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Post by Pharozonk on Jul 20, 2015 19:37:39 GMT -5
Legion of Super-heroes (1989) #5 Writer: Keith Giffen, Tom Bierbaum, Mary Bierbaum Pencils: Keith Giffen Ink: Al Gordon Color: Tom McGraw Editor: Mark Waid Grade: B Summary: Following the destruction of the original Legion timeline at the end of last issue, we open in what appears to be a medieval realm. It’s the year 2994 and Mordru has seized control of the universe in this new timeline and the world has been sent back to the Dark Ages. Our first character is Andrew Nolan (Ferro Lad in the original universe) who is on his way to a monastery to meet Mysa Nal (White Witch in the original universe). Andrew is replacing a man named Foxmoor as Mysa’ confidant to take down Mordru. While she is initially hesitant to divulge information to him, she eventually reveals that she knows of another universe that should exist in place of theirs (the original 30th century). Andrew takes this information to Rond Vidar, a gifted scientist and intellectual in this timeline. Meanwhile, Glorith, one of the wives of Mordru, is returning to her home where she is met by Mano, who serves Mordru in this timeline. After their meeting, she decides to keep an eye on Rond, who she thinks is up to something. Glorith begins to spy on Rond’s activities, eavesdropping on his meeting with Andrew and watching him perform a ritual. During the ritual he is hit with lighting, giving him access to the alternate timeline. He passes out and wakes up to find that Glorith has taken him in. She explains that she can be of help to him in his plan. Meanwhile, Mano has discovered Mysa’s link to the conspiracy and goes to stop her. Just as he is about to attack her, Andrew jumps out of the shadow and tackles him. While this is happening, Glorith is preparing to engage in the ritual. Just as the lightning strikes, she realizes the spell is fatal and curses Rond. The spell takes effect and the timeline begins to fade to white just like it did at the end of the last issue. Mordru can only shout “No!” in despair as he realizes what is happening, but it’s too late. Thoughts: I’ve never been a huge fan of Elseworlds stories, but I think this issue could qualify as one of the few good “Elseworlds” tales that was never given that official title. Unlike other stories from that imprint (Superman At Earth’s End or Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham), the characters are not only written in character, but the bizarre universe they’re thrown into actually serves a purpose beyond a superficial setting swap. Placing the Legionnaires in a world ruled by arcane magic and medieval superstition contrasts heavily with the seemingly enlightened science oriented 31st century that the Legion is typically associated with. In some ways, it feels like an alternate ending to the Magic Wars, where the Legion failed in their mission and the Archmage truly did reign supreme. The fact that Mordru himself never makes a direct appearance in the story itself until the last few panels serves as an advantage, as it makes him seem more like an entity or legend rather than a physical being. As such, his influence is almost as deadly as his powers, as is seen when Mano tortures and kills a young woman by dissolving her live in a pit of acid. I like that the issue focuses on Rond Vidar, making him the mastermind behind the plan and our point of view for the story. Rond is a character that I feel is often underutilized and this is easily one of his best portrayals. On the other hand, I don’t really care for TMK bringing back Glorith as the Time Trapper’s replacement in the new timeline they’re crafting. Glorith was a pretty uninteresting, one-dimensional villain in her original appearance in the Adventure era so she seem’s like an odd choice. I personally thought it would have been more interesting if Rond was the new Time Trapper, especially since he has a fixation on time travel and timelines that was established in the original universe. Despite my dislike of Glorith, the Bierbaums will do great things with the character in the upcoming annual so I can forgive them for that for now.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 21, 2015 6:00:04 GMT -5
Another aspect of this excellent story is how it shows that hell is paved with good intentions. Last issue, Mon-El destroyed the Time Trapper even though he was warned that the timeline would be dramatically altered in the process. Mon-El's attitude was one of "anything would be better than this". Now with this issue we see how wrong he was: a universe ruled by Mordru was far worse than one ruled by the Time Trapper!
Replacing the Trapper by Glorith never wroked for me, though. It was a good idea to use a minor character and bring her to prominence, but her hybrid role as cosmic power slash petty mundane dictator always made her look like an upstart who never managed to elicit as much awe as the original Trapper, Darkseid or Mordru. (It's not for lack of trying, though... she would cause a lot of trouble in the following years!)
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Post by Pharozonk on Jul 21, 2015 8:17:06 GMT -5
Replacing the Trapper by Glorith never wroked for me, though. It was a good idea to use a minor character and bring her to prominence, but her hybrid role as cosmic power slash petty mundane dictator always made her look like an upstart who never managed to elicit as much awe as the original Trapper, Darkseid or Mordru. (It's not for like of trying, though... she would cause a lot of trouble in the following years!) I think the reason Glorith couldn't replace the Time Trapper on a thematic/danger level is because there's no sense of mystery about her. The Time Trapper was always an enigma, a force that the Legionnaires and, by extension the audience, could never fully comprehend. For many years, we didn't even know who was the under the hood and that made the Time Trapper seem scarier as a villain. With Glorith, on the other hand, she's too much of a cackling, over the top villainess that doesn't elicit the same kind of fear. |
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Post by paulie on Jul 21, 2015 11:00:02 GMT -5
Another aspect of this excellent story is how it shows that hell is paved with good intentions. Last issue, Mon-El destroyed the Time Trapper even though he was warned that the timeline would be dramatically altered in the process. Mon-El's attitude was one of "anything would be better than this". Now with this issue we see how wrong he was: a universe ruled by Mordru was far worse than one ruled by the Time Trapper! Replacing the Trapper by Glorith never wroked for me, though. It was a good idea to use a minor character and bring her to prominence, but her hybrid role as cosmic power slash petty mundane dictator always made her look like an upstart who never managed to elicit as much awe as the original Trapper, Darkseid or Mordru. (It's not for like of trying, though... she would cause a lot of trouble in the following years!) This issue actually made it on to my Classic Comics Christmas last year. I think it is one of the best comic stories of all-time. And it is not exactly an elseworlds story because there is quite a lot of continuity juggling that occurs here that affects the LSH universe proper. Plus you have Ferro Lad saving the universe... again. What a poignant use of the character. Agree about Glorith but man she was wicked in the Ultra Boy origin story in the first 5YL annual. Good times for the Legion. |
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Post by Dr. Hfuhruhurr on Jul 21, 2015 14:46:24 GMT -5
Replacing the Trapper by Glorith never wroked for me, though. It was a good idea to use a minor character and bring her to prominence, but her hybrid role as cosmic power slash petty mundane dictator always made her look like an upstart who never managed to elicit as much awe as the original Trapper, Darkseid or Mordru. (It's not for like of trying, though... she would cause a lot of trouble in the following years!) I think the reason Glorith couldn't replace the Time Trapper on a thematic/danger level is because there's no sense of mystery about her. The Time Trapper was always an enigma, a force that the Legionnaires and, by extension the audience, could never fully comprehend. For many years, we didn't even know who was the under the hood and that made the Time Trapper seem scarier as a villain. With Glorith, on the other hand, she's too much of a cackling, over the top villainess that doesn't elicit the same kind of fear. I think that falls under the same category as telling Wolverine's origin. I agree with you in that Time Trapper was always better without explaining much about him or his background. Glorith never had that same cachet. |
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Post by Pharozonk on Jul 27, 2015 8:26:00 GMT -5
Legion of Super-heroes (1989) #6  Writer: Keith Giffen, Tom Bierbaum, Mary Bierbaum Pencils: Keith Giffen Ink: Al Gordon Color: Tom McGraw Editor: Mark Waid Grade: B+ Summary: We open to what appears to be the original universe from before issue #5. Dirk Morgna is in a sleazy club talking to a detective named Celeste Rockfish. He’s trying to get her to find Roxxas and bring him in for the murder of Blok as part of an Earthgov sponsored investigation. Meanwhile, Circe and a Dominator are spying on Dirk’s conversation. The Dominator reveals that Celeste’s investigation is a means to keep the Daily Planet off their heels. On the planet Tharn, Mordru receives word from one of his servants that Reep and the others are there. While Reep, Rokk, and Jo are planning how to get Mysa back from Mordru, Kono is out exploring. Reep chews out Kono for running around on her own, but she sasses him back and leaves to visit Furball. While the two are talking, Furball suddenly breaks out in a fit of rage and a bright light envelops the room. What follows is each character experiencing a nightmare flashback to a moment in their lives: Kono sees the Rimbor police destroying her home and attempting to rape her and her mother Reep is on Durla and is forced to fight his brother, Liggt, in a duel to the death as part of a rite of passage Jo finds himself in the space whale that swallowed him and gave him his powers, where he stumbles upon the body of Tinya Wazzo aka Phantom Girl, his late wife Rokk is at Venado Bay during the Braal-Imsk war where he finds the body of Pol Krinn, his brother, who was killed during the Magic Wars Furball sees the doctors reporting on his condition after his body deteriorated into his current form, giving us our confirmation that Furball is indeed Brin Londo aka Timber Wolf In Mordru’s pleasure gardens, Mysa is experiencing all of these flashbacks at the same time and is in great pain. One of the other women in the harem chews her out for complaining too much. At a clothing store elsewhere, Roxxas is buying new clothes. Back on Earth, Celeste and a cub report at the Daily Planet, Deviln O’Ryan, are trying to get a ship to Trom to investigate Roxxas, but aren’t able to secure one. Back on Tharn, Vyrkos, Mordru’s right hand man, takes the bodies of the Legionnaires to the dungeon, except for Rokk who Mordru has taken an interest in. On Jezebel’s moon of Tharn, a mysterious blonde woman who bears a striking resemblance to lost Legionnaire flies to Tharn. Back with Celeste and Devlin, they are eventually able to get a ship to Trom and bring along a bounty hunter named Bounty with them to track Roxxas. While on Trom, Devlin is listening to a tape on the history of Trom and Element Lad, but laments that it doesn’t give him any information. Celeste tells him not to touch any of the monuments on Trom as Element Lad will vaporize them if they do. Just as she says that, a voice laughs at her claim and they turn around to find Jan Arrah aka Element Lad standing behind them. Thoughts: After issue #5 gave us a break from the erratic storytelling of the previous issue, TMK bring it back full force in this issue. We’re finally beginning to see some development with the Mordru subplot that started back in issue #3. I find it strange that Mysa would ever willingly live with Mordru, especially as a member of his harem of wives. I guess that ties back into my earlier confusion as to why Mordru is a villain again in the first place. What’s odd is that Mekt Ranzz aka Lightning Lord is now a reformed super villain working with his siblings, who he had sworn to kill for years. Oh well, thats’s comic books for you.  The use of flashbacks in this issue is done remarkably well. It’s yet another instance of ‘showing, not telling’ that gives the reader the satisfaction of linking the clues together to get what the writers are putting across. The reveal of Furball’s true identity is handled fantastically, as we only see the words “Brin Londo” in the very last panel of that page, letting only longtime fans of the Legion pick up on what’s happening in that moment. For me, the flashback that works the best is Rokk’s.  His line “They killed Cosmic Boy at Venado Bay” encapsulates the entire theme of this run. This is no longer the Legion of kids who grew up with goofy nicknames and a optimistic, if almost native view of the world. Rokk is an adult now and must face the fact that the world is no longer as black and white as he once thought. By forcing him to face the brutal realities of war and politics, Rokk now realizes that Cosmic Boy is as much a symbol as it is his own identity. The Legion stood for the hope and peace, something the universe needs now more than ever. This issue also gives us our introduction to two new characters for the team: Laurel Gand and Jan Arrah. I wonder what long-time fans thought when they saw Laurel for the first time. Did they think that they were finally get Supergirl back in the Legion? Were some cynical and knew something else was happening? Either way, though our introduction to the character is brief, it’s exciting and is short enough that we’re left hungry for answers as to who she is. Jan’s introduction is even shorter than Laurel’s, but I would argue that it’s just as effective, if not more. From the way Devlin and Celeste speak of Jan, he’s become almost an urban legend in the Legion’s absence. Everyone is afraid of him, but they aren’t sure why. I think this is a bit of play on the nature of Trommite powers, where they can either be used for great good or terrible evil. As such, the few who have met Jan may put their own spin on the story and it only gets more ridiculous over time as rumors/legends often do. Jan seems to have become a shaman/nomad since he left the team which is a very interesting archetype for the character to play. Jan was always a bit more reserved, introverted than most of the other Legionnaires back in the day and I think this run does a very good job of exploring just how Jan’s Trommite upbringing made him the man he is today.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 27, 2015 13:40:53 GMT -5
Those flashbacks were so efficient that I was annoyed when the full story of Venado Bay was told in a later issue. Like Black Dawn, I thought it worked better as a dreadful event referred to, but never actually witnessed.
The evolution of characters was indeed unsettling, but I liked the idea of Lightning Lord having genuinely reformed, even trying to make Roxxas understand at one point how pointless it was to live the life of a revenge-crazed criminal. The same thing with Mordru and Mysa: the old guy did try to master his demonic temper, and Mysa thought that he could help him do so, but both failed in the attempt. The only point I really objected to was how Mysa was turned into a mere shell of her former self. The old White Witch was made of sterner stuff!
The arrival of Laurel Gand had me cheering back then: Supergirl was back!!! Well, maybe not Supergirl, but a close enough facsimile. It's unfortunate that not a whole lot was done with Laurel, nor with the Laurel-Querl-Rond triangle.
Those were good days for that series; we'd discover new stuff every issue, not yet understanding how it all fitted together.
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Post by Pharozonk on Aug 10, 2015 16:34:25 GMT -5
If you haven't seen this before, here's a pretty cool fan-made issue by issue timeline that would fill in the gap between the Magic Wars and the first issue of the 5YL Legion. A lot of the ideas here are really interesting and I wish they had made it to print in some capacity. www.readersadvice.com/lsh/levitz.html |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 11, 2015 5:52:34 GMT -5
If you haven't seen this before, here's a pretty cool fan-made issue by issue timeline that would fill in the gap between the Magic Wars and the first issue of the 5YL Legion. A lot of the ideas here are really interesting and I wish they had made it to print in some capacity. www.readersadvice.com/lsh/levitz.htmlThat was pretty cool! My favourite part is this: NOTE: #100 is a special, double-size issue with a die-cut, hologram-enchanced cover of 24-karat gold, polybagged with a complete set of 250 Legion trading cards, a Legion sweatsuit, a toy Legion cruiser, a real working Flight Ring, and a medallion which allows the bearer entry to an LSH meeting. Somehow, the writers manage to work in guest appearances by everyone who has ever been in a Legion comic. In celebration of the Legion's start in Adventure Comics, issue #100 is cover-priced at twelve cents. |
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Post by Pharozonk on Aug 17, 2015 12:38:16 GMT -5
Legion of Super-heroes (1989) #7  Writer: Keith Giffen, Tom Bierbaum, Mary Bierbaum Pencils: Keith Giffen Ink: Al Gordon Color: Tom McGraw Editor: Mike Eury Grade: B- Summary: On Tharn, the vampiric Vyrkos is deciding what to do with the captured Legionnaires. Suddenly, Laurel Gand bursts in and the two engage in a lengthy brawl. Rokk wakes up to find that he’s having dinner with Mordru and is forced to play the situation as best as he can for Mysa’s freedom. The other Legionnaires also wake up and find themselves dressed in strange pajamas and they reconvene to figure out what happened to them. The other Legionnaires join Laurel in the fight against Vyrkos. Back at the dinner, Mordru reveals to Rokk that he also had Rond captive as well. However, he isn’t in a position to stop them from taking Rond and Mysa as his powers aren’t at their full capacity at the moment. Back with the fight, Mysa eventually uses her powers to disintegrate Vyrkos in a ray of light. As the Legionnaires leave, Mordru solace in the fact that this won’t be the last time he fights the Legionnaires and that he will have Mysa again. In space, Celeste, Deviln, Bounty, and Jan are on the way to Winath for Blok’s funeral. Devlin laments how he’s breaking a promise to his boss by taking this detour, but Bounty says only he was the one to make a promise. Celeste tells Jan that going to Winath may be useful to the investigation, but Jan says that the funeral is more important and paying his respects is the least he can do. As they fly to Winath, a research station notes the green energy emitted by the shuttle. Thoughts: This issue can basically be summarized as one giant fight scene and one I don’t particularly care for. Vyrkos is an interesting character visually, but is rather bland from a personality and motivational standpoint. Laurel Gand is also an empty vessel at this point, since her backstory and personality wouldn’t be fleshed out until subsequent issues. I’ve said before that Giffen’s new pencilling style and use of the nine panel grid wasn’t conducive to crafting high tension fight scenes and this is one instance of it not offering anything particularly compelling. Where the issue does manage to capture my attention, however, is the secondary plot of Rokk and Mordru’s dinner. Fans and writers have often said that Rokk is the rock (pardon the pun) of the team and the leader who can pull them through the toughest of situations. With this issue, TMK finally show us just that. Even in the face of an immortal sorcerer and without any powers of his own, Rokk is able to stay in control of his fear and play out the situation as best as he can. This issue offers some great characterization for Rokk and displays his true strengths as a strategist in the face of tough odds. I would be remiss in not mentioning that this issue also marks Mark Waid’s last issue as editor of the book. From the 5YL Legion spotlight in Amazing Heroes, Waid mentions that he urged the Bierbaums to focus on the Adventure era Legionnaires over the newcomers like Dawnstar and Wildfire. Did Waid’s departure affect the overall direction of the book once he left? Was he a huge part of what made those early issues so special? It makes me wonder what direction the book would have gone if he had stayed on it longer.
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Post by Pharozonk on Dec 3, 2015 22:30:13 GMT -5
Legion of Super-heroes (1989) #8 Writer: Keith Giffen, Tom Bierbaum, Mary Bierbaum Pencils: Keith Giffen, Chris Sprouse Ink: Al Gordon Color: Tom McGraw Editor: Mike Eury Grade: B+ Summary: The issue opens at Brande Industry Headquarters where Marla Latham receives a communication from Reep about their retrieval of Mysa and Rond from Mordru. After hearing the news, Marla flashes back to when he and R.J. Brande first met. While working at his job, Marla hears a commotion and finds other workers beating up a Durlan traveler. He intervenes and gets into the brawl himself, getting pretty banged up in the process. He is able to deactivate a forcefield holding the Durlan back from using his powers and the Durlan shape shifts and takes out the thugs. Marla takes the Durlan to another Durlan friend of his, Theg, to learn more about him. The two Durlans speak and Theg is surprised to find that the mystery Durlan speaks a Durlan dialect that was thought to be extinct and that the mystery Durlan has amnesia. Theg smuggles the mystery Durlan back to Durla, but find that they can’t leave afterwards. The mystery Durlan, revealed to be R.J., mates with Theg’s sister and has two kids, Reep and Liggt. Unfortunately, she passes away from Yorggian Fever that Theg unwittingly brought with him to Durla. R.J. leaves his two sons with another sister of Theg’s and the two Durlans depart to find a way off the planet. The two find a way to leave and become entrepreneurs, working hard to build Brande Industries. Meanwhile, Marla has become a married man and is working on his same company, though as a supervisor. One day, R.J. comes to offer him a job working for him to take over some duties for Theg, who is operating under the alias Doyle. Doyle has become a sleazy party animal and is blowing all his profits while ignoring his duties to the company. Eventually, Marla and R.J. realize they need to buy him out of the company, which he greedily accepts. However, Doyle quickly blows all his money and keeps asking R.J. for more, even going so far to threaten his life. However, R.J. doesn’t seem to care and instead focuses on his collection of 20th century superhero memorabilia and Titan memory treatments to retrieve his lost memories. One day, while on a shuttle, R.J. is assaulted by some thugs who try to take his life, but he is saved by three youths: the soon to be founding Legionnaires. R.J., inspired by their bravery, decides to form his own team of youth superheroes. Though they have a rocky start, the three founding Legionnaires quickly come into their own and their reputation grows across the galaxy, inspiring other teens to try out and join the Legion, such as Phantom Girl and Triplicate Girl. Eventually, Marla suggests bringing in a Durlan Legionnaire to improve the team’s PR as a way to combat Durlan prejudice. R.J. says he has the perfect candidate, which turns out to be his estranged son, Reep. Marla interviews Reep and Reep joins the Legion. Marla thinks that Reep reminds him of that mystery Durlan he met so long ago and wonders if they’re connected. This ends the flashback portion of the story and we’re back in present day. Rokk, Rond, and Laurel are on Zirr, where Laurel is fighting of some Khunds who attempted to ambush the trio. Laurel defeats them with ease and takes them to her and Rond’s home. Rock discovers that the two of them had a child together and is shocked. Thoughts: While this issue is almost entirely flashbacks without any current development, it is yet another example of the team utilizing continuity revisionism that was forced on them to tell a good story. Telling the story through the eyes of a minor supporting character is creative way to engage the reader as it makes the Legionnaires and Brande seem larger than life, almost mythic figures that Marla looks up to. I think that this is a great context to put those characters in as the entire point of this run was to make that Legion the white knights who would save the galaxy once again after having fallen from grace in the past. The retcon of R.J. Brande actually being from the 20th century is a bit of a double edged sword in my opinion. On one hand, I can understand the pressures TMK were under to rewrite the Legion mythos as Superboy no longer existed in the DCU and Valor (Mon El) had taken his place as the R.J. Brande inspiration to create the Legion so I applaud them for making the best out of what they’re giving. On the other hand, it’s yet another instance of how tying too many bits of continuity together can ultimately make the universe seem much smaller and less organically formed as everything just seems to coincidentally be related. Chris Sprouse provides the majority of the art for this issue and it’s jarring to see the switch from his work to Giffen’s at the end of the issue. It works here since Sprouse provides the artwork for the flashbacks and Giffen provides the current story artwork so you have a visual dichotomy between the past and present, which is what the story was about. Unfortunately, this “too many artists in the kitchen” trend will continue into the later issues in this run and it won’t be as appropriate in my opinion.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 4, 2015 10:39:25 GMT -5
Yay, this thread is back!  The revised history of the Legion during that period was rather well-done, as far as I'm concerned. I loved the concept behind Annual #3, which tied in to the Invasion! event. I didn't much care for Superboy no longer being the inspiration for the XXX century kids, but since he had been written off continuity there was little to be done about that. The strong hints that Tinya wasn't dead but had been shuffled to the XX century as Phase, and that Brande was the Durlan in L.E.G.I.O.N., also worked for me. The revised history went downhill when many old fan speculations made their way into official continuity. Even ones that kind of made sense, like Lightning Lad not having been resurrected but having his body possessed by the mind of Proty (and then having the cloned Garth Ranzz acting very differently from his older self) did not elicit a "wow, how ingenious!" reaction from me but rather an annoyed "yeah, but why?" Luckily that would still be many months in the future. The early days of the 5YL were pure gold. |
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Post by hondobrode on Dec 5, 2015 22:17:03 GMT -5
I can't say I'm a big fan of this series, or the Legion in general, but, Christ, I love Giffen's art from this period. That's what most fans really hate. They hate, or hated, his newer Munoz style and wanted his original Kirby style back. I like them both, though it was kind of a shock when this first came out. |
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Post by Pharozonk on Dec 5, 2015 22:20:39 GMT -5
The overly blocky heads during Giffen's 5YL phase were still very Kirby-esque though.
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Post by MDG on Dec 6, 2015 11:08:32 GMT -5
The overly blocky heads during Giffen's 5YL phase were still very Kirby-esque though. The 5YL moved somewhat beyond the more Munoz-influenced stuff like Ambush Bug to more his own style. And actually, I wasn't much of a fan of his earlier work, like All-Star, though in the Doc Fate backups in The Flash, he started doing some interesting things in layout and storytelling. |
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