That's because those stories can be segmented from contemporary DC Earth continuity with a little effort. It's been the contorted efforts to try and tie them too tightly to mainstream DC universe too strongly that have been responsible for most of their downhill trends.
I disagree - I think a lot of Legion's best stories are based on interacting with the DC present-day, and it's a shame the Weisenger insularity persisted in Legion years and years after it dissolved everywhere else. It was just plain COOL to discover that the Science Police on Polaris had permission to wear the uniform of their forebears, the Hawk Police. It was fascinating when the Legion interacted with modern times, as in the Englehart JLA/JSA/LEGION team-up and the Martin Pasko Batman/Legion team-up in DC COMICS PRESENTS.
We were just talking about Laurel Gand in the other thread. Not just because she was interesting, but because of the concept she represented.
And Legion isn't all that insulated. Heck, Geoff Johns used Mordru in his now classic initial "grab you by the balls" JSA story arc.
When I mean Legion can persist indefinitely, I'm NOT saying because it is "compartmentalized." It isn't, and it shouldn't be, either. I'm saying that the Legion isn't all dependent on individual members or a specific situation. You can have the Legionnaires move off-earth, or have characters die or retire, and the book can continue. This is true of many, many other teams: TEEN TITANS, X-MEN, AVENGERS, etc. And they can be substituted for the Legion in my point.
Good characters aren't brought down by bad storylines -- we're still talking about Superman despite the Iron Age . But, bad characters can ruin good stories.
I don't know about that. Geoff Johns is the only writer that has ever gotten me to LIKE a character I dislike as much as Kyle Rayner. By eliminating the nauseating comedy and having them behave in a mature fashoin, Geoff Johns "character doctored" the pain in the ass Young Justice kids in a similar fashion. Forgive me if my point is obvious here, but I don't think at this point there's such a thing as a character whose presence totally poisons a story.
(I'll be willing to eat my words about the leather-jacket wearing, jackass Starman in Robinson's "too-hip-for-words" run, which is so smarmy and self-referential it might as well be the the Godfather of ALL-STAR SUPERMAN. I wince every time I see him on panel in JSA. Thank goodness Johns had the sense to get rid of him early on.)
I take it you haven't gotten the memo about Ultron being a "she" (and I'm not talking about Jocasta).
What the - ?
Nothing can possibly be more tedious than a classic Avengers fan whining about Brian Michael Bendis, so I'll spare everyone the indignity here. But JEEZ.
There are some villains that are like James Brown: they keep up with the times so they're always hip and cool. Then there are some villains that are the equivalent of Alice Cooper, or like the cockroach: they're "classic formula."
Ultron is the Alice Cooper of the villain world.
The commercialization of unstable molecules in the 1960s alone would've meant huge changes for our way of life now.
Waid answered this question in his first FANTASTIC FOUR arc: unstable molecules are a potential hazard outside of controlled conditions, which is why Reed protects his patents. Their instability spreads like a virus, which nearly engulfed the city.
Yes, there are some problems, but these are problems that have solutions. Like why Jor-El had the only rocket on Krypton.
The covers were uglier too, minus Swan.
Truly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, because while Curt Swan delivers on interior art, his covers are flat and sexless, unlike the dynamic, adventurous cover art provided by Nick Cardy and Neal Adams and Bob Brown.