Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes LSH #23 Preview and Review [SPOILERS!]

Finally read 23 today. The art was lovely but the story was just dull unfortunately. Too many dangling plots left hanging, too few Legionnaires shown, too much Brainiac 5. Oh well.

Out with a whimper not a bang unfortunately.

Or why not simply phase in both instances? If nothing can touch her, why bother to hide?

Exactly so. why throw away the tactics of a lifetime?*

*probably conveniently forgetting all the time she's been knocked unconscious.

Let's see, walked through a servant of darkness and was overcome with cold...

It's weird. Thanks to my friendly local library system, I've finally read the complete Levitz Retroboot. And unlike most of the reactions in this thread to LSH v7 #23, I actually thought it was Levitz's best Retroboot issue, a (mostly) satisfying wrap-up, and a high note upon which to leave the Legion.

Of course, a lot of it had to do with Kevin Maguire's FANTABULOUS art. I liked a fair amount of his stuff in the past (even though he'd often work with writers I didn't like), but THIS...was just astonishing to me!! The ladies of the Legion hadn't looked so beautiful since Greg LaRocque hit his Legion peak, circa Baxter #25-38 (yeah, as putrid as I find the scripts for the Death of Superboy event, and as much as I hate the damage it did to the Legion, LaRocque's (and Byrne's) art was a feast for the eyes.) The men looked quite handsome as well, and Maguire's layouts were unobstrusive yet smooth and well-paced.

I especially liked that Levitz made Duplicate Girl come off so good, as the keeper of Brainy's biggest skeleton...in the entire Braniac Legacy's closet, arguably. Considering what a self-centered, foolhardy drip Levitz wrote her as during the Baxter era (IMHO), I found this quite refreshing.

Yes, there were a lot of loose ends, but I look at it as a wealth of possibilities for Levitz's successor (and, of course, for fanfic writers -- tee-hee.) And the Earth-2 nonsense...eh, any writer worth of her or his salt could easily turn it into a red herring, and it's probably irrelevant post-Convergence anyway.

Now, *getting* to this dawn-after-the-darkest-hour finale, *that* was a slog, especially the LSH v6 issues. Saturn Queen was too superficial and too OTT for my taste, the pace was glacial, the nods to continuity having none of the juice that they had during the Baxter era, the Green Lantern crap was clearly shoehorned in (although even that could be made to work as foreshadowing for a grandiose cosmic storyline), and I didn't shed a single tear for Earth Man, whose presence screamed editorial fiat even more than the GL garbage...I do confess that I liked Tinya's imitation of Tasmia's in-defense-of-Earth-Man posturing and facial expressions, but a couple good panels couldn't even come close to redeeming LSH v6.

Levitz seemed to be aware of v6's shortcomings, and v7 got off to a much more promising start (I especially liked Dragonwing joining the team -- being a contrary sort, she was my favorite of the Legion newbies, even though I can see from reading assorted threads in this forum that she was a lot of posters' least favorite.) Unfortunately, it quickly got bogged down with the turgid, by-the-numbers Durlan/Dominator/Daxamite doo-doo. And just when Levitz finally seemed to shake off all the cobwebs when he focused on Glorith and her emerging time powers, it's obvious that editorial considered this development too little too late to save the book in the short run.

So, as we all know, the Giffenator was brought in, and while he only worked on approximately 1.80 issues, the shockwaves of his intrusion turned a mediocre book into something much, much worse. The whole Tharok-destroys-the-galaxy-arc (aka Magic Wars 2: Digital Boogaloo) was so relentlessly, numbingly violent, so full of WTF character moments, and so hollow at its core, that it was nothing less than Michael Bay directing a Star Wars sequel (Gods forbid!! But that was the best metaphor I could come up with.)

In the end, yeah, the Retroboot was bland and dull at best, tediously ham-fisted and mean-spirited at worst, but it's still far from my least favorite take on the Legion. Here, for what it's worth, is my ranking of all the eras to date:

1. Levitz/Lightle/LaRocque Baxter
2. Pre-DnA Postboot
3. Adventure (in its entirety)
4. DnA
5. Levitz Retroboot
6. Action/Superboy/S&LSH/LSH
7. Johns/Meltzer Retroboot
8. Levitz/Giffen LSH and Levitz/Giffen late-in-the-run Baxter
9. TMK through End of an Era
10. Threeboot (in its entirety)

Oh yes, that was one of my least favorite parts of the post-Johns, Legion-of-Three-Worlds-era interpretation of Saturn Queen, a wide-eyed worshpipful fangirl over Superboy Prime, turned into a wide-eyed fanatical worshipper of this blue flame baby thing. Ugh. This version of Eve Aries was just insultingly bad, IMO.

After the amazing Eve Aries of the Absolute Power arc of Superman/Batman 14-18, and who later 'adopted' Ultraman during the Supergirl (vol 5) series, this version was just a sad follower, desperately looking for a new thing to worship.



I was a big fan of her awesome visual. The translucent cape with dragon motif, the tight braids, the Marilyn Manson-esque lack of eyebrows. That she was sassy and outspoken just added to the charm, for me, since the Legion's always had quieter more easy-going sorts like Mon and Gim, and people who rub others the wrong way like Drake and Dawny. On a team with 25-ish members, there's room for all sorts of personality types!

Grava, on the other hand. Oy. Right up there with Quislet, for Legionnaires that other people love, and I just don't get.

Still, on a team with 25-ish members, there's *also* room for a few characters that weren't designed to appeal to *ME* specifically.

#23. The issue that brought me to Legion World.

I just reread it at the weekend (for the same reasons as Fanfic Lady), and it's still a very good issue.

Like Fanfic Lady, Maguire's art is always going to add plenty of points. But Levtiz did well to wrap things up before the end and give a few of the core couples poignant send off moments.

I agree Saturn Girl was wasted in v6, and that Levitz had quite a few subplot missteps in a book of reduced pages, such as Lightning Lord's brother, Mon El as a leader/lantern. But it did continue into v7 with the annoying jostling for leadership between Mon-El, Brainy and Cos.

Not to mention the Glorith subplot. It probably looked better on the drawing board, building up to a reveal of her temporal powers. But because the way the series went, it just meant she didn't escape a lab for a year as the readers were gradually shown something that they could have worked out from her name.

I also grew to quite like Dragonwing. It's good to see someone work hard at their powers, knowing the gap she has to make up, while still having a strong sense of self and an attitude.

To be fair to Levitz, he did integrate the new guys well. They all had subplots, without resorting to the Mary Sueing of Harmonia and Earth Man from v6.

Wow. Thanks, guys!!

That's what I love about Legion World -- the Legion mythos is so dense and multifaceted that people can agree on X, Y, and Z while disagreeing on A, B, and C, and it's all in an atmosphere of celebration and mutual respect and pleasant surprises.

Set, I'm with you on Grava. I am definitely going to leave that loose end unresolved. Good riddance to a saccharine bubble-brain. Like, totally. (I do love Quislet, though, so be forewarned I am bringing him back in my fanfic.)

Thoth, I'd forgotten that this was issue that brought you to this community. Even more reason to love it!! And, yes, Chuck & Luornu and Imra & Garth (and also...uh...what's-his-face, the one who disrespects women who don't fawn over him unquestioningly. Proof that three's a crowd. But I digress. ) I also loved the dignified send-offs for Projectra (but I'll bring her back -- though as a mad queen, or an anti-heroine, or a cosmic visionary, even I'm not 100% sure yet) and Nura (who, like I said in the Brainy's Legion thread, I don't plan to bring back even though j'adore her, because I think her story has been well-and-truly told in its entirety.)

And, of course, YAY Dragonwing!!