This thread is about characters you don't really like that much, but do like one particular non-standard take on or storyline featuring that character.
For example, I'm constantly surprised that writers keep using Universo, who is one of the cheesiest villains the Legion has ever faced. I really liked his portrayal during the 5YL, however, where he was the morally ambiguous rebel leader and smooth manipulator of various forces. That was far more interesting than yet another "Look deep into my monocle" story.
Others?
Posted by Mediocre Boy on :
Another example from the same era (for me, at least) would be Sun Boy. I always found him to be kind of bland until he became a traitor to the U.P.
Although he's still not my favourite character by any means, I also like the way his characterization is presently being handled, in that he may not necessarily be a "true, blue," legionnaire, or committed to the group come hell-or-highwater.
[ July 18, 2005, 08:26 AM: Message edited by: Mediocre Boy ]
Posted by Invisible Brainiac on :
Star Boy is a character whom I found very bland in the preboot, and even in the early reboot. But his portrayal in Legion Worlds gave him much more depth and I ended up appreciating him a lot.
Leviathan is another character who I found much more interesting post-ZH. Unfortunately, they killed him off before I ended up liking him, but I'm finding the threeboot version way more interesting.
Posted by jimgallagher on :
I never cared for XS but I liked her in the Legion Worlds issue with Star Boy.
I also never had much use for the Subs until their transformation into a very capable resistance force in the TMK period.
Posted by DrakeB3004 on :
I hated, hated, HATED Monstress up until DnA made her really sympathetic right before she was killed.
I never really cared all that much for the subs until "Terra Firma".
Posted by Sketch Lad on :
I've been underwhelmed my Mordru the whole time I've been a Legion fan. I should mention that I read his first appearance after every other story that included him. So, my view of Mordru was that he had done something major in the Legion's past, but then he was in a Dave Cockrum story that was about 10 pages long....no big threat there....then, he was the source of all the strife in Earthwar, but that story lost its zest when Jim Sherman left. Giffen made him look cool for a second during the GDS. Oh yeah, I forgot that moment during the "Lord Romdur's Castle" story....
Anyway, it was during TMK when Cos and Mordru had that meal together that I thought Mordru was really a threat to the universe. That he was a real entity.
I should also say that I didn't purchase Mordru's issues of JSA. Maybe I should have?
Posted by Greybird on :
I never thought that highly of Bouncing Boy, and wondered if he could rise above comic relief at times, but I did especially like his adventure with Comet Queen! It was recounted to Superboy in "LSH" v3 n11, the backup story, "New Business."
That, apropos of the thread about Keith Giffen, was one of the last portrayals he made of the Legion during his second run. It didn't fall apart as much as he'd let his work do on "Omen and Prophet," the dissolution had (IMO) set in, but it told the story of two offbeat characters quite well.
(I much preferred, by the way, Chuck Taine's being cast as the Legionnaires' resident engineer and troubleshooter, non-powered, in the first reboot.)
Posted by Jorg-EM on :
Chuck Taine with mustache late in v4. Chuck Taine in all of v4. Chuck Taine by DnA. In other words no inflating.
Matter-Eater Lad in v4.
Triplicate Girl. I don't for some reason as a kid in the early 80's I thought these three had horrible codenames. It escapes logic but for some reason I thought Duo Damsel sounded much cooler than Triplicate Girl??? ohwell.
Agree with EDE on Universo. Same thing with Mano in v4. Though now I do think Mano is cool in any version. It was v4 who made me a fan.
Pretty much v4 ironed out any stuff I didn't like. doh! Then came the damn clones. ohwell.
Posted by Invisible Brainiac on :
I admit too, that I thought Umbra just needed an attitude adjustment until I read her origin story in the Legends of the Legion mini. I also gained a lot of respect for her in Lost after we took a peek into her mind and motivations. I never cared for Shadow Lass preboot.
Apparition is another Legionnaire I never really liked preboot, but I actually liked her SW6 version. The reboot made me love her, what with the stories about her, Jo and her mother.
Light Lass is another Legionnaire whom I never took very seriously preboot, and my opinion of her went downhill after she left Brin. Of course, I was young at that time so my opinion probably wasn't justified She was just okay for me during the reboot. After her characterization in LSH 1 and what she did in LSH 7, though, she's rapidly become one of my faves.
Chameleon is another character whom I think gained added depth in Legion Lost. Monstress too, as Drake said above.
Posted by legionadventureman on :
Anybody at Legion World felt that Tyroc got a pretty raw deal under the Paul Levitz regime?
Posted by Tromium on :
Colossal Boy and Karate Kid were among my least favorite Legionnaires until the 3boot. Now I love CB and don't wish KK was a corpse.
It may sound like heresy, but I thought DnA's pink-mottled "Sneckie" had more potential than humanoid Projectra, past or present.
Loved Umbra more than any other version of Shady, including the current one.
I used to be madly in love with Sun Boy, then Levitz/Giffen and TMK turned him into a creep and he hasn't been the same since. The jury is still out on the 3boot version.
The only time I ever found Saturn Girl remotely palatable was when she was pregnant/post-natal, and actually seemed like an approachable human being for a few fleeting moments.
Posted by Anita Cocktail on :
This thread is simply wonderful!
I wasn't a big fan of the snake version of Projectra until DnA got their hands on her.
Posted by cleome45 on :
Timber Wolf majorly got on my nerves until his treatments in the cartoon and in 3boot.
I liked him better as the pseudo-Hulk who baked cookies on the side, or as the streetwise kid with a huge blind spot for his sweetheart's problems... rather than Levitz treating him as a buffoon with no social graces and little in the way of smarts.
Haven't been able to keep up with Legion Lost, so I can't really say much about how he's being written now. I do hope that if he returns to his own time, we'll see him reconciled with Ayla as a friend, like we did late in 5YG.
Posted by Power Boy on :
I don't really like Ultra Boy but I really liked him in the beginning of the 5YL.
I liked Timber Wolf at the end of the Baxter, as the frustrated deputy leader ... I never really liked him otherwise.
My favorite Sun Boy was the womanizing Sun Boy from Giffen's first term ... I think he's boring elsewhere.
I loved Tyroc in the 5YL, I think he is wacky otherwise ... Tenzil even clowned his sonic powers.
Posted by MLLASH's *glare* on :
There's not really many LSH characters I don't like... but it will be a miracle if anybody ever makes me like Dream *shudder* Boy.
Posted by Set on :
I didn't think much of Invisible Lyle, until the Reboot and Superboy's Legion versions, both of which I thought were awesome. And then there was the Threeboot version, which I went back to not liking.
Dream Girl is another one that, IMO, really shone in alternate continuities, but never really appealed to me (other than as a Marilyn Monroe glamor girl) in the classic continuity. The grim post-Khundia Dreamer was a bit too angsty for my tastes, although I liked her seriousness and competency, but it wasn't until the Threeboot that I met a Dream Girl that I really loved.
quote:Originally posted by MLLASH's *glare*: There's not really many LSH characters I don't like... but it will be a miracle if anybody ever makes me like Dream *shudder* Boy.
Check out Harbinger's Dream Boy and the Amazers fic. DB's more compellingly written in that than he ever was in the comics!
Posted by Exnihil on :
I've never been a fan of Blok.
More often than not, during the 80's Levitz run, he was used as the generic "observer" character, passively on the outskirts of events he didn't fully understand, just remarking, "Curious..." or "Fascinating..."
There was that brief window, however, from just before the Magic Wars through his death in early v.4 when he was undergoing his physical transformation (the lava-like eruptions on his back and his later facial distensions) that really sort of intrigued me.
How would the physical characteristics of a silicon being differ from those of his carbon cousins? It's a subject that I personally would have found "Fascinating..."
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I only liked Blok after he met up with Roxxas. Posted by Future on :
I really didn't take a liking to Tyroc until the recent retroboot. While the Glorithverse version was a nice enough guy, he didn't do much to change my indifference from the preboot. I like "Legion Lost" Tyroc, but have to admit I liked Levitz's recent version a bit better. He still had some of that defensive nature that preboot Tyroc would have.
Posted by KryptonKid on :
I didn't have much use for the Emerald Empress. Her eye was just a poor man's power ring in my estimation. Levitz really turned her into an interesting character, starting with her search for mortality and most recently with the (new) Empress in the Legion Annual. In both cases Giffen's visual effectiveness worked in concert with Levitz' understanding of the character.
On an opposite note, I've really liked all versions of Andromeda, but absolutely hated the whole "Space Nun" take on her. Bah!
Posted by Invisible Brainiac on :
Before DNA's Legion Lost, my top Postboot faves were Kinetix, Gates, XS, Apparition, Live Wire, Triad, Violet, Karate Kid, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy and Invisible Kid.
After DNA's Legion Lost, Chameleon, Umbra, Wildfire, Monstress, Kid Quantum II, Shikari, and most notably Brainiac 5 were catapulted into my all-time faves list over Triad, Karate Kid, Cosmic Boy and Invisible Kid.
I liked Lyle most when he was the somewhat unsure Postboot Legion leader, and I liked Cos better when he wasn't yelling at Superboy all the time.
Cham's semi-sarcastic and flirty personality under DNA was awesome, as was Umbra's insecurity behind the snotty exterior. Kid Q just rocked as a strong leader type instead of being merely a rebel without a cause.
And Brainy's new-found empathy coupled with his great intelligence - awesoooooooome.
Knowing Monstress' origin helped me empathize with her a lot more, too.
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