Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Legion Of Super Heroes #1

Look on the bright side - those characters are alive and kicking.

My all-time favorite Legionnaire is now dead again.

I thought it was a lot of fun, even as big, heavy serious stuff was happening. I feel like Harmonia will be the Legion's new Ron Vidar and...are there sparks already between her and Brainy, or did I imagine that?

I think Paul is still finding his voice for the Legion and Legionnaires again, but that's understandable. I still think it's a promising start.

I wish the characters looked a bit more like they did in the Baxter series. Most of them either looked younger somehow or had hairstyles and costumes too dissimilar to what they used to. I know this is a holdover from Gary Frank, but it seemed more distracting than it was in Superman/LSH or L3W because the Legion are now in their own book.

I hope Paul explores what happened in the ?-year gap between what happened in his last issue and the Lightning Saga and Superman/LSH. There's some 'splainin' to do, but I know the wheels are already a-turnin' in Paul's mind. I have confidence in him.

I think the only thing that bothered me in the issue was how cold the Legionnaires seemed toward what happened to Titan. This kind of disaster was very uncommon in the original continuity, so I thought it would be devasting for them not to be able to save the planet. I would think that some of them would have risked their lives to get more people out up into zero hour, but they seemed resigned that they got all they could. Other than Imra, it seemed the only reason anyone felt anything was because of the telepaths' psychic death throes. I'm sure Paul approached things this way in order to make the story as accessible as possible, but it seemed a bit of a shorthand for longtime fans.

Still, I like that Paul is taking Geoff's set-up by the nads instead of just ignoring or glossing it over. The Justice League of Earth story should have repercussions, and the idea of the Legion having Earth Man forced on them is as novel a way of approaching it as I can think of. Revisiting Sodam Yat and the rebirth of the GLC was a smart move, too.

I also thought Dyogene was pretty rad--for some reason I hope he'll meet Gates and/or Quislet at some point!

I definitely would've liked to have seen more Legionnaires, but we got solid looks at Brainy and Imra in the issue. Imra is as fierce as I remember her, and whatever took her boys better look out! Brainy seemed a little regressed from how I remember him somehow, but it's admittedly been a long time since I've read Paul's version of the character. There was enough there to make me want more.

It's kind of a vaguely-defined threat, isn't it? On the surface what happened to Titan seems basically an accident caused by snoopy time scientists with no malevalence immediately evident. The main hint that there's something bigger going on came from the scenes on Oa and the references to this event being foretold. In the end both central plot elements come together in the form of the deputizing of Earth Man as 2814's GL.

So at this point it's difficult to say exactly what Paul's first story arc is all about. That's not entirely a bad thing as there would appear to be no particular formula for a Legion story we've read before. It's kind of like the first chapter or two of a novel to which we haven't read the dust cover to yet, so we have to simply read on to see what it's all about.

No, not a bad thing at all.

CBR Review is up : 3 out of 5 stars.

Is 3 of 5 stars considered good at CBR? Average? The reviewer seemed to think the issue... serviceable, I guess??

Better than zero.

I think, from now on, whenever someone gets a review on CBR, they're going to say, "it's better than what Villains for Hire got".

Did anyone recognize the woman in bed with Brek?

I did not. I thought maybe it was Lydda?

Sinde??!?!

or ?

Welcome back to the Legion, Paul Levitz. I wish you a long and prosperous run this time out.

I give the premier issue a solid B, and see lots of promise. I came into this issue carrying a lot of baggage. The introduction of the Approximate Legion has been poorly handled in many regards. As a loyal reader and fan of the Five Years Later, DnA, and much of the 3Boot, I've felt that my loyalty has been repeatedly rewarded with insult and disdain from DC editors and fans of the original Legion. Many times, those insults came from editors and fans who didn't seem to get that I was a fan of the original Legion. In spite of this baggage, I have faith in Levitz as a writer. That faith has to do with his commitment as a writer, his characterization of the Legionnaires, and his ability to manage the large cast and multiple ideas. Those qualities were all on display here.

Levitz had plenty of B issues or worse in his original runs. The strength of his work on the title came with his ability to tell a comprehensible story over time. The Legionnaires all grew under his care. He left a very different team than he started with. Am I thrilled with Earth Man as the newest member? Nope. Am I confident that I will get to know him better as the story unfolds? Yes, I am.

Saturn Girl was written well. That’s huge to me. I loved the way she kept her emotions in check while the twins disappeared and her world crumbled. She stood up to Brainiac 5 in a way that nobody else could have. It wasn’t rude or snarky. It was determination. She was right. He knew it. Bravo.

I look forward to watching Cinar grow as an artist. There were parts of the art that I wasn’t crazy about, but there were other parts that were just brilliant. I especially liked the full page on Titan with Colossol Boy, Brainiac 5, Cosmic Boy, Ultra Boy, Sun Boy, and Dawnstar. Nice team visual without being too crowded.

The text page was nice too.

So, we’re off to a solid start.

Jerry, re: the text page, I **LOVED** it.

Paul loved interacting with fans on the old LSH letters page... I hope he gets a regular text page now.

Hello, fellow friends! Back after soooo long!

And THAT'S how a Legion book should be like. Haven't been this interested since Giffen left the book (even though I enjoyed the hell out of Shooter's brief run - but that team concept was wrong).

I do hope Levitz get as far away as possible from the mediocre infantile drama that Johns changed the book into, and does exactly what he did now: a Legion book that jumps around, focus on a billion different things and it is crammed with content (not shock-value black-and-white scenes).

It seriously reads like a v3 book and the team SOUNDS/FEELS older already. Great!

Now, if we could only get some annuals/fill-ins done with Giffen, Grell and Lightle...

You are asking too much from the guy who gave us Everybody but The Legion of 3 Million Retcons Cos I Wanna.

I just remembered. Saturn Girl appears to be telekinetic now. That's a new one on me and I'm not sure I liked it. Her power's been too well defined for too long to suddenly grow new aspects. I hope they aren't trying to turn her into Jean Grey.

The head shot of her being all philosophical with the gold circle (halo) behind her reminded me of old saint icons from art history classs.

You're right, I also noticed that TK-looking panel... I doubt Imra head-butted the glass...

I'm not sure how I feel about this... on one hand, it's a natural addition/progression, on the other, it sort-of negates characters like Tellus, Kinetix and Life Lass ever adding anything new to the team.

WOW, I didn't even notice that. I'm not sure how I feel about it.

I think since Johns got into Green Lantern, it became less about morals and more about Willpower. We must not forget that Sinestro himself was a Green Lantern, so it's not like he was morally superior. That sounds more akin to the blue lantern.

There are 2 panels. There's also one where she appears to be keeping a column from collapsing on a couple crouching below. It's a little confusing. In the next panel, she's flying around with some kid in her arms, which left me thinking, "did she save those people or not? Was this kid under the column too and he's the only one she could save?", etc.

I just looked again and there's another panel on the same page as I described above (what the hell was wrong with page numbers btw?). It's also unclear, but it looks like she might be preventing debris from falling on civilians with her newfound telekinesis.

Somehow I thought it would just be some sort of Flight Ring improvement, using her brain power, rather than TK. But that's just me, I guess.

But she's using her standard "hand gestures around her face to show she's using her telepathy" in all 3 scenes.

Titan is not a planet,m so that isn't really destroying a planet (though I suppose it's a "world"). And at least they actually did the smart thing and prepared for disasters, so although lots of people died we won't see any last-of-their-world plots. Destroying a world is almost always a bad idea; it provides shock value for one issue and then the writers have to live with it forever. It's sort of like killing a character that way, except a world is harder to bring back.

I too thought Brainy was a little too mentally unbalanced here.

And Dawnstar's costume exposed so much of her breasts that we should be seeing nipples (or at least areolas).

I enjoyed this issue. It was refreshing to read a comic with so much going on (take that Bendis!). I loved the characterization Levitz gave everyone, even minor characters like the Time Institute scientists and the SP guards at the beginning (yay for Mike!). I also enjoyed the focus on Saturn Girl. When I read the Legion during the Reboot and during Waid's run, I never could get into her character. But here I was hooked into her right away.

And I'm excited to see where these plots go from here. Will there be backlash on Earth to all these Titanian refugees? Are Imra and Garth the relationship Levitz mentioned was over? So many questions!

Well, it seems like it's a replacement for Mogo. The sentient planet and Green Lantern Mogo has been established as the moral compass of the Green Lanterns. He's the one who guides rings to new sentients based on their moral fiber and ability to overcome fear. So if Mogo is dead in the 31st century, this Dyogene has taken over the role of handing out rings. We don't know yet what criteria it's using to pick our new GLs, but since it's picking Earth Man I'm guessing one criteria is being a sociopath.

And how well were Earth Legionnaires treated while Earth Man and the other Rejects were in charge? My guess is that Kirt's allies view them as race traitors and people like Earth Man as true Earthers. As the icon of the xenophobic movement, Earth Man might just make a good public example like Cos said.

Oh, and I also thought it was a fun nod that the Time Institute people kept mentioning Flashpoint, the upcoming event that Geoff Johns is working on. I like seeing *wink wink nudge nudge* style teasers.

I don't get my copy until tomorrow afternoon but I'm really excited about it after reading these posts.

I agree that Imra having TK powers would be a natural progression and I'm thrilled for her.
She needed something to take her out of the boring telepath non-action heroine.
Levitz can be much more active with her in TK/TP mode.

I hope he does similar things with others.
It's only natural that their powers would mature with them and we've seen similar things before.

For example: Vi went from getting mouse size (moset Adventure stories) to being able to go microscopic (or smaller) during the GDS.

I'm also excited to see him deal with the twins and the 'curse'.

The art in the 5 page preview seemed wonderful.
I really loved the look at Titan and Aven.

I can't stand EM/AB but what can you do?
I never liked Universo, either.

I love seeing LASH so excited and jumping around!
I'm glad someone reminded him of Tenzil in the past with the other ESers.