Back to the Reboot: Journey to the Center of the Sun LSH #64, 65, 66 and Legionnaires #21, 22, 23

And we're back with the second reread of the reboot or Archie Legion. But before we get into that, I had a thought about this series that I wanted to work through.

I've talked a bit before about how the creative team struggled with reaching their audience. As I said in my retrospective about the 5YL Legion, I wondered if the writers were giving the readers what they wanted, or what the writers themselves wanted.

But as I read over this reboot, I wonder why there was never a conversation about trying to turn the Legion into something that sold in 1994. And by that, I mean Image... or Valiant... or Dark Horse.

Before everyone here starts shuddering in terror at the thought of a Rob Liefeld clone working on the Legion, what I'm talking about more is the idea of embracing what made comics sell.

Let's take January 1995 as an example. Legionnaires #23 was the 149th ranked book and Legion #66 was 150th. They're selling almost the exact same number of comics.

When you look at the top-selling books of the month, it's what you expect - X-books, Batman, Superman, and the most popular Image titles. Since the Legion is still banned from mentioning Superman (which is a shame, because they could have guest-starred in a couple of Superman books and that probably would have helped their sales), they have to do something else to get people to check them out.

All I want to do is bump them up in sales - maybe from 150th to 100th. What could they have done to achieve that?

The first and easiest way to bump sales is to hire a bigger name creator to work on the book. But this is the Legion, so the only way you could get a big name artist is if they're already a huge fan of the book. The title is just too difficult to draw.

But having a cheaper, unknown artist who grabs attention, combined with a great cover artist, and you have a book selling better. Think of Wonder Woman at this time - Mike Deodato is the interior artist and Brian Bolland is handling covers. Is paying Bolland more worth the extra 15,000 in sales?

Perhaps the better idea would be to start drawing the book Image-style. Less panels on the page, bigger and more dynamic artwork, and make everyone sexy. I think one of the drawbacks of having everyone be 14 or 15 is that you have to be very careful about crossing that line (although they jumped over it in one of the books I'm talking about this week). You draw beautiful people doing amazing things. It's worked for the Legion in the past - Mike Grell had some huge anatomy problems when he started working on the Legion, but he made everyone sexy and that got more people to read the books.

Unfortunately, as much as I like Jeffrey Moy, his style is not what I'd call sexy. And Lee Moder was even worse at this.

Also, when you're trying to shove so much story into one book, you go with smaller panels and more to a page - which is exactly the opposite thing that was working at the time.

Thoughts? Am I completely wrong here? Is there someone you wish could have been drawing this book at the time, someone who you think would've brought more readers to the book? Please share your thoughts below.

Now, let's talk about the Workforce...

Legionnaires #21

Okay, I know that there are 15-year-olds with mustaches, and probably some with full beards, but it still seems weird for Ultra Boy to be introduced sporting a nice five o'clock shadow.

How do they introduce him? He walks into a bar, in full costume (which I don't think they've updated at all), beats up some of the threatening people enjoying a pint or two, and then heads to Legion Plaza. Why? What was the point? Are they trying to establish that he's tough? Or that he's older than everyone else?

Or that the future is basically a lawless state where anyone can enter a bar, anyone can be a police officer, and anyone can beat up anyone else because they know that no one will stop them.

Ayla Ranzz has officially joined the team and has the new code name "Spark", which I really like. It's much better than Gossamer. Unfortunately for her, Live Wire isn't too happy she's there, tells her that he hates her, and miraculously changes the shape of his head with every panel. Insert another Lee Moder can't draw consistently joke...

The original three head over to the U.P. President's office to complain and tell her that if she kicks Garth off the team, replacing him with Ayla, they'll all quit too. So the President reveals the truth: Garth is a... Bum, Bum, Pah.... a runaway! Since 14 isn't the age of majority on Winath, but is in most of the U.P., he's still his parents' responsibility. So he can't be a Legionnaire.

And, also, his brother is a criminal. But that shouldn't be a problem, right? Because if Ayla's on the team then they aren't too worried about Mekt.

Everything comes to a head when Ultra Boy and the Legion starts fighting and Garth and Jo basically destroy a whole block or two. Or three. So Garth quits and leaves with Jo... who he was just fighting...

Problem solved.

Look, they basically just want to get Garth onto this new team, want to create some drama, and don't really care if anything makes sense as they head there. Did the Legion ever agree that each planet can only have one Legionnaire? If so, why do they have Gim and Lyle together?

All of this continues with the next issue as we get our introduction to the Workforce, the team funded by Leland McCauley to be his answer to the Legion. We'll ignore just how insanely quickly he got this team together. I know that we like speedy resolutions, but I actually would've liked them to stretch this out a bit. Like maybe have the Legion try to recruit Ultra Boy and have McCauley show up and snatch him away from the team. This could've gone on for a bit and built some interest when the teams finally face each other.

Here's your Workforce:

• Live Wire - again, couldn't they have dragged this out a bit? Wouldn't he have immediately gone to find Mekt again, since that's all he talks about?
• Ultra Boy
• Spider-Girl, who's dating Ultra Boy - nice to see them keep this plot point from the 5YL run
• Inferno - This is not Sun Boy. This is a girl with similar powers. I think they just picked this name and went with it. She is fairly evil and violent, however.
• Evolvo (formerly Evolvo Lad) - Nice to see this character back. I've always liked Evolvo Lad so I'm glad to see him appear.
• Karate Kid - I'm glad he's alive. I'm glad he's back and seems to be a fairly well-written character. He gets some good moments in these books. Why is he not in the Legion? The way they write him, it makes zero sense that he'd be in the Workforce.

Now, let's head to Planet Hell.

Before I start, let me just say that I hated this story. It makes absolutely no sense, it went on too long, it made the entire futuristic world look horrible, and I don't know if I understand why the writers wanted to add more and more characters when they've just rebooted the series and they've got to establish who's who on the original team.

Let me explain the mission the Legion has here:

There's a planetoid that was converted into a prison by an alien race, the Wakeets, that paid the Coluans to build all the technology needed to run it. The prison was placed in the middle of a sun and the only way to get there was through an electromagnetic tunnel. The Coluans weren't paid, so they stopped working. The tunnel broke down and the employees and prisoners have been trapped inside for five years.

For FIVE years.

10,000 prisoners and however many staff members were trapped inside a sun for five years and, because the Wakeets were running this, no one did anything to even try to save them. It wasn't until the Wakeets gave it to the U.P., and they asked for Colu's help, that anyone tried to fix the tunnel.

Even if we assume that this can be staffed at the bare minimum (the story only ever mentions the warden and we never see any other staff members), that's still 10,000 people trapped for five years. I know they're hardened criminals, but surely they still have some rights, even in the 30th Century.

This storyline runs for three issues, which was two issues too long for me. Instead of focusing on the bad main story, I'm going to talk about the things I really liked:

• The team responding to Brainiac 5 wanting to be called Brainiac 5 and name himself after an infamous criminal. I think this is the first time that the Legion ever asked the question of why he'd want the same name as someone who was responsible for shrinking multiple worlds (is that still true in this continuity?). If not, this is the first time he refused to answer. So they all start calling him Brainy, which he hates. I really liked making this a running subplot of these issues as it made complete sense for everyone to do this.
• I found myself more interested and invested in the Workforce than the Legion for a lot of these issues. Instead of the Legion's well-oiled machine with everyone happy and getting along, the Workforce has to follow the bad orders of McCauley while struggling to accomplish anything. It might also have something to do with the fact that Ultra Boy and Karate Kid are two of my favorites.
• The start of the Apparition/Ultra Boy romance. It's not subtle, it's not really romantic, but it's there. It's funny how, in this reboot, the writers always brought this relationship to the forefront of the series, like it was the most important one for the team. Not Live Wire/Saturn Girl, but these two.
• More character development for XS, especially in her moments with Karate Kid. I think she's my favorite of the new Legionnaires and I'm always happy to see more and more of her.
• Tom McCraw's coloring as the planetoid heats up - he starts washing out the colors and making everything just "look" hotter. I sometimes forget just how damn good he was and what he brought to the book.

And a couple of things I didn't, aside from the main story:

• Brainy calling the team cretins, and generally treating them like crap, because they don't immediately figure things out. I really don't like the "jerk Brainiac 5" character they go with in this reboot and it's just disappointing to see this cliche of "smart people are always mean" continuing here as well.
• Invisible Kid once again saving the day. He figures out how to save the planetoid and gets it out of the sun as well. I know they're trying to show how important and intelligent he is, but he is really just becoming the savior of the team over and over again.

On an aside about Lyle Norg... I get that fans of the 60's Legion love the guy. I get that his death in the 70's was, at best, stupid and at worst, a complete waste of an integral member of the team. But this is yet another example of a writer being a fan and that clouding how they're approaching a character.

And look, I get that Lyle is smart... but is he Brainy smart? If he is, why is Brainy on the team? If Lyle can do everything Brainy can, but more, and is nicer and easier to work with, why would they want to put up with the Coluan?

Legion of Super-Heroes #66

Since we haven't introduced enough new characters, with the addition of the Workforce, the writers thought it would be a good idea to increase the Legion roster to a lucky 13. May I remind you that we're only 11 issues into this reboot? Why not establish the team a little more before expanding?

With that complaint, I really liked this issue. I always love the issues where the Legion has try-outs and the creators get to throw some crappy characters, along with one or two good ones, into an issue and see how makes the team. This time, however, no bad candidates - everyone we meet could be a Legionnaire. Except Micro Boy, of course.

This one is different, however. Instead of the prospective candidates coming to Earth, the Legionnaires travel to them. I guess, with the Legion being a new creation, people aren't as excited about them and there isn't the desire to join that we're all used to. Or they wanted a chance to fly Cham and Leviathan all over the U.P.

We get three new Legionnaires, so let's talk about each:

Andromeda - Laurel Gand

She's the new recruit from Daxam who impresses everyone with her super... sorry, mega powers (just wait until the Mega Powers collide!). She has mega-strength and mega-breath and mega-everything. Did the Superman editors tell them that they weren't even allowed to use the word super anymore or is this a subtle joke at their expense?

To solve her problem with lead, she has to live in a transuit. That's a very smart solution and, thinking back to old continuity, would've solved all of Mon-El's problems as his serum started to wear off.

But they add one horrible character flaw to her - xenophobia. She doesn't want to spend any time with any of her teammates and hates anyone who isn't a Daxamite.

When I first read this book, years ago, I thought "Ok, cool subplot. It'll be great to see how she gets over her hatred of others by working with the Legion and then she becomes a part of this positive, optimistic team." Oh, the naivete.

Shrinking Violet - Salu Digby

This is a tough one, because I genuinely like the character... or do I just like the tougher, stronger Vi that we saw before? Bringing her back to super shy Violet who can barely speak above a whisper seemed almost a worse shock than seeing what they did to Laurel. I want strong, capable leader Vi, not this version.

On an aside, does it make any sense for a character from Imsk to be named after a plant that exists on Earth? I mean, the team members didn't know what horses were a couple of issues ago - why would they know of this obscure kind of flora?

Also, basing her personality around that name is just kinda lazy at this point.

However, she was the only new member who actually proved her value on the page. She solved a murder, fought, beat up, and captured the killer, and showed a sense of fairness and honor that the team needs. I'm on the fence so far but cautiously optimistic.

Kinetix - Zoe Saugin

We get our second newly-created Legionnaire to join the team. Zoe is a matter manipulator who can move objects and change their shapes. She can also animate them as well.

We learn that she's obsessed with finding a magical artifact and has spent a large amount of time trying to find something... green... foreshadowing??

She gets all the personality of the new team members and Leviathan is immediately smitten. I think they've just decided that he's going to develop crushes on every female team member - just as they did in the earlier version of Legionnaires. Sad that this is the best they can do with Gim, but at least he's on the team.

It seems like we have our first magic-based Legionnaire, so I'm happy with that. And I actually like how they're written her as an almost perfect counterpoint to Vi. She's confident and brash, but maybe not as talented, so they can work well off each other.

We do also get our first appearance of Gates, who refuses Legion membership because he considers it a "commando unit" and hates the politics around the team. We'll talk more about him in later columns...

Legionnaires #23 - yep, Spark is 14 and Triad 15

From the Paul Levitz school of Legion-writing, we get the "let's see how everyone handles a day off" issue that is usually the calm both before and after a big, action-filled storm. He always loved to show the team when they're not being heroes. Let's see how Tom Peyer handles it.

What's really strange about this is the team doesn't actually accomplish the one thing they're trying to do: get into a nightclub.

Let's focus on all the subplots that are woven through this:

• Invisible Kid has invented flight rings (remember the rock Brainy didn't want?). I think that they're setting up Lyle as the creative genius. You would think Brainy would be impressed by this... but nope... still a jerk.
• Laurel calls home and is basically told to start hanging out with the Legionnaires or its back to Daxam, school, and no powers. Character development through fear of school? Actually, do the teenage Legionnaires have to go to school? Do they have to continue any form of education? Or, because they are over 14, school's over?
• Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl almost kiss. We hinted at this romance in the earlier version of Legionnaires and it looks like they're pushing it even more here.
• Apparition's mom is waiting to get into the club as well (awkward!) and drags her home, berating her for being out and hanging out with her horrible friends. Just hammering home the fact that Tinya's mom is horrible for... being a mom?
• The Legionnaires are not famous enough to be let into the club even though they're a super team and they literally flew to the place. So what do you have to do to get in? Wear skimpy clothing. That's it.

But the biggest subplot here, and the one that is most troubling, is the introduction of the xenophobic villains who beat up an alien. The girls see that one of the sentients nearby has been attacked, so Andromeda flies off to catch the criminals. She does, and they immediately tell her that since she's like them, the right type of person, she should help them. She tells them to never do it again and lets them go. She also spots a huge white triangle hanging from each of their necks.

I've always said that the Legion should be an optimistic, positive view of the future. It's like Star Trek - it should be what we're aspiring towards. We always hope that we've gotten over our petty hatreds and prejudices in the future. I know that writers want to bring conflict and show the dark side of utopias, but this just feels wrong on so many levels. It just feels un-Legion-like, if that makes any sense.

Heck, even during 5YL, which is the darkest of dark Legion timelines, the alien races got along and worked together. It wasn't until after Giffen left that we got our first taste of anti-alien sentiment in the Paris dome and it was fairly quickly stamped out. And that made a little bit of sense, considering what the Dominators had done to the Earth.

But here, in this pretty and clean version of the future, this subplot, especially among Earthlings, just doesn't work in the universe they've created. Does it make sense to say this: if you're going to make everything more innocent by turning the team into teenagers, you have to work extra hard to introduce anything darker into the stories?

Maybe it's just me. Thoughts??

As the holidays are fast approaching, I'm going to take a couple of weeks off from this column to rest, recharge, and drink too much. My next reread will be in the new year, continuing on with the reboot Legion.

So to everyone reading these - first, thanks so much for joining me on this trip down memory lane...

And second, have a great holiday season and a Happy New Year!