Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Magog by Giffen & Porter

So Magog, high profiled in the JSA as of late, has been given his own series, written by Keith Giffen with art by Hoaward Porter. Despite his kind of interesting history in the DCU, Magog has just about everything going for him that would make me hate the character. His original "look" was kind of a mimic of Marvel's Cable, and his role in the JLA is somewhat akin to Wolverine / Punisher / Cable / etc.

Yet, I'm actually kind of digging his solo series thus far. The "bad-ass-ness" of Mangog is played up, and that can be a turn-off, but I think they do a good job balancing it with giving him some likeable qualities and a bit more depth. Giffen also does two things with him that add to the dialogue: he makes him funny almost accidently with gallows humor, and he has him outright lying and manipulating the other JSAers, even the "Big 3 Greats" Flash, GL and Wildcat (all three my favorites but the hero worship is so overdone with them at times that it actually detracts from their scenes in the actual JSA comic).

Giffen's writing style here is good, albeit a very odd / interesting style. A lot of Keith's superhero serious comics have been overly confusing in recent years (re: Suicide Squad), but his body of work shows the man does know how to write a solid comic. He's obviously just a guy who likes to play with styles (see: his artwork). Yet while the Doom Patrol started as distracting, I'm finding the title more and more engaging as we go. And Magog started off more engaging without the distracting / confusing parts. The key is there is only one lead and the pacing is more strait-forward even if the dialogue and whats happening in the scenes isn't clear at first. Yet if there is one complaint of the entire execution of the series, this is it. Its still a little tough to follow in places, even though I'm aware its done on purpose.

As for Howard Porter's art, I've always loved it. He has his own style and I often associate it as "larger than life" because of his excellent run with Morrison on JLA. Here, it keeps that granduer but in an odd way: here its much grittier and firmly planted in reality. Its down to Earth but still has that Porter "big" quality. Hard to define, yet I know I like it.

John Dell, longtime inker on Porter's pencils, does a good job as always adding some heavy inks to the art to add that sense of scale to it. Here he adds in more blacks and it reflects the tone of the character well.

So: I didn't have the highest hopes for this series and yet am surprised by it thus far. I'll definitely stick around for more issues.

It's Magog, Des...not Mangog!

I myself was envisioning a Giffen/ Woodring team-up. Which, yeah... I dunno'...

I just read the Thor 60's and 70's issues and have Mangog on my mind...oops

That's not uncommon on this particular message board

Well, since all the comments here had to do with my spelling rather than the Magog series, I take it that the title went bust on Legion World? (Sheesh, like any of you were even a little surprised by me mispelling something ).

I don't blame anyone on the lack of comments. The last issue I read was #3 and I think it might also be the last one I buy. Magog is a pretty unlikeable character so I was hoping Giffen could really give me something fascinating to read to make up for it but so far its just been run of the mill. Unlike Doom Patrol, the series simply just isn't improving as it goes, despite a solid #1.

Its really too bad because DC desperately needs something a little different than the 7th time Aquaman gets an ongoing series or the 5th failed attempt to give us a rebooted, 'cool' (a word DC tends to confuse with 'new') version of an old sueprhero who didn't need to be rebooted.

I found the character so unlikable in JSA that I had no interest in reading the solo series. He may even make me not buy JSA All Stars.

I got the first one on the cheap but haven't read it yet. I didn't order any more, so thanks for letting me know I'm not missing anything. I'm generally a fan of anything Giffen does. I'll keep getting JSA All Stars, (even though I haven't read any of them yet either... I need more free time!) because hey, it's the JSA. And I'm a robot.

P.S. For whatever reason I have never been a fan of Porter's artwork. Not on JLA, not on Flash. Probably why I didn't stick with the book.

Magog is one of those titles I had absolutely no intention of getting until/unless the reviews and recommendations made it sound really excellent.

The first reason is that the character has never exactly impressed. He actually seemed interesting enough before he got the upgrade from Gog. He even seemed sympathetic. But everything written since has made him seem like the latest grim-and-gritty Wolverine/Punisher wannabe. It started with Geoff and only worsened under Willingham and Sturges.

Second, it just seemed too damned soon to spin the character off into his on ongoing, especially considering the hard choices we constantly face as prices rise. Apparently there was absolutely NO demand for the character to spin off, so it seems all the more puzzling. A mini would've made more sense--give us a chance to get to know him better, but an ongoing?!?! WTF? Let the character blossom in his home series first, so fans will be more receptive for cripe's sake!

Finally, Keith Giffen is a crazy-talented individual, but his track record for creating series is decidedly hit-or-miss, especially writing solo. I'd be so bold to say in that circumstance, he's actually a LOT more miss than hit! It's actually the overriding reason why I didn't pick up Doom Patrol (though DP was a much closer call than Magog). Now, if you put Giffen with a skilled scripter like J.M. DeMatteis, Alan Grant or Paul Levitz, the hit percentage increases dramatically. With DP, I was afraid I'd be shelling out $4/month essentially for the backup, and that's why I didn't pick it up.

I never made it past the preview pages for Magog. As Lardi points out, Giffen can be hit-or-miss, although I tend to at least try an issue of anything he writes (except Lobo, which he himself concedes is one big fart joke). But Magog the character just repelled me.

I dropped this from my pull list today. I usually stick with titles, especially less popular ones, no matter what. I can honestly say that there is nothing about this character that I like. Feh!

I'm one of the biggest JSA fans out there, but I just couldn't pick this book up. I thought the character was OK when he was just Lance Corporal Gunforanarm, but once the Magog transformation kicked in, things just went south.

I understand the idea behind trying to get new characters launched, but I can't help but think of all the great JSA characters who aren't getting much face time while this got greenlit.

I agree with that sentiment. I think its a shame that so many great JSAers were truly big time greats in their heyday in the Golden Age and today are only just members of a team. Don't get me wrong, I think the JSA is awesome and I'm a huge fan too, but I think Dr. Mid-Nite, Mr. Terrific and others could totally carry their own series. So why oh why does Magog get one and not them?