Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Levitz back to writing Legion, leaving DC presidency?

we know already.
http://www.legionworld.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=11;t=000561;p=1

please look at existing threads before starting new ones.

this thread is going to be deleted soon.

i did look sorry didnt see it.

no worries. It is an exciting topic. but lately we have a rash of duplications, that only add work for Gary.

Thanks Sean! (Combined)

Well this was at least as unexpected as Infectious Lass appearing in TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED.

I refuse to go space-ape over it though. I already did that when it was announced that Shooter was returning.... and we all know how that ended up.

What would get me excited is the announcement that Giffen is going to co-plot or pencil or both. Yep... space-ape city.

If Levitz is to go it alone, though, I only hope he has paid attention to other writers' usage of characters he didn't care to use much. Otherwise I fear the usual suspects will get dumped right off the bat.

Fans of long-ignored or mishandled characters like Blok, Dawnstar, Wildfire, Timber Wolf and Element Lad should be rejoicing though.

Ditto Dream Girl and (as far as mishandled goes) Lightning Lad and Star Boy/man

I'm not the world's biggest Levitz fan to say the least, but ....

THANK GOD GEOFF JOHNS IS OFF THE LEGION!

And good, freakin' riddance to him.

I hope and pray Levitz ignores Johns' repulsive Legion of Super-Imposters and does his own thing. (First order of business -- chuck Johnsboot Schizoman into a black hole.) But if that thing of his smacks of old-school fogeyism, or reads as lackluster and lethargic as the last 4 or so years of the Baxter series, I'll be here ranting against *him* this time next year.

I wish Mr. Levitz luck, and I'm grateful to anyone and everyone responsible for riddng the Legion of Geoff Johns, but he's not getting a free pass. Levitz has to *prove* he can create something more tenable than a quaint exercise in moldy nostalgia before he gets my vote.

P.S. Paul, steer clear of Keith Giffen unless you have a mind to commit creative harakiri. Dredging up ugly memories of the TMKboot is the *last* thing you need right now.

Wow. This brought Trom back!

Has anyone ever thought that maybe Mr. Levitz will give us the untold story of the Legion's first meeting with Mordru??? There are still alot of untapped stories for him to WOW us with!!!

I think Superboy made a good point earlier in this thread about Levitz being a good technical writer. One of his strongest qualities is being able to guide a series in several ways many current writers cannot:

*keep story arcs at different lengths

*keep threats on various degrees of how dangerous they are - i.e., mega-galactic threat one issue vs. minor space-thief the next

*keep the pacing of the story moving forward so it remains exciting, while having it all flow evenl

*balance several subplots over a series of issues so there are the "long game" ones and the "short game" ones

*keep continuity tight while not focusing stories on the concept entirely

*have different characters interact with one another than previously.

All of these things keep a certain sense of the dynamic. They are also harder to recognize on a smaller 6-issue arc, but really bear fruition over a long multi-year run. Things like dialogue and tension might take him a few issues to get back up to speed on, but the overall mechanics are there I think.

Wow... been away for only a few days from this board, and now this...

Cool!

What does this mean for Adventure Comics? Will the Legion stay in the backup role? Does Superboy have a future in this book now that Johns is leaving? Will Levitz pick up the Retroboot Legion and go from there, or what?

Levitz back on the Legion seems to be good news. Here's hoping that he still has some stories left to tell - comebacks like these don't always work out well, as can be seen with Claremonts 21st century X-Men stories...

By the way: Does that mean that Dan Didio is praised away to become the new DC president (where he can't do that much damage)????

Uhm... well.

So in my eyes, Geoff Johns cleared up the status quo with L3W, and now Levitz can go from there. Seems a good transition as Johns doesn't have enough time on his hands anyway...

According to Dan DiDio on Newsarama here

1) Lost_Daughter wrote:
The Adventure Comics changeover. How did that happen? Was it planned? Will Legion be the stars? Will Levitz continue with Geoff's plans?

Dan DiDio: The change was in the works already before Paul stepped into the mix. And the change started at the moment we decided Francis was going to be the artist on The Flash.

What we're planning to do with The Flash ongoing series, we needed to get Francis and Geoff off the Adventure Comics series so they could concentrate on The Flash ongoing.

So we knew we had a change there. We just weren't sure exactly where and when. And we were going back and forth on which issue it was because Geoff had a really wonderful Superboy story that he wanted to tell that, unfortunately, will have to be pushed to a later date.

But my goal now is to get those guys going on Flash as soon as possible. And then when all the changes started to occur, Paul was our only choice for the series. And to be quite frank with you, before even knowing everything that was taking place, Paul was the person we were thinking about approaching for the series as well, given his association with the Legion, given his association with Adventure Comics, and his love for the title, and his love for those characters. It only made sense for him to be the one to take this and move it to its next incarnation.

Newsarama: There's no doubt that when you think of Paul, you think of Legion of Super-Heroes. But there are Conner Kent fans out there that are wondering - what's going to happen to the Superboy piece of this comic?

DiDio: We're going to see Conner's, probably, gradual leave from that book. But that's not to say Conner won't be joining a team book soon, or appearing in another series of his own at some point.
Nrama: Then as a follow-up to that question, ds69 wrote:
Dan, you now have the GREATEST LSH writer back on the title, you must use an A-list artist. Who will it be?

DiDio: I don't have the artist chosen yet. We have several people in mind. What I really want to do is sit down with Paul to see what his direction, tone and feel is. And to work with him on selecting the proper artist. We want to make sure he's a part of the process as well, in choosing the artist for the book.

But because there are so many things going on now, that's a little on hold for the second. What Paul's been doing is actually getting up to speed on the Legion of Super-Heroes. He's just been going through all the work Geoff has done on the characters lately, as well as James Robinson. And he's looking to build on the foundation we have going right now.

[pictures Mr. Levitz at Fat Cramer's place, ordering half a dozen more double espressos and saying, "Just tell Dan I'll call him when I figure it out, okay? Gah. Lookit' this mess!"]

Oh my, this is DC at work again... they launch a book, and just about half a year into it, another cool idea for another book comes along... and that's all, "Good bye book number one, I have gotten the idea that my first plan was not so good anyway, we will be doing something different."

This is the exact way of chaotic planning that brought us Shooters Threeboot run, especially its abysmal ending (and three issues too soon).

Only this time, we're on the receiving end cause we suddenly - like an unexpected Christmas present at Easter - are getting our monthly Legion book back and it's the Superboy fans out there who have got enough reason to complain.

Don't get me wrong, I am happy to see Paul Levitz back on the Legion, especially with the current Retroboot roster. But hey... what kind of strategy is this? Maximum Chaos?

There are alot of Kon-el fans talking smack about the Legion,in this newsarama post question section,Legion World needs to go over there and let their presence be felt and defend their beloved Legion!

Link

Saw it. I'm trying to log in but it won't let me.

Here's my not so nice comment on newsarama.

I could not be happier about the Legion taking over Adventure Comics,as I was skipping over the Kon-el pages anyway,I never liked the character to begin with,as the only Superboy for me is Kal-el,Long Live The Legion and Long Live The Levitz!

I feel bad for those Superboy fans. And we know EXACTLY how they feel, don't we?

DiDio seems incapable of effective long range planning, doesn't he? Or he's crappy at explaining WHY plans change, or both. Who thought anyone BESIDES Johns would be writing the Flash? Especially after the disasters of Bart-Flash and Waid's aborted run? So, if you KNOW you want Johns to do that, why start something with Superboy that he can't finish? Or, at least space things out so Johns can tell the "Superboy Returns" story he wants and then let Adventure move on to something else? Wasn't it SUPPOSED to be Legion in the beginning, then for some reason became Superboy? Why was that? Did Johns decide he wanted to tell a Superboy story first? Again, if that's the case, why not just SAY so?!!?!?! It all smacks of the Pee Wee Herman "I meant to do that" post-hoc rationalization. The announcement last week about how awesome it was that Johns & Manapul were dropping Superboy right out of the starting gate is the worst sort of example of that behavior.

Now, another possibility I've toyed with: What if Levitz INSISTED on the Legion as a condition for going quietly out of the president/publisher's seat? Maybe he feels like he has to save the property and this was his last best chance to do it? Diane What's her name gets DiDio on the phone and says "you have to give Paul a whole book for his Legion of Super-Whosits. Now!"

I kind of liked Conner better paired up with the Young Justice / Teen Titans crew, rather than read the continuing non-adventures of Conner in Smallville, which, while a nice bit of character study, felt like filler.

He plays better off of other characters, and is very much not a solo act, IMO.

I'm not thrilled with this particular changeover tactic, as it sounds like a built-in excuse for canceling Adventure when numbers drop after the Superboy fans move on, but, like many Legion fans, I'm just the dog who'se cringing in anticipation of the next kick.

As always, I'll take whatever Legion I can get, as long as they'll give it to me.

A stronger focus on a Levitz Adventure / Legion definitely sounds like it will lead to an abandonment of the reboot and threeboot teams, for now. I'm ambivalent on that. I guess I'd rather see one Legion (any of them, really) done well, than scattershot attempts at doing stories about all three. So this could be a bit of good news, for fans of one Legion in particular.

As messed up as the logic and planning obviously are, I'm okay with the result. Conner gets a nice six issue reintroduction to the DC Universe, and the Legion is back in the lead on Adventure Comics.

I my mind, Paul Levitz is to the Legion what Wolfman and Perez are to the Titans: even on his worst day, no one has done them better. Maybe the Legion can finally make it's way back to being one of DC's flagship titles.

Ha! We've done it again! For the third time in comics history (and the second in a title called Adventure) the Legion has pushed Superboy out of a book! Now we just have to watch out for Supergirl and hope her book doesn't get canceled...

I'm cautiously optimistic about Levitz's return to the Legion. As many here have pointed out, his was the definitive run on the book and, for me, was when I really loved the team. As much as I've ultimately enjoyed most other incarnations of the Legion, none has been "my" Legion like Paul's Legion. If he can bring the depth of character and subtlety of story back to the book that he had in the period of a couple of years before 300 through a couple of years after (with stories like the Legionnaires stranded on the asteroid, the Great Darkness Saga, 300 itself, Violet's story, and the Cosmic Boy spotlight) we're in for a treat. But, if we get the Paul Levitz that wrote the Fatal Five story featuring Mentalla? I do hope it's the former. After all, he's had 20 years to think up new stories. I'm certainly willing to give him the chance to wow me.

As for Gif, I'll take him as co-plotter, artist, or any combination of the two. I've liked pretty much everything Keith has done visually with the Legion in his time with them and I think the team was really hot, story-wise, when Keith and Paul were collaborating.

Ask Val how he feels about that...

The New Wanderers.
It was a heartening idea for me, for awhile.

I just so hate to loose some of those characters.
sigh