posted
Like Tromium Crystal, up until Foundations, I liked the majority of what DnA did:
'Legion of the Damned' was a welcome story that really gave the title some energy again. I think Copiel's artwork here was a bit sloppy, but he only got better as time went on. Above all else, DnA made many of the reboot Legionnaires seem like themselves again, Cham being the best example IMO. The follow-up three parter was even better.
'Legion Lost' was good, although I wouldn't put it in my top ten favorite stories like many. I thought it was slow and kinda boring for the first seven or eight issues, and I much prefer "Mutiny of the Legionnaires" from the Silver Age to Lost. Still, the final issues of Lost were excellent and very dramatic, and I didn't mind what happened to Jan, Garth and Monstress, as it all seemed to fit.
I liked that DnA came on board and starting making fast and direct changes to characters that were basically sucking IMO. Thunder left, Monstress gained some depth and then died, and Kid Quantum became interesting (before she started dominating the Legion). The made Wildfire himself again, through ignoring dumb continuity and subtle changes, and they gave Kinetix a nice story in Legion Worlds before they screwed her up later.
Legion Worlds the mini-series was great and showed a lot of promise. The first eighteen issues or so of the regular series were great too. Smaller things I liked:
- Like EDE, the series of minor villains they introduced.
- Triad being an awesome force to reckon with.
- Dreamer going from her post-boot ditz self to a bad ass Khund trained fighter.
- Star Boy being so effective.
- The gradually reformation of the Legion, which was well done. Also, the things they didn't throw in our faces, like Cosmic Boy being his heroic/center of the Legion self, but not taking up pages upon pages to get that across.
- Robotica/Computo/Venge and the questions raised there, especially Brainy's role.
- The huge cosmic scale threats and the action early on. It became too overdone later, but it was awesome when they started. The Proginator and Robotica especially. The Credo had tremendous potential, with great history and continuity that really seemed to flow from previous stories.
There was a tremendous amount of good early on during the first three years of DnA's run, and the Legion was better for them coming on. Around Foundations, however, an editor should have stepped in and starting demanding they make some changes in the direction they were going in.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
It's hard to believe that it's been a year since DnA's last Legion story (cover dated July 04) and five and a half years since "Legion of the Damned" began (Dec. 99). This period will not go down as one of my favorites in Legion history, in part because even though the last few "Archie Legion" stories were lame, I enjoyed that era. It came closer to capturing the feeling of the early '70s Legion than DnA ever attempted. (And even though I've said repeatedly that I don't want to live in the past, or read about characters who do, I still have a fondness for that era; it's my frame of reference for the Legion. The pre-DnA period captured the feeling of that era while adding much that was new.)
Still, I agree with so many others that LEGION: LOST was DnA's most memorable contribution. It challenged the Legionnaires in ways they had never been challenged before. The smaller cast enabled DnA to develop the heroes' personalities and test each one as an individual -- a trait much missed from their regular series run.
Even the drastic changes DnA made, such as Lightning Lad's sacrifice and Element Lad's transformation, seemed inevitable. DnA understood that being a super-hero is dangerous business, and that heroes sometimes have to pay a terrible price. In some ways, LOST was a coming of age ritual, in the same way that the death of Invisible Kid and the marriage of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel accomplished for the earlier Legion.
[ July 02, 2005, 09:02 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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quote:Originally posted by Cobalt Kid: Around Foundations, however, an editor should have stepped in and starting demanding they make some changes in the direction they were going in.
if i understood correctly what happened at DC, i think that the problems with DnA's stories happened just when the editor started to push too much with his ideas on the writers. before dream crime, the legion was more a sci-fi book than a super-heroes', and i liked that very much because my vision of the book is also like that.
posted
DnA/Coipel is to the postboot LSH what Cary Bates/Dave Cockrum were to the preboot LSH.
Their tenure saw a rise in sales, saw the Legionnaires get all hot & sexy under Olivier's lucky pencil, and characterization (after LLOST & LWORLDS) was at a minimum, which for me is preferable to crap characterization.
DnA definitely had their favorites, but ocassionally they would do something stellar with one of their non-faves... see Gates' escape/rescue with Brainy giving him a piggyback ride; see Triad deliver the defeating blow to Ra's al Ghul; see SciCop Kenetix (before they clayfaced her. I will never ever ever understand why they did that when they had such a great handle on her personalit-- Feh. No bitching. Sorry.)
And I have not forgtten the energy and momentum THE LEGION had when it debuted. Coipel had become a shining star, cliffhangers left and right, snappy patter everywhere. It was fun.
quote:Originally posted by Cobalt Kid: Around Foundations, however, an editor should have stepped in and starting demanding they make some changes in the direction they were going in.
if i understood correctly what happened at DC, i think that the problems with DnA's stories happened just when the editor started to push too much with his ideas on the writers. before dream crime, the legion was more a sci-fi book than a super-heroes', and i liked that very much because my vision of the book is also like that.
Yeah - for me, the turning point (for the worse) was Superboy's interjection. The rest of L25 was good, but after that, the story became Superboy-centric. It was as if they had a plot, then the editor stepped in, ordered them to use Superboy heavily, and they rewrote the TnT sequence of L25 (which I suspect was originally meant to put Cos on Braal to follow up on the LWorlds Magno issue - notice how all their previous arcs until this one had spun out of LWorlds material) and scrapped the rest of the arc and started again - and it didn't work. Not least since all their plots had to be dropped.
I personally wonder if it was originally meant to be a Valor arc - they'd hinted at making that revelation twice before, after all, in LWorlds 1 and Legion 8, and Batista had said something at a con tied into the adoption of the all-red suit, which came about illogically in L32 in the end - and they crudely rewrote it to use Superboy, which required extra material to introduce Kon, which pushed their own subplots out of the book and/or an editorial edict for "accessibility" made them drop it.
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Probably what made me most enthusiastic about the DnA (and which is probably the best thing about Waid's Legion as well) was the sense of a vision of where they wanted to take the team. In interviews they spoke of the Legion becoming this huge organization, with outposts in both galaxies. I remember them saying that they basically had the series plotted out through #50. Part of the problem with the Archie Legion was it felt like they were just treading water, telling stories but without anything of any importance really happening.
I lost a lot of faith in them when I found out that they apparently didn't really have anything particular in mind with, e.g. the Sharn Nux/Computo combo at "Endpoint", the "prize" the Fatal Five was after, etc.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
for most of the part i loved DnA's run on "THE LEGION" !!
i would say that the first 14 issues were the greatest [ along with "DAMED", "LOST" and "WORLDS" before them !! ]
up until 14 DnA had introduced loads of great plots and hints as to waht to come, and although "DREAM CRIME" and 'FOUNDATIONS" were fun stories, they dragged on a bit too long, and we never got a relsove to some of the cool things they had hinted at before ...... that would be my biggest complaint !!
but overall they were great for the LEGION !! and of course, how could i forget the AMAZING art of OLIVIER COIPEL !! who was a MASSIVE part of me LOVING those first 14 issues !! oh how i had wished he'd stayed around till at least 25 or so .....
Matthew.
From: Manchester United Kingdom | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
DnA really did reinvigorate my love for the Legion; it was only after they came along that I started having our comic book shop reserve copies of the next issues for me.
Others:
- Giving Kinetix the best characterization she had in over 3 years; even though it was for only a few brief moments. - Chuck and the Bouncing Boy - Live Wire's sacrifice - Giving Monstress more depth - using M'Onel effectively and well - Shikari and Timber Wolf - making me like Chameleon, Spark, Kid Quantum, Sensor and Ferro a lot more - giving Gear a personality - making Dreamer and Insect Queen much cooler - exploring the "law vs vigilantes" question with Dyrk Magz - cool moments with Shvaughn Erin, esp in the Robotica arc - Damned, Lost and Worlds as a whole, plus the first year or so of the Legion
posted
I really liked Ferro. His relationship with Superboy was interesting. Both from the 20th century. Both boys of steel. Kon-El was also buddies with Karate Kid it seemed. I was looking foward to these three (and possibly Sensor) forming a clique.
Shvaugn Erin! Loved their Chuck!
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Good point. Mon vs Ras and Mon vs Glorith were the high points of his heroic career. It's too bad they were in different continuities. I liked Valor's appearance in Legion Worlds so much that I could imagine that a DnA mini series starring Lar Gand might relaunch his solo career in a really big way. That would be a seriously cool book...heh..and as long as the 20th C and the 30th C aren't directly connected there'd be no conflict over continuity glitches.
From: Smallville Sector : Greater Metropolis | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
I forgot about the M'Onel issue of worlds. That is maybe my favourite legion issue in the last five years so snaps for that DnA.
Registered: Aug 2003
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