REVIEW
TALES OF THE LEGION OF NET.HEROES
reprinted from rec.arts.comics.creative

Robservations: "All Reviews That Fit We Print"

Tales of the LNH 370
"Goodbye!? Has Panta's Tale Ended?"
By Hubert Bartels

I miss her already.

It's funny, but even in a place as fast-paced and ephemeral as the Internet, you expect that some things will always be the same. There will always be e-mail from folks claiming to have made $1,500,000 while doing nothing in their living room. There will always be warnings of nonexistent viruses that erase your hard drive and rewrite your CD-ROMs into collections of "Ray Conniff's Greatest Hits." In the LNH, someone will always be drinking Mr. Paprika and inquiring as to Gamer Boy's opinion. And there will always be a Panta.

She was a living paradox: a part-woman, part-cat creature who somehow managed to be terribly violent and incredibly sexy without ever appearing as a sex object or an advocate of violence. She appeared as a symbol (of manga, of anthropomorphic characters, even of Image comics during her wonderfully dead-on "BloodKitty" phase) without becoming a stereotype. She was alluring yet innocent, the woman everyone wanted to protect who in the end usually ended up saving us all. She was a strong female character who never became a sidekick, love interest, femme fatale or mother figure. She was, and is, unique.

Her story (and "Tales of the LNH" was her story, whether chronicling the adventures of a down-to-earth Legion of Net.Heroes or engaging in the best send-ups of movies since the days of "Aeneas and Ferris") was more than a skillful blending of character and plot, with cliffhangers that really did keep me on the edge of my seat until the next episode. It also provided what I believe is a necessary connection between the Western world of muscle-bound superheroes and characters drawn from the eastern traditions of manga and anime. I'll readily admit that I've relied on Hubert Bartels over the years to act as my tour guide into a comics culture I little understood, one rarely examined even in a mindscape that calls itself rec.arts.comics.creative. Bartels made this connection accessible and understandable, and his work in this area will be almost as missed as his creations.

His work also served as backdrop and backbone for the Legion of Net.Heroes. In his farewell address to his many fans and co-contributors, Bartels reminds us that Panta was the last regularly appearing member of the Net.Patrol. Few other LNH characters, or writers, can claim such a storied history. Perhaps the secret to her success lay in Bartels' ability to incorporate the timely elements of current LNH plots (the coming of the dark Ultimate Ninja, for example) with slow-building subplots (such as Self- Righteous Preacher's seemingly endless crusade) and a consistent character for a title that, though of its age, will age well.

That's not to say that "Tales of the LNH" or its ultimate episode was perfect. I was disappointed [spoilers ahead, folks] that Panta herself never appeared in her final chapter. I also believed that after dueling the dark Ultimate Ninja, taking on the Marvel Empire and surviving the lascivious advances of most of the LNH during her tenure with the group, Panta deserved a better opponent in her swan song than the Collector. (It says something about a character, however, when the apotheosis of an RACCelestial is required for her downfall).

Here as ever, though, Bartels is respectful with his cameos, particularly the Dvandom Stranger, who appears equally cosmic and compassionate. The Stranger's kind words and parting gifts to Jeff Wood's SnowBuni might seem out of character were they not a perfect representation of the effect Panta had on everyone she met. She reminded us, to paraphrase another hero, that giants still walk the earth -- with style and grace.

Rob Rogers
Easily-Discovered Man Lite of the LNH

"Every place swarms with commentaries; of authors there is great scarcity."
--Michel de Montaigne