A new number one! A better Olivier Coipel! I'm excited! It's The Legion #1 & 2
But it worked. The Legion #1 was the first Legion book to sell over 30,000 copies since the Final Night crossover issue, which was five years earlier. No matter how much people might complain about the darker tone and art, it's working. Well... it's kinda working. We'll talk about this more as we get through this series.
The Legion #1
Can I just say how much I love this cover? I always like when the artists play with the style/format and this one really works. I think that, with every issue, artist Olivier Coipel gets better and better and with that, more creative. Let's hope writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (DnA) keep the momentum going from Legion Lost.
One year after Legionnaires went missing, falling into the void as they sacrificed themselves to save the universe, a bright light crosses over Earth's sky, causing panic and confusion. M'onel rushes to save everyone, grabbing hold of the mystery ship and helping it land. The ship? The Legion Outpost.
With his help, the ship crashes into Hamilton Park and M'onel watches, as does the rest of the United Planets (U.P.), as the surviving Legionnaires emerge. We have:
- Shikari
- Wildfire
- Kid Quantum
- Umbra
- Chameleon
- Ultra Boy
- Brainiac 5
- Saturn Girl
We get a great two-page spread that introduces the Legionnaires, explains their powers, and lets us know that four other Legionnaires are still missing: Live Wire, Monstress, Element Lad, and Gates. We know what happened to the first three, but we have a mystery with Gates, don't we?
Mr. Venge arrives with three other members of the Oversight Watch: Abyss, Twine, and Brainstorm. They offer help to the Legionnaires to get them away from the crash while M'onel flies off to fight a fire over India. Cham is confused, wondering what's happened to the Legion, and M'onel promises to catch up with them later.
As the Legionnaires fly to the U.P. Congress Building, they're stunned by the changes that happened while they were gone. The Earth has been rebuilt after the Blight ravaged it and they also learn that Leland McCauley is now the president. McCauley, to no one's surprise, isn't happy the Legion is back. But he's prepared to use them, just as former president R.J. Brande did.
But before the show can start, an explosion rocks the building just as McCauley lands and gets out of his limousine. Terrorists from Corvan IV have taken over the congress and are demanding emergency aid for their planet. If they don't get it, they'll start killing delegates.
Which is when the Legion arrives and starts taking care of the terrorists. Under Kid Quantum's command (and no, I have no idea when she started ordering Legionnaires around or when she showed the slightest capacity for leadership), they're a well-oiled fighting machine. They incapacitate the attackers, show off their powers, and disarm the bomb that would destroy everything. They're immediately met with praise and applause.
But we need some long-simmering conflict - they face off with the Oversight Watch and both teams don't seem too happy with the other. McCauley breaks it up and reminds everyone that they are both helping out, they're both excellent teams, and everyone should be happy.
The Legion heads off into Science Police custody and Shikari is taken away into quarantine. Brainy defends it, noting that she's from a completely foreign part of the universe and she should be checked over. But Kid Quantum warns the police that the Legion wants Shikari back in an hour.
Somewhere else, Triad tries to get through SP security to see her friends, but fails and heads off, angry.
The Legion are placed onto a transport to take them to the SP Research Facility. While enroute, Saturn Girl realizes something's wrong. It's a trap!
And the craft explodes in a huge fireball!
Before we move on to issue two, I just have to praise this for being one of the best Legion issues so far. DnA captured everything you want out of a first issue. They introduced the characters, set the scenes, explained what's going on, showed everyone in action, and then had a huge cliffhanger to get you to buy the next issue. The writing is sharp and really witty - I really loved what they did on page two as the word balloons for each panel connected to the next even as the speakers changed. So we got this:
Sir, please repeat! You're breaking --
-- up there!... That thing don't stand a --
-- Chance! What are you doing out of bed, little man? Mamma, see! Shooting --
-- star scans confirm...
Art-wise, Coipel made this book look great. His redesign of Earth made it futuristic in a way we don't normally see in American comics. There's a real Moebius vibe here and I really like it. As I said before, he's improving with every issue and now that he's not doing the darkness that was Legion Lost, we're getting better panels, better backgrounds and character work, and just a better looking comic book. As much as I enjoyed Jeff Moy's work, I think this is best looking Legion book since Volume 4. Sorry... If I had been at DC Comics at this time, I would've tried to lock him up to an exclusive contract as soon as I could.
I might be overreacting here, but I think this is my favorite DnA/Coipel book so far. Just imagine if this had been the issue to follow Legion Lost #12. Instead of spinning their wheels, creatively, with some hits and misses in Legion Worlds, the creative team could've kept their momentum. Or maybe they were only able to achieve this because they gave Coipel at least 6 months to get ahead of his deadlines.
The Legion #2
I had joked, during the Legion Worlds reread, that it would have been nice to actually draw out the "Mr. Venge as villain" plot line instead of making it so painfully obvious. Judging from the cover, they're not even trying to hide that McCauley and the Oversight Watch are bad guys. Wouldn't it have been interesting if McCauley, for all his crappy behavior, was actually a good president and the Legion needed to work with him and the Oversight Watch to help the universe?
We start in a tunnel underneath Metropolis, where Twine, Abyss, and Brainstorm are looking over the wreckage to see what's left of the Legion ship that exploded last issue. I had to go back and confirm that they were, in fact, in a tunnel. There was no clue to it except for Brainiac 5 saying "A frictionless maglev train. Impressive." No offense here, but if Brainiac 5 is impressed with a frictionless maglev train, the 31st Century is further behind than I had previously thought. We have maglev trains now. We close to making them in vacuums so they go faster. Frictionless wouldn't take 1,000 years to develop. Especially on Colu.
Anyway, back to issue 2. This should come as no surprise, but the members of the Oversight Watch aren't too broken up over the idea that the Legionnaires are dead. Repulse is gloating over how quickly they were wiped out. Of course, they're pretty shocked and surprised when they discover a quantum force wall combined with dark power that protected the Legionnaires from the explosion.
The Legion jumps into action, attacking the other team. Rather than have any sort of confusion, Saturn Girl reveals that she saw it all in McCauley's mind - he had the bomb planted and he wants the Legionnaires dead. I know that we've decided that Irma is insanely powerful and can pretty much do anything the writers want her to do, but I think it's going just a bit too far. Basically, what we're saying here is that she can read the mind of any person on Earth, no matter where they are. I guess they're turning her into Professor X.
Unfortunately, the Legion isn't ready to face the Watch, so they run away and escape. Okay, I get that you've gotta make your villains look strong, but how the Legion doesn't wipe the floor with these lame villains, I have no idea.
To the Presidential Tower, where McCauley is browbeating Venge for the team's failure before meeting with M'onel to ensure the Daxamite is protecting him from more terrorist attacks. M'onel is in full "I don't think for myself" mode here - why wouldn't he rush off to see his friends? Why isn't he doing anything??
Somewhere in the subsurface levels, the Legion are getting away and trying to recover from the attack. Wildfire is still shaky from his time in Abyss' void and Umbra realizes that her dark field has left her - something bad has happened on Talok VIII.
Before we can catch our collective breaths, the Legion discovers some incredibly amazing technology. Even Brainiac 5 can't analyze it. They wonder what Earthgov is doing down here... when they trip an alarm... and the alarm is nice enough to tell them they're in "Genome Vault Sixteen." That's fortunate.
The sci-cops arrive almost immediately and, in a blink of an eye, so does the Oversight Watch. Are they teleporters? Were they already nearby? Does time work the same way in the 31st Century?
Were you wondering what was going on with Shakiri? Wonder no more. To no surprise, the S.P.s was to study her further but Triad shows up, in three different disguises, and breaks her out. The two head to the roof where Triad's ride is waiting - a cloaked ship with only an open hatch visible.
Back to the fight underground. Ultra Boy decides to take on Venge and they soon realize he's much more powerful than they expected. He tosses Jo aside like he's nothing. Saturn Girl can't penetrate his mind. Wildfire blasts him, only setting his suit on fire. Luckily, Kid Quantum has become DnA's deux ex machina, so she quantum slows everything and the Legion escape in a drain tunnel.
Unfortunately for the Legion, they're in the waste outflow for the Metropolis Reactor (really? they're still using nuclear power in the 31st?). Venge orders a complete core coolant purge and soon, the tunnel is flooded with radioactive gunk. But before it reaches the team, they make the horrible discovery that the tunnel is also full of skeletons.
Skeletons that the Legion are able to recognize. Yep, they see a skeleton that's wearing the same glasses as McCauley, Brainiac 5 positively identifies the remains as his, and a new mystery is in place. So when Saturn Girl read McCauley's mind and realized there was a bomb on the shuttle, she didn't realize that it wasn't McCauley? And how would her powers work there? Would she be thinking, "I want to read McCauley's mind," and then cast her thoughts out? And since it's not McCauley, would that even work? I'm so confused...
They can hear the massive flow of sludge coming, so Ultra Boy pushes open a grating in the wall to discover that it just leads to a lake of toxic waste. They've got no where to go as there are only a few fliers on the team.
Which is when the Bouncing Boy craft (the one that was invisible before) arrives and Shikari announces that they've arrived to rescue them.
Another really strong issue, even though I think having McCauley replaced by someone else should've been drawn out a little longer. As I've said before, I would've liked to have seen these first six issues as the return to the Earth and realization of just what has changed. I also would've loved to have seen more clues as to McCauley not being McCauley before the final reveal. I mean, wouldn't it have been more compelling to have a moment where Ultra Boy mentions something to McCauley like, "I worked for you before - I'm never working for you again, even if you are the President," and McCauley not having a clue what he's talking about? Plant those seeds, right?
I know that I'm kinda beating a dead horse here, but, again, I just don't see why they released the Legion Worlds mini-series. This new title didn't need it. And just think how much better the reveal of the Bouncing Boy would've been if we, the readers, didn't know it existed. Readers would've had no idea who or what saved Shikari. And no idea there was a craft called The Bouncing Boy. That final page would've, again, made readers want to come back for issue #3.
As I write this, I wonder if this is just a difference in how we want our comics to be written. I like the slow development that leads to a big payoff. I don't think comic readers who got into these stories in the past 20 years are so patient. Or the editorial teams are worried they're going to lose readers, or get cancelled, before the story ends. I mean, think of how long they slow-played the Shrinking Violet kidnapping story in the 1980's. It took years for them to finally reveal what was going on and readers loved it. Now, that whole thing would be done in six issues.
There ends my "old man shouting at clouds" moment.
Our next Legionnaire in the spotlight... the White Witch!!
Before I begin, I just wanted to draw attention to this cover. For all of the accolades that Keith Giffen received over his career, and for all the praise he got for his stories, breakdowns, and interior art, I don't know if he ever got the respect he deserved for his cover designs. With this cover, he perfectly captured everything that was going on in the story and just how broken Mysa was in this story. It grabbed your attention in the comic shop and made you want to see what was going on.
The White Witch has always been a fascinating character in Legion history because she represents something that you would initially think wouldn't work in the 30th/31st Century - magic. As technology takes over a science fiction title, and as the Legion has always been one of the most tech-heavy books DC publishes, most people would assume that magic would never show up in this series. Instead, magic has almost always played a critical role in the development of the Legion. From Mordru, to the Emerald Eye, to Sorcerer's World, to the Magic Wars and beyond, the Legion has, for the most part, seamlessly blended science and magic.
Which is why I always find it amazing that the White Witch didn't join the Legion until the 1980's. You would think the writers would want some magic user on the team, especially when they would go up against wizards and magical orbs. It wasn't until the Great Darkness Saga that Mysa Nal, sister of Dream Girl, joined the team.
Her origin is pretty, to be blunt, bad. And her origin story in Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes is even worse. There's no better message to send to young readers that ugly equals evil and turning a young woman ugly is the worst thing you can do to her. But even with that, and her connections to Prince Evillo, Mysa ended up becoming a fairly decent Legionnaire who had some decent moments over her career.
I saw decent because, unfortunately, at the end of everything, I think the White Witch is probably one of the few Legion characters who no one really knew what to do with. Even Paul Levitz seemed to struggle using her properly and she always ended up dropping into the background. I would have liked to have seen them do more with her but, with a cast this big, the quiet magician ended up taking a back seat to the more flamboyant characters. It probably didn't help that there wasn't a soap opera-type story to do with her. She wasn't going to get into a love triangle. There wasn't going to be any dramatic "but how can I date a rock?" moment. Her finest moment might just have been when she quit in disgust after the team used the soulless body of the Infinite Man to attack the Time Trapper.
Some other random thoughts:
- I always liked that she had to prepare her spells each day and, as a result, would sometimes be caught off guard and unable to help. It was a nice change from a lot of magic users who just seemed to be able to do anything. Although, I would've liked to have seen her with an arsenal of common spells that she used over and over.
- Her relationship with Blok was always cute and their friendship (or his crush) made for some nice stories and connections between characters. I think that was something that Legion kinda missed out on as they got older in the Bronze Age - that idea of an unrequited crush. Or just the idea of two people being friends instead of just couple. If we take it as canon that Blok was a 12-year-old in a huge body, the friendship takes on an even sweeter side.
- One big complaint I had about Mysa was the fact that Levitz, Giffen, and the Bierbaums seemed to completely forget that she and Nura were sisters. There were so many opportunities to do something, anything, with this relationship and they just dropped the ball repeatedly. Even after Mysa is tortured by Mordru, Nura never showed up to support her sister. Of course, by the 5YL stories, there were doing anything they could to show Nura as a horrible person.
- I doubt anyone remembers when I wrote about Mysa during 5YL, but that whole storyline of her as Mordru's wife, controlled by the evil magician, was waaaay too dark and nasty for me. It also lowered my opinion of the other Legionnaires as they ignored the fact that Mordru had abused and assaulted one of their teammates. I know it was the late-80's, early-90's, but the writers couldn't have handled this any worse than they did. And the awkward later stories of the trainees just trying to encourage Mysa to "get over it" reads even worse today.
- It was nice seeing her show up in the PZH, even if it was kinda hard to see her as the White Witch and more as just the walking magical exposition character. And the relationship with her and Dragonmage, especially when they wrote her as over a century old and he as a 14 year old, was off putting and uncomfortable.
- Whenever I write these spotlights and do an image search, I get a very clear view of just how "important" the character was. With popular characters, I have tons of pictures to choose from. With the White Witch? Not that many. Which probably tells you everything you need to know about her impact on the Legion.
Thoughts? What are your opinions of these two issues? Of the White Witch? Was I the only one who really loved the first issue? Am I the only one who wishes they'd do more with Mysa?
Until next week...
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