posted
Based on the lineup at that time, Lyle probably was the logical choice for removal. But I wish they had made him resign instead. Maybe Bates just didn't want to bother...
posted
My latest blog post discusses the pros and cons (more pros) actually of Invisible Kid's death story. Check it out.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
quote:Originally posted by Kid Quislet: Lyle also popped up earlier during Dream Girl's leadership from a Khundian negaton bomb (that sent Omen/Prophet away). Unfortunately, it later turned out to be some hoax created by a baddie in a dream dimension. I thought that was a great opportunity to bring him back, but Jacques was already on the scene and having two Invisible Kids in the Legion was impossible in those days.
I really love Jacques, but when writing fic for the LoSH cartoon, I was confused about which version of IK was supposed to be a member. At some point, I resolved this by having one of them on the team as an active member and the other as a reservist.
The friendship/rivalry angle that came into play in the Reboot was interesting, but I admit that I balked at Jacques being cast as a tragic figure doomed to spend the rest of his existence sort of half-dead and half-alive. (If anything, that seems more tragic than an actual death, because the character can't move on to an actual afterlife, and has to stick around and witness his own friends and family mourning the fact that he's gone.) Maybe the writers meant to address that at some point and never got around to it, though. (I'd like to think that if Reboot Lyle found out what happened to somebody he was supposedly so close to, he'd do whatever he had to in order to help them.)
I don't dislike Lyle, and I understand why he's got a lot of fans who hated him being killed and still want him back. But I feel much more protective of Jacques, I guess. Because he's part of the Legion that I think of as being more "my Legion" than the others.
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From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
quote:Originally posted by He Who Wanders: My latest blog post discusses the pros and cons (more pros) actually of Invisible Kid's death story. Check it out.
From there:
quote:...The most obvious example is Phantom Girl, who, filling the typical role for a female character of that time, has little to do except give Lyle someone to talk to and cry for him at the end (because, you know, it would be umanly for Superboy and Mon-El to cry). She doesn’t even get to use her powers, although she could easily evade Mon-El during the training exercise...
Interestingly, by the time Original Recipe Crisis happened, the living Legionnaire who seemed most affected by Lyle's death was Brainiac Five. I'm kind of sorry now that they didn't revisit the friendship between Phantom Girl and Lyle. We got little enough of her in any context that didn't involve her relationship with Jo.
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From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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posted
I also liked Tinya's friendship with Lyle in this story. I'm just miffed that, despite her powers, she allows herself to be captured so easily during the training exercise and does nothing of value when Validus attacks.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
Yeah.
At least the next time somebody complains that modern-day writers don't have a good grasp on how superpowers in the Legion should work, you can bring up this story and spread the blame around a little more evenly.
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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posted
That story, as it stood, was both a hero's death and, as HWW points out, the suggestion of a rewarded afterlife. I have to wonder (today) if Lyle had a death wish, but at the time felt bad that he was shirking his duty - not very heroic!
The later story, in which Lyle comes back as a ghost, having been imprisoned in some demon's dimension, soured the original death story for me. Wasn't even Myla just a trap set for Lyle, who thus had no reward but was condemned to an eternal limbo? That story still creeps me out, with its version of the afterlife.
cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
FC, didn't it turn out that version of Lyle was just a construct made by the demon? That would mean the story he told Jacques was fake, and the real Lyle could still have gone on to a peaceful afterlife.
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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FC, didn't it turn out that version of Lyle was just a construct made by the demon? That would mean the story he told Jacques was fake, and the real Lyle could still have gone on to a peaceful afterlife.
Correct, nothing the Fake Lyle said or did was true, it was all the Dream Demon manipulating Jacques and Wildfire. So, there's still no in-story resolution as to where Lyle "went" after death.
From: Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada | Registered: Sep 2004
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FC, didn't it turn out that version of Lyle was just a construct made by the demon? That would mean the story he told Jacques was fake, and the real Lyle could still have gone on to a peaceful afterlife.
Correct, nothing the Fake Lyle said or did was true, it was all the Dream Demon manipulating Jacques and Wildfire. So, there's still no in-story resolution as to where Lyle "went" after death.
Ah, I didn't remember that! Too traumatized by the idea of poor Lyle in some awful state, I guess.
And wherever he went, may his costume have changed to always-fashionable black.
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