This week I am participating in an educational program from the unemployment office to brush up my English. The LCCI certificate I have is already more than six years old . At first I wasn´t so sure if this would really help me. I´m writing, reading and hearing English every day.
And I also practice it very often like when I´m writing this blog. But I have realized that my English has suffered because of too much netspeak and too much misch - masch with German, Spanish and English mistakes I made. And also it is only for four weeks so I will have finished it before I go to Spain this year which should be in March or April.
I want to look for a job there since Germany is slowly going down the toilet. You might think being fluent in three languages and knowing the basics of a fourth would help you to get a job but it seems that here in Germany it´s rather a hindrance. Of course I will also attend the Salon del Comic in Barcelona which this year takes place from April the 17th to April the 20th. Which reminds me that I should finish the post about my Spanish vacation from LAST year.
Before I was sidetracked by the erratic way of publication of the CAMELOT FALLS story I had finished the first part of the new solicitations. By the way, if....like me.....you have started to read WONDER WOMAN and were confused because issue 5 did NOT continue the story that was going through the first four issues but rather started a totally new one - well, let me tell you one thing : you are NOT crazy.
The story WHO IS WONDER WOMAN ? ( I really whish DC would come up with something new instead of doing the old WHO IS WONDER WOMAN / WONDER GIRL / DONNA TROY schtick indefinitely ) really didn´t continue. The last part of that story is published in WONDER WOMAN ANNUAL 1. I guess you´re as happy as I am about that.
Okay, now that that´s out of the way let´s go on with the solicitations. There is one last title from DC left before we can begin with the books by Marvel.
Legion of Super - Heroes : 1,050 Years in the future trade
I´m going to put up the solicitaion text up here :
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of DC's greatest super-teams with the best stories starring the guardians of the 30th century: The Legion of Super-Heroes! In the 30th century, teenaged super-heroes from every world in the United Planets have banded together against evil! 2008 is the 50th anniversary of the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES and, in celebration, DC is publishing the first-ever "best of" Legion collection.
This collection features stories by acclaimed Legion writers including Otto Binder, Jerry Siegel, Jim Shooter and Paul Levitz, artists Curt Swan and Keith Giffen, and many others from ADVENTURE COMICS #247, #304, #312, #354-355, SUPERBOY & THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #212, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #300 and #0, LEGENDS OF THE DCU 80-PAGE GIANT #2 and THE LEGION #3! As a bonus, this volume will also include articles by past Legion creators, timelines, character profiles, cover galleries and more.
Yes, you have read that right. This is really the FIRST " best of " of the last 50 ( in words fifty !!! ) years of Legion of Super Heroes lore. So far there have only been the trades from the new series and two trades of the two previous incarnations. And that´s not nearly enough for one of the best concepts in comics - EVER. Teenagers with superpowers. In outer space. In the future. How could you possibly top that without involving monkey ? I don´t know.
Anyway, the few legion trades that do exist are scarce and don´t seem to follow any logic pattern. There is one of the legion before the actual legion which of course include the issues I already have - which by the way are the worst of the whole batch. Of course they did not start with issue one because that would be too easy. No, we just start with some random issues - the ones SUBZERO is buying. Here in Germany the first fourteen issues appeared in a MONSTER EDITION but that was that. They didn´t follow up on it because apparently the sales numbers weren´t good enough.
Which didn´t surprise me because the stories in that edition start right after one of the best legion stories ever - at least according to comic fans and comic critics who have read it. I wouldn´t know because LEGION LOST is not reprinted in trade nor was it translated to German. The fact that PANINI decided to start publishing the stories right after LEGION LOST never made sense to me. If you start publishing a series it doesn´t make much sense to leave out the best parts. Which harebrained kind of way to publish comics is that ? Let´s publish this great series but let´s skip the really good parts. We don´t want to make too much money.
Anyway, this would be a possible stategy IF the first fourteen issues of the new legion title were a totally different story that wouldn´t bring up the events of LEGION LOST every six pages or so. I swear it´s constantly referenced throughout the whole MONSTER EDITION. But it doesn´t make much sense in the American version either. Why they decided to reprint the rubbish and not the a - game...who knows ?
It´s probably too difficult to reprint a twelve issue mini series in one trade like the SQUADRON SUPREME trade from Marvel.
There is also one trade of the legion that was restarted during ZERO HOUR which was one of the best legion runs ever. Now what they did right in this incarnation is that they put the focus on the characters. This was the first legion series that really drove home how frustrating it must be for Brainiac 5 to work with all this superpowered guys who are only a tenth as intelligent as him. It´s like working with monkeys I tell you !
Speaking about this incarnation of the legion they should give Jeff Moy more work. His work on the title was not too extraordinary but judging from the man´s commission work he was holding back as far as hot chicks are concerned. This guy really knows how to emphasize the qualities of super heroines and should be working on a regular title for DC. It doesn´t have to be a new POWER GIRL series ( although I don´t understand why Amanda Connor isn´t drawing one for DC right now since all the fans would like her to do an encore performance on that title ) just any book with a few sexy ladies. It shouldn´t be too difficult to find a few in the DC universe.
Coming back to the topic of legion trades the only other legion trade is THE GREAT DARKNESS SAGA which is part of every comic shop inventory. If your comic shop only has three trades you can bet your edition of WATCHMEN that one of them is THE GREAT DARKNESS SAGA. One of these days I have to see if I can find it at a comic fair at half price. I mean that trade is around since I started collecting American comics way back in 1984. Most comic shop owners are probably happy if they never see it again.
There was a new trade announced called AN EYE FOR AN EYE reprinting the famous Giffen legion - which is rumored to be the first draft of the Giffen - League - but so far I haven´t seen any copies of that trade.
Apart from that there is a lot of legion stuff available but ONLY those overexpensive legion archive hardcovers. And they are totally out of my price range. So it´s about time that DC puts out more legion stuff. Really. With Superman´s big 70th just waiting around the corner they need to begin to tap that rich fountain of excellent comic goodness.
Man, I have gotten distracted again. I have written much about the legion trades but not much about the new solicitations. And right now I am too tired to continue. I keep doing more and more typos and I have to finish some stuff for my job application tomorrow. So I´m going to wrap up my rant here and I will continue with the Marvel stuff in the next part of this month´s solicitations.
I hope.
New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN :top ten posts more posts of interest
That whiskey saved Superman.
