Well here it is, the preview for LSH #21... http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2013/...eroes-21-cover-and-6-pages-revealed.html

How will the Legion stop the Fatal Five and save the universe? More importantly, does anybody care?

I still care a great deal.

But I will be very sad if something bad happens to Jo.

Awwwww. That's kinda sad. Poor Jo! I somewhat give a damn.

I'm not commenting on Levitz's story until I read the full issue, but I can't say that I'm real thrilled with Jeff Johnson's art. After Portela's stunning performance last issue, this is just sub par. Ultra Boy looks just silly, and I miss all of the attention to detail on Persuader's costume. I really hate it when DC pulls the good artists from a book right before they cancel. This issue has the same kind of fill-in feel that Legion Lost did when they yanked Pete Woods from that title.

I'm going to really hate the end of my beloved comic if the art stinks for the next three issues. I just hope Levitz has it in him to finish with a good dramatic story.


By the way, I love it when the website posting the preview can't even get the comic's title right! What's with the "League of Super-Heroes"? Does everyone think DC's group titles are all linked to the Justice League.

Want to bet the shocking conclusion of this issue is the big reveal of the fifth and final member of the Fatal Five... Now who could it be?

My money was on Brainy, infected by the Brainiac-tech he'd unwittingly unleashed as a kid, for the fifth Fatal Five member, but that would be a better mid-season reveal, not a series finale sort of reveal.

As a result, the fifth member may well be anti-climactic.

At least we know that they did pick up Harmonia (and I assume Dragonwing). Makes me think even more that they could have spared a few minutes for Jan to try and transmute the debris off of Thom when Legion HQ collapsed...

Still no closure as to whether Luornu is alive.

Most of the previous "deaths" have been fairly shocking, so if Jo bites it I don't think it'll be in the page immediately after the preview. Maybe Brainy's "bright idea" will show up and save him, Cham and Lu.

Don't kill me for saying this, but if other Legionnaires die, I hope the writers pick those who've never died in previous iterations. Like, well, Jo. Or Cham. Or Vi. I'd rather nobody die, but if someone else does... Dirk's died before, as has Nura, and Garth's died twice.

Art's terrible. I thought the grime on Cos' face was a teardrop.

<shakes head> Tell me I didn't just see Persuader take out Ultra Boy by swatting him with a snake's tail? Even if it was a giant snake and the snake was Cham...still...

It all depends on what power Ultra Boy was using when he got swatted. He could have got hit while switching powers.

Or if that is actually her or her duplicate.

Love the Persuader's costume. Surprised that Jo would take the Persuader's word about Tinya on the first pass. No protestations unless he says something on the following pages.

As for the art, Brainy, Jan, and Jo all seem to share the same facial structure. A step down from Portela indeed.

This was, again, a pretty good issue that moved the plot on nicely.

The art, whilst not at Portela standard, is better than the preview suggests.

The team actually acted like heroes for a change

And the last page is exactly what has been missing from the book for a long time (possibly since Levitz came back) and I say that even though I cannot abide one of the characters shown.

Two issues to go and I am becoming more optimistic he will turn this story around (massive death and destruction excepted of course)

A decent issue. It would have been better with Portela on art again, but the art was better than expected. The real gem was the way all of the Legionnaires stood by each other, protected each other, and acted as heroes, as the Legion would back in its glory days. While the Fatal Five... I mean Three, seem really powerful, I sense that sheer determination will save the day. This does not act like a book on the verge of offering up it's final chapter.

I think Levitz could very well end this series on a high note if editorial mandates don't squash his storyline at the end. With Giffen's comments that Justice League 3000 has no connection with the Legion, perhaps Levitz gets to wrap things up on his own terms.

I do sense that Polar Boy and Invisible Kid hold the key to defeating the Fatal Five with the help of some long lost friends.

Why does Cham turn into a giant snake? When has that ever solved anything? I think that's been a problem for this whole series; Paul just has no creativity when it comes to using their powers.

I also found that BLEH!

Pre Boot Cham (that Levitz wrote) was known for his ability to shape shift very quickly ... and to be extremely clever ... what kind of Espionage Squad leader turns into a giant *target* snake to take on the Persuader.

How many ways can I think of for Cham and Jo to take out the Persuader (even a suped up version) ... 30 ???

I thought the Cham take down was a little too easy as well. I also found that the Legion is still in a reactive mode here with little planning or forethought. "These guys just trashed a bunch of Legionnaires? Quick, throw more Legionnaires at them!"

At least the slaughter seems to have abated, although the in-story reasons why an Emerald Eye blast that takes off Mon-el's arm merely incapacitates a group of humanoid Legionnaires would be quite humorous.

Well that was a quick read.

I'm glad to see Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad in the final page.
I hope to see Projectra too before the series end.
Some darks points what I don't know...
If the horrible Drangonwing was with Harmonia when the Legion building falls... Why we don't see her in the ship? Or she died too, with Thom?
Where is the comatose Comet Queen? Died too?
Still we don't know who is the 5º Fatal Five... and who is this Emerald Empress...
Another thing ...If Luornu falls, where are Bouncing Boy and Night Girl?
And in the ghost dimension...why we don't see the ghost of Dirk and Thom?

Durlans have been so inconsistent lately. One Durlan beats the crap out of Colossal Boy and someone else, and another one gets kicked by Dream Girl and falls right over.

Meanwhile, the Atomic Axe, which is supposed to be able to cut through anything, takes three whacks to get through a stone pillar, and is stopped cold by Brainy's force field. Sounds like Persuader forgot to leave it on the charger over night...

And I loved how the Legionaires all just attacked the Fatal Four (3) one at a time, no team work, nope, just all stand around and let each member take a crack. arrgghhh

And the plot holes are just too numerous to list.
I mean at what point did the Editors say "Hey, have them fight the Fatal Five but we won't actually reveal the fifth member till the last chapter" WTF??? I mean it's obviously got to be Legion member at this point....but I really don't care

And yes, what a quick read...5 minutes

I wonder if the fifth member is going to end up being the person who brainwashed Comet Queen to betray the Legion, which is a loose end that they have hanging for now.

I think that's been established as having been Saturn Queen (Comet Queen having attacked her after Titansfall?).

Why she was, even after that reveal, restrained and not un-brainwashed by Saturn Girl (or some other Legion-friendly telepath), I have no idea.

I'm probably meant to be more excited about the last page, but there is no in-universe reason those two should be any more effective than the glut of Legionnaires who've already fallen, so I will be very surprised if there's a satisfactory resolution to this story. I suspect it's gonna be more of the same "get to the end and for no apparent reason the bad guys lose now" that Levitz has been championing for the past couple of years.

At this point cancelling the book is a mercy killing

Lightning Lad *might* be able to take out Persuader by locking up his muscles with a weak stream of electrical current (more electroconvulsive levels, not actual lightning bolts). His super-strength would be utterly useless if he couldn't do anything with his muscles. (Indeed, depending on whether or not his bones can handle his super-strength, he might even be at risk of snapping some of his own bones!)

Saturn Girl could probably take out the Empress, disrupting her link to the eye and knocking her out.

I'm not sure that either could affect this incarnation of Tharok reliably, since I have no idea how computer-ish his brain is, or how corporeal his current 'body' is...

Somehow, I doubt either of them will do anything other than throw zaps at peeps, since pretty much the entire team has been leading with their chin since Levitz came back, making any pyrrhic victories that they do win seem unearned and hollow.

Set:



I don't think so, though it's not impossible that that turns out to be the answer. I think you're thinking of the reveal, in the pre-new 52 Adventure Comics series, that Saturn Queen was responsible for scrambling her brain somewhat.

So the Legionnaires have mostly been handed the idiot ball. Whatever happened to the skill and teamwork they showed before? We used to have weaker Legionnaires bringing down the bad guys because of their superior planning and coordination.

The United Planets themselves have suffered from this.

Apparently all it took to collapse civilization as they know it was a power outage, because they have literally *no* redundancies, and even worlds that had been previously portrayed as behind-the-times rat-holes, like Rimbor, are now composed exclusively of buildings so big and fancy and ultra-modern that they can't even stand up under their own weight without gravity control.

I guess 'redundancy' or 'backups' don't happen any more in the future, and nothing at all is 'built to code.'

I could totally get a near equal amount of damage from all the falling sky-cars (since recent portrayal of the future have sometimes shown the sky to be filled with hundreds of vehicles that don't look very aerodynamic, and would turn into people-occupied bombs if their power systems failed, barring some sort of mechanical or chemical backup systems, like parachutes or deployable wings or emergency one-shot landing rockets), but the buildings themselves? Falling? Stopping falling when the power comes back on, and then falling again when the power goes out again?

How does gravity even work in the future? Wouldn't the buildings have just fallen down in one dramatic moment and then stayed fallen? Why would they fall for what appears to be hours (since various non-super-fast Legionnaires have time to get from world to world to stand around helplessly and watch it happen and / or get beaten up by the Fatal Five) stop falling and then fall again?

After awhile, you'd think anything that was going to fall would have gotten around to doing so...

god, i so want to back to the 60's 70's and 80's and read decent stories about the characters I care so much about.....not this crap that we have to put up with now.....5 yrs later killed the Legion.

I read the issue again, in about 3 minutes. It's a bit more action-packed then the first couple issues in this storyline, but it's still sad. Violet and Dream Girl and Harmonia just sort of stand there; nobody (not even ultra-fast Jo!!) takes advantage of Ayla's destruction. They should have taken Persuader down fast! He didn't even have the advantage of surprise!

This is such a big contrast to the old Levitz story where Polar Boy, Colossal Boy, Dream Girl and face off against the Emerald Empress' new Fatal Five (Flare, Caress, Mentalla). No good tactics, no sense of drama - with the Legionnaires fighting so stupidly I don't really care what happens.

So is the prophecy of death uttered by Ferro Lad a prophecy for Jacques and Brek? Or death in general? Right now though I don't even care much for who will die - the Legion won't be around anymore anyway.

and agree about the whole last page thing. Would have been more dramatic if several other long-time missing Legionnaires had showed up.

And as EmeraldEmpress pointed out, where the heck are Dragonwing and Comet Queen? Are they counted among the dead now?

And Shadow Lass irks me to no end. "YOU?!" I don't like Chemical Kid much but he IS trying to help you!!

I would be so pumped if the Legion Lost team showed up for the fight, but alas, I think if they do return at all it will be in #23.

I don't think Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl are the only ones that Brainy summoned. It looked like he was putting some kind of plan in motion before his team landed on Earth.

I know there has been a lot of criticism of this issue so far from fellow readers, but I'm not going to worry about some of the finer critiques. Sure, this tale may not be as good as Levitz's work in his glory days, but it is a fast paced action packed read. I agree Levitz has stretched what had probably had been planned as a 5 part story into a 6 part epic, but I think that was because of the upcoming cancellation. At least this is fully a Legion story and not a forced crossover like the last few issues of Legion Lost turned out to be where DC threw in Superboy and the Ravangers along with the kitchen sink to either beef up sales or to try to lure Legion Lost readers to those other two titles. In Legion Lost the Legion got lost in their one title as they got crowded out by all of the guest stars. I feared that would happen here too with the Justice League coming in to save the day, but alas, after Giffen's comments stressing that the two books will have no connections whatsoever, I think we are safe with the Legion solving its own problems.

I do think Ferro Lad, Invisible Kid, Earth Man and probably Sun Boy from the dream dimension will team up with Polar Boy and Invisible Kid II to help save the day. Beyond that, I'm not sure who Brainy might have called up for reinforcements. I'd love to see Colossial Boy, Sensor Girl, Bouncing Boy, Night Girl and the seven members of the Legion Lost team make an appearance. This might even be a good time for Quislet to reappear. I bet he could do some damage on Tharok.

All in all, I've decided to just let Levitz take me on a ride for the next two issues. I know the end is coming, but I'm very interested to see how Levitz ties this all up.

If Levitz can write things so that Sun Boy and Star Boy and Mon-El and Duplicate Damsel and Phantom Girl all show up alive and well, the Legion Lost Seven return; and all former Legionnaires mentioned (Colossal Boy, Sensor Girl, Bouncing Boy, Night Girl, Matter-Eater Lad, Quislet) do too, IN A BELIEVABLE MANNER, I'll recant my expressions of dislike for the storyline.

Looks like somebody wants the Legion Archives for the holidays.

Think of it this way: Has this particular run ever been your beloved comic?

Either way, there's no need to feel like it's the end of the Legion. It's only on hiatus.

I feel like the Legion has been on hiatus for the last 20 years.

Actually, this whole retroboot Legion run from Geoff Johns work in Action comics through Paul Levitz' LSH and DeFalco's Legion Lost has felt like part of my beloved Legion from the 1980's, only the next generation of stories. Back then not all of the stories worked either, and I have to admit the revolving artists of today were better than when Keith Giffen rebooted everyone's costume right before the Magic Wars storyline. The art was so bad then that I hated to read every issue. Maybe that is why I dropped the Legion back then when Levitz left the book and Giffen took over.

Anyhow, while the current stuff may not have satisfied me all of the time, it is a worthy next chapter of the Legion and will be missed.

I'm sure others have said complimentary things of this run but I haven't really run across them to my memory. So I'm glad it pleased someone, but sorry for the fact that therefore you'll miss it.

I remember being excited about this run near its start, during the Superman in Action Comics run when they were facing off against Earth-Man and company. The Legion Academy stories were good too, and Legion Lost had a decent start. But around the time Titan blew up and the new Legionnaires were shoehorned in, I started being meh.

Here's an interesting review of LSH #23 from SciFiPulse for you all to read and argue over... http://scifipulse.net/2013/06/in-review-legion-of-super-heroes-21/

It seems this reviewer has a totally different take on this issue from many who have posted here at Legion World.

You do realize that some reviewers get paid to do a review, right?

Actually he's admitted to being to being a die hard Legion fan before, so it's no wonder his excitement gusheth over.

I just like to give folks another perspective to think about. Actually, I think this reviewer must be smoking something this time because Jeff Johnson's art isn't THAT exciting! Portela's cover might be though... I love how he does such detail on Ultra Boy and Brainy's hair for them being drawn so small. Plus this cover sure reminds me of Legion Lost #10. Even the sky is the same color. Levitz and DeFalco were on the same creative page here. It makes me wonder who inspired who or were these two plotting together some of the time about the future of the 31st century.

Just finished it; it was a decent battle issue, but it's still very difficult for me to have any kind of excitement or outrage or really much feeling whatsoever, knowing that it is going on hiatus.

In an effort to say something positive about this issue;

I kind of like the scene of Harmonia using her whirlwinds to lower herself and Nura to the ground.

I did like that, and also the scene of Lightning Lass blasting the Persuader, and Element Lad taking on the Empress.

It's a bit of a shame that nearly all of Tinya's run as leader has her being overshadowed by other Legionnaires.

(oh drat, so much for being positive :p)

Again, it was an OK issue, but not great nor terribly exciting.

I thought the issue was ok both in story and art. Considering the sales numbers are down and cancellation imminent, I don't think we can expect anything but fill-in art quality, but Mr. Johnson surpassed that - good for him (and us).

I enjoyed the action scenes. I am still disappointed a few questions have not been answered:

Where's Mano? What the heck do the Promethean Giants have to do with this story? What is the status of many Legionnaires (as mentioned in previous posts)?

There have been SO many loose ends unanswered the past three years in this title I am not expecting any resolution in the next two issues, but I hope we get to a satisfying stopping point in this run.

Bold predictions for the end of this saga, based on nothing:

Phantom Girl, while traveling through her phantom dimension. discovers the descendants of Lex Luthor and Mr. Mxyzptlk, who assist her. Answering Brainy's distress call, all the current and ex-Legionnaires magically appear, as do Phantom Girl and Lex thanks to Mxyzptlk. Mano also appears, quickly revealing he is the twin brother of Mekt Ranzz and in repentance offers to help the Legion. With amazing leadership skill from Phantom Girl, Lex Luthor takes down Tharok with a brilliant invention. A suddenly appearing Promethean Giant devours the Emerald Empress and after a green burp, suddenly disappears. Persuader is reduced to a bloody pulp by 20 angry Legionnaires.

Brainy entombs Tharok in his force field belt after removing the Tharok chip. Harmonia and Mxyzptlk reveal they have been dating for centuries and will leave the legion to get married, but not before all the dead and injured Legionnaires and the entire United Planets are magically restored to normal.

^ I would love for that to happen (although it does make liberal use of magic). At this point I've stopped caring too much about stories being resolved without deus ex machinas that I'd be happy for the chance at this run having a satisfying ending.

Might as well have the Heroes of Lallor also come to the rescue and make it a big end-of-series party. Or Tenzil saves the day by eating Tharok, since Tharok doesn't seem to be remotely human anymore.

I did like the use of Chemical Kid as medic under Brainy's tutelage and Shady showing some concern for Mon-el (final panel of #23: these two wrapped in embrace?).

Ugh. I can't even look past the hideous art to care what happens in the story.

And they might as well have the Legion Lost seven, the Subs, the Wanderers, XS and Kinetix, and the former Academy students (Nightwind, Lamprey, Power Boy, Gravity Kid) all show up and make it a mega party! Star Boy is found using his powers to make himself super dense under the rubble of Legion HQ, Comet Queen is cured of her brainwashing and comes on in, and Sun Boy is magically still alive somewhere.

Don't leave out Lightning Lad's missing original arm! It comes back and puts a strangle on one of the Fatal Four.

I just love how all of the readers jump ship once a title is cancelled. Check out the June sales figures: http://www.icv2.com/articles/markets/26148.html

At least Legion isn't selling as bad as Threshold, Batwing, Dial H and Vibe!

But, are they jumping ship because of the cancellation itself, or because of genuine lack of interest? I don't think all those people just gave up because of the cancellation. Look at us, for example - though we know the end is near, we're still along for the bumpy ride.


Sharing a link from rickshaw's thread about George Perez leaving DC. Blacula mentions speaking with Perez, and we get some interesting insights.

http://www.legionworld.net/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=779141#Post779141

Perez confirmed to Blacula that the plot of comics these days is dictated by businesspeople and the writers have much more limited creative say in the stories. I wouldn't be surprised if Levitz' tone in the interviews is because of htat.