Legion of Superheroes #50 WTF?

[Psylent1]

"Written by Jim Shooter; Art and cover by Francis Manapul and Livesay
It's the final issue! The climactic conclusion of the Universal Annihilation War is here and every Legionnaire, every reservist and even the United Planets' Young Heroes battle to save existence. Also featuring the return of Cosmic Boy, the death of a longtime Legionaire and a gorgeous wraparound cover!"

No Jim Shooter! Written by "Justin Thyme"
No Cosmic Boy returning,
No death of a longtime legionnaire, although there was a return of one.
No Princess Projecta resolution
No Karate Kid / Triplicate Girl resolution,
The end of the "Universal Annihilation War"? Brainiac 5 flipped a switch and turned them off.
Lighting Lad & Saturn Girl break up? No sign of it!
Phantom Girl near death last issue? Forgotten.
"Every Legionnaire" ? Only seven. Reservists and Young Heroes? No sign of them.

When the first thing you do after reading a comic book is to make sure you didn't miss an issue, it is a bad sign. When it is the last book of a series, it is a sign of a company who doesn't know WTF they are doing!

If the purpose was to piss off fans who were allready pissed off by the cancellation and get them to cancell the remaining Legion of Three Worlds books and the new/old LSH in Adventure Comics,

congats, you got it in one

 

[TemporalFlux]

"Justin Thyme" is a psuedonym for a collaboration of editors who threw something together just to have something printed. You can read the name slowly to get the meaning; the issue was put together "just in time".

This past Monday's Lying in the Gutters rumor column had an item about these last minute changes on issue 50, but no solid answer on the why of it. However, Shooter and DC have been having some problems for awhile now; basically, DC told Shooter he would have long term on the book when they pretty much knew they were ending it. It all seemed to be a classic case of false pretenses in order to get Shooter on there for a brief sales stunt push before the book died.

 

[Mike Farley]

They cut Shooter's run about 4 issues short, but he supposedly had reworked things to end in issue #50. Something obviously happened to make Shooter decide to walk away without finishing his story, even in an abbreviated fashion. Sucks not only because we lost Shooter's version of the ending, but they didn't even try to put out something half-way decent to replace it. And oh my god was the art bad!

I think at this point TPTB just wanted to put the 3boot Legion back into the closet to make way for the return of the original Legion. And to be honest, I doubt I'll miss them. This version of the LSH never really took off for me. I enjoyed some of their stories, but I never really warmed up to the characters.

Edited to add: Just read the Lying in the Gutters article...gotta lol at Shooter's Massive Ego, he thinks the canceled the book just to get rid of him gracefully. Sorry Jim, but they canceled the book because the original LSH is returning full time. The current (or now ex-) Legion book has been living on borrowed time for a while now. At least since the Lightning Saga in JLA/JSA.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

The current (or now ex-) Legion book has been living on borrowed time for a while now. At least since the Lightning Saga in JLA/JSA.

Every DC character not created in the 1960's (or earlier) is living on borrowed time these days.

 

[ElScoob]

Well, yeah, #50 was an unfortunate mess, basically. I would love to have seen Shooter's ending.

As for Shooter's contention that they cancelled the book to get him out gracefully, well, it may not be the case given the Legion situation, that's true. But you can't blame him for thinking that--it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you. I don't know if anyone at DC is actually out to get him in this particular case, but the fact is that there's plenty of bad blood between Shooter and many, many people in the industry, much of it stemming from Shooter's reign at Marvel. It was bad enough that for several years, any talk of Shooter coming to DC to do Legion work was shot down at once because a variety of people threatened to storm out if Shooter was given a job.

That said, I'm grateful to have seen Shooter given a shot (ha ha) at doing a Legion run at all. And I'm not totally shocked that it ended badly, and I'm sure Shooter isn't, either.

--g

 

[glindros]

I've been a legion fan for a long time, and the series has had it's ups and downs.

I realized Shooter's tenure was meant to be an attention graber, but I felt that it showed DC was tying to do something anything to keep this book going. #50 just seemed to fail in so many ways. Just reclone new Legionnaires? Whip up a new body for Dream girl too?, etc... The true LSH, at least lately has really been over in the Superman books, and LSH:L3W. Why DC can't put this kind of story telling into the regular Legion book escapes me?

I survived the gap until "Five years later....." and I'll survive this, but I don't have to like it.
LLL