From: berninge@cs.purdue.edu (Jim Berninger)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Re: lsh #41
Date: 28 Jan 1993 12:11:09 -0500
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Purdue University
Distribution: rec
NNTP-Posting-Host: cornwall.cs.purdue.edu

<donald.simmons@canrem.com> writes:
>berninge@cornwall.cs.purdue.edu (Jim Berninger) writes:
>>I'm kind of looking forward to Legionnaires.  LSH #41 was one of the
>>most enjoyable stories in v4 that I've read to date (I haven't read
>>all of them, since some of them were just plain *un*readable). Tom and
>>Mary have certainly improved, although that may not be saying much,
>>either. I think I'll stick around a while longer...
>     I had much the opposite reaction. This issue was ok, but I kept
>saying "Where's the REAL Legion? This is THEIR book!" 
One should keep in mind that issues 39-41 were originally intended
to be in one "double-sized (double-priced)" issue.  The Legionnaires
intro would have been in a side-light of that issue.

>Then again, I am
>a newcomer to Legion. I have only read this current series, but I
>really love it, especially the complexity of the Giffen issues. A comic
>that you have to read a couple of times to understand everything is
>rare, and something is savor...
True, but there's a difference between complexity, confusion, and
just plain bad writing.  I had to read "Last Days of the JSA" no
less than *seven* times before I understood it.  I chalk that up to
bad writing.  On the other hand, I read Crisis #1 three times before
I understood that.  That's complexity.  (Standard disclaimers apply)

As I mentioned in previous articles, I'm in the process of
re-reading v4 and am finding lots of little things.  For example,
has anyone else noticed that Kid Quantum's costume (as shown in #33)
is of the same design as the new Legionnaires' outfits?
Middle-stripe, belt buckle, and all.  What I'm really noticing are
the subtle clues that the SW6 batch were originally intended to be
the clones:

1) A dominator refers to the SW6 batch as "excellent specimens".
Specimens of what?  Metagene carriers?  I doubt it, since many of
the Legionnaires are not of Terran ancestry -- Phantom Girl, the
Gands, and Chemeleon Boy come to mind.  Successful clones?  More
likely.

2) Saturn Girl mentions that Lightning Lad "sounds like [he] used
to".  Her saying this is an implication that Proty's presence in
Garth's body is carried only by the older version, which would be
true if Garth-prime were the clone.  To be otherwise, the Dominators
would have to know about Proty's presence and transfer it properly.

3) But then there's the Cargg(g)ite.  Let's just throw a monkey
wrench into the whole works, why don't we?  We've already discussed
this, so let's let it go...

>    Maybe one of the long-time readers can answer something for me. In
>this issue Alya Ranzz Jr. has the power to alter the mass of objects,
>while Alya Ranzz Sr. throws lighting. Why are their powers different?
I've seen other responses to this, but I'd like to offer a
correction.  Dream Girl did change Ayla's powers to avoid the
non-duplication rule, but it was well before she was properly
inducted as a member (or at least, well before her second
appearance).  Dream Girl first appeared sometime around Adventure
318 and adjusted Ayla's powers.  Her second appearance was not until
at least Adventure 340 (I don't know exactly when, but I have
complete Legion stories through Adv340), and I doubt she was made a
member only to have a two-year vacation.

 ______ Jim Berninger: berninge@cs.purdue.edu|Hate is not a Family Value ______
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