Everything falls apart... again... and the Legion has to save the universe! We look at Legion #123 - 125 and Legionnaires #80 & 81

The Legion faces their biggest threat - horrible sales - and the result is a new creative team, a much darker and more depressing story, and the end of the two longest-running Legion series ever.

Let's get started!

LSH #123 

Legion of the Damned, Part Three

We pick up where we left last issue, with XS trying to get Saturn Girl out of The Stem and to freedom. But before they can get out, Imra sends all the Blight's history into Jenni's mind, overwhelming her with the information. Meanwhile, outside The Stem, the five remaining free Legionnaires, Cosmic Boy, Chameleon, Apparition, Monstress, and Brainiac 5, are planning to break into The Stem to get their fallen teammates back.

We get the history of the Blight here and learn what made them into the destructive force they are now. They started on a super-advanced world where they had conquered everything but death. Bored with the monotony of perfection, one being named Atrophos (I'm guessing this is as close to atrophy as they could get) decided it was time to conquer the last problem - to become immortal. So they made a deal with Entropy, so to speak, which gave them immortality in exchange for their world. And their freedom. To stay alive, they would have to suck the life force out of every other race they encountered. Essentially, they became space vampires.

We also first meet The Doda, the energy force that moved through the galaxy, connecting every planet they came across. The Blight could use The Doda to ride to every new planet they needed to feed upon. And when the Blight encountered the Legion in Secret Files #2, they discovered that the Earth was the best planet for feeding.

So I'm going to ignore the fact the they've made Entropy a living, sentient being and instead just focus on, once again, a DC villain created by their quest for immortality. It's cliched because it works incredibly well and it's the ultimate price to pay for daring to conquer death. But I'd like to see them put the cliche to bed and try something new.

Unfortunately for XS, these images are running through her brain while she's trying to escape. But escape she does, carrying Saturn Girl out of The Stem at speeds faster than she's ever achieved before. One thing I always find somewhat funny is when writers try to handle super speed and you know they just don't quite get it. For example, they write about how Jenni is moving so fast that blaster rounds hang in the air and all the booby traps don't open but then say that it takes XS 3.6 seconds to get out of The Stem. (I'll ignore the fact that XS runs by characters with super speed, such as Thunder)

Once they get out, Jenni is immediately blasted by memories of the Blight again and she can't continue. She's faced with more evil Legionnaires and, for some unknown reason, can't run again. So it's up to Saturn Girl to save the day - she blasts everyone with her mind, shutting them down. Just in time, the other five Legionnaires rescue them and they rush off to find safe haven. It was mentioned in a comment in last week's reread (sorry I don't remember who wrote it) that Saturn Girl may be the most powerful Legionnaires and this shows exactly why. I would love to see someone try to write her as Professor X in the future.

For the horror to continue, we move back into The Stem and see that M'onel is being used like a living battery and Atrophos has big plans for him - he's going to use him to destroy the universe.

We get one final battle between free Legionnaires and some of the captured ones before Brainy gets a hold of a Blight Identity Signature, which will allow them to enter The Stem without alerting them. So that's going to help next issue.

But then we get the big twist - Saturn Girl has other plans, something she can't tell the rest about and must do, even if she must betray everyone. Well that's not good, is it?

Legionnaires #80 

Legion of the Damned, Part Four

We first learn of Atrophos' grand plan - they're going to use M'onel's energy to implode a galaxy-wide detonation that will destroy all life in the universe. Then the Blight end their decay and live forever. I'd point out that if the universe is completely destroyed, they'll have no where to live, but who ever said a villain's plan is the best? Or is the explosion only going to kill everyone but leave all the planets intact?

The free Legionnaires, using the Blight Identity Signature they got last issue, make their way into The Stem by pretending to be prisoners. Cham changes into a Blight soldier and leads them inside the evil place and towards... actually, I'm honestly not sure what their plan is. I don't think they ever really explained it.

Good thing they have Saturn Girl, who immediately is blasted with psychic pain from M'onel, loses control, and tells them they need to save him. Of course, since she collapsed to the ground and showed she wasn't actually shackled, the rest of the Blight, and the corrupted Legionnaires, begin their attack.

Ultra Boy smashes Monstress to the ground but faces Apparition, who appeals to the love he feels for her to make him break free. Then she phases into him and causes... something... to happen. If there had been anything shown previously where Apparition could shut down the Blight equipment the Legionnaires were wearing, or if they showed that emotional responses lead to the weakening of Blight control, I'd be more okay with this. Instead, it just seems forced and yet another moment of "the greatest love of all" that these two have been torturing us with for years.

Anyway, there's not much of a fight as they find M'onel almost immediately (I guess The Stem isn't that big) and Brainiac 5 uses his force field to keep everyone else out. Then Saturn Girl stops Cosmic Boy from shutting down the controls and stopping whatever's happening to M'onel. She blasts Rokk, knocking him down, and the others immediately assume she's a traitor.

This is the super-hero equivalent of Three's Company, where all Imra needs to do is communicate, telepathically, what she's doing and the team knows to trust her. Instead, Cham pulls a gun and is ready to shoot. Wow, he has changed a ton in a month.

We get a very emotional scene where XS pleads with Cham to not shoot because he needs to trust her, to trust Imra, and stand down. All I could think was this would've been far more effective if it was Sensor or Ayla. Or are we to just assume that they've grown very close in the last month?

Imra frees the Doda, letting it become fully-developed. It changes color, trying to escape from the Blight and the Earth. As Atrophos starts fighting back (no idea why he just stopped doing anything), Ultra Boy comes to the rescue, fully freed, and throws the Blight leader into the Doda. Which explodes, all its energies escaping.

Everyone's free, all the other Blight soldiers are just gone, the Earth is still completely destroyed, and we get some happy reunions among the Legionnaires. One moment that I'm just going to call out is when Tinya leaves Jo to comfort M'onel, showing their longtime connection. Nicely done and not overstated.

I gotta be honest - this was a very, very quick resolution to everything and I was quite surprised this was only a four-issue story. I really, honestly, felt like there should've been more here, but I'm guessing there was an insanely tight deadline, so they had to move quickly.

I also wanted to say something about the artwork of this whole story since Olivier Coipel handled everything and I know he's coming back for Legion Lost. I always hate critiquing artwork when I know the artist is fighting deadlines and working rushed. And that's what this whole story looked like. I gotta be honest, knowing what Coipel will become, I have to say that this is one of his worst published works. I can blame Andy Lanning's heavy inks for a lot of it, but I really wasn't a fan of most of the choices Coipel made, either from the constantly changing anatomy, or the bad backgrounds, or the complete loss of anything that would've made Earth look like Earth, or the awkwardly ripped costumes, or the faces looking like bad approximations of an anime comic. I know things are going to get better but I wanted to get this off my chest before we move on. Sorry, Olivier, cause I know you're going to end up being a ton better.

LSH #124 

We start with Live Wire's nightmares, reliving what happened to him within The Stem. Apparently, since he was more defiant and fought against the Blight, he was given choke weed, which cocooned him, and he would be digested by the Stem and turned into nutrients. He saw Invisible Kid, Magno (who's not really Magno any more, right?), and Sensor - all being slowly digested.

Okay, let's break this down. Only four Legionnaires fought back hard enough so the Blight wanted to turn them into food rather than use them. Four! So what does that say about everyone else? And, since Sensor, Lyle, and (I'm assuming) Dyrk were all captured at the beginning of the Blight's takeover, why weren't they already digested? This just doesn't make any sense and, to be blunt, makes most of the Legionnaires look pretty sad.

Upon waking up, Live Wire finds out from Star Boy that Dreamer's dreams are getting worse and worse, so his solution is to take her back to Xanthu and away from Earth. Wouldn't taking her to Naltor be better? So we're down one (kinda two) Legionnaire.

Then Garth sees Umbra and he tries to console her. She's agonizing over the fact that she was Blighted and enjoyed it. And she wants nothing to do with him.

Next we learn that the United Planets, now led by Vice President Winema Wazzo, have quarantined Earth and the seven other planets infected by the Blight. This means no aid, no food, no rebuilding efforts. And no stargates. The Legionnaires try to argue with her, but they've, once again, reduced Wazzo to a Legion-hating harpy with no redeeming qualities but only wants to protect the "children" who are Legionnaires. I thought we had gotten a little past this, no?

Continuing with the new personalities of some team members, we head up to the new Legion Outpost, where Chuck Taine of all people is being the short-tempered jerk who Invisible Kid needs to talk down. Those two, plus Element Lad and Brainiac 5, are out in space to ensure the stargates still work.

To Lunabase we go, because we needed to see what was going on with Leland McCauley... he's firing every member of the Workforce (I only thought there were four) except Lori Morning and then, when asked why, he says "I'm just carding anyone under age." Doesn't that mean he'd getting rid of Lori, who's the youngest?

Also, why wasn't the Lunabase destroyed by the Blight? Does that make any sense?

Now let's go to the special U.P. meeting, where everyone else is taking turns criticizing R.J. Brande for developing the stargate technology that was abused by the Blight. They seem to want to blame him for everything going wrong. Another point they keep bringing up is how Brande is using children (the Legionnaires) to accomplish his goals. Did everyone forget that the entire team of Legionnaires, except for the Winathians, were of legal age when they joined and were considered adults? Did that part of Legion continuity just get tossed out? Did everyone forget that some of the Legionnaires were Science Police? Or that these kids saved the universe multiple times? The Daxamites? Mordru?

The Legionnaires are trying to help the people of Earth, rescuing them and handing out supplies, but they quickly realize that no one trusts them because they were Blighted. Imra has to get everyone to calm down and they all beat a hasty retreat.

In a strange twist, Saturn Girl tells Live Wire that she can't handle being Legion leader and plans to resign as soon as their current problems are over

And in a twist that should surprise no one, the U.P. is going with Leland McCauley's now adult Workforce (somehow Lori will be hidden) and they'll be handling all the work on the stargates. Which makes absolutely no sense as Brande is the one who built them and, I would guess, still has some sort of proprietary control over them. Couldn't he just ignore the U.P. at this point and run things his own way?

As the new Workforce arrives at the Legion Outpost to take over, they discover that Brainiac 5 is already out in space to investigate. Which is the big cliffhanger for next issue.

Let's be blunt here - you only have a certain number of pages to get to the end and wasting them on McCauley and the new Workforce is just dumb.

Legionnaires #81 

Wow, I honestly can't believe we've made it to the end of the second-longest-running Legion title. Considering how painfully this series began, during the worst part of 5YL, and how it made it through a complete reboot, this has to be a success for the Legion.

Let's continue this story...

We're out at a stargate that everyone's waiting to open. The new Workforce, with only members over the age of 21, have arrived on the Legion Outpost to take over the repair job. These new members are:

• Repulse, a Braalian who can control his body suit with his magnetic powers
• Amber, a Dendronite who can control gel she generates from her body
• Helios, an Earthling who can generate photonic bursts
• Dune, from the planet Mica, who can control and shapeshift his sand-like body
• Meta, a Daxamite

Can we just stop having Braalian characters? Also, it really looks like they didn't spend much time on these characters because we have the Legion version of Sandman. I'm also certain that we're never going to see them again, so why waste time doing this?

When Invisible Kid tries to argue, saying that the Legion has everything under control, Repulse immediately attacks him, knocking him into the wall. Then Meta and Helios head out to stop Brainiac 5 while Repulse reviews the data they've collected on the stargate problems.

Star Boy and Dreamer leave, heading back to Xanthu, and they say their final goodbyes to Monstress and Kid Quantum, who are staying back on the Legion. We get a bad ending to this, as both pairs feel like this is the last time they'll see the other.

Back at the stargate, of course the Workforce are being idiots and threatening to destroy everything... no point in having any nuance here. So the Legionnaires on the Outpost quickly take care of the three Workforce members and take back control of the ship. That was quick.

To the Medical Bay at Legion HQ, where Drake Burroughs is just kinda hanging out, suffering with two personalities in one body. Apparition enters and finds a sleeping Ultra Boy, who's also not doing very well. He's still suffering from nightmares but, of course, all it takes is a kiss from Tinya and all is good again. Drake has the same response the rest of us do.

At the stargate, Meta blasts it to remove any remnants of the Blight, destroying it and causing a huge explosion. The Outpost is protected by a force-field, but since the Workforce ship wasn't protected, it's gone. Of course, Repulse blames the Legion. Unfortunately for all the other ships waiting for the stargate to open, they're destroyed by the blast as well. Oh, and Meta completely disappears. I'm guessing he was blasted and killed but have no idea.

Brainy is nice enough to encase Helios within his force-field and he explains that the explosion was the small problem. But what it caused is the bigger problem - it imploded and the fabric of space is tearing and collapsing. So, basically, the end of the universe.

For some reason the U.P. completely ignores it and, instead, votes to suspend the Legion and impeach Brande from office. Methinks we're speeding up towards 5YL, don't you?

And, in a move that no one really cares about, Thunder quits the team and zaps back to her own time.

Faced with the huge threat of, you know, a collapsing universe, the Legion ignores the U.P. vote and rushes off to save everyone.

Just out of curiosity, did anyone, I mean anyone, think that perhaps they could've just run the Legion under Brande's company, like the Workforce did? No? There was no need for them to even threaten shutting down the Legion.

LSH #125 

One thing I'm missing, with my digital copies of all these, are the letters pages for these issues. Would anyone be able to tell me what people, especially editorial, were writing in these final issues? Were they paying respect to the creative teams that had come before? We they focused solely on the changes ahead? Were they excited about ripping everything apart? Were they bemoaning the end on an era... again?

First, we get the next twist that isn't really a twist as they reveal that Helios is actually Lori Morning. And since her hour of power is up, she's reverted back to normal. The bigger twist is that Brainiac 5's suit is damaged and they're probably stuck in space, in front of the tear in the universe, and bad things are going to happen.

Back at the Outpost, we've forgotten that Chuck is an architect and he's now become another scientist, explaining what's wrong with the universe and that they only have 36 sidereal (whatever that means) hours. Okay, I did look it up and it's the method of timekeeping used by astronomers... great that Chuck knows this...

Which is when the Legion arrives, ready to help. And how are they moving so quickly? Drake Burroughs (not calling him Wildfire yet) and M'onel are pushing.

Back at the rupture, Lori gives Brainy her dial so he can become a super-smart superhero. Or, he connects it to his force-field and it makes it super powerful, flying it away from the tear in space. Okay, that really makes no sense, but it got them out of danger, so we're okay. Sadly, doing this also shorted out the dial, so Lori's powerless when they reunite with the Legion. Is it bad that my one takeaway here is that she's gone for good now?

The whole team, plus the Workforce, get to work repairing the Outpost so they're able to survive what's coming next. Karate Kid embraces his inner Dom Toretto and reveals super human powers (the ability to sense micro-fractures in metal) so he can be just as special as everyone else.

While working with Sensor and M'onel, Drake decides that he likes helping and working with the team... of course, he was two superheroes before, so that kinda makes sense... and Sensor suggests his name be ERG-1. Ugh. I know that's his original name, but I could never figure out why a being who's trying to keep hold of his humanity would give himself such a robotic name.

Once they finally repair the station, which was more of an excuse to show all the Legionnaires working together in something like harmony, we finally get to the problem at hand - they need to close the tear in space. They send three people out to repair the hole - Element Lad to create Tarnium, the element that was critical to stargates and that only Trommites could make, Kid Quantum to stitch everything back together, and ERG-1 to absorb all the flare energy spilling out of the hole. Yep, he's a Legionnaire now. No one else. Just the three. To save the universe.

And because we need some more romantic subplots, Saturn Girl accepts Live Wire's proposal of marriage.

The trio do their best, trying to fix the damage, when ERG-1's suit tears from all the energy he's (they're??) trying to contain. He blows up and flies into the space tear. And we have our first Legion casualty. Since I know he's back in Legion Lost, I'm not annoyed. But how did longtime Legion readers respond to this when it happened?

Because he's gone, there's no hope (no other Legionnaires can do anything??) so Saturn Girl immediately panics and says they need to evacuate right away. I'd ask to where?

As the rest of the team runs for the escape pods, the Outpost starts collapsing around them from all the energy bursting out of the tear. It's chaos and destruction as everyone's trying to survive... kinda...

Saturn Girl orders Kid Quantum and Element Lad to abort but they refuse. They keep fighting, trying to seal the tear. Element Lad comments that the Legion never loses and Kid Quantum knows that if she fails, at least she'll go out like her brother... which, actually, isn't even remotely true. Did they lie to her about how he died in such a useless way?

We end on the final page, showing the newscast of the destruction of the Legion Outpost. It reveals that they sacrificed their lives to save the universe and the Outpost was split in half, crushed by the collapsing space tear.

And that's how the longest-running Legion title ends.

Once again, and I can't believe I'm saying this again, this story needed way more time, at least one more issue, to actually work as a story. I really think DnA should've taken over four issues sooner and let both this story, and the Blight, work better and be more effective with more pages.

There was a lot of this story that felt very similar, thematically, to the End of an Era story during Zero Hour. In both cases, the Legion is faced with the destruction of the universe and they need to work together to save everyone. The big difference here is the team acted stupidly and didn't seem to understand what the stakes were.

Why only send three people? Are you telling me that none of the other members could have done anything to help? You know, like using Brainy's force field to protect Kid Quantum and Element Lad. I wanted to see the team working together to solve the problem, not three people while everyone else stood by and watched.

Also, did Saturn Girl not understand that if they failed, the universe died? I mean, why abort? Why not throw everything at the problem? Her final directive just made no sense.

Could they not have had some moment where Brainy told her that they had one final option? Throw the Outpost at the tear and the resulting explosion could possibly repair the hole? I know it wouldn't have made sense, but there would've been a great moment of the team deciding to save the universe together, sitting in fear as the ship blasted towards death. Anything would've been better than what they gave us.

I know that almost everyone considers the DnA run second to Paul Levitz (or first, for some people), but I have to be honest. We're not there yet. I know they were severely limited by time and publishing schedules, and I think they don't really start cooking until Legion Lost, but I have to say that, although I'm happy they're on the book, I'm not blown away yet. Hopefully we get there next week.

Our next Legionnaire in the spotlight... Lightning Lass/Light Lass/Gossamer/Spark!!!

  

Let me start by saying how surprised I am that it took this long for Ayla Ranzz to become a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. For me, she's always been a Legionnaire and was one of those members that had to be a part of the team, no matter what version we were talking about. It's also a sign of my fading memory that I always believed she joined very early on in Legion history.

• Is it bad that she's my favorite of the Ranzz siblings and I prefer seeing her adventures over either of her brothers? I think that might be because they just did more with her and made her a far more compelling character. When i think of how many different ways she's changed, grown, and developed, I think she has shown herself to be one of the strongest and most capable Legionnaires.
• I also don't think she gets enough credit for being part of the first same sex relationship in Legion history and one of the first in mainstream comics. We tend to always focus on Shrinking Violet and forget about Ayla. Is that because Vi got a more dynamic character change? Is it because 5YL focused way, way more on Vi? Is it because Ayla's always kinda played second fiddle to other Legionnaires in most of her stories?
• Speaking of Ayla's love life, between all the different versions of the Legion, I think you can safely say she's been connected to more of her teammates than anyone else: Timber Wolf (twice), Magnetic Lad (she liked him but he was too dense to figure that out), Shrinking Violet (twice), Chameleon, Ultra Boy, Sun Boy, and Karate Kid. I write this out to praise, not criticize. On a team where members seems to mate for life, it's refreshing to see a character in their teens and early twenties actually date like someone that age.
• We also forget that Dream Girl's intelligence is the reason she became Light Lass. Most people write off Dream Girl as being just a pretty face, but that's completely discounting her scientific prowess.
• Paul Levitz really made Ayla into an important character and I'd argue that's the best run to see her at her best. From quitting the team after The Great Darkness Saga, getting dragged back by her brother and getting her lightning powers back, to becoming a mission leader showing just how strong and determined she is, Levitz made her yet another strong female character on a team full of them.
• The less said about Gossamer, the better.
• I think she was, for the most part, handled fairly well in the PZH Legion. She unfortunately got dragged into every story that revolved around her brother, which reduced her agency, but she was always front and center in every adventure and wielded her powers with as much skill and ability as her brother.
• I actually kinda liked what they did in the Threeboot Legion and wasn't as thrown as I've seen others complain about how they handled her. They made her different, and didn't make her a horrible person, so that's kinda a win in my book. I also loved how they showed her weight-cancelling powers for the strength they are - I've always liked that version better (don't need two lightning-based heroes) and being able to cancel gravity is an insanely strong power to have.

Thoughts? What do you think of Ayla Ranzz?

Finally, I wanted to make a comment on next week's column. I have been flip-flopping on what to do with this as these rereads become more and more work, Reddit has become more and more annoying to use, and I've been anxiously wanting to start writing something else. First, i thought about making this my last column and going out at the end of the run.

But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I enjoy these rereads and enjoy getting the responses from all of you. So I'm just going to focus on one or two issues each week, instead of these five and six-issue columns. They'll be shorter, easier to read in one sitting, and hopefully this leads to some more responses.

So we'll see you all next week as we start Legion Lost!