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Monday, August 28, 2006

Random Mumblings about XS:

You know with the Legion reboot, I keep wondering...what happened to XS?

I like the new Legion, don't get me wrong, but I'd kind of grown attached to the post Zero Hour version and I'm particularly interested in the characters that we haven't seen rebooted yet.

I liked XS a lot. From her first moment of choking under pressure in Legion. I'm not sure what it is, seeing as how her cousin Impulse did nothing for me, but I really liked her.

I think it may be because she wasn't nearly as over-the-top as he was. She got to be a fun character without resorting to the tired schtick that plagued her cousin, particularly in team books like Young Justice. She was still a fun character, but the humor wasn't as jarringly slapstick. It probably also helped my temper that she could actually, occasionally, sit down and shut the hell up. :-)

Some of it might be the setting too. Bart's backstory and personality always struck me as contrivance on top of contrivance. I'm not actually against contrivance all the time (After all I always liked Conner Kent/Kon-El as son of Clark Kent and Lex Luthor) but in Bart's case, it just felt like too much.

In Legion though, everyone has a crazy story. Everyone's at least a little contrived. What's too much in the modern DCU fits in more in the Legion.

Regardless though, I really liked XS, she was cute. And her character design was neat too. Since Inertia's apparently back, I'd really love to see an appearance from her too. And with Wally and company gone (at least for now) Bart could probably use all the family he can get. Get Owen in there too somehow for a real hat-trick. :-) I just think it could be fun!

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posted by kalinara @ 6:30 AM  

14 Comments:

  • At August 28, 2006 8:40 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    You badmouthed Young Justice? Watch it, the goon squad'll be coming to get you. ;) I will say this, though: whenever Mark Waid wrote Bart, he actually tried to develop him. When Peter David and the solo title's later writers came on is when you had that overwhelming 'comic relief' aspect to the character. And unfortunately, the stupidly unfunny comedy is what so many fans liked.

    I always liked XS a lot, too, mostly for the same reasons you said and because the Legion never had a true superspeedster. She also added some diversity to the Flash family, which is sorely lacking in women and non-Anglos.

    Maybe with all the time wackiness she could arrive in this era and be a Titans reserve or something similar. Or maybe she's just hanging out in the teeming masses that loiter around the Legion in the new series.

     

  • At August 28, 2006 9:42 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I'd like to think she's still out there since the Legion now has 300,000 million people in it but only focuses on a core group. Cosmic Boy announced that they were going to open the core group up for a membership drive and I hope that XS is out there. Not only because I, like you, really liked her, but I think she's an important part of the legacy of the Flash family. Hello, she is the blood of Barry Allen! And, she's the blood of Bart, the current Flash.

     

  • At August 28, 2006 10:50 AM, Blogger Matthew E said…

    I miss XS. She was one of the best things about the reboot. I even had her on my list of '50 Greatest DC Characters' for that poll that the Great Curve did a while ago.

     

  • At August 28, 2006 11:22 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Insert rumblings about loving both Impulse and Young Justice here.

    That said, I agree. She fits well into the chronology of the present-day characters, and she's cool on her own.

     

  • At August 28, 2006 11:36 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    mela: I liked Young Justice mostly. :-) Just found Impulse grating.

    And I do agree that Waid tried to develop Bart. I just still found him irritating anyway. :-)

    And either a Titans reserve or a Legion connection would work for me. :-)

    loren: That's true. :-) Maybe she'll show up after all!

    matthew: :-)

    ununnilium: Aww, it's okay to like them! I liked YJ too at least. (Though I thought the ending was...well, that's another day's blog topic. :-P)

    I'd definitely like to see her again somewhere. :-)

     

  • At August 28, 2006 4:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Oh, yeah, that ending. "Oh, by the way, we're cancelling your title and you only have a month or two to wrap up your ongoing storylines." Sheesh.

     

  • At August 28, 2006 10:09 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Sorry to hijack the topic...just had to chime in about the ending of YJ...Supergirl got same 'rush ending' treatment AT THE SAME TIME..both were written by Peter David...I was @#$@#%^ annoyed at DC...now look at how all the characters involved are written! ARRRG!! Rassin' frazzzin' pinheads cancel two great series...change the characters so they're barely recognizable, if not totally changed...yes, I'm looking at you Kara "Paris Hilton" Zor-el! Ahem...sorry, you struck a nerve with the mention of YJ's ending...guess it just opened the floodgates...I'll just go back in the corner and grumble to myself...:)

     

  • At August 28, 2006 11:37 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I agree. Much as I enjoy Geoff Johns in general, I feel Teen Titans v3 is inferior to Young Justice in every way. And the new Supergirl... 'nuff said.

     

  • At August 29, 2006 12:25 AM, Blogger ComicBookGoddess said…

    They're probably using the breather to re-think the Flash family as it's now so frickin convoluted.

    I hope they are, anyway.

     

  • At August 29, 2006 12:40 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    ununnilium: Honestly, I thought it lost direction somewhere along the Olympics storyline. The Secret and Slobo stories just drove it home. Tim's final speech was all right, but getting there...painful.

    chuck: Supergirl's another one that lost direction for me. Perhaps it's just that I liked the Matrix-Linda merge better. Though it peaked back up with the lovely Pre-Crisis Kara storyline. But in between...just didn't work for me.

    ununnilium: Honestly, I much prefer Teen Titans. At least with regards to Kon-El/Superboy. There was only so far they could have taken his YJ/Superboy characterization. The Luthor parentage/child-of-rape storyline was a bit much sometimes, but it was a vehicle for growth at least. (And the bits with Superboy Prime killing so many even managed to justify Kon's post-mind controlled lethargy.)

    Part of why I'm sad at his IC death is that it seems to cut off the growth that story was starting to provide for both Kon and Luthor.

    I'll admit YJ gave Cassie better moments to shine, and I understand the Bart complaints. But in general, I much prefer Johns's storytelling style to David's in YJ. YMMV naturally. :-)

    Sinspired: I'd like that. I like convoluted families but only if they're actually useful. So I'm hoping to see XS and Owen (who seems to be everywhere in the DCU right now, not that I'm complaining) in Flash soon. There could definitely be some straightening out though..

     

  • At August 29, 2006 6:32 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    And the goon squad sends out a feeler.

    I was about to explain why I prefer the current Titans series over Young Justice, but Kalinara beat me to it and phrased it better.

    I hate to say this, but Chuck's window-opened-even-a-crack ramble there is the kind of YJ fan behavior that made me go from 'kinda liking it even though it was more concerned with being funny at all costs than character development' to 'hating it for being a crazy magnet whose fans are allergic to character development'. I look back now and see that Nauck's art & Cassie's stronger personality are the only good spots I can find.

    Johns' Titans was the first time I didn't want to smack Superboy - he was actually likable - and Bart was finally advanced beyond being a slapstick character who desperately needed his Ritalin. If this is bad to you, maybe your medium's more in the sitcom field.

     

  • At August 29, 2006 12:43 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Kalinara: Well, I'm glad someone's enjoying it. `.`v

    mela: ...dude, don't insult people for liking it. >>

    I personally feel that YJ had much stronger characterization than TT; indeed, the latter's characterization, to me, seemed to be composed almost solely of rehashing the classic Wolfman/Perez era Teen Titans. But I'm not going to say someone has an inferior sense of taste if they prefer it.

     

  • At August 29, 2006 2:10 PM, Blogger Bill D. said…

    I read an issue of Legionnaires over the weekend (one of the ones where they meet the pre-Crisis LSH somehow, seems like the Time Trapper's doing... #61, maybe?), and it reminded me how much I liked XS, too. And Kinetix. I really dug Kinetix. I need to go back and start finding some post-ZH Legion issues for cheap, I think.

     

  • At September 05, 2006 11:24 PM, Blogger Johnny Bacardi said…

    I really miss Kinetix. If she was still in the LSH, I might still be buying it. Well, that and if they had a different artist. And writer. But anyway...

    XS was another postboot favorite of mine; she was just so gosh darn cute! I remember being very concerned that they had gone and killed her in Legionnaires #41...but my fears were unfounded.

    Aaaah, if they bring her back now, she'll just be unrecognizable because they'll have to tweak and twist her into something they think will be more "kewl". Same for Kinetix. I think I'd just prefer to have my memories.

    Sad, huh! ;-)

     

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