Episode 1637 Talkback - January 2017 Previews
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Previews time again! We go through the January 2017 catalog for items shipping to stores beginning in March. (1:28:44)
Listen here.
Listen here.
Comments
The two main teams in this relaunch are pretty much exactly the same two main teams that have been in books since Secret Wars ended. And arguably the creative teams are lower profile than the teams those books had.
Admittedly, I'm a long time reader, but Legion history is no more convoluted than Xmen history - especially with Clairmont. The team isn't significantly larger than the Xmen.
I keep hearing this and continue to fail to understand. I get it not being to taste, but density and complexity I do not understand.
X-Men does not have a Crisis On Infinite Earths to contend with.
X-Men does not have a "Five Years Later" to contend with.
X-Men did not have inter-office feuds leading to the whole reason for the team existing being wiped from existence.
X-Men didn't have a book starring clones of the main characters.
Legion of Superheroes had a continuity dating back to 1958, X-Men in the 80s had a continuity essentially dating back to 1975.
X-Men didn't have characters with names ending "Lad"
X-Men didn't have vast swathes of its formative years written by a teenage Jim Shooter (true, vast swathes were overseen by an adult Jim Shooter, which may be worse).
X-Men didn't have loads of alien races to remember.
I found L.E.G.I.O.N. easier to get into than LOSH, though that was probably down to Alan Grant's writing style being familiar to me from UK comics.
LSH never had more than two titles to keep up with at one time.
LSH was rarely heavily involved with event crossovers.
LSH didn’t have vast swathes written (and/or re-written) by the editors rather than the actual writers.
And, yeah, LSH had Crisis and clones, but with all the time-travelling going on with the X-Men, with characters from multiple time lines on the same team, I see that as a wash.
L.E.G.I.O.N. was just a fantastic series, at least for the first three years or so. In fact, I would argue that it was simply a better series than any of the pure LSH series has been. Personally, I don't even really think of it as a LSH series. I view it as being to LSH as, say, Starjammers is to X-Men—there's a lot of cross-continuity, but they kind of stand on their own.
Not sure I agree with all, but having re-engaged with both books in the mid-late 80s after a fair gap away from them, I didn't find either particularly impenetrable.
Both saw the characters grow and evolve, both had long games weaving through their plots.
I completely get the fact that Five Years Later was impenetrable for a new reader. For me, it was an opportunity to see characters grow up and witness a world with real consequences. It continues to be a favorite segment in Legion history.
I've since gone back and picked up all of the post Zero Hour issues, but that event was the catalyst that got me to walk away from comics for almost a decade and the impact it had on Legionairres was a massive part of that. The notion that neither of these two teams really knew which were the originals was fascinating.
I think I'll take young exuberant Shooter over EIC Shooter, and definitely over washed up returning to writing Shooter.
X-Men Epic Collection - Second Genesis Lois like a good way to get into the Claremont XMen.