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geoffsebesta (geoffsebesta) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-08-18 11:18:00

Entry tags:

creator: keith giffen, creator: larry mahlstedt, creator: paul levitz, group: legion of super-heroes, title: legion of super-heroes

Legion of Super-Giffen; Prologue 1
LSHv3#1

Welcome to the Legion of Super-Heroes. This is the real stuff, not that watered-down second/thirdhand tripe they feed you kids these days.

You're not going to understand it. Right now, it's enough to just look at it. We'll figure it out as we go along.

Pretend you're twelve years old.

For some reason, those are supposed to be two different panels -- that's Ayla's elbow sticking out of the left side of the first panel. Yet they work even better because it looks like a normal portrait. I don't know if this is a happy accident or what.

^^That page could use better coloring.

Some authentically dark stuff to be reading at the corner drugstore in 1984.

Pop art.

EDIT:::: Ashtoreth wrote this synopsis of the issue:

"The Legion of Super-villains has invaded a sword-and-sorcery type world, where they probably ordered the slaves to make that Mayan-style disc. They talk evil stuff.

Micro Lad has stunningly bad luck to rob the casino planet that Dream Girl and Star Boy (nowadays StarMAN) are vacationing at. The Legion of SuperVillain's teleporter rescues Micro Lad after Shrinking Violet is called in to find him. Violet has a grudge because Micro Lad previously kidnapped her, put her in sensory deprivation, and had her replaced by a shapechanger.

The couple talking about restoring a world are Mon-el and Shadow Lass. Mon-el was named that because Superman thought they were related, so the 'el' is honorary. He's actually a Daxamite (same powers as Kryptonians, except their kryptonite is lead) and this is Daxam, which was conquered by Darkseid in the Great Darkness Saga back when New Gods were still rare. Darkseid mindcontrolled the Daxamites and altered their sun to give them powers and terraformed the ENTIRE PLANET to look like his face. The Legion is helping re-terraform the planet. Shadow Lass is, incidentally, the same race as the Sinestro Lantern who is chained to a book of scary stories.

The naked chicks are on Light Lass' (Ayla) home planet of Winath, where she's been hiding since she decided superheroing sux. Almost everyone on the planet is twins. And nudity is acceptable for farming. Sounds like a fanboy dream!

The Legion of Super Heroes arrives by spaceship on Takron-Galtos, the prison planet. The short kid with heat vision is Ol-vir, previously described as a child who worships Darkseid. Can't remember if he's Kryptonian or Daxamite. He's broken out of prison and sacrifices an alien guard to Darkseid. Ron-karr is a punk. Ultra Boy has Kryptonian level powers, but usable only one at a time. The Legion of SuperVillains teleports many of the criminals away and blocks the Legion of Super Heroes attempts to follow."

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	zegas 2009-08-18 12:26 pm UTC (link)
	I almost bought this issue recently. I've actually never read any substantial amount of Legion comics and thought this may have been a decent start. Thanks for the post! (Reply to this) (Thread)

	geoffsebesta 2009-08-18 12:34 pm UTC (link)
	Your appreciation of Keith Giffen's badassery is thanks enough. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	jlroberson 2009-08-18 01:45 pm UTC (link)
	Yes. I remember this, and it was awesome. I'll argue that the Legion that Geoff Johns and Gary Frank depict is a proper continuation. But it won't take DC long to wreck it again. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	geoffsebesta 2009-08-18 08:11 pm UTC (link)
	Haven't read it. Now I'm curious. The trust of the LSH community has already been violated, and it can never be the same. It happened fifteen years ago. It's just too late. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

jlroberson
2009-08-19 04:42 am UTC (link)

It was the "Superman and the Legion" story in ACTION not long ago. It's been collected. Wherein Geoff Johns manages to have two sequences that, yeah, are about Clark's friendship with the Legion, but also are about how everyone remembers their childhood friendships and what they give us. Johns, I think, is at his very best when he's writing about Clark, because he understands (like Morrison) that Superman's true appeal is in being an odd sort of Everyman, that Superman's story is how we feel inside, writ large. This is the second of those sequences:
http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/710493.html

It's not too easy to write about something NICE and make it interesting, and to be sentimental without making you barf. Gary Frank's art helps a lot in that.

As far as this Legion and continuity--why? They're in the future. What Johns did was simply say that they hadn't been written about in a while, that's all. So he went back to them. No retcon, no reboot, nothing necessary, one just picks up where it left off, which fortunately wasn't too bad a place, and already well-developed. He just needs to explain why Superman forgot them and it's done. But I think that was explained as the Trapper's doing.

The Levitz/Giffen Legion was already becoming transitional to a more mature kind of DC comic--nowadays it would almost look innocent by comparison to the rest of the line. But back then, it was a book that was serious on the drama. People COULD die. Worlds COULD be destroyed, even universes. You knew, reading it, that it would not be a static book one month to the next. That was, I think, why it was appealing. And it was, being Giffen, like OMEGA MEN heavy on the guck. I remember the issue when we found the real nature of the Durlans, when we saw their devastated world, and the constantly-shifting formless bodies they really have(as opposed to the Orange Spock one they wear for the benefit of others) and the nature of their combat. That stuck with me. For the first time I understood why Durlans give people in the 30th/31st century the creeps.

To be perfectly honest, though, I didn't care for the other two Legions. The first, well, it just wasn't done for me anyway, it was for kids at the time ten years younger than me. As for the more recent Waid version, it seemed too smugly CW-ready for my taste and the youth-against-age thing seemed very silly. Two things I did like: when Brainy casually cut off Cham's hand, and the unique relationship problems of Tinya, which seemed like the worst asshole-who-won't-stay-off-her-cellphone situation I can imagine.

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	Mod note angelophile 2009-08-18 01:56 pm UTC (link)
	Could you crop down the size of the preview image, please? This is well over the 400x300 pixels maximum size rule. Thanks. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: Mod note geoffsebesta 2009-08-18 08:11 pm UTC (link)
	whoops, sorry, I misread it. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	idreading 2009-08-18 03:29 pm UTC (link)
	Er, I'm not sure what the point of posting random nonsensical panels with no explanation is. Comics is a storytelling medium, and there's no story here. (Reply to this) (Thread)

saralakali
2009-08-18 07:06 pm UTC (link)

Some would say this post adheres to the spirit of the posting restrictions that (hopefully, somewhat) protect us from cease-and-desist orders. S-D isn't a place to read comics for free. It's a place to share snippets that a) whet your appetite for more and b) provide a springboard for discussion.

Plus there's plenty of posting of random nonsensical panels around here. Check under the tag 'in-joke: context is for the weak'.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	idreading 2009-08-18 07:19 pm UTC (link)
	Well, yes. If the panels are funny or actually whet the appetite. This is just random and pointless. They're not even very pretty. In fact, I think this is discouraging me from reading more than anything, especially the "This Legion is the right one, but don't expect to understand what's going on" attitude. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	galateus 2009-08-18 07:45 pm UTC (link)
	Um, what? Dittoing what idreading said. This post doesn't do either of those things. It just confuses those of us who haven't already seen the whole thing on our own--which practically defeats the point of posting scans at all. 'Lots of scans without much commentary can be difficult to understand,' you know. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)