Legion of Super-Heroes (LoSH) Appreciation 2020

[0nt1r]

I vaguely remember there being some weaselly technicality with Rond Vidar, whose 'super-power' was that he was immune to his dad's mind control, and the Green Lantern ring was just a cool thing he had. It could be amusing if 'Gold Lantern' had some trivial super-power of some sort, that he used to qualify for Legion membership, like a perfect sense of direction, or the ability to count really fast and accurately, or to perceive three extra colors into the infrared spectrum.

Interesting that he's got *two* gold rings, one on each hand, and he seems to be able to use them to transmute stuff (gold as in lead-to-gold alchemy stuff, perhaps?).

I guess he needs something unique, since we've seen Brainy, White Witch, Dr. Fate *and* Ultra Boy creating colorful energy shields / constructs in the last five issues, so he'd hardly be interesting on a team already teeming with people with that powerset.

The art is amazing. I'm not a fan of the story so far, and am getting whiplash trying to figure out what's going on with President Brande. "She's their supporter, founder, best ally! No wait, arrest them all! No wait, they gave us hope and it was all great and part of why I chartered them in the first place! No wait, arrest them all again!" But that art, nice. I love the stylized stuff around Gold Lantern, in particular (although I'm not a fan of every redesign, with White Witch, in particular, being dull and weirdly busy, ruining the sleek lines of her monochromatic look, IMO).

It’s been awhile, but yeah, I remember Rond being immune to Universo’s power. That, combined with his intellect, and the fact that he gave them access to his Time Cube, with which they defeated his father after a chase thru time, is what made him a reservist. It wasn’t until some 20 years later, during Levitz/Giffen, that we learned his father had been a GL (all of whom were banned from Earth), and that he had his father’s ring. I know very little about the Gold Lanterns, beyond their connection to Sinestro, so I’m not sure what this means for the Legion. I just don’t expect it to mean much good, longterm. Dr. Fate is another “WHY?!?” Character for me. Fate looks cool, but the power comes from the Helm of Nabu - rule violation - and he(?)’s a second magic user. I accept Mysa, because she’s longterm canon, but I’m not overly wild about magic in the Legion, as a rule. Monster Boy looks interesting, tho not terribly original. I wish characters like Kinetix, Tellus, and Gates had been included.

The “story” is problematic because, until the end of this issue, it never felt like we were getting one. Each issue was action sequences, with enough exposition to string them together, but we still haven’t been properly introduced to the Legionnaires. Is Invisible Kid an actual memeber? There’s some, visual, evidence, in that first group shot, to suggest he’s there, but never a mention. At the rate we’re going, I expect issue 12 will conclued the first chapter, not the first story. Thank God it’s pretty.

I don’t think Saturn Girl, or Dream Girl’s looks work very well. A few others just seem weird to me. I’m not sure why Matter-Eater Lad seems so much older than all the rest. I’m wlling to consider, tho, that he’s just a very different take on the character than what I’d have done. Triplicate seems to be based on the too-short******d cartoon, which I’m OK with, and despite the indecisive race change on the Ranzz twins, I love the re-disging of Light Lass.

RJ Brande being the woman who runs the “Galactic?!?” from Daxam?!? is just weird. I’m wondering if she’s still Chameleon Boy’s parent? In the (appropriately referenced) Zero Legion, I was annoyed that they made J’onn J’onz RJ, but warmed to the idea if it meant that Reep wasn’t just a Durlan, but a half-Durlan/Martian.

It would be cool if CeCe/Thunder returned, at some point.

[0nt1r]

I’d heard that the story, which began with “the Murder of Ayn Ryd,” was actually a tabloid story which would’ve followed the wedding of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, but DC cancelled the tabloid line, so part of it ran with nowhere to go, beyond removing Brainy for about a year or so.

[CaptainEurope]

Hi, German reader here!

One of the first comics I ever read was this:



It made me a lifelong Legion fan. It had some Silver Age and some Bronze Age stories, as well as "who's who" style profiles of every single Legionnaire, including the subs and the honorary members. I was hooked!

[CaptainEurope]

I'm really enjoying the new Legion, and I'm hoping for the Saturn Girl/Jon Kent romance that they're sort of hinting at.

I've now caught up on the first 6 issues, plus the Rose Forrester mini that preceded it and ... I'm not really getting into it.

I've never been a fan of Bendis, especially when he writes team books. He does not have a wide range of "voices" for his characters. That's fine when you write a troubled loner like Daredevil, but it made his Avengers impossible to read for me. When he gets to write a team 3 times as big as the Avengers, the problem is much worse.

Also, I noticed the editor has, occasionally, done sloppy work and Bendis needs tight editing. Partly because his grammar and spelling are poor, and I already noticed a "who's" instead of "whose" slipping through. Partly because Bendis tends to be repetitive: in issue 6, Superboy uses the expression "superspeed it" twice within 3 pages.

Not to mention the fact that the cover of #6 promised we'd meet Dr. Fate, and she is in exactly one group shot in that issue and that is it. Granted: "Meet Dr. Fate's helmet, from behind, in a group shot" would not have fit on the cover.

I have no problem with re-imagining the characters. I loved the Waid-Kitson run and the cartoon versions, the Five Year Gap Legion and the post-Zero Hour kids.. I think both Waid and the Cartoon did a better job of reinventing the Legion than this current run. This feels more like the Post Zero Hour era, with Bendis keeping random stuff (saving R.J. Brande's life, Chameleon Boy being RJ's son) while changing others.

Also, I did not find the cosmic super soaker that impressive of a threat. I wish Hickman had gotten this book.

[CaptainEurope]

Who was your favorite Legion Leader and why?

I'd say Element Lad. His way of looking frustrated when things didn't go his way was priceless.

[Uncanny X-Man]

Hi Legion fans,

I've mostly been a casual Legion reader so far, in that I followed and appreciated the DnA run as well as Mark Waid's Threeboot, but have never quite gotten into the original Legion. I recently decided to immerse myself in it and was looking for recommendations.

My idea is to start with The Great Darkness Saga Deluxe book, followed by The Curse TPB, and then jump into all of LSH v3.
I would then follow the 5 Years Later Legion which I'm immensely curious about.

The reason why I was thinking of starting with TGDS is that it coincided with the beginning of Paul Levitz' second run, plus I'm not sure I could quite get into overly Silver Age-y, earlier stuff.

I could however give it a try if you have any particularly important arcs to recommend or something particularly well-written? Also, is there anything between LSH v3 and v4 that I should check out?

[caj]

My idea is to start with The Great Darkness Saga Deluxe book, followed by The Curse TPB, and then jump into all of LSH v3.
I would then follow the 5 Years Later Legion which I'm immensely curious about.

This would be my recommendation. It starts off slow but around #288, it starts getting very good. Then when The Great Darkness Saga starts in #290, everything starts popping on all cylinders.

[Tugger]

My idea is to start with The Great Darkness Saga Deluxe book, followed by The Curse TPB, and then jump into all of LSH v3.
I would then follow the 5 Years Later Legion which I'm immensely curious about.

Back in the day, I started reading LSH with #282 and I carried on faithfully until #39 of the 5 Years Later, where I lost interest. I've since bought all of these issues in digital form and plan to start reading them again.

I wanted to make sure I was reading things in the correct order, so looked for a chronology and this seems comprehensive.

https://www.dcuwiki.net/w/Legion_of_...oes_Chronology

[Uncanny X-Man]

Back in the day, I started reading LSH with #282 and I carried on faithfully until #39 of the 5 Years Later, where I lost interest. I've since bought all of these issues in digital form and plan to start reading them again.

I wanted to make sure I was reading things in the correct order, so looked for a chronology and this seems comprehensive.

https://www.dcuwiki.net/w/Legion_of_...oes_Chronology

This is useful, thank you!

[Tugger]

This is useful, thank you!

You're welcome Happy reading!

[The no face guy]

It's a shame that the Legion of Super Heroes popularity has fallen by the wayside over the decades. When I was 7 years old and all through my teens the Legion was all the rage, and than they rebooted them at one point and turned them back into young teenage kids, and than rebooted them again and again to the point Levitz fans couldn't relate.

i am curious about reading Mark Waid's run though, it looks good, and I generally consider him a top notch writer.

[Tugger]

It's a shame that the Legion of Super Heroes popularity has fallen by the wayside over the decades. When I was 7 years old and all through my teens the Legion was all the rage, and than they rebooted them at one point and turned them back into young teenage kids, and than rebooted them again and again to the point Levitz fans couldn't relate.

i am curious about reading Mark Waid's run though, it looks good, and I generally consider him a top notch writer.

I still love Legion from the period when I read it but I'm just not interested in endless reboot after reboot. I'd rather just read the stories that I know I like again.

[Zero Hunter]

i am curious about reading Mark Waid's run though, it looks good, and I generally consider him a top notch writer.

This is not a good run at all. This is no where near Waid at the top of his game. He is more interested in making a point with this run than actually telling good stories, and the whole thing comes off as a giant preachy mess. He makes all the characters into just such unlikable assholes, and he changes Brainiac 5 into Vril Dox II from the L.E.G.I.O.N. series so much it is pretty much a carbon copy. At one point in the series he makes it look like the Legion commits actual genocide on an entire alien race with just a few knowing what really happened, but the ones that didn't know were perfectly fine with commiting genocide. That is just how wrong he got this series. As someone who has read almost every Legion issue (except this new Bendis mess) I can honestly say the Waid "threeboot" series is my least favorite of any Legion series i have read.

Your much better off avoiding it and saving your money.

[Hatut Zeraze]

Did you guys see the announcement of the upcoming two-parter in the current Bendis run?

This line-up of artists has me very excited for these comics.

https://www.cbr.com/bendis-shares-al...-super-heroes/

I can make out that new hippie Element Lad appears to be drawn by Jeff Lemire, which is probably who I would have picked to draw him looking at that list, so that is a plus for me.

Rouleau, Nguyen, Mack, Jones, Moon, Jurgens, Nowlan, Grell, Sharp, Shaner, Reis, Hamner, Rossmo, Derington, Adams, Quinones, and SO MANY MORE. I can't wait.

[caj]

This is not a good run at all. This is no where near Waid at the top of his game. He is more interested in making a point with this run than actually telling good stories, and the whole thing comes off as a giant preachy mess. He makes all the characters into just such unlikable assholes, and he changes Brainiac 5 into Vril Dox II from the L.E.G.I.O.N. series so much it is pretty much a carbon copy. At one point in the series he makes it look like the Legion commits actual genocide on an entire alien race with just a few knowing what really happened, but the ones that didn't know were perfectly fine with commiting genocide. That is just how wrong he got this series. As someone who has read almost every Legion issue (except this new Bendis mess) I can honestly say the Waid "threeboot" series is my least favorite of any Legion series i have read.

Your much better off avoiding it and saving your money.

Agree. The art by Barry Kitson is amazing. He was born to draw the Legion.

But Waid's direction is a head-scratcher. He makes the characters downright unlikeable. I didn't enjoy it at all.