I'm sorting starting to become fond of "Charles Foster Taine" as some sort of obscure allusion on the part of Chuck's parents that nobody in the 31st century will get, but everyone he meets from the 21st century comments on. That would be kind of funny.
Maybe Citizen Kane is still on all the "Top 10 Movies of All Time" lists in the 31st Century?
It seems that this Bendis is changing the argument on the fly according to his convenience, leaving aside what he had written before. With this view I expect nothing good in the following months. Only the hope that after Death Metal, this Legion disappears and another more coherent one remains in its place ...
For those that are interested in being spoiled about the new Legionnaires, I've added them to the roster at the LegionofSuper-Heroes.com website members section.
Go look only if you don't mind being spoiled. You'll notice that both the new Legionnaires beyond Skeleton Girl appeared in #9.
Much thanks to Jude/Sarky for the images and information.
I guess one benefit of Bendis' large cast is that it is so easy to just slip someone in...
I really hope he does something with these new Legionnaires. I am a bit intrigued, but also cautious, and I don't want to get frustrated because these new members are here but nothing is done with them.
(on the other hand, if nothing cool is done with them, maybe I'll feel a little less annoyed that many of my favorites weren't included!)
Brande, who seemingly instigated the proceedings against the Legion, returns everything to the status quo by suddenly reprieving them. Perhaps Brande felt the need to show the Legion's strengths to the assembled UP. But we didn't hear anything from the assembly, and they were not involved in the decision making. Therefore, it's left as a basic framing device, uses as an excuse for two fill-in issues.
I'm still of the opinion that whatever the plans were for the opening several issues, they were torpedoed. It's another issue with the status of the team turning 180 degrees and Crav Nah blustering, thumping someone and being quickly subdued.
White Witch lets the reader know that The Great Darkness is coming, and that Crav's plans to take control are related to it. He's been after other objects, not just the trident. This would match Darkseid grabbing artefacts following his return in GDS. Perhaps Grav is doing this to keep them safe. Xola's (which is how I think of her) reveal is that Mordru is her father. This is mobster Mordru from the first issue, rather than galactic conqueror Mordru from previous volumes, so it's not carrying as much impact.
Nura lets everyone in the assembly have some idea what the threat is. We even get a full-page spread. But it tells us nothing. The only people to know nothing about it are the readers. Much like all the stories about the objects Crave has been after. Perhaps there were supposed to be teasers throughout the last half dozen issues. As we've been on a cosmic hamster wheel of the same plot for 9 issues, maybe the cast are off having adventures in an unpublished book. I can only hope that the originally planned issues gave us a proper introduction to the team, and had them involved in a lot more than we've seen. It seems that it's enough to tell us that Gold Lantern has an awesome origin, after all. Perhaps we'll next pick up after the Great Darkness Saga, with one of the cast telling us how terrifying it all was, and how lucky the galaxy was to get through it. It seemed as though the Gold Lantern group are expected to remove Crav rather permanently.
As it is, the team have hardly organised or done anything, and they're going to be thrown into Bendis' take on the Great Darkness Saga. I doubt everyone will make it out the other side of that. It's a shame there's been little more than mobs of Legionnaires in each issue, to connect us to the cast. It's a shame they don't have much of a track record before the big event.
There are some nice character moments in the issue, showing us that they don't all have the same views of the UP. This makes sense. It everyone loved the status quo, there wouldn't have been the need to form the team. A few new faces in the issue. I wonder if they were inserted due to ethnicity issues and long time issue of nearly only humans on the team?
It's much like last issue. In terms of plot, it's much like the last several. The little character bits are giving it some interest. That's mainly because of having read previous volumes. I doubt I'd still be picking it up as a new reader. Wasn't there a Lyle way back?
"...not having to believe in a thing to be interested in it and not having to explain a thing to appreciate the wonder of it."
For those that are interested in being spoiled about the new Legionnaires, I've added them to the roster at the LegionofSuper-Heroes.com website members section.
Go look only if you don't mind being spoiled. You'll notice that both the new Legionnaires beyond Skeleton Girl appeared in #9.
Much thanks to Jude/Sarky for the images and information.
(Click here to see full body images of the Design pages in question)
It could be that the colorist wasn't provided the design sheets for a reference and just went with their best guess. This book doesn't appear to have an editor.
For those that are interested in being spoiled about the new Legionnaires, I've added them to the roster at the LegionofSuper-Heroes.com website members section.
Go look only if you don't mind being spoiled. You'll notice that both the new Legionnaires beyond Skeleton Girl appeared in #9.
Much thanks to Jude/Sarky for the images and information.
Really COOL new website you made there! I really like it!!!
no clue as to what X-Ray Girl or Radius Lad can do.
It would be funny if Radius Lad's unique power that he's super proud of is that he can instantly tell you the measurements of any circle, but the Legion took him because all of his race are ridiculously tough or fast or can shoot eye beams or something that's actually useful, but which he totally doesn't get the fuss about considering everyone on his planet can do it
I will be perplexed if X-Ray Girl has the power to go through things, like an X-ray, since that's the power that Phantom Girl used to have...
Radius Boy sounds like a cheeky alternative name for Bouncing Boy. "I have growth powers, like Colossal Boy, but where he grows taller, I grow *wider!*"
Just read #9. I decided not to read this thread until I had read the whole issue.
I like a lot of the points made above. My own feelings come closest to Ibby's. I kind of liked this issue.
Thinking about what makes the Legion so distinctive I think it is firstly that the team (or sub-teams) are powerful AS a team whatever the individual members powers and second that (like other good team books) the characters have different personalities that mesh and don't mesh but still work together. We didn't see any battles in this issue (although it would appear that President Brande was hoping for exactly this result regarding Grav the General Nah and I suppose that was a team effort by Dream Girl, White Witch and Gold Lantern - Mon-El's contribution was basically a negative) but we did get a lot more characterisation, specifically the type that differentiated the members and that I liked.
This is probably the most Legion-like book so far in my view, which is sad but also hopeful for the future. Now I want to see them succeeding as a team, something they have yet to do (even though Brande praised their efforts back in issue 6 where they suceeded by accident and NOT working as a team).