Legion of Super-Heroes Club: Weekly Reader for May 1st 2019

[Don-El]

Legion of Super-Heroes (2010 6th Series): Issue #3

Excellent ending to this first cycle of storylines! The Earth Man storyline shows him slowly acclimating to the team, and the team to him. The irony and bitter humor of having an alien’s power ring on his finger doesn’t escape Earth Man…after a while anyway. Being compelled to go help aliens, etc, is just too much for him in spite of the great power of the Green Lantern ring, and he tosses it out in the end (reminding me of Greek Tragedy again for some reason).

The ending also of the Saturn Queen attack subplot was satisfying. I really loved the attached scene of Sensor Girl (Projectra) scoffing at Saturn Queen thinking she is royalty; the comment reminds us of Sensor Girl’s unsavory past and the trouble she caused the Legion earlier in their history.

I would rate this, on a scale of 1-10, a solid 9! Decent artwork, fairly enjoyable storylines. The writing doesn’t really slow down enough to dig in like say Tom King would. I wish the thousands dead on Titan had been dealt with a little more seriously. “Well, it would have been so much worse without the Legion” doesn’t really dig in on the tough psychological scars that real life heroes deal with when they can’t save folks in spite of endangering themselves to do so, for example.

The plan now is to come back to these storylines once a month and finish them out eventually, just like you get your new comics once a month and wait to see what happens next!

We post a single comic to read for the new Weekly selection tomorrow since we are also committing to an hour with the Watchalong Wednesday night May 8th!!!

[JLWWSM]

I had to look up the word “temerity”. That’s a good word. I’m going to use that in a sentence this week!

Thanks for hosting @Don-El!

[Don-El]

The new book will be announced in a few hours

[Vroom]

waits with baited breath

[Mystery_and_wonder]

I know I am late to the party, but the Legion Club weekly read is a great idea. I hadn’t read this 2010 LSH run, but now that I am almost halfway through it I am happy that I did. I think Levitz effectively captures the spirit of his early 80’s run in the multi-threaded, character driven plots the drive the book. The 31st Century depicted here is definitely not the more halcyon version I’ve read earlier, but it’s actually a bit more relevant to our own time. The Legionnaires are a bit edgier, but that’s also in keeping with the changes in how comic book characters are depicted between then and now. Even with that, they are all instantly recognizable, even without the little boxes which introduce each character every time they appear in an issue.

I look forward to finishing the series in the next week and see how the storylines evolve and resolve.

[Don-El]

Welcome aboard Beniac-5!

This is actually a two-year club due to the sheer weight and immensity of Legion comics on the service here in the library.

We’re going to come back to this storyline, but in a month or so …very similar to when you buy comics on the newsstand and wait a month to read the next issue but in this case will be reading three at once or so.

Please consider getting a season pass to this club. We’re going to be reading it’s either two or three series of Legion a month, and occasionally just do two weeks in a row of six or 8 issues in total to read a complete run of a storyline.

One week a month ( that has the first Wednesday in it ) we do the watch along for Legion. We just a very light reading that week.

[Don-El]

I fully agree, Mr. Levitz IS Mr. Legion for writing!

There is one other writer we’ll encounter next week who also does a phenomenal job of handling the larger team, having some edge, but also keeping the utopian feel of the 31st century!!

Stay tuned.

[Mystery_and_wonder]

Hi Don-El,

Thank you for the welcome and I will absolutely sign up for the full pass and follow along as much as time allows. One of my favorite things about the Legion is the richness of the stories and the world building around them and through them. They certainly deserve that slower reading.

As for Paul Levitz, I completely agree. For me, both work he did on the Legion in the early eighties along with Marv Wolfman’s writing on Titans is still my reference point for comic book writing.

[Jay_Kay]

Coming back to this, honestly, while I think Levitz is definitely one of the best Legion writers ever, I don’t know how well it works in modern comics and comes off as kind of flat. Like, it’s not bad, but if I didn’t have any love/interest for these characters and I read this for the first time, I would have probably been completely cold to the concept.

Onto the questions:

“How do you feel about Earthgov’s demand to make the Legion take in Earth-Man?”

What’s odd for me is that EarthGov acts like there’s been no other human Legionnaires, but…Colossal Boy, Bouncing Boy, Wildfire, Invisible Kid, Sun Boy…all from Earth! All present in this story! It really shows that the EarthGov at this time really doesn’t care about representation in the Legion, they just trying to force the Legion out.

“How likable is Brainiac 5 in this storyline? Why?”

Not really in these issues. He’s an essential member – the Legion probably would have much more problems dealing with the debris of Titan without him. So you put up with his douchiness because he is a valuable member.

“What are your thoughts on the state of the Green Lantern corp in the 31st century?”

It’s interesting – I forget how they were destroyed, and I can kind of get why for story reasons they’re gone, because otherwise the GLC and the Legion would be constantly running over each other, but it feels…wrong to have a DC universe without the GLC.

“Which of the subplots running (Saturn Girl, Ultra Boy, Chameleon Boy) did you find most intriguing? Why?”

…Ultra Boy and Chameleon Boy had subplots? I seriously don’t see it for either character. Saturn Girl is the only one with any real subplot, and it’s compelling enough, even though we don’t get any real resolution in these three issues.

[Don-El]

Gee, if enough people wanted to be chairperson, we could have even had a vote, like these folks…

[Jay_Kay]

@Don-El, I think you’re posting on the wrong thread.

That said, now that I think about it, did the Legion even have enough members for…23 different votes?

[Don-El]

Oppps