posted
Okay. I'll confess that I'm a cranky old Pre-Boot fan. Like most of us "old-timers" I look back on "Classic" old Legion stories with great fondness. Any of us could probably rattle off a whole string of "classic" stories ("Suneater/Death of Ferro Lad", "Return of the Fatal Five/LSH HQ Seige", etc.). Now, despite being all cranky and curmudgeonly and generally reacting to the ReBoot era with cussing and spitting and such, I recognize that there's been a whole decade or more of ReBoot stories and there's a whole generation of fans for whom this is THEIR Legion. Makes me curious, it does. Which stories, for you youngsters and other ReBoot fans, are the "Classics" of this new era? Which stories of the new era are the "must reads" that you recommend to any new fan? Once I've got a list of likely candidates I plan to haul out the long box of comics and do some rereading. Hopefully with new eyes and greater pleasure than the first time around.
So, what are your recommendations?
From: Morgantown, WV | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
IMO Legion Lost is the only classic story to come out of the reboot but The White Triangle Storline, Legion Worlds and the first year of the current title were all pretty fantastic as well.
Registered: Aug 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
For shorter stories, I'd say the first postboot Mano story, as well as the Planet Hell storyline (which is really part of the greater White Triangle arc) are both really solid reads.
Both appearance of Tangleweb are really well done as well, especially the second one.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: For shorter stories, I'd say the first postboot Mano story, as well as the Planet Hell storyline (which is really part of the greater White Triangle arc) are both really solid reads.
Both appearance of Tangleweb are really well done as well, especially the second one.
The first Tangleweb story, first Mano story & Planet Hell are all in the Beginning of Tommorrow TPB. BTW. And yeah, good reads.
And the Conspiracy arc, I should probably clarify, basically runs through most of the early reboot. The issues I mention are where it kicks into high gear/the denoument
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Look no further than the issue of LEGIONNAIRES featuring the team in the Golden Age and the issue of LSH that featured the team being taught by Mr. Swan. Wonderful 1-issue reads, unique settings.
posted
I'd say pretty much the entire first two or so years of the reboot, especially the White Triangle and Chu Conspiracy/Fatal Five arcs.
Legion Lost and Worlds, of course, and the first year or so of the current run. I also kinda liked the Mordru storyline.
Some shorter stories which I find pretty memorable include LSH Annual 6, which had origin stories for Kinetix, XS and Leviathan. Triad also had an origin issue early in the reboot, as did Brainy. I also liked the Composite Man two-parter in which Cham finds out his father died and where Imra first went bonkers after taking CM out.
posted
I'm totally echoing everyone else here but -
* The White Triangle storyline (especially its climax in Legionnaires Annual #2) * The Andromeda/Apparition funeral issue * The Chu-sting storyline * The Planet Hell 2-parter * Both Tangleweb stories * The Find-the-Fatal-Five issue * The Triad spotlight and * Legion Lost
- are all top-notch, flawless reads IMO. In fact I'm going to be so bold as to say that the entire re-boot up to Emerald Vi is pretty hard to beat for fantastic storytelling! Lots of great gems in there!
Why oh why did Mark Waid have to leave?!? As soon as he left Tom Peyer and Roger Stern drove this title into the ground and it all began with Emerald Vi. I'm firmly of the opinion that if they hadn't given us that piece of crapiola storytelling that not only killed Gim and ruined Vi but dumped us with the boring, interminable and ultimately pointless Team 20 story then Legion would not be being re-booted or re-started, or whatever it is, today. Those hacks wrote themselves into a corner and it took DnA's radical re-imagining of the team to bring them back out of it.
Unfortunately DnA also fell into the trap of bland storytelling that went nowhere and so now we have Mark Waid coming back full circle to save the title he should never have left in the first place!
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
In addition to the above, I'd mention the Annual in which XS got to meet Barry Allen during his brief residency in the 30th century. There was also a pretty good slap at Marvel's "Heroes Reborn" concept in the same book.
Really, to me there weren't that many klunkers all the way through the resolution of the "Team 20" storyline, and I missed the era that most readers seem to regard as the low point prior to DnA's arrival.
From: Douglasville, GA | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I have to say that the story of the Legion's battle with Mordru impressed me. Compare it to the cake-walk battles like the one in Legion #33, and it's a masterpiece.
From: Portland, Oregon | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I agree Wade dotted all the "i's" and crossed all the "t's" in his stories. That said, I still found few of them enjoyable or requiring/evoking thought. I found the white triangle story line particularly forced and unimaginative with uninteresting consequences.
The tightest of the bunch (For me) was the Chu story line. This one I would classify "classic" for the post boot.
Blight, beginning in the Secret Origins was another that I re-read.
Easily my favorite story was the Legion Worlds issues plus Legion #1. I wish DnA would have continued with that brightness instead of waiting until the last issue to have two characters say it. The Robotica story would have worked much better for me if delayed a few years.
From: East Toledo | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Widening Rifts, Legion Lost, Legion Worlds and the first year plus of Legion (through the introduction of Timber Wolf) were brilliant in my book, and absolutely the best stories published in the post-boot era, bar none. The fact they haven't been collected is nothing short of criminal neglect.
I also enjoyed the early stories up to and including the resolution of the Chu conspiracy. The Emerald Vi and Team 20 arcs were the turning point for me. They, and much of what followed until DnA came on board, were just too damned silly and tedious for my taste. Almost everything Roger Stern (or his ghost-writing wife) touched turned into dreck, imo.
From: Reimagined Trom | Registered: Jul 2003
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