Wow, it’s for real: Jim Shooter is going to write the Legion for the first time in 30 years.
Read an interview with Shooter on Newsarama.
When I started buying the Legion, way back in 1976, Shooter was on his way out (he’d soon become Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics), but he wrote the first three Legion comics I ever bought (including his last two). It’s been a while since he’s written any comics, I think, so it’ll be interesting to see how it pans out.
Tempering my interest is Greg Burgas’ observations of artist Francis Manapul in his review of Iron and the Maiden, an Image comic with art by Manapul:
I’m inclined to be slightly more charitable, since Manapul’s web site suggests that he’s mostly drawn the dregs of the Image stable (Witchblade, Tomb Raider, and now Iron and the Maiden) where a vacuous art style might be mandated by editorial (or at least marketing). So he might actually be much better than advertised. On the other hand, the poster-spread image included in the interview with Shooter I liked to above is competent but not exactly impressive.
(Incidentally I don’t think Barry Kitson – who drew the first 30 issues of the current Legion series – is a particularly versatile artist either. Though he does do a good job with facial expressions, which is a common failure of Image-style artists.)
Shooter… wow. I’m almost speechless.