And we continue... LSH #24-29, Annual #2, and Legionnaires 3 #1-4

It was brought to my attention last week that I needed to take a look at the Legionnaires 3 mini-series. I completely missed it during last week's dive and, actually, realized that not only had I not read it for the dive, I had never actually read it before. Somehow I completely missed it back in the 80's and never got around to picking up the back issues. So let's start with that and then get to the regular series after.

Legionnaires 3 #1

Let me start by saying that this is a very weird series. The weird starts with the creative team.

Keith Giffen did the plot and breakdowns. Mindy Newell wrote the dialogue. Ernie Colon handled the pencils and Karl Kesel inked it. I really got the sense from reading the book that Giffen and Newell never actually spoke and she was dialoguing the book based on the finished pencils. I also got the sense that neither of them could figure out if this was supposed to be a serious or comedic book. Colon did his best, and Kesel did another great job, but I don't know if a long-time pro like Colon (who's been drawing comics longer than Giffen) needed the breakdown help. I also don't know if he knew whether this was a light-hearted or dramatic tale.

Now a quick synopsis of the story: The Time Trapper decides that the best way to get at the Legion is to try to break Lightning Lad, who he decides is the weakest link. He also seems to be playing some sort of game here, with rules that only he understands, and a time limit that's he's imposed on himself. So he kidnaps Garth's son, Graym, and tells the three original Legionnaires, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad, to come to the future and face him - but no one else can help. The three steal a time cube from the Time Institute, injuring Rond Vidar in the process, and are almost immediately captured by the Trapper's goons. Eventually they realize that the Trapper doesn't actually want anyone other than Lightning Lad there. The Trapper then tries to break Lightning Lad psychologically, fails in the allotted time, and lets them go back to their own time with Graym, no problem.

So here are my questions/problems with this series:

• If the Trapper only wanted to break Lightning Lad, why bring the other two? Why kidnap Graym? Why not just kidnap Garth and be done with it? No one could follow him to the future and he'd be able to do whatever he wanted.
• And why turn this into a game with a time limit? At the beginning of the first issue, they show the Trapper playing some kind of space chess with Brainiac, who complements the Trapper on making a very logical move. But then never uses any kind of logic again.
• Did no one talk about how the comedic bits (or attempted comedic bits), such as Saturn Girl's fast-talking aunt or the Time Trapper's assistant, worked with the dramatic sections, such as the Trapper murdering dozens of people and his reveal that he killed Lightning Lad's parents?
• Why have all three Legionnaires in this when only one mattered? Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl didn't need to be in this comic at all and spent most of their time just standing around. In fact, it's revealed that when the two were imprisoned for three days together, she never spoke to Cos once. She was just zoned out. How does that make any sense?
• What was the purpose of this series? I'm guessing that there were two:
• To make the Time Trapper a greater threat, which was undercut by his stupidity and the comedy surrounding him.
• To make Lightning Lad more interesting, I think. Not sure why you'd do that for a character who was being phased out of the regular series and who your plotter has said wasn't one of his favorites.
• Finally, there are the countless moments where I just stared at the page and wondered what anyone was thinking:
• Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad need to sneak out of their home so no one knows they're going after the Time Trapper. So, for a disguise, Garth puts on a jacket. That's it. Imra is still in her complete costume.
• And to get out of their home, these two people, who wear flight rings, climb out the window.
• They don't just assault Rond Vidar to get the time cube - it's drawn as if they just massively concussed him.
• Saturn Girl says that now that she's accepted losing her son, she can't handle losing her husband. WTF? Who accepts losing their only son?
• For the entire series, the three talk about how they're breaking laws and will get into trouble when/if they return. So what happens at the end of the book? Or in the regular series? No consequences at all.

As you may have guessed, I did not like this series. I normally like the work of all four involved, but this was just all wrong.

Now back to the regular series:

LSH #25

One common story that we saw a lot in the 1980's was when the writers stopped de-powering the female characters of the books. One of the best examples of this was in the Fantastic Four, where Invisible Girl became Invisible Woman and writer/artist John Byrne took her from the weak helpless character of the 60's and 70's and showed that she was probably the most powerful member of the team.

This entire Sensor Girl story is the perfect example of Paul Levitz doing the same thing. Yes, he upgraded Princess Projectra's powers with some magical influence, but at the end of the day, most of what she's doing she was capable of all along. She also went from standing in the background, waiting for Karate Kid to save her, to a leader and supreme ass-kicker.

The more I do these re-reads, the more convinced I am that Levitz might be the best male writer of female characters in comic history. Any other names come to mind?

Continuing with this thought, I really liked the new Fatal Five. Seeing four women on the team, with the Emerald Empress leading them, was a great change of pace in the 80's and really stood out. It was a bit of a shame that Mentalla only existed to be killed, but it was the perfect way to elevate the Empress from a lesser threat (she was always the afterthought to the rest of the Fatal Five) to one of the most important villains in the Legion.

But to go back to the mystery of "Who is Sensor Girl?", this was another well-written and paced story from Levitz, much like the Shrinking Violet story. He introduced her, kept giving clue after clue as to who it might be, and showed the Legionnaires themselves struggling with it. My two favorite bits of this were:

• Brainiac 5 going crazy, thinking that she might be Supergirl
• Element Lad, being the leader he is, sitting down with Sensor Girl to try to help, not to accuse. He accepted Saturn Girl's recommendation of her without question, and wanted to handle the situation the best he could. It was a perfect scene for both of them.

LSH #27

I wanted to point out this book for two reasons. One, it's yet another example of the Legion getting some of the best guest artists in the business. Colleen Doran, Shawn McManus, and Gene Colan all provide their talents to give Greg LaRocque a little break.

And two, this is the type of book that connects fans to the characters. Every single chapter provides insights into who everyone is and makes you feel more a part of the team. From Element Lad and Shvaughn Erin back on Trom, praying for the lost Trommites, to Colossal Boy having dinner with his parents and wife, you see who they are outside the costumes and adventures. Without these scenes, we wouldn't care what happens to them when they're fighting.

My one gripe is how easily Sorcerer's World took care of Mordru, but I'm guessing that Levitz wanted to put that character to rest, so to speak, and move on to new threats.

The final section of the book, and my favorite part of it, shows the Legionnaires just sitting around, hanging out, and waiting for the vote results to see if Sensor Girl stays a Legionnaire. LaRocque draws most of the characters in what I will call street clothes. That's right - almost no uniforms here. Yes, I would've liked to see them wearing clothing that doesn't use the same color palette as their uniforms, but I'm just happy they're shown in their leisure attire. We see Sun Boy at his worst, Wildfire relaxed, Timber Wolf's simplicity, Element Lad unable to stop being leader, and Phantom Girl's frustration. It's perfect.

LSH #28

Another great issue for the character work (why didn't Levitz do more with the Timber Wolf/Dawnstar relationship he started here?) and a huge shock at the end of the book.

The plot is pretty simple - Star Boy's home planet, Xanthu, needs help as their planetary champion, Atmos, has disappeared. The team arrives, starts the search, but soon discovers that he's no where to be found. So Xanthu decides that they need a champion and tell Star Boy that he must quit the Legion and come home. Which he does.

I think I can safely say that no one saw this coming. Dream Girl and Star Boy were finally making their relationship work again and everything seemed good. So, of course, Levitz throws a wrench into those plans.

It's also a continuation of the Universo subplot, although no one new that at the time they were reading the book. I really think that the comic industry's obsession with trade paperbacks has really hurt this long-term storytelling. Compare this Universo story, which stretched out for two years on a slow burn before the resolution, with the Universo story done by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning in The Legion, which was six ultra-violent issues will no build up at all. The first kept the readers guessing and intrigued. The second was just the latest 6-issue battle.

On an aside, if ever there was a character who needed a new name, it's the bearded super-hero named Star Boy. I know that using Star Man might cause confusion for fans of the JSA, but who cares. There are already multiple Star Men in the 20th and 21st centuries. Why not one more?

Random thoughts about this run:

• I'm glad the Validus/Darkseid story was wrapped up (kinda) in the second annual. As I mentioned before, I never understood why he went after Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl and the plot of this issue made almost no sense. The goal, I think, was to trick Lightning Lad into killing his own son... when there have been multiple stories where he's zapped Validus and shown to not be powerful enough to do it. Was the idea that he'd be so determined to save his own son that he'd reach a new power level? Or that he'd screw up, not save his son, and be in worse shape?
• We have a new Starfinger in issue #29. Was anyone excited by that at the time? We'll talk more in future issues, but it's kinda meh at the beginning.
• Returning to the new Fatal Five, why did Caress and Flare disappear so quickly? Did they ever get used in any of the reboots? Am I the only one who has favorite villains that never return?

In case you're wondering why I'm stopping at issue #29 (this is a small set of issues), it's because next week we start with the Cosmic Boy mini-series and the insanity that was the Legends crossover. See you then!