Legion Lost #8 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

The Legionnaires fight about Timber Wolf's actions of last issue. Then, some superpowered people from an organization called N.O.W.H.E.R.E. come after them, one on one, and generally outfight the Legionnaires, although they can't quite put them away, and it looks like the tide is about to turn when one of the... are they the Ravagers?... decides to skip to the end of the page by psychically nuking the whole area. So the Legionnaires are now captive.

Review:

That was a lot better than I hoped it would be. I had no trouble following it, for one thing, and there wasn't much to it that suggested I was coming into a story part of which I hadn't read. We'll see if this is also true of next issue.

The plot couldn't be simpler so far; some guys are out to catch the Legion for some reason. It's not distracting and it gives us a nice action-heavy comic book. I wouldn't want nothing but this, but it's fine. And the action itself is pretty good in its own right, too.

But we do get some more hints as to DeFalco's ideas about the Legion. Hint 1: Tyroc says, "We're Legionnaires, not thieves!" Hint 2: Dawnstar says, "I know what it means to be a part of a real team--a real family!" Hint 3: Wildfire says, "The Legion never quits. Never surrenders!"

None of which is wrong, exactly, just off a bit. Is the Legion like a family? Well, kind of, I guess, if you want, but isn't it more like a club? And, sure, the Legion is tenacious, but it's not really the first word that comes to mind to describe them. Really it sounds pretty generic. DeFalco could be writing that stuff about the Outsiders or the Champions or anybody. It's not wrong, but it's not interesting enough to be right.

Similarly the characters. None of 'em sound exactly right, but none of them are wrong enough to be wrong. The question there is, is there a difference between DeFalco putting his own stamp on the characters and DeFalco not quite getting the characters? And if there was, would we be able to tell?

It seems that Yera has a secret about what's really behind this mission. So that's what, three of them so far? Yera, Tyroc, and Tellus? I am now assuming that all seven of them are hiding something, and it may actually be the same thing.

As a Legion comic it was decent. As a crossover comic it was practically Shakespeare. I'm hoping that once The Culling is over we'll start to get some idea of what this title is actually about.

Notes:
- did Oz mean "caged" or "cadged"? I know "cadged", but... is "caged" right too?
- wait just a freaking second. Since when is Gim and Yera's relationship over?
- "The real Colossal Boy never throws the first punch!" No, he gets knocked out by it

Art: 94 panels/20 pages = 4.7 pn/pg. 3 double-page spreads of 5, 8, and 4 panels.

Aaron Kuder brings us the art this issue and I quite like his style. I hadn't paid attention to the credits, but when I saw Timber Wolf leaping on page 3 I was all, that ain't no Pete Woods. It's good stuff; I'd recommend him to a friend. Interesting panel layouts, too; he's not afraid to stretch the action right across two pages, and yet his panel count doesn't suffer from it.