Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Preview for ADVENTURE #529...

She'd have to wait in line behind a certain foul-tempered three-armed purple doctor.

Some fault has to lie with Editorial, too. In the modern-day age of communication, it shouldn't be that hard for editor, writer, and artist to all speak with each other as a story progresses. I find it bewildering that there should be so much of a gap between the writer's intent and what the artist ends up turning out.

I agree, cleome.
Running copies of pencils by both the writer and the editor(s) in email attachments shouldn't be difficult, at all.

I wonder if Variable Lad and Cosmic King have a time limit on their powers, so that they would revert back at some point?

I won't get the issue until today, so I'm not sure of how things happened.

Maybe they can bring Gas Girl over from Lallor- perhaps she could sense them in her gaseous state- and guide Variable Lad into reincorporation, perhaps in cooperation with a telepath.

I say they leave Cosmic King as is, if his appearance on Utopia is called a 'chronicler's error' or something. I think they ought to just stick with Zymyr having extraordinarily good timing in whisking him to join his Villainaires.

If nothing else, this proves how effective and cool a power Gas Girl's is, or could be (and this is just scratching the surface, IMO). If only they'd do something about the name...

If Variable Lad returned and could only use his power to shift from solid to gas to liquid, I'd be all for his joining. I liked what we saw of his personality and his connection to the LSH's medic is a nice plus.

'Trailing spouse program'... does that mean Gravity Lad's getting a lesser job than Power Boy on Takron-Galtos? Will he, PB and Nightwind all be wearing SP outfits when next we see them? Or do Takron-Galtos guards have their own uniforms? I don't recall, off the top of my head.

Cosmic King is different from Element Lad in that his power is rooted in Venusian Alechemy. Presumably, that would have a mystical component, whereas Trom's transmutations are firmly rooted in science (except for the Prime Trom). That might explain how he can achieve controlling limited movement of what he transmutes. Maybe he knows a spell for it.

Of course, Jan's been shown to do the same thing. Perhaps most notably, pre-Progenitor Jan of what's now the New Wanderers during the event that led to the first Legion Lost. I always thought Zoe should've been there with he, Jazmin and Wildfire- since what that trio was doing really needed her power alongside theirs to accomplish what they were doing.

I found this last issue of Adventure (for now?) more of a whimper than a bang, for all the death and departures. All that promise from the Levitz/Jimenez issues now lost to us. I find it so sad that Phil, who clearly loved what he was doing and had ideas out the wazoo, was pulled to other projects. I hope he enjoys them as much as he obviously enjoyed ADVENTURE COMICS. I thought he and Levitz clicked as a team here in a way that none of the artists we've seen working with Paul have- including Keith Giffen (but only in *this* retro-booted LSH). I hope the artist assigned to the new #1 is a near match. I *really* hope that Phil and Paul get reunited someday for a lengthy LSH run.

"They're sending CHILDREN to fight..." or a line similar to that- how many times have I read this is a LSH (or X-Men- or AVENGERS, more recently) comic! ^^Chortle^^ There was even a 'Bah!', wasn't there?

Cosmic King and Saturn Queen have always been the cyphers of classic LSH villains. I have more of a sense of who she is, now. Maybe reincorporated CK will deliver more of the patented megalomaniac dialogue whenever he reincorporates, or is next whisked around by Zymyr. He should use his power through eyebeams, too-- not with Cosmic Boy like effects! Come to think of it, Rokk once was said to emit his magnetics through his eyes, too. Hmmm...

Yes, a very lengthy run, like forever.

But, I'd also like to see Levitz with Kitson and Coipel, just to see what would happen.

Shady, I think I 'edited' while you were replying. There may be more to the initial post than what you read.

I agree, Levitz/Kitson and Levitz/Coipel would be fantastic to see.

Whenever Levitz does move on, Jonathan Hickman- current writer of FANTASTIC FORCE and SECRET WARRIORS and others has expressed a love for the LSH and a desire to write them. I'd be very interested in seeing what he'd do with them.

I'm always getting caught up with the 'edit button' on one end or the other.
:rolleyes:

Hickman, I don't know him, but I'm always open to a fresh point of view.

I don't think that I like this version of SQ.
She seemed self-serving before, greedy, and for a telepath, which seems strange to me, completely indifferent to others.

But she never appeared to be insane, and she does now.
And she's jumped to a mass murderer, although in later Legion years the LSV had the kill a Legionnaire idea, which I disliked, too.
Fortunately, they've never been very successful with that.

It's interesting that she, apparently a manipulative telepath who likes to control the minds of others, has been portrayed both here in the Levitz run and in her Lo3W appearance as willingly subjugating herself to stronger villains (Prime and then the blue baby).

I always thought of her as a Sarya-like figure, with a crazy ego, who would willingly work with other powerful villains, but always regard herself as a peer or equal, never as a subordinate or 'flunky.'

I can't help but think less of Saturn Queen as a villain, seeing her as some sort of submissive who plays dominant in public, but is always just the Vader and never the Emperor.

Even when Mekt or the other LSV members are taking orders, they aren't doing so graciously or enthusiastically (and, in Mekt's case, can be downright bitchy about it), but Eve is coming across as fanatically devoted to the goals of this blue baby she knows nothing about, and, in Lo3W, was depicted with this creepy worshipful expression whenever she was standing before Superboy Prime.

It's a far cry from the Absolute Power version of Eve Aries in Superman/Batman.

On the one hand, it's interesting to have the villain displaying such an obvious psychological fault, and overcompensating for her own co-dependency issues by socially bullying everyone else. She'd hardly be the only villain with deep-seated issues. (Mordru with his phobia and his megalomania, Mekt with his sibling issues, etc.) But I kinda like my evil masterminds to be a little more 'mastermind' and a little less 'obsequious toady.'

On the page, she's superficially the leader of this LSV, the Dr. Frankenstein or the Dracula, but due to her relationship with the blue baby, she's pretty much being clarified behind the scenes to be merely the Igor or the Rensfield to the 'real villain.'

'Igor' isn't a flattering look on her, and it certainly isn't making me feel all that jazzed about how awesome the Legion are, when they are getting their butts kicked repeatedly by a woman that's being downgraded from 'world class villain all by herself' to 'co-dependent sock puppet of someone we haven't really met yet.'

On one hand, I'm glad that the "dead" character isn't someone I'm invested in.

On the other hand, that's the problem - the "death" had no meaning, judging from everyone's reactions here. What purpose did it serve? I guess it may lead to changes in how the Academy is run, but having the kid just be comatose or something could have served that purpose too.

Ah well... here's hoping nobody breathes him in!

Wow. The art in this issue is so bad, I couldn't tell what was going on in a couple of pages, and on other pages the word balloons didn't seem to go with the art!
The story wasn't so bad, but the art just ruined the whole issue for me.

Yeah, that's kind of a catch-22. Killing off a character that people care about is powerful stuff, to be used very conservatively, for the big effect.

Killing off somebody that nobody really was that invested in seems like a waste of time.

What's the point of even bothering to pay a creative team to craft that death-scene if the response from the reader is going to range from 'meh' to 'at least it wasn't someone important.'

And then, even worse, to couple it with art that leaves the reader thinking, 'WTF just happened?'

But, really, I'm expecting that Variable Lad's power will allow him to 'pull a Darwin' and survive this 'death.' He already turned into a mist form in this very issue, so we know he's capable of surviving as a mist-entity.

Variable Lad and Cosmic King will merge into one entity and become the next Progenitor.

Or the next Jarth...

A merged CK and VL would be .
I can see Gym'll freaking out and busting his bum using his Medic One facility and all his money and pull to separate them.

I'm glad others didn't get the white snake VL/CK battle scenes either.
Was it supposed to be the antitranmuter cobra or what?
I know, maybe VL was supposed to be a snake spirit, that's why the transmutation didn't fully work and the spell was reversed and took CK out.
- ?
!

VL sounds like the new Wildfire. Lose the suit/physical form, return, repeat.

Yeah, that came to mind for me, too.
But, well, I liked that version of him.

The art seemed to imply that he'd turned into a shiny reflectiive metal snake, and that Cosmic King's 'transmutation beams' were bouncing off of him and hitting Cosmic King.

But, since Cosmic King had never shot 'transmutation lasers' before, and had shot ring-bubble-things, it didn't make any sense. It's like, just in time for Variable Lad to turn into a giant mirror, Cosmic King inexplicably started using a different power, that could conveniently be reflected by mirrors...

Also, if the beams were reflecting, then reflecto-snake shouldn't have been affected at all.

Eh. I'm still peeved about telekinetic Imra in issue 1, so I'm the wrong person to ask about the art fitting the scene.

I was surprised to find that the death did actually affect me. Not that I cared so much for the character, but the spirit of that kind of sacrifice can be moving. It reminded me of how I hated Monstress until the issue where she was killed. On a different scale, Ferro Lad served the same purpose as a newer character as well.

It's like the movie trope of the rookie getting killed his first day on the job. You never got to really know him, but having an innocent bite the dust illustrates the gravity of their profession.

I didn't know transmutation could be reflected! Jeepers, has Variable Lad found a new mirror material that resists transmutation? What a breakthrough that would be!

Good point, Drake. Hopefully the ramifications will be explored more fully in future issues, so that the death will be even more meaningful.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Comet Queen is now a Legionnaire - gracing on Legion cover #3 alongside Sun Boy and Ultra Boy!! whooo hooooo never seen CQ looking so SERIOUS! hope she kicks the Dominators and the Renegades butts!</span></span>

link -

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/files/2011/08/LSH_Cv3.jpg

and also Legion Lost #3 is there too...with Timber Wolf spotlighting.

Yawn. Why am I still buying this book? What was Cosmic King even trying to accomplish? And somebody doesn't understand his powers obviously.

Gee. Another "Legion" death. They're getting monotonous. And another one coming soon. zzzzzzzz

( I could be wrong, but...) Isn't it established that Inertron is both difficult to create and to transmute (hence proof of Jan's superior ability at transmutaion that he can even create it when he can bearly transmute it at all once it is created)? So, maybe VL turned into a new, shiny, reflective form of living Inertron that allowed partial immunity... then horrible death from transmutation?

I don't think that the creators of that scene deserve our attempts to rationalize it.

Cosmic King's transmutation was drawn as circle-stuff, like Cosmic Boy's magnetism (which was wrong anyway), and then, since Variable Lad turned into something shiny and reflective, suddenly Cosmic King's powers suddenly and inexplicably *work completely differently* and shoot out red beams of laser-like energy, just in time to be reflected!

Lame.

Lameness of such a magnitude that I don't think it even deserves our trying to fanwank it into making sense.

Variable Lad was shown turning into gas a few pages earlier anyway, so, really, this 'death' (and the inevitable 'shocking' reveal that Variable Lad is alive) is about as dramatically powerful as the stunning surprise ending of Titanic where (spoilers!) the boat sank.

You suck! I was gonna see titanic finally after all these years this week...I JUST BOUGHT THE DVD...GRRRRRRS


<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">JUST KIDDING! </span></span>

Yeah, you won't believe the shock ending of The Passion of the Christ...