That's what I thought it was...but I wasn't 100% on it.
I'm trying to refer to all of the regular characters by their real names and the SW6 group by their code names. Helps avoid confusion for me anyway.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Annual #3, 1992 - Timber wolf and the reunion that started something...
I always liked this Annual. It focuses partly on Brin and sets up a fun romp through the 20th century for him. The other half of the issue is one that still has fans talking... There are a lot of really good character moments in this issue. A lot to like.
Brin is dying and there is nothing Querl or anyone can do. He has a heart to heart with Kono, and then sees an Angel. Aria (from the quiet darkness) shows up and takes him to the past...healing him in the process. He turns into a half version...somewhere between normal and Furball. Querl's notice at the end of a 20th century hero puts his mind at some ease it appears. As is noted by the text page found after: There is a preview of Timber Wolfs mini here, but I will touch on that when I review the entire mini issue by issue soon.
The reunion on Winath happens here. Lots of great little moments happen in this tale. Reep/Proty II's reunion is funny. The things with Garridan are touching if a bit cliched. Yera avoidance of Salu is understandable. Thom and Nura...just hilarious to me. The birth of Rokk and Lydda's son.
There are touching things like them around the staues of fallen friends. Again we see the statue we do not know...although it ties directly into other aspects of this issue. Jo in the bar when Kent inadvertently mentions him and Tinya.
The thing that didn't quite make sense...Luornu's behavior still makes me scratch my head.
And then there's Garth. Garth is Proty...or at least Proty is in Garth's body. It can make sense if you want it to. It can be a slap in the face if you don't. It never really bothered me because Garth was never one of my favorites. So, I had no great opinion one way or the other.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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Another issue that sparked a firestorm of opinions. Again, not really a big thing for me, as Jan and Shvaugn were background characters for me.
I find the Element Lad story much more compelling here. He kills some Dominators, or is it an accident? I like that the question is never fully answered. He has to deal with what he has done, and as Saturn Girl tells him...he's strong and he has a family with the LEgion to help him through it.
The whole Shvaugn/Sean thing is what it is. Jan accepts her/him for who he is. Sean seems to have a more difficult time with the whole thing, which I guess is understandable.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Dev Em: Issue #28, Apr 92 - Sun Boy Setting I don't love this issue, and I do not hate it.
I both love and hate it! Or at least admire and hate it. I agree with your comments about the art and the intricacies of the characterization. I think the mood is set terrifically and everything that happens follows in horrific inevitability.
It's an issue that prompted a visceral reaction, at least for me. Maybe that's just because Dirk's one of my favorite characters? Though it fits in perfectly with the reality of the 5YL universe following the Mon-el/Time Trapper punch and the Glorith replacements, I can't reconcile this Dirk with the Sun Boy I read previously.
I found Tom Bierbaum's comments on his blog regarding this issue pretty illuminating. I was kind of glad that he had mixed feelings about it.
I think it a strong piece of work, can't deny that.
I'm enjoying your comments, Dev! I'm sure it's caused several LWers to dig out their old issues and reread them-- I think I'll do that soon. If only they were available in trade paperback...
From: Knoxville, TN | Registered: Jul 2003
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This is the first time I've read "The Quiet Darkness" in one setting. Previously, I read the issues piecemeal and out of order, and they made no sense whatsoever. Taken together, they are actually quite good.
Could it be that fans' dissatisfaction with this story is that it doesn't top or even equal "The Great Darkness"? I don't think it was intended to do either, and, if accepted on its own terms, I think the story is brilliant.
For one thing, the dialogue between Aria and Lori seems authentic. They act like 12-year-old girls. In spite of being thrown for a loop about who these characters were and why I should care about them, I found myself caring quite a bit once they encountered Furball (Legion frame of reference) and ran for their lives. Yes, it's shameful manipulation to have the girls buddy up with "Frisky," but it works.
I like it that Al Gordon (credited as the primary writer) doesn't tell us up front what is happening or what Darkseid is up to--Gordon lets the story unfold at its own pace--but, by the end, everything makes sense.
Well, almost everything. We're left to wonder what happened to Darkseid and Aria's brother, Coda. Did they become part of Aria or did they die and go to "heaven"? I like to think the latter. It seems that it was Darkseid's plan all along to create a half-god who could kill him and end his eternal life of boredom. I have no problem with this whatsoever: It rounds out Darkseid's character and makes him less one-dimensional as a villain. (The story actually leads up to this by having Darkseid show concern for Francis Campbell, the children's scientist father. It's true that Darkseid still uses Francis to further his own ends, yet it's striking that Darkseid treats him much better than he's treated minions in the past.)
Jo and Brainy are true to character--both exhibit intelligence and resourcefulness. Kent and Celeste develop as personalities and heroes. (We knew all along that Celeste was going to get powers; what took them so long?) I loved the action sequences, particularly between Jo and Kent and the Zuun security force. The action moves quickly but makes room for humor("Hey! . . . There isn't any Tango" . . .). Jo's grin at the bottom of page 2 of # 23 says it all: though they vastly outnumber the Legionnaires, the Zuun security force is in for a major ass whooping!
The only thing I didn't like was Lobo--a character I've never cared for--but Gordon even addresses that in a palatable manner by revealing "the main man" to be nothing more than a Darkseid-improved probe.
The backup story running in all four issues leads up to the big SW6 reveal. Again, this works better if read in one setting. The Valor sequence in # 22 does a particularly effective job of tying in the SW6 scheme with several past Legion stories.
I enjoyed this storyline as much as the earlier Khund war. It was extremely well paced, clear, and thoughtful. Like most of 5YL, it challenges our preconceptions of what a Legion story can be--i.e., there is no knock-down, drag-out fight with Darkseid--yet it delivers the goods.
[ January 17, 2010, 09:28 PM: Message edited by: He Who Wanders ]
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Hooray! Positive comments about "The Quiet Darkness". I've never understood all the negativity about the story. I always thought that is was clear and subtle, original, interesting with solid art and good characterization. I must be the only person in the world who loved the use the Lobo probe.
-------------------- No regrets, Coyote.
From: Missouri | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
I liked Lobo better as a probe than the real Lobo.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Jumping ahead, my thoughts on # 31 are presented on pages 3 and 4 of this thread.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Like I said, the quiet darkness isn't necessarily bad for me...I just never liked it all that much in the grand scheme of things. It felt jarring for the arc to be where it was. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and did not really move the main plot of the book along. Kind of the same issue I had with the Khund war/Dark circle issues before it.
They just felt off in their flow from the main narrative. But, that's just me.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by He Who Wanders: Jumping ahead, my thoughts on # 31 are presented on pages 3 and 4 of this thread.
My thoughts on the matter are presented in that thread, too, but I'm not satisfied with the way I expressed them.
Truth is, without the stalker element, without the starstruck-and-lovesick-weakling element, and if ze had decided to keep living as a woman and go back on Profem once the Dominators were defeated, I could have accepted it.
But by taking the story in the direction they did, TMK did a disservice to transsexuals and their fight for tolerance. To me, it comes off as a very patronizing and ill-informed portrayal of gender indentity dysfunction, and it reinforces the ignorant (though, unfortunately, popular) notion that transsexualism is, without exception, nothing more than a phase to be discouraged at all costs. TMK should have realized that when you deal with an oppressed minority like the transgender community, your character inevitably ends up representing the entire community. As for Huey's assertion that at least ze was sympathetic, I have to disagree -- thanks to TMK's heavy-handed bathos, I didn't find hir sympathetic at all, or even pitiable, but repulsive! And if ze gets that kind of reaction from someone who's trans-friendly, imagine the kind of reaction ze gets from a transophobe!
Other than that thorn in my side, I consider the 5YL era to be an ambitious folly that's been overpraised for its ambitions rather than its actual achievements. There were some great concepts and great new characters, and even I will grudgingly admit that v.4 # 5 works very well as a stand-alone, but in my opinion it never jelled as a whole.
Having said that, I do look forward to reading Dev's fanfic continuation of it, because without the editorial pressures and the imposed deadlines which wrecked TMK's execution, something worthy could be made of it.
posted
Got to say that I think you're right on at least one thing when it comes to the whole transgendered thing in issue 31...it was ill informed. I seriously do not believe that the writers really put that much thought into it. At least not outside what they wanted to do with the story.
They do not seem to take actual transgender issues into account here. The only thing that I remember Tom saying on the subject was this..."Keith challenged Al to think of something else to do interesting with Shvaughn and the first thing that occurred to Al was "she's a boy." Keith loved the notion and that was the birth of the controversial Shvaughn/Sean storyline that wasn't revealed until Legion #31."
GHe has not gotten to the issue in question on his blog, so it is not clear what their purpose was for this issue.
Time will tell if there is more behind their thought process, hopefully.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I am looking forward to what Tom has to say for himself and Mary and Keith and Al. His blog has been extremely illuminating on the nuts and bolts of what they did.
posted
I should also add that I generally enjoy dark adventure very much. I loved the controversial Season 3 of the Transformers TV show, and I loved the controversial Bob Harras/Steve Epting run on Avengers, both of which I think have a lot in common with 5YL, especially in the lack of proper respect that they get.
quote:Originally posted by Stealth: As for Huey's assertion that at least ze was sympathetic, I have to disagree -- thanks to TMK's heavy-handed bathos, I didn't find hir sympathetic at all, or even pitiable, but repulsive! And if ze gets that kind of reaction from someone who's trans-friendly, imagine the kind of reaction ze gets from a transophobe!
I don't wish to rehash an old debate, but I do feel it necessary to respond here.
Sean/Shvaughn was not symptathetic? Well, your mileage may vary. I found him (hir?) very sympathetic since his struggle to accept himself mirrors an all-too-common problem among young people: the belief that they have to be like somebody else in order to be accepted. Many kids do drastic and dangerous things to themselves, as Sean did, in order to win that acceptance.
I also found Sean sympathetic and even heroic in making the final decision to be true to himself. I can't understand how he would have been more acceptable to you if he had reverted to being a woman. That's not who "he" was.
I'm not an expert on transgenderism, and I do not wish to speak for that community. Perhaps TMK should have done more research on the subject. It's laudable that, as a transfriendly person, you care about how they are perceived in comics. However, why should we care what a transophobe thinks? Such people have already made up their minds.
The highest praise I can give the comic is that it got people talking about a topic most of us tend to ignore. More than that, it got us talking about a topic greater than the comic itself. This makes all the reboots and revamps that many comics today concern themselves with pale by comparison.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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