Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes ADVENTURE COMICS #1 (#504) SPOILERS!

I don't own the issue yet. But, I want to have each ADVENTURE COMICS issue have it's own thread.

Spoilers below come from the mothership . We used to be cool like them.

S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
!
!
!
!

Oh God why did it have to be EIGHT FRIKKING PAGES?! I can't wait a month! I'm hooked baby!!

The cover: Covers don't usually hold up to their high-res bright internet image but this one was magnificent.

Spoilers

The Legion part left me cold. It wasn't Legion. It wasn't Thom. Why was everyone so angry in the double page splash. For that matter, why did they even waste story space on it. They inducted a GL, big whoop. A small part of the fan base's request granted. Art is blah. Tellus in a swamp was kind of funny.

The Conner part. As much as I really, really didn't want to like this, I did. 2 pages devoted to a girl falling off a bridge and another been there done that full page splash of a hero, wait for it....flying (boring), don't need. However...

some of Manapuls art in this issue crossed over into ART. The double page sunset, that's gallery stuff there. Krypto's save! You go dog! Tellus' (I'm guessing) appearance, pure gold.

5/5 Cloneboy Does the Dishes
0/5 Long Live Bowling. Get on with the story.

Overall, a three issue tryout.

I love the art especially Francis, but I've never read such a blantent, filler issue in my life. The entire issue including the 7! page "Legion" backup should have been 5...6 pages tops!

Totally disappointed. Not to mention that Tellus hates water. Beautiful, but pathetic.



A 1.3 MB version is here .

Legion gets no respect... you'd think that in the debut issue they would be careful not to mix up Shadow Lass with Night Girl... but THEY DID!

Plus... in my copy... the explanation boxes of who everyone is, what their power is and their home planets... are very blurry... not a great help to new readers.

Too bad... because I liked the itty bitty story more than I thought I would... Tellus as Swamp Thing was great... and the future teasers look promising.

Thom bowling... not so much.

I liked the issue, The Superboy part was great. Just a great slow build to a nice little surprise.

I liked the Legion backup. The backups have to do alot and I liked what happened and I liked The Legion backup- even if Mon-el was missing from the double page spread and they missed label Night Girl and Shadow Lass.

FWIW it looks like both features are part of the same plot line.

Most of the teasers look interesting with one big exception but that's not why I buy a comic book. Making me pay for their advertising? That's not appreciated.

The one teaser I'm not looking forward to... they're not about to pull a reverse sneckie on Blok are they?

The Night Girl and Shadow Lass mix up was just a huge mistake. How embarrassing !!

I enjoyed the Superboy story. He has come a long way, as a character, from the leather jacket wearing smart mouth that we once knew. He is much more likable. Manapul's work is gorgeous.

The Legion back up left me frustrated. The most difficult part of being a Legion fan has become "the wait". We're always waiting for answers that never seem to come. Plot threads take years to resolve. Creative teams get the boot. Series get canceled. Versions of the team get whited out. We always end up with more questions than answers.

This issue gives us tons of new questions, hints, teases, and mysteries. How many months will it take to get the answers with only eight pages per month? I hate to be a pessimist, but it just feels like we are being set up for disappointment again.

Nightcrawler:

I know he prefers his methane ocean, but in the absence of such, I thought he still does prefer a liquid water environment to open air.

Believe it or not, I liked this issue. But for very different reasons:

1) I can't praise Francis Manapul's art enough. I still hate Superboy Conner, but his style makes him a bit more bearable. And Johns is really soft here, which is kind of surprising.
2) I liked the transition of the Legion story focused on Starman. I don't have any hopes that they would kick Legion into high gears, but it kind of paved the way the new writer will be taking from now on. It was NOT written for Legion fans, but for Superman and JSA readers. And I am cool with that.
3) Tellus showing up prominently on the first story means that Adventure Comics will definitely be a Superboy & The Legion of Super Heroes book most of the times, but not all the time.
4) This continuous crossing-over is reinforced when we see the famous Johns preview page featuring Legion artwork by Manapul.
5) From the looks of that preview, the next "Blackest Night" will be a Superman x Legion of Super-Heroes book. That's my reading of the 2010 big event.

All in all, there's more Legion here than I expected from the beginning - which is not bad at all. I will forever be the guy who wanted Shooter back on the book, or some mature-reader take on LSH (Elseworlds or something like that), but this might be the best way to get the Legion back on top form.

I still don't like the "de-aging" process they seem to have had and I still can't figure out what was Johns criteria for the current team/period. But let's keep moving on.

That's probably true, that he prefers it to air.

But we know anyway, that he will endure water if he needs to.
He must have thought he needed to.

Well, swamp gas can contain a lot of methane, which is probably why he went there.

I don't have the actual issue yet, but these pages and the hint of things to come look good.

I think he's in the swamp, because where the heck else is he going to hide out in Smallville?

So, Jan and Tellus are keeping an eye on things/shaping them in Smallville for some reason, and Conner's getting his Lex on in secret. not a bad set up issue. I would have liked more from the backup as well, but it seemed to be a good flow through from Superman and JSA into this book. As long as the plot picks up in short order, I'm happy with it.

I loved both artists.

I've never been a huge Superman fan but I always liked Kon-El. I was worried about him following in Superman's steps and didn't want a mirror image of big blue. While I enjoyed the 1st story I was worried about him being a smaller Superman...until the last page. Still I rather see him have a diary of what Connor is going to do. While I like what Geoff has done with him and Bart...I think they both have lost their edge.

Legion back up story? It was a bit short..Starman bowling? Cute but I've had enough of that in the JSA. The chemistry teacher is one of my faves so can't wait for that! The GL Legionnaire..could have a ring on each hand! My guess? Celeste Rockfish! I'm worried about Blok. Nice to see Tellus and get a Quislet mention!!!

The Superboy part...okay. Nice art, okay story. Yes, we got a nice little surprise at the end, but I don't get a real danger vibe off it.

The Legion- Man, I wanted this to be so much..more. Night Girl? What, did they combine the the two in this version? And whomever said that the boxes were so blurry you can't read them was right. If a charcter was "deeper" in the shot than T-Wolf, I have no idea what was in their character box.

And, I know that he's the legions Deux Ex Machina, that he's the exposition hound for the writers, but could we please for the lovva god NOT HAVE BRAINY IN EVERY FREAKIN STORYLINE?! There are other, intelligent legionaires out there. It was Superboy and the Legion, NOT BRAINY'S Legion.

The art for the legion story was fine. No problems with it.

Look, I know that however they did it, whether it be the gentle kick off like they used or a Wild Wild West style start on chapter seven and fill in as you go while fighting, they would catch flak. Some would say "It was too much, they should have started slower." or "It was too slow, they should have started faster". They were in a no win situation on that score. But, after the debacle that was legion 50, they had plenty of time to get the small things right. And thats what bites. The book was delayed for the end of LO3W's, a whole lotta time, and they didn't get the small stuff right. They don't care, why should we?

Haven't read it yet -- probably won't until this weekend, but from the comments I'm quite pleased that Legion is woven into the whole book. That tells me that Legion is not JUST relegated to a backup, as they were after their first Adventure run. Instead, it's two parts of the same larger story, and that's cool. Johns's story may not pan out to be that great, but at least there's a plan that features Legion prominently.

On the Tellus thing, I imagine if he's spent that much time on Earth he's had to get used to water. And since he comes from a liquid environment, he's probably a whole lot more comfortable in a buoyant setting.

I think there's a natural and understandable divide in fan reactions to the new situation. If you strongly believe that Legion can and should stand on its own apart from Superman, than the new status quo sucks. If you think the Legion really needs that Superman connection to connect with new fans and ground it, then the new situation is at least tolerable. There are good arguments for both sides, and I don't feel too strongly either way. I lean toward a renewal of the Supes link, since it was so stupidly severed and prevented for so long.

On the "waiting" thing, there's NO doubt that constant reboots and cancellations and creative team changes have made that much worse, but being a Legion fan requires a GREAT deal of patience, because with such a large team it will always take a long time for your favorite character to appear or a subplot to reach fruition. I remember as a kid counting issues until the next appearance of my favorite Legionnaires. Heck, until fandom voted Dream Girl in as leader and Levitz ran with that, I thought we'd never really see Nura again. I remember the same frustrations with X-Men and Teen Titans, both smaller teams but very subplot heavy.

I came *this* close to not buying this issue simply because I hate the way Johns writes Kon-el and I didn't think 8 pages of Legion a month was going to justify the price... but I'm really glad I did.

The art in both stories was excellent and I actually even liked Johns' Kon-el characterisation for a change. But this is Legion World so who cares about him? On to their story -

First of all, yes there was a lot more set-up than story here but this is issue #1 so I can forgive it. If we're still reading filler/set-up 3, 4 or 5 issues down the line then I will join you in complaining.

Secondly, the Night Girl/Shadow Lass info-box mix-up was unfortunate but it was obviously just a production error. Let's move on people.

I'm one of those who expressed dislike of Thom's "crazy" ramblings in another thread but I didn't mind it here and y'know what - it made me appreciate that Thom actually has a personality for once? I'd like to see him cured sooner than later but when that's done I hope some of this care-free, happy-go-lucky nature remains - the Legion definitely don't need any more dour, overly serious guys like he (IMO) used to be.

The Tellus pages were fantastic and I am loving his subtle presence all over the Superman books of late. As for the 'Tellus hates water' issue - didn't this book make a point of telling us the water in Lake Bruin was mysteriously becoming more muddy? Maybe that was Tellus' way of making the Lake more habitable?

The 'coming attractions' page was probably my least favourite part of the book though since I would have much rather had some of those revelations come as a surprise (especially the 'Jan as Conner's teacher' one) and it also meant one less page of story but what-the-hey, I can live with it.

Is it possible that this is leading up to Kon-El becoming an active member of the LSH?

Please please No!!!

Superboy is a Titan!

Not to be a smart-ass (well, okay, maybe a bit of one, admittedly), but what the heck is a swamp doing in Smallville? Isn't the town supposed to be somewhere in the American midwest, where I believe "swamps" technically don't exist?

More seriously, though, the art and plot teasers seem very enticing from what I've seen on-line here, so I'm literally running out in a few minutes to pick up the issue (I'm especially happy to see that Mr. Manipul is beginning to realize his full potential).

I really hope NOT. Conner is a teenager. LSH is adult. It would make no-sense, unless LSH became like JSA and started growing new "teen" members. Which in a sense seemed to be the direction Waid sort of implied for Threeboot.

Actually, it BECAME a swamp, but it used to be a lake. It's explained...

[/QB] Doh! That's what I get for commenting without having actually read the whole issue yet. I'm glad that they explained the swamp anomoly, though. Thanks for setting me straight, Ricardo.

I live in Ohio. I live in the Black Swamp. Used to have malaria here, back in the day. Not my day. Way-back day.