I posted this to Usenet at the request of another poster, and...crickets.
I'm hoping that more people will deride my opin--, er, I'm hoping for more conversation here.
I should note that I miscounted. there are *FIVE* not four classic LSH villains in the Earthwar. I left out the Resource Raiders. Also, a guy named Rick Bennett has written a more detailed paeon to the Earthwar.
The question is not "Why does Chary like Earthwar?" but rather "Why does Chary like Earthwar better than the Great Darkness Saga?"
It gives more screen time to some of my favorite characters: Dawnstar,
Brainiac 5, Wildfire, Karate Kid, Bouncing Boy and Superboy.
It features the second fight between Val and Superboy.
It features some of the greatest supporting characters in LSH history
including Ontir and Relnic and Off. Erin.
It features not one, not two, not three but *four* classic LSH villains, and just as you think one is responsible, another shows up. We go from the Khunds, to the Dark Circle, to *Mordru*!!!!. And the Dominators were also hanging around.
It features some of the truly great moments: Brainiac 5 being dissappeared just as he figures out the mystery. The negasphere scene. The "How fast is Superboy" scene. The Element Lad-B5-Saturn Girl three way defeat of Mordru. The final fight scene has one goofy moment. If anyone can tell me what Dream Girl and Jeckie are meant to be doing.... Superboy's great moment of foreshadowing when the ambassadors disappear and Superboy says "It's like magic." The Subs and the married LSHer's defending Earth.
Really, I think it boils down to the Earthwar being more of a LSH story than GDS. It features more classic villains; it features Superboy more; and it has more of a sense of a superhero club than an official branch of Earthgov. I like "Inner Light" for instance, but it's not as good a Star Trek episode as "This Side of Paradise" not just because of Kirk and Spock fight in TSoP, but because Stewart isn't even playing Picard for 90% of "Inner Light." I like Earthwar better because it seems like more of a Superboy and Legion of Super-Heroes story, and that's what I generally want to read.
The real problem with the title isn't the reboots, or TMK or Coipel's pathetic art or any of that. It's that the premise of the book was that the greatest superhero the universe has ever seen started his career as a kid, and a thousand years later that memory was still enough to inspire other kids, and then he joined the group too. Byrne ruined that, so he castrated the series. Just having "Superboy" in the title is almost enough for me to want to like it better than GDS with its pansy little wimp "Legion of Super-Heroes" written on it.
I must admit part of my liking for Earthwar is that everyone else seems to like GDS better, and there's just enough pure contrarian in me to bow to with all the other stuff added in.
I was 9 when I read it for the first time.
Posted by Mike Chary at March 12, 2005 10:28 PM