Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Paul Levitz is writing for Marvel

I thought of posting this in The 2nd All Avengers thread, but it deserves one of its own.

Levitz is currently fulfilling a life-long dream of writing the Avengers, with a 5-part miniseries titled Avengers: War Across Time, featuring the Silver Age roster.

The first issue is scheduled for January 2023.

Thanks for posting it. I shall be picking up at least the first issue. I didn't know he'd always wanted to write it. I can't imagine him anywhere other than DC. I can see his approach being a really good fit for the Avengers. Here's hoping.

I'm equally hopeful, Thoth. I also hope maybe they'll let him play with the Fantastic Four toy chest.

Oh wow, I was already on-board for this, after seeing that Janet and Hank would be present, but hearing that Paul Levitz is writing, I'm doubly excited!

oh wow, Levitz would be a really good fit for old school Avengers! I'm glad it's just a mini-series because his last Legion stuff was a bit underwhelming, but it's exciting!

Also it's exciting just to see some old school Avengering, I think the train that Disassembled set in motion has well and truly taken us past where we're gonna get that feel in Avengers stories again in the main title.

I feel like he'd probably be good on a 70s era Fantastic Four story as well actually! Reed is basically classic Brainy with stretching powers anyway

That's good! I agree his last Legion series was a bit underwhelming, but also even at his worst he has only been underwhelming IMO, but never outright terrible. So this sounds good!

I agree for the most part, but I did think No Surrender, the epic storyline which wrapped up the Mark Waid Era, was pretty decent old-school fun. I actually started out very skeptical because the Waid Era before that had been so lame, but it improved by leaps and bounds.


And Ben is Blok with attitude.

Yeah, I'm in. I agree with some of the other comments here where his last Legion wasn't great, but that was mainly at the end when there were outside pressures influencing things. Looking forward to what he comes up with!

Glad to see so much support and enthusiasm for Mr. Levitz. This could be the best thing to happen at the Big Two since Peter David was writing mostly for DC during the late 90s and early 2000s.

It occurs to me, Levitz also wrote what is arguably the best JSA ever, back in the 70s. I'd love to see what he'd do with Marvel's Golden Age characters.

So DC gets Bendis from Marvel, and Marvel gets Levitz from DC?

Fans of either of those are going to think the other guys got ripped off.

This made me laugh. Good on ya Set.

This has peaked my interest. Avengers is a book I try to follow anyway but seeing what Levitz, a proven team writer, can do is intriguing. In addition he won't have the baggage that his last Legion stint had with being inevitably compared to his earlier run (well his second Legion run after his Earthwar attempt but you know what I mean).

Be sure to mark Tuesday January 10th and/or Wednesday January 11th on your calendars. That's when the first issue is out.

And a reminder to please post your comments in here, rather than The 2nd All Avengers Thread.

Thanks for the reminder Fickles! Looking forward to it.

Huh.

I have to admit I'm a bit underwhelmed, but it has a lot more to do with Alan Davis's art than Paul Levitz's writing.

For one thing, it isn't inked by Mark Farmer, but rather by Davis himself. In theory, this shouldn't be a problem. Davis inked most of his Outsiders stories, as well as New Mutants Annual 2, one of my single favorite comic books ever published. But that was back in the 1980s, and there's just no escaping that Davis is now in his late sixties, and that he's been doing comics for most of his adult life. His work here looks tired and murky.

Levitz's script is pretty decent, though, with lots of Easter eggs and some truly sparkling moments. The pace feels a bit drawn out (a recurring problem for Levitz from the Baxter Legion Era to the present day) but otherwise it shows enough promise to satisfy me and keep me buying anything he writes for Marvel (as I said earlier in this thread, I'd love to see him do for the Golden Age Marvel characters what he did for the JSA in the 1970s.)

7 out of 10 Taryns:

X 7

I had read the early Avengers stories only a couple of years back*. I was pleased that they didn;t bother rehashing much of the Spidey story right before this one, as it was one of the weakest for me.

On the other hand, I had reread the Ultimates only a while ago too. Battling one of their own through the streets of New York for most of an issue had a lot of parallels with that.

These Avengers are able to withstand a lot more punishment, getting up time and again to battle their foe. A repeat of a member coming in to save the day, resulted in it feeling, as Fickles said, a little drawn out
.
To be fair, Iron Man did appear from an appearance in the Silver Age, and it matches the continuity of the time. So, it wasn't jsut to pad out the panels. And thinking back, any number of comics were, or are slugfests. An Alan Davis drawn slugfest is still well worth sitting back and enjoying.
As it's a finite series, Levitz will be structured a little differently form what we'll normally have seen from him. So certian parts leading up to plot points, will have more or less padding as required to get us through the 5 issues.

Levitz gave us eary Avengers easter eggs, as Fickles also mentions, such as Iron Man's roller skates, There were also some darker moments, with the irradiated heart of one of them still a functional power source in Kang's time.

The plot, from what I recall, does fit nicely into the growing threat of Kang in the Avengers comics at the time too.
Fickles notes that Davis is inking himself. It does have a little less polish than when inked by some of his usual collaborators (because they are really, really good inkers). But it does have a looser feel to it too.


*Legion version of the early Avengers stories available at all good Legion World Bits.

Interesting you mentioned the Ultimates, Thoth. I suppose in some ways this is the all-ages version of that series' battle with the Hulk.

Upon re-reading the first issue last night, I noticed some subtle stuff from Levitz that I'd missed before. Kudos to him for hinting at both the darker and the naughtier sides of Janet and Hank's relationship with a refreshing lightness of touch. Levitz also shows that Hank has good qualities, making him the first to start cleaning up the Avengers' collateral damage, as well as the one who comes up with the way to defeat the Hulk. Finally, Janet's friskiness also synchs with a personal fanwank of mine: that she's secretly a cocaine addict.

That was fun. I enjoyed how it had much of the feel of the original Avengers comics while having just that little bit of something that made it not feel dated as well. The artwork was enjoyable too.

Enjoyed reading your comments above. Male sense. Not much else to say. I just found it a fun read.

Finally getting to read the early issues, mae me realise just how dynamic Giant Man could make the panels. I'd pretty much just had COlossal Boy to go on, and that was done better by some artists than others. WIth such a small grup, Hank gets more panel time, and more occassions to see his powers used. This would be before the whole team descended completely into squabble mode, with Hank being part of that. He was probably still doing heroic things, but here, it's not right after a big huff.

Jan was uber flirty in the early issues. There's a little bit more of an adult follow up in a couple of panels here. Victorian Chaperone Lass disapproved. Well, Jan is a very social socialite. If she isn't I'm sure she knows plenty of people who do. The Ultimates could certainly have thrown that in.

Jan (and Tony!) were 100% doing the old nose candy when they were hobnobbing with Warren Worthington and Emma Frost at the Hellfire Club back in the day hahaha

Thanks for reminding me this came out y'all, I am gonna pick up a copy this weekend!

You're very welcome, Raz.

Looking forward to hearing what you think about it.

And you just reminded me, there's one scene from Avengers volume one, around the time of Hank's trial, where Janet lunches with Reed and Susan at a fancy-schmancy NYC place, and she says, "Excuse me, I have to go powder my nose."

The 2nd issue of Avengers War Across Time has better art and lots of cute moments, including a cameo by a certain adorable redhead (I can't say who it is, the CAT has got my tongue.) But it doesn't move the story forward much, and it lacks the dense feel of the 1st issue.

X 5

And here's me having to go past the comic shop tomorrow...

Avengers War Across Time #3 is a return to form for both Levitz and Davis. I'd even say this is Davis's best art out of the three issues so far. Levitz gives us Easter Eggs such as the appearance of a minor character from my favorite Silver Age Avengers story. And I'm really savoring the way most of the Avengers just SOUND right, like they're icons again.

x8

Avengers War Across Time has proven a pleasant diversion, but I'd be lying if I said my expectations weren't for something greater than that. I suppose that was inevitable, given the circumstances and the talent involved.

I give it an 8 for effort, but a 7 for execution.

x7

Hopefully Levitz will continue to write for Marvel. As I said earlier in this thread, I'd love to see him write the old-school Fantastic Four (with an artist along the lines of Mike Allred or Tom Grummett or Dale Eaglesham or Erik Larsen or Ladronn) or the Golden Age Marvel characters (Steve Epting on art would be my top candidate.)