Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Convergence: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #1

When I was in college, I was once approached by someone looking for signatures to organize a rally for 'apathy'. Yes, really.

She wasn't amused by my response (don't care) and the rally never occurred. However, it illustrates a point of an old show-business adage: program toward the audience. In other words, if your audience is composed of mainly toddlers then don't inundate them with Shakespeare. They won't get it, trust me.

Which brings me to what I believe was one of the biggest flaws with the Threeboot (and, yes, I realize that we've hijacked the topic but stay with me for a moment), that it was written for the readers/audience that DC wanted to have rather than for the one that it already had.

The rallying cry of "Eat it, Grandpa".... why did anyone think that this would bring in the customers? Did they seriously not look at the data of who the ones buying the comics were?

Of course they didn't. This was part of DC's (but not just them, to be fair) current editorial model, likely due to strong-arming from the corporate level. In short, it was the "we want new readers!" mentality that DC has become famous for but with no thought of the reader base that already existed.

It's no wonder that it was as flawed as it was and I've come to feel sorry for Waid (whereas I formerly equated him with Satan)

The Threeboot DID gave us Theena. I like her.

'Eat it Grandpa' was wrong on so many levels. Not least if you are a kid rebelling against your parents why use 'Grandpa'? Given the hate for the Legion amongst adults, 'Long Live the Legion' was enough. Whether to blame DC or Waid the most for the faults in the threeboot, depends on who drove the idea. Did Waid pitch it and DC grabbed it or did DC approach Waid to write it?

I feel that's a problem with DC (and sometimes Marvel) as a whole, not just with the Threeboot.

I was reading the much-ballyhooed Geoff Johns nu52 relaunch of Aquaman, and it was written explicitly to rebute internet geekery about 'talks to fish' and 'the weak link of the League.'

In short, it was written for people who don't like, don't 'get' or have no interest in Aquaman. The exact people who probably wouldn't buy a book with 'Aquaman' on the masthead, if it wasn't written by Geoff Johns (which means he was creating a relaunch that lived or died based on how long it was before he got bored with it, and his fans faithfully followed him to his next book, having never been fans of *Aquaman* at all...).

Meanwhile, if you were already a fan of Aquaman, and liked him even before he stood around talking directly to the reader about how he was a badass, desperate to 'disprove' all those mean things people say about him on the interwebs, it was just a big fat insult, since the book was being written for people who hate the character, and not those who loved him before he had Joe Cool 'I'm not just a client, I run DC!' writing his book.

The whole nu52 reboot reeked of that. 'We need to change everybody to appeal to people who don't buy our books!' Uh, seriously? Marvel seems to do the same, at times, with some of their new characters or characterizations, designed with an agenda, and not any sort of organic character growth.

After reading DnA's Hypernaturals, I kind of wish they'd gotten a chance to write the *classic* team, and drag some of that whiz-bang transhuman futurism into it, so that the 30/31st century didn't feel like what someone in the '60s thought the future would be like. Not change for change's sake, but change that *fits the Legion.* Change that makes sense and opens doors to new story options, not closes them on what has come before and paved the way. Accept that you're building on the backs of giants, and honor their contributions (as much as possible), instead of 'rebooting' or 'AUing' and trying to bury your past as if you're ashamed of it (or just too much of a headcase to admit that you didn't invent all of this yourself).

Completely agree about Aquaman. I'm not a huge Aquaman fan, but I was giving the book a look along with all the others.

Having him as the butt of jokes from his first issue onwards seemed completely needless. Considering that the NuJLA had presumably done some world saving, there was no rational reason why the people of that world would react the way they did. So, they were really expressing the views of someone else, mainly the people who wouldn't pick up an Aqua-book.

The art was nice, and the writing passable so I lasted half a dozen issues. But that approach did nothing to endear me to the book.

I still laugh thinking of the multi-page Johns butt-kissing they had in Green Lantern when he left. Another feeble DC moment.

As Set's ALt+ID, I also agree with his Hypernaturals points. There were a number of things there that could have been moved into the legion-verse to push it forward.

Wait, I thought we were all EDE's Alt-IDs?

In all honestly, I think the JLU cartoon and Injustice: Gods Among Us (Both the video game and related comic book) did more justice towards Aquaman's reputation than the new52 book. The audience does exist (and I state this as a 24 year old female), it just isn't generally consuming the material in comic book form. That is why so many people my age were angry that John Stewart wasn't the Green Lantern in the movie (though in retrospect that might be a blessing); we knew John Stewart from the JLA cartoon in the '90s.

I think it is fair to say they are just trying to improve the reputation of Aquaman for a potential movie (probably a Justice League movie). It's better to do it now before Marvel uses Namor.

I prefer John Stewart as GL. I didn't pick up any Green Lantern comics as a kid. When I did see Hal he was always quitting, whining or being the straight man in "relevant" issues that should have been a lot more obvious to him.

On the other hand, John Stewart seemed to get the job done. Even when it was clear he was a stand in for Hal.

Having now read the Wein/Gibbons GL issues, I still like John Stewart for the role. For me, what made Hal special was gone before I started reading comics.

When I was really young, Hal was a serious straight-shooter, prone to making the fast hard decision with a minimum of hand-wringing or angsting about it. He was experienced, respected and kind of a practical counter to Oliver's more idealistic (and unserious / Errol Flynnesque / swashbuckling) style.

Then Kyle and John started showing up, and each of them also had appealing traits, and I shook my head at the notion that I had to like one and hate the others, as if my like of Hal had somehow made me no longer able to like Alan Scott, or something ludicrous like that.

Nowadays, Hal is back, and he's a fratboy who screws up constantly, underestimates everyone, gets not just himself, but the entire League into hot water with his overreactions, etc. I don't dislike Hal Jordan, but golly, do I hate what Geoff Johns has turned him into!

Barry has similarly been character assassinated since his return, made into a bumbler, openly mocked by Wonder Woman, of all people, for being unable to interrogate people, instead of, again, an experienced respected hero, with his own museum!

Yeah, having read a few of the much older GL books now, I don't dislike the character.

It's a great concept, he has that test pilot occupation and there's lots of sci-fi with a supporting cast and plenty of other Lensmen Lanterns for company.

I'm sure he's a huge character for lot of people. But he just wasn't at his best when I started seeing him.

I've read the first few Flash comics of this run, but it didn't keep my interest. I spent my pennies on back issues instead to finally read the start of that Cary Bates final stretch.

Hal makes the most sense to me when tied to the 1960s, just as Alan Scott makes the most sense when tied to the 1940s, as Kyle when set in the 1990s. Treating him as though he is a contemporary character just feels wrong to me.

First issue sold 33,605, which is fairly close to the bottom of the Convergence minis (Infinity Inc. was the worst at 30,114, while Harley Quinn the best at 69,838).

http://icv2.com/articles/news/view/31604/top-300-comics-actual-april-2015

Not overly surprising and proof-positive that no one at DC is listening to the complaints of those of us who actually like the Legion.

Specifically, crappy story and art that belongs on a Bazooka Joe gum insert are what killed readers off during the Legion's previous title. So, what does DC give us this time?

Crappy story, lousy art... of course they do.

I'm telling you guys; someone at DC really doesn't like the Legion very much.