Legion of Super-Heroes #14 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Fernando Dagnino & Raul Fernandez (artists), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: If it is wisdom you seek, die first.  No, I’m not kidding.

The Review: When this title rebooted last year, it introduced the character of Harmonia Li to be of some significance and then pretty much shelved her.  Yet Levitz never really allowed the her to be forgotten; she continued to dog this series, reappearing in the most random moments of often unrelated story arcs to remind us of her vague existence, but never actually following up with any real interest.

This issue finally gets into her mysterious origins, and it’s underwhelming, to say the least: as it turns out, she is a denizen of Utopia, a world of wisdom, which just happens to be the last target on Saturn Queen’s demolition list.  Since Levitz spent so little time in previous arcs laying the groundwork for this revelation, it really comes out of nowhere, and feels more like a convenient too to allow the Legion to access an otherwise inaccessible world.

Still, Levitz deserves some credit for neatly tying all his disparate plotlines into one common thread: Dream Girl’s attempt to purge Star Boy of—something—in his costume; Dawnstar’s search for the being that attacked her and Wildfire; Mon-El’s quest across space with Dyogene; and of course, the Legion of Villains’ quest for the three worlds of balance.  The cost, of course, is none of these were explored in enough detail to be of any interest, resulting in a climax that lacks much in the way of excitement or novelty.

Certainly, Levitz’s dialogue does nothing to help matters, having finally descended from purely clichéd and pointless (the issue starts actually starts off with, “Nooo!”) to completely incomprehensible.  Both Dyogene and Master Kong of Utopia are given to speak gibberish as a pretense of wisdom: “…and if Dyogene’s master of the rings’ power is greater, know that this moment was foreseen long ago in shaping this one.”  “…but if man takes no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand.”  Tortured grammar is the least of their problems.

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.

The Legion of Super-Heroes #12 – Review

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

The Story: An egomaniacal, power-hungry diva gets a massive boost in telepathy and decides she’s queen of the universe—what are the odds?

The Review: The Legion is such a sprawling team with such a wide scope of influence—basically the entire galaxy and perhaps beyond—that their potential mission load can be quite infinite.  On the same count, it’s very easy to spread them too thin without ever giving them anything worth following.  Unfortunately, that seems to be the case with Levitz’s current run on this title.

Remember in my review of last issue when I thought Levitz was finally on the verge of following up on Harmonia Li’s nigh-forgotten storyline?  Remember how she suddenly appeared in Brainiac’s lab out of nowhere and delivered a particularly foreboding cliffhanger: “This is all my fault”?  Well, it turns out Brainy’s going to let that one pass and we get to wait until the next issue—if we’re lucky—to see if that plot goes anywhere, or at least wraps up gracefully.

Levitz chooses to bring us back to Saturn Queen’s quest for three planets of cosmic influence, which honestly still doesn’t quite feel very high-stakes.  No case has been made on how integral these planets are to the universe’s well-being (considering the Rock of Eternity was reduced to rubble and no seems to have noticed).  You’re also not inclined to take the whole deal very seriously since you have no idea what S-Queen’s after—or what will happen if/when she gets it.

This issue features more of the same stuff we’ve been getting for a while: a duo or trio of Legionnaires duking it out with the baddie du jour.  These fights would be more exciting if there weren’t so many of them squeezed into one issue, limiting each battle to a couple pages each.  Levitz doesn’t make the most of them either, as the team hardly ever uses their powers very creatively (Colossal Boy especially—this is the second time in a row he’s been KO’d within four panels of the fight just starting).

The Legion of Super-Heroes #11 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Daniel HDR & Wayne Faucher (artists), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: It’s like playing Where’s Waldo?, only with several dozen super-powered criminals across interplanetary space.  That’s fun, right?

The Review: It’s a common issue in comics that once you take a step back from the flashy action sequences and charged emotional scenes, you realize there’s really nothing happening beneath it all.  There’s nothing inherently wrong with the decompressed story arc, but unless the writer can pack each issue with enough compelling material to make it worthwhile, the whole thing can seem like a needlessly dragged out plot.

If you read Legion of Super-Villains, you quickly realize Saturn Queen is not only in complete control, but she also has all the answers to their long-term plans and goals.  Essentially, she’s the only villain we’re interested in, since all her subordinates act only to serve her.  That leaves little depth or motivation to the goons the Legion tackles in this issue; their only purpose seems to be vying with each other to gain Saturn Queen’s favor, and there’s little fun in that.

With such narrow-minded minions, it’s no wonder they come across so goofy—take Sun Emperor’s confrontation with Timber Wolf: “One dead Legionnaire will surely put me back in the queen’s good graces…two or three would be a surfeit of offerings!”

The Legionnaires don’t fare much better, since their action dialogue still induces uncontrollable cringing from you.  It’s as if Levitz feels they have to banter, so he injects these silly, forced riffs while they’re in action: “Now let the boys collect them.”  “Let’s not be sexist—that’s centuries out of style.”  “They didn’t mean anything, Ayla.”  “It’s called teamwork.  Get over it.”  When they act this nonchalant, it’s hard to take their battles seriously.