Issue #3 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

This was the Triplicate Girl issue. We get her backstory as she goes on dates with Element Lad, Sun Boy and Ultra Boy. Meanwhile, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl are on a mission on a 'rimworld', where apparently there's some kind of trouble going on, and Brainiac 5, against Cosmic Boy's orders, sends a Mysterious Shadowy Figure out to help them. It turns out that Cosmic Boy had asked Triplicate Girl to report back to him with her impressions of how the Legion is hanging together as a team, and her conclusion is that the Legion is "fragmented in ideology and purpose" - that the Legionnaires don't have a lot in common, and don't have the same reasons for being on the team. And that that's a big problem.

Review:

Not a lot has happened yet, and this issue was pretty light on action. The characterization is strong, though, and the sense we got in issue #2 that the Legionnaires were different from each other is even stronger here. I'm writing this review after already having read all the issues up to #9, so some of this is hindsight, but I have the idea that Waid and Kitson are getting a lot of work done behind the scenes in comics like this. Plus, I tend to be patient when it comes to giving writers time to get where they're going, so I don't mind that this is all setup. It's a comic book with a complicated premise and a large cast; we need a lot of setup. Kitson's art is good as usual.

On the other hand. I don't get the 'game' Sun Boy and Triplicate Girl were playing. I don't get Chameleon's reactions. And I can't shake the feeling (even after issue #9!) that I don't have a complete handle on just who is and is not a member of this group.

By the way. At some point I will have a lot to write about just how I came by my copy of Legion #3. Nothing to do with this review. But I will have a lot to write.

Rating: LLL