Long Live the Legion

Legion of Super-Heroes #37 And now, I'm going to embarrass myself. Ever since I started rereading the reboot Legion, I've been reading digital versions of the issues. I had kinda fallen out with the book once Keith Giffen left the 5YL Legion and I never got back into it. Until this issue. Yes, the news that Jim Shooter was coming back to the Legion was enough for me to start buying the book again. Not the reboot. Not Abnett and Lanning and Olivier Coipel. Not Mark Waid and Barry Kitson. Jim... Shooter... What had he been doing before his third term on the Legion? Defiant Comics. Valiant Comics. Broadway Comics. He had tried to start his own comic company again and again and had either been forced out or the company just didn't work out. Let's see if you can go home again... again... We also have a brand new artist - Francis Manapul. He had previously done a nice run on Witchblade but this was his first work for either DC or Marvel. Once again, the Legion is used as a tr...

The Brave and the Bold #5 Let's take a short detour away from the regular series and see what Mark Waid can do with the Legion on a different book. For those who are curious, this book came out the same month as Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #32 but I didn't want to break up the Quest for Cosmic Boy just to see what was going on here. I find it kind of strange that Waid brought the Legion over to the Brave and the Bold right after he quit the regular book, especially as the Legion was losing many readers each month. Do you put the Legion into the Brave and the Bold to save the Legion, or for another reason? Before we begin, can I just point this one thing out? I think Tom Smith was one of the better colorists during this time period and he really brought a lot to George Perez's work. But what he did to Karate Kid on the cover? Wow... and I thought 70's comics were bad for their yellow face... We're midway through an extended story (that's been going s...

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #35 Oh no... we've reached that time again... when the cover doesn't match the story inside. It's always the first sign that the Legion is headed towards bad times... Also, if you told me that Light Lass wasn't on the original version of this cover and got Photoshopped in later, I'd totally believe you. It's The Quest for Cosmic Boy: E.R.G.onomics part 2 by writer Tony Bedard and artist Dennis Calero. For those of you who missed last issue, and this Bedard run, here's the quick recap. Supergirl was elected team leader but Brainiac 5 is running the show. Cosmic Boy disappeared (he actually joined a super-team 1,000 years in the future) so Brainy figured out three places where he may have gone. Atom Girl, Shadow Lass, and Timber Wolf headed to Lallor to try to find their former leader and discovered a plot to assassinate Lallor's president because he wants the planet to join the U.P. A super-powered assassin named E...

  Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #33 Okay seriously now - who's the Legionnaire at the bottom of the cover? According to the Grand Comics Database , it's Star Boy. Do his eyes glow? Is he bald? Do they think he's Cyborg now? Man, I'm confused. They also say that it's not Saturn Girl, it's Jeyra Entinn, the Wanderer who is a cold-blooded murderer and possible new Legionnaire. Yep, standards have dropped... everywhere... We've reached part two of The Quest for Cosmic Boy. Last issue, Sun Boy, Star Boy, and Mekt went to Winath to find Rokk. Tenzil Kem, a U.P. prosecutor, showed up as well to arrest Rokk. They went underground to find the missing people, Tenzil got buried under a pile of grain, and Mekt got zapped by some Winathians, including his parents, who are worshiping Validus, the god of lightning. This issue is brought to you by writer Tony Bedard and artist Dennis Calero. After the Dominator war, we're taking a step backwards and slowing t...

  Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #31 I'm always a sucker for covers that just show the team flying out towards the reader, but I have to wonder what happened to Supergirl - Barry Kitson has never drawn her like this before. It's the official beginning of the new era of Legion stories. Series creators Mark Waid and Kitson are gone and they've been replaced by frequent fill-in writer Tony Bedard and, for this issue only, artists Kevin Sharpe and Robin Riggs. We get an interesting change to the Roll Call page as well - it's back to Atom Girl so I guess that's her official name now... And Mekt is listed as a Legionnaire, which makes no sense. Oh well. We begin in another one of Brainiac 5's dreams - he's the hero, having saved the Earth from the Dominator threat and Bedard uses this sequence to provide tons of exposition about what the future is like and what they did to win the battle last issue. Is he assuming that no one has read the previous issues...