Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Issue #49 spoilers

Happy New Year everybody! Hope everyone's year is one that's safe and sees all their dreams and hopes fulfilled.

Well I just read issue #49 yesterday and I have to say I was entertained from start to finish.
This seemed to me to be the best issue that Shooter's written since he took over the series (and as most of you know I have been one of his strongest critics throughout his entire run).

Shooter does a good job building the suspense with the intruder planet and alien destroyers. Brainy once again shows off his natural leadership skills by finally making a pre-emptive strike against the intruder planet (although his choices for "espionage squad" members is odd at best).

Sizzle even gets some quality time to shine and really shows off her stuff.

There are really well done character moments between Imra and Tinya and Imra and Garth. Also some whimsical ones with Element Lad and his new "Honey".

Although I am still not at all happy with the deterioration of Princess Projectra, I will suspend criticism and enjoy watching how her final fate is handled. If you can forget that she is who she is you can see a wonderful progression of a hero gone bad and how that end comes about with her every action and word uttered. Shooter is handling all that beautifully.

I'm am convinced now that the Legionnaire that dies next issue will probably be Timber Wolf. It would be a fitting end to resolve his behaviour lately as well as redeem his character for his false loyalty to this mad-woman he loves.

Don't get me wrong ... these are NOT the characters we know and have loved for so many years now, not by a longshot for sure, BUT if one can ignore all that and take in the story as it is, unbiased, then you can actually enjoy this plotline organically with all its odd characters and events.

I am really looking forward to seeing what happens next issue, believe it or not.

That's exactly what I have been telling so far: if one stops thinking about what the real Legion is (for me, they died in LSH #39, v4), this is the best Legion-like run since then.
I'd have loved to see Shooter/Manapul doing the revamped ADV - just for their command of characterization and storytelling.

I've been a pretty vocal critic of this run to date, but this issue wasn't half-bad. It moved at a good pace and the plot progressed well. I wonder how much of it has to do with the story getting truncated so Shooter was forced to go "plot heavy" to move it along. If that's the case someone should have learned how to squeeze him earlier, because this is head and shoulders above his previous issues.

Still not a fan of a lot of the character direction, but I'm at least hopeful now that we'll get a decent send-off next month.

The story was clearly rushed at least in the last 6 pages. I think it would need at least one more issue to make it more interesting and well-paced. Still, storywise, it's way above L3W.

I liked that Sizzle was already on a mission and doing stuff. Other than that, I'm not 'feeling' this issue at all, really.

Something else else that Shooter seemed to want us to breeze right past was that Timber Wolf would have *killed* Tinya in the restaurant, if she hadn't used her powers the way she did. That's kind of a big deal and I don't like the way it was brushed off.

I loved the way Tinya just stares defiantly at Brin after he threatens her. That was one of the many impressive things about this issue.

Dan DiDio, why have you denied me the rest of this story?

Hmm...okay how is Phantom Girl doing? As I recall, the solicitation stated that Phantom Girl would be "permanently" changed or something like that to the effect. so how's Tinya? permanently immaterial?

This was the most exciting and entertaining issue of the Legion in years. The best of Shooter's run. The best of the current series. The Legion hasn't been this good since early DnA. I can't wait for the finale.

LOL
I'm not sure how she has been "changed" after her vicious attack but if Tinya was still in ghost form she would have slipped through the ICU bed, the floor, then the club house, etc. Heck she'd sill be falling today!


Oh, and I forgot to mention FJM's awesome (as usual) artwork in my first post on this issue. Thanks again Francis for another job well done!

Holy cow. This WAS a fantastic issue. I couldn't help but peek at the spoilers before I picked up my copy today.

Starting at the splash page, SPLASH! That was the best and most detailed the Princess looked in the whole issue. You just open up and it hits you-literally! Beautiful.

I can't say this is the BEST Tinya's ever looked, but she had her moments. I still think she <strike>has</strike> had to be one of fjm's favorites to draw. On the page where Projectra reappears and reacts so violently, I love the detail in Tinya's eyes in the bottom left panel. It's like "How dare I refuse you?!? How dare you rob me of my power!" That was very effective. On the following page, the visciousness of the attack was so well captured in the top panel. Great job by artist, inker, and colorist. Well done, folks. You can almost imagine time slowing down as it happens in slow motion.

Down below, I had never noticed T-Wolf's finger nails were like that before. Again, great detail.
The whole issue was well drawn, I feel, and very consistent.

As for the writing, Rouge said it best-Why couldn't Shooter go at this pace all along???? This was the first issue in a long time that I couldn't wait to turn the page and didn't want the issue to end! It was well paced, exciting and just-GREAT!

Nice work all! Too bad it's gotta get killed next issue.

In case anyone is wondering, Jo's secret admirer "Norma" is the lovely red-headed Sci-Cop he rescued on Rimbor. The girl who said "I love you" as he flew away. And Norma wasn't kidding. It's touches like that make this story transplendent.

It's as much about loneliness, longing and lost love as it about the decline and fall of Projectra, and the doom of the United Planets. For me, the powerful bits were Jo forlornly contemplating the emptiness of his life as "El" and Honey (how wierd are they?) frolick in the background. Imra confessing to Tinya how she ruined her life for nothing. Garth and Kin'thea moving closer and closer together in the back of the limo until they touch in their mutual loneliness (wise decision not to depict what happened next). Garth and Imra communicating their alienation and anguish not so much in words as through their body language and facial expressions. (Francis, I'll say it again. You have the makings of a truly great artist.) Brin's savage protectiveness of the woman he loves and his dawning awareness something is terribly wrong with her. It's brilliant, heartbreaking stuff.

I like Sizzle a lot and hope it's not the last time we see her. Best line of the book from Atom Girl "She's dumb .. But I like her because she's shorter than me!" Hee.

Some thoughts and predictions:

I strongly suspect Projectra's powers to control the Id (I never heard it expressed this way before but it makes perfect sense) caused Brainy's rampaging mind-demons to attack and disable Dream Girl. I think Jeckie's also responsible for Imra's "fling" with Jo. Jeckie informs Imra she's her greatest threat yet she hasn't moved against Imra until now?? In truth, yes, I believe she did weaken Imra as effectively as she did Nura, more subtly but just as effectively.

The Legion has no hope of defeating billions of Destroyers in combat. Defeating Projectra is the key to their defeat because she is (imo) is the Power behind them.

Brainy's modified alien technologies will play a critical role but in the end it will be Brin taking down Projectra. He loves her deeply but I think he loves Justice more.

As I read it for the fourth time, I realize I'm barely scrapping the surface. I both anticipate and dread the final "Tragedy and Triumph" to come. He may not be able to pull it off in the mere 22 pages left to him, but if anyone can, it's Jim Shooter.

Very compact.

One point of confusion: so, the destoryers and planets ARE constructs or they are not, they are manufactured?

Lots of great one-liners. Shooter's the king, best since early DNA at one-liners.

Flight rings seeme to be selling well.

Probably learned more about the personalities of several Legionnaires in this issue than the previous 48. "Atom" Girl moving up my popularity list. Hammerlocks and sizzle shots, lol.

Shooter continues to knock the SF aspects out of the park. Realizing that an anti-matter field would necessarily cause a problem with a matter organizer like a transportor was thinking ahead of the curve.

Sizzle is Shooter, Shooter is Sizzle. I think he put a lot of his own sense of humor into this character, just my opinion.

Took me a three times as long to read this as JSA #22 (also a great read for Legion fans). Shooter and Manipul fill their issues.

Was I the only one that really felt "that" tension between LL and Kinthea? You know the "are they going to or aren't they" tension? Felt that watching certain tv series, when the tension gets built over seasons but never felt that reading a comic book.

Not that I like all that blah blah in a book but I know others here do, so I'm just supporting them.

Well, unfortunately, it's probably deus ex machina time. No time for a drawn out, tension filled back and forth battle to resolve this before the end.

Damn you Didio, damn you! .

Not too much to add to the comments. I also loved the issue. Just a few things regarding Projectra:

1) We know Projectra can create constructs that have tangible form. So why can't the alien destroyers and intruder planet be her creations? The alien destroyers appeared when Projectra's mental state was deteriorating -- after her possessions were seized. While that was before she met the Orandans, she was showing signs of her stronger powers before she actually met them (e.g., when she threw Brin during the incident with the tourists). I haven't gone back to check the first appearance of the intruder planet, but I suspect it was around the same time as Projectra made contact with the Orandans and she began a deliberated campaign against the UP. Her powers would would fit the fact that the enemy is "virtual"; they are just solid illusions.

2) Projectra's manipulation of Volsung at the beginning of this issue shows she can make a person feral. That makes me wonder if Brin's increasingly out-of-control behavior is due to Projectra's manipulations. During Waid's run, Brin definitely did not come across as feral and vicious. That really started in the Erg-1 issues and increased during Shooter's run. So maybe Projectra's powers influenced Brin's thoughts during that period. She may not have even done it consciously.

3) I wonder if Projectra attacking Tinya the way she did was originally planned differently. Nearly killing her because she refused to read the comic seemed bizarre. So, too, was the way she attacked Tinya, which seemed to completely duplicate Brin's powers. Thinking it over, I wouldn't be surprised if the original idea was for Brin to tell Projectra that Tinya was trying to figure out what she was doing, and for Projectra to then try to get Tinya out of the way of her plans. Framing Brin for the attack would distract and weaken the Legion before the final battle and, also, if Projectra has any love for Brin, would take him away from the battle. I really hope we find out at some point what Shooter intended for those additional two issues.

I also really loved this issue, it was great. Lots of cool stuff in it and it makes me sad that there is only one issue left. The threeboot is really really exciting right now and I'm sad to see it go.

I'm loving the further exploration of Projectra's powers, and I like how she used them to change Imra's and Tinya's memories. I'm really curious to where Brin is. I think he followed Jeckie and confronted her, and she found a way to send him away (change his memory perhaps?).

Oh, and for Tinya being permanently changed, well, she has a false memory now...ah, just ignore solits.

But I really enjoyed this issue, Francis' art was cool, and I liked the fact that Ultra Boy is sad and lonely because of what happened between him and Imra and what that's done to Garth. I mean, that's more to him than we've seen since the threeboot started, yeah depth and complexity!

Sigh, I really am going to miss this book, like I said on another board, that thing that really kills me is that they are canning this series without having the replacement ready. I would still take the original Legion over the threeboot any day (but I hope the originals have the same amount of energy that these last few issues have had) but the fact that we have to wait till who knows when to see the next Legion monthly, argh, why didn't they let Shooter have extra issues to fill out the time?

So true. It's difficult to read this and not feel that this isn't like Jeckie at all. But then again, this isn't a Jeckie I know. Didn't Jim Shooter create the original Princess Projectra? Guess he wanted to show how different he could go with the character.

Yeah, unfortunately editors today don't seem to be able to control writers and artists. Of course, the editor may have though the pacing was fine (but many of us would agree that the early issues seemed very padded and slow).

As I said on the DC board, if Shooter had progressed this story at a faster pace, maybe more people who jumped on for his first issue wouldn't have left. Decompressed storytelling may sell more trades, but it's a hindrance to selling monthlies.

Well the "original" Jeckie executed Nemesis kid as retribution for his killing Karate Kid, so even that version could be viewed as adopting an "eye for an eye" sense of justice. Here, it's not one life for another, its the UP for Orando. You could argue that the only difference between preboot Jeckie and threeboot Jeckie is the scale of the crime involved and whether she is blaming the right parties.

I've been rereading some back issues recently, including the issues where Projectra is crowned. What struck me was how matter of fact, almost cold she was, and in later issues, it's clear that she was taking her duties very seriously indeed, and almost saw Legion business as an unwanted intrusion.
I'm saying this because the 3Boot Jeckie doesn't really seem all *that* much different - except that she's younger and *hasn't* been a Legionnaire that long, so perhaps the loss of Orando, plus her inexperience, is showing now? Perhaps the original Projectra was simply older, more mature and had more control? Maybe this IS the original Projectra (of a sort), just taken down another route?

It's very sad for me, the Shooter's bad idea to turn Projectra in a villain.
She was my second favorite legionnaire (the first is Saturn Girl), and after the Snackie fiasco, I thing finally Projectra can shine again in this run.
Not only Jeckie was ruined, Saturn Girl (mute and
uncertain girlfriend) Dream Girl (Dead-Ghost), Phantom Girl (Injured) and more.
Maybe a Jeckie's twin sister named Sarya could been a better idea for this story...but I'm not the supposed genious writer.
For one time I enjoy my favorite serie's cancellation.
I hope a new dawn, after LOTW, with a good writer who's really love The Legion.

I figure Shooter intended Tinya to hover between life an death for a couple of issues but was forced to compress it into one.

Something else else else is really is bothering me now.

Is having virtual sex with a guy who's completely oblivious to what transpired between you a form of rape?

I'd give it a solid "probably" because Jo did not consent to being dragged into Imra's mind -- it was by her own admission a sort of mental coercion -- but what's more important he's completely unaware how she "used" him in her head. Think of the reaction in this place if a male character had manipulated a female the same way -- you'd hear no end of it, and justifiably so. The more I think about it, it's not only unforgiveably deceptive and abusive, it warrants expulsion from the Legion.

It of course assumes Imra wasn't being Id-manipulated by Projectra. But if turns out she did it of her own accord, no matter how emotionally messed up she was at the moment, I hope she spends the rest of her life in unending torment for what she did to Jo and Garth.

Am I overreacting just a little bit?

On the flip side, this is the first time Projectra has ever moved me in any way. I always thought her flakey and whiney until now. Imo, she makes a more memorable villain than she ever did a hero.

I think that Imra has a problem determining the different between how far she'd gone 'in her head,' and how far she and Jo actually got physically (or, more to the point, is unwilling to forgive herself for not having *successfully* cheated on Garth).

She *knows* that she was going all the way, and the boring little fact that she didn't actually get there before Interruptus Kid showed up doesn't absolve her of the guilt she feels. So, to her mind, the betrayal did occur, even if the act was never completed.

I don't think that Jo was psychically oblivious or mind-wiped or coerced, I think that he just sees the act differently. In his perspective, they didn't 'do anything,' because he doesn't consider himself to have 'gotten anywhere' until the act is underway. They got some clothes off and kissed, but his pants were still on, so, to him, they hadn't 'technically' cheated yet, even if they were headed down that road at unsafe speeds before the door opened and light shone in upon them.

He sees 'didn't happen.' She sees 'did happen.' Both of them are right, from their own perspectives.

He *didn't* 'get any' or 'close the deal.' She *did* betray Garth.

I read it exactly like Set does.

Well the "original" Jeckie executed Nemesis kid as retribution for his killing Karate Kid, so even that version could be viewed as adopting an "eye for an eye" sense of justice. Here, it's not one life for another, its the UP for Orando. You could argue that the only difference between preboot Jeckie and threeboot Jeckie is the scale of the crime involved and whether she is blaming the right parties. [/QB][/QUOTE]

I would argue that the Princess Projectra that killed Nemesis Kid did so in self defence. After all if NK could kill Karate Kid then what/who could stop him? He'd just keep going on his killing spree without remorse. Someone had to shut him down, and she did just that.

This new version of Jeckie is completely misguided. Did anyone else notice how she started to go mad after finding out that her royal assets were all dissolved? She became penniless and this is what put her over the top, not the death of her family and entire world.
I think I liked how Waid wrote her when he first introduced her, brave and heroic yet still a bit stuck up. Shooter's version is so off the chain radically different that I do not recognize the character at all.

Even Levitz' Sensor Girl was noble and heroic albeit angst-ridden, but still likeable.

There is nothing redeemable about this current version of Princess Projectra. Spoiled, misguided, delusional, sneaky, callous, self-serving and a true villian comparable to someone like Emerald Empress (whom she reminds me a lot of now).

Did we really see Jeckie much after the destruction of Orando? Other than the some brief appearances during the big Dominator battles, it seems to me like there was no follow-through until Shooter came on board. So we have no real idea what was going on with her between the end of the battle with Terror Firma (when the destruction of her world first began to sink in and) and her later behavior.

Further, this issue suggests that the Orandan dead are working through Jeckie in some fashion. Maybe, just as Jeckie can control the 'id' of others, her powers have come to control her 'id.' That Jeckie's powers may be influenced by the spirits/souls of the dead is quite possible with Waid's creation, as the powers only pass to one recipient upon the death of the king or queen. So what if the powers derive from the 'soul' of Orandans? How much will that influence the recipient and what would happen if the 'soul' includes millions of recent dead who demand vengeance? I could see that driving someone progressively insane over time. I also could see insanity being a side effect of the powers generally, but figure that the heir is trained to deal with the influence of the Orandan 'soul.' By contrast, the Orandans who are 'training' Jeckie want her to feed off the vengeance of the dead Orando, so they would not want her to learn to divorce herself from the vengeful feelings.

Those are good ideas but they haven't been shown at any real level in the story.

In the past, DnA wrote Umbra in a similar way that you're suggesting for Jeckie, so even if that were Shooter's intention here, it would not only be unclear but unoriginal.

As for the original Princess, the only time that I ever felt she was 'real' was when she killed NK (and he deserved it) and strangely, when she released Sarya from the Eye and watched the Empress die (as Sensor Girl.)

I don't mind her as a villian now, because at least, she has SOME personality this way.
I don't like her, but I don't like her anyway.

The only time I can really remember liking Jeckie was when she was the Naga.

I hope I'm not speaking to harshly but I'm under a time constraint.
Please forgive me if I've offened you.