LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES issue #1 Preview/(spoiler) discussion

[Factor]

Disappointing start. My excitement was already down after two lackluster issues of Millennium, but I was still hoping the first actual LOSH issue would grab me.
It IS better than Millennium, but it's far from the exciting new take Bendis sold on interviews. It felt like any other series he's done, but with some very pretty art and visuals.
I hope he can give better focus to individual characters in the future and actually write them as distinct people. I feel like everyone had interchangeable personalities and most of them were just on the background looking cool (or just plain weird in some cases lol).
It doesn't help that there wasn't that much plot. The book seemed so hollow, I don't know.
I think Bendis should try writing one-shots for a while so his single issues start feeling more substantial.

[madmodpoetgod]

I am enjoying his Action Comics, and Superman is just ok, thus am not one of those people who would scream his name in agony and anger. But man. Such a mediocre start. There is nothing interesting, nothing stands out -except the art, and I am sure that Sook would leave the book like before issue 6. I think rebooting Legion is a big mistake, a rude one actually, not respecting to its history, but I was excited anyway, yet, the book doesn't even feel like Legion Of Super Heroes... I am not a fan of Archie Legion, but look at that era's first issue.... Full of character, different voices, a sense of vastness.. This first issue.... is just there, and feels dated, and uninspiring.

[The no face guy]

Not in the slightest. I have a budget (i live in Australia where comics cost me $7.95 and up). So something really has to grab me from the get go to justify its inclusion on my standing order list. This, unfortunately, didn't do that. Which is a shame because i do love the Legion. They are one of my favourite DC teams (JSA being the first).

I'll be honest and admit that the race bending of Lightning Lad was my first pet peeve with it. Yes, the Legion was created during a time when caucasians were the dominant characters in comics. But you rectify that by creating new characters with different racial backgrounds or new species altogether.

My second peeve is that Bendis never seems to be able to build on what already exists and has to either "reboot" it or tear the entire house down in order to build a new one. He did it with the Avengers and he is doing it here.

Is Bendis bad? Absolutely not. I've enjoyed his Superman work (Action more than Superman). However I've read enough of his stuff to know where this particular book is going. His writing style is best suited to solo books. Reading this just reminded me how ill-fitting he is with team books - repetitive dialogue and an inability to differentiate individual characters personalities. Everybody sounded the same and they shouldn't given the broad backgrounds each member comes from.

The art was gorgeous, though. But Sook never sticks around for long. So, even though I did enjoy the art, I can't stick around for that alone if I deem the story not to be worth the investment in both time and money.

I didn't want to be the one to say it, but yes the Lightning Lad change bothered me to. He could be green, yellow, or blue, and I would still be peeved, as I want to recognize the character I grew up with. DC does badly need to inject some more racial diversity into their universe, but this felt almost like a Disney Star Wars statement...so I will leave it at that.

I was also bothered by the complete reboot, but they've tampered with the Legion timeline so many times now, I'm not sure Bendis had a choice, I think it would be hard to resurrect the historic timeline, and only veteran readers like myself would care.

$7,95 is a lot for something you can read in under 10 minutes, I only pay for titles I really enjoy these days, I'll probably free bee the Legion for a few issues by reading it online, and then make a decision if it deserves my $$$'s

[BroHomo]

As a part time DC reader this book was tooootally not new user friendly. I've read and liked a few Legion issues/TPB but had no idea it was so....intense right off the bat. I'm guessing youre supposed to know who these characters are+therefore youre invested/care about them but I found it difficult to remember which lad does this...which lass does that to be interested in any one character. Is the whooooole Legion gonna be utilised as a group or does it break away and rotate a smaller cast of Legionnaires?

[manwhohaseverything]

As a part time DC reader this book was tooootally not new user friendly. I've read and liked a few Legion issues/TPB but had no idea it was so....intense right off the bat. I'm guessing youre supposed to know who these characters are+therefore youre invested/care about them but I found it difficult to remember which lad does this...which lass does that to be interested in any one character. Is the whooooole Legion gonna be utilised as a group or does it break away and rotate a smaller cast of Legionnaires?

So, this is'nt new reader friendly and it hasn't been that appealing to a section of old fans. So this book has problems. Who is the target audience? This is gonna be hard sell. I hope this works out for jon and the Legion's sake.

[Superlad93]

As a part time DC reader this book was tooootally not new user friendly. I've read and liked a few Legion issues/TPB but had no idea it was so....intense right off the bat. I'm guessing youre supposed to know who these characters are+therefore youre invested/care about them but I found it difficult to remember which lad does this...which lass does that to be interested in any one character.

Nah, not at all actually, so don't worry you're fine. Since it's a reboot, right now you actually know as much about any of the them as anyone else reading. But the literary trick on display here is to have the reader just dive into the world already in progress to get you feeling like it's built and already established.

The character designated for readers to latch on to and learn about the world and characters as things go on is Jon Kent. He knows exactly as much about the Legion as you do, so use him as your north star, and sample the other characters as the book unfolds. And in about 2 issues Damian will join the team on an adventure, so you'll have a second character to hold your POV for a bit while you get used to the world and characters.

Is the whooooole Legion gonna be utilised as a group or does it break away and rotate a smaller cast of Legionnaires?

Yes, I can confirm that the team will break off into smaller groups and not everyone will be gotten to for the sake of making it understandable. So take the fact that saw nearly every character in this first issue more as Bendis flexing part of what's unique about this team before he splits it up to all everyone to get to know them individually.

Really hope this helped out!

[WTNew]

LOL characters development ? Bendis ? lol

The character development in Ultimate Spider-man and in Powers was all excellent. Ultimate Spider-man, throughout its run was better than Amazing. I didn't like his Avengers run, but he can be a very good comic book writer.

[astro@work]

I'd say overall it was a promising start. It was bright, optimistic, got the ball rolling on story, and let us learn about the (very large) cast through Jon's eyes.
With such a large cast it was unlikely we'd get a full breakdown on everybody in just the first issue. That's obviously going to take a while.

I got some serious laughs about Jon continuing to NOT go through the prepared orientation.

I also like the new version of Earth, with the domed cities, etc. It makes this indeed feel like the future and not just the current Earth with flying cars and a calendar with a future year.

I think my quibbles would be:
1. While I got a chuckle out of EVERYbody seeing the floating character description boxes behind each character...they were constantly BEHIND the character so we the audience still couldn't read them to get a read on who we were looking at! Let us see them for GOD'S SAKES!

2. Not enough characterization on really anybody except Jon and maybe Jo Nah. With that big a cast, we're going to have to go the smaller-groupings route so we can get a sense of everybody. Maybe I'm just being impatient here (probably am), but I am anxious to learn about all these characters.


Still, I'm anxious to read more and dive into all the new incarnations of the characters.

[Tenzel Kim]

1. While I got a chuckle out of EVERYbody seeing the floating character description boxes behind each character...they were constantly BEHIND the character so we the audience still couldn't read them to get a read on who we were looking at! Let us see them for GOD'S SAKES!.

This also bothered me. I thought the whole idea of the floating description boxes was that they was something you'd see when you encountered someone. But if it appears behind the person you meet, it won't really be of much help.

[BroHomo]

Nah, not at all actually, so don't worry you're fine. Since it's a reboot, right now you actually know as much about any of the them as anyone else reading. But the literary trick on display here is to have the reader just dive into the world already in progress to get you feeling like it's built and already established.

The character designated for readers to latch on to and learn about the world and characters as things go on is Jon Kent. He knows exactly as much about the Legion as you do, so use him as your north star, and sample the other characters as the book unfolds. And in about 2 issues Damian will join the team on an adventure, so you'll have a second character to hold your POV for a bit while you get used to the world and characters.



Yes, I can confirm that the team will break off into smaller groups and not everyone will be gotten to for the sake of making it understandable. So take the fact that saw nearly every character in this first issue more as Bendis flexing part of what's unique about this team before he splits it up to all everyone to get to know them individually.

Really hope this helped out!

yeah it did... might stick around for a few more issues.... YJ Outsiders is pretty good looking for something like that from DC

[Superlad93]

yeah it did... might stick around for a few more issues.... YJ Outsiders is pretty good looking for something like that from DC

Nice!

And feel free to come back around this side of the forums for answers on things you may be confused on. Since the Legion is written and overseen by Bendis, the Superman forum is a pretty solid place to get info you may have missed or are unaware of. This place can sometimes be more than a factory for perpetuating snark and thinly veiled passive-aggressive jabs.

[Zero Hunter]

I also like the new version of Earth, with the domed cities, etc. It makes this indeed feel like the future and not just the current Earth with flying cars and a calendar with a future year.

Yeah that is a real original idea ...... when they did it way back in the 90's Legion of Superheroes book. Earth was destroyed by the Dominators and the only thing left was domed cities floating in space. Bendis has a habit of just reusing old plots and passing them off as new. He did the same thing in the Avengers when he did his Scarlet Witch goes crazy story.