Karen: I was pretty excited when I saw the cover to Adventure Comics #8 featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes. It seemed like the Legion was finally back, and I was looking forward to diving in to a new tale of the team. Unfortunately this book is just one big tease. We never get a complete story, but 4 beginnings of stories, 3 of which are apparently going to be resolved in another title, Superman: Last Stand on New Krypton. Geez DC, you finally got me interested in one of your books again, only to tick me off by using it as a scheme to push another title on me. This was just lousy, and my enthusiasm for picking up anything with the Legion now is quite low.
Doug: If you've never given some of the Bronze Age black & white magazines a look, you should. Rampaging Hulk, Savage Sword of Conan, Planet of the Apes -- great stuff! Many of the writers and artists you love in the four-color world have some nice, nice work in these pages. If you're one who's a little put-off by the Essentials, don't be. The art in these books is usually much more detailed, largely because it was meant to be printed without color. The wash and zipatone techniques often add a lot of texture to the pencils. The Apes magazine picks up where Battle for the Planet of the Apes left off.
Karen: Diamond Select has announced that it will be putting out some figures based on the Universal Monsters line. From what I have seen of the designs, these look outstanding. The first one available is the Creature from the Black Lagoon, complete with the lovely Julie Adams! Price on this is $19.99 but might be found for less. It's good to see some sharp-looking Universal figures coming out again. (http://www.diamondselecttoys.com/)
Doug: Back in December I posted a couple of pictures of Mattel's upcoming Retro-Action DC Super-Heroes figures -- Mego throwbacks at their finest! Today, take a look at a group shot from last month's ToyFair, held in New York City. Wow! If these guys truly aren't the second coming of the Megos we loved as kids, then I don't know what is! The detail is a bit better than The World's Greatest Super-Heroes from 35 years ago, but the spirit is certainly here. I have a real soft spot for the Batman with the removable cowl; my first Mego Batman was ordered from the Sears catalog for Christmas one year, and had this feature. Mego soon changed to the non-removable version...
Doug: Back in December I posted a couple of pictures of Mattel's upcoming Retro-Action DC Super-Heroes figures -- Mego throwbacks at their finest! Today, take a look at a group shot from last month's ToyFair, held in New York City. Wow! If these guys truly aren't the second coming of the Megos we loved as kids, then I don't know what is! The detail is a bit better than The World's Greatest Super-Heroes from 35 years ago, but the spirit is certainly here. I have a real soft spot for the Batman with the removable cowl; my first Mego Batman was ordered from the Sears catalog for Christmas one year, and had this feature. Mego soon changed to the non-removable version...
Karen, you might want to keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming Legion Of Super-Heroes #1, by Paul Levitz and Yildiray Cinar. Looks very good, from what I've seen.
ReplyDeleteAlso, The Brave And The Bold #34 will feature the Legion and the Doom Patrol, and #35 will have the subs and the Inferior Five.
What do any of our readers think of the Legion after the original run in Superboy (that became Legion of Super-Heroes after #259)?
ReplyDeleteI pretty much missed the entire first reboot (the Baxter paper series), where the team aged to adulthood. I was on board for the second reboot (that included Legionnaires) and generally liked it until some of the stuff towards the end. I didn't care for Monstress, but enjoyed Gates. I thought the Legion Lost story was OK, but the pay-off (as I recall) didn't lead to "bigger and better" as I hoped it would. It was nice that that era was touched on in Legion of Three Worlds.
I started with Waid/Kitson's third reboot, and it was OK for the most part. I enjoyed the Supergirl issues, and actually have quite a pile of those books yet to read -- you can tell my attention wavered. After the last issue of that series, I've not read anything subsequent (no Superman and the Legion, etc.).
Doug
My history with the Legion is as follows: I knew of their existence since I was a kid from seeing them in some Silver Age Superman stories, but wasn't much aware of them.
ReplyDeleteBy the early 90s, I got ahold of late 80s Paul Levitz / Keith Giffen stories (adult Legionnaires). I was inmediately hooked with the LSH.
However, getting comics was kind of difficult down here, and I missed out on the Keith Giffen / Bierbaum Couple era, and when getting comics became a tad more easy here, I didn't care much for the Post Zero Hour Legion. Sure, I read the occassional issue, and enjoyed it, but they weren't MY Legion.
Then there was another step forward in getting comics here, and I decided to give Legion Lost a try. I was hooked again, it was a great starting point, and I stayed on board ever since.
I liked the book called The Legion; they weren't MY Legion, but they were the Legion... if that makes any sense.
I was sad to see them go, because I had again became comfortable with the Legion... but the Waid/Kitson threeboot wasn't bad. Then we began getting the original Legion in Action Comics and all that, and I'm happier everyday with more and more of MY Legion. :)
Even my favorite Legionnaire, Quislet, is back!
MaGnUs --
ReplyDeleteI always liked Mon-el and Wildfire. Both tragic heroes. I like Mon-el because he's basically Superboy without all the dopey Superman Silver Age baggage. Wildfire just had a cool costume and backstory when Cockrum introduced him.
Wildfire looks cool, yeah, and Mon-El has always had horrible costumes, poor man. Beyond that, he's like Superboy, but with no actual personality of his own, unfortunately... I always liked Colossal Boy, Tellus, Magnetic Kid, Polar Boy, Chameleon, and Ultra Boy.
ReplyDeleteAmong the female Legionnaires, Phantom Girl was always my favorite.