No need to get into what the book is about or which Legion it is. Just give it to me strait, right between the eyes: YOU are the editor of the Legion comic book and you get to pick the writer/penciller/inker/colorist/etc. for it *right now*, with the guaranty that they would be on the book for 18 issues. Who would you pick? Who could make sales explode, but at the same time not compromise creative integrity? You get one each with an alternate.

Me?

Grant Morrison and Chris Batista.

Alternate pick/Fill-in go to
Darwyn Cooke, doing it all.

Geoff Johns/Jim Lee 18 months!

Karl Kesel inking! And I don't know who are good colorists but please get one of the top notch ones!

(Pacheco is my other choice for artist)

Jim Lee has said he wants to work on the real Legion! He's a huge name. Geoff is a great writer! Make it happen!

See Darwyn Cooke does nothing for me. He's too old school.

Blasphemy! Ronda Pattison is the best colorist out there! She'd be under exclusive contract with DC if I were editor.

And I say either Geoff Johns or Kurt Busiek to write.

Both Chris Batista and Jim Lee would be good. It depends on people's schedules. I want a definite commitment from the creators.

I interacted with Kurt recently on some other board saying how Pacheco's Young Gods look like a Legion scene. He said both him and Pacheco would love to get a chance at the Legion.

I love Kurt as a writer. Sometimes he's too old school. Writers like Geoff and Grant Morrisson I think are better at using the old but defintely being progressive. Still if Kurt comes with Pacheco I would be very happy.


And I would love to see Batista as well.

Well, I had my own idea, but gosh-dang it, Cobie's idea for writer is TOO hot to pass up.

1st choice:

GRANT MORRISON writer

MIKE ALLRED artist


backup choice:

TOM & MARY BIERBAUM writers

OLIVIER COIPEL artist

Chris Batista would be a VERYCLOSE 3rd pick... his recent issue of Teen Titans was a beatuiful sight to behold.

I'd love Lee too--actually a lot. But I don't trust him to do my minimum 18 issues (anyway can do 12 )

I like all the suggestions so far.

And I sould have put in Rhonda as my colorist!!

TMB & Coipel would rock!

Darwyn Cooke and Eric Wight. They can even trade off writing/art duties.

my Pick for creative teams:
Dwayne McDuffy and Paul Pelliter
Chris Yost and Mark Bagley
and how about Tom Grummet or M.D.Bright on art chores, i hear he's a big Legion Fan also

and i wished DC could find away to lure Salvador Larocca away from Marvel i think his work would rule on the Legion!!!

I can't think of anyone to suggest for writer, but would love to nominate Shane Davis for artist. I loved the slick feel he brought to the Captain Comet series in the Mystery in Space mini, and his upcoming Superman/Batman work looks great.

Geoff Johns and Carlos Pacheco.

Peter David and Chris Cross

Dave Gibbons and Steve Epting (get Epting to switch from Marvel to DC). Mark Farmer on inks.

Anyone? Anyone at all?

Neil Gaiman and John Bolton

(alternates: John Ostrander and George Perez)

My preferences

Writer: someone who can handle a large cast of voices.

Artist: someone who has a vision of the future and SF.

Willingham: On Fables, so many of his characters are so distinct, I think I could pinpoint which one was speaking without the picture. He's great with personalities and story timing.

Lightle: His characters, cultures and landscapes always amaze me. They're inventive and distinct. His "After Dark" issue on Talok is one of my visual favorites all-time and his Qward images said more to me than words ever could.

At least one of them is fond of Legion.

Geoff Johns, the best writer in the business, hopefully he can do for the Legion what he has done for Green Lantern, make sense of bad writing snafu's and making it the best written book in the DCU. Bring in Bierbaums to assist, to give Geoff an assist and bring their flavor to the project.

Artist, since Alan Davis is exclusive to Marvel I'd say in this order George Perez, Jim Lee, or Carlos Pacheco.

Well, if you want one issue per year maybe LOL

No thanks for Jim Lee... I can't stand his art.

Giffen and Lightle

Busiek and Pacheco

Johns and Giffen...

I think Blockade Boy's suggestion of Bill Willingham might get my vote for 'totally never even considered him, but that actually would rock my world'. I think it could be pure magic to have him as the Legion writer and let him just go with it.

James Robinson- writer
Carlos Pacheco- artist

Alternative team

Alan Moore- writer
Darwyn Cooke- artist.

Writers: Marv Wolfman

Artist: George Perez

Reasoning: They wrote the Legion well during Crisis on Infinite Earths, and their run on the New Teen Titans was legendary. I would want them co-plotting. I think it could be awesome.

Wow - I'm surprised at some of the choices up so far. I didn't think anyone would think of James Robinson, but I loved his Starman!

1) Kurt Busiek and George Perez

2) Geoff Johns and Steve Lightle

3) James Robinson and Ed Benes

4) Gail Simone and Farmer & Davis

Writer: Grant Morrison, Alan Moore (yeah right) or Joss Whedon
Artist: Gene Ha, John Cassidy, Chris Bachalo, Adam Hughes
Any combination of the above would do it for me.

I mentioned just a couple of artists but basically Alan Davis, Jim Lee, Chris Batista, Pacheco, Perez, Jimenez, or Lightle do it for me. Maybe some more.

Geoff Johns and Jim Lee.

Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. This book needs a big dash of cinematic James Cameron-ish sci-fi goodness.

We'd tie Quitely to his desk for 16 hours a day so he could get his pages in on time.

I'm pretty happy with the Morrison/Quitely team right where they are, though.

For some reason my mind keeps veering back to Roy Thomas and Bill Sienkiewicz.

Kurt Busiek and Perez or Pacheco

Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira)

An impossible dream--Katsuhiro is far too popular in Japan for him to work on any American property, unless he's paid more than DC would be willing to, but this would, in my mind, be the absolute Legion team. What the Legion needs most is imagination and a sense of fun, both which Grant Morrison has in spades. As for Katsuhiro...well, look at Akira (the manga, not the movie).

Writers: Phil & Kaja Foglio (Girl Genius)
Artist: Eiichiro Oda (One Piece)

I bought the first Girl Genius Omnibus last week, and it is by far the best comic book I've bought in the last year. Again, imagination, inspiration, and a sense of fun--all three have been lacking in mainstream American comic books, and they are things the Foglios have in spades.

Having Oda as a artist, again, would be impossible--One Piece seems primed to last forever, and his own property will always trump someone else's--but his characters are some of the most distinctive, imaginative, and fun I've seen on either side of the Pacific. Some people will say his style is too "weird" for the American comics--those people are mad.

Girl Genius', for those who don't know about it (I was introduced to it via Legion World, so I don't know) site:
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/

Some of Oda's Characters--One Piece's protagonists--can be seen here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2f/Strawhat_pirates.png

If it's a dream team situation with no holds barred, I'd have...

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (Bi-monthly, 12 issue maxiseries, 40 pages)
Plot/Concepts: Grant Morrison
Script: Robert Kirkman
Penciller: Pasqual Ferry
The Omni-Wave strikes the Future and the Legion of New Earth assemble to explore a bold new era of heroism!
(I'd direct this to be a soft reboot of the Threeboot era with selected Silver Age and Reboot concepts woven back into the mix and plenty of Morrisonesque high concepts! Kirkman provides the dialogue and team interplay needed with a large team of teens, and Ferry's visuals are a perfect match with superkids and future-tech alike.)

LEGION: ESPIONAGE SQUAD (Bi-monthly, 6 issue miniseries, 32 pages)
Writer: Andy Diggle
Penciller: Ivan Reis
The Future may be bright, but some heroism is best done in the dark...
(Invisible Kid, Triplicate Girl, Chameleon, Phantom Girl, Shrinking Violet, Gear and others explore the seedy underbelly of the future. Andy Diggle gets deep into the foundations of the high concepts from Morrison, with gritty visuals from Ivan Reis.)

LEGION OF THREE EARTHS (Bi-monthly, 6 issue miniseries, 32 pages)
Writers: Geoff Johns and Keith Giffen
Penciller: Mark Farmer
Worlds Collide and the Legion will never be the same again! The Legion make their stand against the Omni-Wave... and fail! But how does the 52 figure with the successor Legion of New Earth?
(I'd assume the Threeboot Legion occurs on another of the 52 Earths - shades of the Pocket Universe with Supergirl I know - and this mini-series would show the meeting of the Preboot, Postboot and Threeboot Legion as they struggle Crisis-style against the Omni-Wave that threatens to rewrite reality, and what happens after they fail!)

The basic idea would be that there'd be a Legion comic every week, the first year alternating between the oversized main LSH title and the Espionage Squad, to tease the reader with some big plots and varied detail of a new vision of the Legion that would tweak the Threeboot to incorporate more elements from previous continuity with a view to reintroducing the fun and future-wonder of the original Legion series. The second year would see the continuation of the LSH title with a second story arc, alternating monthly with the Legion of Three Worlds miniseries to showcase the various Legions and explain the mystery of the New Earth Legion seen in the main title. At the end of the two year period we'd see either the New Earth Legion relegated to being 'just another 52 Earths Legion', or continued as a 32-page monthly title. It'd also be an opportunity to examine the Legion heritage as a whole with a view to integrating fan favourite concepts while working within the established DC 52 Earth continuity.

And you better believe Xs and Gates'd be involved somehow!

Oh yeah... I forgot the short version.
If it was just throw these guys at the title and see what they make of it I'd have my LSH title team of:
Plot: Grant Morrison
Script: Robert Kirkman
Pencils: Pasqual Ferry

You know who might make a good writer for the Legion?

George R.R. Martin.

Pro:
- excellent writer
- was the editor of, and one of the writers of, the Wild Cards series, so he has experience with writing in the superhero genre and experience juggling a massive cast of characters. Just as important, he has tremendous *affection for* the superhero genre
- accomplished science fiction author, so the Legion's setting should not be an uncomfortable one for him
- accomplished TV writer, so he has shown that he can transfer his talents from one medium to another
- he's famous and might bring in some new readers

Cons:
- I don't think he's done much work with comics himself. Maybe some; I'm not sure. But not much
- He's falling way behind on his 'A Song of Ice and Fire' fantasy series. This is bad in two ways: it suggests he may not be able to handle a regular monthly-comic writing assignment, and it means that if he spends time writing the Legion, he's not spending that time writing ASoIaF, and that's intolerable for those of us who are on tenterhooks waiting for the next book

Love the idea of an Espionage Squad book, but that type of writing takes someone GOOD. Part comic book writer, part mystery. Agatha Christy would have made a great writer for Legion.

In fact, a "Ten Little Indians" with Legion rip-off might make a good read. Yeah, that's what I want, Legion incorporated into the classics.


Twelve Angry Legionnaires
Whose Afraid of Timber Wolfe
Durgo Does, uh, nevermind

It *is* a good read. It's entitled "Doom of the Super-Heroes", Adventure #310, by Edmond Hamilton.

I guess we have to wait for the Wizard Chicago con in two weeks for the promised "announcement". I haven't really thought about who I want. Not Geoff Johns for an ongoing monthly, for sure. He has enough on his plate, anyway.

It wouldn't be shocked to hear it's one of the creators involved in the cartoon.