What Happened That You Have to Know About: There's more fighting. Byth is still trying to turn Ultra into Infinitus.
Review: More of the same.
Honestly, if collecting Legion comics and blogging about 'em wasn't like my official hobby, I'd stop reading this story. It's not interesting and it's not interestingly done. Among the things that don't impress me:
- the Timber Wolf/Animal-Man mutual admiration society; very clunky
- editing misstep in which there's some confusion about whether Stargirl or Animal-Man said something
- if I never read another Legion story in which they have to cope with a rift in space it'll be too soon
- another off-the-shelf debate about whether superheroes should kill if the situation is scary enough
Ho hum.
Well, I dunno; maybe Lemire has something interesting saved up for us at the end of the story.
Art: I actually like the art better this issue; there were a few panels that caught my attention as being quite good. Same penciler; I wonder if Keith Champagne doing some inking makes a difference. (I mind me of Champagne's work on an issue of [i]The Legion[/i] about ten years back. That was a good comic book.)
I have to agree that this issue went basically nowhere. The worst part, I still haven't figured out why the Legion is guest starring since they really aren't contributing to the movement of the story in any way. The Legionnaires are just standing around or flying around doing absolutely nothing.
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm glad the Legion Lost team returned to active duty in this storyline, I was deeply disappointed that there was no reunion scene when they finally do get back together. It was business as usual. I really figured Gates or Timber Wolf would have made come comment given their complaints and/or revelations that they were left for dead in the Legion Lost series. Likewise, I was suprised that Brainiac 5 didn't mention anything since he, and Cosmic Boy, had been searching for them in LoSH series. Perhaps the reunion occurred off screen, but that was very unsatisfiying.
Why didn't Brainiac 5 have Gates teleport the whole team home instead of locking on to them by a zeta beam? Total unuse of Gate's powers in the storytelling.
Why did they draw two different versions of Tyroc and Yera in the splash pages? If this was an artist mistake, like I've read elsewhere, then the creative team and editors have done very little character study of the Legionnaires before hand to avoid the goof. I'd assume that if you're going to picture members of the Legion, then they are important to the story, but it seems they are just drawing them in to make Legion fans happy or something. All of the extras are just flying around and not using their powers in battle. A total waste.
If Martian Manhunter couldn't succeed in his mind meld with Ultra, then why didn't he have Saturn Girl and Tellus join him. Three against one might have boosted the wave link. Once again a lost opportunity to have the Legionnaires contribute to the storyline.
I agree that this series is a total disappointment so far. The only reason this story arc will make it into my Legion comics collection is because of the return of the Legion Lost team. I pray Lemire can salvage this story somehow in the next two issues so I begin to care...and I really, really want to.
All good points. Things that I don't mind overlooking if they appear in a better story, but...
ReplyDeleteYeah, that Keith Champagne story in The Legion - I recall something interesting was done with Wildfire, correct?
ReplyDeleteHis life force was drained as he used his power, so it was possible that he'd at some point completely expend himself.
One of those pesky 'The Legion' plot threads that will never be followed up on -sniff-
Sorry, way off topic, your review is of a comic I did not read, so I will shut up now.
That's the one. I have to say I didn't really like the idea of Wildfire being almost used up, but it was still a good issue. Followed by Gail Simone's four-issue story, also very good, and then that was about it for the reboot Legion. So frustrating. With the original/5YL Legion and with the threeboot Legion, you could tell that things were getting pretty tired and worn-out and in some way their reboots were a relief... but, artistically at least, the reboot Legion was still going strong.
ReplyDeletePretty average issue, though solid art.
ReplyDeleteExcept for Tellus. His design's always been a bit variable, but his face was really, really ugly in this.
I don't know what the deal is with Tellus. Do they not know or not care what he's supposed to look like?
ReplyDeleteAny artist assigned to take on Tellus should have a Steve Lightle print next to them as a character study so they get him drawn correctly. I thought Pete Woods butchered Tellus in the Legion Lost series, but this is far worse!
ReplyDeleteAnd it would be so easy for them to do that! Maybe they just don't want to.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you are still blogging about the Legion Matthew. I recently rediscovered the Legion Abstract.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts on JLU #7...Matthew is right this issue seems a bit padded. I wonder if that is because the story arc has been extended to six issues instead of five (according to the March 2015 solicitations). Given this storyarc now has an extra issue, I wonder why the creative team did not address some of the problems listed here and elsewhere. Would it have been too difficult to quickly address the Legion Lost series, and explain how the additional Legionnaires arrived?
Three more issues, hopefully things will turn around. I would love for a decent LoSH series to appear after Convergence.
So it was stretched from 5 to 6 issues? I thought it seemed like it was going on too long! Man, I hate it when they do that. That was the first real misstep that the threeboot Legion made: they used backup stories to eke out one more issue of the Lemnos story and it threw the whole thing off.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I think the creative team is doing the best they can. I don't think the art is sloppy or incompetent; it's just not as good as I could hope for. As for Lemire, well... I know he's supposed to be great, and I don't dispute it, but I bet it wasn't comics like this that built his reputation.
There are serious flaws, but I am enjoying it for what it is. The Tyroc and Yera dupes confused me too. And the "did He say the future" line too.
ReplyDeleteI would like to enjoy it for what it is.
ReplyDelete