"Never assign to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity or ignorance."
"Great stories will always return to their original forms"
"Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable." James Baldwin
The biggest mistake I think he and the Bierbaums made was not letting the reformation of the Legion take the book out of the dark and gritty dystopia of the first few years and back into that place of light where they could all be a real team again in their shiny costumes in a brighter future - that would have been the Legion emerging victorious after that long climb out of the darkness! But then they introduced a bunch of teen clones and blew up the moon instead...
Last edited by j9ac9k; 02-28-2021 at 04:51 PM.
5YL was a peculiar creative experiment for Giffen. I remember reading around he liked to do this because the change would be in official continuity and not a s an alternative future for the characters. But EG is right. The core of the Legion is the optimistic future. The decadent, grim, perpetually defeated 5YL Legion was a downer, even if artistically was good. It could had been the DarkKNights Returns for the Legion, but putting in offical continuity damaged its perspectives.
In the larger schemes of all things Legion, I agree. Even the "clones" backdoor they write in was a clue than maybe not everyone was happy about how things developted behind scenes.
Personally, I think completism makes more damage than anything in comic narrative, but I will not tell you what to do with your money.I still have a pull list at the local shop -- and I have been collecting this Legion series -- despite some reservations. Because of that, the two Future State issues were in my box. Not sure I'll even bother reading -- because the artwork is garbage. I'm sure some people will like it, but I found it hideous!
I like Rossmo art (personal taste) I like that kind of art more expresionist or not strictly realist, more personal, it makes the creative landscape more interesting. But if I don't like the story adn ti will disgust me, I can't see a reason to buy something I don't enjoy.
And later, the earth. Add salt to the wound. Only it would had been worse if Giffen would had started with the earth already destroyed at the begginig of his era in... oh wait.
Last edited by Thor-Ul; 02-28-2021 at 05:06 PM.
"Never assign to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity or ignorance."
"Great stories will always return to their original forms"
"Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable." James Baldwin
And.. searching for positive reviews of the Bendis' Legion, I found this article , published in JUNE 18, 2019, with the writer being hopeful and optimist about what could be doing Bendis on the title. He exposed some of his own perspectives about the legion, some I agree with, others I disagree, but also analize the promotions and interviews about the Legion than Bendis gave, and analize them. That, with the perspective of time offers a different landscape.
The interesting aspect is he listed several of the weakness related to Bendis' writing than were made evident in this run:
With the exception of the last point, I agree with the author and I think it was evident than Bendis checked all the boxes.First, Bendis’ talents are in writing street-level characters, not writing sci-fi.
Second, Bendis’ talents are suited for writing titles starring one main character with several supporting characters.(...) At no point in his writing career has Bendis ever displayed the ability to handle a large roster of characters.
Third, Bendis has never displayed strong plotting and world-building skills.
Fourth, Bendis has never shown the ability to understand continuity, perform quality research, and understand the history of a franchise. Bendis usually simply ignores prior continuity and established character traits and simply writes whatever he wants to write.
Fifth, Bendis is 52 years old. I would have loved to have seen DC hire a writer in their late 20’s to early 30’s to write the Legion of Super-Heroes. The Legion is a teen super-hero group.
"Never assign to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity or ignorance."
"Great stories will always return to their original forms"
"Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable." James Baldwin
Sounds pretty prophetic now, considering he pretty much rebooted half the characters from scratch.Fourth, Bendis has never shown the ability to understand continuity, perform quality research, and understand the history of a franchise. Bendis usually simply ignores prior continuity and established character traits and simply writes whatever he wants to write. Unfortunately, the Legion of Super-Heroes has an incredibly long and detailed history. The Legion has a countless number of characters. And these characters all have well-established character traits. It is vitally important that any Legion writer has an excellent command of the Legion’s history and the vast number of characters. This is not something that Bendis has ever shown an interest in doing in the past.
Ha! No, I am by no means a completist. While not a fan of Bendis's writing (with ALIAS being the exception), I am a fan of Ryan Sook -- and I wanted to see where this series was going. It wasn't bad enough for me to drop, yet it was never good enough for me to celebrate. The 'final' issue before Future State was decent -- in that we finally were getting some background on a couple of characters. I felt there was still too much focus on Jon Kent and Saturn Girl.
Regarding the art, I can't fault people for liking it -- it's just not my taste -- and was a very weird choice after 12ish issues from Ryan Sook. All in all, I'm kinda glad the book is just done.
It is? It is possible than they pop on Justice League where Bendis is preparing to do a House of M with Raven or who knows. Now already there is a new miniseries with Supergirl, so in any moment something could pop. And I don't know if that could be something good, specially with Bendis involved.
"Never assign to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity or ignorance."
"Great stories will always return to their original forms"
"Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable." James Baldwin
Sad that there is nothing indicating in the pages of the Infinite Frontier one shot that a new Legion series on the horizon -or Legions are significant to DCU.
"No more powers" more like, so only Batman and friends would remain.
Outside of the one panel appearance where they were reduced to Superboy/Jon Kent training field? No, not any significance at all. And considering the actual economic situation a new series is hardly a possibility, see how JLD was demoted to back up feature. Not discarded, maybe even a digital only series. But nothing in that special to indicate a potential new series soon. Which I don't know how to define.
"Never assign to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity or ignorance."
"Great stories will always return to their original forms"
"Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable." James Baldwin
I'm guessing DC wants to give the team a break so that when they come back they can go in a different direction with less resistance from current readers.
There's a large chance that the Legion won't be the current Legion (if history tells us anything; see Waid Legion, DNA Legion...). Especially if they're pushing the Linearverse angle.
"There's magic in the sound of analog audio." - CNET.
We can only hope!
What will it take for DC to finally get it that reboots are not the answer?!!!
We know if the title will come back or DC stop the run of Bendis ?