REVIEW: Russell's Reviews Volume One # 5

[Arthur Spitzer]

Tom Russell wrote:

>    Then came the Infinite Leadership Crisis, the
> thirty-plus part LNH storyline that many, including
> myself, participated in last year.  To say that it
> created a sizable backlog would be something of an
> extreme understatement.  It was very daunting, and
> that dauntingness greatly decreased my desire to
> tackle it.
>    But, you know, ordinarily that wouldn't be a
> problem.  The great thing about the LNH is that
> continuity has always been, well, a little loose.  You
> don't _need_ to read every LNH story ever written to
> read any one particular LNH story, or even to write
> one.  It's not a universe that has big
> everything-has-changed shifts in status quo, nor is
> it, in my opinion, very conducive to it.


>    The problem was that the Leadership Crisis ended on
> a "continuity porn" sort of note, bringing back
> characters from a crossover that ended over a decade
> ago and setting up a big, earth-shaking crossover
> event (this year's Beige Midnight) with tie-ins,
> lead-ins, and ramifications galore.  When I signed on
> to ILC, I figured it'd be a fun story with a fun
> premise that gets a lot of different people involved,
> and that after the storyline was completed, things
> would return to normal.
>    But they didn't.  I wasn't the only one
> dissatisfied by this turn of events.  As Jolly Jamas
> Enright said,
> 
> "The month was a fun come together of different
> authors. Then, suddenly, at the end, it's hijacked to
> set up something for next year. In time to come, the
> ILC will become remembered as 'that thing Arthur and
> Rob did to set up Beige Midnight.'"
> 
>    Then the planning begun.  The LNH Authors google
> group was formed, e-mails sent back and forth.  I
> nominally tried to keep up with it all, but as the
> storyline made it harder and harder for me to muster
> up much enthusiasm, I fell behind on this aspect as
> well.
>    Now, I've come up with LNH story ideas since then,
> but I don't really know how they'd fit into the grand
> scheme of things.  I find myself with ideas that I'm
> afraid to execute.  And, though I'm not going to name
> names, I know from private conversations that I'm not
> the only one suffering from this kind of paralysis.

If you have an idea for a story then do it...

Please feel free to ignore Beige Midnight stuff...
I don't care... consider it an elsewhirl if you want...

I don't want people quitting the LNH because of Beige Midnight..
I'd rather people ignore it and write what they want...

Or take a break and wait til BM is over...

Whatever...


>    Anyone who knows me personally understands how dear
> the Legion of Net.Heroes is to my heart.  I never
> thought I would utter or write this sentence, but the
> LNH has, for the time being, stopped being fun for me,
> and that's a very hard thing to cope with.

Sorry.  Nothing I can do about that. (Well I guess I could
quit writing...)

If I had it all to do over again... I would have just done
the Self-Righteous Preacher (ILC) story and just that...
and let someone else do the ending...

But I didn't...

And now I've invested too much time in this just to quit it..
So I'll keep writing Beige Countdown and Beige Midnight til
I get them finished... (whether or not anyone wants to read it.)

But this will certainly be the last event multi-writer thingee
I ever take part in...

(And maybe Beige Midnight #12 will be the last LNH story I write..
who knows...)

btw.. the LNH has always had things like Looniverse Adrift and Retcon
Hour... didn't stop people from writing other stuff while that stuff
was happening..


>    Now, it's not that it isn't fun for others.  I'm
> sure many people are anticipating Beige Midnight
> eagerly.  And what makes the LNH the LNH is that it's
> truly everyone's universe.  It doesn't matter if I
> don't like something about it anymore than it mattered
> if Jesse Willey thought it should be erased from
> existence.
>    But I do know what Dvandom felt like when the
> Patrol Universe soured for him.  And in many ways the
> LNH has soured for me, and it can be tied pretty much
> directly to this storyline, for which I can't muster
> much (if any) enthusiasm.

Sorry.


>    Now, the LNH will certainly persevere.  After Beige
> Midnight, the status quo will probably change back to
> something resembling "normal" for the Looniverse.  No
> more superhero registration nonsense, no more
> leadership crises, no more continuity porn.  And what
> I'm basically going to do is I'm going to wait it out.
>  When things get back to normal, I'm certain that my
> love for the Legion, both as a reader and a writer,
> will return.  But that's still some ways off.

Who knows... maybe this will be the event that kills the LNH..
and peoples interest in the LNH... once and for all... :)

But yeah the status quo will go back to whatever it was...

(Not sure if Hex will still be President or Irony Man will still
be on the dark side..)

As for 58.5... it's not that connected to Beige Midnight...(more
to ILC)... Lalo seems to be doing his own thing...

And please don't feel that you have any obligation to read (or
review) any Beige Countdown or Beige Countdown stuff...

Arthur "Beige Midnight is wearing away at my soul.." Spitzer