Too Complicated?

You hear it said that by some that comic book continuity is a barrier to new readers...that the long, complicated back story on some titles is too impenetrable to the newbie, and drives them away.

How true is this?

Obviously, continuity can get ridiculously over complex. In any given X-Title, you might encounter 3 or 4 different heroes from different alternate futures, or alternate pasts, or heavens knows what. Ye gods, thanks for the migraines, Chris Claremont.

However, other forms of serial fiction have multi-decade back stories that, alternate futures aside, makes Spider-Man look like Richie Rich. Yet somehow, The Guiding Light (for example) seems to pick up viewers every year who manage to navigate the complexities of who is really whose daughter.

And even when Marvel creates a whole new line featuring old characters in brand new continuities, ostensibly to become a better gateway for new readers, eventually that continuity gets complex, too. As someone out there said (forgive, I forget who it was, let me know and full credit will be extended), once you have Ultimate Cable and Ultimate Stryfe, haven't you lost the mission for a simpler entryway?

Here's another way to look at it--were the comics of ye olden days really less complicated? Let's take one personal anecdote--me.

One of the very first non-kiddie comic books I ever owned was Marvel Triple Action #10, a 1973 reprinting of Avengers #16, from 1965. My recollection is that my grandparents purchased it for me at some flea market. It had no cover (which is just as well, because it turns out to be one of the more hideous and misleading covers ever...Sorry, Gil Kane).

This was my first exposure ever to even the concept of the Avengers, let alone an actual story. We all know this issue...it was the first big Avengers line-up shakeup, ever. Here's the original cover:

Now, just look at that...look at all those characters on that cover. Obscure villains, villains and characters from other comic books...and look at the inside:

No recap, no roster page, no introduction...just a "hey, if you weren't here last issue, you'll catch up. C'mon!"

The first two pages of the comic present you with the heroes, only one of whom is identified by name, and the Masters of Evil, only one of whom is identified by name. The reader was expected to know who all these cats were. And if not, follow along and figure it out!

Meanwhile, we take a quick visit to Captain America:

A scene entirely based on something that happened in a previous issue, which I hadn't read...with absolutely no background on Cap. or why his battle with Zemo (whoever he was) was so important, no introduction of who the heck "Rick" is...what any of the back story was. Yet somehow I kept reading.

Then, back in NY:

Thor leaves, off-panel (!), for some unexplained crisis. Go read his book if you want to know!! Then Hawkeye shows up out of nowhere...

We get a decent flashback to his past appearance in Tales of Suspense...Then the Avengers go and try to recruit someone called Namor...who?

Then two weird looking people in hideous costumes show up, requiring us to know X-Men history...

And then we see a collage of villains, most of whom are a complete mystery to a new reader:

And yet...despite the fact that the issue was almost entirely based on past events I hadn't read; even though to truly appreciate everything going on you had to have a working knowledge of the Avengers' history, and the X-Men, and Iron Man, and Thor, and who those villains are---none of which I had ever encountered; even though the issue was as "hung up on continuity" as anything could be in Marvel 1965...I still enjoyed it, and wanted to read more.

Did I understand everything? Hell no. But it was a good tale, entertainingly told, and Stan and Jack did a decent enough job filling me in, so as I went along I was never lost--just curious. Oh, at 10, I was no Amadeus Cho, and I didn't 100% understand everything that was referred to. But I figured out enough to enjoy the story, and the characters, and to want to know more.

Sometimes, I think, we underestimate newbies. I think people are a hell of a lot more willing to come in media res into a storyline than we give them credit for. We assume that if they don't know as much as we do, they can't possibly enjoy and appreciate what they're reading--at least not as much as we do.

And for some people, sure. But those same people would likely have been as put off by Avengers #16, from "simpler" times. As for the rest? The human mind, especially kids', are amazing things, and are capable of filling in blanks on their own, and wanting to know more about a universe. People did start watching Dallas in season 5, and somehow survived not knowing every detail of past seasons, and even became fans. People did start reading Robinson's Starman, one of the more continuity-involved series ever, and their heads didn't explode.

Sometimes, I think, we latch onto "too complicated a continuity" as a convenient excuse to explain why comics don't sell more. And it's true, some creators make their stories far, far too complex for newbies to easily jump onto. And some creators are overly obsessed with continuity navel-gazing. But somehow, those seem to be the books that sell the most, year after year.

Far more important than "too complex" is "is the story well told" and "are the characters any good" and "does this intrigue the reader enough to want to read more?" You don't need to know the history of the Golden Age and the first Crisis and Zero Hour to enjoy a JSA story, if it's done well. But sometimes, I think, we ourselves do just as much to scare newbies aways, with our "oh, the back story is too complicated for me to explain, so you wouldn't enjoy it."

As a 10-year-old I got thrown into the deep end of an Avengers story that referenced at least 20 other comic books and didn't try to hold my hand by dumbing everything down for newbies. Let's give other newbies the same benefit of the doubt, instead of assuming that they're incapable of figuring things out as they went along. I figured it out, and so can they.

Kontinuity Kop--Action Comics Annual #11

All right, all right, what exactly is going on here? Just another egregious case of both a continuity conundrum, and another egregious example of DC letting some writers do whatever they want, no matter what it does to the work of others.

Let's take a quick look at Action Comics Annual #11. Now, it's bad enough--embarrassing enough--that this resolution to the "Last Son" story is appearing MORE THAN ONE YEAR after the previous chapter. Hell, it makes All-Star Superman look like it's published in a timely manner. After much fanfare and hoopla over Richard Donner co-writing this arc, it's gotta suck to have to bail on the story and continue it at some (much, much, much) later date.

But the funny thing is, the rest of the Superman stable was publishing during this delay, and guess what? It doesn't match up at all with how Johns and Donner conclude the arc.

At the end of this story, Lor-Zod (aka Chris Kent), the Kryptonian tyke born in the Phantom Zone and sort of adopted by Lois and Clark, sacrifices himself by going back into the Phantom Zone to seal the breach that is keeping it open. This is clearly a big deal, because Superman gets all broody about it.




Afterwards, Mon-El cannot find any trace of Chris...he's somewhere deep in the Zone, apparently. And in the little character capsules bit in the back of the issue, Johns clearly tells us that Chris is still in the Zone, his whereabouts "remain a mystery."


WAIT A MINUTE!!!During Kurt Busiek's run, haven't we seen many, MANY stories with Chris Kent, set AFTER the defeat of the Phantom Zone invasion? You know, Kal-El gave him a red sun watch, they enrolled him in school, he helped defeat the Daxamites in Busiek's last issue...remember?

Now, there's no way you can suggest that everything we saw in Superman somehow took place between the events portrayed in Action...what, they took a break from saving Metropolis to buy Chris clothes and put him in school?? Even if you were to, somehow, claim that Busiek's Superman stories all took place DURING Last Son, there's no gap, no place where they could have!! And if you want to argue that Chris somehow subsequently escaped the Zone, well, where's that story?? Where's a single line of dialogue, "We're so glad you escaped the Zone?" We never saw it. Busiek apparently wrote his stories from the assumption that Chris would be permanently around, not lost in the Phantom Zone.

It's almost as if nobody at Superman knew how the story in Action was going to end. Which is pretty funny, because both mags had the same editor, Matt Idelson. So which is it, Matt--did you let Busiek write all those stories with Chris Kent when you knew they couldn't happen? Or did you somehow not know that Johns was going to leave Chris lost in the Phantom Zone? Would it be too much to suggest that either way, you resign immediately due to gross incompetence?

No, the sad fact is, right now Geoff Johns is the horse pulling the DC Universe cart, and whatever he says, goes. He IS DC continuity right now, no matter what anybody else writes. What he wants to happen for the Legion is what's going to happen, period, and now it looks like Jim Shooter is being booted off in favor of Johns. Johns has his pet theories about the "emotional spectrum" in Green Lantern, and now much of DC ret-conned to reflect that. He wanted the pre-Crisis Superman back, so he waves his wand and huzzah--with no notice or explanation young Clark Kent hung with the Legion, all colors of Kryptonite are back in play, etc. And if he wants to banish certain characters to the Phantom Zone, well, why the hell should he bother to inform Kurt Busiek, anyway?

Remember...DC doesn't have continuity, it has wikinuity. And Geoff Johns is the one with the eraser.

BONUS KONTINUITY KOP PREDICTION:
Hmmm...Young Chris Kent is trapped in the Phantom Zone for the foreseeable future. Geoff Johns is writing the Legion of 3 Worlds, and probably taking over the regular Legion title. Hmmm, do I smell a way to introduce a NEW Superboy to the Legion, one who is not Clark Kent and thus maybe not subject to the strictures of current legal proceedings?? You read it here first...

Kontinuity Kop: Silent But Stupid

Here there be spoilers for Skrullapalooza #1.

Sometimes, in reading comics, you come across something so egregious, so monstrously careless, so inexcusable, it transcends the term "cock-up," and enters the category "the creators just don't care."

Let's go to the tape. Start with New Avengers: Illuminati #5. This is the issue where Tony "I'm a Good Fascist" Stark takes the body of the Skrull Elektra to the other Illuminati (Namor, Charles Xavier, Dr. Strange, Black Bolt & Reed Richards) and says "um, look, we have a secret invasion going on here..." Please note specifically these panels:


...wherein Reed Richards plainly hears and acknowledges that this Skrull was undetectable by normal means. See? Reed was right there, and discussing it.

Next, check out this:


...wherein, after "Black Bolt's" betrayal, Reed declares that they can't trust each other, and they basically refuse to work with Stark. Good defenders of the Earth there, but that's what Bendis and Brian Reed give us.

So, you got that? Reed KNOWS this Skrull is different, knows about the Secret Invasion going on, and decided he couldn't trust anyone enough to work on them with this. Got it?

This takes us to Skrullapalooza #1, wherein we see Stark addressing Reed & Hank Pym:

Uhhh Tony, you ALREADY let Reed in on the secret, remember??

And this:


Reed, how can this be "new?" YOU WERE THERE!! You were there when Tony revealed Skrullektra, you were there when Black Bolt turned green, you were an active participant. PLUS, you refused to work with Stark...now it's okey-dokey???

And (spoiler alert, last warning): since we know by the end of Secret Invasion #1 that Reed isn't a Skrull, couldn't you argue that the Reed in NA:I #5 might have been? Yeah, but if so, that makes Stark stupider than Jupiter, because he would KNOW that Reed should have already known, right? But Stark doesn't even notice!

Seriously, in a series all about a vast conspiracy, how the frell can you screw up the most simple but fundamental plot point--which characters already knows about the conspiracy?? It's not like the same guy didn't write it (okay, Bendis only co-wrote NA:I, but even if you want to argue he didn't write the parts in question, can you seriously believe that he didn't read the whole thing?!?). The same guy edited both mags--(Tom Brevoort, I seriously hope you're donating your pay for those issues to charity, because you sure didn't earn it).

Given that Bendis and Quesada have been boasting loudly how vast the masterplan for this series is, and how deeply enmeshed in the past few years' continuity it is, how could something so amateurish and careless happen?

Answer 1: They're really not as smart as they think they are. So get prepared for 7 more issues of continuity cock-ups and reveals that just don't make sense, because this crew just can't handle this type of thing.

Answer 2: They just don't care. Really, they're just throwing it out there and waiting for the dollars to roll in from the next line of Skrullified action figures. It's screwed up, but THEY JUST DON'T GIVE A DAMN whether it makes sense, or even if it's consistent from one story to the next. Get used to it.

Other random Skrullapalooza notes:

• After the events of issue #1, we can't really call it a "secret" invasion anymore, can we? A massive space fleet, the Helicarrier crashing in NYC (which looks amazing unspoiled after the devastation of World War: Hulk), the Baxter Building blowing up (again, apparently rebuilt after WWH...seriously, the damage from WWH hasn't shown up in ANY other Marvel mag...do these guys even read each others' books??)...I'd say it's in the open now, making the last 7 issues of this series shockingly mistitled...


• This is probably meaningless, but there were a number of dialogue changes between the 2-page preview Newsarama showed us. Compare the following panel with the one from the actual issue I showed you above:
  I don't know that it means anything--it seems mostly things were tightened up and clutter removed--but it is interesting.


• Some wonderfully ham-fisted expository dialogue...like the tour guide just happening to explain the Negative Zone for us just seconds before the fake Sue goes and opens it, and Norman Osborn actually having epalian to the Thunderbolts what the Thunderbolts are (in Bendis' defense, Moonstone's rejoinder mocks that..but the point remains, it was fairly artless), the explanation of S.W.O.R.D., the explanation of the Savage Land...It's bad enough that Bendis can't write normal dialogue, but this kind of info dump is really not his fortè, is it?


• There's some dead people in the shipload of "returned heroes," which might be a good strategy by the Skrulls: make the world believe that the ones who died were Skrulls, and these are real. Except that doesn't jibe with what we already know, does it? Thanks to Skrullectra, we KNOW that when these type of Skrulls die, the revert to their normal green alien bodies, right? So if, for example, "our" Mockingbird or Phoenix or Hawkeye had been a Skrull, we would have known it...but they didn't revert, therefore they weren't Skrulls, therefore these newcomers are fakes. So either the Skrulls are stupid, or Bendis can't keep his premise straight. I report, you decide!


• Two things I will say about the "returned heroes." #1, it would be unexpectedly brilliant if one or 2 of them ARE real, and they've been tricked into thinking that the rest of them were real, so the rest of the returners get instant credibility. That would be a good twist. #2, I will give Bendis one trillion bonus points if the "returned" Spider-Man remembers being married to Mary Jane. It'll never happen, but still...

Ahh, it's a sunny day...enough ranting!! Go play!!

Kontinuity Kop--Countdown (Again!)

Sigh....

Sorry to bitch about Countdown again, but dammit, someone has to, especially when they're screwing up the Legion of Super-Heroes (again).

Now, if Geoff Johns and Mike Carlin want to insist that the Legionnaires we saw in the (terrible) Lightning Saga in the JLA/JSA crossover were really, truly "the original Legion," they can. But that don't make it so. And wouldn't you think that if they were so enamored of the "original Legion" (and who isn't?), they might actually get a fact or two right?

Yeah, you'd think so. But so far, between Countdown and the Lightning Saga, we have:

• Karate Kid calling Luornu "Triplicate Girl." Karate Kid didn't join the Legion until AFTER Computo killed one of her "selves," and thus would never have known her as Triplicate Girl...he would have called her "Duo Damsel."


• Karate Kid and Sensor Girl being in the Legion at the same time. Of course, Sensor Girl was an alias assumed by Princess Projectra, AFTER Karate Kid was killed in the future.

But now we get to the borderline offensive part. From Countdown #20:


Look, my above quibbles can be dismissed as nitpicks. Fine. But in the "original Legion," Luornu is MARRIED to Bouncing Boy!! As in, Superboy #200. As in, well, you know, MARRIED.
This is Mike Carlin defending this in a Newsarama interview:

NRAMA: Okay - the whole Una/Karate Kid little romantic thing...that was...misplaced. What purpose did that serve in your editorial eyes?

MC: Misplaced? Seemed to us it fit their particular situation— explaining why Una would volunteer to stay behind with Karate Kid in the first place... And giving two characters a conflict while apart from their girl and “sisters” back home in the future!

Sigh...not even an acknowledgement that "Una" is on the verge of committing adultery with the husband of another Legionnaire. No mention of Chuck Taine. Or that before Buncing Boy, she was crushing on someone else (shhh...Superboy!). And not even an indication that anyone involved in this tripe has ever actually, you know, read any of the original Legion, or gone back to look stuff up while writing this. Nope, we just wanted to create a dramatic "conflict." Well, if so, why the freakin' insistence that this is the one true original Legion?!? "We loved the original Legion, we want them back, but we don't want them to have the same history or relationships?!"

If there's one thing worse than "continuity porn," it's continuity porn that can't even get the continuity straight. Becuase that just leaves porn. Pathetic and insulting.

BONUS: Kontinuity Kop speculation: Previously, I was sure that "Una" was really all 3 "selves" of Triplicate Girl...being only one was just a subterfuge, and at an appropriate point in Countdown we'd have the "surprise" reveal that she really was Triplicate Girl. While else go through the silly mechanics of having only one self helping Karate Kid?

But the bigamist mooning over Karate Kid so disgusted me, I can no longer believe that it's really ANY aspect of Luornu. New theory: She's really Sensor Girl/Projectra in disguise, again for a suprise reveal...

Kontinuity Kop--Mea Culpa

I'm man enough to admit that what I wrote in this post is apparently wrong. New Avengers: Illuminati #5 blows it up good. Gotta admit, I didn't see that one coming. You have to wonder what his wife thinks...


There are a couple of caveats, however.

#1, Wolverine et al didn't know any of this back in New Avengers #32...they (should have) still believed that Skrulls couldn't mimic powers.

#2, Bendis is telling us that these Skrulls got their powers and undetectability thanks to Skrull experiments on captured Illuminati back in New Avengers: Illuminati #1..and since that issue took place not long after the Kree-Skrull war, it is interesting that none of these new abilities were on display during the approximately 5,834 encounters since then between Earth heroes and Skrulls that took place since then. It is also interesting that the experimental information was not destroyed or lost during the destruction of 2 separate Skrull throneworlds and the Skrull empire being laid waste by the Annihilation Wave...

Still, it's clearly possible, so Kontinuity Kop apologizes. But I'll still be watching...and I hope that Bendis remembers to acknowledge that there's currently a Skrull civil war going on, with no consensus on whom should be Emperor, and you'd think an operation this big would need official sanction, or guidance, or approval.

Oh, and I should mention that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine already did this war with the shape shifters storyline, and the Federation being infiltrated by them, yada yada. You have a high bar set for yourselves, gentleman. Knotinuity Kop shall be watching.

PS Shouldn't Reed have still wanted to dissect and study the Skrullektra corpse, instead of just walking away a paranoid scaredy-cat? Man, Marvel writers have been making Reed Richards STUPID lately. Perhaps they should stop...

Konitinuity Kop--Skrulls??

OK, once again this one might not be an actual continuity error. But since it involves some characters being incredibly, well, ill-informed, I'm running with it anyway.


Let's go to this panel from "New" Avengers #32:

Now, if this looks familiar, it's because the last two issues of new Avengers have been absolutely nothing except our heroes sitting around saying "Are you a Skrull?" "Why no, are you a Skrull??" Seriously, aside from a plane crash, the past two "action-filled" issues have been nothing but a snore-inducing paranoid "Who's a Skrull?" parlour game.

Of course, none of this is necessary. Aside from the fact that it doesn't make sense for one of them to be a Skrull (after all, they just exposed and killed a Skrull agent, Elektra, so you wouldn't expect a Skrull to be doing that), there's another fact they're forgetting. Skrulls can't do super-powers.

Sure, they can change shape. But aside from the Super Skrull, they can't mimic super-powers. Marvel's own online encyclopedia tells us,"Skrulls only take on the appearance of an object or person and none of that object or person’s characteristics." In other words, except for the Super Skrull, they don't do powers. And the Super Skrull could only do it after massive biotech surgery AND the deployment of a special power broadcast asteroid.

Now, certainly Skrulls could impersonate someone non-powered. And surely some powers could be mimicked with advanced technology. But it seems to me that, rather than question everybody's motives and alibis, a more reasonable first step might be "who's been using their power?" Wolverine and Luke Cage should be smart enough to know this. So should Bendis.

So, maybe not a continuity glitch. But characters (and an author--I'm looking at you, Bendis!) who should have known better. And good lord--if Marvel is going to keep let Bendis write the Avengers books, could someone please explain the concept of pacing to him?!?

Picture from Avengers #32

Kontinuity Kop--Whither Aquaman?

Update: Apologies to Brad Meltzer, as I misspelled his name throughout the original post. Me=dumb.

********

Look, this one may very well may not be a continuity blunder...but then again, it may be. Either way, it's as annoying as hell.

Let's take a look at last week's JLA #12. We have two mysterious, shadowed beings secretly observing all the members of the Justice League and making pithy observations.

Aside. The top 2 marks of a Brad Meltzer comic: 1) Shadowy figures watching our heroes. SPOILER ALERT: the reveal is NEVER as good as the build-up. 2) Said shadowy figures comment on our heroes actions and motivations, thus confirming Meltzer's modus operandi of telling us everyone's characterization, rather than showing it.

Anyway, by the end, we get this panel:

Now, before anyone quibbles, the guy on the right is referred to as "Arthur" by J'onn, who also identifies him as one of the JLA's founders. So it is Aquaman, and not the "new" Aquaman.

Aquaman, the original Orin/Arthur Curry, who had been transformed into the Dweller from the Depths, died in Aquaman #50. Died.

Granted, the story left open some possibility that Orin could maybe possibly somehow resurrect himself via magical means. So the fact that he turns up in JLA #12 is not, in and of itself, a continuity error. It does, however, mean that J'onn and Arthur are incredible dicks.

The JLA believe Arthur to be dead..they went to investigate his apparent demise. Think about this...these people are supposedly his friends, he's one of their founding members. And he doesn't bother to tell them he's alive. How would that make you feel, if you thought one of your buddies had kicked it, except he hadn't, and he neglected to tell you...and was all the while spying on you? And J'onn is helping him. Without some attempt at an explanation of why the charade is happening, the only conclusion is that J'onn and Orin are huge assholes.

And while were on the subject, remember how J'onn is so so careful not to read any one's minds without permission? Apparently, that respect for privacy ends when it comes to surreptitiously spying on your friends. Whether by hidden cameras or super-vision or some magic spell or whatever, this is somehow OK???

And of course, big raspberries go to DC editors and Meltzer. A character died? Who cares what another author intended? I'm bringing him back, no explanation, no concern as to how or why or continuity or anything. Outstandingly stupid, especially since Meltzer won't be around to clean up his mess. So now we have 2 Aquamen running around? How's that gonna work?

Oh, never mind. They'll just wipe out the new one in Final Crisis, anyway, just you wait. Until then, remember: in any DC title you read, any permanent character development can and will be completely ignored and over-written by another writer, with no attempt to have it make sense. Because DC continuity is just wiki-continuity, waiting for the next guy to change it at 2 am and not worry whether anyone notices, because nobody is minding the store.

Kontinuity Kop--Countdown #38

Oh, man, where to start with our violations this time?

There is a distinct difference, I think, between screwing with continuity to fix problems or for a reboot, and screwing with continuity because you're too damn lazy or cowardly to write your way out of a problem you've created yourself. This issue, I'm afraid, is the latter.

After 14 craptacular, repetitive, and boring back-up "stories," Countdown has finally gotten to actually explaining why having people cross-over to different universes is bad thing (to save you the pain of actually reading it, it seems every crossing over between Earths opens a breach in the Source Wall separating them, and enough breaches and the walls will collapse, and we'll have anarchy, and cats & dogs living together, and who knows what else). So, the obvious solution to 51 of our Monitors: kill everyone who travels between worlds. Yup. Me, I'd just work on plugging the breaches and preventing future travellers from breaching, but these Monitors are action Monitors, and believe that offing the odd Duela Dent will somehow stop other people from reality-hopping.

But the panel to the left is the topper in illogical mendacity. Let's ignore two of the three, except to mention that a) No, Donna Troy is not from another universe...it's just that DC's inability to stick with an origin for her has left her continuity best handled by only by those wearing bio-hazard suits; b) Jason Todd is not from another universe...sure he's back from the dead, but so is Hal Jordan (Please, please please let Hal Jordan be from another universe..). We saw Jason escape his own coffin, dammit! Seriously, what other world have we even seen a Jason Todd on?? But I digress...


Which leaves us with Kyle Rayner. Is he from another universe? Well, in Infinite Crisis (snore) Alex Luthor (hardly a reliable source, as he lied to everybody else in that series) had the first Crisis not occurred, Kyle would have been on Earth-8. But so what?? Half the JSA would have been on Earth-2. Why aren't they on Monitor's list? What about Power Girl--we know for a fact that she's a "unresolved holdover" from Earth-2. Why shouldn't she be eliminated? What about the Freedom Fighters?

Actually, there's one, and only one, reason why Kyle Rayner has been singled out, and not Power Girl et al. It's:

"We killed Hal Jordan and replaced him with Kyle, but we didn't have the cojones to keep Hal dead, so we brought him back, and now we don't have the least idea in the world what to do with him, so we'll call him an anomaly and have another Crisis as a convenient excuse to get rid of him/rebrand him. Oh, and that goes double for Donna Troy and Jason Todd."

It's lazy, hacktastic writing, disguised as "anomalies" and "continuity corrections." It shows no love or respect for the characters, their fans, or their earlier creative staffs. It's illogical on its face, and non-sensical if you think about it for 30 seconds. And the best part--it's not even a good or interesting story.

Kontinuity Kop--Countdown #41

All right, now, what's all this then?



Kontinuity Kop here--I've heard we've got an infraction from one of last week's books.

What's the charge?


Countdown #41: last page of the main story.


Complaint: if this really is the "original" Legion of Superheroes, with Wildfire and Sensor Girl and Dawnstar, then why does Karate Kid refer to Luornu as "Triplicate Girl?" Val Armorr had joined the Legion AFTER one of her bodies was killed, and AFTER she had renamed herself Duo Damsel. So why would he refer to her as Triplicate Girl? He never knew her by that name! And even if he had, she had been Duo Damsel for a long long time by the point Sensor Girl showed up...


Defense: Karate Kid's memory was still somewhat addled by time travel/brainwashing from the "Lightning Saga."


Prosecution: Please. If you're going to do a story so dependent upon past continuity, couldn't the writers/editor have at least bothered to actually look something like this up? And before anyone makes the argument: if this Legion somehow has a different continuity than the "original" Legion, than what's the point?


Verdict: Guilty as charged. DC, if you're going do a storyline attempting to restore a past "deleted" continuity, you have the burden to actually get it right. And don't get me started over how Superman suddenly knows this Legion....DC needs to start actually editing their authors, and not just let them randomly "wiki" their continuity whenever they feel like it.


Sentence: 3 severe finger wags.