Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes SUPERMAN Secret Origin: Totally tits or the pits?

Probably, Alien Nation, is the most relevant example.

Although, we've had aliens among us, with ebil gubmint authorities and / or terrified humans a danger to them, as a plot device since Disney's Escape from Witch Mountain, with side-jaunts ranging from E.T. the Extraterrestrial to District 9.

Yes, I knew it was Alien Nation but I'm so used to being wrong . . .

I finally got my copy, the dealer messed up, and I enjoyed the story quite a bit.

Having seen the whole issue, I agree that the first four pages should have been condensed to two and the saved two pages used for Kal's time with the Legion.

I think it was silly to make two of the girls signing Pete's cast in #1 to look exactly like Lu and Tinya and then not have it actually BE them.
Wasted opportunity.

The Science Police scenes didn't make much sense either.
Citizens have the right to stop an assault if they see one, even today and that's what those guys were doing, assaulting that girl.
Garth is the perfect non-lethal weapon for a citizen to use, a taesser(sp?).

Anyway, I have a hard time believing that someone with Brande's money and influence hasn't established a club/group that is sanctioned by some sort of agency, a comprehensive one, too.

If the sponsors aren't Earth Gov, they're bigger.
And I can't see the Science Police giving them trouble.
That would be like the New York police giving the UN peacekeeper forces trouble.
Even if the SP have gone international, like Interpol or something, a Federated Planets 'protection' group would be outside their sphere, wouldn't they?

I still liked the story, though.

I don't know if I agree with the "southerners hate for'ners" thing.

One of those creepy cable tv shows came down south to do a documockumentary on racist feelings towards arabic looking people. the set up in some convience store and used a hyperjerk phony store clerk and some "arabic looking" customers to see how racist peoples attitudes in the south were. Not surprisingly, they got one or two people to agree with their plant.

The big surprise, however, was the amount of southerners that told the clerk and the other plants what jerks they were, promising to not only not shop there anymore but spread the word about the place to their friends and family.

Oops...the cable news show visited planet backfire. No one doubts that in their effort to show americans as racist jerks, YET AGAIN, they went to what they assumed to be the race capital of the US, the south.

And were promptly slapped in the face with their own bigotry. The south was not only NOT as bigoted as they assumed, but in automatically going there, they showed their own feelings of bigotry and racism, still stuck in the past.

Honestly, I haven't been reading this legion stuff as allegory. There have been xenophobes as long as there have been people from different places. If this were being written by Abib Kalil, in Mosul, it would be an Afghan trying to get rid of people from outside. Since it was written by an american, its the 31st century equivalent. The setting is earth, so the xenophobes have to be from earth, otherwise, why would ...say... a Braalian be trying to kick people off earth, proclaiming it only for earthlings?

Maybe I'm wrong, but sometimes, a story is just a story.

Wow, I didn't read this anywhere in the story!

Did Johns portray the anti-aliens folk as particularly 'southern' feeling? Since the bulk of the reaction we saw was in Metropolis, which I've always thought to be DC's version of New York, I would have gotten the exact opposite impression, that it was a slam on northerners!

(Had I gotten that impression at all, which I didn't, getting more of an 'earth people in general are dicks' vibe.)

Yeah, that's about what I got from the story, too.
lol

By the way, Krypto arrives!
Does that make him very old in Adventure?
Or does that make his Kryptonian doggie years a lot less than Earthian doggie years?

So, Final Crisis really changed Supes history?
Because I could swear that I remember when a married Superman got Krypto.
sigh

They made a point of saying that Krypto (and perhaps Kryptonian dogs in general:I forget) ages more slowly than other dogs in the latest Superman: Secret Files. Either way, as of now he's been around for a while.

I believe rickshaw was referencing doublechinner's earlier comment about xenophobia in the U.S.

Thanks.
I totally missed the most recent Secret Files.
sigh
I can't tell you how many Who's Whos and Secret Files I've bought over the years that mean absolutely nothing in the current DCU and Marvel universes!

Johns can't even get the Luthor family timeline straight, in L5W Lionel Luthor is still around after the rural myth of a super-boy has been established and Lex's sister (Lena?) has had some tragedy befall her, in SO Lionel apparently dies and the sister is perfectly fine. Perhaps Lionel has faked his own death to test Lex?

Is this Daddy Luthor even named 'Lionel'?

He's certainly not rich or smart.

I am curious though, and a little excited, to see who Lex's sister is and what her problems are!

Set, it was something I read above, a kind of generalized thing. I might have been wrong, can't find it now anyway. Thats just the gist I seem to have picked up from reading a response.

Cool, I was worried that the comic itself was getting all annoyingly political. It bugs me when that sort of stuff gets shoved into places where it doesn't belong, all unsolicited.

Hm, Secret Origins to me is okay, but I'm leaving after the Legion story in #2 - this book feels so much like Smallville, I'd rather watch another episode of that one...

I wonder if the manhunters millenium story happend...in this contiunity...cause if not...WHERE'S LAUREL KENT!

The 3rd issue was quite...fascinating. Johns continues his mash-up of Donner's movie and Byrne's Man of Steel. But the twists to those venerable sources are very clever and interesting. Metropolis is now really down on its luck, and the Daily Planet moreso, and it's not clear if that is the result of plain old urban decay and collapse of print media, or whether Luthor's making it worse. But it's a city that really needs an inspiring hero, rather than a perfect city that draws an inspiring hero. When you think about the New York of 1977, when Donner's movie was shot, you can't help but feel echoes to that time and place.

Even more interesting to me is the Johns twists to Lois Lane. Here, Lois is neither dismissive nor cruel to Clark, although she's happy to hand him the less interesting role in a gambit to gain access to a Luthor photo-op. Instead, Lois is DEAD perceptive, immediately spotting, unlike anyone else, that Clark is hiding something behind the cheap suit and the slouch. The story runs out before we can see whether Lois makes a connection between a deceptive Clark and a new Superman in town, but I can't wait to see what she does next issue. And I was really struck by this switch in Lois, because I think it's very different from the suspicious Lois of the golden and silver ages. One thing that I think has always been a little weak about the Lois/Superman relationship is why Superman falls for her. Yes, she's cute. Yes, she's smart. Yes, she's tough as nails. Yes, she's a dedicated professional. But a LOT of women fit that bill, and while society made women with all those qualities somewhat rare in 1940, it's a whole new ball game today. So, when he can literally have any woman in the world, including the childhood sweetheart who has been his closest confidante, why does he pick Lois? Is it just the convenience of the work/life balance? Johns comes up with a really brilliant answer here -- Lois sees through Clark immediately. She sees the real Clark, not the facade. Like I said, I'm eager to see how Johns plays out the implications of this new dynamic.

And to, the heart wants what the heart wants.

Lana was perfectly lovely, but didn't excite Clark. He went for the tingle to co-mingle.

See, that's the thing, RS1, because in SO#1 Lana DOES get Clark hot and bothered. So where does the split between them come? I wonder if Johns will address this before this miniseries concludes? I mean, it's perfectly natural for a youthful relationship to not survive adolescense and adulthood. But what is the actual reason? Can Lana not stand seeing Clark act like a wimp? (Something else else Johns touches on briefly.) Is Clark afraid to commit (the superhero classic)? If their childhood relationship is important, shouldn't the end of it be, too?

I found issue 3 incredibly irritating.

I'm sick of Frank drawing Clark to look like Christopher Reeve. It's unnecessary and a bit creepy.

I was also quite amazed by how much of the Superman film Johns completely ripped off in this issue. There was dialogue pretty much cut and pasted.

I know some fans enjoy this self referentialism but I just find it really, really annoying! As fans we all, or most of us, have the same references.

There's no need to conflate all these various Superman projects back into the comic books. I don't understand what's really supposed to be gained from it...

Hey, a belated but heartfelt apology to Rickshaw1 on my "southerner" comments. Totally my bad and not appropriate. You see racial prejudice/hostility to "furners" in lots of places. I'm going to try and leave my political views out of future Legionworld posts. Again, I am sorry.

Issue #6 finally came out. Final verdict: Neither Totally tits or the pits. Gary Frank worked hard and I'm sure it will make a very pretty hardcover collected edition for those who care to shell out the bucks. His style remains controversial, but those who like the style should be in heaven. Particularly those who love the Christopher Reeves look.

We've had an interesting discussion on other threads about reading comics as an ongoing narrative vs. as more isolated stories. For me, this works better as an isolated story rather than a redefining of Superman's origin for the continuity of the current DCU. A little too sentimental in places, but inspiring in others. Overall, I consider John Byrne's "Man of Steel" to be a superior work, but can't deny the effort and care for the character that went into this.

I loved the look on Luthor's face when he walked out to find... well, I don't want to spoil it.

Uh-oh! Time for LW's least favorite drinking game! Drink a shot any time someone says something nice about John Byrne! <gulp>

(Least favorite because it happens so rarely here that it's hard to even get a buzz! )

For the record I also admire Byrne's Man of Steel and lament that that the firm foundation it gave for the modern Superman mythos has basically been thrown out the window. Yeah, I'm not too thrilled with what it did to the Legion, but in and of itself it was a fine reimagining.

Oh! Take another shot everyone! <gulp>

I'd forgotten about this.

Bottoms up. Or, is that a topic for another forum?

You forgot about the series or the topic?