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Topic: Q for JB on LEGENDS #6 and DC Continuity (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Kyle Sing
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Posted: 01 May 2006 at 7:17pm | IP Logged | 1  

Hi JB,

I read the whole mini-series of LEGENDS for the first time this weekend and while I was blown away by the whole production with so many great talents in one book. The only disappointment for me was in issue #6 regarding the handling of Wonder Woman.

I realize that they were "saving her for the end" of LEGENDS due to the Perez re-launch that was occurring at the time, but the idea that Wonder Woman had her introduction to "Man's World" when Vixen and Vibe were on the JLA negating her entire history with the JLA just seems incredibly awkward and poorly thought out.

...all this after the Crisis on Infinite Earths was supposed to simplify things.

Did you or any of the other creators working on LEGENDS voice concerns on how WW was treated in regard to continuity in this mini-series, or better yet, did anyone mention that WW should just be left out completely due to poteltial continuity problems?  

Thanks Again,

Kyle

 

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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 01 May 2006 at 7:24pm | IP Logged | 2  

I was strictly the art robot on LEGENDS, as it turned out. I was supposed to be more -- in fact, I had completely replotted the series as a condition of doing it -- but once the contracts were signed and work was begun, things were "tweaked" back to how they had been before I came aboard.

Anybody wants to see what it looks like when I am working on something I am not enjoying at all, I tell 'em to look at LEGENDS.

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Michael Hogan
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Posted: 01 May 2006 at 8:17pm | IP Logged | 3  

JB:  Anybody wants to see what it looks like when I am working on something I am not enjoying at all, I tell 'em to look at LEGENDS.

The quality of the output being further evidence of your professionalism, sir.

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Francesco Vanagolli
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Posted: 02 May 2006 at 12:44am | IP Logged | 4  

I agree with Michael. LEGENDS in my opinion is one of your best work... And a fantastic story about the DCU (but the WW matter always seemed odd to me).

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Robert Last
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Posted: 02 May 2006 at 12:49am | IP Logged | 5  

That is so strange.. I just read Legends for the first time last weekend too(what can I say? I've been a Marvel zombie for 35 years!) And I really enjoyed your artwork on that Mr Byrne! I  thought Karl Kesel did a nice job of inking as well.  The story kinda peters out really, but it's lovely to look at!
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Thomas Moudry
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Posted: 02 May 2006 at 6:19am | IP Logged | 6  

When I read Legends back in college, all of my internal alarms sounded
when Wonder Woman was "introduced". That and learning that the Golden
Age Hawkman had been the JLA's Hawkman, too, nearly blew out all of my
circuits.
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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 02 May 2006 at 6:22am | IP Logged | 7  

Basically, all LEGENDS served to do was underline how badly conceived and poorly executed CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS had been.

Twenty years later, and the sand is still spilling out of the seams.

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Matt Hawes
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Posted: 02 May 2006 at 6:56am | IP Logged | 8  

I have to agree with others here that it is a sign of your professionalism, JB, that the art in "Legends" looks very nice to me. I would have never known that you weren't enjoying working on the book because it was so fun to look at your work. 
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Tom French
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Posted: 02 May 2006 at 7:15am | IP Logged | 9  

I remember enjoying legends specifically because it contained your artwork.  At the time, I kept thinking, "Enough recaps of the Billy Batson stuff, already!  How long do I gotta wait for Cap?"
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Ed Love
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Posted: 02 May 2006 at 8:00am | IP Logged | 10  

always struck me that most of the problems people blame on Crisis, actually were the decisions following it. such as starting wonder woman from scratch in the here and now, but not superman, batman, and the rest. even superman's reboot via "man of steel" was done in a way that minimalized problems within the context of the rest of the dcu. wonder woman's immediately required retcons with the jla and the teen titans, books that dc wasn't going to reboot from scratch. and then, they turned around and did the same thing with hawkman a couple years later. yet, the whole point of Crisis was to make the dcu less impenetrable continuity wise, to streamline it.

one of the things i remember liking about the one earth was that it meant we could see more of characters that were exiled on various earths in other books, such as jay garrick in flash, alan scott in green lantern. and one of the first things they did, get rid of the jsa for several years.

and the mentality became with every new book starring an established character, the character had to be totally redone as a new character which is still going on today. yet i thought wolfman did a good job at writing the majority of the characters on model in his series. but keith giffen cannot bother with a single series to try and write the characters as he got them.

there were a few bits in "legends" that i liked, a lot of it artwise seeing byrne drawing dr. fate, blue beetle, guy gardner, martian manhunter, the suicide squad vs brimstone. however, i felt the story overall was severely lacking. it had what i find typical in ostrander in that there's some interesting subtext to the story, but the overall plotting tends to bore me. in this case, it neither explored the subtext all that well (the world turning against the heroes) nor it being this cosmic game between the phantom stranger & darkseid. instead, it really did read as just a launching point for various series and minis with a minimum of story providing the impetus.

makes me think "secret wars" should be the model to follow. it was complete in and of itself. it made changes and set up a few new temporary status quos for different titles. but, the series itself is a complete story. everything is handled in that one title until the end. i can sit down and read it without having to hunt down a specific issue of spiderman that deals with him getting the black costume that he just suddenly starts wearing halfway through and an x-men title there that explains what they are doing after they split off from the main group.
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Juan Jose Colin Arciniega
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Posted: 02 May 2006 at 8:35am | IP Logged | 11  

When i got access to the american comics, the first thing that i got was the Legends TPB...oh boy...that's 15 years ago...still...i was astonished by it.
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Greg McPhee
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Posted: 02 May 2006 at 9:32am | IP Logged | 12  

It always seemed to me to be a baby and bathwater situation with Crisis. Some books carried on as they had no need to be reset after Crisis. Firestorm being one of them.

Others should have been. The Teen Titans is a prime example. That book was never touched as Marv Wolfman worte both Crisis and TT.

Roy Thomas was forced to have all the work he put in to All-Star Squadron and Infinty, Inc. thrown by the way side, and for the last few years he wrote the Golden Age heroes from DC he seemed to be salvaging what he could from the wreckage.

Same goes for the Legion of Super-Heroes.

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