Legion Lost #7 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

The Legionnaires go to New York, chasing Alastor. Timber Wolf rips off some drug traffickers and makes a friend; Tellus debates whether to help out a young woman who turns out to be suffering from our barbaric 21st-century medical science. He doesn't and she dies, but he learns a Valuable Lesson first.

Review:

New York, huh? Gee, a superhero team in NYC; never seen that before. It's about time they left that stereotypical superhero setting of small-town Minnesota.

Of course, the first thing to check on is, does DeFalco seem to have a feel for the characters or not? And, I dunno. Timber Wolf seems like he was under Nicieza, which is not exactly the same as classic Timber Wolf but is better than Johns's take. Gates doesn't seem right at all. And Tellus... is Paul Levitz the only guy who knows how to write Tellus? All these other writers keep trying to make a human being out of him. He's not. He's not human, and that's part of the whole point of the character. He's alien. Doesn't have legs, doesn't have fingers, doesn't like air. On the other hand, DeFalco casts Tyroc as a "diplomat", which is kind of cool and could probably work.

It's kind of a filler issue, which is weird, considering that it's DeFalco's first. But I guess he figures that he doesn't have time to do much before the big crossover starts. You know what it reminds me of? The most recent incarnation of Adventure Comics. Personnel changes, interruptions by crossover...

And, biggest problem of all. Just what is it the Legionnaires are actually going to do? Seriously. I wanted to know how Nicieza was going to address this, and now I want to know how DeFalco is going to address this. The Legionnaires are irrevocably trapped in the present day, and the virus has leaked out beyond hope of containment, and the seven superheroes present have basically no skills appropriate for dealing with these problems. My problem is not that the challenges are too great--that's a good thing--but that I don't even see how they can set goals. I mean, like what? What can they try to accomplish that will help? We've had seven issues so far and we're no closer to that answer than when we started. (And the next couple of issues sure won't help.)

There's nothing standing in the way of this being a good series. There are good characters and interesting story ingredients. But they won't put themselves together; DeFalco is going to have to make it good, and I have to say that the Vegas line for that outcome is not favourable.

Oh, and Tellus has a secret. Again with the secrets. First Tyroc, now Tellus, and maybe Gates too... I don't know. I suppose it's in the tradition of the original Legion Lost limited series. But I think it can be overdone, and I think it may be being overdone.

Notes:
- I guess Oz is going to be sticking around for a while. Okay, Tom DeFalco, sell me on him
- "Good job, Gates! You found a deserted alley." This is awkward exposition
- Does Gates sound like Ben Grimm to anyone else?
- I don't understand this Kardashian reference
- Page 5: "In principal." No, Brian Cunningham; it should be "in principle"
- I do like Yera in fast food regalia
- Is it just me, or were the Legionnaires getting a little too comfortable with 21st-century pop-culture references?

Art: 98 panels/20 pages = 4.9 panels/page. (That's high, and impressively so.) Two double-page spreads, one of 4 panels and one of 7.

Strong work by Woods again; I liked that thing with the syringe on the first page. That worked. Also, Tellus and Katia's dreamscape is pretty cool; give colorist Brad Anderson some credit too.