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

Hey, after all, this is Retroboot Johns Legion, where rules are not established and everyone is supposed to "kick ass" and be a "fighter"!

Re: Brainy, I agree. Pre Zero Hour Brainy was shown as capable of feeling empathy. We always saw him mourn whenever a fellow Legionnaire had died, for example.

I'm sure many others noticed, but I'm not sureit was posted in this thread already. Imra mentions that her boys were with Garth's folks on Winath. I think it's pretty cool that they're alive again; I can't remember the issue, but the Mr. and Mrs. Ranzz were revealed to have died sometime in the '70s, right?

I think it's great they're (apparently) alive again.

She said folks. I don't think she meant parents.

Dyogene is the first Pokemon Green Lantern!!

Pokemon? I thought I killed him.

The way his brain works, he should *easily* be able to map out his fellow Legionnaires personalities, and be able to say *exactly* what he needs to say to get his point across not only efficiently, but in such a way that he's considered popular and friendly.

Instead, he deliberately (I assume) goes out of his way to communicate inefficiently, and then has the chutzpah to act all snotty about people 'not understanding him' or 'not being able to keep up.' It's worse than just being abrasive, it's *stupid.*

It's like Brainy is actively trying to make his life more difficult, and deliberately making it so that other legionnaires stop and question when he says something snappish and jerkish, instead of devoting the 2 Coluan brain cells it would take to say what he means effectively the first time.

Brainy being a jerk makes as much sense as Impulse waiting 5 seconds between each word, just to make communicating with normal-speed people even *more* infuriating than it already is!

Argh. The Brainy as social maladjust thing has always bugged me. It's just so stupid!

Adventure #331, the 2 issue story of Dynamo Boy and the adult LSV.
On the last page Jan, Superboy and Mon have tricked them as explained by ELad who's used his power of tranmutation to change the atoms of the world they and the villians are on to chain react with, and explode, the planet if the villians used their powers to attack.
Which they had already done.

Then, Superboy says, "And now the three of us must be going! Element Lad will transmute himself into a chemical fomr that can survive in space!"

That story is pretty early on, too.

#350+ is about half way throuh the Archives and the Legionnaires have matured quite a bit and Shooter is just about to take over.
So, I think I can consider Vi's powers to have matured as well.
But, you're rignt, they're certainly still in Adventure.
Just not early years, as Adventure goes.

About Imra, I don't need her to be powered up.
I just think it's not a bad idea.
If Paul didn't intend it, maybe Cindar thought she had TK or perhaps, I don't know his level of understanding english, maybe he wasn't exactly sure how to show what she was doing or doesn't exactly know what telepathy is.

Or, maybe, like Paul said, she decided to grow on her own.
I've writen things and that happens all of the time and I'm not collaborating with multiple other artists.

On Brainy, we have to remember that he just got back from meeting Brainiac and giving him over to Colu AND he met a Kara again.
She didn't know him and she's dead to him and he still loves her.
I'd say he's deep in grief and old wounds open and super preoccupied.
Just a thought.

I read the issue and really enjoyed it.
The only things, 2, that I thought were a little weird was:
1. 'Garth DUMPED the kids on me.' paraphrased statement.
I'd say she might be feeling a little guilty right about now.
And were we supposed to think the babysitter was under the rubble and that was his/her arm sticking out?
Or don't kids that young need someone to watch out after them on Titan?
2. 'ploink'.

Dowdy.
I said Imra looked dowdy before.
Things were 'tweeked' quite a bit this time, I think.
I'll have to go back and look at that issue I was commenting on but that was early on in the new Adventure, back when Garth looked like he had a diaper on.

Anyway, I'm a happy camper with this first story.
sigh

Finally got it!

A bit of a mixed bag for me. Some aspects were great. Some sucked. But most were just so-so.

I'd give it a B-/C+.

First the good -

* Colossal Boy gets to do something! It's great having a writer back on this book who likes Gim as much as I do.
* There was a LOT going on! So much better than that annoying decompressed, 'writing for the trade' style.
* Cinar's art was really good for the most part. And I agree that he's only going to get better.
* I was pleasantly surprised that the Legion were able to save as many Titanians as they did. I was fully expecting a world-wid annihilation.
* Doctor Aven! Love seeing elements of the Reboot creeping in! Who's going to be next?
* Gigi Cusimano. It's been a long time.
* That page of reactions to the destruction of Titan was effective. I love it when they do that in a comic. (And great to get a quick Chuck and Lu peak.)
* I liked Imra telling Querl to 'Get out of her way'.
* I still love the costumes though Dawnstar's boob window should not be that big.

Now the bad -

* Saturn Girl's new TK power (if that's what indeed was happening). Her telepathy has already been shown to be uber-powerful AND she is already the world's worst panel-hog. She does NOT need any more opportunities to steal space from other Legionnaires. ESPECIALLY Tellus who I feel has only in the last year or so finally come into his own as a respected Legionnaire. I hope the TK was just an artistic mistake.
* Note to Hi-Fi - Dirk Morgna has RED hair, not blonde! Yuck to that colouring mistake from the Threeboot holding over to this team.
* Everything Green Lantern-related in this comic bored me to tears.
* The Legion seemed way too casual and nonchalant about the fact that thousands of people were dying around them on Titan. That rescue should have been dramatic but why should the reader care if the team didn't even seem to?
* Brainiac 5 being the worst offender! That page of him just casually strolling along the street thinking to himself and ignoring all the people being crushed around him was sickening! That better have been another artistic mistake and not something Paul put in his script otherwise I would have to seriously question his ability to write this (or any other heroic) character.
* The page where the Ranzz twins disappeared was confusing. They looked like they blew up.
* I like Earth-Man as a villain. I don't mind him being forced on the Legion short-term but he has too much blood on his hands for me to ever see him as capable of redemption. This plotline better come to a head fast.
* None of the Legionnaires came across as particularly likeable to me. That's a big problem in an issue #1 IMO. I'm tired of bitchy, antagonistic heroes. This should be a team of friends remember Paul!
* For an issue #1 there weren't enough "cool" moments where a new reader would look at the Legion and go 'Wow! What a cool concept/character.' Everything was just kinda ordinary. If I wasn't already a Legion fan I don't think this issue would have turned me into one.

So, as you can see - not the best start IMO but there is enough good scattered in there that things could easily improve in the months ahead.

Random speculation time - what if the brunette with Brek is Lydda?!? That would be a natural development I think.

Forgot to mention - in his text piece at the end, Paul suggests new readers go to the DC Boards for help regarding their Legion questions?!?

<ahem> Us Legion Worlders are a lot more helpful and friendly than that bunch at the DC Boards, Paul!

P.S. Can't wait for


<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Tyroc</span></span>


next issue!

wonder what he'll be wearing. : )

he's already sleeveless...

You know, I can see how these pages would be interpreted as Imra using telekinesis, really easily actually, but I don't know if that's necessarily what's happening. In the first two instances, it's not really clear that she's stopping any of the debris from falling on innocent bystanders....I would say she's definitely using her power, but maybe she's calling for help, trying to calm the crowd, trying to screen out a zillion terrified psis so she can concentrate...it could be taken a lot of ways...

The one with the window does look a bit more cut and dry, but even there I am inclined to think she's using her power to find her sons while she uses her padded knee to smash through the window.

It's unclear and I am way willing to admit that I might be wrong, but that's my interpretation of it unless I actually see a power field effect, or see someone talk about her having TK or something like that.

I am of the party who agree that Imra doesn't need telekinesis. It detracts from Tellus, and she really honestly doesn't need the extra power. It's actually nice that someone who over the decades who has developed such immense telepathic powers has very distinct physical weaknesses to exploit IMO..

i agree. and i always preferred characters with simple powers who used them cleverly.

Shooter actually started with 346, so all the Vi examples are after he started. Also, there is more than one example.

Me too.

Me three!

If Garridan Ranzz exists and is a normal son to Imra, who or what is the Validus we saw in Lo3W?

His identical twin cousin, complete with British accent.

maybe he was kidnapped at a later date. (issue 1 right now haha) and put back through time .......

or he coudve been taken out of the time stream and then replaced/rescued later/put back ...... drama!

maybe this time he's just a big monster haha

Let's not forget way, way back in Superboy and the Legion Of Super-Heroes #224 when the team faced off against Pulsar Stargrave and his henchmen. One of them, Quicksand, liquified then solidified the ground that the Legion was standing on in order to trap them. Imra's arms remained free and she then concentrated really hard and hit Quicksand with that mental telekinetic bolt, knocking her out, which freed the rest of the group.
Sure that action caused her to pass out afterwards, but hey she's had YEARS since then to practice and perfect.
So ... why is everyone surprised by her actions in #1?
Paul Levitz never forgets!

People, it is RETROBOOT Legion! They might tweak things a bit, since there is not really a real chronology at this time (where did the "jump" from the Baxter series really happened? No one knows exactly, and there was no Xenophobia on Earth at all!). So we have to wait a bit to know what the deal is.

true, Ric. But people are eager to see everything they want to of the prior Levitz run.

personally, I hope Paul Levitz opts to ignore the Garridan/Validus thing and let them remain 2 separate beings entirely; it certainly wasn't the high-point of his 80s run. I'm hoping the new kidnap bit is a red herring to make us thing he's revisiting that turf; it doesn't seem his style to rehash his own work.

Umm, what? Telekinesis is using your mind to move things. A "telekinetic bolt" whose only effect is to knock someone unconscious isn't telekinesis, it's telepathy.