Reviews: LSH v5 #14

• Chris' Invincible Super-Blog:
  

  Just in case you haven't been paying attention as to why this is one of the best comics DC is putting out, this issue features Karate Kid fighting an OMAC. And that's just in the letter column.

  
  
• The legendary Dave van Domelen:
  

  A fallout issue with multiple artists, it lacks focus on a lot of levels. There's several good scenes, though, even if they don't really hang together. The cover is honest, at least, as Atom Girl's background and personality get fleshed out. Recommended.

  
  
• Tom Bondurant's Comics Ate My Brain:
  

  Again, it's probably a cop-out, but I need to read this book from the beginning. There was a point when it all seemed familiar but radically new, and now it seems to have assumed that the reader is familiar with the radically-new aspects. It's not poorly done by any means, and I don't dislike the characters, but I get the feeling I've spent too little time with them.

  
  
• Over at heykidzcomix, Funk Master Stupid TV Flash posts the last few panels of issue 14, which were hotly discussed in the comments section. Among those commenting:
  

  I generally like Waid's writing, but this hyperdefensive shit turns me off even more than the boring plotline does.
  
  It was just jarring--the Legion is fighting the guy who can counteract all their powers, and then all of a sudden it's "Fuck you, fanboy." Really weird, especially if you're not expecting to get meta-slapped.
  
  I liked the emotional moment of it simply because I wasn't expecting it, and I liked seeing that there was a darkside to the Legion following -- I mean, it would follow that this would happen, right, because Cosmic Boy makes it so personal, so intimate, like every person in that square is a first stringer. I thought it was pointing out a flaw in the current leadership. But that's a personal thing, I know, liking or disliking, and the interpretation of it. I was just really shocked by how many people seemed to think this was a personal dig at them. Then again, I spend a lot of time thinking about this book, so maybe it was a personal dig at ME and I just don't care :)

  
  
• Jeff Lester at the Savage Critic:
  

  Those illustrated letters pages? Awesome. The rest of it? Good. I hope I'm not supposed to take the metacommentary at all seriously, however.

  
  
• Don Sakers' Get-a-Life Boy's LSH blog:
  

  the United Planets decides to fully fund the LSH as an independent arm of Earthgov. About bloody time, I say. And another "about bloody time" to the appearance of the first acknowledged gay character in this incarnation of the Legion: Colossal Boy's adorable brother.

  
  
• Grant Baisley at the Comixfan forums:
  

  As we all know with great power comes great responsibility and even greater press coverage. It appears that 1000 years in the future the pen is still stronger than the atomic blaster ray; the Legion are the media darlings of their millennium and this makes them far more dangerous than ever before.
  
  While I was left wondering if the latest addition to the cast was indeed schitzo, I soon began having similar concerns about the writer of this series. As poor as the Invisible Kid / Atom Girl exchange was, the book is saved with a good old-fashioned punch-up with more emotional content the rest of the book put together... After only one year there’s a major shift in the status quo, one I am eagerly looking forward to.
  
  Perfectly in keeping with the writing of this issue, the art is a bi-polar mixture of exemplary and appalling. I couldn’t help but notice that those parts of the story I enjoyed the least (and thought where poorly written) were drawn by Adam DeKraker... should Barry Kitson ever leave as the regular artist, Lashley is the first person I would choose to follow that pretty intimidating example.
  
  This is the biggest problem with this issue – there is simply too much and as Waid cannot dedicate enough time to each issue as he otherwise might have done; one gets the feeling that Waid is writing the story that he has to as opposed to the one he wants to; like he’s writing this story to get me to next month’s book with a minimal amount of fuss.
  
  Review: 3 out of 5 stars

  
  
• Scans Daily has a scan of the finale to the issue and the letters pages.
  

  Sometimes I really wonder where Waid is going with Legion. I mean, didn't he just have to reboot it because the old one wasn't "classic" enough for all the fanboys out there? But then he comes up with little subplots like this one where he essentially makes fun of his core fanbase. I do not pretend to understand, and hope only that somehow, somewhere, Lyle/Brainy works its way into canon again.

  
  In reply, someone wrote:
  

  He's not talking specifically about any sort of Legion fans. Or comics fans. This sort of thing happens in most fandoms - but more often in fandoms for real people.
  
  Mark Waid doesn't, generally, have to worry about this sort of thing. But Jodie Foster does. David Letterman does. John Lennon and Selina did until it resulted in their deaths.
  
  This is the sort of thing that WOULD happen of the Legion existed.