Legion Lost #7 – Review

By: Tom DeFalco (writer), Pete Woods (artist), Brad Anderson (colorist)

The Story: He’s the amphibious, humanoid telepath of your dreams.

The Review: Chalk this up to my wishy-washy nature, but I’ve always found it difficult to step away from a comic book series, even one that’s not performing so well.  Part of me wants to believe the title’s only going through a rough patch, one that may be hurdled over by the next issue.  Another part of me sees dropping the series as a kind of betrayal, especially after some significant investment—like the six months I put into Legion Lost.

Sad to say, that investment hasn’t really paid off.  This book has been crawling along for a while now, even some time before DeFalco took over writing duties, so you can’t really attribute its low performance to creative changes.  Even from a generous perspective, the title simply hasn’t done a remarkable job of establishing appealing, lovable characters nor a tight, gripping plot.

Aside from the aggressive Gates and Timber Wolf, none of the other Legionnaires have asserted much in the way of personality, at least none that you can really resonate with.  DeFalco might be trying to light a fire under these characters by injecting some drama into their interactions, but he does so at the cost of ignoring context and disrespecting Legion history.  I’m talking, of course, about Wildfire’s unexpectedly craven power play for control of the team.  It’s one thing to state, not inaccurately, that Tyroc hasn’t been very proactive in directing their mission; it’s another to take the leap to, “For the team’s welfare, you should step down as mission leader.”

What’s particularly problematic about this scene is it essentially disregards the years of friendship and experience these teammates have shared together.  It just doesn’t make sense for Wildfire to be so insensitive and callous in critiquing Tyroc, nor does it feel natural for Tyroc (especially since we’ve established him as “a diplomat,” in Wildfire’s own words) to shoot back, perhaps a bit too defensively, “That’s exactly what we need—another hothead in charge!”  To top it off, Wildfire reacts with a rather silly, antiquated, “Why, you—”  I’m surprised he doesn’t shake his fist under Tyroc’s nose just to complete the effect.

Legion Lost #6 – Review

By: Fabian Nicieza & Tom DeFalco (writers), Pete Woods & Matt Camp (artists), Brad Anderson (colorist)

The Story: Green man from Mars, meet the time-traveling people of the future!

The Review: I’ve made these same observations before in my review of Stormwatch #6, but it really pains me to see a writer I admire depart from a title I like.  Almost always the two things are mutually inclusive; once one element disappears, the other usually follows.  True, Nicieza hasn’t exactly made this title into the barn-burner any Legionnaire fan hoped for, but at the very least he’s remained true to the Legion’s spirit and delivered a solid, if flawed, read each time.

Soon-to-be-replacement DeFalco comes aboard this issue to help Nicieza with the script.  As a result, it’s hard to tell if the writing falls flat because of his contribution or because of some decline in Nicieza’s already faltering writing.  It’s not an obvious drop in quality, but it just feels like many of the lines have gotten slightly more generic, the plot slightly more muddled, the characters slightly more one-dimensional.

The weakness is most noticeably felt in the conception of Major Nicholson, the military lady in charge of investigating extraterrestrials and metahumans that may pose a threat to the country.  She might be attempting to sound tough and informed, but she ends up sounding immature (describing Timber Wolf’s friends: “‘Faceplate’ appears to emit some kind of energy from that oh-so-stylish suit of armor—and it looks as if ‘Lenny Kravitz’ controls sonic vibrations.”) or just plain bratty (“Shut up!”).  With any luck she won’t be a long-term antagonist for this series.

Also a bit painful to read is Martian Manhunter’s dialogue.  Paul Cornell did a fantastic job on Stormwatch making J’onn out as a badass, an image Pete Tomasi kept up perfectly in his guest shot on Green Lantern Corps.  Here, when he’s not acting confused by the Legionnaires’ “evolved” minds, he’s being confusing.  For example, you’ll never understand why, when he confronted Wolf last issue, he apparently decided to take the extra step of knocking Wolf out and having him turned into the military before he begins his interrogation.

It’s also not clear what J’onn gets out of this meeting with the Legion.  If anything, his only real purpose is to assist them in rescuing Chameleon Girl.  While he vaguely mentions something about trailing them to complete some kind of “energy signature,” it’s not clear what getting that kind of information accomplishes for him or Stormwatch.  It also strikes me as a little odd that having read their minds and knowing their purpose on Earth, he’s not a little more concerned about the Hypertaxis virus threatening humanity, which would supposedly be under his purview.

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 #4 – Review

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

The Story: This—is—Fargoooo!!

The Review: To this day, I still don’t understand DC’s aversion to adopting Marvel’s recap page, which is one of the most practical, useful devices you can have in serial fiction.  And it’s not just Marvel; TV shows use the opening “Previously…” to the same effect for each episode, and many manga tend to start their issues with the last few panels from the preceding ones.  If the goal is to get new readers on board, a recap page would be a handy thing indeed.

Without one, you wind up with chunks of exposition awkwardly and repetitively laced into the narrative itself, like Dawnstar’s recollection of the past few issues’ events here: “The Legion of Super-Heroes came back in time to stop a terrorist named Alastor from releasing a deadly disease.  We failed.”  For anyone who’s been following along since the beginning, this only reiterates everything we’re already well aware of, and is thus a sad waste of time and space.

But then, Dawnstar’s entire narration feels a bit unnecessary.  Nicieza has always proven very comfortable writing internal dialogue (as demonstrated in a strong run on Red Robin), but since each issue switches the POV of the characters, you’re bound to get inconsistent results.  While Timber Wolf turned out to be a pretty entertaining narrator last issue, Dawnstar feels bland and pointless, making mostly redundant commentary on what’s happening: “I can feel their confusion through the mind-link, but also their hope—their determination to help [Yera]…”

Speaking of which, the happy return of Chameleon Girl is cut short when the Legionnaires find she can’t control the form she’s become attached to, that of human Hypertaxed into an Okaarian Rdrayyj.  At least you can rest easy knowing she’s still hanging in there, though it is a bit of a head-scratcher how they’ll get her out.  Besides, if she’s alive, there’s a pretty good chance Gates survived the big blow-up of issue one as well, so the Legion has reason to hope.

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.

Legion Lost #1 – Review

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

The Story: Seems like everyone’s going retro these days.

The Review: Paul Levitz’s at best uninspired run on Legion of Super-Heroes almost continuously dragged its heels from the day it relaunched and only rarely delivered any goods worth staying on for.  Adventure Comics, its youthful counterpart, bore some promise, but eventually slipped into the same lifeless pattern.  While too jaded to give Levitz’s go at the umpteenth relaunch of the title a try, Nicieza’s merits always earns his work a perusal, I’d say.

Frankly, what he gives us is everything the Legion should be.  First off, he sets them up young—not quite as baby-faced as their original portrayals, but significantly less thirtyish than the exhausted, grim-looking folks we got the last couple years.  But more than appearance, the tone of the characters has liveliness again.  They still retain a gloss of experienced professionalism, but mostly they sound energetic, focused, and open to adventure, which is as it should be.

Then, too, Nicieza gives us a very potent mix of Legionnaires, including a few fan favorites and also some interesting, unexpected choices.  Of course you have Timber Wolf (“Wolverine Lite,” as I like to call him) and Wildfire and Dawnstar, the 31^st Century’s Ross and Rachel (or, for you more current readers, the 31^st Century’s Sammy and Ronnie).  But you also have helpful amphibian Tellus, actress Chameleon Girl, surprisingly foul-mouthed Gates, and Tyrok, who’s gained quite a bit of stature as of late, playing leader here.

Their sheer diversity alone had no guarantee of assuring rich interplay (see Justice League International #1).  Nicieza’s strong character writing puts all their personalities and powers in the forefront without having to spell it our right to you—for the most part, anyway.  With any luck, once this introductory issue gets out of the way, Nicieza from now on has the freedom to just play and not worry about the initial logistical stuff.

Anyway, as it stands, our heroes already have a lot on their plate.  Already facing the prospects of getting left stranded in the past (our present), they also have to deal with malfunctioning flight rights and fritzing powers.  And while our villain may have a howling rage for humankind (Earth’s future xenophobia is literally coming back—in time, that is—to bite us in the butt), by issue’s end, his presence becomes moot, though the damage has already been done.

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.

Legion of Super-Heroes #9 – Review

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

The Story: Brainiac 5 and Chameleon Boy hit up Durla for some new leads to the assassinations on the United Planets Council, while Tyroc and Timber Wolf try to prevent more deaths.

The Review: The Legion’s massive cast tends to pose a lot of difficulties for writers.  For one thing, it takes a lot of effort to give each Legionnaire a fair chance in the spotlight.  For another, keeping track of all their different personalities and backgrounds in the context of whatever storyline they’re caught up in can be a taxing juggling act.  Then there’s the obstacle of dreaming up a mission/opponent big enough to challenge for the two dozen or so members.

Paul Levitz has the expertise to handle all three of these problems, but he doesn’t do so with much inspiration.  This Durlan plot to assassinate the UP council just doesn’t have much teeth to it.  Some of the missing bite comes from how unthreatening the assassins have been portrayed so far.  They’re quite lousy at assassinating people; across three issues, they’ve only managed to kill off two individuals, one of which had almost no importance attached whatsoever.  If there’s a bigger mastermind behind all this, let’s hope he or she (or it—we’re dealing with Durlans here, after all) shows up soon, because the henchmen aren’t really selling.

There’s little reason to hope more formidable opponents will pop up anytime soon, considering the sluggish pace Legion has now.  By the end of the issue, all you’re left looking forward to is a visit to Chameleon Boy’s aunt, who may or may not be directly or indirectly connected to the Durlan conspiracy.  That’s the kind of stakes the Legion deals with now.  Like Timber Wolf says, “We’re Legionnaires—not nursemaids!”  Quite right—shouldn’t they be out preventing galactic war, or trying to stop an invasive species of hyper-flies from eating the time-space continuum, instead of mostly waiting around for an opportunity to thwart some raging shapeshifters for the umpteenth time?

The Legion of Super-Heroes #7 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Yildiray Cinar & Wayne Faucher (artists), Francis Portela (back-up artist)

The Story: Cosmic Boy, Timber Wolf, Ultra Boy, and Tyroc investigate the murder of a United Planets councilor, leading them to confront the assassins and prevent further government deaths.  Meanwhile, Sun Boy considers Legion leadership, and Mon-El and Earth-Man have words over Shadow Lass, Mon-El’s ex and Earth-Man’s current flame.  In the back-up story, Brainiac 5 and Chameleon Boy travel to Naltor, world of seers, where Chameleon Boy receives a disturbing vision of his future and Brainiac 5 interrogates Harmonia Li, a mystery from the past.

The Review: Part of what turns off many readers from Legion is the astonishing amount of baggage it’s packaged with.  When Geoff Johns revived the team in his “Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes” story, he brought back the original Legionnaires with all their complex histories intact.  The result is a team that is somewhat wiser and more experienced, but also one that feels like most of its biggest adventures has already passed.

Paul Levitz is now responsible for crafting the great Legion stories to come, if there are any more to be had.  The first six issues of this series focused on establishing the current tone and dynamic of the team.  This newest issue should be the start of higher-stakes conflicts for the Legionnaires, but so far, there is little happening to generate much excitement.  The A-story in this issue—assassination attempts on UP councilors—seems slightly drab, since Levitz takes little time to show why we should care about whether these councilors die or not.  No one, least of all the Legionnaires, seems very distressed by what’s happening.

The low-key B and C-stories don’t help to shore up the weak primary plotline.  Mon-El and Earth-Man’s confrontation is so short, it doesn’t gain momentum, and happens almost out of nowhere.  Shadow Lass is a foxy girl, no doubt, but the brief exchange between her former and present lovers offers no reason why they’re fighting over her.  The even shorter discussion of Legion leadership doesn’t really move that plotline anywhere, and comes across as a pointless distraction to the other stories.  It would have made sense to cut the Brainiac back-up to develop the A-story more, or perhaps integrate the two altogether.  It just seems that with Levitz trying to advance four different plots simultaneously, the pace slows to a crawl as each plot moves an inch forward at a time.