Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Your favorite CANCELLED series

What book (or books) do you miss the most that should've stayed on the shelves? Lord knows that lately there's been a lot more fodder considering the lifespan of titles these days.

For me, the books I miss the most are:
-- The Question: although he's finally coming back this year, it was one of the best superhero/crime books out there ("Sandman Mystery Theater" is there also).
-- Alien Legion: One of the grittiest "gritty" books of the '80's. It was the "Dirty Dozen" of comics -- you really had no idea which character would live out the next storyline.
-- Slingers: Joe Casey was doing something really special with modern teenage heroes there.
-- Heroes for Hire -- Luke Cage and Iron Fist just belong together - look at how many times they've been unsuccessful apart.

Power Company, followed by the Thunderbolts.

Vext and Inhumans. I'm sure there's more but I can't think of them right now.

And Drake, did you hear that The Question is going to be making an appearance on Justice League Animated this next season? He'll be voiced by Jeffrey Combs of Re-Animator fame.

Power Of The Atom -- the only time The Atom really stood out as a solo hero, in my opinion.

El Diablo -- the early '90s series about a hispanic hero in a small, Texas town. It took realism to unprecedented levels in a super-hero comic.

The sadness of seeing a truly excellent, yet seemingly unpopular title cancelled. How I know this pain.

My fave dead mags:

THE RAY by Priest - truly one of the greatest and most confusing comics of all time. Chicken suits, Vandal Savage, Teen Angst, Fishnet Stockings, Engrossing Plots and Excellent Dialogue - This one had it all, as well as eye-catching Howard Porter and Jason Armstrong pencils. Sigh. I miss you, Ray.

IMPULSE by Mark Waid - before Waid left, Impulse was my favorite comic in the post-Ray years. Waid managed to portray a different Impulse than others, giving him a personality above & beyond the 'Act before you think' mode that later writers cast him in. And the pencils by Humberto Ramos were absolutely awesome; heavily cartoony, but oh-so-fitting.

JUSTICE LEAGUE TASK FORCE and STEEL by Priest - another couple of titles that I truly, deeply loved, for all that I often was let scratching my head. The interpersonal drama seen between Ray, Gypsy, Triumph and J'Onn J'Onnz was awesome, and the final page of the final issue almost had me in tears.
Priest should be cloned for the ages.

QUANTUM & WOODY by Priest ... Ah sheesh. I should just admit it. Anything by Priest is really really good, and destined to be cancelled really really quickly. Q&W had slick pencils by MD Bright , and managed to lampoon the entire comic industry without resorting to farce. Actually, who am I kidding? The whole comic was a farce - it's just a shame the comic company (Acclaim) behind it was also a farce, and Q&W were lost. Peace On, Noogies....

More as they come to mind.

Oh my, there's been several.

YOUNG HEROES IN LOVE Daddy to Marvel's X-FORCE/X-STATIX, this book showed that you could mix cartoony art with VERY adult themes.

CHASE It Spawned the idea of 'The Justice Experience', a concept that fascinates me to this day (this was the team that existed in the 60s/70s after The JSA and before the JLA).

THE HECKLER Would have loved to have seen what further insanities TMK would have inflicted on poor Stu Mosely. The closest thing to a Bugs Bunny superhero comic I've ever seen.

VEXT There's gods for farting and inappopriate exhibitionism? Yep.

HERO ALLIANCE Published by Innovation and featuring the first comics work of later Legion greats Immonen & Pearson. Heavy on the T&A, but they didn't discriminate between male and female T&A so it was cool. Some wonderful ideas throughtout this series, which had a decent-size run for an indie (17 regular issues, an annual, a special, 4--iirc-- quarterlies, the 3-issue "End of the Golden Age" mini and a couple of solo-member 1-shots).

MAJOR BUMMER Why this book wasn't a massive success I'll never fathom. Hysterical writing by Arcudi, stunning art by Mahnke. I damn DC to this day for cancelling it!

DOOM PATROL The latest incarnation. Another Arcudi-written book with stunning uber-stylistic art by Tan Eng Huat. I sure miss Ted, Ava, Cliff and the gang...

"Promethea," eight months (four issues) from now. For once, I'm getting my grieving done in advance!

I did miss the "Ms. Marvel" solo series, pulled out from under us '70s Carol fans with no warning after issue 23, and only shortly after Dave Cockrum's ab fab redesign of her getup.

I had read that he's going to be making an appearance, but I hadn't heard the casting news -- thanks, LL! I wonder if he's going to follow the Ditko or O'Neil model?

Hmmm, a few off the top of my head:

Vext, Black Condor, Chase,

re: The Question

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere he's making an appearance...just can't remeber which book or if it's his own book...dang!

re: cancelled books

NYX is supposed to be cancelled by issue 6. >sigh< I really liked that one...oh well, 4 issues to go...

Oh, so many!

I second mentions of Vext and Black Condor.

I'd add to the list:

'Mazing Man: a great slice of life book that very rarely crossed the line into too wacky for its own good.

Amethyst: Amy rocked before Keith Giffen destroyed her. And fantasy comics are making a comeback.

Arion: See above about fantasy comics.

Power Pack: But take them back to before they got too involved in the Marvel universe. PP is the only Marvel book I've read more than 2 consecutive issues of, so I thought introducing other Marvel characters just mucked it up. I liked last year's mini.

Suicide Squad- The Ostrander series rocked and with great characters like Vixen, Vertigo and Deadshot. I still miss this book!


L.E.G.I.O.N - A series begging for a comeback


Infinity INC- One of my favorite series of all time and now would be a great time for a comeback!


ThunderBolts-this series should have never been cancelled glad its on its way back!

New Warriors- another seies ripe for a comeback!

1. Zot! I wish it could have gone on longer...

2. I really loved The Shadow by Andy Helfer in the 80s. Mmmmmmm.

3. Hourman

Was "Zot!" actually cancelled? I thought McCloud ended it on his own. Either way, that series is in my top 5 all time favorite books.

do these have to be titles that were cancelled, quite quickly ???

because this one went on for quite a long time, but i really loved the .... "ALL STAR SQUADRON" !!! i miss that !!!

Matthew.

Nah, there're no rules -- feel free to reminisce about any old book that you miss.

Me too Matt I loved All Star Squadron!!!!

Sorry.. forgot the 'canceled' part of the question and just thought about series I missed, and I had never been as upset about a series ending its run as this one. It is my number 1 favorite series ever, and McCloud did indeed end it on his own, albeit with an indication that he would return to the world of Zot (which he has done on his website).

I loved All-Star Squadron, too, but it was gutted by Crisis.

Speaking of Innovation, I miss their Lost In Space series. It continued the adventures of the Robinson clan past the TV series. A major arc was even being written by Bill Mumy, and a two-issue spin-off called Project Robinson was half published when Innovation shut their doors.

i miss _new warriors_ when fabian nicieza was writing and mark bagley was pencilling. it got very dark after that point. and the second series was enjoyable, but ended too quickly. i actually miss seeing firestar in a monthly comic (now that she's rarely seen in avengers when she should've been part of x-men a long time ago).

and _thunderbolts_ too.

Chase. Intriguing main character, and a fresh aproach to how heroes are seen in the DCU.

Challengers of the Unknown. The Steven Grant update. Odd stories, including one that featured Hypertime before it had a name.

L.E.G.I.O.N. I liked the "Space Opera" concept.

There's a ton of them over the years, but here a couple (most have been mentioned already):

Chase- something different and interesting. I wish it could have went longer, it seemed that D. Curtis Johnson had a lot of things he wanted to get to.

The Ray- this book made me a Priest fan for life

Black Condor- I remember my Dad just loving this title

Outsiders- I miss Geo-Force, Kitana, and especially Looker. I loved the second series, even though it only lasted two years.

Suicide Squad- one of the best comics of the eighties, when I re-read these, it feels so fresh and exciting.

The Question- a gritty well-written book. Denny O'Neil at his best ever.

Power of the Atom- out of ever DC character, I want the Atom to have his own title the most. I love the character and have an extensive Atom collection, and I just HATE when he goes into comics limbo. I think he should always be in JLA too, like J'Onn J'Onnz.

Firestorm- this is the second character I'd like most to have a comic again. I love the original Firestorm series. However, I need to have Ronald as Firestorm (rumors of an upcoming Firestorm comic say a new person will be the hero- if that's the case, I ain't buying it), and I like the original Firestorm costume, one of the best of his era.

For Marvel:

Thunderbolts- no reason for this to have been changed the way it was. Marvel's freshest idea of the whole nineties, and it's saving grace for a few years too.

I can't believe nobody has mentioned this one yet, at least I didn't see it mentioned...

Legionnaires Wouldn't we all like to see a second, monthly Legion title again?

Young Justice Peter David had a nack for getting in goofy ideas that made me giggle. I enjoyed this book.

Deadpool Who doesn't like a wise cracking one line guru with a healing factor? I loved alot of writers on this title, but Priest's and Kelly's stick out in my mind the most.

Martian Manhunter I haven't seen anything by Ostrander that I haven't "dug". MM was a nice read every month.

Hour Man Peyer might not have many fans around here, but I like him. His HM had me giggling alot like PD's YJ did. He always seemed to be taking the title in an unexpected direction, that is until they cancelled it. That, I expected.

PADs Supergirl. OK so 80 issues is a good long, solid run by any standard but I could have carried on reading it forever (as long as PAD was writing it of course). I've never been a fan of the Super family but Linda was just so different from them, and from most other heroes as well, they I was constantly waiting for the next issue. Sure the plots were convoluted and it wasn't the most new-reader friendly series but it was still one of the best comics out there. Plus fabulous art from Leonard Kirk and Robin Riggs, and some nice work by Ed Benes as well on his few issues. Plus PAD had two possible ways to story could continue, one which he won't tell people about in case he decides to use it elsewhere and one which would have had Linda become Superwoman, Kara stick around as Supergirl and Power Girl join them to become Blonde Justice. Now how cool would that have been?

And Young Justice too. Great sereis, really funny but with some incredible emotional and dramatic moments too (the whole thing with Arrowette in 15 was superb). And then they go and cancel it so they can re-launch another crappy Titans series which I've already dropped because every single character is completely out of character (even Changeling who Geoff Johns apparently adores) and the plots are the biggest pile of pish i have ever read. Well OK it's not quite that bad but I damn sure prefer to have YJ back instead.

Hey Bevis! Haven't seen you around much lately, we missed you!