Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Adventure Comics starring the Legion of Super-Heroes

I've never seen Clayton Henry's work, but it looks great! Love the look on Jo's face.

uh, what is it that is less than "cautiously optimistic" but not quite in negative teritory. The Ultra Boy doesn't disgust me (although the head seems tiny, or the legs are too big) but it doesn't excite me. I'll have to wait and see the actual issue because I find it hard to judge artist's just on pin-ups.

Not big name people on the book, which is sad, but maybe the writer can actually write comics and we aren't stuck with the painful learning process new writers have to go through.

Still, I'm in for at least six issues, but nothing is making me say "yeah, all my fears were unfounded, this will be great"

As far as Johns says, he will be co-plotting some of the co-features with Mike. And they will not be Legion, but solo adventures.
ANd it seems now that Robinson and Johns will tackle the Legion for a while at Superman books. Which kind of makes sense. I still hope for a Robinson mature take on the Legion, very off-DCU.

So we lost Jim Shooter and Francis Manapul, and in exchange we get nothing for half a year, and then an average artist and a completely unknown writer, doing stories that are less than full length. Does DC expect us to be satisfied with this?

I may or may not buy this. Right now I am so utterly furious with DC, I'm leaning toward continuing my boycott until Dan DiDio is fired.

By the way, is there still any reason for the existence of Legion of Super-Heroes written by Justin Thyme? Especially considering how late most DC books are? Or how they are consistently undoing what was written the month before?

Oh, he was the artist for the humorous ALPHA FLIGHT relaunch a few years back? I liked that series, though it lasted a scant 12 issues.

Feeling more excited now.

Couldn't agree more. Let's build that fanbase back up with some exciting stories and hot art, then kick Clone-El out of his book (again, for the first time)!

No offense to fjm cause I do like his art. But Clayton Henry is not an average artist and prefer him on the title.

I thought Geoff was going to write the Legion...that I am bummed about.

The latest batch of "20 answers and one question" from good ol' Dan in Newsarama brings us this:


8. Whew – let’s try to pull this back on track...as was revealed in teaser art for Adventure Comics and Legion of 3 Worlds, Superboy is back and is being referred to as “Superboy.” Now, over the past few years, you’ve gone out of your way at conventions to make it clear that you could n not refer to the character as Superboy, and the legal issues surrounding the character are fairly well known. So what happened to allow for the use?

DD: A lot of that at panels was being playful, but as far as what’s changed, Conner Kent, Superboy has come back from the dead, and we’re calling him Superboy. When Superboy died, we stopped calling him Superboy because he was dead. Any decision to call Superboy anything other than Superboy or not were completely voluntary on our end, and story driven. That’s the truth of it. Whether people believe it or not – that’s not my concern. My concern right now is to focus on Conner and get him into the stories in Adventure Comics. He is Superboy, pure and simple.

9. In that vein of Superboy’s return, as well as Bart Allen coming back in Legion of 3 Worlds as well – a reader asked about the longevity of death and the impact of death in comics. Has death been removed as a fundamental change to a character and is now, more or less, a temporary “change” for the character?

DD: Death and resurrection are tools, and have been tools for any writer in comics. Go through the stories from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s and now, and we’ve had characters die and come back again and again, and each time, more fanciful explanations have been made of why they are. Granted, we’ve probably extended ourselves on the number of deaths that have occured because of the major events, and the need to put big, defining moments in them, but the coming and going of characters have been a staple of comic book storytelling for years.

So now we know. Adventure Comics #1 will Star Conner Kent with a back up featuring Thom still in the present. So no Legion just Starman transferred from JSA to Adv. But hey Brainiac, Lex Luthor and Simple Simon will be featuring in up coming issues, so that's all right then.

Yes. The solicit for issue 1 makes it sound like Adventure is going to be a lot lighter on the Legion than we previously thought. The first issue (or arc) uses Starman and then in subsequent issues, they promise appearances by Lightning Lad and Polar Boy/Sun Boy. But they are interspersed among appearances by Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Simple Simon, Ultra, the Multi Alien, Wonder Girl, and Black Lantern Alexander Luthor. That does not exactly give me hope for the Legion's future.

Well, it looks like DC still doesn't want my business.

It's exhausting trying to read these dregs of tea leaves and decide whether to be optimistic or depressed. And the fact is we won't really know for months where things are headed (if anywhere). But, a few things to contemplate before we all take the gaspipe:

1) In today's DC Comics, you can hardly do better than having Geoff Johns champion the Legion's cause.

2) A successful revival of a Superboy should only be good thing for the Legion in the long run--it's just a natural thing to eventually use them in combination (even if it doesn't happen in issue #1).

3) Having a run of stories highlighting individual Legion characters is also potentially good for the long run IF they are successful at generating fan interest in the individual characters that can meaningfully combine to boost interest in a team book.

4) We do have a Legionnaire starring in Superman right now, which isn't shabby at all. Plus, it's pretty clear that there's a strong 31C connection to his current appearance, and Robinson has basically said this is where Lar Gand explorer and dreamer learns how to be a superhero.

5) We shouldn't forget that FC: Lo3W has been a pretty big (and perhaps surprising) hit for DC.

All of this to me looks like a surprisingly coordinated attempt to fit the Legion back into the DCU, trying to rebuild and repair all the damage done since 1986. My main hope is that they can pick a plan and just stick with it long enough for it to work.

Dadn Didio speaks of Adventure Comics at the Bristol comic expo.

"The return of “Adventure Comics” to the DCU looks like an exciting prospect, with Vice President of Sales Bob Wayne explaining that each issue will have a variant cover numbers -- as if the original series had never ceased publication, so readers could choose to start with number #1 or continue with #504. The man who never sleeps, Geoff Johns, is on board with artist Francis Manapul on art duties in a book which will feature Connor Kent as Superboy in the main feature, with the Legion of Super-Heroes as the back-up. The Legion stories will act to reintroduce the futuristic super-team following the events of “Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds” (which DiDio promised would finish sometime!), focussing on individual key characters (starting with Starman) and then the team as a whole. If successful, there exists the possibility that the Legion will be spun-off into their own main series again at some point in the future."

It would be nice to have a Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes again

So now they want me to buy this fake Legion title in the hopes that it might possibly get them to publish a real Legion title. And if I'm not willing to buy their fake Legion title, then they can use that as an excuse to not publish a real Legion title, because it "won't sell."

Thanks a lot, DC. I really appreciate how you've rewarded my loyalty.

Well, it is not EVEN a fake Legion title. It's simply an almanac of second-rate-Superboy stories paired with some 3rd stringer characters who will rotate and some, by the way, were part of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Beggars can't be choosers.

Fortunately, we're not beggars; we're customers. And "choosers" is exactly what customers can be.

(And I hate to sound like a broken record about it, but if there's something you like or don't like about what DC's doing, write 'em a letter. They'll never know if you don't tell them.)

I wonder if "Saw your prices in half and then we'll talk about the rest" counts as a letter?

[grumble]

Well, many of us will basically only be buying half a book if we get Adventure.

The real problem is how will they even be able to figure out if people are buying Adventure for Legion or for Superboy. I also expect that it is likely that pure Legion fans may be reluctant to buy Adventure when it features only one character at a time. For instance, I like Thom but have not been following crazy-Starman in JSA, so I have no real interest right now in reading the first Adventure arc.

(snip)

reckless:

Quote

The real problem is how will they even be able to figure out if people are buying Adventure for Legion or for Superboy.

I've been out of the loop for so long that I've forgotten how the mechanics of sales and ordering work. Somebody on another board had to remind me that Diamond is a monopoly in the field now. I don't even remember if stores order comics based on what their customers actually request, or if they use tea leaves, or what? Maybe somebody here can enlighten me. I don't how they'd determine that either.



Finances permitting, I'd probably read anything if I liked the way it was written. Seeing the scans here and elsewhere doesn't really tell me all that much about Johns, though. You can get a strong impression of an artist based on one page of comics. A writer needs more room to stretch out before I can really get a feel for what s/he's trying to do.

Also, I don't like the idea of getting really into a series just in time for some other big giant mega-series crossover that runs on half past forever and contradicts whatever they did in the last mega-series crossover. That stuff seriously annoys me.

Reading the death toll thread here and seeing the penchant for wiping out entire universes of characters (whom I presume somebody loved, even if I don't; wasn't around to meet most of them) strikes me as stupid. It encourages fans to be jaded and indifferent. Why get attached to characters that are going to be stuck in some death-resurrection-death again circus a year from now?

Not to mention that given how lousy things are in the real world, I'm just not all that interested in "escapism" that involves mass slaughter. Even the fictional kind. The thought that some magic lantern could come along and resurrect everyone doesn't make that any better, to me. It just adds another layer to the mindscrew.

I've been mulling over this, whether to add Adventure to my list or just pick up a copy; it's unlikely they'll be sold out. (When the tea leaves fail, there's always/usually the re-order option.) As reckless mentioned, I would be just buying it for half the comic, and half-heartedly at that since crazy Thom is not particularly endearing. It was so good to see him balanced and getting on with the job Brainy sent him to do, but it doesn't seem to have continued.

However, that's condemning the book before I even read it. Who knows? Conner could turn out to be an interesting character. Is it going to be based at the Kents' farm? That could be interesting or at least challenging to the writer. Superhero action is almost exclusively urban. But if it turns out to be pedestrian superhero fare, there's just not enough pull.

If the bloodbath starts, ugh. I suppose everything is going to be tied into Blackest Night to some degree.

Exactly the problem DC had 40 years ago.

A few thoughts:

1) The Legion eventually got it's own title in the 70's (with Superboy) after a series of backup stories in Action and Superboy featuring only a handful of Legionnaires at a time. Some of these stories were Really Good, and helped build up some of the different Legionnaires as interesting characters.

2) Historically, the Legion has provided the canvas for many young artists to propel to popularity and fame. Cockrum, Grell, Giffen, Copiel, and Manapul are all a part of that legacy. Why not add to that list with Mr. Henry?

3) To me, the Legion is not the Legion without a large cast of members interacting within stories. However, I can see DC's interest in moving ahead with patience with the product, because another low-selling reboot disaster would probably shelf the title for years at this point. If done with grace and competency, a collection of short stories with a smattering of Legion characters could be built up to a cresendo of a thoughtful and interesting new Legion title.