[REVIEW] Infinite Leadership Crisis / Cry.sig (Spoilers)

[Martin Phipps]

Beware of Spoilers!

Apr 1 Fearless Leader -- Arthur Spitzer

The best part of the April 1st issue was the bit with Irony Man
talking about Net.Hero registration.  Poor Irony Man: always the butt
of Iron Man jokes.  Of course, this makes Fearless Leader the analogy
to Captain America.  It's a good comparison because Fearless Leader
did come from another time(line).

Apr 2 Irony Man -- Martin

The ending was a bit abrupt.  Presumably the Catalyst Lass issue
starts with people wondering what happened to Irony Man.  The fact
that all the temporary leaders were going to disappear hadn't sunk in
at this point.

Apr 3 Catalyst Lass -- Tom Russell

Wow.  Who would have thought that Saxon Brenton would post four
episodes and Tom still wouldn't have finished this one?  Tom may have
bitten off a bit more than he could safely chew here: Catalyst Lass is
an inherently difficult character to write because of all the various
interpretations of her character that have surfaced in the past.  It's
also a bit of a transition episode in the sense that it will have
dawned on the Legionaires that people are being abducted by this point
but it won't be yet immediately obvious that it is only the leaders
that are disappearing.

Apr 4 Captain Continuity -- Martin

Another abrupt ending.  The problem with writing these episodes is
that they are extremely formulistic: 1) character becomes leader 2) hi-
jinx ensue 3) character disappears.  The better episodes were the ones
which had unique beginning and ends.  Anyway, this issue established
the way that new leaders would be elected every day and it also
established that some effort was being put into figuring out who was
behind the disappearances.

Apr 5 Cheesecake Eater Lad -- Martin

The gag this time was Deja Dude showing up and then leaving rather
than becoming leader at midnight.  (Last time the gag involved Coward
Lad not wanting to become leader and Captain Continuity bravely
offering to take his place.)  This issue brings attention to the fact
that the disappearances started when Ultimate Ninja went on vacation
and establishes the fact that they don't know where he is and can't
find him.

Apr 6 Limp Asparagus Lad -- Saxon

Saxon draws attention to the fact that LNH Leaders don't just give
orders: they also pay the bills (although you would think Ultimate
Ninja's secretaries John and Sally could handle that).  The point is
made that having competent people leading the LNH right now might be
less of an issue than making sure that critical members of the LNH
don't disappear at midnight.

Apr 7 Faq Boy -- Jamas

I vaguely remember Faq Boy being listed in an old roster so, yes, it
is plausible that wReamHack (formerly RosterwReam) would remember him
and would have included him amongst the list of people who could serve
as LNH Leader, even though he had never actually been an active member
before.  A bit convenient for him to show up just when his name was
called but, hey, it conforms to the rules of drama and comedy to have
characters ahow up on cue.  This episode also featured the Suddenly-
Exploding Boy as leader gag.

Apr 8 Self-Righteous Preacher -- Arthur Spitzer

This one is more of a Ripping Dancer story and, given that the whole
"April as Leader Month" was pushed by Arthur himself one might suspect
that it was all a clever way of making Self-Righteous Preacher leader
for a day so that he could torment Ripping Dancer the way he tormented
Panda before (except this time he was backed up by Kirby bots).

Apr 9 You're Not Hitting Me Hard Enough Lad -- Saxon

Here Saxon inserts an obligatory fight scene into the series: You're
Not Hitting Me Hard Enough Lad becomes leader and then authorises
himself to go pick a fight with the Chuggernaut.  You're Not Hitting
Me Hard Enough Lad actually grows stronger the harder he is hit so it
was a bit less one sided then one might have imagined.

Apr 10 Writer's Block Woman -- Jaelle

Jaelle's Writer's Block Woman isn't exactly the brightest LNHer, is
she?  Despite Mouse's warnings about what LNH Leadership would entail
come midnight, Writer's Block Woman gladly accepts the leadership and
is even complimented by the offer (even though it was apparently a
random selection).  This episode also featured the Drabble Girl as
leader gag.

Apr 11 PC Person -- Tarq

Wow.  I was a bit sceptical about what Tarq would do with PC Person,
not being sure myself how PC Person would function as leader but Tarq
not only nailed the character but he put out a decent story to boot.

Apr 12 Captain Cleanup / Doctor Stomper -- Martin and Arthur

I tried to inject a bit of emotion into the series: it's two weeks
into April and things are starting to look hopeless; being made LNH
Leader is starting to look like a death sentence with no progress
being made on finding their missing teammates.  And now Doctor Stomper
has become leader.  The edge was taken off a bit with the introduction
of Robo-Stomper by Arthur (Presumably that will be important later so
I stuck it in) but I think the ending was strong with Adamant
Authority on Everything slamming his fist down in frustration after
Doctor Stomper disappears.  This time the "Gilligan's Island plot"
invloved Doctor Stomper leaving Net.roplis in the hopes that if he
stays out of a time zone in which it is midnight then he won't
disappear.

Apr 13 "Meanwhile" -- Martin

I was hoping somebody would actually show where Ultimate Ninja went
and I got a chance to explain it myself when by writing a strory about
other things that were going on the day Doctor Stomper was leader.
Besides getting to see Ultimate Ninja on vacation, we got to see
Linguist Lass and wReamHack travel to Jungle Island and retrieve the
Rung of Revamp so that Linguist Lass could up her power level.

Apr 14 Master Blaster -- Martin

Somebody had to do a Master Blaster episode and with everybody busy
doing their own episodes that somebody had to be me.  This episode
helped establish that Wikiboy couldn't be made to perform miracles.
(Tom has said as much in his descriptions of how to write Wikiboy.)
With Wikiboy not an option, the Gilligan's Island plot this time
around was having the Legion disbanded in the hopes that no legion
means no legion leader means nobody disappears.  Of course, Master
Blaster disappears anyway and we are left with teh question "What
now?"

Apr 15 Sister State-the-Obvious -- Martin

One could very well ask what would be the point of continuing to
select leaders at this point?  Why not leave the legion disbanded or
at least not choose a leader?  Would somebody have disappeared anyway?

But the rules of comedy and drama sometimes demand that common sense
and logic get thrown out the window and thus the legionaires go back
to choosing leaders, this time Sister State-the-Obvious.  Siste State-
the-Obvious is a competent leader but she needed support from Ordinary
Lady here or else she would never be able to tell anybody anything
that people didn't already know.  In this episode we also have Kid
Kirby return.

Apr 16 Super Apathy Lad -- Martin

This episode begins with Kid Kirby, amazingly, being completely unable
to say for sure who is behind the disappearances (which doesn't mean
he doesn't know because it could be that he'd rather not say so as to
not spoil Arthur's surprise).  This time the leader is Super Apathy
Lad and the Gilligan's island plot involves nobody actually telling
Super Apathy Lad he's been made leader and waiting to see if he
disappears anyway.

Apr 17 Frat Boy -- Rob
Apr 18 Ordinary Lady -- Rob
Apr 19 Adamant-Authority-On-Everything -- Rob

Rob's April 17-19 issues made for a brilliant story within a story in
which the Legion battles Mother Time.  Despite the length of the
series within a series, Adamant-Authority-On-Everything got
shortchanged in that he spent his whole day as a baby and never got to
invade Ve.net.zeula like he wanted to.

Apr 20 Linguist Lass -- Martin

This story turned out to be a bit more intense than I had originally
planned.  Being Canadian and growing up exposed to bilingualism and
multiculturalism and then living overseas in Morocco, the Philippines
and now Taiwan and having visited Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea and
Japan, I really meant what I had Linguist Lass say to Obnoxious
Ame.rec.a Boy (who isn't meant to represent all Americans but I think
we've all encountered guys like him).  I was still feeling the
emotions when I got to the end of the story and this resulted in, as
Rob already pointed out, a surprisingly poignant ending for one of
these episodes.

Apr 21 Occultism Kid -- Saxon

Saxon catches us up on what's been going on these past few weeks and
has Occultism Kid lament that nobody (not even Kid Kirby) had been
able to find the missing legionaires.  The Gilligan's Island plot this
time involves Occultism Kid learning who took everybody but then
disappearing before he can tell anybody.

Apr 22 Special Bonding Boy -- Jamas

As Rob already pointed out, the highlight of this episode was Special
Bonding Boy's tribute to the Virginia Tech massacre.  I would argue
that Special Bonding Boy was a bit out of character here in that
nothing ever seemed to bother him before but, then again, perhaps this
was what it took to stir Special Bonding Boy's never-before-seen
anger.

Apr 23 Easily-Discovered Man -- Rob

An interesting ending that raises interesting questions: given that
Lite "deligated" his authority to EDM, one might wonder if Lite would
still have disappeared if he had been honest about it and had had EDM
accept the role of leader in his place.

Apr 24 PR Kid -- Jamas

The only criticism I would have for Jamas is that his episodes didn't
really advance the "where are the missing legionaires?" plot.
Granted, nobody is allowed to advance it to it's conclusion (That's
for Arthur and Rob to reveal on May 1st) but some people (I'm thinking
mainly about Saxon now in his OK episode) devoted the whole episode to
it (although to no avail).  Hopefully the reveal on May 1st will be
worth the wait and all the effort that people have put in to creating
the necessary suspense will pay off.

Apr 25 Sarcastic Lad -- Martin

Another gag.  Another Gilligan's Island plot.  The gag this time was
having Pulls-Paper-Out-Of-Hats Lad announce Figment Lad as LNH leader
- except that Figment Lad doesn't exist.  The Gilligan's Island plot
begins when the daemon that possesses Sarcastic Lad separates from
Sarcastic Lad himself after Sarcastic Lad is declared leader.  The
question becomes "Who will disappear?  Gary Nysegi?  The demon?  Or
both?"

Apr 26 Mouse -- Jaelle

A funny episode with Jaelle being "menaced" (actually more like
harassed) by King Konqueror.

Apr 27 Bad Timing Boy -- Tarq

Another funny episode, although I didn't enjoy it as much as Arthur.
Again, Tarq nailed Bad-Timing Boy, the only problem being that Bad
Timing Boy has had many, many more appearances than PC Person so the
gag of having a character with bad luck is getting a bit stale,
relatively speaking.  That's not Tarq's fault though: he did a great
job once again!

Apr 28 Fourth Wall Lass -- Saxon

As I mentioned to Saxon by e-mail, this was a very good episode that
got bogged down too much with the whole issue of whether or not Fourth
Wall Lass would get her homework done in time before she disappears.
This, of course, was all based on the assumption that Ultimate Ninja
would be back soon and the whole Infinite Leadership Crisis / Cry.sig
storyline would have to wrap up in the next couple of days and that
Fourth Wall Lass had to have her homework done when she got back.
Guess starring Mr. Tiddles.

Apr 29 California Kid -- Arthur Spitzer

Okay, so presumably California Kid has his watch set back three hours
and this gave him a bit more time than the others.  Funny.

Apr 30 Random J. Kiwi -- Jaelle and Arthur Spitzer

Okay, so presumably the whole "April 31st" gag is going to make sense
when everything is revealed.  At least we now know why they didn't
start nominating kiwis sooner.

Martin