Aldo reads DC's New 52 (So you don't have to)

wikipedia has the first legion comic as 1958

is the rights business tied in with the Siegel family dispute over Superboy? That's the only thing I can think of that would affect DC's ownership LOSH

I think it is a Superboy thing but the Internet isn't helping. The first time since 1974 there won't have been a Legion published.

Siegel is one of the five best Legion writers ever but he came on long after the start, didn't originate the team being inspired by Superboy, didn't always have Superboy in the stories, wrote on instruction from Weisinger... and had sold Superboy back to National by then anyway, the poor chump. It would surely be widely known if he had ever had the slightest hint of a Marston clause attached to anything.

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/04/19/federal-judge-affirms-dcs-ownership-of-superboy-multimillion-d/

and to clarify, i wasn't saying that the siegel family were claiming anything along the lines of "our dad insisted superboy appear in the legion" or whatevs, just that with a court case pending over ownership of the Superboy character, there might be all sorts of rights issues and copyright wrangles involved with a comic where superboy was the 'best-known' (if not most 'important' or definitive) member.

that's not loading for me, but does it mention LSH? am on phone but iirc S'boy created '40s, licenced to National 'til superhero slump, then sold off in the '50s once demand couldn't keep their studio going any more. The '00s deal that got upheld last month is about copyright reversion on the distinct elements of S'boy from S&S's (prob just S's) presentation - stuff done by other hands and staff editors while the character fully belonged to DC/Nat shouldn't come under that

But IANAL (and wouldn't expect any Comics Alliance link to stay up through the week btw)

(xpost - yeah I figured you weren't before Ward)

heh am typing this in a hurry at work, so can't check that comics alliance link either at the moment. i might ask a few hardcore Legion fans of my acquaintance if they know more (just scratching my head as to what the legal/copyright issues around the Legion would be other than the Superboy business - perhaps somebody wants to claim ownership of the karate kid...)

At home, now - and no, the Comics Alliance piece doesn't specifically mention LOSH. Have now emailed my best LSOH fan connection, will report back what they say.

James Robinson leaves DC.

i heard back from my well-connected legion fan friend (he also runs an excellent comic shop in london):

"No, the reason for the termination of the Legion was purely and simply poor sales - not surprising, given that, after an incredible sales spike, the 'New 52', on average now, is selling 25%-75% *fewer* copies (of the titles that existed before and after for comparison purposes) than before the reboot. They're going to have to pull out some other trick to stop haemorrhaging sales all over."

Considering how low some of the mainline DC stuff was selling before the reboot, that's pretty astonishing.

Considering how ill-thought-out and poorly-resulting the actual comics have been, that's not in the least surprising.

How many months of better-than-Marvel sales did they mortgage their company for? Five or six?

Let's talk at far too great length about Suicide Squad #1 (2011), and what its characters look like

Loving that he's a comics fan but isn't sure whether an overly fussy redesign with too many lines is down to Jim Lee or not.

He sounds pretty sure?

I am just cracking up that they can't enjoy Deadshot unless he has a mustache

I dunno - it's superhero comics. Minor, asinine details like staches and beards are all part of the iconography. They're still good design.

Also, Superman would clearly be better with a moustache.

Superman would be better if he was still a lion.

Every superhero would be better if they were lions

Maybe not Aquaman.

ESPECIALLY Aquaman!

he wld be a sealion

Yeah, anything interesting happening to Aquaman would be a bonus. (I love him, but he's shit, really.)

So I skimmed this new GREEN TEAM thing and a character says "...he gets all crunk on this sort of thing" which prompts the reply "Crunk?" "Yeah you know, crunk...like crazy drunk."

Timely as always.

So we can expect a twerking subplot about the time the next cicada hatch?

Green Lantern 20 took everything that was eyeroll-inducing/unpalatable about Johns' run and fellated it vigorously and repeatedly for 64 pages.

Fellatio is a good thing though, right?

depends on what you're fellating I guess.

tuesday times crossword puzzle answer to 61 down was DAYO

I know I shouldn't care, but I've been thinking: According to Flashpoint, the creation of the New 52 was because of Pandora, which means that she must have existed before the New 52. But her origin story involves The Phantom Stranger and The Question, who were different persons before the merge, right? So, did her changing the universe change her own story as well, and what was her original story then? Or are the Trinity of Sin from another universe all-together, which has now merged with the rest of the DC Universe?

you realise that none of this was actually planned out, right

Icidentally, amongst a litany of fuck ups the most unforgivable thing DC did was give The Phantom Stranger a definitive origin story.

The only interesting thing about him was the fact that nobody knew who he was and now he's fucking Judas Iscariot. It's like DC comics as imagined by Bill Donahue.

That SS post helps encapsulate everything I loathe about post 2000 superhero comic books

Part two of it: http://everydayislikewednesday.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/review-suicide-squad-vol-1-kicked-in.html

"Why am I willing to describe certain specific events during my brief encounter with them for the New 52? Because I am appalled at the way in which creators are being bullied, and somewhat freaked out at the things I saw in my own time there. I encountered more lies and veiled threats – more attempts to justify dysfunctional behavior and systems – than I have ever encountered in my career."

i'm sure that's all OTM - but why would anyone hire paul jenkins in the first place? truly horrible writer

Holy Fucking Shit at the story about him ghost-dialoging an entire comic because David Finch couldn't be found.

note that that refers to this issue (from upthread):

DAVID FINCH’S THE DARK KNIGHT #5: Published August 24th. This is the only time an issue has come out one month after the previous one. Finch has again failed to draw, paint, ink, or colour his solo title. The same fill-in penciller as last issue remains.
ONE of the fill-in inkers from last issue remains, but an additional FOUR fill-in inkers, none of whom have worked on any previous issue, are added. One of the new fill-in colourists from last issue remains, but needs another fill-in colourist to get the job done.
This is the last issue before the reboot. In order to have just ONE (1) MONTH out of TEN (10) in which an issue was published monthly, the creator needed to have FIFTEEN (15) fill-in artists help out that month.

...and an uncredited ghost-writer.

I said recently to a fan at a convention that there’s little chance DC would want a guy like me to write the Flash. I would have him lose a leg to a roadside bomb, then write about the personal issues that would naturally dominate his life for a while.

Jenkins makes some good points in that interview, but this is a truly, truly terrible idea for a Flash story.

pfft he'd grow it back again. Morrison and Millar broke his leg at the end of their first story.

I mean, it does sound dumb, but at least better than "he saves Chunk, who is now a hot thin woman, from Doctor Rape, then cries on a satellite"

That sounds like a low bar - is it Geoff Johns?

it's a gestalt thing

is there a nu-52 Flash book? I'm just assuming

I just discovered that Gregg Hurwitz, the dude writing Batman: The Dark Knight was in my graduating class from college, which is making me want to buy it

So I was interested in what the deal was with Pandora in the New 52, after having read Flashpoint, but really not touching any of the New 52, and I was amazed at how bad it was. Really, the story is completely predictable from page one, if you know who Pandora is, except for some really baffling details. Like, why on Earth does she get punished, when she doesn't do anything wrong (and as she is punished at the same time as the Phantom Stranger, who is presumably Judas WHEN does she get punished? Or does that weird council thing exist out of time?) Anyways, there was an info-box pointing to the recent Shazam-story, so I picked up the latest Justice League, and was perplexed once again, since the thing with the court wasn't even mentioned. But the sin-creatures were there all of a sudden. Does anything get explained anywhere else?

But really, the most annoying thing was, that there was nothing about Pandora creating the New 52 Universe, which was the entire point of her creation. I don't get it. So has she always existed in the DCU, and pulled other universes into it? If so, did she change her own origin, since she now is tied to The Question and Phantom Stranger, who were different before? Will we ever get her true, pre-52 origin?

But most importantly: Why on earth did she keep singing: 'sing a song, sing a song, we are strong, we are strong'? Did DC pay someone to come up with that? Did they pay anyone on this book? What on earth is going on? How do they expect to get readers on this book, when it's such a weird mixture of absolutely predictable, and still completely incomprehensible?

Geoff Johns explains Trinity War so you don't have to read it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncnbJtabH68

yup, that sounds like a Geoff Johns event. i'll read the trades if my library gets 'em down the road