Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Legion #1 (September) previews

Ok I have read the entire issue. I really enjoyed it. I won't spoil anything.

Portela is amazing! I'm a fan of unique artists on the Legion. Giffen, Lightle, Pearson, Calero...Portela. Right now I AM puting him up there with Giffen and Lightle. His art just suits the Legion in many ways. His uniqueness just adds to future universe, his facial expressions were great. It's been a while since you can read Cham's eyes...and he looks intelligent. Mon-El's costume still has a retro look yet looks very modern. Ultra Boy's I don't love...but I do like. It's a bit too generic for my tastes.

Story I love. Who else but Levitz can make a random mission seem so important. On a "watchful" planet (kudos to the mythology reference) that involves so newbies.

Good action and story, great art. Loved it.

Now that I've read the full issue myself, I'm glad a lot of my earlier worries are put aside. The issue has a stronger, more natural start that begins the new story arc and a lot of the "previously on LSH..." tidbits are a bit more scattered. I still wish more of a connection had been made to show exactly who the "Lost" were to highlight the tie to the other title, but if you're eagle eyed enough you can spot almost all of them in one of the scenes.

Portela's work sure has grown leaps and bounds. I was already in love with how dynamic he tended to draw poses and expressions but he's gotten a lot better. The detail really adds to these worlds we're visiting. Props to the colorist as well - the detail on Glorith and Dragonwing's costumes are great.

I'm glad we're finally getting some clarification on what Harmonia does - I just wish her powerset wouldn't make someone else I wanted to join the Legion (Nightwind) redundant.

While I still feel it isn't the most accessible first issue, it at least feels like a heartier read than a lot of books and ends on a solid enough spot. I'll be curious to learn more about Renegade.

i dug it.

While I also think that the longtime Legion Academy class got a raw deal (seriously, the new class had been at the Academy for what, a few months, and they get called into active duty, while those who were actually trained for years and were graduated are bypassed? And does that mean the Academy is over?), I really liked both LSH #1 and Legion Lost #1, and I hope both mean a lot of new readers for the franchise.

This issue was a major improvement over Paul's last few issues. Portela is a brilliant artist, a rising star. I particularly like how he draws plants; they look almost alive.

My roomate wants to be a police officer, and she told me she will be in the academy for six months. If DC is trying to reflect reality this might be a step forward.

The plot's pretty brief and the main mission seems a bit contrived. I am happy, though, that it doesn't look like it's headed for revisit of
"Earth invaded by Dominators."

The new legionnaires are irritating--both as they are portrayed and in that they get so much attention when I care so little for them.

The art's nice.

Great issue with a few questions that I'm sure will be answered soon.
Is Star Boy now stuck in a chair?
Where is Quislet?
Who else resigned?
What's the status of the Academy?
Will Gravity Kid and Power Boy be added in the midst of the upcoming battle?
and the big elephant in the room....How did the Legion Lost team "die"?


Perhaps a two part story spread across the Legion and Legion Lost annuals?

SUCH a better feel than the last LSH # 1 we got.

I was into everything (including Nura's haircolor), with the following list of complaints:

Brainy-- lecturing Lar on losses of life? Brainy the inventor of Computo? Brainy the thrower of innocent coma patients to the metaphorical witch wolves? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I laugh at you, Braninac 5. You're ridiculous.

Harmonia has as much business being a Legionnaire as Earth Man did.

Colossal Boy quitting: Not approved by this reader.

The passing over of the recent grads (not to mention Lu, Chuck, Tenzil and ANY/ALL OF THE SUBS!!) for LSH membership... although this is somewhat balanced for me by the freshness the new kids are bringing to the space-table.

Everything else-- I was into it. A good start!!

It seemed to me that having Tellus carry Tyroc telekinetically would have been a better choice than giving Tyroc a new power...

I could see how sonic manipulation might allow someone to skim over the ground like a bead of water over a hot griddle, but actual flight? Eh. Add Tyroc = Banshee to the Timber Wolf = Wolverine and Gates = Nightcrawler pile.

Does that make Yera = Mystique (hawt shapeshifter who started out as a bad guy and changed sides over the years), Wildfire = Cyclops (leader who can't show his face without killin' folk), Dawnstar = Storm (majestic, aloof, in touch with the natural universe) and Tellus = Jean Grey (telepathic / telekinetic with an animal motif)?

To be fair, Gates' teleportation works very differently than Nightcrawler's does.

Nobody really knows where Quislet is. I supposed he/she/it could have resigned, but why? Quislet wasn't particularly close with any of the Legionnaires who "died".

This thread lists the whereabouts of all the Legionnaires. Quislet is the only one who was a member before the "boot" whose whereabouts are unknown.

This issue was an enormous missed opportunity, and confirms to me that Paul Levitz, DC or both has NO interest in recruiting new readers. How can one even count the ways this book wasn't inviting as a jumping on point?

1) Who died?
2) Why did they die?
3) What's a Dominator?
4) What's a Daxamite?
5) What's a garrison planet?
6) Why would the Star Fleet ask a covert Legion team to check out one of it's own defense installations?

What would have made this better?
1) Brainiac 5 -- inheritor of the intellect of Superman's deadly foe from the 21st century
2) Mon-El -- childhood friend of Superman's, who honors the memory of history's greatest hero in the far-flung future by using his Kryptonian family name.
3) Daxamites are an offshoot of the extinct Kryptonian species and share their incredible super powers
4) Dominators -- mission briefing -- ruthless, gene-locked, caste-based society with advanced biotechnology, paranoid of humanoid super powers and dedicated to controlling their spread at any cost
5) Legion Espionage Squad -- Legion covert ops team with rotating membership, led by Chameleon Boy and Phantom Girl
6) The UP Combined Military Command ask the Legion to investigate loss of communication with observation outpost Panoples, in part to avoid further internecine conflicts between the Starfleet, Infantry and Intelligence directorates.

There. Was that so hard?

Oh, and who's Oaa? Is it a misspelling of the Green Lantern world? Why no, it's the given name of Variable Lad, the trainee tragically killed in the battle against the LSV. Again, is it SO hard to work that into the narrative and/or dialogue? Jeez!

Some copy/paste from CBR, where a fascinating project has been going on... non-comic readers (or in some cases, lapsed or non-DC readers) are given issues of the new 52 to read.

What follows is NOT pretty:


Going into week three, I knew "Legion Of Superheroes" was going to be a tough sell to new readers. Renowned for being the polar opposite of accessible, "Legion" has always appealed to a very specific brand of fan, drawing in those who love continuity, dissecting complicated histories and the feeling of secret knowledge the book confers.

So when it came time to give it to brand new readers, I called up the biggest science fiction continuity fan I knew, Chud.com writer Thomas. Thomas is a man who lives for intensely complicated science fiction stories, the more back story the better, and enjoys nothing more then diving into complex ensemble science fiction films and TV shows. If there is one person in the world who should love "Legion Of Superheroes," it would be Thomas -- or, as a mutual friend put it, "If Thomas doesn't like 'Legion,' there's something wrong with the universe."

I regret to inform you, there is something wrong with the universe.

Calling the issue "cluttered" rather than complex, Thomas was unable to see why a reader should care about the world, let alone invest in a second issue. "The only element that seemed to link any of the storylines was a reference to the fate of one named Oaa, who it seems died and, apparently, it was sad," Thomas said. He was also stumped as to why the reader should care about the Dominators and the Daxamites guessing, "We're told that Dominators are behind whatever's going on planet Panoptes, but I don't know what Dominators are (I guess they're probably bad since it sounds like they seek to dominate, and most people prefer to remain un-dominated)."


Frustrated by what he called poor storytelling, Thomas continued, "We're told Daxamites are more powerful than anyone in the Legion (except for that guy who's a Daxamite), and this guy who shows up, judos Jo and crashes through a rock is identified as 'A Daxamite?!' Also, someone says "Uh-Oh," so I guess they're in for some trouble, but I still don't know what Daxamites are or what makes them special and powerful."

Ultimately, Thomas felt there was just too much unexplained DC continuity to wade through, even for a reader like him. "I'm used to reading long novels with huge casts of characters, but one needs to spend more time establishing such characters for a large ensemble to work for a reader."

"Legion" continuity was also the undoing of brand new comic book reader Katie, who enjoys genre fiction as well, though not to the extent Thomas does. "The biggest problem I had was that the disaster that killed the members of the old league was never clearly outlined. They aren't picking up where the old mission left off, which made it easy enough to follow along, but they hinted at a lot of underlying pain everyone was going through and I never was able to figure out exactly what happened to lead to that," said Katie.


WOULD THEY BUY ISSUE TWO? "No way" to Legion.

anyone complains to Paul Levitz about the quality of writing skills yet, both in DC Message Board and in his facebook page...so far i have not seen any negative and what s Paul's reaction to that?

all of this almost makes me wish that DnA would still be the ones writing the Legion...right now they are at Marvel and hmmm you know...their book is doing a lot better than Legion/Legion Lost...

There was a couple of negative posts about LSH #16.

I plan on posting my points on the DC letters site, when I get a chance. As a longtime reader, I actually really enjoyed the stories, characters and art. But THIS is a once in a generation opportunity, and I'm furious with Paul for not seizing it with both hands and giving us a Legion #1 that you could hand to anybody and say straight-faced, "If you like superheroes and science fiction, you will love this."

Thanks for the link, Lash.

I found the results for Legion Lost, and they weren't pretty either...

Legion Lost new reader

"What in the heck happened in this comic? A group of heroes against a green hospitalized freak thing that was released? I literally don't know what just happened," new reader Aly told me. One of our returning readers who was giving DC another shot after being completely confused by "Batwing," this apparently was not the comic to win her over. Nor was it winning any points with Lee, another returning reader who felt he needed to give DC one more chance before giving up on the New 52.

"The entire issue was like that one part of each 'Star Trek' episode where they move the killer asteroid by expanding their shields with math or whatever," Lee complained.

"I feel like I was sort of thrown in the middle of something, like I was fighting to understand both the characters and the situation," agreed new reader Phil, an associate producer who cheerfully informed me at the start of the survey that he "read a Garfield collection once."

"I feel stupid now," Aly added after putting down the issue.

FYI, the article on new readers' opinions on Legion of Superheroes 1 is here .

I'm certainly prejudiced, but it seems that people want to be hit over the head with the facts, have everything spelled out for them. If you don't know what a Daxamite is or who the Dominators are, can't you imagine it and look forward to further developments? Isn't it clear from the context that these are powerful and dangerous beings? Nobody wants a bit of suspense?

Then people go and complain about too much exposition in the dialogue. Entries from the Encyclopedia Galactica could have helped explain things better for those unfamiliar with Legion history without being too tiresome for long-time readers, but I really wonder why not immediately knowing these details is so confusing and off-putting.

It's a comic book, it's not the same experience as a novel. If the writer takes a long time to establish a character, there are complaints like we have for Justice League: where's the whole team? It was just Bats and Hal establishing their personalities.

People who are complaining this was not simple enough just haven't lived through endless reboots and the disappointments of having these characters raped.

Could it have been better? Maybe. People are going to always find something to gripe about.

However, I loved the art. Loved it. Everyone looked great, especially Dragonwing and Dream Girl, and I don't think Mon-El has ever looked better.

Yes, whatever happened to Googling? It would have been simple enough to look up Daxamites or Dominators.

On the other hand, perhaps there were simply too many unknowns for them to truly enjoy the comic?

I'd be more interested to see what Legion fans who've either quit reading the Legion and/or comics altogether think of the new Legion & Legion Lost titles.

1) I enjoyed both the Legion Lost #1 and LSH #1 issues. The storytelling in both were definitely enhanced by the nice artwork.

2) I think any reader (new or veteran) of the Legion must understand that "Legion" means a large cast on a large stage. Anyone thinking everything will be explained in a single issue is missing the point of the structure of these series - it takes time, hence multiple issues, to get up to speed on everything, as do all panoramic stories.

3) Comet Queen adds an unusual personality PLUS an alien look to the team. I'm glad she's in.

4) Was looking forward to the "fixing" of Colossal Boy and seeing more of Yera in the new 52. Ouch and ouch...

5) I believe DnA are handling the writing chores in Resurection Man.