#hope this isnt too harsh please correct me if any of my info is off

[tiptapricot]

hiii! I've recently returned to legion fandom after having loved the show years ago! I'm hearing lots of noise about the new bendis run and u seem to have all ur stuff in order! If it's possible, could u school me about the new run is working against what losh stands for? Thanks for reading!

First off, welcome back dude! Glad to have you with us!

But second, oh bro. The new run is... hm. I have some opinions. As a reference, I’ve read the full first issue and a good amount of screen caps from the others, but you don’t have to read far to pick up most of the problems I’m going to talk about.

I would also like to preface this by saying I in no way mean to legitimately insult Bendis as a person, this is solely about how he’s writing the LoSH run. Rant under cut.

I was really excited when this run was announced. I grew up with the animated show and it was my introduction to both DC and superheroes as a whole, so the world and characters are very close to my heart. When the new series was getting teased, I was looking forward to not just the awesome character designs, but also for the new fans it was going to introduce to LoSH with the pull of Super Sons characters (more on that later).

However, just within just the first few pages it felt really off. The pacing was weird and the dialogue felt like it was jumping from point to point just to get the exposition out there. I know comics in general have faster pacing than graphic novels, shows, or movies, but that wasn’t the problem. The writing felt choppy and confusing.

That brings me to my other writing issue. Bendis clearly... doesn’t... get these characters. I know he’s done other stuff that’s good, my dad praises the daylights out of some of his work, but as a first time reader... not a fan.

All the characters feel weirdly sterile? Like they don’t understand human emotion to the point that they come off as cold/creepy it’s :/ but I don’t think it’s on purpose? The big issue that grew off of characterization, however, came with the Super Sons crossover.

Basic premis leading up to this, Jon got aged up five years shortly before this run by way of some space time weirdness, came back, and ended up creating a future holiday that was really important to the United Nations.

The Legion came to the past and was like: yo you’re important and we need your help with a thing, want to come to the future and be on our team? Which already turned a lot of people off because Jon had just gotten back to his family after some big trauma. But anyways, he goes with them like it’s the best opportunity ever, but there’s a case they’re working on in the future involving Aquaman’s trident and Jon’s like: Oh Damian would be perfect for this.

Queue the shit show.

There’s better breakdowns of this out there that go into detail about how fucked up this issue was but to summarize the main big no nos:

Right off the bat, air in the future is weird and you need a special medical patch to breath. As a result, when Damian is brought to the 31st century, he starts choking/suffocating. Jon is freaking out because holy shit my friend is dying but the Legion just stands around like... what are we supposed to do? Help him? Until Brainy finally does the only human thing (ironically) and takes Damian to the medical bay.

Throughout the whole issue everyone is treating Damian like shit because in whatever timeline they’re in he turns evil in the future. This not only undoes a lot of Damian’s character development (and is a plot point DC writers have already done to death) but also makes the whole team look like dicks for being hostile to a kid who hasn’t done anything yet.

Finally, when Damian ends up actually helping them, proving he’s a good person, Imra tells Jon Damian has to go back to his time. They’re both confused because there’s no reason for that to happen, so then Imra, without asking, completely erases all memories of coming to the future from Damian’s mind and forces him unconscious. Jon is rightfully angry and Imra tries to convince him to let her take Damian back, which he does, and that’s just kinda how it ends. Reading this scene is really creepy because Imra comes off very manipulative and like... idk it just makes me really uncomfortable.

They also have Cham also call Damian baby Hitler at one point so that’s fun 👍

There was, of course, huge outrage when this issue was published. It was pretty much universally accepted that Damian was treated like shit the entire issue and that it was both out of character for Jon and (from Legion fans’ perspectives) out of character for the whole team to act the way they did.

It was a slap in the face to Super Sons fans and fans in general to have a character be treated so grossly, and it tainted a lot of non LoSH fans’ perspectives of the characters.

That was probably the most painful thing for me. These characters have been and are a big part of my life, so to see them written the way they were, and to see so many people hating on them (rightfully so for these versions) sucked.

I haven’t looked into the newer issues if there are any more out, I’m just ignoring the run at this point because it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I really hope Bendis takes it in a new direction, that the story itself gets more cohesive and that the characters become actually likable, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it just stays at the level it is. At this point, I would just stick to older LoSH comics if you want more content.

(Though let’s please agree as a fandom to steal some of these designs because they’re fucking fantastic. The art is the only part of this run I’ll praise.)

If you have more questions or want clarification feel free to ask! There are also a lot of other people on here and on other sites who have talked about their own issues with the run. And of course there are people who are enjoying this story or are at least waiting to see where it goes and that is also valid, it’s just really not my cup of tea.