Legion Lost #5 – Review

By: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Pete Woods (artist), Brad Anderson (colorist)

The Story: Can’t we have just a nice, calm, rational conversation, mind to mind?

The Review: I don’t think bias in a critic is evil as long as he’s aware of it and makes it clear, so I have no problem in saying that I really wanted to like this title.  Actually, I do like it, so I guess it’s more accurate to say that I really wanted to love this title, enough to convince others to give it a try and see for themselves how great it is.  Sadly, I can’t say that with much honesty—not at this point, at least.

I still maintain the series has many virtues, but there are some major missteps in the writing that undermines it as a whole.  Some of these are structural, like the increasingly annoying recap monologue Nicieza invariably incorporates at the beginning of every issue.  While it may be useful for the reader who’s just hopping on board, I suspect those people are few and far in-between.  For the fans, the recap is a tiresome bit of repetition you just want to skip over.  Plus, I imagine it’ll read pretty awkwardly once it’s collected in a trade.

Another misstep, one semi-structural and semi-substantial, is Nicieza’s choice to have each issue narrated by a different Legionnaire (except for the MIA Chameleon Girl and Gates).  If you have a character with a lively personality, it can work, but the more reserved characters seem more like they’re merely dispensing information than letting their individual attitudes speak for themselves.  That was the case with Dawnstar last issue, and much the same here with Tellus, whose pause-laden mode of speech is just as heavy and burdensome to read as you’d expect.

You also have—I won’t call them problems, per se—flaws within the story itself.  Tellus’ psychic confrontation with Alastor goes along fairly predictable lines, as attempts to reason with misguided villains so often do.  The telepathic amphibian tries to appeal to Alastor’s amenable side, throwing out such stock lines as, ““…Is this the person…your sister would have…wanted you…to become…?”  It works, I suppose, but it doesn’t make the title seem any fresher.

Legion Lost #3 – Review

By: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Pete Woods (artist), Brad Anderson (colorist)

The Story: When Timber Wolf starts calling you savage, you really have a problem.

The Review: If you haven’t realized it already, let me just say: I am a Legion of Super-Heroes fan.  At the same time, it is never lost on me how irritatingly dense and confusing Legion continuity can be to new readers; that was certainly the case when I started getting into the series.  None of this was helped by the resurrection of the Silver Age Legion and all its incumbent baggage of history, which the new DCU disappointed me in not tidying up.

That said, Nicieza has taken some admirable pains to make his set of Legionnaires as accessible as possible.  Hence the constant emphasis on their major personality traits: Wildfire and his angst of not having a body, Dawnstar’s perfectionism, and most of all, Timber Wolf’s antsiness to get out there and maul something.

All that talk about wishing he could take out his anger on someone show how T. Wolf gets his reputation as a Wolverine analogue (or Wolverine inspiration, considering he predates the X-Man by ten years).  Unlike his teammates, who seem inclined to play it on the safe side and keep their activities on the down-low, Wolf takes the proactive route, tracking down Hypersapiens before they cause too much damage.

Maybe because he takes the trouble to actually get out into the real world, it explains why he’s the first of the team to begin adjusting to life on Earth 2011.  As he speeds off in a stolen cop car, he reflects, “…for the first time…a giant part of me feels free…”  That’s exactly what the rest of the Legionnaires need; instead of moping around in a telepathically hustled motel room, moaning about “this time—this filthy, backward place!” they need to put on some civvies and live a little.

Legion Lost #2 – Review

By: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Pete Woods (artist), Brad Anderson (colorist)

The Story: Can’t we just talk, energy-being to energy-being?

The Review: I’ve noticed in reviews of the two new titles featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes that folks mostly take issue with the inaccessibility of the team itself.  Like many DC properties, the Legion has a very dense, complicated history, but unlike many DC properties, it’s had to reinvent itself from the ground up at least a couple times, arguably more.  The team has tons of characters, each with a long, complex background, and a rather specific setting.

Any one of these points by itself would make Legion pretty obtuse to readers, but put them all together and you have yourself a surefire niche title, one existing mostly for the pleasure of its small band of devotees and hardly anyone else.  If Legion’s to have any chance of expanding its audience, it needs winning stories by top-notch writers and artists, and it needs it now.

Nicieza is a top-notch writer.  His work on both Robin and Red Robin demonstrated a high bar for quality titles featuring young characters.  He has a great ear for first-person, semi-stream-of-consciousness narration, and he shows it through Wildfire’s description of events this issue.  He mixes exposition with character bits (“No, really, Wolf, try stopping an energy-based form with a chunk of wood.  More sprockin’ stubborn than I am…”), reading naturally and engagingly.

Unfortunately, a lot of the narration gets wasted on the same set of expository points: Alastor, an alien of the future, enraged at the death of his sister from Earth’s xenophobia, goes back in time to “our” present day to infect humanity with a virus that will transform them all into mutant hybrids.  Not only did the debut cover this ground already, but this issue actually goes through this whole spiel twice, meaning you’re already feeling worn out from half the plot in two issues.