My dream choice is Kelly Thompson, blogger, novelist, and currently writer of the excellent monthly comic book revival of Jem and the Holograms. Here's her Amazon page:

http://www.amazon.com/Kelly-Thompson/e/B009JE9U0E/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1435275135&sr=1-2-ent

Isn't Walt Simonson basically an indie writer these days? After reading his work on Ragnarok, I wouldn't mind seeing him take a crack at the Legion.

I adore Walt Simonson, but I'd prefer to see a bright young rising star take over the Legion. The Legion needs fresh blood -- badly -- and I don't think it's going to get it from a veteran writer, no matter how talented.

That's understandable. I just have an innate distrust of younger writers. Some of them are really good, like Jeff Parker, but a lot of them go for the "make it as relatable to current teens" as possible, which just makes me roll my eyes.

Have you read Jem?

I saw an episode of the original TV series, but it just didn't click with me.

Well, this comic book is the best of both worlds. Thompson is talented enough that it appeals all across the board: to middle-aged people who grew up watching the cartoon, younger people who like discovered the cartoon through DVDs and the Internet, and younger people who hold no affection for the cartoon, but find the concept appealing.

I honestly don't know as my comic buying has been pretty much DOA lately. Hoping that will change in a month or two. AS to rising young stars...no Jeff Lemire, please. Nice guy as far as I know, did some interesting things on other books, but....just don't see him on legion.

Actually, my mention of Jeff Parker reminds me of the awesome work he did on X-Men: First Class . He knows how to write youthful characters without descending into "pandering" territory. I would read a Legion story by him in a heartbeat.

Parker's talented, but he's been too long in the mainstream for my taste.

Being able to juggle a large team of characters, where the setting is a character and make the personalities interesting and distinct would be my starting point for any writer.


Like NL, I'm not sure who is considered "indie."

I like Saga, I think Vaughn did a nice job in that overdone dystopian theme of making the setting unique and interesting. It has a large team of characters but they really do not have to share the spotlight so...


Fables of course has that unique setting with many characters that all seem to shine. I've long thought I'd like to see at least an arc by Willingham, though sacrilege, not Buckingham. Maybe James Jean if he can do that sort of thing.



Way off on a whim, my favorite writer is Doria-Russell. She has such an eclectic knowledge and a way of bringing that in a non-pedantic way to the reader through her characters. There are often musical themes, the reader that wants to get the most will have some classical piece playing while reading. I often find myself off to google some painting or read some classical lit she's themed around. Her latest, she actually seems to have written with the e-book reader in mind, it has links to phrases in the Iliad. This is a book about the shootout at the OK Corral, with links to the Iliad.

The thing, she seems to need to really be interested in her topic to write about it. She's gone from religiously based space opera to WWII to Doc Holliday to the present OK Corral. My plan....


I'm going to stalk her. I'll drop my copies of Super Stalag in her footsteps. She'll say, "you dropped this.. hey, this looks interesting. I MUST write this."


I've a plan.

With "Mind Mgt", Matt Kindt has shown he's capable of elaborate complex plots with lots of moving pieces and far out concepts. I think he'd be an interesting choice for a sprawling space opera.

I guess I'll be checking out the Mind MGMT trades.

Thanks, Dave.

I echo Dave's choice of Matt Kindt. He's brillaint--his OGN's prove that even more than the awesome Mind MNGT. Whatever he'd do would be different than anyone expected and probably quirky as hell at first. But it would probably also be compelling, exciting and fresh.

Noelle Stevenson.

Read Lumberjanes and you'll see why.

Are there any Indie's doing big team books or superhero space opera?

Will do. Thanks, Sarky.

I've never been a huge fan of Willingham, he just doesn't click with me. I also think he's demonstrably worse when working on other people's properties, so I'd be loathe to see what he would do with Legion.

I have to agree with Dave. After reading Willingham's dissapointing run on Robin back in the day, I don't know if he's fit for a mainstream title

That's interesting how huge the difference creative control can give. I think that was my question for Levitz on the "what would you ask" thread.


As to my question, again, anyone know of any indie type large team or space opera type books that got good buzz? I might want to check them out.

Can't really think of any indie large team books right now. There is a ton of sci-fi and space opera out there, but they for the most part aren't really "team books".

Image (well, they used to be Indy before 1000 titles a month hit) has Secret Identities (going for Wolfman Teen Titans) and Ego's (going for Legion).


Dave Sim - 300 issues of Jo not leaving a Rimborian pub.

For years, my dream choices were Jim Shooter and Paul Levitz. I never thought DC would ask Mr. Shooter to write the Legion again. Also, I really did not think either he or Mr. Levitz would consider the assignment because they had both gone so far up the ladder in the business. But, they bot did come back as regular writes - and both are considered unsuccessful runs. I've read Shooter's blog on his ideas about his tenure and can see his points clearly. He might have had something going. I haven't revisited Levitz' run with any afterthoughts. I'm not sure what happened there, but I recall thinking Levitz had run out of his ideas (and revising Shooter's). However, I sort of liked both Shooter's LSH and the new "Adventure Comics" (except for Comet Queen). I know this doesn't answer the question directly because neither of those writers would be considered "indie" - but I thought it interesting that my "dream" choices both happened. And, maybe it would be a good idea to go "indie" for the LSH.

I haven't bought a comic in ages that wasn't recommended by someone here so have no idea who is any good in the Indy field. That said, who would I like to see writing the Legion? Me, give it to me DC, please!

I'll second that, Harbi.

Read Lumberjanes Volume One, "Beware the Kitten Holy". Wow.

Now trying to share it with my Girl Scout. Response so far has been preteen eyeroll, but hoping she will soon crack the cover.

Thanks.