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.
It is funny how quickly people forget. This is not the first time Legion fans have been in this situation. The title will return, it is only a question of how and when. I am looking forward to the final issue, especially Kevin Maguire's artwork.
ReplyDeleteIt's entirely possible that DC's already got the next step for the Legion lined up and just has not announced it yet. Certainly the wording of the solicit suggests that. Plus I saw a comment from a DC creative type on the Legion of Substitute Podcasters Facebook page to the effect that "stuff is coming", which again is vague but hopeful.
ReplyDeleteI think my disappointment lies in how DC squandered the opportunity that the New 52 presented. Even if they didn't want yet another total reboot, it certainly was possible to lead with more exciting material than the largely conflict-free stories that opened volume 7. "Sun Boy puts out a fire in the Pacific" and "Lighting Lad stops a storm in Istanbul" aren't really stories that grab new readers. Inconsistent and changing art teams didn't help matters either. It's frustrating that it's cancelled now: the current story is the first time in volume 7 that I've really been eagerly awaiting the next issue, but even this has been something of a misfire with the changing art teams.
ReplyDeleteEr, Nate again, "Lightning Lad stops a storm in Istanbul" was probably a better comic that my typo'd "Lighting Lad." Lighting Lad just hopes the actors hit their marks.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't even call it an opportunity. Remember that the New 52 was a reboot. Reboots by their very nature are alienating. You can produce good comics in their wake, as has happened many times with the Legion, but they're still alienating. And when the comics are competent-but-uninspiring like this run of the Legion was, well...
ReplyDeleteWell I'm certainly ready for another Reboot. It's been ages since we had a decent one.
ReplyDeleteAnother reboot is neither necessary nor desirable. Any changes they want to make, they can make without messing with continuity.
ReplyDeleteI was dreading this, tho its not surprising...DC have hinted for a while now that they wanted a trimmed-down LSH to be remarketed as a 31st century JLA. All those plots gone to waste then; killing off Sun Boy and Star Boy, maiming Mon-El, the new scientific age of austerity, a revamped Fatal Five, and Tinya barely begun her leadership tenure...bloody wasted!
ReplyDeleteI don't expect a reboot though...more prob the team will go way somewhere and turn up later as a much smaller group.
Dammit.
LONG LIVE THE LEGION! x.
I don't think that's what happened; I think that all those things you mentioned could be a way of whittling down the team membership to get to a smaller group.
ReplyDeleteBut anyway. I don't think any such change will be permanent. Even if they intend it to be. Years from now, Legion writers will know deep down that the Legion ought to have about twenty, twenty-five members, and so that's what we'll get. Sudden sweeping changes don't tend to have much staying power. Whatever DC does with the Legion in the coming months, the more drastic it is, the more you can reassure yourself with "this too shall pass".
No tears for this cancellation here.This book just wasn't worth the money.
ReplyDeleteNext time? Teenage Legion.The group's better when they're young and aspirational rather than old and jaded and as morose as this team's been.DC should also take their time bringing the LSH back.Make sure the new comic was worth the wait.
I'm okay with them being teenagers but I don't think their advanced age was the problem with this comic book.
ReplyDeleteAs far as taking their time... I can understand the argument, and I see the sense of it, but I personally do not want to wait.
Fortunately, we do still have a well-written and consistent Legion book running.
ReplyDeleteYou have been reading Abnett and Lanning's Hypernaturals, right? 11 issues thus far. Massively large teams of enhanced humans and aliens set a few hundred years in the future. You can reasonably call it "Legion done right" since they have done the Legion before.
I have! I'm quite impressed with it, too; very good comic book.
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading the issue - and it's... weird. It didn't feel like a proper end. It certainly felt packed with 'we have more story to tell' moments... and a lot of 'in other universes, maybe things will work out well' ponderings...
ReplyDeleteStill why is it when Keith Giffen touches the Legion, the universe is trashed? :)
My gut says 'reboot kind of like Green Lantern just had is coming.'
Then again, I've been reading the Legion for - wow - 50 years exactly... this is pretty much the only DC title left I still read after Final 52 Pickup Countdown Flashpoint and the Never Ending Crisis (now with Superboy-Prime bitchiness in all our titles).
Maybe I'm just being optimistic (you know - like the Legion tends to be).
The (completely uninformed) impression I get is that DC would really rather not bother with the Legion at all from now own.
ReplyDeleteHowever, they eventually will anyway, because
a) individual creators still like them
b) they still have a fan following
c) it's not like DC has an unlimited number of plausible candidates to star in their comic books
So it really just depends on whether DC gets desperate for some new titles, and on which writers and artists can put together a good Legion pitch, and how soon those things coincide.
And it might work, and it might not work. Obviously I hope it does, but look who we're dealing with here.
My local comics shop told me that the first Giffen issue was their lowest selling issue of the latest Legion run, and small wonder. Ugly, ugly art and a retread of the Magic Wars, only this time using a sci-fi excuse for the breakdown of technology, rather than magic. All the old-timers who'd seen it before bailed so they wouldn't have to suffer through it again.
ReplyDelete3Boot was the only version of the Legion that I did not read (and I did try, just couldn't like it).
I was quite hopeful for what Geoff Johns set up. Levitz & Co. wasted it by basically rehashing all their old ideas, and then Giffen coming on the scene finished the job. Keep Levitz and Giffen away from the next incarnation of Legion, please!
I don't think there's any doubt of that. Levitz is, I'm sure, done with the Legion. Giffen may not be but I can't see him being more than a guest artist at this point.
ReplyDelete