Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #1 – Review

By: Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen (writer/artist), John Dell & Scott Koblish (inkers), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: If you’re down on your luck, there are worse pals than a giant eyeball that grants wishes.  Plus—flying monkeys!

The Review: The annual poses an interesting challenge to comic book writers.  The added page count gives a lot more narrative freedom, but at the same time, readers can’t be depended upon to buy the thing with its bigger price point, so the stories can’t really be game-changers.  Most of the time you get a bunch of short features with varying degrees of quality; rarely does anyone attempt to stretch a feature across the whole thing.

Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen, however, are not men to shy away from a challenge, considering how long they’ve been in the biz.  Unfortunately, for all the ambition and buzz going into this issue, their tale of the Emerald Empress’s return only somewhat succeeds in validating the five bucks you’ll have to fork over for it.

The length of the issue demands a plot of fairly grand scale.  You can’t expect an epic, but there should be more than four Legionnaires getting tossed around by a temporarily revamped villain.  The actual events of the issue don’t have much meat to them, so the space is mostly filled with exposition, told with ever so much melodrama: “I felt a wave of energy from Orando minutes ago, and a strange shift—as though everything I had seen on the planet for weeks had been false, and a curtain was being pulled away.”

And when you don’t get big doses of exposition, you get treated to the uninspired, repetitive dialogue.  Most irritating is how frequently they spend whole slews of panels commenting on how this version of the Empress is different from the last one.  And for all the talk going on, you don’t really get a good sense of the characters’ personalities.  They all have the same aggressive, sarcastic voice, offering as little interest to their conversation as the action.

The Empress can’t be taken seriously as a threat because so much of her supposedly dastardly deeds are taken for granted.  The Legionnaires say a great deal about her corrupting the planet, but other than some weird plants and a medieval theme, you’re not sure what’s being corrupted.  Maybe if you get to see what Orando is like before the Empress mucks around with it, you’d have a better idea of her craziness, but for all appearances, Orando has always had a feudal society (check out the crossbows and girl-lusting lord).  It would also help to know more about the current girl held in the Eye of Ekron’s thrall other than she’s crazy.

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.

Adventure Comics #3 – Review

By Geoff Johns and Michael Shoemaker (writers), Francis Manapul and Clayton Henry (artists), Brian Buccellato and Brian Reber (colorists), Elizabeth V. Gehrlein (editor)

The Story: If issue #1 was the set-up and issue #2 was the boy-finds-girl, then issue #3 is really the buddy story. Conner (Superboy) and Tim Wayne (Red Robin) are best friends who have been separated for a year. A lot of water has passed under the bridge for one of them. Conner has missed out on a lot of his friends’ troubles while he was gone, none more so that Tim. No one could use a friend more than Tim right now, but as we’ve seen in Tim’s own book (see my reviews on the excellent Red Robin series), he’s on a quixotic quest that on the face of evidence, is a little bent. They have stuff to work out. In the meantime, things turn sinister with Luthor and Brainiac planning in the background. The back-up feature is a vignette starring Sunboy and Polar Boy on the latter’s home world.

What’s Good: There’s a lot to like about the Smallville created by Johns and Manapul. It’s not saccharine-sweet, like other renditions I’ve seen recently. It feels honest. The school scene with the uber-nerd lab partner was good. The super-dog trying to please his master with gifts was brilliant, with Johns and Manapul having caught dog psychology perfectly, multiplied by Kryptonian DNA. This type of environment is a great backdrop for the kind of Lex Luthor-vs-Superman soul-searching that Conner is living.

And I can’t say enough about how well Manapul and Buccelato do in bringing Smallville to life. The art is not sepia, but it is different in feel from what you see being done in other books (and I include in that comparison the best in the field). I guess the best way I could put it is this way: sometimes you look at a book, panel by panel, and you get the impression of grit. Other times, the mood is slick and modern. The art team has made this book feel rural and mid-western.

Most importantly of all, Johns and Manapul made me feel something. They caught Red Robin’s desperation without having to show him in a panic. The quiet moments and the reluctant admissions made his pain all the more poignant. The dialogue is perfect and honest and gives Conner his opening to be Conner, not someone worried he’ll become like Lex Luthor, or even someone who has to worry about emulating Superman.

The Legion entry was a winner. I could have stayed for more of Conner and Tim, but it was fun following poor Polar Boy around, and watching Sun Boy be taken down a peg.

What’s Not So Good: The back-up Legion of Superheroes story is not yet cohesive. But, given the quality of the rest of the book and the limited amount of pages the backup has gotten so far, I’m ready to let Johns pull all his pieces together before he reveals the links.

Conclusion: Johns and Manapul are delivering great character stories while putting the pieces in place for a menace to come to Smallville. This is a slow simmer of a book and considering what Johns did with his simmering time on Green Lantern, I’m staying tuned.

Grade: A-

-DS Arsenault