Legion #40

G,

The cover actually takes place in the comic. It's Lightning Lad in a Danger Room type of setting. In the comic they are showing that he has achieved record amperage and excellent accuracy for projecting the lightning. I'm sure this will be relevant in upcoming issues. It doesn't make a good cover image but who would look at Harbinger #6 or #7 and say "this is a great series"?

I don't really know what else to say. The overall series introduces a new character named Giselle. It had planet destroyers roaming around and destroying planets. It has a lot of internal conflict as Shooter appears to be be bringing them together as a unified team. I just see a lot of setup mixed with a steady flow of elements that are going to get them to a big showdown. Shooter has spent a lot of time defining Lightning lad as a team leader. Giselle as a wild card. Timber wolf as an animal. There are a few interesting lines like Timber Wolf saying a Phantom Girl has another "run and hide" power... scoffing her usefulness. Braniac 5 uses a few technical term to tell Shadow Lass(?) where to cut off one a monster's head. There is a definite increase in the intelligence of the writing. Am I a fan of Legion all of a sudden? No. Do I think the story is on track to deliver? Yes.

Unfortunately I'm sick of the art and there has to be a balance. It isn't there.

cfs

The potential payoff with Shooter writing is quite a tradeoff for having to put up with that artwork. How much longer can CFS take it?
It's like panning for gold.

Here is a repost of a reply I left at CPG. Fuj was saying he thought Shooter's story was taking too long to evolve and he thought the art was fine. Here is my reply....

You are not the only one with a shorter attention span. There will always be writers that tell the short installments that you want to see. There are not a lot of writers like Jim Shooter that pull people in slowly.

Simple fact, DC was really struggling in the 70's and Marvel was the industry leader especially if you look at the 2nd and 3rd tier titles. There was one big difference. DC stories were almost always a single story installment. Marvel was a continuous soap opera. Debates were heated about whether long ongoing stories were better or if single stories were better. In the long run Marvel's sales increases proved that ongoing stories have more ability to pull people in. Not only do they pull people in, but they don't have stopping points in the story. Anytime you have a stopping point in a story, it's a place where fans decide if they want to keep buying or if they want to drop a series. Over the years, the mini series that weren't intended to last got converted into TPB's. Rather than stories creating a stopping point after one issue, they started creating story arcs and giving fans a stopping point after about 6 issues. The industry is event driven now and it just keeps fans frustrated.

I'm happy for you if you like the status quo. I don't and a lot of older fans don't. I want the opportunity to buy high quality intertwined stories that evolve and are not event driven. The key point is that my idea of quality and yours differs greatly. If you drop Legion, just about every other comic out there is designed for a quick payoff. You have options and you will spend your money elsewhere. People like me who are not looking for that have no other options and we just quit buying new product. We also become jaded because of all the false attempts from publishers to provide what we older fans want.

The kind of story I want is a long term commitment and it will never be instant gratification for the sales numbers. I bought Legion because I was curious about what kind of investment DC was making. So far I'm not real impressed. Jim Shooter has a lot of knowledge about storytelling locked in that brain of his. Sadly it's still going to complete waste because people who know a lot less than him think they have all the answers.

cfs

I agree, that cover sucks. Look at the expression on the yellow guy's face. Pathetic. Why is Ultra Boy so small compared to Saturn Girl. The writing is fine, so he's not saving the book. The art is just so distracting that it's making the story unreadable at times and tedious at other times.

cfs