“Legion” Is A Strong Word: DC Cancels Four Titles While DeMatteis / Maguire Tease New One

DC’s August solicitations are starting to be released and, as one will when a comic pubisher spends most of 2011 extolling their new group of 52 comics, I perused them to see which of those 52 new and exciting books are getting the ick.

And the short answer is: four of them, with two coming from the original New 52 from September, 2001. Those books being Dial H, Threshold, Demon Knights and Legion of Super Heroes, with the latter two being two of those original relaunched titles.

I have long since stopped keeping count of how many of the original New 52 titles are still sucking breath (although it’s clearly more than ten percent… because at least seven of them are Batman Family titles that will only be cancelled if some dingbat hires Joel Schumacher to reboot the Batman movie series. And by “reboot,” I obviously mean “add nipples to Batman’s boots”), but none of these cancellations are particularly a surprise to me. Dial H was clearly a Vertigo title marooned in the DC Universe; a book initially edited by former Vertigo chief Karen Berger, and given the upheaval in DC’s Editorial division, this book probably only had a matter of time unless someone changed the title to Dial B. With Gotham City’s Area Code Before The “B.” And Then Dial “Atman.”

Threshold never felt like much more than a fill-in title, and with the inclusion of “Captain K’Rot” – a space-faring rabbit with guns – it felt like an effort to ride on Marvel’s uptick in interest in Guardians of The Galaxy to boot. And when it comes to Demon Knights, well, half the reason we started getting it was original writer Paul Cornell’s obvious enthusiam for the title at 2011’s San Diego Comic-Con, so since he left for Marvel, our enthusiasm went with him.

And then there’s Legion of Super Heroes. Now, I am 42 years old, and never in my adolescent-to-adult-to-old-fart life have I seen anyone, other than comic creators, have any real enthusiasm for the Legion of Super Heroes. It is one of those teams that screams of a particular time in comic history… with that time being the Silver Age, when the average reader of comics was a child, and a child in an age when a kid named Bouncing Boy would be considered someone with a cool superpower and not a victim of morbid obesity likely to lose both feet to diabetes before becoming Bouncing Man.

I’ve seen about five different iterations of the Legion, with the only one sticking being the old Superboy and The Legion of Super Heroes from back in the mid 70s… but I will probably pick up this 23rd and last issue coming up in August. Not because I give a shit about the Legion – after all, I am of the generation who, within ten seconds after first seeing Saturn Girl, had written his first “Uranus Girl” joke – but because of the creative team. Because I am of the generation who grew up on the 80s Justice League International:

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #23

Written by PAUL LEVITZ

Art and cover by KEVIN MAGUIRE

On sale AUGUST 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T • FINAL ISSUE

In this final issue, the Legion picks itself up after the brutal attack from the Fatal Five nearly destroyed civilization across the cosmos! While some Legionaires bury their dead, others fight for the future of the Legion against a society that now doesn’t trust them. Don’t miss surprises galore in this landmark issue drawn by Kevin Maguire as the true nature of the Legion is questioned—and the future of the DCU is changed in a way you’ll never expect!

I will buy damn near any comic book with art by Kevin Maguire; the man draws facial expressions with gripping, obvious emotion like almost no one else. And, outside the scope of DC’s recent solicitions, it looks like there will some more books for me to buy in the near future…

Woke to learn my new project is officially a “go”. VERY, VERY excited about it. Can’t wait for it to be announced so I can talk about it.

— Kevin Maguire (@maguirekevin) May 3, 2013

…with that message followed by:

@ronmarz @maguirekevin He is, isn’t he?

— J.M. DeMatteis (@JMDeMatteis) May 3, 2013

And with Keith Giffen recently leaving Legion of Super Heroes and losing Threshold, it means that there’s a chance we’re looking down the barrel of a Justice League International / Giffen / DeMatteis / Maguire reunion on some project. And I will buy it.

Unless it is a Legion of Super Heroes book. Seriously, DC: nobody young enough to not be offended by using the name “Brainiac Five” to create an Irish penis joke really gives a damn about The Legion of Super Heroes.

(via Bleeding Cool)