Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Spoilers... Issue #35... For No Better Reason, Part One!

I always hesitate to put my two cents in on the current issue because I'm somewhat intimidated (yes, that's true) by the thought and depth of analysis that most of you put into your comments. I tend to read a comic quickly, get an overall feel for it, either love or hate the art, and then forget about it. I never feel that I have that much to say about the story. (I think I keep reading them because I'm not willing to let go of the happy memory of reading them as a kid with my best friend in his basement.) Anyway, what struck me about this issue was how accessible it was, both in terms of story and art. It was good straight forward story telling that makes me want to find out what happens next. As for the art, I loved it. This is the best I've seen the Legionnaires look in years (I didn't think they looked to old.) In particular, I don't think I've ever seen better renditions of Chameleon Boy and Brin. They were gorgeous.

So, all in all, I'm a happy camper.

Haven't read it yet. If I'm lucky it will be waiting for me at home with today's other mail. Can't wait to get home! (Hmmmmph!! 2 1/2 hours to go! )

From all of your comments, this sounds like a good one after the dreck ~ yes, dreck ~ that's been the norm recently.

"Why? If he's putting them in himself, he must have major organ-rejection problems..."

A thousand years from now? I kinda think we'd have that problem licked by then, Sanity.


Loud was rude, BB, and very very wrong in his assumptions. Like you, he posted something very smug. I always say, you can be smug, or you can be wrong, but being smug AND wrong is a little much. Maybe you think my pretty tame response to Loud's comment is flying off the handle (I think the extent of my dressing him down was saying "Sheesh,"), but I assure you, I don't take offense. It's more just a shake of the head in momentary confusion. By the way, when other posters pointed out the mistake in his logic, Loud apologized profusely (and unnecessarily, he seems like a really nice guy and devoted Legion fan, and I took no offense at what he said). Loud seems like a real reader to me, and I certainly would hope he didn't take offense.


Anyway, that's a far cry from needing my ass kissed...are those the only responses you can imagine? Readers have been great to me, critics have been wonderful, and publishers have been incredible as well. I can hardly complain about receiving negative comments on occasion, and in fact, I love a well-reasoned and polite letter that state's its case well, positive or negative. Anyone in this business who can't take criticism wouldn't spend the kind of time I do talking with readers.

It's this statement that I object to personally, "My guess is that the writer didn't/isn't capable to think the SF aspects through that far. " particularly when that's a wrong guess based on not much evidence. I think that's a bit rude--am I not allowed to respond? I don't think I exactly went after you with guns blazing.

"Kitchens and heat!"

No offense, BB, but a guy on a message board isn't heat in the slightest, particularly when the majority of the comments are positive. No one stays in this job if they can't take a certain amount of abuse (and trust me, it's even worse when you know it's deservered... )

Look at poor Chuck Austen!

Anyway, feel free to interpret my posts how you like, everyone's entitled, and I do it regularly (and often wronglY) on my own board. The net is just not the best place to discern the difference between a gentle poke in the ribs and a sucker punch to the eye.

Truce, I say. What say you?

Varalent, hope you enjoy what we did. I have to say, I've seen a lot of DnA bashing lately, not here but all over, and it seems really unfair to me. Maybe it's my personal taste, but I thought (yes, sincerely) that they did a bang-up job. I often felt a sense of wonder reading their stuff that I almost never get from superhero comics anymore, and I loved the big stories they liked to tell. Tough, tough act to follow. I hope they continue to be appreciated for everything they brought to the Legion. I've been a fan of those guys since Resurrection Man.

STF: Thank you for bringing up the art! What I loved, seeing Dan's pages, was that classic Legion feel. I know we technically SHOULD have matched more closely to the last couple years of the DnA run, artistically, but dangit, I just think it's fun to see Jurgens drawing them in classic style. I do understand those who would have preferred a closer match with the recent previous issues, though.

Tromium, if that's a genuine reference, I will be your fan for life.

Thanks, Bamfer, hope you like it! Thanks for the support!

FC, you bring up a good point about Oasis One, and the self-destruct code. I figure it's purely a political move, a worst-case scenario someone had to build in to get the place built, but yeah, it's not in keeping with how the Legion would handle things if they were in charge.

Whew...this is a lot of stuff to respond to!

Maybe I'll start at the beginning.

Okay, here we go!

Gail

On a DIY job? When 99%+ of all organ transplants are artificial - mostly electronic, as you seem to have here - and presumably thus individually customised to avoid these problems?

It's not the setting, it's the other factors at play as well.

The Mission Monitor Board Icon for XS is correctly lit, between Dreamer's and Karate Kid's on the upper left. Umbra's (the ole "S" for Shadow Lass) is correctly dark and found the next row down between Ferro's and Ultra Boy's. The lightnig bolt icon I attribute to Spark, not Thunder, as Spark has had that icon in the past pre-Thunder. The icon right of Saturn Girl's is Gear's or Kid Quantum's. I identify the dark icons (the Legionnaires who should be in the spike area) as, from left to right: Leviathan (violet), Umbra, Karate Kid, Ultra Boy, Timber Wolf, Chameleon, Brainiac 5.1, and M'Onel.

M"Onel's shouldn't be dark, unless he is off camera in the spike area somewhere. Dreamer's icon in the upper left corner should be dark, as per Chuck and Gear earlier. Apparition's icon does not appear on the board on pg 15 at all, unless it's the icon under T-Wolf's - but that icon is lit. A second cloud-like icon is mostly masked from view by Gear's head, but it is also lit.

That is my full Mission Monitor Board analysis; have a nice day.

See, that's what happens when you have two near-identical icons, one of which is out of date [Umbra should have the S from her Lightle broach]

When? Spark's icon has a far longer "tail" than Thunder's.

Eryk, thank you for starting this thread, and I'm thrilled you like it. If you hate the rest...uh...blame someone else! I bet it's Osama's fault!

Blockade Boy, fair enough on the villains, and I think it's been covered, but a simple sniper rifle isn't affected by the Spike.

Minesurfer, what a nice compliment. Let's hope it never comes to the point where there's only one writer in comics, though...

Nightcrawler, many thanks! I believe the Wildfire costume was purely an aesthetic choice on Dan's part. Not sure, to be honest. I'll try to find out for you!

We didn't intend deliberately ignore Keith and Steve's issue, Eryk, but I have to admit we started our issues months before we actually got a chance to see a mock-up of their issue.

M'on, I specifically am passing on your comments to Dan as I type this. I asked him if he had a comment for you guys, and he said, "Just that I have ALWAYS been a Legion fan too, and had great fun drawing the book!"

Blockade Boy, again, fair enough. Some of your points have already been addressed and some are more difficult to defend.

Silicon, the dress uniforms were my idea. My thought was that a Legion Honor Detail would be one of the most uncomfortable duties you could pull (barring a couple well-known glory hogs), so I gave Dan the idea that they should look like modified formalwear, which is a pretty sketchy description, which is why Dan gets 100% of the credit for how cool they look. I LOVE when Ultra Boy's jacket opens, to reveal the patterned shirt.

Obviously, can't talk about B5's implants yet...

And quite right, she was afraid she'd drop the gunship with the Science Police still inside. By the time she gained her balance, she'd been blasted multiple times.

Tromium, fair enough on your comments, but I think you're the first guy ever to call my stuff 'cynical.' I promise I mean no disrespect at all, but can I ask exactly what you mean by that? Maybe my definition is off. As covered elsewhere, Tinya's mom was hit by a falling security camera before she thought to phase, which left her too stunned to hear the bullet coming.

Thanks, Arachne...I'll tell you, I know a lot of writers shy away from LEGION, but I'd gladly come back to this book in a heartbeat for another arc someday. I've fortunately been able to assist Mark Waid some in what he's setting up, and I think you guys will love it, sincerely.

Okay, gonna have to respond to these in shifts, I can see that now...

More soon, and thanks for all the comments...I'm passing this link on to others on the Legion team, as well, hope that's cool!

Best wishes always,

Gail

"Originally posted by Gail Simone:
"Why? If he's putting them in himself, he must have major organ-rejection problems..."

A thousand years from now? I kinda think we'd have that problem licked by then, Sanity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a DIY job? When 99%+ of all organ transplants are artificial - mostly electronic, as you seem to have here - and presumably thus individually customised to avoid these problems?

It's not the setting, it's the other factors at play as well."

Well, I'd argue that it IS the setting. First, the cause of most rejection is biological incompatibility. I suspect this is something we'll conquer in decades, rather than centuries. Second, Pinter could easily be genetically modified or a mutation of some kind. I really am not sure that it would have added to the story to go into that, as a culture that has access to thresholds is going to be so far beyond us medically that Pinter seems to be a minor wonder, really.

But we can agree to disagree, if you like!

Gail

Kid, that's very helpful. To be honest, I'm willing to concede that there may have been confusion on that board. When I got the proofs, they were black and white and didn't have which were light and which were dark. That's not a good excuse, but it's possible we missed something there.

Gail

Have to run for a bit...will try to respond more later!

Thanks, everyone!

Gail

Hey Gail, enjoyed your first Legion story - lookin forward to the rest of the arc....

Goodteam of Legionnaires you picked ... never really liked the founders personally so am glad they were off elsewhere...

Liked the villains, good to see a non-end of the universe/time/reality/everything storyline.... (and I agree that DnA have been overly bashed of late - I'm not their biggest fan admittedly but they should get credit where it's due and Legion Lost is as great a story as anything Levitz wrote...)

The art was very reminiscent of early Legion, which was nice too....

Loads of loose ends and plot lines to be developed - also a great point.... too many comics IMO are fairly predictable and as I haven't **ahem* actually read any of your stuff before I'm very intrigued by what you can come up with....

My only complaint? No blinkin' Legion in October! Just not on if you ask me

I agree on this, actually - but I think that rejection will become rare or non-existent when we're able to stop using other people's organs, and use custom-design replacement organs, be they clone or otherwise, to each individual person so that they won't be rejected instead - the opposite of what Pinter was doing!

Maybe - although would his immune system be his own by this point?

On "added to the story" - funny thing is, it was your posts here that got me started on this track, rather than anything in the story itself - I just blithely assumed the stolen organs were giving out due to rejection, necessitating replacements, no comment needed. Agreeing to diagree is probably easiest

Gail, I just want to thanks for coming to the board to respond to our comments. It's been awhile since we've had any sort of interaction with the writers on the book, and it feels really good to know that you actually care.

Gail: Thanks for the comments. Like you, I really enjoyed the early DnA stuff but what we've been getting recently is not at all close to that ~ lots of fluff and very little of value. Guess we'll just have to disagree on that one.

Still looking forward to getting home and (hopefully) reading this issue. 10 minutes to go

Well said, EDE. I agree whole heartedly.

Me too.

Also, an FYI is that Tromium Crystal is a girl. Just so it doesn't become an issue or anything.

Just finished reading it for the first time! WOW! Loved it! My hats off to you, Gail for writing a great "Tale of The Legion of Super Heroes"

Since I had read some of these comments before hand, I kept my eyes open for the little details. One in particular caught my eye (two actually) Someone here (Maybe FC or HWW) asked about Mon and his appearance. It seemed to me that what was being depicted was the last viewable holo image of the Legion tribute which coincidently included Spark & Mon before it faded out.

The other detail that caught my eye was Dreamer's outfit. It looked like her version of the dress uniform the others are wearing, so she was supposed to be at the cermony as well. Why none of them make mention of the fact that she's missing (or did I miss it?) until Chuck calls to report that her flight ring signal has disappeared remains a mystery. You'd think they would be mad, curious, worried, or at least make note of it.

One question, what was the point of the kiss? That's the only thing I found jarring in the story. I understand that Naltorian pre-cogs act as a booster to Canary's power but it requires a kiss? To me it seemed out of place, although maybe it gets explained in one of the following issues.

The art was awesome. Kudos to everyone involved, including our own fan favorite Rhonda (of Sno-Cone Studios ). Loved how the Legionnaires looked especially Val, Briany, & Brin, though all of them looked great.

Gail, this is also my first taste of your work. (yes, I admit it! ) and it was simply wonderful. Thanks from a long time Legion fan for bringing the feel of the Legion I grew up loving back for me!

LLL!

Thanks for the correct gender assignment, NC!

Gail Simone wrote:
Tromium, fair enough on your comments, but I think you're the first guy ever to call my stuff 'cynical.' I promise I mean no disrespect at all, but can I ask exactly what you mean by that? Maybe my definition is off.

No disrespect assumed. Perhaps "smug" would have been a better term than "cynical", and I was referring not to your stuff in general but to the dialogue and attitude of specific characters. I honestly don't know what to make of Devil. I found her annoying and self-righteous, not fun, but that's just me. Other people seem to enjoy her so I'll let it rest. Karate Kid was unexpectedly smug, imo. He's been spouting platitudes without a drop of humor for years and now all of a sudden he's engaged in a pissing contest with a criminal. It was, um, a little odd. On the other hand, cynical is probably the correct term to describe Jo's comment to Umbra and the pleasure he took in his wife's discomfort. I can see him taking such an attitude towards Brin or Winema, for example, but not towards Tinya. That said, you have every right to reinterpret existing characters and enhance their personalities as you see fit, but some of us, particularly fusspots like me who are slow to accept change, are bound to react when it happens. No big deal.


Tromium, if that's a genuine reference, I will be your fan for life.

It means "I lust after my elephant" in Sanskrit. Just one of the dirty phrases we used to make up behind the professor's back, and the only one that's stuck with me all these years. Unfortunately, we weren't given any obscene poems to read, only boring Vedic hymns.


P.S. Thanks for being such a good sport and for spending so much time with us.

I thought Jo's side comment to Umbra wasn't too far off the mark TC, they have hardly been the happiest of couples of late.

I was more suprised (and to be honest pleased) that at least one of them wasn't with Cub though I don't have the issue to hand but can't remember if there were any references to him now. Maybe he's be proactively re-booted?

Just reposting something I posted on the DCMBs, to make sure I've posted everything here

Andromeda was already "highly spiritual" at that point - the notable change with her is that she lost over a foot in height (and got a haircut & breast reduction into the bargain). And got some ill-defined energy powers.

Of the others that went in, Gates & M'On came out unchanged, and Kinetix had her mind overloaded and nearly shut down for several months.

Until now, what we've known of B5 is:

1) His forcefield was internalised
2) He got a personality rewrite, which was later undone to a certain extent when his mum tried to kill him. His emotions were also "unlocked" in the process, and after his personality reverted, he tried to suppress these too.

What's notable about the implants is that, under Jeff Moy & Scott Kolins, they were considerably more complex, and he often fiddled with them when using his forcefield. However, Coipel simplified them tremendously, to the five metal plates.

The only official word on this comes from his profile in LSH SF&O2, written by Matt Brady & Tom McCraw:

Now, Gail seems to be using the wiggle-room they wrote in that last sentence to justify this twist, which is fair enough.

[Although, one thing - there's been absolutely no evidence B5's actually worn the belt since the anomoly, bar that paragraph, and it's generally assumed that the field's internalised]

Well, we know Brande owns a whole planetoid, just so he can grow hardwood for himself (Legionnaires #37). Presumably others own similar planetoids, but sell the wood for profit rather than for their own personal use.

Gail, I really liked the issue.

I thought the story was very nice, tight, and I really liked the new villains. I think your favorite Legionnaires are the same as MINE! Brin, Vi, Tinya, Jo in particular, so I was thrilled to see them spotlighted.

Quis, I wouldn't be surprised if your Queen Amidala decoy theory concerning Winema and her Durlan aide wasn't right on. Why else would she have a Durlan aide? Does anyone know what happens when a shapeshifted Durlan dies? Do they shift back to the leafy green default Durlan form?

I think seeing this story as a homage to both preboot and postboot is a good idea. That was what I thought about when I saw Brin's REALLY lowcut future tuxedo... it was an homage to his costume circa Great Darkness... as was Tinya's gown. As a matter of fact, Tinya's gown reminded me how much I LOVE her old costume design. Also, that was how I saw KK's interactions with everyone on the prison... as an almagam of old and new Val. With this in mind, I wouldn't be surprised if more easter eggs develop in this 4-issue arc, some of which will give me some big warm fuzzies, I'm sure. What a nice way to bid farewell and move on to the future in December.

The only two things I didn't like were the floating prison-as-plot-device and Umbra. Now I think the problem with Tasmia is that we're all used to seeing her being a bitch in every panel post-boot, and since her character is so highly defined in that way, every time we don't see it, we automatically think of her as out of character. However, if this story is meant to evoke elements of postboot and preboot, I can handle Tasmia being a little closer to her preboot really nice self. As for the prison, I guess I would have liked it maybe a little bit better if some more explanation of why Takron-Galtos all of a sudden wasn't enough anymore were offered. Still, I think its inclusion was the shakiest part of the story.

I LOVED Trudy as a POV character. Wow. That was good writing, even if it has been done before. I also loved Brainy's implants failing as a plot point.

Now, some non-story things. As a musician, I can certainly tell you that it is damn difficult, almost impossible, to completely separate yourself from the work you do. It's really hard to not see an indictment of your work as an indictment of yourself. Having said that, I think Gail has been an angel as compared to how I would be were Blockade Boy rabidly attempting to chop my work to tiny bits. She has every right to defend her work, and she has every right to defend herself, and she's doing a great job of both. BB, honestly, I thought that "ass-kissing" comment was wildly out of line, and God, how much hyperbole! I don't think she cares one way or another how much you refuse to kiss her ass. Geez.

On the other hand, Sanity has managed to ask some confrontational questions about Gail's work without attacking Gail herself, and while not giving an inch, has been completely evenhanded about things. THAT'S the way to be critical. I'll shut up now. I'm just dissappointed. Creators don't HAVE to interact with us, and it's always a thrill for me when they do.

Gail, I was happier and more engaged reading this issue than I have been with any Legion ish since #25, which I thought was the last nice effort by DnA. I'm really glad TPTB are ending this era with your story.

I can see Jo getting frustrated with Tinya, even angry, but snide cynical just isn't his standard act, imo, at least where she's concerned.

Speaking of their marital problems, I *do* hope Gail addresses them in this arc. Hopefully, it's no coincidence that Brin is stranded on Earth, too.

INcidentally, Jo's under-his-breath remarks to Cham about Tinya and Winema TOTALLY reminded me of a married couple I know with a crazy mother-in-law of their own. Married people can pick on their spouses from time to time! Of course, every once in a while, that gets a frying pan thrown at their head, but hey, that's what makeup sex is for.

Ok, in my bid for "anal-retentivve nerd of the year" award, bullets are propelled at supersonic speed -- she wouldn't have "heard" the bullet anyway til after being shot

See, I don't think that (outside of Lost 6-8, when Imra accidentely took away all her fears, insecurities, etc) post-boot Tasmia's ever been a "bitch." In many ways, she's the classic hard-shell/soft-centre character - she keeps up a haughty, regal, facade most of the time, but she really does care, and she holds herself to higher standards, and is more highly stressed as a result. Which is one of the reasons why the Blight (and the Rift) hit her so much harder than everyone else, when she let her standards slip & couldn't break free - and enjoyed it. Which basically led to a breakdown when she was free.

We've seen moments of compassion from post-boot Tas, that wasn't a problem for me here. Gail just didn't seem to capture her "voice," with the mother-in-law line and, especially, that "Listen,... we've gotta get out off this stage."

Emmm... ta