.

Not having read the issue I can't say for sure. But its sounding more and more like they used the current convenient excuse of IC for the delay.

While I liked the basic idea of Sun Boy leaving to join Terror Firma, it reminded me quite a bit of Garth's leaving and joining the Workforce in the last boot.

I have some thoughts on the storyarc as a whole, but I'll post those later.

well...the quips during the fights were fun, and i enjoyed Imra and Projectra joining their powers together; but as the conclusion of a 13 month maiden storyline...it was less than stellar.
no Legionnaire Lemon/Mon-El connection, no 5th dimension connection with JSA, no Infinite Crisis tie-in.
i was expecting Lemnos to show his strength as adversary but he kind of fizzled away. i still don't GET him. how old is he? why does he wear a cape and costume? i thought only the retro legionnaires did that. especially silly when no one remembers seeing him. who is he dressing up for?
the sudden fickleness of the Terror Firma was pretty unbelievable. hard to believe they look up to the legion when they've been slaughtering worlds and sentients, and battling the legion themselves with no attempt to explain themselves or say "hey, we like you!". why they are allowed to go off with Sun Boy instead of juvenile hall for mass manslaughter is anyone's guess. doesn't Projectra have any objections? does everyone just believe that it was all Elysion and Lemnos? that none of the other members of Terror Firma are accountable?
hopefully, there are explanations awaiting us in regards to the LSH coffers being full, the status of financial collapse of the entire UP, where Atom Girl was all this time and why.

the art suffered from Barry doing only layouts.
i'm surprised to say this issue gets a grade of C+ from me.

I had to read it three times to really absorb it, there was so much going on.

PROS:

- Plenty of super-powered action. No reason to complain on that score.

- Their celebration of victory was realistically brief and muted, rather than "happy days are here again".

- Sun Boy's "defection" to Terror Firma, even if Cos let them go too easily. A lot of story potential here.

- Surprisingly, Cos relinquishes Legion Channel One, but his move was very much in character. His compromises will be his undoing, I think.

- The Brainy/Cos struggle for power is not over yet, it seems, nor should it be.

- It's obviously not the last we'll see of Lemnos.

- There's still hope for Nura. Apparently, now more than ever.

- Finally, confirmation that Light Lass and Lightning Lad are siblings. Gee, it's only been 13 months. :rolleyes:

- Cham with Dawnstar wings; Cham "yarking" the water guy.

- Polar Boy with a popsicle.

- Learning what Talokians eat for dinner; Tasmia's fuzzy pink slippers.


CONS: (Most of these fall into the "suspension of disbelief" category).

- A bunch of never-before-seen Terror Firma members appear out of nowhere.

- One of them claims the U.P. exiled their criminal ancestors. But in issue #3, Triplicate Girl refers to the the U.P. is referred to as a "fledgling" organization. I guess we're supposed to forget that fact now.

- I can't believe that Kynda (fire girl) bought into Lemnos' lie that the Legion was on their side, even if the "newbie" TFs were genuinely deluded. She got off much too easily, imo.

- The epilogue is said to take place in Legion HQ, yet we know HQ is rubble. Is it a new lab? How much time has past since the battle? This scene really cried out for an explanation.

- While the letter column was cute, I felt there was actually too much crammed in this issue.

Plus, I was personally disappointed that Element Lad was stuck with Cos on Dormir. He's quickly becoming the forgotten Legionnaire. And I found Imra grilling BOTH Jeckie and Nura about their love lives a bit irritating. She's too damn nosy, even for a telepath.

I liked the backup story. I can understand why some people would hate its revelation, i.e., that Nura does not love Brainy, but the story itself was cleverly executed, moving backwards in time as it did. I feel a little sorry for B5 since he seems positively obsessed with her now.

It was good. Yet, I'm only up to mentioning the things I wasn't especially thrilled with. I guess I should change my name to Downer-Boy.

I'm not too pleased with Imra as the nosey relationship barometer for the female legionnaires. What's that about?

Not thrilled with Nura's depiction in the back-up. It seemed like a step backwards from the competent pre-cog to the ditz. Plus it brought a whole Star-Boy interest into being that just doesn't seem needed.

Sun-Boy up and leaves to lead the other group? Uh, maybe the other group should go to prison for their crimes on the other "terra-formed" worlds.

Please make Cos mute.


Okay, some good points...
Everyone saying "Ultra-Boy" in unison.

Brainy stepping in to take down Lemnos.

Brainy still being obsessed and still not giving up hope.

At least it looks like the only time we'll be seeing Proty this time around is as the main course. For that I'm grateful.