Excuse Me While I React to This

Article at CBR about how Green Lantern #20 is going to be Geoff Johns's last issue on that title. I read it because Tim O'Neil, I think that's who it was, commented recently about how Johns was the only chance to make the Legion a success in 2013, and I was curious if Johns would say anything about what's next for him. (He didn't.)

But the first line of the article is, "DC Comics writer and Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns has spent the past fourteen years of his career revitalizing Silver and Golden Age characters such as Aquaman, Flash, the JSA, and the Legion of Super-Heroes."

Geoff Johns revitalized the Legion of Super-Heroes in much that same way that I revitalized my breakfast this morning. With all that that implies.

That's all I wanted to say. 

Trivia II

Remember when I did this? Here's another one. Following is a list of fictional generic American towns. The quiz is, for each one, identify the children's book series for which it is the setting. Answer in the comments. As far as the use of search engines to find the answers is concerned, I believe that we're all comfortable within the confines of the honour system. To commemorate the Victoria Day long weekend, there are 24 of them.

1. Deep Valley, MN
2. Midston, ?
3. Bayport, NY? NJ? MA?
4. Rocky Beach, CA
5. Mammoth Falls, NY
6. Lakeport, ?
7. Idaville, FL
8. Riverton, IN
9. River Heights, IL
10. Stoneybrook, CN
11. Grover’s Corner, NJ (Not Our Town!)
12. Sleepyside-on-Hudson, NY
13. Cranbury, CN
14. Adenville, UT
15. Shoreham, NJ
16. Carthage, NY
17. Cameron, MA
18. Shopton, NY
19. Sweet Valley, CA
20. Frog Creek, PA
21. Shadyside, ?
22. Greenfield, CN
23. Learning, VT
24. Walkerville, RI

I put one easy one in there for you.

Legion of Super-Heroes #20 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

On the Promethean Giant, Phantom Girl gives up and goes back to Bgtzl; Invisible Kid used his mysterious teleportation/dimensional travel powers to save he and Polar Boy by going to the Dimension of Dead Legionnaires he visited once before; Tharok gloats but reveals that Phantom Girl was the one he was most worried about.

Among the ruins of Weber's World, the largest group of Legionnaires is trying to figure out what happens next.

On the Sorcerer's World, Ultra Boy, Glorith, Chameleon Boy, Blok, and the Black Witch fight Validus in the planet's core; he's trying to destroy something important. The Witch and Glorith fight him off by removing the Sorcerer's World from the universe, leaving Validus floating helpless in space and Ultra Boy and Cham teleported back to Earth, where they find Legion HQ in ruins and the Persuader having left Triplicate Girl in seriously bad shape.

Review:

This is a good issue. All the storylines are advanced in interesting ways, the art is fantastic, and I want to read what happens next. If Paul Levitz had been able to turn in this kind of a performance from the start of this his third run on the Legion, they wouldn't even be considering cancelling it.

One point I want to make about Invisible Kid taking himself and Polar Boy to the Happy Frunting Grounds, or Dimen-Shanghalla, or whatever you want to call it: commenter ampm1789 totally nailed it in the comments to last issue; nice one. It is true that, in original continuity, there weren't really dead Legionnaires there; there was a demon who tricked Jacques into thinking he was Lyle Norg, but wasn't. No matter; Levitz wants to do it differently this time.

I'm not much on this business of the Black Witch calling Cham "man of Durla". She knows him! She would absolutely call him "Chameleon Boy"! As established by Levitz himself! I mean, yes, okay, he's doing it differently this time, but why change that?

Many fans are unhappy about how Phantom Girl is being portrayed in this story. I'm one of them. A Legionnaire surrendering to despair and running away? It isn't pleasant reading. Having said that, though, I don't say that the story is bad for that reason. Anybody remember how Sun Boy was portrayed in the Five Years Later run? Similar kind of thing, but it made for some extremely powerful comic books. That was a run that made me care about it by taking me out of my comfort zone and giving me storylines that I really wanted to turn out differently. And Levitz is doing the same here, and it's working. Plus, of course, Tharok's comment here makes it somewhat likely that she's going to come to the rescue by the end of the story, which of course would be satisfying. Let's see how it plays out before we pronounce judgment; let's see how it rereads.

Let's take note of the fact that the Legion has actually been kind of effective so far. Validus and the Emerald Empress have been taken out of commission, leaving only Tharok and the Persuader (plus whatever Fatal Fifth we haven't learned about yet). (Although the Empress is on the cover of #21, or so says the solicit I could find.) And they're supposed to wrap this up by #22 (leaving #23 for the aftermath). That seems doable.

Remember when LSHv5 was coming to an end? Shooter and Manapul? And then eventually Thyme and Bachs? The last few issues of that series seemed like a death march. So did "End of an Era", actually. And "The Magic Wars" wasn't that hot either. This isn't like that; this is damn good work. (Except for the revolving artists.) This is like "For No Better Reason" or "Widening Rifts". This is going to be a shame to say goodbye to.

Art: 85 panels/20 pages = 4.3 panels/page. 3 splash pages.

Man, it's good to have Portela back on art. The pages look better. Look at them! There's a unity to the panel layout; the whole story seems in good hands in a way that it hasn't since, well, Giffen's issue, but in a different way. And of course the whole thing is very pretty. It's not a pretty story, but at the moment I don't care.

LSHv7 Cancelled

If you haven't heard, August's issue of Legion of Super-Heroes V7 will be the last.

This is not unexpected; sales have been low for a while, and this Fatal Five storyline has felt kinda like an off-ramp. I can't really blame DC for doing this, although I can certainly blame them for letting things get to this state in the first place.

DC hasn't said anything about it that I know of, but we know the Legion will be back, sometime, in some way. It is inevitable. DC's had too much tied up in the Legion for too long to give up on them entirely. So we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, Legion Abstract will remain open. There's still more to talk about, and the future is not here yet.

Legion of Super-Heroes #19 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

The Emerald Empress is trashing Weber's World, and Mon-El shows up to fight her, followed by two groups of Legionnaires, the ones who were with Mon-El and the ones who took off from Earth in an improvised spaceship. The Legionnaires overcome the Empress, but Mon-El is seriously injured.

The Promethean giant scratches where it itches, under Tharok's control, and Phantom Girl thinks that Polar Boy and Invisible Kid have been killed by this attack. We'll see.

Tharok's control over the Promethean giant may not be perfect, just like his control over the Persuader, whom he sends to Earth.

Ultra Boy, Chameleon Boy, and Glorith arrive on the Sorcerer's World just in time for Validus to attack.

Review:

The plot continues to advance about like in the previous issue. The story is probably equally good, then, but is hampered by the awful awful art. It's distracting. Fortunately we get Portela back next issue. Again, for this story, I'd rather have Giffen, but Portela's got to be better than this mess.

Weren't the Legionnaires supposed to be hurtling into the sun this issue? Stupid solicits.

Art:

Scott Kolins 41 panels/10 pages = 4.1 panels/page. 1 splash page. Jeff Johnson 48 panels/10 pages = 4.8 panels/page (although there was an 11-panel page with 8 little headshots).

This was an ugly damn issue. Is it because Giffen ducked out unexpectedly that we had this one-two punch of Kolins and Johnson? I already knew I wasn't going to like Kolins's art, but I hoped that the Johnson half of the book would be better. Sadly no. Both artists turned in lively performances, for sure, but the action wasn't as easy to follow as one could ask for, and the characters were rendered terribly.

Kolins's pages were bordered with white and a kind of double-outline pattern; Johnson's pages with black. Why? Shouldn't the comic book at least pretend to have some kind of artistic unity? And the changeover happens in the middle of the fight between the Empress and Mon-El! I think J.P. Arencibia said it best when he said "#notpro".

No, it's just terrible. Look at Phantom Girl's inflated abdomen on page 7 panel 1, or Dream Girl and Shadow Lass on page 19. Brutal.

One point: I can't say I'm a big fan of the new Emerald Empress's design, but I do like how the Emerald Eye is now big enough to ride on; that's kinda cool.