Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Len Wein's DCU: Legacies

I agree with you Blacula, Way too much time on Superman/Doomsday and Batman/Bane. I hope the next issue picks it up.

Issue #8 was a by the numbers recap of "Reign of the Supermen" and "Emerald Twilight", with very little deviation. Quite boring, to be honest.

The New Gods back-up was fantastic though. Frank Quitely's interpretation of the New Gods was really keen and Wein channeled Kirby quite well. The story is just a version of an early issue of "New Gods", but it provides a good "hook" for readers to get into the craziness of the 4th World.

My assessment is exactly the same as yours, Dave. The lead story was a snooze fest, but Quietly on the New Gods was exceptional.

Boring is a good way to sum up this last issue... talk about a series that lost momentum...

The backup was great... I didn't know the original story... Quietly's artwork was beautiful...

I read 7-8 last night... by the time I got to the NEW GODS backup, I just kinda skimmed it. Can't even tell you what happens there.

Umm, when will this miniseries end? Soon?

I also read 7-8 last night and my frustrations mirror most of yours. I've been on the fence for a long time on this title but I'm pretty much over it--on the negative side.

Both issues felt like summaries of the early 90's that focused entirely on two items (Batman & Superman) and glossed over the others. But while that is annoying, the worst part IMO is the that it is a summary rather than a story. Why not just give us a comic book with pretty splash pages that works as a timeline? What is the point of this entire miniseries? I'm finding the entire narrative structure incredibly annoying.

The inconsistencies in continuity ensure this series serves no point in terms of canon, so if it fails there and fails as a story, it really isn't giving us much.

...yet...

I enjoyed the Atom / Camelot back-up of #7 if only because the Brian Bolland artwork was amazing.

And I loved the Quitely back-up of #8 featuring the New Gods. That was really well done! It took a lot from New Gods #1 (by Kirby in 1971-ish) but Quitely added a level of creepy / mysterious to it that in my mind really enhanced the whole thing. I really would love a Quitely New Gods comic book!

Like Lash says: how many more issues are there? I'm considering dropping the title. Shame.

In answer to Lash and Cobie, there are only two issues left, which I won't be reading. Despite my initial enthusiasm for this mini-series, it foundered once it became obvious that it was going to jump forward at the midway point to the Crisis and beyond.

What I think they should have done was keep it at ten issues, devote issues 3-4 to the Silver Age, then 5-6 to the Bronze Age, then 7-8 to the Modern Age, and then wrap it up with, say two issues devoted to Invasion. Leave the Crises out of it entirely, after all, the original intent of all the crises was to leave a clean slate.

At least we got some nice art and some nice character moments out of it.

Issue #9 was more of the same. This time out you can check off Final Night and Day of Judgement. It was nice to see reboot Ferro again, but I've already read that story.

The back-up was surprisingly dull. I love the Marvel Family and I love Bill Sienkiewcz, but the two just didn't gel well. At all.

"the worst part IMO is the that it is a summary rather than a story. Why not just give us a comic book with pretty splash pages that works as a timeline? What is the point of this entire miniseries?"


Gee, didn't Roy Thomas do the exact same thing with SUB-MARINER and THE HUMAN TORCH mini-series (both illustrated by Rich Buckler)?

I'd rather they'd reprinted the original stories.

I thought issue # 10 was a good, strong ending. I thought the resolution of Jimmy's story was very nice, and I like how Identity Crisis was mirrored Paul's own personal problems. This is what was good about the earlier issues of the series that was missing more recently when they switched to summarizing event storylines.

Kind of a depressing ending, no? For what little dramatic thread the series had, it ends with his best friend and wife dying, his partner crippled, he retires in despair and then grows old and feeble?

So is it Wein's commentary on the DCU today? Did he just run out of runway to finish his story? Is there something I'm missing?

Even the "history lesson" doesn't complete, ending at the beginning of "Infinite Crisis" without showing a resolution. I guess that's close enough to modern times, but why introduce one last event if it's not going to see it through?

I can't see DC holding this up as an entry point to fans that it was originally touted as. "Look the DCU was a great fun place, but now it's dark and depressing with no hope in sight. The end".

Just a bizarre series.

Not every story has to have a happy ending.

Overall, it seemed to me that it was meant to be one man's life story as defined by how super-heroes and the events that surround them impacted it, and it pretty much ended the way a man's life story typically ends up. He has a daughter who's a successful doctor, and grandchildren, and they visit him, which is not at all a bad senior situation.

And I thought it was kind of nice how, after several issues of misdirecting us readers to think Jimmy had something to do with the theft of the exo-suit, how he finally got to wear it and walk again as a hero.

I'm somewhere in between Dave and Chaim, but ultimately I felt like this series ended with a whimper 'stead of a bang...

The final issue was very much par for the course for this series. There didn't seem to be much of a point to the story, but artwork was really nice. What an odd series.

Gosh... that was a very unexpected, depressing ending.