Legion of Super-Heroes v9 #1 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About: The 31st century is a time in which civilization is kind of falling apart. Superheroes have been illegal for a long time. Enforcers called "Persuaders" are throwing their weight around everywhere. And bazillionaire R.J. Brande has just been killed on a public street, with a Legion L symbol painted on the wall above his body. Private detective Brainiac 5 decides to investigate this, assisted by his bodyguard Tenzil Kem. They discover that Brande was researching superpowers, possibly in relation to something called "Legion", and that his killer seems to be a man named Mekt Ranzz. Meanwhile, Mekt's hero-worshipping younger brother Garth is trying to start his superheroic career as Lightning Lad, although his sister Ayla thinks it's a dumb idea. Rokk Krinn is a sports superstar on Braal, but he's having some hard times, and Imra Ardeen is a telepath princess on Titan, uncomfortable with her role and picking up some strange thoughts from somewhere.

Review: One of the things I have come to believe after reviewing these comics for this long is, first issues are easy. I'm not saying you or I could do it, but if you've got a premise or a vision or a pitch for a comic series, the execution is never going to look as good as it does in the first issue and the first story. So I was expecting this comic to be good, and so it is.

Writer Joshua Williamson's approach to this issue is to not try to do too much. He starts us off with only a few Legionnaires. Already that puts him one ahead of Brian Michael Bendis at this same stage: we're spending more time with fewer characters, and getting to know them. Furthermore, the stories that they're part of are small ones. We're working our way up to the big epics, learning the characters and the world while we're at it.

There are plenty of comparisons available to previous versions of the Legion. Williamson's no-superheroes law is similar to the premise of Mark Waid's threeboot setup, only simpler, on the one hand, and more audience-friendly on the other. The gradual introduction of the characters resembles what was done with the reboot Legion early on. None of this is a criticism. There was a lot done right in earlier Legion comics, and it would be a shame not to learn from it. Certainly this comic book doesn't feel like just a retread.

In last month's Superman: 1000 Annual, or whatever its plaguy name was, we saw Brainiac assign Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman, the task of making sure that the Legion didn't become a problem in this world. And in this issue, we have R.J. Brande assassinated by... Mekt Ranzz using the Legion symbol? We can sort of mentally fill in how this might work. Henshaw puts together his own secret "Legion", full of bad actors, to fill the space of a real Legion and prevent them from coming together, and Mekt is one of his recruits. Maybe Henshaw even has Brainiac's knowledge of Legion history to inform his efforts. This suggests that whoever else is in on this with Mekt will be people we've heard of before. Anyway, this is also similar to how the threeboot treated Mekt and his "Wanderers"; an older, lower-profile supergroup with fewer scruples than the Legion. Now that I say it, it's also similar to Mekt in the animated series.

I like the Brainiac 5 we're getting here. Actually they're calling him "Brainiac One of Five", but I'm not going to use that until I know what it means. I miss the blond hair, but I do like that a) he is able to work with Tenzil, and b) he is on task rather than not wanting to be bothered by any of this.

My overall evaluation of the comic book? Well, it's a good start. It's an intriguing read with a lot of nice touches and seems to lay a solid foundation for whatever is to come. I have a qualm about the possibility that this Legion will end up being tangled in continuity with the other Legions, but then, maybe it won't. And, one last thing? I'd like to see a villain in this story. I'd like to see the Legionnaires, once they get their ducks in a row, fighting someone other than "society" or "the Peacemaker force" (but not, please, straight to "Brainiac and the forces of continuity").

See you in a month! I already can't wait.

Art: 142 panels / 30 pages = 4.7 panels/page. Two double-page spreads, one arrangement of 7 panels across 2 pages.

 How many panels are there on page 1? I can't figure it out. Somewhere between 4 and 18. I'll say 10. There are a few pages like this... Hayden Sherman is not making this easy for me. That's good! He's trying stuff.

I'm not sure yet how to characterize Sherman's art. I'll work on it. He renders the Legionnaires very much as kids; they look quite young. They're also pretty androgynous, which seems to be a deliberate choice, and it's one I like. Cheerful? Is that the word I want? It's true, anyway. But there's more to it than that. In some ways the characters look more like illustrations than comic-book characters (complimentary).

I don't usually talk about the lettering, but this time I need to. The typeface changes when the characters are shouting, and during Lightning Lad's action scene, and that's an interesting effect... but the way Titanians' telepathy is rendered is beautiful and wonderful! I'm still figuring out how to read it, exactly. Should letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou or Hayden Sherman get the credit for it?

Membership Notes: Well, there's no Legion yet--or, rather, maybe there is, but it's not our Legion if so--but the viewpoint characters we're following around are the kids we recognize as Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Brainiac 5, and Matter-Eater Lad. In addition, we see Lightning Lass and Magno (not that I think Magno is more than a walk-on at least at the moment), and get hints that we might be soon meeting Triplicate Girl.

Superman 2026 Annual: Year One Thousand #1 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

I'm writing this paragraph on Monday, July 27th. I haven't seen any of the previews for this comic. But I'm going to make a prediction here, which is that, as far as the fiveboot Legion is concerned, you don't have to know anything about what happens in this issue. We'll see!

Now that I've read it...

No, some of this is going to come into play. After the events of DC KO, Superman has a lot of extra cosmic power. He uses it to set the timestream straight and make it so that all versions of the Legion of Super-Heroes are still possible and still exist, including at least some of Darkseid's Omega Legion, who are now very very sorry for what they've done, but are also captives of Brainiac One Million, who has also captured all of the other Legionful futures. Brainiac 1.0x10^6 also wants to hijack a different future, newly created by Superman somehow. Right now it has no superheroes, and he assigns Cyborg Superman, of all people, to prevent a Legion from forming. One must assume that the new Legion in the upcoming series will have to deal with this.

Review:

Well, it was pretty obvious that this was going to be a comic in which blocks were rearranged. I kind of wish it had been a bit more than that, though.

How is it as a Superman comic? That is the name on the cover, after all. I guess it's good enough. The throughline of the story is that Superman keeps wanting to do one more thing before he finally goes home to Lois and the 21st century, and in the end, as he says, his past saves him from his preoccupation with the future and he does go home. That's a story, contained in this one issue, even if there are lots of competing distractions (the Infinite Man! Pandora! The Hourman with the emphasized jowl lines!) keeping us from seeing it. But it's pretty weak. If I was a Superman fan who didn't care about the Legion, I'd advise myself to skip this one and pick up the storyline in Action #1100.

But, as you all know and as fate would have it, I do care about the Legion, so let's look at that. I think we can conclude that DC will simply never kill off all Legions except for the one they want to move forward with. They didn't during Infinite Crisis, they didn't during Final Crisis, and now they didn't during DC KO. Nor should they! If they did, it would just be a countdown until someone brought 'em back anyway. But I think we would like to see a resolution for some of the issues surrounding all these Legions. I do want Legion comics: I want them to be about futuristic superheroes inspired by Superman, having optimistic science fiction adventures. I don't want them to be about kicking DC continuity around the block one more time. If there must be a reboot, then get it over with and just give us some good comics. Don't linger on the meta stuff. Nobody likes it!

No, for those of us who are fond of all the past versions of the Legion, we got it underlined for us three times that they're still around and not going anywhere. "Long live all the Legions...", "...every version deserved to live...", "all Legions are now possible." It's very nice. I don't know if it's any way to run comic book continuity, but that's their problem.

I was hoping the new Legion would get off to a clean start. And maybe they will. But this comic seems to be suggesting that they won't.

One interesting thing. There's no explanation in this comic of why the Legion of Super-Heroes is such a big deal. The closest anybody gets is Brainiac 1.0x10^6, who says they were inspired by Superman. Are we just supposed to know? Or is Joshua Williamson saving that material for the actual Legion comic? I do think there should have been something about it, though. I have it on good authority that every comic book is someone's first.

As Brian Hyland once said, see you in September! (At the latest. I may post other stuff before that.)

Notes:

We can see some tubes in Brainiac 1.0x10^6's lab with past versions of the Legion in them: Silver Age, Five Years Later, retroboot, reboot, threeboot, and fourboot. And I guess we have to include the Omega Legion too. Will they see any use? Who knows?

How many of us recognized the Infinite Man from his silhouette on page 10? Although I did wonder if it might be Superman himself, with his new hat. But I guess if that had been it they would have tried to match it more exactly.

The Time Trapper has now been a rogue Controller, the personification of entropy, Cosmic Boy, Superboy-Prime, Doomsday, and Superman. I've checked the schedule, and your turn is Tuesday the 18th. Bring snacks.

There's a preview of LSH v9 #1, just the first three pages, and according to the Interlac on the second page, the city we see is "Superlopolis". I wonder if that's correct.

I would like us all to get away from this habit of distinguishing parallel worlds by what superheroes are in them. Are superheroes that important? What about the world with no shrimp, or the world with nothing but shrimp? There must be some other stuff going on.

Art: 175 panels/38 pages = 4.6 panels/page. Two splash pages, five combined pages.

The art is done by Eddy Barrows and Yasmine Putri, but I'm not a hundred percent how it was split up. According to the credits, there are two stories in this comic, but where does one end and the other start? I guess the Barrows one ends when Superman is rescued by the time bubble, and the Putri one starts on the next page with Lightning Lad. They're both pretty good. Putri makes Hourman look kindly, which has got to be a tough assignment. It's a very water-coloury style, which I always like. Barrows also gets paintery with some of his panels, to good effect, although his characters sometimes get a bit Gary Frank around the eyes.

Justice League Vs. the Legion of Super-Heroes #6 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

We open on Vandal Savage as the sheriff in an Old West town. Everyone's scared of him. He's got Batman locked up in the hoosegow; apparently he's keeping him around to taunt him with how the world he knows doesn't exist anymore. While this is going on a couple of deputies bring in Jonah Hex, who Savage regards as a sort of seed of the Age of Heroes; Savage kills Hex unceremoniously. But then it turns out Batman isn't Batman. It's Chameleon Boy in disguise. And Savage is surrounded by Legionnaires and JLAers. Because all of this--since sometime last issue--has been taking place inside the Gold Lantern ring, and they've just been letting Savage think he's won because they're trying to collect a complete confession from him for the benefit of the Elders of Oa. Savage resists a little but eventually the Elders remove him from this reality and name Gold Lantern the new leader of the Gold Lantern Corps, which he is to go build. There's a bit of celebration and the Legion prepares to send the League home, and we get one last view of Savage, in some other dimension, being helped up at the side of the road by Jonah Hex.

Review:

Well, that was a legit ending. No complaints on that basis. It's an ending that made sense and was based on things that were emphasized throughout the story. And Brainiac 5 is given an excellent squelch line on Vandal Savage, so that was satisfying.

But...

If you think about what all happened in these six issues... it's not a lot. This story could have fit into one or two comics. And even then it'd be an understated kind of story.

And that would be fine if something other than plot was happening in all those comics. But really it wasn't. A lot of churn. Some little fun character moments. Really a lot of time and space was taken up by the large unwieldy cast of characters being a large unwieldy cast of characters.

(Thought experiment. Pick Brainy, Gold Lantern, and two other Legionnaires. Now pick four JLAers. Now replot the story with just those eight heroes. Think of everything you'd be able to do!)

One problem with Legion reboots is that they don't often produce classic stories in volume. The reboot was good for about five years and then great for three or four; that's the high-water mark. Waid and Kitson produced a couple of years of flawed but high-quality threeboot comics before turning it over to others. There were almost no good Legion comics in the retroboot. And now the fourboot... it's hardly even gotten started! We don't know these characters at all, and they haven't *done* anything!

I'm very disappointed. I'm glad to have Legion comics, but why are we getting Legion comics with such obvious flaws?

I'll give Bendis and Sook credit for this much: they've left the Legion in a good place. It's an interesting-looking team with a solid foundation of mythology and information and another creative team ought to be able to pick it up and do just about anything with it. I hope we see it happen.

Bah.

There was a time on this blog when I said that we were in a golden age of Legion comics and I hoped we were all appreciating it. I hope we all appreciated it.

Anyway! I'm not going anywhere; see you next time we have something to talk about!

Art: 98 panels/22 pages = 4.5 panels/page. 3 splash pages; 1 double-page spread; 2 cases of multiple panels spread across 2 pages.

I hope Scott Godlewski gets work on the strength of this series, because he's been quite impressive. Look at how he renders Jonah Hex on the last page. He's not just some fill-in artist; he portrays Hex with a great deal of assurance and an awareness of how much detail is needed. I've seen any number of fill-in artists who simply could not do that with anything like competence.

I haven't seen much in Legion comics for a long time that I thought was much good to read... but some of the art has been spectacular. Godlewski. Sook's been very good. Perez. Francis Portela. Gus Storms. Riley Rossmo. And I'm definitely leaving people out who oughtn't be left out.

Justice League Vs. the Legion of Super-Heroes #5 Review

 What Happened That You Have to Know About:

The Justice League and the Legion of Super-Heroes put their heads together and things get a little tense while discussing Gold Lantern. The dark rift... eats everything? I think?... but not before Triplicate Girl and Batman figure out that Vandal Savage is behind it all, in some way related to the Legion of Doom's headquarters. Apparently Savage was trying to destroy the Age(s) of Heroes, and seems to think that he's accomplished that.

Review:

My copy of the comic has two covers and I didn't even have to pay any extra for it. Plus factor for me!

I haven't read whatever comics it was that established the Legion of Doom's headquarters as something that made sense to be involved in this story. It's touched on a little bit in the issue but not in any way that actually clears anything up. In this context it just seems arbitrary and pointless.

Five issues gone by and we finally have a villain. Hey, no rush. And Vandal Savage is a good villain for this crossover! Sort of! I mean, he's no match for about two-thirds of these characters in a one-on-one fight, but other than that he's perfect. But why'd it take so long to bring him in?

This series is more overinflated than a cheap bag of chips, is why. I can't think of a reason the first five issues couldn't have been boiled down to one. If you're reading this before you've bought your copy, please take this into account!

So we've got one issue left for the JLA and the LSH to defeat Savage... assuming that it happens in this series and not in Dark Crisis or whatever. I wonder if there'll be time to explain just what Savage's plan is. I mean, I get the motivation: removing the Age of Heroes so his great enemies won't be around to defeat him. That part makes perfect sense. And, also, is thematically appropriate for this era of the Legion! I like how this fits in. Is Savage going to turn out to be the anti-Rose?

What I don't get, and this is not a complaint, is a) how he's doing that, and b) what the situation is going to be like once he's done it. He's just going to remove some eras from the timeline? Does that work?

I don't think there's time for this miniseries to turn out to be worthwhile. There's just been so much fluff so far; Bendis can't make up for all of that in one issue. But a good final issue can at least make it... how shall I put it... notable.

Are you hearing all this speculation that Discovery is going to shut down DC Comics by the end of the year? It would be horrible, of course, if it happened. But can you imagine if this series was the last Legion of Super-Heroes series ever? Gross.

Art: 111 panels/22 pages = 5.0 panels/page. 3 splash pages, 4 double-page spreads containing, respectively, 3, 5, 10, and 8 panels each. Two twelve-panel pages!

If there's one good thing about this series, it's that it introduced us--well, those of us who didn't already know about him, as I didn't--to Scott Godlewski. He's just been very, very good for five issues. Look at his Vandal Savage on the last page, panel 3; very expressive. One qualm: there are a couple of panels on pages 17-18 that just show more of this darkness, and I'm not sure what we're supposed to get from them. They don't seem to be showing us anything.

Also, I'm not sure about Godlewski's Blok. Doesn't look bad, or anything, but... something's hitting me weird about it.

Justice League Vs. the Legion of Super-Heroes #4 Review

 What Happened That You Have to Know About:

The big dark rift in the sky continues to get worse as the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Justice League all try to figure out where and when they are. Eventually Computo figures out how to bring everyone together (in the 21st century) as the rift covers the whole sky. There is a suggestion that the Legion is to blame for the rift because of their reckless time travel.

Review:

It's not like there's nothing of interest here. Gold Lantern meets Alan Scott in the 1930s, and it's kind of cool, for one thing. Batman and Rose get reacquainted, but nothing really comes of it. It's a mildly diverting read. But if anything's important here, we're only going to know it in retrospect. I don't have much to say about this comic book!

I'm glad we're getting Legion comics every so often, but getting these comics is a lot like not getting comics. Man, I hope Bendis does something cool in #5 or #6 that makes me go, "Ahhh... that changes everything! I have to go back and reread the whole run now!" That's likely, right?

Art: 98 panels/22 pages = 4.5 panels/page. 3 splash pages, double-page arrangements of 4 panels, 12 panels, 7 panels, and 8 panels.

I like Godlewski's style. I wonder where DC's been hiding him. He draws a good Bouncing Boy. Also, I like the coloring of the Alan Scott pages; very noir. I wish he had a more interesting story to draw.

Justice League Vs. the Legion of Super-Heroes #3 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

While the rift is threatening the 21st and 31st centuries, Batman remembers that a Justice League villain named Epoch warned the League about Gold Lantern, telling them to destroy "it" if they ever found it. The rift subsides, but some Legionnaires and JLAers are scattered in time:

• Brainiac 5, Naomi, and Mon-El in Kamandi's future
• Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Cosmic Boy in the Batman Beyond future
• Aquaman and Ultra Boy in prehistory
• Gold Lantern in some kind of Metropolis with airships and, still, the rift
• everybody else in the 31st century dealing with the Science Police; Chameleon Boy has just called his mom for help

Review:

Now that's something a little more like it. First, and most important, breaking up the crowd and focusing on smaller groups give the individual characters a chance to shine. That's something Legion comics have needed ever since Brian Michael Bendis took over as writer.

Second, almost as important, is Ultra Boy's insistence that there's someone behind this giant rift. That's the kind of thing you don't put in a comic book unless you plan to make it pay off. Usually. Whether it's true or not, at least we're thinking about it, and it's creating tension. Some malefactor weaponizing a rift is a lot more interesting than a naturally occurring rift.

Third, the choice of some of the temporal destinations for our heroes suggests that this might all tie in to Rose's adventures in LSH: Millennium. And that's something that needs some followup. Is Rose around? Some of the JLAers almost certainly know her; I'd like to see that encounter. Don't take your eyes off Rose, true believers; in some ways she's the secret protagonist of the fourboot.

Okay, well, this series might be picking up a bit. We might get a few chucks in before it's over. I don't have a lot of hope that the whole thing is going to turn out to be worth it, but there may be some points of interest raised.

Art: 95 panels/23 pages = 4.1 panels/page. 1 splash page, 2 double-page spreads, 1 case of 2 panels spread over 2 pages.

Thing I don't really care for in this comic book is the muted colour palette. Nothing ever gets really bright.

Godlewski continues to hold up his end of the bargain. This issue is a little light on the panel count (with an extra page!) but then, 7 of them are used up by only 5 panels put together. Look at... try the last panel on page 18; that's one that jumped out at me. But they're all good. I also particularly like the way he renders Computo.

Justice League Vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes #2 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

Everyone who disappeared last issue just went to the 31st century. We get some of Gold Lantern's backstory and some interacting between the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Justice League. Then there's a rift.

Review:

Called it!

I'd like to propose a new Legionnaire. His name would be Rift Lad, and his power would be to seal rifts. He'd never be short of work. (Yes, his power would be adaptable enough to seal zoo cages.)

It does seem like there was an effort made this issue to really let us get to know some of these characters. I appreciate it. After all this time, too many of them are ciphers, or hidden behind Brian Michael Bendis's signature bantery dialogue voice, or a combination of the two. But it seems unbalanced to pay attention to some characters when there are so many other characters around.

The plot was advanced by exactly one step this issue: our heroes are now fighting a rift mostly from the 31st century. And I know we also got some good art and some character stuff. But, ideally, in a comic book, you'd get art and character stuff and action and plot. Is it too much to ask? Bendis is not a beginner here. We had a whole year off of this title and two months since last issue.

I don't know where the Legion would be without Bendis. Waiting for Geoff Johns to get off the dime? It's not clear to me. Certainly it seems like it's entirely Bendis's franchise now. If he left it, would DC find another writer, or just cancel it? But... when the fourboot started, it had some very promising ingredients. Years later, it's still just ingredients. I'll stick with it, but the recipe is not currently working.

Art: 101 panels/22 pages = 4.6 panels/page; 1 splash page, 1 case of 5 panels spread over 2 pages.

That's more than twice as many panels as last issue! Interesting. Godlewski's the artist again, and his style is still fitting very well into Ryan Sook's 31st century. Check out page 10, panel 1; how many artists have had the chance to take a swing at a panel like that? I liked it. Scott Godlewski is holding up his end of the bargain.

Justice League Vs. the Legion of Super-Heroes #1 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About: 

The Legion fights a space monster, successfully, and then a weird darkness thing happens which causes one of Triplicate Girl's selves to disappear. They later tell the United Planets that it's a manifestation of something Brainiac 5 is calling the "Great Darkness". Superboy puts them in touch with the Justice League, in the 21st century, who are also dealing with something similar. The Legion travels back in time to meet with them, and another weird darkness thing happens that causes everyone except Gold Lantern to disappear. 

Review: 

One of the things I've learned in my decade-and-change of writing this blog is that first issues, first stories, are easier than subsequent stories. Setting stuff up is easier than keeping it rolling. Introducing things is always entertaining; using stuff that has been introduced has to be made entertaining. 

For this reason I've been waiting for Brian Michael Bendis's fourboot to get to the point where it's left the introductory stage behind and is just telling Legion stories. But the old fox is too wily for me: through use of the two Millennium issues, the v8 issues, Future State, and now JLvLSH, he keeps pushing that into the future. 

So what can I say about it? It's a decent introduction to whatever we're doing here. Large likeable cast, vague menace, interesting details about Triplicate Girl, more teasing about Gold Lantern.

Do we think the Great Darkness is Darkseid again? I kinda do and I kinda don't. Honestly, the way it's being presented here, it seems like it's going to be some kind of rift. Wouldn't that be great? I only read this comic book for the rifts. 

What I'd actually like to do is wait until the damn thing is over and then review it all at once. But I'm not going to do that. I know this is a short review. But there really ain't a lot of moving parts to this comic, sports fans. 

Art: 50 panels/22 pages = 2.3 panels/page. 2 splash pages, 5 double-page spreads, 1 case of multiple panels being spread over two pages. 

Our artist this time is Scott Godlewski. Godlewski isn't Ryan Sook, but he seems adept at working in Sook's 31st century. For the artistic strengths and weaknesses of this issue, check out pages 6-7. It's pretty. But it's also a double splash page. One of five. Five! There are only fifty panels in this whole issue. That is not a lot!

Future State: Legion of Super-Heroes #2 Review

I'm going to put a sentence here just because I want to try something.

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

The Legion confronts Element Lad and Saturn Girl discovers that he and the Trommites weren't responsible for the devastation of the galaxy. Really it was the Titanians who were using Saturn Girl as a puppet to manipulate the rest of the Legion, and through them the Trommites and everyone else, for xenophobic purposes. The Legion responds by locking Titan away in its own little pocket where they can't interact with anyone else, and promise to carry on from their and be the Legion again.

Review:

What we got here is a fairly old-school two-parter. Big scary threat, resolved in two issues. I've read Justice League stories from the '70s and '80s like this. And it's... it's fine, is what it is, although we could have said the same thing Back Then that I'm saying now: the villain seems too powerful to defeat that quickly. But it's fine! It really is fine.

So, in a vacuum, here's what we got. Two-part series showing what might happen to the Legion in a hundred days minus, I dunno, a dozen or whatever. Some new looks for the characters, some possible fault lines along which the group may splinter. A reaffirmation of the team's purpose. And a quick fight and resolution. That, in a vacuum, is fine.

The problem is with what comes next. But never mind that; that's not this issue's fault.

No, the main problem with this is the same problem we've been having: we still don't know much about these characters. Probably this wasn't the time for them to go into that, but... well, some time must be the time. I believe it was the boys at the Legion of Substitute Podcasters who floated the idea that Bendis is giving us core Legionnaires and, what shall we call them, wallpaper Legionnaires. We get to know the core Legionnaires but the others are just there because we need them to make the Legion a big group. And, well, that's possible. I would be okay with such an approach. But I don't really feel like I know the "core" Legionnaires (Superboy, Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5, Ultra Boy... Wildfire? Lightning Lad?) that well. Not fourteen, fifteen issues worth. And I don't know the other Legionnaires at all, some of 'em!

Here's another thought. There's a thing that you get in superhero stories these days... often, the threats or villains in the stories will be internal. The hero or heroes will do something that releases danger, or provokes it or facilitates it in some way. And then the hero or heroes have to triumph over it. But if they hadn't done anything in the first place, or hadn't been around, nothing bad would have happened. So it's not really an advertisement for superheroes. LSH: Future State is one such story. I prefer it when the villains are external. I know it's supposed to be Teh Profound when the heroes end up fighting themselves or whatever, and there's a place for that kind of thing occasionally, but in general I prefer when the threat is external and you get a conflict between two sides that have little to do with each other and therefore their interaction is something we haven't seen before.

You know?

Anyway, I don't mind it every now and then. As long as they don't keep going back to that well.

Legion comics mess with Titan a lot. I think the reveal in this issue might be an echo of the first Legion of Super-Villains story where Saturn Queen was evil, like most Titanians, because she was a way from the beneficial influence of the planet Saturn. But then it's also kind of like Orando getting sent away to its own dimension in the supervillain war at the start of the Baxter run.

So we've got a couple of months off now, because Bendis wants to take time to plan and get some issues in the can before reassuming the monthly schedule. I appreciate that. I can wait. I hope the title returns better than ever.

Notes:

- pipe the mustache on Jon Kent

- Blok look like the Rhino to anyone else on that last page?

- there's one panel where Brainiac 5's name is spelled "Braniac". It's one of my pet peeves. Guy's got nothing to do with cereal!

- had to go back and figure out just where Cosmic Boy was during the fight with Element Lad. There? Not there?

Art: 96 panels/22 pages = 4.4 panels/page. 3 splash pages, 1 double-page spread, 3 multiple-panel spreads.

Riley Rossmo again, and it still looks good if very off-model for Legion comics. Uh... I have to say I haven't really gotten used to the Future-State look of the Legionnaires. There are a lot that, not only don't I recognize them, I haven't even tried to recognize them. Because I don't know if it matters. If we're only here for two issues, and Bendis isn't making it obvious who they are, well... why put in the effort? Anyway, I'm glad I got to see Rossmo's take on the Legion. Not sure what I think about this being what the team looks like going forward, if that's what happens. I especially like the panel layouts; very inventive.

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

Damned if I know.

Well, okay, I can do a bit better than that. We're some time in the future of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The Legion has been broken up for a while, because of something Element Lad did (with the Legion only having existed for 100 days?). Apparently he was concerned that the universe was being destroyed by its own elements, so he did something catastrophic to fix it, and is now on the run. The Legionnaires are all scattered and divided by these new circumstances. And, of course, Ultra Boy is trying to put the team back together, and his handful of Legionnaires confronts Element Lad.

It's not clear how much any of this is going to matter. Writer Brian Michael Bendis is talking like, hey, maybe we'll just stay in this future!

Review:

Not much story this issue: heroes assemble and go see Element Lad. That's basically it. The comic book is filled out by a lot of revelation, instead. Revelation of what happened, of what some Legionnaires look like these days, of what happened to everybody. It's all been introductory. Which means that next issue is going to have the entire story part of the story.

Assuming that Future State is done in two issues! Bendis has been hinting he might stick with it.

And I'm not sure what I think about that. I'm of two minds. On the one hand, I think it's a dumb idea. On the other hand, we know so little about this team, does it really matter?

I'd rather there was a third mind for me to be of.

There are elements of this setup that resemble the start of the Five Years Later era of the Legion, in the late '80s/early '90s. There are also elements that resemble the start of the The Legion series, in the early 2000s. Those are two of the very best runs of Legion comics ever created... but you know what else they had in common? The 5YL era came after thirty years of Legion storytelling during which we came to know the characters closely. The The Legion comic came after five years of very consistent twice-a-month storytelling during which we came to know the characters closely.

This particular reset occurs after twelve issues of dedicatedly superficial comics.

I mean, this kind of story can carry considerable weight, but the weight consists of everything that came before. But in this case, nothing has come before! We know a few of these Legionnaires a little, and some of them literally not at all.

I know: Future State is a line-wide initiative, and Bendis had no choice but to have the Legion participate in it. That's fine. I can wait it out.

But if he wants to jump permanently to this future-future... I don't know what he's thinking. I hope he decides against it.

You know what this comic book needs? It needs a couple of years of two-issue stories featuring small teams of Legionnaires handling interesting problems. It needs to let us spend time getting to know them. We can't do it fast! I hope Bendis understands that. He's supposed to be a pro. But, well... let's just say that we haven't yet cashed in the benefits of that professionalism.

So we'll see what happens after next issue. I'm hoping for the best, but I don't really like where things are going.

Notes:

- much Interlac this issue

- what the flip was Shadow Lass blasting Ultra Boy with?

- what's a lightsong?

- the Legion get referred to as royalty a lot in this issue. I wonder what the deal is with that

Art: 130 panels/22 pages = 5.9 panels/page. (Deep breath) 1 double-paged spread, 5 double-paged arrangements of multiple panels (9, 7, 10, 10, and 11 panels). Single pages of 10, 13, and 11 panels!

The art comes to us from Riley Rossmo, and, I dunno, man. Not that it isn't good! It's very good. But it's a, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know what word to use for Rossmo's style. Not "cartoony", because that's the word I apply to someone like Mike Wieringo, and this isn't like that. Heavily detailed, slouchy, caricatured proportions... It's good, and I appreciate how the high panel count makes me pay attention, but I'm not sure that the style suits the Legion.

Not all styles do! The great Steve Lightle, whom we lost recently, was a wonderful artist with a style that I always felt was too pretty and delicate for the Legion. I *might* think the same thing about Rossmo.

But then, I'm the one who keeps saying that I like it when people try something new. And this art style is new for the Legion. So I'll give it a chance. Maybe this is the start of something big!

Membership Notes:

For the most part there's nothing to note here, because there *is* no Legion, formally speaking, in this issue. But check out page 8/9: I don't know if we should know who everybody is (check out Shrinking Violet with the animated-series look!) but that's Kid Quantum there, isn't it? Also, why is Superboy there? Would he really stick around for all this?

 What Happened That You Have to Know About:

Well, it's a big fight against Rogol Zaar and Mordru and the Horraz, and the Legion wins. Dr. Fate and Mon-El come back.

Review:

I think we're supposed to understand this issue to be the end of our current storylines. Which is welcome. But I don't really feel like the menace of the various villains was developed particularly extensively. Really I'm not sure what it is we've been doing for twelve issues: what was all that time spent doing? I'd say that this series has been less than the sum of its parts except I'm not really sure what the parts were.

Saturn Girl tells us that Rogol Zaar was responsible for the destruction of Krypton, which prompted Jon Kent to create the United Planets, which created the Legion, which provoked Rogol Zaar to try to destroy New Krypton or whatever he was going for. According to Saturn Girl, it's a "circle". I don't see it like that. I see it as one troublemaker who won't go away. (Timely!)

Really it's an insulting and insidious idea: for this to be a circle, you have to give Rogol Zaar's desire to kill and destroy the same legitimacy as everyone else's desire to survive, prosper, and associate. So let's not do that.

At the end of the first twelve issues I have to say I'm disappointed in how this series has gone. I still like the roster and the costumes and concepts and the setting. There are a lot of good ingredients here. But it's like we skipped from the beginning of the story to the end without doing the middle.

And now we're going to jump ahead in time to see some canonical details of the future! Just in case there was more stuff we wanted to skip over.

I dunno... I like to have more to say about these comics in these reviews. But I have a hard time finding a lot to say about this issue.

Art: 85 panels/22 pages = 3.9 panels/page. 2 splash pages, 2 double-paged spreads.

Bit of a different look from Sook this time; check out his faces for Jon on page 2. Really the issue looks a little rushed, is what I *want* to say, but looking over the art closely makes me wonder why I want to say it. It isn't less detailed or less competent. I think it might be suggested to me by the panel arrangements. So that's interesting.

Also, a colouring note: check out Triplicate Girl on page 15. That's pretty cool. People who know: does this make optical sense? Does blue+cyan+magenta = black? Anyway I like it a lot.

Legion of Super-Heroes #11 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About: The Legionnaires on their various missions all are dealing with some kind of escalation: the group on Krypton get taken out by some kind of blind dragon in conjunction with Rogol Zaar. On Xanthu, Doctor Fate gets... destroyed? On Rimbor, Ultra Boy accepts leadership of the planet. On Earth, the remaining Legionnaires are called into action and head out to Krypton, where they are immediately defeated. A group on Daxam runs into Mordru, who attacks, steals Cosmic Boy, turns Rose to Thorn, and teleports Blok into deep space. Superboy arrives on Krypton and confronts Rogol Zaar.

Review: This series is still being spread too thin. There are... five different groups? And they all do get some advancement, and there's some consolidation of the storylines. But the point of sending smaller groups out on missions is so that you can temporarily limit the number of characters involved and focus on individual characters more, and to give them longer turns in the spotlight. That didn't really happen here.

Still, it is an improvement over the whole Legion staying in one big group the entire time, which is what we had before. One might expect Bendis to have more proficiency with superhero-team comics, but... is there another group that's really like the Legion, with their dozens and dozens of characters? I don't think writing the Avengers prepares you for it. (Although... it's not like Paul Levitz (who clearly did have not just proficiency but mastery) kept his technique a secret.)

I'm glad to see that we're picking up on a couple of threads from LSH: Millennium, namely Superman's cape and Rose herself. Let's not take our eye off the ball here: I'm convinced that whatever Rose's deal is is the key to understanding everything Bendis is trying to do in this series.

So here's a question. How many stories are we dealing with here? It isn't just one. I think the main event is Superboy vs. Rogol Zaar, but the other stuff isn't related. It's just other stuff the Legion is also dealing with. This is not a problem; it's actually the kind of thing Levitz would do all the time. But I wonder how many of these other threads are going to get folded into the Krypton one. "None," I think, is an appropriate answer.

I have no idea what to expect from next issue. Bring it on! Should be a good read! Of some kind!

Notes:

- so what the flip is the deal with Karate Kid's word balloon on page 3?

- look at Mon-El's page-one monologue. Bottom of the first column of word balloons, top of the second. The word "more" appears 4 times in 22 words. To me this is a failure of editing

- couple of times at the end of the issue where Brainiac 5 changes his mind very quickly in a short time. Uncharacteristic. Editing again?

- losing interest in Rimborian politics. And I didn't have much to begin with

- I think the practice of naming stuff in comics after comics creators has reached the point of cliche and they should stop doing it

- notice Invisible Kid on page 20?

Art: 82 panels/23 pages = 3.6 panels/page. 1 splash page, 7 double-paged spreads of 1 or more panels.

You know what I'm curious about? I'm curious about what Dream Girl is supposed to look like. Is she sandy or golden or luminous or cloudy or starry or what? She's basically all one colour and that would make it easy for artists and colourists to take shortcuts and make her look simple and uninteresting (not that simple = uninteresting!), and so far Sook and the others have managed to avoid that (see pages 12-13 of this issue). I remember she looked particularly good in her introduction in the Trial issue artfest (although I can't think of who the artist is off the top of my head). But I still don't feel like I understand what effect the artists are trying to elicit in her portrayals.

Membership Notes: We get some names for our mysterious Legionnaires! There's X-Ray Girl, Entropy Kid, and Radius Lad. I get this from a reddit thread here; technically this is all apocrypha but I'm going with it.

Legion of Super-Heroes #10 Review

 What Happened That You Have to Know About:

The Legion splits up to achieve several purposes: Superboy and Saturn Girl go to Gotham for a date and get involved with the hunt for Mordru, also bringing in Doctor Fate to help. Brainiac 5, Blok, and Gold Lantern deliver Crav the General Nah to Oa so the Guardians can lock him up. Chameleon Boy, Phantom Girl, Colossal Boy, Shadow Lass, Karate Kid, and Wildfire go to New Krypton to find Mon-El, who seems to think he's quit the Legion. Lightning Lass consults with Brainy and Computo about whether she belongs in the Legion. Ultra Boy takes Monster Boy, Bouncing Boy, Dawnstar, Lightning Lad, and Timber Wolf with him as he tries to get Rimbor sorted out, and ends up becoming the leader of the planet. Mordru, it turns out, has gone to Xanthu, where he meets Rogol Zaar, who is apparently some kind of a guy or something.

Review:

See, this is better. This is more like it. We're still following a lot of Legionnaires, but not all of them, and in smaller groups at a time. And it pays off: we get motion on a few plots and subplots, and insight on a few more Legionnaires. This is the first issue of a new burst of story, and first issues are always easier, but this is certainly the kind of thing I've been asking for, and now that I've got it, I like it.

I haven't been reading the Superman titles, so all of this stuff with Zod on New Krypton and Rogol Zaar is a mystery to me. I have no intention of hunting down information on any of it; I'm just going to rely on whatever exposition Brian Michael Bendis provides in this title. I'm basically okay with this storyline, however it ends up going.

Really that's true of all the storylines. Great Darkness, Mon-El sulking, Mon-El with three kids, Ultra Boy leading Rimbor, Superboy and Saturn Girl dating. Sounds good; do a good job telling it to us.

A brief word on the Aristotelian unities. Basically, as I understand it (which may very well be inadequate), Aristotle had some ideas about drama and laid out some rules about how stories should take place in a single place and at a single time. The way I understand this is that he was guarding against amateurs with no technique jumping all over in time and space and losing their audience, and providing guidance to mitigate against that. Of course, the state of the art has advanced quite a bit since then and writers these days have all kinds of techniques for how to use different settings without confusing anybody. But I think Bendis may have made a slight mistake in this issue. Nothing terrible; just a little jarring.

See, we've got this comic where the superhero team has split up into smaller groups to accomplish various missions. We've seen this kind of thing before. The idea is, they're all simultaneous. So it's weird for us to see Brainy on Oa with Blok and Gold Lantern and then again on Earth with Lightning Lass and Computo. There's no logical reason why not; Ayla just goes to see Brainy when he gets home from Oa. It's fine. But we do have the expectation that these things are not happening sequentially but simultaneously. Not a big thing, but not ideal storytelling.

I got a kick out of Rimborean politics: "(POW!) As I was saying..." It seems to be pretty easy to become leader of the place, though; they should look into that. Last thing you want is some bad-faith mattressflipper becoming your leader; what if it turns out you can't get rid of them?

I also appreciate Cham entertaining young Laraz. I wonder where Laraz's mom is. And if Conner and Lane are the same age and, therefore, if the mother is Carggite. 

There's some kind of shenanigans going on with this title in the new year; I hope it's temporary and the steady supply of Legion comics continues, in this or any form.

Art: 107 panels/22 pages = 4.9 panels/page. 2 splash pages; 1 double-paged spread of 10 panels.

This time Sook gives us a header image introducing whatever planet the story happens to be visiting at the time. I like it when artists do stuff like that. Otherwise it's a normal good Sook performance. No standout panels for me. I did like Blok's face on page 8 panel 5.

Membership Notes:

It's possible that Mon-El has quit the Legion. We'll see how it plays out.

Legion of Super-Heroes #9 Review

 What Happened That You Have to Know About:

The Legion's trial continues. There's some back-and-forth about whether the Legion is actually loyal to the United Planets or not, but this gets swept aside when Dream Girl reveals that a Great Darkness is coming. Dr. Fate and the White Witch back her up, and it turns out that Krav the General Nah already knew about it and was trying to take over the United Planets to fight it. Gold Lantern takes Krav into custody and President Brande says that this was what she was after with the trial all along, which, sure.

Review:

So let's break down this trial story. We've had Krav as one of our major villains for quite a few issues now. The Legion has had a few fights with him, with mixed results, but it took this trial to finish him off for good. The key to his defeat was not the kind of traditional superheroics that the Legion is trying to bring back, but President Brande's political machinations. I'm not sure what I think about that. On the one hand it's quite off-brand for a superhero comic; on the other hand I can't really argue against "legal authorities acting responsively within their authority in the pursuit of justice" being a better way to deal with problems than "punching".

One of the features of the threeboot Legion was that the Legionnaires all believed different things about the purpose of the Legion and that this caused strife and disunity on the team. We get a different take on that here: Dawnstar and Bouncing Boy, for instance, are very anti-United-Planets, while Timber Wolf and Wildfire are very pro-United-Planets... but they're all invited into the team anyway, because the point is that they're all united by being superheroes and by their shared commitment to fighting for what's right. Really I like this better.

Not super stoked about the approach of another Great Darkness. For one thing, we've already had one. You may have heard about it; it was pretty great. For another, I think that big events should be few and far between. This Legion hasn't really earned a big event yet. Maybe it'll be okay if it's the kind of thing that's built up to over a long period?

Trying to figure out what bothered me about this issue, and I'm settling on, I don't think this comic book can ever be really good if Brian Michael Bendis insists on featuring the whole team in every issue. I don't think it works if we always have to zoom out as far as we can to see everything at once. Sometimes you have to zoom in and look at just a couple of things for a while. That's how every other Legion writer has handled it, and I'm skeptical about whether Bendis has perfected a new technique for how to write about a superhero team with three dozen members in it. I'd like to think that, now that the first storyline is over and the readers have a sense of what's going on here, that he'll switch to a more conventional arrangement, but, uh, I'm not getting that vibe.

Art: 95 panels/22 pages = 4.3 panels/page. 5 splash pages.

The art show continues this issue, with a few pinup type pages (like the ones for the White Witch and Dr. Fate, which I enjoyed). Even with that, the panel count is pretty good. Note page 10, which is Invisible Kid's page--it isn't credited to a particular artist. I think it's just a detail of page 3, all blurred out to give the desired visual effect. Anyway, I like that. Also Reis & Prado's Bouncing Boy page.

Membership Notes:

Someone else pointed it out first, I believe on Twitter, but it's true: look at the top left of page 3, north of Rose, south of Bouncing Boy, west of Ultra Boy and east of Gold Lantern. Chap with a black-green-grey costume and a long purple head with a pointy skull. He's standing with the Legionnaires while they're on trial, so I guess he's a Legionnaire? I guess we'll find out more about him when we do. Anyway, we get details about more of the Legionnaires, which I'll collect up, but no solutions to any of our deeper mysteries.

Legion of Super-Heroes #8

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

The Legionnaires fight the Rimborians, and win, but the United Planets puts political pressure on them to stand trial anyway. 

Review: I can't say a ton happened in this issue, but what did happen was chewier than it usually is in this series. I think the exercise of splitting the story among 21 art teams forced Bendis to write something interesting for every page--more or less--which is not generally my experience of this title. Also, forcing our attention on individual Legionnaires in turn is valuable. We get some nice little details about a lot of them! 

This issue is, like next issue will be, a gimmick. I enjoy gimmicks, but I try to remember that that's what they are. Again, this could be an actually good series if it ever gets going. (Usually, when you say that about a series, it never gets going. It stays mediocre. But usually it's boring-mediocre, not interesting-mediocre like this one.) 

I still want more details on Krav the General Nah's personal cadre, or whoever they are. There's no way to pack that into this issue, of course. We did get a couple of glimpses of them doing interesting things. I hope they get better developed than Terror Firma. 

Speaking of which, if there were still any doubts that the threeboot Legion had a big influence on Bendis and this series, it's time to banish them. We've got the "Micro Lad" take on Colossal Boy, and we've got Princess Projectra's director's cut of a name, and, really, her personality, a bit. I'm in favour of this, but I would also like to see the reboot Legion reflected in this team in some way. 

This "Trial" storyline... if we're just looking at it as a framing device to spotlight all the Legionnaires and guest artists, it's fine. But superheroes-on-trial storylines can be tricky. I propose that for a trial to work as a premise in a superhero story, you need several prerequisites: 

1) You need to be able to have some kind of interesting discussion over whether the heroes are actually guilty or not 

2) The court needs to be impartial enough, and the case unclear enough, that there's some suspense about how the court will rule 

3) The court must have authority to enforce their verdict, and it must be of such a nature that the reader respects it 

In this case I think we have 1). The role of the Legion in the United Planets and what their jurisdiction is compared to that of the individual planets is not sufficiently defined yet, and this might be an interesting way of exploring that. I don't think we have 2), though; does anybody really think the Legion will get a fair shake in a Rimborian court? And we don't have 3), either, because who cares what the Rimborians say about the Legion? You don't and I don't. So I don't see the trial as really a thing. 

And now I'm ready for something new to be added to what's going on in this story. 

Art: 98 panels/22 pages = 4.5 panels/page (2 splash pages, 1 double-page spread) 

I was worried that this issue would be like a portfolio: 22 individual splash pages. Didn't happen, though; the panel count is actually higher than normal. I guess it's not so strenuous when you only have one page to do all month. Anyway, the guest-artist-extravaganza gimmick basically worked, I think. I liked some artists' takes better than others. Dan Hipp's Blok page was charming, but I wasn't really smelling what Jeff Lemire was cooking, for instance. Favourite panel: panel 3 on Dustin Nguyen's Dream Girl page (p3). 

Membership Notes: 

We can confirm Ferro Lad as a member, and it turns out Lightning Lass is who we thought Light Lass was all along, I think, but I'm not going to pick up this particular ball until it stops rolling. We discover more details, too, which I'll put on the roster page; presumably there will be more of this next issue.

Legion of Super-Heroes #7 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

The fraught relationships between the Legion, the United Planets, and Rimbor continue to be fraught. This time it ends with Krav the General Nah arresting the Legion to put them on trial next issue. Also, the Legionnaires elect Ultra Boy their new leader.

Review:

The core of this issue is the disagreements between Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, and Brainiac 5. Note what the core of the problem is: Saturn Girl is used to a world in which everyone can just casually see what each other are thinking, and Cosmic Boy is not; Brainiac 5 is used to a world in which everyone trusts each other with whatever they're interested in investigating; Cosmic Boy is not. Obviously our sympathies are supposed to be with Cosmic Boy, but that's not the point. Saturn Girl's and Brainy's positions are not unreasonable! It's just that these people are all strangers and don't know how this is going to work yet, and anyway they're dumb teenagers.

You know what this is really like, is the threeboot. Remember in the first arc of the threeboot there was all that infighting between Cosmic Boy and Brainiac 5? This is like that. It's different in the sense that, in the threeboot, the two of them were actually jockeying for power, while here in the fourboot the disagreements seem more innocent and unintentional. (Which I like better.) But I am gratified that the threeboot is such an influence on Bendis.

Not a lot of action this issue, but plenty of characterization, which is welcome. One thing I don't care for is that really not much new happens. Arguments with R.J. Brande, disputes with Rimbor, Lightning Lad's family, Mon-El has some kind of issue with Superboy... I guess the election is new. (And over quickly. Do we not get to vote on this?)

Let's take note of how different Ultra Boy is in the fourboot. He's generally been portrayed as a brash physical type, more of a follower than a leader, not a complex thinker. This new Ultra Boy has the same powers but isn't drawn as burly as original, reboot, threeboot, and animated Jo was. He's more thoughtful and more of an independent operator, and I wonder if Bendis sees him as the protagonist of this series. Imagine any other version of Ultra Boy investigating Aquaman's trident and taking the initiative to go and steal it from the thieves who have it all by himself. Doesn't fit. And for him now to get himself elected leader based on an argument about styles of leadership? He's a whole new character.

Next issue we start into this super-artist-spectacular thing, which, uh... I mean, I like it when people try things. I'm sure the results will be worthy of note. But I'd be satisfied with a good comic book.

Notes:
- Monster Boy seems to be Arune somebody from planet Tor-Etto
- I hope Krav the General Nah's entourage gets some kind of character development
- Computo seems to have recovered since last issue

Art: 85 panels/22 pages = 3.9 panels/page. 2 splash pages, 1 double-page spread, 4 cases of multiple panels being depicted across 2 pages.

Ryan Sook only draws the first page of this one, and Stephen Byrne takes over the rest of the way. I don't begrudge Sook the time off; it's got to be a demanding book to draw. Anyway, Byrne does his very best Sook impression all the way through; the panel layouts are Sookesque and the character renderings not so very different. Only distinction that stands out to me is that some of the characters have goonier faces. Check out Superboy, for instance. One of the most seamless fill-ins I've ever seen.

Membership Notes:

There'll probably be a lot more to report here over the next couple of issues, but one thing we can say from this issue is that both Light Lass and Lightning Lass seem to be Legionnaires. Ayla is there, with her lightning powers, with the rest of Garth's family, and she has a flight ring, so I think that must mean she's a Legionnaire. And the woman we've seen with the feather emblem is *also* there, separately, so if she's Light Lass (as we have been assuming), then Light Lass is a different person from Ayla Ranzz, who I guess we should call Lightning Lass. (Scrutinize pages 16-17 to verify this for yourself.)

Legion of Super-Heroes #6 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

The Legion evacuates Earth in preparation for the Horraz attack. Then the Horraz attack. There's a big fight, during which Aquaman's trident comes into play. We don't see the end of the fight, but the Legion must have won it, and Earth gets its oceans back. Ultra Boy's dad, the leading general of Rimbor, is not pleased at how things turned out, and says it's time for war.

Review:

Short issue, and somewhat laced with false advertising. The cover promises to introduce us to new characters Monster Boy, Dr. Fate, and Gold Lantern. But really we just get a couple of panels about Monster Boy and Gold Lantern and that's it.

Should we consider this to be the end of this arc? If so... I mean, there really wasn't a lot to it. They get the trident, they lose the trident. They fight Mordru once and the Horraz a couple of times. Robin drops by to borrow a cup of sugar. And Ultra Boy's dad gets mad. Six issues.

It'd be okay if those six issues were rife with characterization and exposition that they had to establish in order to get the series off to a good start, but they weren't. There was some. But it was pretty interstitial.

I don't want to give you the idea that I don't like this comic book. It's quite readable and lively, and Bendis and Sook are clearly Trying Stuff. But they aren't great at distinguishing characters from each other, this first story was extremely fluffy, and our information about this whole situation is spotty at best. I dunno, man. I'm glad to have this comic book, but they'd do a lot better to tighten this clyde up.

I do like Saturn Girl's new logo.

But this thing with the trident restoring the oceans... was it supposed to be a surprise? Was it not clear from the beginning that this was what was going to end up happening? I don't get how something so directly obvious qualifies as a story.

An analogy. Let's compare Legion comics to food.

Silver Age Legion: Spaghetti-Os. Comfort food for kids.
Bronze Age Legion: Cheese pizza and chicken nuggets. The same, but more advanced.
Paul Levitz's run: Actual food that someone might eat for a meal.
5YL: Also actual food that someone might eat for a meal, but very rich and spicy; not for everyone and you can have too much of it.
Reboot: Chain restaurant food. Does the job but you might not go so far as to actually recommend it to anybody.
DnA: Good restaurant food.
Threeboot: Sushi. You may think you don't like it, but it's actually pretty good, although you're not going to have it every day.
Retroboot: Diner food. You nostalgically think you like it, but if you're honest you'll admit it just isn't very good.
Fourboot: Dessert. Looks fun; tastes good; will not nourish you.

(That's kind of off the top of my head. I freely admit that you can improve on a couple of those.)

Art:

63 panels/22 pages = 2.9 panels/page. That's low! Here's why: 2 splash pages, 2 double-page spreads, 5 cases of multiple panels spread over two pages.

I don't really know what to say about the art that I haven't already been saying.

Membership Notes:

Ferro Lad gets mentioned this issue; that's a name that hasn't been on our board yet. Honestly, I'm going to have to go through the series and compile everything we know for sure. Maybe soon!

Legion of Super-Heroes #5 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

The Legion talks their way out of their confrontation with the Science Police. Brainiac 5 picks up the trail of Aquaman's trident, and sends a team after it. Superboy completes the orientation video, and learns that the Legion's purpose in bringing him to the future was to ensure, through him, that the present, on which reality depends, would be saved. And then there's a cliffhanger ending of a mysterious nature.

Review:

Well, the big revelation about why they recruited Superboy takes the wind out of my sails a little bit. It's a perfectly reasonable premise, and one that's consistent with previous portrayals of the Legion, but it's still disappointing to me. See, I like it when the Legion is in the centre of their own stories, and having the 21st century be the key era necessarily puts the Legion in a secondary role and the current-day heroes, especially Superboy, in the centre. I get why they did it. I just don't prefer it, that's all.

Now here's something I do like. We get a lot of Brainiac 5 this issue: first, his speech to the Science Police; second, his conversation with Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Cosmic Boy in Superboy's orientation flashback. And he's shown as very intelligent, yes, but also emotionally intelligent, which he absolutely should be, and he's patient and empathetic, and he communicates with people on their own wavelengths. Up until now my favourite Brainy portrayal was the Levitz-era Brainy, who could be both arrogant and wise. Reboot and threeboot Brainy was/were obnoxious, which could be funny, but I never thought it was a good way to go. Animated Brainy was more earnest, which I appreciated. But fourboot Brainy may be my new favourite.

The scenes in the orientation, where the idea for the Legion is being formulated... to me, this is one of the strengths of this series. I like how Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy and RJ Brande and Brainy love the idea. I like how they're thinking big. How they know each other so quickly, because suddenly they have so much in common that they care about. Bendis's knack for putting this across is basically something that is just always going to work on me.

That said, we're five issues in, and I had been hoping for more motion on Aquaman's trident by now.

I had been hoping for more information on just what Rose had to say to the Legion! It's obviously important.

Every now and then there's a detail in the dialogue that makes me narrow my eyes and wonder if Bendis forgot how to language or if it's intended to be some kind of futuristic syntax. I'm assuming it's the second one, and, if so, I think I approve. One thing that's just a straight out mistake, though, is Lightning Lad asking, "Who's justice?" instead of "Whose". But it's a good question and one that I hope does not fall out of the conversation. I'm sure that superheroes think about that stuff all the time, but it doesn't always make it to the page.

Bring on issue #6. I hope we get some kind of resolution to some of this; it feels like we've just been feeding out line for a few issues now.

Notes:
- okay, just what is the deal with Invisible Kid? He's Jacques here, but I clearly remember he was Lyle in an earlier issue
- all the racial, species, and costume changes these dozens of characters have gotten in this version, and the thing that's shaking me the most is Bouncing Boy's hair colour going from black to brown
- so Computo's a Legionnaire. That's good, and I hope she plays a real role in the stories and isn't just furniture
- I have hit my limit for the word 'qrot'. Enough for now. Maybe bring it back once next year
- "Pqolmorph", on the other hand, intrigues me
- were Brainy and Chameleon Boy flirting a bit there?
- Sir Oliver Queen the Eleventh

Art: 98 panels/23 pages = 4.3 panels/page. 1 splash page, 3 double-page spreads, 2 cases of multiple panels spread over 2 pages. Do I have this right? 23 pages? That's what it looks like. It's my first time doing this with digital comics.

Anyway, check out page...I think it's 4? Sook gives us a mix-and-match effect of Brainy dealing with two places at once. (Or possibly three.) It's neat.

Also:

This current pandemic is part of the great struggle of our generations, and it's time for us to rise to the occasion. Listen to the medical experts, use your best judgment, and help other people if you can. It's going to be a hard time, but we are humans, and humans have a long history of doing hard things.

Legion of Super-Heroes #4 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

We get the first half of the Legion's origin, and it's actually a lot like the origin we've long been familiar with. The Science Police kindasorta places the Legionnaires under arrest.

Review:

I won't spoil it for you, but there was a moment during this issue when I said to myself, "Oh, is that what they're doing!"

The origin of the Legion, as Bendis and Sook give it to us here, is neither shocking nor innovative; it's a variation on things we've seen before. Like most of the Legionnaires themselves, for that matter. Or the villains. This all fits in with my notion that they're putting their imagination into the setting.

But never mind what the origin is; let's look at when it is. Issue #4. I regard this as a sensible and conservative time for an origin story. A review of when we found out the origin story for previous Legion versions:
- original: several years into the run, which is odd, but it was the Silver Age and the state of the art was not quite so advanced then
- reboot: immediately. They started at the beginning
- threeboot: never
- animated: middle of Season Two

The fourboot, so far, has been reminding me a lot of the threeboot in various ways, but this is a minor point of difference. The threeboot got some mileage out of dropping hints about the origin of the team, but never actually got around to telling the story. I like the way they teased us with it, but certainly the threeboot wasn't any stronger for Waid and Kitson never actually showing their cards. Bendis has avoided that here, giving us their origin story in the first arc but not right off the bat. It's a very new-reader-friendly way of doing it, which, again, is consistent with the rest of the series: competent, but not inspired.

Which I'm glad to have! When was the last time a regular Legion comic was this good? Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century, I guess.

The bulk of the book is the time we spend learning about the three founders and how they came to meet. It's pretty strong. Titan and Winath and Braal are vividly portrayed and contrasted against each other, and we get to know Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad and Lightning Lass a lot better. (Cosmic Boy less so. Not sure I really get him yet.) Exactly the kind of thing we need more of.

I was expecting the origin only to take one issue, but splitting it into two gives us something to look forward to next issue, as does whatever's going on with the Science Police. Perfectly sensible way of building a comic. But, you know, it's not the origin itself that intrigues me. I mean, it's fine and I want to know, but what I really want to know is what Rose has had to say to the Legion. I mean, that's likely to be more important, right?

Notes:
- anyone else find the Interlac distracting? I've been skipping over it on my first couple of read-throughs and coming back to it when I have leisure to translate it
- how long before we get Supergirl in the Legion? I bet it's coming
- the Horraz again. What's so great about the Horraz?
- of course we're going to need to learn how Lightning Lass became Light Lass. Assuming that's what happens
- I wonder if one of those security guys at the meeting is Blok

Art:

103 panels/22 pages = 4.7 panels/page. One splash page; three cases of art being spread over two facing pages.

Have you noticed that the panel count has been creeping up? Steadily since #1. This issue is in the range of "actually pretty good" by that measure. Fewer splash pages, but Sook can still indulge his habit of sprawling across two pages.

Legion of Super-Heroes #3 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About: Ultra Boy's dad, the leader of Rimbor, fights the Legion over the whole trident thing, and they bring him back to Legion HQ. Superboy brings Robin to the 31st century, but the Legion says this is a bad idea so they mindwipe him and put him back. Saturn Girl tries a neat trick to try to get information out of Mordru, but it doesn't work. And maybe the trident has been stolen again?

Review: Before I got away to the comic shop I saw a couple of people saying that this was the best issue yet of this young series. I don't know about that, but there certainly is a lot of chewy detail that makes it a good read.

In a sense this is kind of a false start of an issue: it's a lot of people trying things that don't work. Superboy recruiting Robin; the Legion reaching out to Crav, the General Nah; Saturn Girl trying the old switcheroo on Mordru.* I am not saying, "This sucks, nothing happened, what the hell." Stuff certainly did happen, and since I don't know where the story is going I can't say that we didn't make progress toward the ending. Maybe I'll look back from issue #6 and go, "Oh, I get what they were doing."

I do think that the use of Robin was a cheap trick. I have a lot of time for cheap tricks, but it's best to call them what they are. Are lots of Batman and/or Robin fans going to buy this comic because of this low-impact cameo appearance? I hope so. I guess.

We are slowly getting more details on the Legionnaires themselves. I guess this is how it's going to work. Little bit of Ultra Boy, Dawnstar, Mon-El this time around. Problem is, there are lots of Legionnaires who badly need more than a little bit of attention. Going to take forever.

The second fight scene against C,tGN didn't do much for me. Yet another fight involving the entire Legion, in which Saturn Girl tries to put the adversary to sleep. Sorry, Imra, he's got more than 4 HD; ain't gonna work. I wonder if it wouldn't be better to deal with smaller groups of Legionnaires issue-by-issue and save the big group scenes for special occasions. I mean, the whole point of having that many people around is that they don't have to stay in a big group; they can split up and tackle separate problems. Maybe lots of separate problems!

Overall I don't think I would say that this is the best issue yet. I think the way to look at it is, with every issue, we get a better sense of what's going on, not only in the story but in the series overall, and the more that gets developed, the better our experience is. So there is a cumulatively increasing effect here, but I wouldn't put #3 over #2 on that basis.

Anyway! Keep 'em coming!

Notes:
- "Dawnstar Gr'ell". No, don't do that. Yeah, I know. But don't do that
- anybody know what show it is that Superboy and Robin like?
- okay, so, the double-page spread: there *are* other people in the Metropolis area; it isn't just the Legion
- if the trident has been stolen again, it'd be nice if we, you know, saw it happen instead of being told about it
- next issue: some answers, it looks like
- Mongul! That actually works for me
- I wonder if C,tGN's colourful underlings are supposed to have, like, names and personalities and stuff, or if we'll ever see them again
- why is the Gotham police commissioner using a Frichtman tag? I thought they were supposed to be obscure tech

Art: 96 panels/22 pages = 4.4 panels/page. 2 splash pages, 1 double-page spread, 1 other instance of the art being spread over two pages.

Still splashpagier than I'd like, but beautiful. I like the different facial expressions on the cover. I wonder about Chameleon Boy's design... his new more-alien look seems less expressive than his previous portrayals. You know? And there's no reason for Chameleon Boy of all people not to be expressive.

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* Switcheru.