Bendis Writing Legion And Possibly...

[Ωmega Man Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Ωmega Man]

Bendis Teases LoSH, Batman Beyond, Etc.

Initially, the return was not to happen until after the conclusion of Doomsday Clock. But Bleeding Cool previously reported that as Doomsday Clock got later and later, DC editorial were given new dates by which they could use the Legion, the Justice Society of America and Shazam, regardless of whether Doomsday Clock had concluded its run. Indeed, Doomsday Clock writer Geoff Johns did the Shazam one himself.

And now we have been told from well-connected sources that, yes, Brian Bendis is indeed to relaunch the superhero team from the 31st Century, the Legion Of Super-Heroes. And to expect it in the Spring. He’s already talked about bringing back The United Planets – but this is more.

I really don't know what to think about this. I'm not the biggest fan of Bendis, and now he's teasing even more projects attached to some of my favorite characters. If he can somehow do Young Justice... justice, I might give the guy a shot. However his Superman isn't what DC thought it would be.. so IDK why they'd keep giving him this much freedom in the DCU.

[W.West Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close W.West]

The only thing I'd worry about is whether he could sustain two different "young" team books and make the characters feel different.

I'm sure DC wants higher returns on their Superman books, but you all have to look at things as a whole. Bendis writing Legion will provide the best sells that title will probably ever have. Superman is a top 20 book. It would be even higher if not for double shipping Batman, X-Men, Justice League, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four...AND their own event series Heroes in Crisis. Bendis' Supes is doing just fine in terms of sales. I can't speak on the creative end because I'm not reading it, but to talk about his leeway with DC being too much (at least this early) is damn near blasphemy.

He's about to do with Wonder Comics what Mike Marts and Grant Morrison were doing with the Batman books in the R.I.P. era. That brand is going to encompass several titles, and they'll all have the same "spirit" of sorts. Instead of "The Dark" or "The Edge" imprints, we'll get Wonder Comics being spearheaded by a creator and his choice of creatives. Hopefully it'll work and they can expand to other imprints being headed by other creator driven books. DC may finally be letting creators create, and I'm all the way here for it.

[Hypo Lil' Leaguer Find all posts View Profile Close Hypo]

It would be even higher if not for double shipping Batman, X-Men, Justice League, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four...AND their own event series Heroes in Crisis.

Lol what, that's such a cop out. "It would be doing even better if the competition didn't exist".

[Ωmega Man Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Ωmega Man]

Bendis was one of the biggest names if not THE biggest name in Marvel for years. If his Superman isn't in the top 10 despite the competition then he's not worth the hype. And now HE'S the one picking the creative teams for the Wonder Comics stuff? Wouldn't that also make him an editor or...?

I'm more worried about the stuff he's writing himself and what shocking type of stuff he'll do to attract readers.

[Andrew NDB Shot Caller Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew NDB]

lol... another doomed Legion reboot. #30 by now, right?

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

If it's set in the 31st century, then it'll probably flop. But if they're brought to the present day, as it seems that the JSA will be, then it might fly.

Why do I say that? Because a comic that's set in another time or another universe is, by definition, not part of the DCU. And being part of a shared universe seems essential for any DC comic or any Marvel comic to sell.

[W.West Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close W.West]

Lol what, that's such a cop out. "It would be doing even better if the competition didn't exist".

It's one thing to be behind 5 other top franchises. It's another thing to be behind those franchises because they're DOUBLE SHIPPING. That's not fair. You're buying Batman twice a month to keep up with the story, Bendis doesn't have that advantage with Supes.

[Ωmega Man Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Ωmega Man]

It's one thing to be behind 5 other top franchises. It's another thing to be behind those franchises because they're DOUBLE SHIPPING. That's not fair. You're buying Batman twice a month to keep up with the story, Bendis doesn't have that advantage with Supes.

Any other time that might be the case... but isn't he writing BOTH Superman and Action Comics? That's Bendis w/two issues of Superman a month against Tom King w/two issues of Batman. Sure it's not the same as shipping twice a month, but writing two comics a month featuring the same character is two comics a month with the same character regardless.

EDIT: At this point I think Bendis is just considered a hack who's best days are behind him. This is something that appears in all the talent DC swipes from Marvel. Remember when Mark Bagley worked on Trinity after years of killing it at Marvel on books like Spider-man? His stuff looked HORRIBLE!

[Ωmega Man Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Ωmega Man]

If it's set in the 31st century, then it'll probably flop. But if they're brought to the present day, as it seems that the JSA will be, then it might fly.

Why do I say that? Because a comic that's set in another time or another universe is, by definition, not part of the DCU. And being part of a shared universe seems essential for any DC comic or any Marvel comic to sell.

His Ultimate Spider-man was set on another Earth... and it's original run lasted how long? He wrote all 134 consecutive issues. That's more issues in a series than any single character or concept at DC has had in the past two reboots COMBINED.

Of all the stuff he's rumored to be working on, I'd be the most interested in what he could do for the Batman Beyond comics. So long as Commissioner Barbara Gordon doesn't become the next Two-Face and Terry isn't replaced with a gay teen from Khandaq I'd at the very least give him an arc to sell me on it. Jurgens is an okay writer, but so much more could be done in the Beyond universe IMHO. It just doesn't have that spark that the Beyond universe and past comics featuring Terry have had.

[Andrew NDB Shot Caller Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew NDB]

If it's set in the 31st century, then it'll probably flop. But if they're brought to the present day, as it seems that the JSA will be, then it might fly.

They literally already tried that very thing. It failed. It barely made it 16 issues.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

Those were maxi-series.

On another board I once posted a concept for a Legion ongoing that I think might work. There's a huge cast of characters, so the best format might be that of a soap opera -- a serial with three separate but interconnected storylines going on in every issue. You could even use three writers in each issue, one for each storyline.

But that probably makes too much sense to ever happen.

[Michael Heide Heide Finition Find all posts View Profile Close Michael Heide]

Those were maxi-series.

The New52 book was supposed to be an ongoing, and nobody bought it.

[Hypo Lil' Leaguer Find all posts View Profile Close Hypo]

It's one thing to be behind 5 other top franchises. It's another thing to be behind those franchises because they're DOUBLE SHIPPING. That's not fair. You're buying Batman twice a month to keep up with the story, Bendis doesn't have that advantage with Supes.

Eh, we're arguing two different things here. You're saying that the other books double shipping is artificially pushing Superman down on the rankings, which is probably true, but I don't really care about that, I'm looking at the actual sales numbers:

November 2018

• Superman #5 - 54,727
• Action Comics #1005 - 49,149

March 2018

• Action Comics #998 - 43,810 (excluding Action Comics #999 because it got a boost from the impending #1000)
• Action Comics #997 - 43,509

April 2018

• Superman #44 - 42,493
• Superman #45 - 41,927

His numbers are almost down to where the previous creative teams were at the end of their runs and considering the sales drop off on his books hasn't leveled off month to month yet he'll be down there pretty quickly. That can't be anything but a disappointment for DC given what they must've given up to lure him from Marvel and the fact that he seems to have carte blanche on the books.

Now you're right in that it's probably too early to judge overall whether DC letting him to do whatever he wants is a good idea or not. Maybe Wonder Comics ends up being something really special in which case luring him over with the Superbooks was worth it. But all we can judge him on right now is the performance of the Superbooks and so far the results are mediocre.

[W.West Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close W.West]

Yeah...nah. I can't look at it in that vacuum. If I look at Superman now vs his numbers before, I have to do the same for the other top books in that time frame. We can't fault Bendis for relatively low numbers if the entire industry is down.


As for New52 Legion, it was okay. Nothing impressive and the art (Andy Clarke I think) was nothing special either.

[Ωmega Man Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Ωmega Man]

No, New52 Legion [not Legion Lost] was drawn by Yildiray Cinar for the entire run.

The problem with Legion is also what is the most appealing and has the most potential, and that's the expansive universe and cast. The only problem is with going into it like a person picking up a book for the first time... who could care about two dozen heroes crammed into one book if everyone's fighting for three panels of screen time? The main reason people were able to follow it in recent years is when a character would hit the scene a little box off to the side explained where they were from, who they were, and what their powers were.



The only way to make it work with a cast that size is to go X-Men with it. And that was the original plan before the New52 changed things. If any of you followed their appearances in Adventure Comics and afterwards the Superboy series, where those appearances led to the first monthly post-three-boot comic, it seemed like the initial plan was for a Legion Academy spin off. Then the New52 happened. And THIS is the reason I don't think that simply "setting them in the present day DCU" is a good idea or some original idea of Trey's. It was done before [they were under cover in Adventure Comics and Superboy leading up to New Krypton too] when we got Legion Lost.

I'd make any reboot a slow burn at first, like a flashback story of the Legion's origin being told to a new Legion Academy graduate. Establish the founding three and the first couple recruits afterwards before the end of the origin tale. Take space in the back of the comic for Legion Academy back-ups and for God's sake DON'T push the same 5 recruits they've pushed since the 90's. Take half of the expanded Legion roster and put them back in the Academy again. Bring back characters like Superman Kent Shakespear or the female descendant of Clark's [remember that big plot twist?]? If they want to diversify the team a little more they could gender swap some characters, make new aliens, give others altered backstories, etc.