Detour time! Let's look at Titans/LSH: Universe Ablaze #1 & 2

We're taking a slight detour for the next few weeks here. I completely forgot there was a mini-series that came out just as Legion and Legionnaires was being cancelled and I wanted to go back and take a look at it over the next two weeks. Then, we head over to Elseworlds and enjoy Alan Davis's Superboy's Legion. Hope this doesn't disappoint too many people who wanted to see what I thought of Legion Worlds - don't worry, we'll get to that soon enough.

Before I even start reading, there were three things I wanted to talk about that caught my eye with this book.

First, a little comment or two about Dan Jurgens. I've enjoyed Jurgens work since he first did some Legion art on the old Tales of the LSH series. He really caught my eye with Booster Gold, which I will defend unironically and unapologetically when I get a chance. He's a great comics creator who's not at the superstar level, but maybe one level below. What I like best about him is that he tells good stories, he hits deadlines, and his artwork is consistently good. He's writing and pencilling this book, so I'm hoping for the best.

Second, why is Phil Jimenez inking this? He's far too talented for this. It's like when I see Bill Sienkiewicz inking a book. I understand that inking is usually easier than pencilling and they can get more work (and get paid) for inking, but I'd just much rather see them handling more of the art chores. Oh, and Jimenez is on my short list of talents that I wish were working on the Legion.

Third, why publish this book when they did? They knew they were cancelling the regular books. They knew they were tearing down the old series and characters to, hopefully, get more fans. So why release this book when any new Legion fans they might get were going to immediately be thrown if they try to check out the regular Legion title (which would be Legion Lost by the time this wraps up)? I swear, there are times when DC just doesn't seem to know what they're doing.

Universe Ablaze #1 

Kudos to whomever placed portraits, names, and power information on the inside front cover and first page - that really helped me with some of the Titans... it's been a long time since I've read a Titan book. And I'm sure it helped out those who don't know the 24 Legionnaires... But was the fact that Nightwing, Jesse Quick, Damage, and Cyborg are deceased something that happened before this series? Is this a spoiler for the story I'm about to read? I would think this is a big deal, no matter what. And, also, why are you killing off two of the most popular Titans before we even begin?

We start off on Titan, where Brother Blood has come back and has, I'm guessing, started the latest version of his cult. Saturn Girl has a nightmare about it, so that's never good. I guess it's somewhat expected that we'd see Blood - he is the iconic Titans villain, right? Or is that Trigon?

Then we go to Egypt, where Chameleon, Invisible Kid, Leviathan (sorry, Shrinking Violet), and XS stop people from scavenging an archeological dig before stumbling onto some cryogenic units that look like they're from the 20th Century. They open, and out pop some Titans - the Flash, Tempest, Troia, Argent, Starfire, Omen, and Arsenal.

From the moment we get to Egypt, the writing and art kinda falls off a bit. Jurgens struggles drawing teenagers so characters like Invisible Kid end up looking buff and about 10 years old than they are. And the dialogue... ouch... it's as if Jurgens is forcing as many references to these characters as he can in the smallest amount of text just in case one of the readers doesn't know who someone is. I also am not sure if I'll survive if I take a shot every time someone says "grife."

On a completely different tangent, if you had asked me back in 2000 which Titan would make a great member of the Justice League, Arsenal would have been so far down my list, I don't know if I would've considered him. The contempt his teammates show him here, and I'm guessing that means the creative team too, is off the charts. Strange that he got to redeem himself and Sun Boy was destroyed when Dirk isn't 1/10th the pig...

If you think I'm exaggerating, the Flash introduces him by saying: "...and Arsenal. Lock up your daughters." Which is followed a few pages later with him hitting on Triad... who's underage... by talking about how sad he is that everyone he knows is dead... including his daughter. Man, this is just creepy. To make things worse, he just keeps acting more and more sexist, offending everyone he talks to. Why would the Titans even want him on their team?

In what is supposed to be a surprise, but isn't if you're read any Legion comics, Blood is working with a mystery 30th Century villain who has pointy ears... why even hide Universo at this point?

We get the usual beats of a team-up - Cosmic Boy explaining what the Legion is to Argent and breaking the news that the Titans aren't really remembered. Then we get the big double-page spread of both teams. And a nine-panel grid where they meet each other... really love the moments where they say their names before they speak.

The Legion ruins everyone's plans by informing the Titans that they can't time travel back home because of all the time travel laws and possible destruction of the past/future. To calm everyone down, Saturn Girl volunteers to go into Omen's mind to find out what happened to them.

There was a battle with Brother Blood - his men kill Jesse Quick, Cyborg, and Damage pretty quickly before killing a distracted Nightwing. Omen comes back from the mind-probe pretty shocked and the rest of the Titans are stunned. Okay, I guess they did spoil this on the first page...

Saturn Girl probes the Flash's mind and gets the rest - he broke Brother Blood's power gem, which shattered and sent a massive amount of energy into the skies of Egypt. This is what put them into suspended animation. Then Blood's acolytes placed everyone into cryogenic chambers so that Blood would eventually steal their powers.

I'm going to talk about this more next week, I'm guessing, but is this all part of regular DC continuity? So these Titans will be in cryogenic containers for 1,000 years? For good? So any villain could find them in Eqypt, destroy the chambers, and kill most of the Titans? Does no one think about this?

Sometime in the night, while Spark is on monitor duty, she's struck in the head by a red pen and knocked out. The next day, the Legion discovers their communications are down and one of the cruisers in gone.

Where have the Titans gone? To the Cockrum Installation in Australia. They quickly take over the complex, claiming that they're Earth's liberators. But who are they serving? Universo, of course.

Well that certainly was a comic, wasn't it? Let's hope the next issue makes more sense.

Universe Ablaze #2 

Every time I read the title of this mini-series, I wonder if we're ever actually going to see the universe on fire or if this is just a bad name...

To recap, because this is how they spend the first seven pages, the Titans are gone, they took a cruiser, they knocked out Spark with a pen, and they trashed the communications systems. Oh, and Saturn Girl is catatonic, so that's new.

We go to Australia, where the Titans are following Universo and believe the Legion are like the Nazis of the future. In case you're wondering, no they haven't explained how Universo took control of them or, to be honest, how we would even have a clue they had woken up in the 30th Century.

We also learn why Saturn Girl is catatonic - she's engaged in a mind war with Universo. He stops her heart, leading to a very oddly-drawn Dr. Gym'll panicking about how to save her. But Imra's too strong and with Apparition's help (she literally reaches into her chest to massage her heart), the Legionnaire survives.

Universo sends the Titans on three different missions to destroy what they believe are sites that control the population and keep the Legion in power. So that's what we're doing? Three different sites where there will be three different battles? Man, this book is just hitting every cliched story point, isn't it?

With Saturn Girl awake, she gets to explain Universo's background and why he's so powerful. Glad she's healthy enough to provide the exposition the readers need. Strange that they never once thought about explaining Brother Blood, but they know they need to explain the Legion villain... We also get the surprise reveal that Universo is Imra's cousin, Sarmon Ardeen. So the Rond Vidar storyline is out of the pictures, right?

As she reveals that Universo was such a powerful telepath, even at birth, I'm really caught off guard by the fact that this is the first time he's appeared in PZH continuity. So strange that such a classic Legion villain never actually made an appearance in the regular books, don't you think?

We also find out that he's been obsessed with Brother Blood for... reasons?? Something about reincarnation, which really makes no sense when you think about it. Why would Universo care about that when he's been in a mental prison?

To the oceans we go for the first battle. Tempest and Argent hold off a bunch of Legionnaires (Cosmic Boy, Element Lad, Spark, Sensor, and Cham) and destroy their target - a power transfer station. Perfect - so the Legion is so ineffective that two Titans defeat them amazingly easily. And may have killed Cosmic Boy.

To the second battle, where Troia, Starfire, and Arsenal want to destroy a data station. Thunder, Ferro, Monstress, Karate Kid, and Triad show up to stop them. The Titans quickly succeed and defeat the Legionnaires without almost zero effort. Yep, really doing a good job making new readers care about this team...

Arsenal is still creeping on Triad - but now he's thinking about the possibilities of what could happen with the three versions of Triad. Again, she's a teenage girl here... And even worse, they don't even give her the dignity of being defeated on panel. Troia takes out all three Triads off panel with a single "Wapt."

Finally, Metropolis, where the Flash and Omen attack the United Planets building to find the President. After making quick work of the Science Police, Violet, Live Wire, XS, and Ultra Boy confront them and the Flash almost immediately defeats the team.

Universo and Omen appear and then she teleports the Legionnaires away, allowing Universo to take over as President, replacing R.J. Brande. He takes over and tells everyone that Earth is going to remain isolated and separate from the rest of the U.P.

For those keeping score at home, the Legion is the most ineffective group of heroes you'd ever imagine. I mean, at this point, I'm not sure they could defeat Storm Troopers or Red-shirted crew members.

Back to the Legion Outpost, where the rest of the Legion is trying to contact them and can't believe they were defeated by the Titans so easily. Gates continues with his hatred for Tamaranians (if they never explain why, this will just annoy me even more than this series already has). And Kid Quantum defends it by saying the Legion was holding back... right...

Saturn Girl, M'onel, Umbra, and Apparition are heading to Titan to find out what's going on (it took a different creative team to finally split Ultra Boy and Apparition up and allow them to work separately!). The entire planet is controlled by Brother Blood and they're all ready to attack the Legion.

Starfire leads the attack, blasting the Legion, and we completely forget that M'onel has the power of Superman. Her blasts completely wipe him out. Luckily, Invisible Kid stayed behind on the cruiser and since he was invisible, he can activate a sonic attack.

So a planet full of telepaths, including the most powerful one ever, didn't notice his thoughts? Are they even trying?

Finally we see why the Legion is falling apart so quickly - M'onel lets us all know that this is part of their grand plan... which no one on the Legion Outpost knew about. Or is just the plan for this team? Or does anyone know what's going on?

Then we get the next big reveal - Cosmic Boy and Argent are in a cave under the ocean. Instead of Tempest coming to save them, they are met by a sea creature.

The next big reveal, Starfire is on a ship with Saturn Girl, flying away from Titan. They used the big explosion to get her away from Universo and make everyone think she's dead. Not sure why she wouldn't still be under Universo's control, or why she's immediately believe Imra, but I'm already thinking harder about this plot then Jurgens did, so let's move on.

But before they can do anything, a big ship approaches, hovering over them. Who's in the ship? Starfire's sister, Blackfire.

Wow, this is just getting dumber and dumber.

I can't imagine how I'd be feeling right now if I had paid $4.95 for one of these and getting so many pages of filler story. And just bad story as well. I actually like more of the artwork as both Jurgens and Jimenez know how to draw powerful scenes and characters. But I don't know if they could do more to make the Legion look like a bunch of amateurs.

Let's hope things get better next week!

Our next Legionnaire in the spotlight... Timber Wolf!

Okay, full disclosure to start - Brin Londo is one of my favorite Legionnaires, both before and after his crazy personality change. Yes, they overdid the "sullen loner" angle and the love story between he and Light Lass often got really irritating, but there was something great about the simplicity of the character. It probably didn't hurt that he was Wolverine before Wolverine even existed.

Unfortunately, I can't say I've been a big fan of anything they've done with the character since The Magic Wars. So, more than 30 years. Let's get into it, shall we?

• Although Timber Wolf is credited as the final "Silver Age" member of the team, I actually think he marks the beginning of the transition to the Bronze Age. His intro was very old school, but he was the first character who went through a dramatic change to his appearance to make him look more lupine and less human.
• He was also the first sullen, withdrawn team member, bringing a completely different dynamic to the team. He might be the first Legionnaire who just didn't look like he wanted to be there.
• Timber Wolf really, really benefited when Gerry Conway took over the book - I have no idea why Conway really wanted to lean into the dark, brooding version of Brin (maybe because of what was popular at Marvel), but he threw Brin into the spotlight in many issues. These stories, admittedly, didn't always work well, but at least he was getting the spotlight.
• When Paul Levitz took over for the second time, he threw all of that away by giving Brin a facelift, a personality shift, and breaking him up with Light Lass. It was drastic and there were positives and negatives to it. I didn't really like that he just looked like everyone else, but I did like the character growth that both he and Ayla received.
• And I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy Brin as kinda goofy and child-like. He wasn't one of the smartest Legionnaires but it was great to see he didn't need to be. He was loyal to his friends and was a brave warrior.
• Speaking of friends, his close friendship with Blok was one of the highlights of the series. The two most naive and uneducated Legionnaires hanging out and bonding was absolute perfection.
• Continuing with friends, one of the single best issues with Timber Wolf was when he had to fulfill Karate Kid's dying request and risk his life to plant a seed.
• Just when he was reaching his peak, getting elected as deputy leader (showing that the fans were rallying behind him too), the book ends and we enter the Five Years Later universe... Furball was... an idea... and it kinda made sense but I just never got the feeling that they knew where they were going with this. And once Giffen left, it really fell apart. And the Timber Wolf mini-series, something I thought I would want to see, was just horrible.
• With every reboot that followed, Timber Wolf was either a late addition who seems to exist only to provide drama to another storyline or existed to piss off any fans of the character. Threeboot Brin was just insulting.
• What's crazy about all of this to me is that, if Brin hadn't been absolutely mishandled once Levitz left, he has the potential to be one of DC's most popular characters. He could've been DC's Wolverine. Instead, he's barely a background character in most of these reboots and suffers from, I think, joining too late for most of the creators who grew up worshiping the Silver Age.

I'm going to talk about this more next week when we look at Wildfire, but I can say the same thing about Timber Wolf - why was DC creative so adamant about ignoring two of the Legion's most popular characters? One of the smartest things Abnett and Lanning did when they took over the Legion was bring these two back - you can argue over whether they did it well, but at least they did it.

Thoughts? Opinions? I'm curious to hear what people think of this mini-series and of Timber Wolf!