posted
can't believe they're keeping onboard the only one whose work i don't like. d'oh!
last week i got the latest LoSH archives and i was stunned realizing it reprinted stories by the very same guy who's writing the legion right now. almost 40 years later. when will we see someone new writing the legion beside levitz and giffen? i thank them for all the good stuff they did in the past but isn't it time to move on?
posted
He had a 20-year break. It's not like it's been continuous.
Sorry he isn't your cup of tea, but aside from DnA and the Bierbaums, I cannot think of another Legion writer of his calibur in the interim.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Dec 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Kent Shakespeare: He had a 20-year break. It's not like it's been continuous.
in the last 35 years, levitz wrote the legion for 13 (1977-78, 1982-89, 2010-12): more than 1/3 of the time! i think that would be enough even if he still had ideas and was still good at writing. i wouldn't like to see writers i loved 20 or 30 years to come back to the titles they used to do at the time. even if he butchered the legion i still like mark waid's writing, for example, but i'd hate to see come back on the flash: he already told his story and in his mind that's the flash, so let's move on to someone else. in fact, the best legion stories i remember from the lash decade were the ones done by people who had never written the title before, like DnA or, in part, gail simone.
quote:Originally posted by Kent Shakespeare: Sorry he isn't your cup of tea, but aside from DnA and the Bierbaums, I cannot think of another Legion writer of his calibur in the interim.
i agree, and that's why in my opinion DC should try new writers until they find the new levitz. who definitely isn't the old levitz, that's for sure...
quote:Originally posted by Mr. Kayak: i wouldn't like to see writers i loved 20 or 30 years to come back to the titles they used to do at the time.
See I feel the opposite. I like to see writers and artists return to titles they excelled with, it's almost always been a delightful experience for me.
From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I agree with Kayak, it's time to move on to new things.
To be honest, I think DC missed a big opportunity by not starting fresh with the Legion with the new 52.
Maybe not another reboot, necessarily. (though I think a case could be made that a reboot is needed) but at least a new writer and a new direction.
But then, I felt the whole 80's nostalgia-boot was a mistake way back during the whole JLA Lightning Saga thing.
The whole reason we *got* great runs like Shooter, Levitz, TMK, DNA etc. was because DC took a chance and let new writers shake things up and create new directions.
I believe the *next* great era of the Legion is out there waiting in the mind of a *new* writer who never worked on the property before.
-------------------- "are you forgetting that I was a professional twice over- an analyst and a therapist. The world's first analrapist."
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
I don't care if it's a new or old writer as long as they're doing something interesting and enjoyable with the book.
For the most part, Levitz's third run has been pretty much lacking in spark.
Heck, you don't have to go back to his previous runs for comparison. There's more life in World's Finest #1 than he's shown in any of his Legion issues.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
posted
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: For the most part, Levitz's third run has been pretty much lacking in spark.
I feel that he's touched on some interesting ideals, but then failed to follow through. The destruction of Titan *could* have led to some rich storytelling.
Desparate and mistrusted and traumatized telepathic refugees are suddenly all over the place, possibly leading to a massive increase in telepathy used in criminal or antisocial acts, which only feeds the mistrust non-telepaths freel towards the refugees.
Earth, months after Titanian (and Braalian, and Winathian, etc.) fleets are hovering in orbit over Earth, hands Titan the Time Institute as part of the concessions as xenophobe-Earth slinks back into the UP, only to have the Time Institute blow up Titan literally 10 seconds after it's turned on. And this isn't the conspiracy theory to end all conspiracy theories?
There's a ton of potential here, and instead we get Saturn Queen being the wet-eyed panting love-slave of a mysterious blue baby that may or may not have anything to do with Krona, but was never named anyway, and a Titanian family trying to fly to Tibet to visit their ancestral homeland. Woo. Talk about failure to launch...
I do like that Paul's been so willing to try new things. As much as I would love to see Lamprey and Nightwind, etc. I also enjoy new characters, and new concepts. Not every great Legionnaire (or Legion story) comes from the '60s or '70s, after all, and while I could easily read classic silver age stories re-imagined, and greatly miss the Ed Hamilton-esque sci-fi elements of old, I also like how Paul has been willing to explore what the China of the 31st century looks like, or introduce some new characters, like Questor, Immortus, Atta, etc.
I kind of dread Giffen on the title, on the other hand. His style of humor seems to invariably revolve around making characters I like look like bumbling incompetants, played for laughs (and / or having them humiliated or flustered or played for fools by his whacky pet characters like Lobo or Ambush Bug).
(Not that Levitz gets a pass on this sort of thing. He may not be into slapstick Stoogefest comedy, but he certainly didn't do Shadow Lass any favors, characterization-wise, over the last couple years...)
Registered: Aug 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: For the most part, Levitz's third run has been pretty much lacking in spark.
I feel that he's touched on some interesting ideals, but then failed to follow through.
There's a ton of potential here, and instead we get Saturn Queen being the wet-eyed panting love-slave of a mysterious blue baby that may or may not have anything to do with Krona, but was never named anyway, and a Titanian family trying to fly to Tibet to visit their ancestral homeland. Woo. Talk about failure to launch...
I think it's been fairly well documented that both Waid's threeboot and Levitz' unboot, and to a lesser extent Shooter's noneboot, were waylaid by editorial dictates in which planned storylines were delayed, altered or forcibly shoehorned for tie-ins to mainstream DCU continuity that never fully materialized.
It's true, Levitz v.3 has been lackluster at best, the most recent issue being, IMHO, the only one with something of the tone and quality of his previous work, but I do not blame him entirely, or even majoritily.
From: Sumner, ME | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
The one thing in the current books that I think has the potential to be really cool is Glorith, who I'm convinced is the original Glorith given a second lease on life post-splorping.
I can definitely see a really interesting story arising out of this, with her discovering her true nature. But, jeepers, it doesn't seem as though we're making any progress on that storyline, if it is in fact what's going on.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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I think Glorith's presence also tells us more of the Pre-Crisis/Pre-Zero Hour universe has been rewritten than we know. I mean, otherwise, Glorith is kind of like someone showing up and saying, "Hi, my name's Mordru, can I join the team? "
Unless, of course, "Glorith" is the 31st century equivalent of Tiffany, or Madison.
From: Sumner, ME | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Unless Glorith is actually a more common name in the 30th/31st than we realize.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Dec 2003
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