LSH: AOL Chat for 8/27/98: McCraw & Moy
Carmen Williams
>
> Tom McCraw (LSH/L* co-plotter/colorist) and Jeff Moy (L* penciller) were
> the guests on America Online's Legionnaires Chat for Thursday, August 27,
> 1998. Legion of Super-Heroes Chat takes place every Tuesday in the DC
> Comics Online area of AOL at 6:00 PM EST. Legionnaires Chat is held every
> Thursday in the same area at 10:00 PM EST. (Keyword: CHAT DC.) Regular
> guests include Tom McCraw, Jeff Moy, Ron Boyd and Mike McAvennie.
>
> Thanks to T. Troy McNemar who originated the Legion Chat Reports; so much
> of the format of these writeups was derived from his hard work.
>
> DISCLAIMER: I can't guarantee the reliability of this report. Essentially,
> the Legion chats involve about twenty-five fans shouting repeated questions
> to the creators. The creators are sometimes unable to answer questions
> thoroughly or clarify their responses. As a result, misinterpretations may
> occur on my part.
>
> SPOILERS: Information that spoils current or upcoming issues is found
> toward the end of this report. There's no spoiler space to separate such
> info from the more general comments.
>
> SUBSCRIPTIONS: To subscribe to these chat reports, send an e-mail to
> "majo...@mlists.com" with the message "subscribe lsh-chats". To
> unsubscribe, send the message "unsubscribe lsh-chats" to the same address.
>
> PLUGS: To subscribe to Lev Kalman's humorous LSH pics, send an e-mail to
> "majo...@mlists.com" with the message "subscribe lev-pics". You'll get a
> new cartoon e-mailed to you about once every two weeks.
>
> To browse this fan's STARMAN website, visit
> http://users.aol.com/nachro2/starhome.htm
>
> Finally, for all your LSH online needs, check out the Legion of
> Super-Resources at http://www.idyllmtn.com/rac/dc/lsh/lsh_res.htm
>
> A BIG THANKS: To Jason Bourgeois for logging this chat.
>
>
> Jeff thinks that Proty would taste like Play-Doh.
I feel absolutely *no* need to know what prompted this question.
>
> Art explanations for LSH #109: The Superman statue on pg. 1 is surrounded
> by a glass dome, and the Emerald Eye was the speeding object that tripped
> Zoe and Vi on pg. 8.
Um...why? Where was it in such a hurry to get to when it did its XS
imitation? Or did it just decide that Vi'd be easier to influence if
she had a concussion? Doesn't the Eye usually hover at, well,
eye-level? Why is it skittering along the floor like a demented green
mouse? Why is it bothering with flying around at all, when it can just
teleport wherever it wants to go?
Carmen W.--just a little confused...
Mr Reaus
>
> dave leon wrote:
>
> > >> Art explanations for LSH #109: The Superman statue on pg. 1 is surrounded
> > >> by a glass dome, and the Emerald Eye was the speeding object that tripped
> > >> Zoe and Vi on pg. 8.
> >
> > the art work was poor and didn't follow the script or the script itself was
> > poor. I thought it was XS, too. The comic should be able to stand by
> > itself and not need the AOL chat to explain what happened.
>
> I thought it was pretty obvious from both art and script that it was a speeding
> something (and certainly not XS as it was way more than half the size of a
> human) and one only had to read past page 8 to figure out that the speeding
> something was the Emerald Eye. I mean, the Eye was all over the cover fer gosh
> sakes. Any reader should have been able to figure out that eventually it was
> going to make an appearance in the issue.
I was confused too, and it wouldn't have been the first time the cover
had absolutely nothing to do with the contents of the issue!
Resignations! springs to mind!
---======---
Tim
aka Blok @ aol.com
The Unofficial Blok Website
http://members.aol.com/Blok/blok.html
Alex Tam
:=========================:
Jeff had just finished working on L* #68.
Fill-in pencillers for the next issues of L* include Sean Phillips on
#1,000,000 and Mike Collins on #66.
Tom will be the colorist on the upcoming ongoing STARS AND STRIPES, with
art by former LSH penciller Lee Moder. Tom should be finished recoloring
CRISIS by next week.
The return of Night Girl and Polar Boy has been discussed, but Tom still
doesn't know when that could happen.
Jeff thinks that Proty would taste like Play-Doh.
Art explanations for LSH #109: The Superman statue on pg. 1 is surrounded
by a glass dome, and the Emerald Eye was the speeding object that tripped
Zoe and Vi on pg. 8.
Thunder will be a frequent player in LSH, but Tom didn't say when she would
officially join.
In a few months, each Legion book will focus on two separate teams. Jeff
said that some tension will result from Garth and Imra being on different
teams. Jeff is disappointed that two of his favorites, Ayla and Zoe, won't
be in his book.
-- Alex Tam
gol...@intergate.bc.ca; Nachro2 on AOL
dave leon
>> Art explanations for LSH #109: The Superman statue on pg. 1 is surrounded
>> by a glass dome, and the Emerald Eye was the speeding object that tripped
>> Zoe and Vi on pg. 8.
TheMousiah
confusing-
since if it REALLY is the Eye, this whole bit can not be a "dream" but then no
explanation makes sense for Zoe's involvement in the story.....
Wonder- since Carggites tend to absorb each of their selve's memories upon
blending back to one form, did Tinya's blending with Phase leave her with
memories of Phase's L.E.G.I.O.N. days- including of the Eye-possessed Mr.&Mrs.
Bek?? If so, shouldn't she be filling her teammates in on what she learned in
the 20th Century about the Eye- since it is way more info than these kids have
to go by so far....
just wondering is all....:)
LLL!
Dave Bakas,
who is waiting for Tinya and Lar to have a heart to heart about their mutual
tenures in the 20th Century L.E.G.I.O.N.- or for some reaction from Tinya re:
Brainy's ancestors! If she has Phase's memories now she should have plenty to
discuss with a few LSHers in the 30th C! :)
Carmen Williams
>
> dave leon wrote:
>
> something (and certainly not XS as it was way more than half the size of a
> human) and one only had to read past page 8 to figure out that the speeding
> something was the Emerald Eye. I mean, the Eye was all over the cover fer gosh
> sakes. Any reader should have been able to figure out that eventually it was
> going to make an appearance in the issue.
Sure. And it *did*. But there was nothing to indicate that *that*
particular panel was the Eye--I mean, it could've been, yes, it was
round and green, but it was impossible to tell. And I repeat, why did
they do this? It's never explained, it doesn't make any sense for the
Eye, and if they just meant it as foreshadowing--look, the Eye!--well,
as you say, the cover kinda established that already...
Oh, and for the record, I never thought it was XS. I just meant it was
using the same blurred effect.
Carmen W.
Chyde
> In a few months, each Legion book will focus on two separate teams. Jeff
> said that some tension will result from Garth and Imra being on different
> teams. Jeff is disappointed that two of his favorites, Ayla and Zoe, won't
> be in his book.
>
>
This is the worst idea I've ever heard in my
entire sprocking life. I'm talking worse than
team 20, here.
If this is something that lasts just a few issues,
then that's no problem. But if they mean for
this to be a PERMANENT thing...well, that goes against
the entire concept of the LEgion...its
THE LEGION of super-heroes, not TWO LEgionS of
Super-heroes. One of the charms of the LEgion is that
they're all togehter as one team.
---Craig---
Bounci...@hotmail.com
"dave leon" <mast...@dotstar.net> wrote:
>
> >> Art explanations for LSH #109: The Superman statue on pg. 1 is surrounded
> >> by a glass dome, and the Emerald Eye was the speeding object that tripped
> >> Zoe and Vi on pg. 8.
>
> The very fact that it has to be explained in the AOL chat shows that either
> the art work was poor and didn't follow the script or the script itself was
> poor. I thought it was XS, too. The comic should be able to stand by
> itself and not need the AOL chat to explain what happened.
>
>
The Artwork was poor. I didn't even notice the blur in my first reading, and
I thought it looked like Zoe had punched Vi.
-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/rg_mkgrp.xp Create Your Own Free Member Forum
Sidne G. Ward
>Alex Tam wrote:
>> In a few months, each Legion book will focus on two separate teams. Jeff
>> said that some tension will result from Garth and Imra being on different
>> teams. Jeff is disappointed that two of his favorites, Ayla and Zoe, won't
>> be in his book.
>This is the worst idea I've ever heard in my
>entire sprocking life. I'm talking worse than
>team 20, here.
I disagree. Of course, I was no fan of the Team 20 idea.
>If this is something that lasts just a few issues,
>then that's no problem. But if they mean for
>this to be a PERMANENT thing...well, that goes against
>the entire concept of the LEgion...its
>THE LEGION of super-heroes, not TWO LEgionS of
>Super-heroes. One of the charms of the LEgion is that
>they're all togehter as one team.
I believe it's meant to be a semi-permanent thing (meaning for the
forseeable future). Obviously things can (and probably will) eventually
change. One of the books could get cancelled (horrors!) or the creative
teams could change sometime in the future and the new creators could
prefer more closely interweaving the two titles again. The current
creators might even decide to go back to this.
But right now I'm wondering if it might not help with a little bit of the
pacing of the books if they were telling separate stories. Let each team
of creators concentrate on their own subplots. Tom McCraw is still
planning on being involved in the plotting of both titles, so that should
help with consistency between the titles. And the creators have mentioned
that there will be some movement of the characters back and forth between
the two teams (so anyone dying to see Garth and Imra together may
eventually get the chance again in the not too distant future).
It'll also, presumably , make it easier for readers to buy only one of the
two books if they find one to their liking over the other.
We've never really had two separate Legion books coming out at the same
time (unless you cound Team 20/30) and I'm looking forward to it.
Sidne Gail Ward
sw...@primenet.com
T. Troy McNemar
wrote:
SPOILER SPACE
>>> In a few months, each Legion book will focus on two separate teams. Jeff
>>> said that some tension will result from Garth and Imra being on different
>>> teams. Jeff is disappointed that two of his favorites, Ayla and Zoe, won't
>>> be in his book.
>
>>This is the worst idea I've ever heard in my
>>entire sprocking life. I'm talking worse than
>>team 20, here.
>
>I disagree. Of course, I was no fan of the Team 20 idea.
Yeah, this is definitely better than Team 20. I'm not crazy about it, but
it's not all downside.
>But right now I'm wondering if it might not help with a little bit of the
>pacing of the books if they were telling separate stories. Let each team
>of creators concentrate on their own subplots.
This is one positive aspect of the change. I've no faith that Element Lad
will be addressed, though.
>Tom McCraw is still
>planning on being involved in the plotting of both titles, so that should
>help with consistency between the titles.
And hopefully, will permit the characters to cross back and forth between
the books easier. Ultimately, how rigidly the divisions are maintained is
going to make the difference in how much I'm able to enjoy the division.
In particular, the members of the Legion "Rapid Response Team" should do a
lot of crossing over between the books.
(Legion "Rapid Response Team" is my name for the Legionnaires that can fly
interstellar distances in a very short time. For most of the Levitz era,
the LRRT was Mon, Jo, Dawny, Drake, and (sometimes) Superboy. Levitz made
great use of the LRRT. For the current Legion, the LRRT would be M'On,
Jo, Thom and (perhaps) Cece. Andy would be a member of the LRRT if she
weren't doing more important things.)
>And the creators have mentioned
>that there will be some movement of the characters back and forth between
>the two teams (so anyone dying to see Garth and Imra together may
>eventually get the chance again in the not too distant future).
I'll comment on relationships after reminding people of matters stated in
the August 13-25 chat:
:Soon each of the books will have its own set of characters. The team in L*
:will include Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Monstress, Element Lad, Ultra Boy,
:Apparition, XS, and Lori and Proty. Kinetix and Spark will be featured in
:LSH.
I have some issues with the placements.
1. I don't like the founders being split up. Not only do I like them
together, but it would be interesting to see the team dynamics of the
founder-less team.
2. If Cos and Imra are in L* and if Imra and Garth are split up, it would
seem that Garth is going to be in LSH with Ayla. It doesn't make much
sense to me to put both electric twins on the same team. Obviously, if
this leads to the creators reviving the Light Lass powers, I'll have no
objection.
3. I don't like Ayla being separated from Jeff Moy.
4. As I've opined before, Peyer should be prohibited from using Brainy
for the coming year and Stern/Merlo should be prohibited from using
Monstress for the coming year.
>It'll also, presumably , make it easier for readers to buy only one of the
>two books if they find one to their liking over the other.
Unfortunately, it's probably not a good idea to give readers an easy
opportunity to bail on one of the titles.
--
T. Troy McNemar Tro...@primenet.com
"Yort sah a wen liam-e sserdda. Ta tsael dneterp uoy erac."
-Zatanna
Favorite Comic of the Week: JLA: THE NAIL #3
Runner-up: RANMA 1/2 pt 7 #7
LLL!
Chyde
> Chyde <Ch...@SPAMSUCKSmath.arizona.edu> writes:
>
> >Alex Tam wrote:
>
> >> In a few months, each Legion book will focus on two separate teams. Jeff
> >> said that some tension will result from Garth and Imra being on different
> >> teams. Jeff is disappointed that two of his favorites, Ayla and Zoe, won't
> >> be in his book.
>
> >This is the worst idea I've ever heard in my
> >entire sprocking life. I'm talking worse than
> >team 20, here.
>
> I disagree. Of course, I was no fan of the Team 20 idea.
Well, hopefully it won't END UP being worse than
Team 20, because Team 20 was very bad. However, what
I meant was that this idea sounds worse to me now
than Team 20 did when I first heard about it.
After all, we KNEW from the start that TEAM 20 was
only temporary, so we could at least comfort ourselves
with that. (OF course, Team 20 ended up being a lot worse than
I thought it would be.)
>
>
> >If this is something that lasts just a few issues,
> >then that's no problem. But if they mean for
> >this to be a PERMANENT thing...well, that goes against
> >the entire concept of the LEgion...its
> >THE LEGION of super-heroes, not TWO LEgionS of
> >Super-heroes. One of the charms of the LEgion is that
> >they're all togehter as one team.
>
> I believe it's meant to be a semi-permanent thing (meaning for the
> forseeable future). Obviously things can (and probably will) eventually
> change. One of the books could get cancelled (horrors!) or the creative
> teams could change sometime in the future and the new creators could
> prefer more closely interweaving the two titles again. The current
> creators might even decide to go back to this.
>
> But right now I'm wondering if it might not help with a little bit of the
> pacing of the books if they were telling separate stories. Let each team
> of creators concentrate on their own subplots. Tom McCraw is still
> planning on being involved in the plotting of both titles, so that should
> help with consistency between the titles. And the creators have mentioned
> that there will be some movement of the characters back and forth between
> the two teams (so anyone dying to see Garth and Imra together may
> eventually get the chance again in the not too distant future).
I have no problems with the two books having separate plot-lines...
the LEgion has ALWAYS split into teams for various missions/crises,
and each book could focus on one particular mission. As you say,
having each book focus on a separate main plot could help the
writers with their pacing.
However, the idea that I can't stand is that each book is going
to focus on one set of characters only, for what SOUNDS like
a semi-permanent basis. We "may get a chance" to see
Imra and Garth together? HEck, there should be NO QUESTION that
we'll see them together every few issues, even if they ended up breaking
up and hating each others guts.
My point is that although the LEgion has always broken up into
teams, these membership of these teams have always changed
from storyline to storyline. Why can't the two books
focus on separate plot threads but "mix and match" the
characters from story to story? This would accomplish the
same thing, but still preserve the unified aspect
of the LEgion. There should be some sense that ALL the
LEgionnaires still have their
"homebase" at LSH headquarters, where any two randomly
chosen LEgionnaires might currently be between missions
and inter-acting at any given moment.
I hope that the "some movement back and forth" that you say the
creators have mentioned will instead be a *LOT* of movemnt.
I imagine that the mechanism via which they will "break-up"
the books will be the space-station. I was under the
impression that the space-station was an out-of-the-way
place to which a few LEgionnaires would be assigned
on a ROTATING basis. ROTATING being key here. In fact,
if they want to have one book focus on the "smaller"
space station team to focus on different characters
every few months that would be great! With about 23
LEgionnaires (I'm too tired to do an accurate count right now),
the number of possible teams of, say, four people is
8,855, and it jumps to 33,649 if you go up to five.
In other words, they could almost go on forever exploring
the various charaters by having DIFFERENt groups of
them interacting in small groups.
Having the same grou together all the time limits the
amount of things you can do to establish characterization.
To really define a character, you have to see how they
interact with different types of people.
> It'll also, presumably , make it easier for readers to buy only one of the
> two books if they find one to their liking over the other.
>
> We've never really had two separate Legion books coming out at the same
> time (unless you cound Team 20/30) and I'm looking forward to it.
I'll like it too, if (and probably ONLY IF) theyrotate which characters are in
each book. For Jeff Moy
to have to say he's "disappointed" that Spark "wasn't
assigned to his book" sounds absurd! He draws the LEgion,
Spark is a LEgionnaire, he should be periodically drawing
Spark. Any other arrangement seems ridiculous.
---Craig---
Chyde
> Previously on rec.arts.comics.dc.lsh, sw...@primenet.com (Sidne G. Ward)
> wrote:
> >Chyde <Ch...@SPAMSUCKSmath.arizona.edu> writes:
> >>Alex Tam wrote:
>
> >Tom McCraw is still
> >planning on being involved in the plotting of both titles, so that should
> >help with consistency between the titles.
>
> And hopefully, will permit the characters to cross back and forth between
> the books easier. Ultimately, how rigidly the divisions are maintained is
> going to make the difference in how much I'm able to enjoy the division.
> In particular, the members of the Legion "Rapid Response Team" should do a
> lot of crossing over between the books.
>
> (Legion "Rapid Response Team" is my name for the Legionnaires that can fly
> interstellar distances in a very short time. For most of the Levitz era,
> the LRRT was Mon, Jo, Dawny, Drake, and (sometimes) Superboy. Levitz made
> great use of the LRRT. For the current Legion, the LRRT would be M'On,
> Jo, Thom and (perhaps) Cece. Andy would be a member of the LRRT if she
> weren't doing more important things.)
Agreed, but having only the "Rapid REponse Team" crossingover is still
unacceptable. Are we to accept the fact that
if two characters HAPPEN to be assigned to different books
on the arbitrary whim of the creators, then we will never
see them interact again, or only see them do so on "rare
occasions"? Admittedly, lots of paris of characters interact
only rarely, but at least the POSSIBILITY of them interacting
is always there.
>
>
> >And the creators have mentioned
> >that there will be some movement of the characters back and forth between
> >the two teams (so anyone dying to see Garth and Imra together may
> >eventually get the chance again in the not too distant future).
>
> I'll comment on relationships after reminding people of matters stated in
> the August 13-25 chat:
>
> :Soon each of the books will have its own set of characters. The team in L*
> :will include Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Monstress, Element Lad, Ultra Boy,
> :Apparition, XS, and Lori and Proty. Kinetix and Spark will be featured in
> :LSH.
>
> I have some issues with the placements.
>
> 1. I don't like the founders being split up. Not only do I like them
> together, but it would be interesting to see the team dynamics of the
> founder-less team.
>
> 2. If Cos and Imra are in L* and if Imra and Garth are split up, it would
> seem that Garth is going to be in LSH with Ayla. It doesn't make much
> sense to me to put both electric twins on the same team. Obviously, if
> this leads to the creators reviving the Light Lass powers, I'll have no
> objection.
>
> 3. I don't like Ayla being separated from Jeff Moy.
Neither does he!
>
>
> 4. As I've opined before, Peyer should be prohibited from using Brainy
> for the coming year and Stern/Merlo should be prohibited from using
> Monstress for the coming year.
this actually illustrates a further danger of this arrangement.If Brainy is
assigned to Peyer's book, there will be no
stopping him from running rampant with the charcter and doing
whatever he wants. Having TWO sets of creators would at least
temper this. Ditto with Monstress and "Sterlo".
>
>
> >It'll also, presumably , make it easier for readers to buy only one of the
> >two books if they find one to their liking over the other.
>
> Unfortunately, it's probably not a good idea to give readers an easy
> opportunity to bail on one of the titles.
>
>
Really!
---Craig---
Mike Chary
>
>It'll also, presumably, make it easier for readers to buy only one of the
>
>time (unless you cound Team 20/30) and I'm looking forward to it.
Well, actually, this has been tried before.
Gerry Conway (ick) sent part of the team into Space with R.J. to try to
rebuild his fortune. That worked out really well, as we got some of the
worst storytelling in the history of comics. Of course, this does nothing
to distinguish it from anything else Gerry did on the book as he kept
alive his recrod of never writing the Legion of Superheroes despite
scripting the title for over a year.
LGS was about the young LGS while LSH was about the older team for a long
while. Legionnaires was a dismal failure, but that's largely
attribvutabel to the talent, since there's nothing per se wrong with the
idea of focusing on a younger team (after all, that's how the books
started and are currently running.)
And, fudging a bit, Levitz split off Tales of the LSH from LSH fairly
independently at the start of the Baxter series, with five of the the
Legionnaires trying to deal with the LSV and get home, and the rest doing
other stuff. Tales of the LSH is sort of the forgotten step child of LSH
books, but before it became a reprint title, there were a couple good
stories there including the Ontir trial and the Dev-Em stuff.
--
Court Philosopher and Barbarian, DNRC http://ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu/~fchary
Congratulations on a Great Season VALPO!
Happy 100th birthday, Paul Robeson!
"Ipsa scientia potestas est." - Roger Bacon
Carl Fink
<Ch...@SPAMSUCKSmath.arizona.edu> wrote:
>This is the worst idea I've ever heard in my
>entire sprocking life. I'm talking worse than
>team 20, here.
Well, it's bad. "Worse than team 20" is pretty horrible -- only T20
and TMK so far have made me drop a Legion book.
I agree with what you say in another posting: if they have
semi-permanently split teams, it's a very bad idea. If they just have
different *plotlines* in each book, it could be a very good one.
Unfortunately (as I've bemoaned before) DC no longer has *any* good
line editors that I can think of. (I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone
reading this, but it's honest.) Put Berger back in a job that
involves editing comics, DC!
This sort of thing is exactly what requires really good editing, and
unfortunately that just isn't in the cards.
--
Carl Fink ca...@dm.net
"Your brain is actually a fabulously complex computer, which means that
on Jan. 1, 2000, it will stop working and your body will flop around
like a recently caught perch." (Dave Barry, slightly paraphrased.)
Ben Weiss
> I'll comment on relationships after reminding people of matters stated in
> the August 13-25 chat:
>
> :Soon each of the books will have its own set of characters. The team in L*
> :will include Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Monstress, Element Lad, Ultra Boy,
> :Apparition, XS, and Lori and Proty. Kinetix and Spark will be featured in
> :LSH.
Am I to understand that "includes" means the L* team isn't a complete
list? So far, they've named 7 Legionnaires to the Sterlo book, leaving
16 in the other book (not counting Thunder). Although I suppose Peyer
is better than Stern at dealing with a larger cast.
> I have some issues with the placements.
>
> 1. I don't like the founders being split up. Not only do I like them
> together, but it would be interesting to see the team dynamics of the
> founder-less team.
Agreed on both counts. Imra and Cos do have some fallout from Team 20
to work out, but Garth should be involved. Also, Jo and Tinya should be
split up--they really aren't joined at the hip and each is more
interesting without the other.
> 2. If Cos and Imra are in L* and if Imra and Garth are split up, it would
> seem that Garth is going to be in LSH with Ayla. It doesn't make much
> sense to me to put both electric twins on the same team. Obviously, if
> this leads to the creators reviving the Light Lass powers, I'll have no
> objection.
Power duplication doesn't seem to be a concern as they also appear to
have M'onel and Star Boy on the same team. Of course, M'on may be out
exploring the galaxy much of the time.
> 4. As I've opined before, Peyer should be prohibited from using Brainy
> for the coming year and Stern/Merlo should be prohibited from using
> Monstress for the coming year.
If they're going to have a bigger team and a smaller team, then the
smaller team should consist of the less-used members--in addition to
Jan, it should have Karate Kid, Umbra, Kid Quantum, Star Boy, and either
Jo or Tinya but not both. With Cos, Imra, Monstress, Jo and Tinya on
the same team, I don't have much hope for more Jan exposure.
Kinetix should be kept away from whichever writer anomalized her, and
Ferro should (as he apparently will) be on Peyer's team.
Ben
eleme...@lsh.org
Chris Rednour
> Sidne G. Ward wrote:
>
> > Chyde <Ch...@SPAMSUCKSmath.arizona.edu> writes:
> >
> > >Alex Tam wrote:
> >
> > >> In a few months, each Legion book will focus on two separate teams. Jeff
> > >> said that some tension will result from Garth and Imra being on different
> > >> teams. Jeff is disappointed that two of his favorites, Ayla and Zoe, won't
> > >> be in his book.
> >
> > >This is the worst idea I've ever heard in my
> > >entire sprocking life. I'm talking worse than
> > >team 20, here.
> >
> > I disagree. Of course, I was no fan of the Team 20 idea.
>
> Well, hopefully it won't END UP being worse than
> Team 20, because Team 20 was very bad. However, what
> I meant was that this idea sounds worse to me now
> than Team 20 did when I first heard about it.
> After all, we KNEW from the start that TEAM 20 was
> only temporary, so we could at least comfort ourselves
> with that. (OF course, Team 20 ended up being a lot worse than
> I thought it would be.)
But their's no indication the team are either going to be a permanant
fixture of the book or even have a permanent roster. And given how Chuck
seems to bounce from one to the other all the time, it doesn't seem
unreasonable for the team's makeup to alter constantly, and turn into
something of the order, using the olden days as an example, one book
telling their story and the other book detailing why all the really
usefull people were off planet. :)
While from a storytelling standpoint it seems like the "let the writers
tell stories of rotating team/mission basis" would work, I think in
honesty, it'd only work with one writer keeping track of all the
characters. Alowing a "semi-permanent" placement of characters, will
hopefully keep characters from falling throught the cracks as the
storylines bounce around.
And as I said above, Chuck sure got around, I'm sure any split
relationships will rack up frequent flyer miles. Of course it does make
one wonder who the bone-head was who came up with a duty roster that would
split obvious pairs [from a standpoint of in the comic, lest that not be
clear.]
> My point is that although the LEgion has always broken up into
> teams, these membership of these teams have always changed
> from storyline to storyline. Why can't the two books
> focus on separate plot threads but "mix and match" the
> characters from story to story? This would accomplish the
> same thing, but still preserve the unified aspect
> of the LEgion. There should be some sense that ALL the
> LEgionnaires still have their
> "homebase" at LSH headquarters, where any two randomly
> chosen LEgionnaires might currently be between missions
> and inter-acting at any given moment.
I think the difficulty with that, is given three writers on the book,
there would be no guarentees that what one writer was developing wouldn't
disapear entirely if they then moved to another team. Essentially you'd
see most characters completely lose any development they may have, not
entirely like what, IMO, we've seen lately as the characters bounce
between books.
> I hope that the "some movement back and forth" that you say the
> creators have mentioned will instead be a *LOT* of movemnt.
I hope that there is somewhere in the middle. Not like the monolithic
[mostly] T20 stuff, but not so much movement that characters get lost in
the shuffle with no kind of creative continuity.
> I imagine that the mechanism via which they will "break-up"
> the books will be the space-station. I was under the
> impression that the space-station was an out-of-the-way
> place to which a few LEgionnaires would be assigned
> on a ROTATING basis. ROTATING being key here. In fact,
> if they want to have one book focus on the "smaller"
> space station team to focus on different characters
> every few months that would be great! With about 23
> LEgionnaires (I'm too tired to do an accurate count right now),
> the number of possible teams of, say, four people is
> 8,855, and it jumps to 33,649 if you go up to five.
> In other words, they could almost go on forever exploring
> the various charaters by having DIFFERENt groups of
> them interacting in small groups.
Which they may do, but I still don't see anyproblem with a split that
allows characters to develop.
> Having the same grou together all the time limits the
> amount of things you can do to establish characterization.
> To really define a character, you have to see how they
> interact with different types of people.
True, but (a) they'll meet different people in their adventures [which is
usually how single hero characters get characterized] and (b) they
would probably lose the ability to interact meaningfully if they never
interacted with the same people twice, IMO.
[snip]
-Chris Rednour
_________________________________________________________________
gs0...@panther.gsu.edu http://www.gsu.edu/~gs06cjr/index.html
cred...@gpc.peachnet.edu
Sidne G. Ward
>Sidne G. Ward wrote:
>> Chyde <Ch...@SPAMSUCKSmath.arizona.edu> writes:
>>
>> >Alex Tam wrote:
>>
>> >> In a few months, each Legion book will focus on two separate teams.
>> >> be in his book.
>>
>> >This is the worst idea I've ever heard in my
>> >entire sprocking life. I'm talking worse than
>> >team 20, here.
>>
>> I disagree. Of course, I was no fan of the Team 20 idea.
>Well, hopefully it won't END UP being worse than
>Team 20, because Team 20 was very bad. However, what
>I meant was that this idea sounds worse to me now
>than Team 20 did when I first heard about it.
>After all, we KNEW from the start that TEAM 20 was
>only temporary, so we could at least comfort ourselves
>with that. (OF course, Team 20 ended up being a lot worse than
>I thought it would be.)
And what I meant was that the current idea doesn't sound as bad to me as
the Team 20 idea did when I first heard about it. We might have figured
that the idea was temporary, but we didn't know how long it was going to
last for quite awhile after it was first announced.
(major snip)
>However, the idea that I can't stand is that each book is going
>to focus on one set of characters only, for what SOUNDS like
>a semi-permanent basis. We "may get a chance" to see
>Imra and Garth together? HEck, there should be NO QUESTION that
>we'll see them together every few issues, even if they ended up breaking
>up and hating each others guts.
I have to be honest and say that I'd prefer this as well. But I do think
it's a major effort for creators to coordinate these things. And my
impression (that may very well be mistaken) is that the teams are going to
stick with the established line-ups for awhile.
>My point is that although the LEgion has always broken up into
>teams, these membership of these teams have always changed
>from storyline to storyline. Why can't the two books
>focus on separate plot threads but "mix and match" the
>characters from story to story? This would accomplish the
>same thing, but still preserve the unified aspect
>of the LEgion. There should be some sense that ALL the
>LEgionnaires still have their
>"homebase" at LSH headquarters, where any two randomly
>chosen LEgionnaires might currently be between missions
>and inter-acting at any given moment.
I'd really like this as well, but if the plotlines continue to be similar
in lengths to recent ones, I wouldn't expect this.
>I hope that the "some movement back and forth" that you say the
>creators have mentioned will instead be a *LOT* of movemnt.
>I imagine that the mechanism via which they will "break-up"
>the books will be the space-station.
That's my impression of the plan. One team will be stationed there and
the other will be based on Earth at LSH HQ.
>I was under the
>impression that the space-station was an out-of-the-way
>place to which a few LEgionnaires would be assigned
>on a ROTATING basis. ROTATING being key here. In fact,
>if they want to have one book focus on the "smaller"
>space station team to focus on different characters
>every few months that would be great! With about 23
>LEgionnaires (I'm too tired to do an accurate count right now),
>the number of possible teams of, say, four people is
>8,855, and it jumps to 33,649 if you go up to five.
>In other words, they could almost go on forever exploring
>the various charaters by having DIFFERENt groups of
>them interacting in small groups.
I think having one book focusing on the larger team and the other on small
groups of characters would be an interesting idea. But I think they're
planning (at least at the outset) on splitting the team roughly in half.
>Having the same grou together all the time limits the
>amount of things you can do to establish characterization.
>To really define a character, you have to see how they
>interact with different types of people.
I won't say I wouldn't like to see some more characterization in the
books.
>I'll like it too, if (and probably ONLY IF) theyrotate which characters are in
>each book. For Jeff Moy
>to have to say he's "disappointed" that Spark "wasn't
>assigned to his book" sounds absurd! He draws the LEgion,
>Spark is a LEgionnaire, he should be periodically drawing
>Spark. Any other arrangement seems ridiculous.
I hope Moy is occasionally drawing Spark as well.
Sidne Gail Ward
sw...@primenet.com
T. Troy McNemar
wrote:
>T. Troy McNemar wrote:
>> I'll comment on relationships after reminding people of matters stated in
>> the August 13-25 chat:
>>
>> :Soon each of the books will have its own set of characters. The team in L*
>> :will include Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Monstress, Element Lad, Ultra Boy,
>> :Apparition, XS, and Lori and Proty. Kinetix and Spark will be featured in
>> :LSH.
>
>Am I to understand that "includes" means the L* team isn't a complete
>list?
Probably not. One would think there'd be at least 10 on each team.
>Also, Jo and Tinya should be
>split up--they really aren't joined at the hip and each is more
>interesting without the other.
I agree, but I can forgive them for not splitting up the married couple.
>> 2. If Cos and Imra are in L* and if Imra and Garth are split up, it would
>> seem that Garth is going to be in LSH with Ayla. It doesn't make much
>> sense to me to put both electric twins on the same team.
>
>Power duplication doesn't seem to be a concern as they also appear to
>have M'onel and Star Boy on the same team.
Based on November PREVIEWS, I'd guess M'On's in LSH and Thom's in L*.
--
T. Troy McNemar Tro...@primenet.com
"Yort sah a wen liam-e sserdda. Ta tsael dneterp uoy erac."
-Zatanna
Favorite Comic of the Week: PREACHER #43
Runner-up: [no worthy contender]
LLL!
Jim Drew
>
> >It'll also, presumably , make it easier for readers to buy only one of the
> >two books if they find one to their liking over the other.
>
> opportunity to bail on one of the titles.
I think the odds of that are pretty slim, but a watchful eye on sales figures
might allow for making corrections: hmm, LSH dropped 5% while L* went up 2% --
was it the art, the return of Holdur, or something else...
Jim