11.03.2008

Back from Vay-Cay

Well back to the grind, after a less-than-restful week of birthday parties and trick or treating, not to mention a rather underwhelming world series. Even though I was off from my real life job, I didn’t expect to take off from this blog as well, but that’s kind of how it turned out. Got a ton stuff piling up just begging me to review, but in the meantime a few random topics to tide ya over:

A bit of controversy in Legion of Super-Heroes fandom of late. Although 2008 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the futuristic super-teens, this year has seen the cancellation of their animated series, as well as both of their ongoing comic books. Both writer Jim Shooter and penciller Francis Manapul have both given their own fashion of parting words. Although DC is currently publishing a great continuity-wank miniseries called Legion of Three Worlds, the company claims it has no future plans of the team. The folks at io9.c0m call bullshit on that idea, and I think they’re on the right track.

The only way I can see DC letting the Legion fall into limbo is if they are truly cutting back on their comics division across the board. To me, every indication is that they are trying to bring back the original Legion (okay, something that kinda sorta resembles the original Legion) now that there is a multiverse again and Superboy can apparently be returned to his rightful place in their mythos. They are just playing cagey right now because revealing too much might spoil plot developments in L3W.

I’ve seen specualtion in some corners that DC might try to continue to tell stories about all three of their main Legion incarnations (serious fans don’t seem to consider the animated series Legion to be a valid version, I guess), but that’s crazy talk, if you ask me. The achilles heel of the franchise is that it has become so convoluted, with multiple versions of each character. We need one Legion in one timeline, and I think harkening back to the Levitz/Giffen days is the best idea. I just hope it becomes clear soon what post-Crisis events of that Legion did or didn’t occur.

Also, although Geoff Johns has done a great job of bringing back the classic Legion, I think it’s silly to think that he and only he could helm a new book about this team. The guy does seem to write about half of all of DC’s output, so if he can’t fit a Legion book onto his schedule there are plenty of writers who would do a fine job returning the Legion to their glory. They just need to keep the tone positive (the Legion should not exist in a dystopia, it’s sort of missing the point) and be knowledgable of the continuity.


I have been watching the Clone Wars cartoon since it premiered on Cartoon Network, and I have to admit, it’s better than I was fearing. It isn’t full of fart jokes and kiddie humor, and while none of it is groundbreaking it succeeds in its mission statement of telling fun but mostly inconsequential stories. I have to admit I actually enjoyed “Destroy Malevolence”, the episode with Padme and Threepio. My original opinion that this is a dumb time period to tell stories in, because the fates of all the characters are already revealed, still stands.

One thing I really noticed about the series is how integral the soundscapes of Ben Burtt are to the Star Wars franchise. I mean, this series features renderings of all the characters that make them look somewhat different than what we saw in the films, voiced by different actors, with music by someone other than John Williams. Burtt isn’t actually creditted as working on the new animated series, but they clearly have all of his established sound effects at their disposal, and just hearing them adds great legitamacy to the whole endeavor.


In other animation news, I think I’ve finally thrown in the towel on Gurren Laggan, an anime series which has been airing on Sci Fi for the past few months. The thing has gotten so convulted, with so many characters and twists in the plot, it really seems as though the creators were flying by the seat of their pants. It’s very pretty to look at, but whoof.


Oh and by the way, that new ABC show Life on Mars? Absolutely nothing to do with Mars. What a gyp!


Okay, so first up I’ll be posting my thoughts about the article Entertainment Weekly ran a couple of weeks ago teasing the new Star Trek movie. Yes, I realize by internet standards that aritcle is ancient history now, but the actual film is still months from it’s release date, so it’s still worth discussing as far as I’m concerned. Stay tuned!

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