Legion of Super-Heroes #13 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Yildiray Cinar & Jonathan Glapion (artists), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: Geez, Saturn Queen–someone took her total jag pill this morning.

The Review: One of the major weaknesses of this story arc so far—and frankly, there have been many—is how much we still don’t know about this mysterious benefactor-guide of Saturn Queen’s, especially since he/she/it has got her planet-hopping all over the place trying to find these three ancient worlds for some reason or other.  The lack of a clear goal for our villains definitely makes the stakes for the Legionnaires all that less interesting.

This issue we actually get some face-time with the “blue flame” entity, a little blue dude in a kind of alien kilt-skirt, just about the cutest fella to ever dream of senseless galactic chaos.  Considering the fairly enormous scale of Saturn Queen’s mission, you’d think the reveal of her mission-giver would have a similarly enormous impact, but he doesn’t.  You get a face to this enemy, but that’s about it.

Despite all his grandstanding (“…my dreams over the endless centuries of exile shall be fulfilled…”), you really learn nothing about his goals.  Several issues into the story arc, we still don’t know what the big plan is here, other than a vague desire to destroy “galactic civilization” (the United Planets, I’m assuming).  Considering how many times the Legion has defeated that ambition from villains with far more threatening appearances, we’ve no reason to believe this time will be any different.

One new wrinkle involves Saturn Queen’s offer to have Earth Man join her team in exchange for having his way with Earth when she and Blue Flame Dude destroy all order, or whatever.  If this testing of our favorite xenophobe sheds light on how he switched loyalties to the Legion in the first place, or at least how he and Shadow Lass hooked up, then it’ll be worthwhile.  But since almost every Legionnaire expects him to backstab them at some point anyway, his possible betrayal doesn’t have all that much tension.

And each time you think you’re on the verge of finally learning something about Harmonia Li, you get instead more highbrow vagaries (“There are consequences more important than his life, or yours…”) and a scene-cut.  It’s really reached the point where you can’t bring yourself to care anymore; whatever her significance to this title, it can’t possible merit thirteen issues of guest appearances, only to dance around the subject at hand.

Adventure Comics #521 – Review

Lead Story By: Paul Levitz (writer), Geraldo Borges and Marlo Alquiza (artists)
Back Up Story By: Jeff Lemire (writer), Mahmud Asrar (penciller), John Dell (inker), Pete Pantazis (colorist)

The Lead Story: Some sort of Oan intelligence is looking for someone strong enough and fearless enough to carry a green lantern ring. In the meantime, a bunch of legionnaires are off in Uganda, trying to fix up after an earthquake that, after a little bit of investigating, doesn’t look very earthquaky, especially when it wallops a couple of them at better than the speed of light.

Lead Story What’s Good: Borges and Alquiza have an attractive, arresting art style that works really well on expressive faces (check out Shadow Lass or her racist boyfriend on pages 2 and 3) and interesting aliens (the Oan on page 2 or the close up on Tellus on page 6). That’s half the battle right there.

Story-wise, I was intrigued by the vanished Green Lantern corps and its last representative trying to revive the venerable force. That was interesting, although the Legion’s reactions seemed a bit odd and unexpectedly submissive. “Everyone come here so I can pick a new Green Lantern.” “No problem. Here we are.” Huh? Oh, well. The dialogue and writing worked for me as well, especially Dawnstar and Shadow Lass.

Lead Story What’s Not So Good: While Borges and Alquiza have some strengths, I think they’re still working on a few weaknesses as well. On weird camera angles or even just people looking up (splash page with the Oan on page 13 or Lar Gand on page 15), the proportions go all funny. The women are attractive, but obviously every one has had a cheap boob job leaving their mommy parts sticking out at odd angles in defiance of gravity and good taste. As well, in terms of composition, panel-wise and page-wise, the approach is very middle of the road. (Instructions: Put camera in standard position A. Pan right to standard position B. Repeat.) This left the panels themselves rarely dynamic, and the panels on the page didn’t feel like they were flowing from one to another. Some artists have tried some interesting things with diagonal layouts and odd-sized panels, but nothing innovative was tried here.

Writing-wise, I was surprised (negatively) that Levitz had picked such classical background action. The old legion stories were filled with the Legionnaires leaping into natural disasters (as only do-gooders can) and saving humans and endangered wildlife. I think that worked in the sixties, but comics have matured a lot since then and I didn’t feel this mood was quite up to what comics are capable of doing. I wasn’t invested in the disaster, so the action didn’t really pull me in.

Back Up Story: The Atom is in one dilly of a pickle. Dad is in the clutches of bad guys. The Atom’s belt is fried.

Back Up Story What’s Good: I bought the story in this feature, the conflict between hero and uncle, the redemption arc that was going on and the stakes (Dad’s in trouble). The art on this story was rougher, but more dynamic than the lead story, while remaining emotive and expressive.

The Legion of Super-Heroes #3 – Review

by Paul Levitz (writer), Yildiray Cinar (pencils), Francis Portela (pencils & inks), Wayne Faucher (inks), Hi-Fi (colors), and Sal Cipriano (letters)

The Story: Earth-Man is forced to go on his first mission as a Green Lantern and the Legion finds itself pitted against Saturn Queen.

What’s Good: I absolutely love Earth-Man under Levitz’s hand.  He adds a really fun dynamic to the team, his dialogue is consistently dickish, and Levitz continues to tease new developments for the character.  I’ve really enjoyed Levitz’s placing Niedrigh in increasingly uncomfortable positions, and when, this month, he’s forced to save the lives of some tiny lifeforms on a far away planet, it’s really amusing in a “fish out of water” sort of way. Earth-Man’s constant tone of dismissive disgust is fun, but I’m starting to become increasingly interested in a possible redemption further down the road for the character, which may very well be the route Levitz is taking him.  It’s promising stuff and honestly, the more Earth-Man I get from Levitz the better.

Beyond this, much of what has made this Legion relaunch so successful this month recurs.  The large cast is handled aptly with all the characters feeling natural and in possession of their own unique voices.  Furthermore, by modern comic standards, this is another issue that is packed with content; a lot of narrative movement occurs.  While it’s not quite as ridiculously crammed as the last two issues, it’s still heftier than most comics and feels a bit more settled.

The Legion of Super-Heroes #2 – Review

by Paul Levitz (writer), Yildiray Cinar & Francis Portela (pencils), Wayne Faucher & Francis Portela (inks), Hi-Fi (colors), and Sal Cipriano (letters)

The Story: Earth-Man joins his first mission with the Legion as the Legionnaires deal with the fall of Titan.  Meanwhile, Saturn Queen returns to wreak havoc.

What’s Good: In his return to writing duties, it’s clear that no one gave Levitz the memo about decompression.  Thank goodness for that because the result is that the Legion reads like no other book on the stands right now.  This book is thick.  It’s a 30 page story, but that doesn’t do justice to how dense it is.  Levitz somehow manages to perfectly balance the Legion’s notoriously large cast with around four to five sub-plots.  Much like last month’s debut, it’s mind blowing how much actually happens this month as well as how many scene changes there are.  This issue is so ridiculously packed with content and story that were it $2.99, I’d feel like I was short-changing DC.

What’s particularly remarkable is that Levitz never loses control.  Things never feel scattered.  More remarkable still is that Levitz finds time for a good amount of characterization.  All of the many characters carry distinct voices.  Braniac 5 in particular remains a total blast under Levitz’s pen.

Much like Levitz wonderfully manages his multitude of characters, he also is able to make every single of his sub-plots engaging.  Every plot strand left me wanting to know more and left me wanting next month’s issue.  What the heck is going on with Saturn Girl’s kids?  What’s Saturn Queen up to?  What’s going to happen to Titan’s refugees?  Individually, each of these plots is standard fare, I suppose, but when weaved together, the result is overwhelming.  It’s really fun to find so many corners of interest in a single comic.

I also enjoyed Levitz’s use of Earth-Man even more than last month.  Indeed, Earth-Man, for me, is the most intriguing of Levitz’s many threads, if only because so many questions abound, particularly regarding his Green Lantern ring and what he’ll end up doing with it.  Levitz is quickly fashioning Earth-Man into a fully realized, three dimensional character who is showing the potential to be more than a simple, xenophobic asshole.

I have nothing negative to say about Cinar’s work on this book.  It’s clear that he was the right choice for the Legion and he manages the book deftly, with a good mix of modern sleekness and the old school vibe that’s a necessity for a sci fi book like the Legion.  It’s nothing overly fancy, but it also remains friendly throughout.