Here is the cover of LSH #23 according to Bleeding Cool.com.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/05/12/a-load-of-covers-for-dc-books-in-august/lsh_cv23/

That is some nice art on the cover.

Hopefully, though, the faces on the screen aren't the fallen from the current story.

They could also be the only survivors from the current story (eep!)

And who is the guy on the right? Looks like he's wearing a mask... doesn't look like Blok to me.

So we know Brainiac 5 makes it (big surprise).

Interesting that none of those shown are in active danger now (as far as the previews of LSH 20 show us). No Mon-El, Sun Boy or Star Boy. Cover's very ambiguous, all right.

So we have Ultra Boy and Cham, who're on Sorceror's World; Phantom Girl and Polar Boy, who were on the Promethean Giant; Dream Girl and Shady (that's her behind Polar Boy) who are with Brainy; and Luornu and Chuck who haven't appeared yet.

Then there's that guy on the far right who MAY be Blok but also looks like it could be a guy in a mask...

None of the newbies are on the cover too. Maybe their fates are as yet undecided?

Bad, bad..
If all the faces in the screen are out of the curret book (dead or missing).
I drop the title, and all the DC stuff and return to X-men series...

It doesn't look like Brainy is grieving to me, maybe he's trying to decide which of the team that survived should be part of the JLA inspired group that the rumour mill says are coming? Or he's constipated? My bet is one of the two

I would love it if that is the new team as it features all my favourite Legionnaires.

But I don't think I am going to be that lucky as Jo and Cham are shown defeated on (I think) Julys cover, Tinya has seemingly gone home, Brekk is somewhere unusual at the moment, the guy on the far left looks (to me) to be Lar and I expect something bad to happen to Blok when he goes up against Validus.

Not saying they are all dead but certainly taken off the board for awhile.

Don't forget this is Magic Wars II so the team is supposed to be decimated (possibly literally).

The Newsarama solicit I just read said this is the final issue. So I wonder if that even means the JLA-type Legion is still going forward.

Here's the text:

In this final issue, the Legion picks itself up after the brutal attack from the Fatal Five nearly destroyed civilization across the cosmos! While some Legionaires bury their dead, others fight for the future of the Legion against a society that now doesn’t trust them. Don’t miss surprises galore in this landmark issue drawn by Kevin Maguire as the true nature of the Legion is questioned—and the future of the DCU is changed in a way you’ll never expect!

Full DC solicitations are finally here:
http://www.newsarama.com/17794-dc-comics-full-august-2013-solicitations.html

Here is the solicitation for issue #23:


You can also notice the issue is done by again another artist.

:angry:

The new take on the Legion... Legion on the Run!

Well, then #23 will be my last issue of collecting the Legion and the last time I buy a new issue from DC Comics or any comic, period. I'm done after this!

Just wish the Legion Lost team would come back for the final issue. I hate all of these loose ends!

Now time to work on collecting back issues.

The only way I might continue collecting is if the Legion transitions into a new comic in September based on the same characters and doesn't bring in the Justice League to save the day.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/05...t-is-keith-giffens-comic-on-the-horizon/

Actually I don't think those pictured are the ones who died, but the remnant who survive:

Brainiac 5
Chameleon Boy
Ultra Boy
Bouncing Boy
Duplicate Damsel
Dream Girl
Phantom Girl
Polar Boy
Shadow Lass
Blok
+ a couple of others

Not a bad core team. If this is the core for the future and not the dead, then it might not be too bad...

If I'm wrong, then I'm definitely done!!

One option might be:
August - Legion of Super-Heroes #23 (final issue)
September - The Fatal Five #1 (villians month)
October - Justice Legion #1 (new series)

Maybe it's Brainy who's dead and that's his version of the afterlife.

I'd like to think Pofo has it right with the Fatal Five for villains month and a new Legion (even if it is based on Justice League), but I'm not getting my hopes up.

My good lord, if they did that i would go to dc myself and burn something down. Is dc still doing that weekly conic thing?

Am I the only one who thinks that Paul Levitz did a really crappy job with the Legion? I was a big fan of Paul on his original run but have been one of his harshest critics on this run, and I've told him so on his face book. But it seems everyone over there is saying nothing but wonderful things about this run, and I just don't get it. Are they reading a different book than me?

No, you're far from the only one, BB. I felt like replying something like, "I'll always cherish your Legion run from the '80s," but I didn't want to inject any negativity into a lovely post and sentiment. So I didn't write anything.

I don't think there is a new "Justice Legion" coming.. I think that Keith joined in to do a reboot on the run ( to move the book in a different direction) and then found out the book was going to be cancelled regardless and chose to walk away.

Perhaps Maguire got brought in for a transition to the new direction of the book...but...maybe it's just because he is working with Paul on Worlds' Finest...

And no BB, you are not the only one that thinks Paul did a CRAPPY job on this Legion.

I think it's more likely that the events of the Zero issue are going to be discovered and Brainy is going to be found to be behind the whole thing/maybe even the fifth member which is why the solicit for the issue says people no longer trust the Legion.

So, if I'm right, not only will we have a retelling of the Magic Wars but they are chucking Computo/Omga in there as well. Then all we need is for Darkseid to be behind the whole thing and we have Levtz greatest hits in one tale.

Well if Brainiac 5 is the missing member of the Fatal Five, the that might explain why Comet Queen attacked him in #11 and why he has kept her in a drug indused coma ever since: she was trying to save the Legion!

The guys book just got cancelled. Why kick him when he's down?

Because giving a dissenting opinion is hardly "kicking while he's down"? *eyeroll*

I for one agree, for that matter; the book was weak, and was praised too much for too long by too many people simply because Levitz wrote it.

Hm. Canceled again. I would like to say: Better canceled than rebooted again... but another Reboot is always an option, isn't it?

I certainly did not love Levitz run, but there were some issues I really did like. The run did hurt from constantly changing artists and an overabundance of fight scenes. Legion of Supervillains for example I thought was terrible, Levitz should have put more focus on characterisation. The new characters introduced in Adventure were fine, but unneccesary considering how many "regular" members we had that did get hardly any screen time. They are currently translating the Adventure run in Germany, and man did the first few issues look great with Jiminez doing the artwork... you can't tell me that a Legion book with a regular artist like that would not have succeeded!

So all in all I believe that some of Levitz stories were rather good, but the big "event type" storylines with constant fighting over many issues did not work at all, and no new reader would get into this kind of confusing skirmish.

I don't know if it actually hurt the main book, but Legion Lost vbeing total rubbish certainly did not help it either.

The question left is... what's next? We're down from four Legion books a year ago (counting the Start Trek crossover) to none... now will we get a Bwahaha "Wanna make something of it" version of the Legion, done by Giffen & Maguire? Don't think so after Giffen just quit, but wouldn't count it out too. Bad thing is that Bwahaha Justice League was funny in the 80s. Laughed a lot about it in the 90s too. But those last revivals of the funny JLA certainly did no longer work, it's lame and should be left alone.

I certainly WOULD buy another Substitute Heroes Special though...

I probably wouldn't buy a Giffen-produced Legion book. I hated 5YG right up until he left, and would rather have no Legion than see him do the same thing again.

I'd buy a Giffen book, at least at first. I have pretty strong feelings about 5YG and place most of those at the feet of the Bierbaums. The part of 5YG that Giffen was responsible for was generally very good, save for some sick fascination with Tenzil.

What I'm very curious about with the news of cancellation is what made Giffen storm off of the book after 2 issues? I mean, surely the cancellation decision had been made so what limits could they have placed on him? Shouldn't they have pretty much been open to anything at that point? I mean, I'm thinking that Giffen didn't get mad because they were forcing him to be more controversial. It had to be about stifling what he wanted to do. If nothing else, controversy would have sold more books...curious.

True, there were both weaknesses and (over)-hype.

Yet, I can't help feeling that poor Levitz was doomed because he was naturally being compared to the ideal Legion run... which, by the way, was written by himself (albeit a long time ago), thereby making the comparison even more inevitable.

However, complain all you want, but seriously: this run was still better than the atrocious 2nd half of V6 (or whatever we're calling the "kid-legion" reboot these days), and the similarly atrocious final 3rd of the V5 Legion (post-zero hour).

So, yeah: not perfect, but a damn site better than most of the other recent attempts.

Yet, damned for not being good as anticipated. Which, I daresay, is probably part of why its being cancelled: if Levitz couldn't fix it, then I guess the perception would be no one can.

For my own part: I'm appalled at the most recent blood-thirsty approach (I wonder now if that's a function of the cancellation?), but I still enjoyed the book quite a bit (though the Earth-man thing bugged me.)


The problem is: if feels like there's no way for it to come back. There've been so many reboots, no one has a taste for it.
What (and from where) would be the impetus to just pick up where whatever mess Giffen and co. have created leaves off?

I feel like the Horta near the end of its (TOS) Star Trek episode: "it is the end of life...!"

....sigh...

and the *one* hope I would have held out fro was the version of the LSH currently being visited in the Smallville comic... maybe a spin-off on that?

And yet, just got the first issue of that today... and...

either it is *the worst* coloring error in history, or they chose to make Braniac 5 Caucasian instead of green? Auggh.

I suppose that should be complained about in another thread however.

... sigh ... and to think that just a handful of years ago, we were on the verge of an awesome 3rd season of the cartoon which was doing a great job canonizing the essence of the LSH while bringing it to the mainstream.

... sigh ...

Well, Brainy was caucasian in the Smallville series, so the coloring was correct for this version.

True, true (presuming you mean Brainian 1, as we never got to see 5)...

actually, that points out that it never made sense that Braniac 1 (a machine) should have been the same color as Brainacs 2 and above (Coluans, a green living species), unless (and if I ever knew this, I've forgotten) he was made by Coluans to look Coluan.

Braniac 1 in Smallville is a Kryptonian machine, so Brainiac 5 not being green means that either he's not Coluan, or Coluans aren't green.

Or, there was a horrific coloring error.

Then you are going to be equally displeased with the latest issue where (someone who I think is) Shadow Lass is not blue.

Really? (is that on the online version?) Indeed, I am displeased (or will be, as the case may be).

Ironic that I should hear that now, right as I have come to apologize to Spellbinder - someone corrected me on a separate thread and reminded me that Brainiac *5* had appeared in one episode, played by the same (white) guy that played Brainiac 1.

I could see where off-color skin would look a bit cheesy in live-action TV, but no reason to avoid it in a comic, so indeed I hope that wasn't really Shadow Lass you saw.

they could do "Tiny Legion", a la Tiny Titans!

I actually would enjoy such a book... provided there was ALSO a serious Legion comic as well!

Perhaps something may come of the backup stories in Action?
Perhaps Legion Lost could hook up with a Superboy, or Supergirl, and take him/her to the 31st century?

Anyway, though, I still say that if Paul Levitz had written under the name "Joe Schmoe", the complaints would have been reduced by about 30-40%, not the other way around. I think there was MORE complaining due to his name, not less... much more was expected of him.

Also, let's face it ... he's a throwback. Comic readers expect something different today than they did in the 70s and 80s.

Well, apparently Waid was a little miffed when the Legion was rebooted-- in JLA, when he was still on the threeboot Legion book.

And it is pretty hard to reconcile this Legion with the Lightning Man / Saturn Woman / Cosmic Man that made a cameo in Superman 52 about a year ago, or with the history of the entire New 52-verse as we know it. I mean, now that Brainiac is the Internet, how does Brainiac 5 have any connection to him at all?

And this Retroboot Legion is pretty clearly not the same Retroboot Legion of the Lightning Saga, or the Retroboot Legion of Superman vs Earth-Man or the Retroboot Legion of Legion of Three Worlds.

So Legion "continuity" has been kind of a mess since the end of the threeboot (which at least had an internally consistent history) and I'm not sure how you can write characters whose backstory changes every six months (or even issue-to-issue) rather than every few years.

Do you know what I think really would sell in the 21st century?

The Legion of Super-Assassins.

I mean, assassination isn't necessarily bad, right?

(Hint: yes, it is.)

I wonder: Could Mon be the catalyst for this finale? Mr.Levitz could've easily offed him had he no part yet to play in this and it was his punch out of the Time Trapper that reset Legion continuity all those years ago.

I was also wondering myself if Star Boy could somehow still be alive under all that - maybe a revived Mon-El will find him huddling under all that rublle after he used his powers on himself to give him quasi-invulnerability.

Make sure that DC gives you full credit when they start grinding these stories out next month.