Not only is the Legion back this month, but . . so to is Paul Levitz. Well . . that is to say . . Paul never really went away, but . . he hasn't scripted the Legion in quite a while, so . . some would say he's back home again. My only question is . . and this is nothing against Paul, but . . what about Jim Shooter? It just seems strange to me that he took over near the end of the last title, but now he's not here. I know he busy relaunching his titles over at Dark Horse, but I also know that he's always had a special affinity towards the Legion. But I'm just asking . . I'm not complaining. I'm more than happy that Paul will be heading up the creative talent on this book. This time around Yildiray Cinar will be doing the art. Yildiray cut his teeth on
Noble Causes, but . . he's come a long way since. I was a little concerned when I saw that he would be doing this book. I thought he showed a lot of promise at Image, but . . I wasn't always thrilled with his art. But since then, he's done a few projects for DC, and I think he's progressed quite nicely. Overall, this issue looks really good. There's a couple of panels, here and there, that are a little wonky, but . . he did do 39 pages of art for this issue, so . . a few minor problems can be forgiven. Paul throws a whole lot of stuff at us this issue, so . . I'm just gonna kind of list it out. First of all, the whole story is framed around the circumstances of Earth-Man. You remember, the guy that led the xenophobic revolt against the Legion in Action Comics. The one that dealt with the JLA of the future. Anyways, they got him incarcerated, and are constantly draining his powers, but . . there seems to be the usual bureaucracy and subterfuge in the government as they're forcing the Legion to take him on as a member. That seems to be the newest 'condition' for them to keep their base on Earth. Meanwhile, the Time Institute has moved it's base to Titan, and no sooner do they get powered up than there's a major FUBAR. One of the scientists demands that the first thing they view with the new monitoring screen is the dawn of creation. Hello? Haven't they read any of the cautionary tales from the Green Lanterns or anything? Of course there's a huge explosion, from the backlash of energy, and Titan's fate is sent on a downward spiraling path. By the end of the issue the whole planet, or moon, is destroyed. But it's sent other repercussions throughout the universe also. On OA, where Sodam Yat is the final Green Lantern, the chain of events seems to have triggered some long dormant initiative by the Guardians. Sodam is met by Dyogene, a slug or embryo kind of looking creature, who seems to have been born of the planet itself, and ends up taking Sodam's ring. He then heads straight to Earth, and Earth-man. 'Mogo is no more, and Dyogene must perform his duties. OA has sent me . . to you. You are chosen to become the possessor of the ring for sector 2814 . . Green Lantern.' Thats' an interesting turn of events. So it's Earth-man's hand we see on the cover wearing the Legion ring and the Green Lantern ring. Which begs the question, are all the security measures and redundancies that Brainy programmed into Earth-man's ring even going to work anymore? And how do they even hope to control or influence him when this addition puts him in a whole new league of power? This guy could arguably be the most powerful man on Earth right now. Also during all of this, as Irma is trying to get as many people off Titan as possible, her sons, Graym and Garridan seemed to be zapped away in a burst of energy.
She assumes that it was some kind of time-transport beam. Which leads her to the rubble at the Time Institute. She grabs the last remaining time-sphere and wants to use it to go back and save her boys. And this is only the first issue. I've been a big Legion fan for quite a while. I followed it through all of it's various series, and it seems like the stories over the last few years have been in an effort to consolidate everything down to one specific timeline . . or continuity. I applaud the effort, and hope that they can make this all work. There's been a lot of incarnations of the Legion. Some good . . some . . questionable. But, I've always been excited to see what they're going to throw at us next. This team, and these characters have a rich history that continually seems to be in the process of definition. Which I think is what helps to make it such an interesting book. I look forward to this new book and can't wait to see what Paul brings us. Also, nice covers by Yildiray and Jim Lee. By the way, there's a caption on issue #15 of the last series asking, 'Hey, shouldn't this be issue #568?' If that's the case, then with this series, if they ever decide to consolidate everything into a numerical scheme . . as seems to be the trend in a lot of comics lately . . we should be approaching issue #700 . . eventually. Right?
Not only is the Legion back this month, but . . so to is Paul Levitz. Well . . that is to say . . Paul never really went away, but . . he hasn't scripted the Legion in quite a while, so . . some would say he's back home again. My only question is . . and this is nothing against Paul, but . . what about Jim Shooter? It just seems strange to me that he took over near the end of the last title, but now he's not here. I know he busy relaunching his titles over at Dark Horse, but I also know that he's always had a special affinity towards the Legion. But I'm just asking . . I'm not complaining. I'm more than happy that Paul will be heading up the creative talent on this book. This time around Yildiray Cinar will be doing the art. Yildiray cut his teeth on Noble Causes, but . . he's come a long way since. I was a little concerned when I saw that he would be doing this book. I thought he showed a lot of promise at Image, but . . I wasn't always thrilled with his art. But since then, he's done a few projects for DC, and I think he's progressed quite nicely. Overall, this issue looks really good. There's a couple of panels, here and there, that are a little wonky, but . . he did do 39 pages of art for this issue, so . . a few minor problems can be forgiven. Paul throws a whole lot of stuff at us this issue, so . . I'm just gonna kind of list it out. First of all, the whole story is framed around the circumstances of Earth-Man. You remember, the guy that led the xenophobic revolt against the Legion in Action Comics. The one that dealt with the JLA of the future. Anyways, they got him incarcerated, and are constantly draining his powers, but . . there seems to be the usual bureaucracy and subterfuge in the government as they're forcing the Legion to take him on as a member. That seems to be the newest 'condition' for them to keep their base on Earth. Meanwhile, the Time Institute has moved it's base to Titan, and no sooner do they get powered up than there's a major FUBAR. One of the scientists demands that the first thing they view with the new monitoring screen is the dawn of creation. Hello? Haven't they read any of the cautionary tales from the Green Lanterns or anything? Of course there's a huge explosion, from the backlash of energy, and Titan's fate is sent on a downward spiraling path. By the end of the issue the whole planet, or moon, is destroyed. But it's sent other repercussions throughout the universe also. On OA, where Sodam Yat is the final Green Lantern, the chain of events seems to have triggered some long dormant initiative by the Guardians. Sodam is met by Dyogene, a slug or embryo kind of looking creature, who seems to have been born of the planet itself, and ends up taking Sodam's ring. He then heads straight to Earth, and Earth-man. 'Mogo is no more, and Dyogene must perform his duties. OA has sent me . . to you. You are chosen to become the possessor of the ring for sector 2814 . . Green Lantern.' Thats' an interesting turn of events. So it's Earth-man's hand we see on the cover wearing the Legion ring and the Green Lantern ring. Which begs the question, are all the security measures and redundancies that Brainy programmed into Earth-man's ring even going to work anymore? And how do they even hope to control or influence him when this addition puts him in a whole new league of power? This guy could arguably be the most powerful man on Earth right now. Also during all of this, as Irma is trying to get as many people off Titan as possible, her sons, Graym and Garridan seemed to be zapped away in a burst of energy. 
She assumes that it was some kind of time-transport beam. Which leads her to the rubble at the Time Institute. She grabs the last remaining time-sphere and wants to use it to go back and save her boys. And this is only the first issue. I've been a big Legion fan for quite a while. I followed it through all of it's various series, and it seems like the stories over the last few years have been in an effort to consolidate everything down to one specific timeline . . or continuity. I applaud the effort, and hope that they can make this all work. There's been a lot of incarnations of the Legion. Some good . . some . . questionable. But, I've always been excited to see what they're going to throw at us next. This team, and these characters have a rich history that continually seems to be in the process of definition. Which I think is what helps to make it such an interesting book. I look forward to this new book and can't wait to see what Paul brings us. Also, nice covers by Yildiray and Jim Lee. By the way, there's a caption on issue #15 of the last series asking, 'Hey, shouldn't this be issue #568?' If that's the case, then with this series, if they ever decide to consolidate everything into a numerical scheme . . as seems to be the trend in a lot of comics lately . . we should be approaching issue #700 . . eventually. Right?
I think that the whole decision between the Legion and the Corps would be a lot more dramatic, and effective if it was someone more important in the Legion. Not someone like Lightning Lad, but someone like Karate Kid, or maybe even someone from the Legion of Substitute Heroes, but not a hated member.
ReplyDeleteWho's to say he's the last one . . there may be more!
ReplyDeleteThis is the first story arch, and I don't think that Levits is going to start willingly getting rid of multiple members of the Legion in the first couple of issues. The great thing about creating a new series for an old team is being able to see the characters and the universe again. I bought this comic because I like Brainiac 5, and Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad etc. If they got rid of someone like that, I would probably lose interest in the series.
ReplyDeleteWell . . I'm not saying that will happen, but . . I also don't think Paul is going to approach this series exactly in the same way he has in the past. I think he's going to inject some new blood . . shake things up a bit. Plus, after Geoff Johns has handled all of the Legion stuff in the last couple of years, I'm sure they planned out at least the first year or so together. They have to make sure they have everything tied into the Lightning Saga, the Xenophobic JLA storyline, and the Legion of 3 Worlds stories. Not to mention Blackest Night. Plus, there's still some things that I don't even think we've heard about yet. In this issue they make mention of Flashpoint, the Great Intervention, some kind of Revelation, and a mystery that surrounds 33 AD. On top of all that, I don't think we've heard the last of all this stuff that's come out of RJ Brande's will. Yeah I think there's probably going to be some changes. I don't know how drastic they'll be. But I have a feeling this is going to be an exciting series.
ReplyDeleteAgreed
ReplyDelete