And the Names Have All Changed Since You Hung Around, Too
Originally I was just going to touch on Johns and Manapul leaving Adventure Comics in whatever I ended up writing about the second issue. But with all the recent developments it looks like there's enough to say to warrant its own post.
What Happened That You Have to Know About:
Disney bought Marvel. Warner Brothers waved its hands over DC in an impressive-looking way. Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul quit Adventure Comics as of #6 (I think). Paul Levitz resigned as President and Publisher and was announced as the new Adventure writer.
When Johns and Manapul quit, there was an outpouring of grief fit to break one's heart. How sad it was that they were leaving a title they had brought to such great heights. Were there any issues of Adventure that came out between #1 and #2? Because I only read one issue, and it was pretty fluffy. Something short of a legendary run, is what I'm saying.
Similarly, this business of how Levitz is taking over Adventure Comics, "featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes"... did I miss something? The Adventure I remember featured Superboy II and had a few pages at the back that were allegedly about the Legion. A lot of spin on the ball around here.
A lot of what I think about Levitz coming back is the same as what I thought about Shooter coming back, here. Levitz is, of course, a very different sort of cat from how Shooter is. I've never met either one, so I'm commenting on their public personae more than their actual characters, but I'm more optimistic about the guy who doesn't sound like he thinks he already knows everything there is to know.
And now we have some questions. I have no opinion at all about the answers, but we might as well list the questions:
Was this always the plan?
Did Johns leave because Levitz was coming on board, or did Levitz come on board because Johns left?
Who's the artist going to be? How long before Keith Giffen sticks his spoon in?
Do Clayton Henry and Mike Shoemaker still have parts to play on this title?
Does Levitz still have the mojo?
Is Levitz going to follow through on Johns's plans, or is that all out the window now?
Is the focus of Adventure going to shift away from Kon-El and toward the Legion? More than it might have anyway?
So, is it good news? Yeah, it is... but I can't tell if it's good news compared to what would have happened if this hadn't happened. Or if this is what would have happened all along anyway. I don't know what to make of it.
Labels: Articles, Legion of Super-Heroes
posted by Matthew E @ 9:27 PM
21 Comments:
This has supposedly been in the works for a couple years, culminating in Wednesday's announcement. There are clues, about the movie business in particular, that make sense now in retrospect (see speedforce.org's post on the Flash movie, for example).
But it does sound awfully quick for him to take over as writer. On the one hand Levitz says that he's got a lot of research to do to get up to speed; on the other hand, issue 2 is coming out now and he's picking up with issue 7, and given the lead time required that means he's probably writing it now.
DiDio has said for a while now that there are big future plans for the Legion (no pun intended). I'd love to see a Levitz-written Adventure Comics featuring the Legion (as opposed to Adventure Comics featuring Superboy with the Legion as a backup). I suspect - and this is pure speculation - that he can easily work with Johns' version and put his own spin on the things that Johns had planned.
Someone on Twitter asked if this new writing job on the Legion is like the gold watch you get when you retire, handed out as a thanks for years of service.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that we tease him a lot 'cause we got him on the spot. Welcome back, Paul!
Second time I've used that title and as far as I can tell you're the first one to pick up on it.
I think it's great news...hopefully...about Levitz. He's the one who made me fall in love with the Legion, and his version is still the one I preferred to all others.
Of course, lots of time has passed, and who knows whether he's still got the magic.
Also of course, a lot of what I loved was the deep characterization and world-building he'd done, and neither the characters nor the world are the same, nor can (or should) they revert to that. So we'll see.
But I wasn't buying Adventure (I've never been impressed by Kon-El), and I will now, so it accomplishes that much.
Any word about who's taking PL's place as president/publisher?
By the way, I think this is my first time commenting, but I love the site.
Thanks very much. No, no word yet on who's going to be Publisher.
I wonder how Levitz's style is going to play. He tends to have long, meandering, interlocking arcs and subplots that don't build to too many climaxes, but that do provide complete(ish) stories in every issue. It doesn't seem very impressive when you're in the middle of it but in retrospect you can see that it was pretty good. It's a style that needs a long run of issues to reveal its virtues.
But that was in the '80s. Does that technique work better now? Not as well? Does he have other approaches he wants to try?
One problem with Levitz is that he's not that great at coming up with new stuff. What Legionnaires did he create: Invisible Kid II, Tellus, Quislet, Computo I suppose, Atmos, Karate Kid II... I think the list of villains is even less impressive. Like Geoff Johns, he's more of a combiner than an originator. And I think the Legion could use an originator.
Levitz can do today's TPB-oriented style, I hope. The Great Darkness Saga is the obvious example, but there's also the LSV arc, the Emerald Empress/Sensor Girl storyline, etc. But he was definitely writing space(soap) opera most of the time, with subplots that would dangle 8 or 10 issues before they became the focus of a storyline. As you say, we'll have to see what he comes up with now and how folks react to it.
You're dead on about Levitz's trouble coming up with new stuff. Even some of the new chrs you credit him with were co-creations. Quislet and Tellus, for example, both originated or were co-created with Steve Lightle.
At least, though, Levitz has publicly acknowledged this same weakness and is aware of it. He also values and seems to feed on collaboration. So I think it'll be important who the editor and artist are, and if they're folks that can help jumpstart and energize his imagination.
PL's a near-genius, though, at creatively using and revitalizing old concepts, and there are plenty of those rattling around the Legionverse. But to my mind, what's most important about his writing is characterization. His characters are distinct and well-defined and their personalities are stable. They can change over time, but they change in ways real people do. They have recognizable motivations and reactions.
To me, this is among the most important factors in any comic, esp. one with a huge ensemble cast. You need to know who the characters are and care about what happens to them. That's the only kind of investment that will keep people (well, me, anyway) coming back each month to find out what happens to them.
Is *that* technique workable now?
Levitz can do today's TPB-oriented style, I hope.
I hope he doesn't try. I don't like it. I mean, I don't like it when you have a perfectly good little story that any sane human would try to tell in two issues and it gets fluffed out into six issues to fit the trade. I hope Levitz is old-school enough not to do that.
I mean, I don't like it when you have a perfectly good little story that any sane human would try to tell in two issues and it gets fluffed out into six issues to fit the trade. I hope Levitz is old-school enough not to do that.
Agreed. I guess I meant that he could do it in the sense of "anything they can do, he can do better." I really liked his pacing and his characterization and I hope he continues to bring that to the table...with maybe some new stuff learned along the way. I wasn't wowed by his JSA stuff a few years back, so I'm not flipping out...but I can't express how much I loved the Legion when he was writing it, and how much his stories have continued to be an impact on me.
So...Long Live the Legion!
Levitz invented the modern TPB style. It's just that he packed it with a ton of character development and planted seeds early on that would pay off later, as opposed to making each volume exist in a vacuum. It's a style that we still see in a lot of Vertigo titles.
It reminds me of the famed "Levitz Grid" that Denny O'Neil talked about in the DC Comics Guide To Writing Comics, which was basically a flowchart to keep track of subplots, and always having the threads of things to come show up early on as setup, so that the story itself could be more focused on getting to the point. In other words, he was doing some of that story decompression, it's just that there were other stories going on while the setup was happening, which made the story much more dense.
Was this always the plan?
This has been in the works for a long time. You can bet that if Levitz was returning to writing that the Legion would be high on his list. As he said in his statement:
"It will come as no surprise to anyone who’s heard me answer a comic convention request, “When are you going to do more Legion stories?” that I’m going to step away from my executive desk in coming months to resume my writing career, in comics and hopefully other forms as well."
Was it always the plan? Always is a very strong word in comics, and well, any form of entertainment.
Did Johns leave because Levitz was coming on board, or did Levitz come on board because Johns left?
Perhaps a bit of both, as Johns picks up speed (pardon the pun) with other titles. As I said before, if Levitz is going to write, and with the restoration of his version of the Legion (for the most part), him heading back to the 31st isn't a big surprise.
Who's the artist going to be? How long before Keith Giffen sticks his spoon in?
Soon, I hope! I wouldn't count on it being a long run though. As for who.... with Mankhe on GL, and Manapul over to Flash, Ivan Reis seems to be left hanging...
Do Clayton Henry and Mike Shoemaker still have parts to play on this title?
I'm wondering that too. I quite like Henry's style, and as a long time fan of Mike Shoemaker, I've been really interested to see what he does in comics
Does Levitz still have the mojo?
I really enjoyed his JSA arc a couple of years ago. It seems the story muscles are still there.
Is Levitz going to follow through on Johns's plans, or is that all out the window now?
As with any writer, he'll probably keep what he likes and toss what he doesn't. It wouldn't surprise me though, to learn that he was involved in some of the plans in some way.
Is the focus of Adventure going to shift away from Kon-El and toward the Legion? More than it might have anyway?
Sounds like that to me. It seems as though this is going to be Adventure Comics Featuring the Legion of Super Heroes.
I guess now we know what could ever lead him, back here where we need him!
as a long time fan of Mike Shoemaker, I've been really interested to see what he does in comics
Oh, interesting. I have to admit I know next to nothing about Shoemaker. SNL writer, right? What are the unique properties of Mike Shoemaker?
Shoemaker is currently a producer on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon". According to his IMDB entry, he was with Saturday Night Live from 1989 to 2009. He's also on Twitter as @shoemakermike.
Mark Waid said to Shoemaker last night on Twitter: "Congrats on a dream come true, Mike! I know how much you love the LSH! Long Live the Legion!"
But that's pretty much all I know about him.
One problem with Levitz is that he's not that great at coming up with new stuff. What Legionnaires did he create: Invisible Kid II, Tellus, Quislet, Computo I suppose, Atmos, Karate Kid II... I think the list of villains is even less impressive. Like Geoff Johns, he's more of a combiner than an originator. And I think the Legion could use an originator.
I know that Levitz has said that he's not all that great at coming up with new villains (not sure that I'd particularly agree... but I get where he's coming from), although I'm very pleased with the new Legionnaires that he added to the mix.
As for the Legion needing an originator, I think that Levitz is more of an originator than you might think.
His worldbuilding, which went on in the background, and wove through his entire run, really built up the 30th century so that it seemed like a real place, much like Opal City became a real place in Robinson's run on Starman.
It's not so much that he was creating great big concepts (like a cool new flashy villain), as much as he was adding little bits and pieces to the 30th century with every issue.
Well, true, but it's not even the big flashy villain that I want from him; it's the medium useful villain.
I don't disagree... but sometimes reimagining is just as good. As he did in the case of Starfinger which was enough of a reinterpretation to be a new character. Or the depth he added to the character of The Emerald Empress.
One of the things at which Levitz excels is taking the characters from where they are and moving them forward. Each of his Legionnaires had a character arc that moved them forward and put them in different places than when he started with them.
I don't think that there's any danger that he's simply going to pick up where he left off.
Especially if and when Giffen gets involved.
The other thing about Levitz is that he ends stories. One good example is the one you mentioned, the Emerald Empress. That was a cool scene, the one with her and Sensor Girl. Only problem is, when you end stories, you have to have others to replace them, and Levitz isn't a generative enough force to do that; the Legion was looking a little tired toward the end of his last run. Giffen and the Bierbaums found a solution to that, but...
The end of the Baxter run was looking a little tired. I can kinda agree with that to a point. Part of it is that there was a chunk of stories between Laroque leaving and Giffen returning where Levitz needed to find a direction again. He had had moments like that before... around the beginning of the Baxter run, where he needed to find something to grab onto to generate new stories. At that point, it was the influx of new members that seemed to kick start the stories.
But at the end of the Magic Wars, he had set the stage for something new and different... exploring a world where technology had failed and magic had become a force to be reckoned with.
Unfortunately, Levitz didn't have the energy to delve into that new status quo... and the incoming team choe to take the team in another direction. But I think that the possibilities for new types of stories were there.
The Baxter run was looking tired toward the end of his run, yes...but it was a long run, remember. Even by the standards of the 80s, which are very different from today's. Levitz turned out a monthly comic, sometimes two (including annuals and the Tales of the LSH), every single month (with none of today's ridiculous schedule lapses) for the better part of a decade. No wonder he was tired!
And I'd say there were some medium useful villains he created. The Khund cyber warriors, the Gil'dishpan (Zymyr and Hywyndyr), Projectra's relatives Hagga and Pharoxx, Starfinger II...none of these are home runs, but they add something, and had potential to be developed.
Nonetheless, I do agree with you (and PL) that it's not his strength. The worldbuilding stuff (I especially love the periodic entries from the Encylopaedia Galactica, 30th century travel guides, UP survey reports, etc., as a way of providing exposition and detail) is his strength, and is very cool, and helps a lot with suspension of disbelief.
i would like to see shooter and levitz co-write the legion.
That's one of those ideas that when you think about it it seems like it'd work great if it wasn't for the fact that it wouldn't work at all.
By which I mean, Levitz and Shooter may in fact be two great tastes that taste great together, but how many successful writing teams are there out there? And how many of them contain notoriously strong personalities like Shooter?
But I can certainly see the point of it.
There's one thing I want Levitz to bring with him from the corporate highlands and that's "succession planning." It's unlikely he will write the Legion for as he did the last time. And who takes over? If you have someone like Shoemaker interested AND reasonably able or at least promising, don't dump him like week-old fish. Keep him on the line, involved, so that when Paul leaves again, you've got someone ready to continue on.
Well, I think it's a good idea, but do comic-book companies really do things like that?
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