I just started rereading the thing. The question I was wondering about most was: How would I like it 15 years later, without all the emotional baggage from back then when I was devastated about the erasure of 35 years of Legion Lore?
Would I be able to find some enjoyment in it now that I know that it was just a ten year long version of the Legion which was rebooted again?
Well, I read the first five issues today and have to say that it was really okay. It did not make me cringe like it did in 1994, I was no longer furious about the introduction of new characters in the second issue or about the first villain not being Lucifer Seven. I actually had fun reading it, though of course the story is far from perfect. It's like watching a college teen comedy in the future...
What I liked: Cameos by SciFi greats like Spock, Data or Eccentrica Gollumbits, RJ Brandes role (which was totally lacking in the Threeboot), Imra and Garth.
What I still don't like: The new codenames (Live Wire... urgh...), XS' haircut, Tangleweb... and the artwork is not exactly my cup of tea, though I've seen much worse over at Titans.
What really struck me was how quick the writers tried to reestablish classic parts of Legion Lore. After erasing the whole of the old continuity, they rushed to introduce a larger team - within three issues, we were up to ten members - and they had the first dead Legionnaire on their first mission! Of course, a hardly introduced dead Kid Quantum could not attract the same fascination as the dead Legionnaires of old managed to do. It's simply a matter of time - you can't force a legend, it has to slowly build...
Apart from that certain rushed feeling - definitely a contrast to nowadays decompressed writing - and the fact that I thought it was rather strange that the Legion was sent on a first mission without any training and without the teammates even knowing each other - I am getting the feeling that time has healed many wounds I suffered in 1994, and that I will be having much more simple fun in 2009...
From: Bamberg, Germany | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
I felt much the same way about the reboot when I started reading it in 1998--four years into it and after I had quit reading the previous version. Enough time had elapsed that I was able to appreciate the new stories for what they were and the many positive additions they added to the Legion . . . additions such as Gates, XS, and the Legion draft (which provided an entirely plausible way of boosting the ranks so quickly).
The writing kept the story moving forward in unexpected yet familiar ways while adding new dimensions to personalities of the Legionnaires. (I loved Gim as the Sci Cop hardass and Lyle as the more than competent spy.) There were some missteps along the way but the overall story up to and including the Chu sting was exciting and fresh.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I started a slow rereading of the reboot a few months ago. I'm up to 1999 and the issue where some villains try to vivisect Sensor and Gear is introduced. I'm enjoying reading the issues again because I generally enjoy Legion comics of any era. My overall assessment hasn't hasn't changed, though. Early reboot remains one of my least favorite Legion eras. There are some good story concepts early on. The White Triangle storyline holds my interest.
The changes in code names doesn't bother me. The art of Moy and Moder just isn't my cup of tea. It's not a vision of the Legion that I relate to. I liked Gates the first time around and still enjoy him. Zoe is a good addition. XS, I don't like simply because I think speedsters are overused.
There were some huge missteps that strike me just as wrong today. These include: obnoxious Brainy, Emerald Vi, Sensor the Snake, Lori Morning, Andromeda as a nun, Saturn Girl always losing control of her powers, and the addition of Thunder.
I remember feeling that Kolins was an improvement over Moder the first time around. I still feel that way, and I'm appreciating Kolins even more with the rereading.
I
[ July 01, 2009, 08:36 PM: Message edited by: Jerry ]
-------------------- No regrets, Coyote.
From: Missouri | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
I can't believe it's been 15 years since Legionnaires #0. It seems like just yesterday that my eleven-year-old self read that comic and became a lifelong Legion fan.
-------------------- Aaron Kashtan/Sir Tim Drake
From: Providence, RI | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Sir Tim Drake: I can't believe it's been 15 years since Legionnaires #0. It seems like just yesterday that my eleven-year-old self read that comic and became a lifelong Legion fan.
It was. We've secretly been aging you faster than normal and implanting you with false memories. It's really only 1995.
You're our guinea pig to explore the real ramifications for Y2K, which, unlike the programming you've been exposed to, is a very real threat indeed.
Everyone you know (or think you know) are in on the conspiracy.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
So it was about 13 years since I dropped Legion deliberately for the first time. And I still don't feel like reading it.
From: Brasil | Registered: May 2008
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posted
My rereads of this era usually drag, until the DNA stuff kicks in and Coipel remains one of my favorite comic artists.
The early story arcs and art just never caught my attention while paradoxically, many of the Legion characters were more interesting to me than before.
Those "missteps" Jerry describe mostly go for me also.
I always looked forward to an espionage squad story.
From: East Toledo | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Ricardo: So it was about 13 years since I dropped Legion deliberately for the first time. And I still don't feel like reading it.
It's certainly no 5YL, that's for sure old pal. I just got the first Reboot trade for cheap and decided to give it a try again, with all those emotions cooled down - and a nearly-classic Legion returning in L3W. The stories are simple, the characters are mostly one-dimensional - but it's definitely more fun to read now than in 1994, I can assure you. Quick entertainment for my lunch breaks at work.
Just read the next two issues today. Oh my, I'm still feeling embarrassed about the "Work Force" - what a lousy teamname, especially considering that Marvel had launched the "Force Works" title only a year ago... and what was it with Lee Moder not being able to do the full page count after being on the book for only two issues?
Anyway, I'm trying not to find too many mistakes and simply to have some fun. Let#s see how long I manage to do so
From: Bamberg, Germany | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
I remember I was in University and still pretty bitter about the whole 5YG thing, having abandoned it pretty early on. I read the occasional issue a guy across the hall got in earlier years (cutting off Dawnstar's wings? Blowing up Earth? WTF?), but had pretty much sworn off Legion.
Then in third year I saw LSH #0 on the spinner rack at the convenience store and picked it up out of curiosity. I thought it was pretty cool. It wasn't Levitz, but it was light years ahead of what came after him. I called my LCS in my home town and had it added to my list. Every few months when I'd get my care package shipped, I'd have a new stack of LSH and L* to go through.
The first few years were great, then it had definite ups and downs (with the Dark Circle being a definite "down"). I think I liked Peyer more than Stern overall, but it was a fun run. Didn't like DnA much at first, then actively disliked them by the end. Still think the team could have been salvaged instead of another reboot, but it was a pretty big chore to read by the end.
From: Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
So now I'm done with the first trade, I remember again which were the elements that bothered me most. Work Force. Planet Hell. Names like those made the whole book look incredibly cheap.
The contrast between the adult oriented 5YL (til Giffen left) - which I liked a lot - and the kid oriented Reboot was large enough as it was, details like those made me suffer in 1994 and I still don't like them today. I also thought that the artwork got worse when Moy got a new inker every issue.
I liked the "love at first sight" moment between Jo and Tinya. I always felt those two belonged together and their romance was essential to the Legion. Invisible Kids role was also well-written. I really thought that his superpower was used in a decent way, considering how Lee and Kirby struggled to portray the Invisible Woman in the beginning of Fantastic Four (just reading the first Omnibus).
The one thing I still have to say is: I don't like XS. Her codename, her haircut, her power, her costume - this character will never do anything for me, even though they tried so hard to make her likeable with her innate shyness...
From: Bamberg, Germany | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
XS was one of my favorites of the new characters. Obviously, I'm a better human being that you.
One of the fun things about these "boot" threads is seeing how different parts of each boot appeal to others and trying to figure why. Example in this book, I didn't much care for the beginning but DNA is one of my favorite runs and rouge is polar opposite. Makes me wonder what about our personal make-ups might result in this difference.
Maybe he's my secret enemy and I should have him watched? lol
I've never quite figured out why I like so many of these characters yet so few of the actual storylines. One of these days I'm going to take a course or two on "writing" to try and grasp the things writers do to try and grab the readers' attention.
From: East Toledo | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Blockade Boy: XS was one of my favorites of the new characters. Obviously, I'm a better human being that you.
Yes, you are obviously blessed
But like you, I also thought that the DNA part of the Reboot was its highlight. So in this point, we are agreeing again. Now go figure...
From: Bamberg, Germany | Registered: Feb 2007
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Silver Age Lad
Part-time member living in another century
posted
As a Legion collector since the Adventure days, I found it impossible to like or even accept the personalities and quirks of the reboot (or threeboot versions). Every time a reboot Legionnaire did something out of character with the pre boot version, my reaction was no way. This comes from 'knowing' these characters for 30+ years.
XS, Gates, Monstress, KQ etc were diffferent and new so I was prepared to accept them and in the cases of XS and Gates especially, I came to really like them. I hated the name XS though - hardly interlac is it?
From: Ancient Kingdom of Northumbria, UK | Registered: Aug 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Silver Age Lad: As a Legion collector since the Adventure days, I found it impossible to like or even accept the personalities and quirks of the reboot (or threeboot versions). Every time a reboot Legionnaire did something out of character with the pre boot version, my reaction was no way. This comes from 'knowing' these characters for 30+ years.
I shared your pain, Silver Age Lad. However, I think I was more willing to accept the reboot because the TMK/5YL era had been so badly gutted by the revision of the Legion's history as well as by Giffen's hard-to-decipher story telling that I had already given up the Legion for dead. Although I later came to accept many aspects of 5YL (particularly the older versions of the Legionnaires), that era was my "no way" period.
The reboot, on the other hand, offered something fresh and new. There was never a point where I thought that the Legionnaires were acting out of character because, for all intents and purposes, they were new characters. I also thought that most of the new personalities augmented their preboot personalities without blatantly contradicting them. Cosmic Boy, for example, was a much more assertive leader in the reboot than he ever was in the preboot. But then we didn't see much of his preboot leadership, so we don't know how he behaved when we weren't looking.
I had greater trouble accepting Live Wire as an irresponsible hothead, although this personality had been grafted onto Garth during the SW6/Legionnaires period, also predating the reboot. Still, some very good stories were done with hotheaded Garth; it was believable, for example, that President Chu would replace him with his far more level-headed sister, Spark. I truly felt for Garth, who, despite all of his efforts, lacked the maturity to truly control his powers (as vividly demonstrated in his battle with Ultra Boy).
Also, Garth's eventual maturation into the hero who sacrificed himself to stop the Omniphage became the single greatest character arc of the reboot and, perhaps, of any Legion boot.
On another topic, I agree that XS's name, costume, and powers were hardly inspired, yet Jenni also became one of my favorite newbies. A team saturated with super-confident Legionnaires desperately needed someone who feared she wouldn't measure up, who had a girlish crush on Cos, etc. I think Jenni represented the average teenaged reader more than any other Legionnaire before or since.
The fact that that this "average" teenager was of mixed race also spoke volumes for how far society has come since the Silver Age. In some ways, I see Jenni as the Uhura of the Legion: No one made a big deal out of her race, but her very existence as a character was a big deal in and of itself.
[ July 04, 2009, 11:42 AM: 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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