Happy New Year!! More Triangles, Triad, and Tanglewebs... let's look at LSH 67, 68, 69, Legionnaires 24, 25, and LSH Annual 6 - Spotlight on Lightning Lad

Welcome back everyone! I hope we had a great holiday, got to spend time with whomever you care about the most, and got some much needed R & R.

We're heading back to the Legion as we speed towards the end of the first year of stories. The White Triangle is wreaking havoc, the team continues to struggle with the political side of running a super-team, and what the creative team lacks in experience, they more than make up for in enthusiasm.

Just a quick aside explaining the way I'm analyzing these books, in case I haven't been clear about this in the past. When these books were originally published, I had already dropped all Legion titles and was focused on other comics. So I'm not reading these through the lens of nostalgia that I did when working my way through the Levitz and Giffen books.

Instead, for the most part, the first time I read these books was in the last couple of years, when I decided to "catch up", so to speak, on the Legion books I missed.

We're also starting a new feature at the end of this column that, I hope, will get a few more people to leave a comment.

Let's begin!

Legion of Super-Heroes #67

We get the return of Tangleweb here, although that really isn't what's important in the book. There are two far more critical plot points:

First, and I believe this is the first time this happens in this reboot, Cosmic Boy splits the team and only takes those who he considers the "powerful" Legionnaires to face Tangleweb. No surprise, this angers those left behind and they argue with each other about whether the entire team should head off into space or not.

I'm sure I'll get push back for this, especially from all the fans of the "weaker" Legionnaires, but I think Cos was in the right here. His logic was sound as the team had tripped over themselves the last time they faced Tangleweb and bringing the most powerful members does make sense. He didn't know that Andromeda would refuse to touch any of the aliens, rendering her useless in a fight. And, to be honest, the only team member they really needed for this was Chameleon, so that worked.

Second, we learn a lot about Triad and get our first real in depth look into our resident Carggite.

When she's left off the team, we see the three personalities really come forward and show just how distinct they are. Unfortunately, we get a coloring glitch, or an error in the writing, and the hot-tempered Luornu, all in purple, takes off because she's so angry but, and here's the shocker of the ending, it's the Triad with both colors who ends up beaten and left for dead by the White Triangle. I don't believe they ever showed her leave, and right before she's attacked, she's upset that she left in such a huff. So which mistake was it? Coloring or character?

Let's talk about pronouns for Triad, shall we? When Triad is united, would you say "she" or "they"? And when Triad is split apart, "she" for each? Would Triad refer to the unified version as "myself" or "ourself"?

For my own simple mind, I'm going to refer to her in singular whether she's united or separate. That way, when I'm referring to the group of Triads when she's separate, I'll use they and it won't be confusing... I hope.

Also, since I'm going down a Triad rabbit hole that continues next issue, how could she possibly date anyone? The writers have established that the different personalities find different people attractive, but how does that work when she's unified? Does the different attractions merge?

Like, for example, if the orange Luornu likes Chuck, but the purple one likes Rokk, and the orange/purple one likes, say, Valor, what happens when they reunite?

You know, I'm spending way too much time thinking about this, especially as a supposed adult.

Legionnaires #24

For the first time, we learn the names of the three Triads:

• Triad-Orange
• Triad-Purple
• Triad-Neutral

This entire issue pauses the Tangleweb story and puts the spotlight on Triad. Longtime readers know that I love these spotlight issues and this one doesn't disappoint. I actually think DC should make them a required part of the Legion, happening once a year.

We learn that Luornu is different from most Carggites since she has three distinct personalities. Their culture demands that each personality be the same. This difference cost them their parents and a normal life as they were treated like freaks from birth. Only their grandmother, who had three personalities as well, supported them to be as they are.

We also learn that Carggite physiology is unknown to the Earthling doctors, further showing that these two worlds are more separate than in pre-reboot. Brainy, once again, saves the day medically and determines that the three need to reunite in order to survive. They do, things go back to normal, and we learn that R.J. Brande used his powerful financial might to keep Luornu safe from her government.

It's a nice issue, well-written, and I think this might be the best Triad/Duo Damsel/Triplicate Girl story I've read. She was always a background character for me, someone who'd show up during special events or when they needed to kill someone without really killing someone. I really enjoyed this and am starting to like Triad more and more.

The artwork in this book is also the perfect example of what an inker does. You can see exactly where the inker changes and the artwork changes. I imagine at this point Jeff Moy is begging the editors to let either his brother or W.C. Carani ink his pencils.

More crazy Triad questions, since I've already leapt headfirst down this rabbit hole:

• In one picture, young Luornu has a tube up her nose. When she splits into three, there are three identical tubes. Is part of her power the ability to replicate whatever she's connected to? Could she do that with anything she's holding? Money? Could she do that with more complicated things? Computers? Weapons?
• How do the colors work? How is she able to have one persona only wearing orange? And one only wearing purple? Again, could she do this with any article of clothing? Is this something she has to think about or is it automatic? Would the three different personas do the same thing if she was wearing, for example, blue and gold? Can they also change the style of the clothing too?
• Why didn't the writers name the three personalities instead of assigning them colors? Triad - Orange works well as long as she is always wearing her costume. But if she's out on the town, wearing something else, wouldn't that be confusing? Wouldn't it make more sense to use variations on Luornu? Like Lu, Or, and Nu? Or the Carggite words for 1, 2, and 3?
• Considering the Winathian government was quick to remove Garth from the Legion and replace him with Ayla, and all Carggites have the same super power, why didn't that government remove Luornu, especially considering she's viewed as insane? If Brande couldn't use his influence on Winath, would he have used his influence on Cargg?

Again, I spend way too much time thinking about this.

Legion of Super-Heroes #68

I just wanted to include this cover because it's the first Alan Davis cover for the Legion. I'm fairly certain I mentioned that hiring a good and famous cover artist would help sales. I'm also fairly certain that it didn't help at all...

But it's pretty to look at.

We wrap up the Tangleweb storyline with a trope (all they had to do was talk to the aliens and they'd discover they weren't really the enemy), a team member who does whatever he wants with no repercussions (although I'm just glad Invisible Kid didn't save the day and someone else did), and Leviathan feeling more confident about himself as a teammate and leader.

But what I really liked about this issue, and I mean this as the highest compliment, is that this was the first issue where I felt it could have been written by Paul Levitz. The plot worked well, the dialogue was crisp, and they handled all the subplots in a very Levitzian manner. Just one of two pages devoted to Durla or Triad and Saturn Girl. Even the trope felt like something Levitz would've written.

I know this is a simple thing, and something that I've complained about before during the post-Giffen issues, but whenever a subplot bleeds over the allotted pages, it just makes the book seem unprofessional. I don't know if I want to blame the writers or artists, but how hard is it to tell the story on one or two pages and end it there? Levitz and Giffen were absolute masters of this.

Legionnaires #25

If I was making a list of the villains from the past that I would reboot and try to make work for a new audience, I don't know how long it would take me to get to the Composite Legionnaire. It was a pretty bizarre concept, even for the 70s, although the design did look kinda nice.

I never would've approached this the way the writers did here, so hats off to them.

The next two issues are all about Durla and Durlans, as we start with Saturn Girl probing Chameleon's mind to try to help him learn how to speak Interlac. Instead, she realizes that a Durlan mind is so strange, so alien, that she can't help him.

Foreshadowing, my friends, to quote the Legion Clubhouse, is a sign of quality literature.

On Durla, one of their most dangerous criminals, a man who can not only copy the look of a person, but also their powers, has escaped from a prison (he was trapped in a crystal and dropped into a volcano), killed his jailers, and is looking for more revenge. He kills an SP Officer, copies him and heads to Earth to find Reep Daggle, the son of the man who imprisoned him.

On Earth, he is soon discovered and the fight between him and the Legion begins. He reveals who he is, that he's killed all of Cham's family, and wants to add Reep to his total. He reveals himself to be "The Composite Man", zaps the team with Spark's lightning, and we have our latest new villain.

The next issue, Legion #69, is more of the battle between the team and the Composite Man. As soon as they realize he's copying powers, they tell Andromeda to fly away as quickly as she can because they don't want him copying her powers. So she does, happy not to touch a Durlan. But then they reveal that he can copy powers based on other people's knowledge, so that would've moot.

XS leads the villain on a sprint through Metropolis, carrying Cham as bait, to give Brainy enough time to create the formula that will neutralize the Composite Man. Every issue shows her getting better and better as a heroine and I love it. I know I've said this before, but the Legion may have the best-written female characters in comics.

But Invisible Kid screws up the math, so the formula doesn't work, and the Composite Man is even angrier and more dangerous. I always like seeing the heroes mess up - they don't have to be perfect every time.

This means Saturn Girl has to do something she doesn't want to. She enters the Composite Man's mind and shuts it down, turning him into his base form and making him unconscious. Unfortunately, she has a mental breakdown as well and ends up catatonic and in a straitjacket.

I think it was this issue where we all realized that none of the heroes were "safe" in this new reboot. Killing Kid Quantum didn't shake the fans at all because we didn't really know him. But sending Saturn Girl to a psychiatric hospital meant that they were willing to change everything. The stakes just got a lot higher.

Legion of Super-Heroes #69

Random thoughts about these two issues:

• Tons of romantic subplots here, as Spark has a secret admirer and Apparition is struggling with Ultra Boy's horrible attempts to be romantic... and that he still has a girlfriend. So he's cheating... and that's okay with everyone because we know that they're meant to be together. Am I the only one who just kinda feels bad for Spider Girl?
• Violet shows her inner strength, confronting Andromeda about letting Triad's attackers go many issues ago. They are writing her as a badass who's just incredibly shy.
• Saturn Girl doesn't like the way the team is heading and wants Cosmic Boy to be a better leader. What happened in the past that made her feel that way? Was it only that he split the team up? Has there been any other reference to these problems?
• Shvaughn Erin makes another appearance, just in time for the Composite Man to break her back. Luckily, it's the future, so she's healed just in time for the annual. Can they cure any injury?
• We get Legion ponchos to keep them dry in the rain. More marketing ideas that should've been made in real life.
• Speaking of costumes, why is Apparition the only team member with a cape? Does that serve any purpose?
• I'm kinda struggling with how the writers have chosen to display the Durlan language. Some issues they use Durlan letters so you're completely clueless to what they're saying. But when Cham and the Composite Man are arguing, they're using English letters to show Durlan sounds. Why do both? Why not just stick with the Durlan? I spent way too long trying to figure out what English words they were trying to say before I realized it was Durlan...
• I know I've ranted on this before, but I don't understand why the SPs refer to their working with the Legion as "babysitting". Again, Gim and Imra were SPs. So their age shouldn't be an issue at all. If they said something like, "you guys are just pretending to be SPs... but you don't have the training or the knowledge...", I'd get that. It would make a lot of sense. Actually, I would've thrown something into the book that every Legionnaire had to complete SP training before going out on their first mission. But to simply have a problem with their ages is just dumb...

Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #6

This year was DC's idea of having Year One stories running throughout their annuals. Since the Legion was in their first year, they could basically just write stories that fit into their regular continuity. So it actually works out for the best for them.

This annual follows the time-honored tradition of giving origin stories for three members: Kinetix, Leviathan, and XS. I like all three characters, so I'm onboard.

The framing sequence around the three stories is pretty standard, and we've seen it before in older Legion books. Heck, we've seen it before in Gim Allon origin stories. Here, Shvaughn Erin is contemplating her new assignment, becoming the Legion Liaison Officer. She's not too impressed by them right now, based on the broken back, and wants to see if she can actually work with this team.

She also mentions that she's retiring in 54 years, so does that mean she's... 21 if the retirement age is 75... that's the most logical math I could come up with. But it does set her up as the slightly older mentor type character for the teenagers. When you're my age, 21 and 15 isn't that big of a difference. When you're 21, it's a huge gap.

Our first origin story is for XS and it's drawn by Stuart Immonen with inks from Bob Wiacek and Jose Marzan, Jr. It's really good. We get a lot of DC history shoved into a short story and they're able to tie the Flash, the Tornado Twins, and the Dominators into one coherent story. Okay, we get the cliche of the "child of heroes who doesn't have powers tortured until the powers appear" story, but cliches are cliches because they work and we immediately recognize them. Not every story needs to be groundbreaking.

Our second origin story is for Kinetix, and it's more a story of loss than an origin. It also features artwork by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer. Based on that alone, it's my favorite. Honestly, the story could make no sense (and it kinda doesn't), but since it's Davis drawing the Legion, I'm happy.

Yes, I am a simple man.

For some reason that is never explained, Violet has joined Kinetix on an archeological quest to find some powerful artifact. Vi mentions her constant quest for power, which Kinetix dreams about, and I'm starting to understand why everyone was getting Phoenix vibes off her at the time.

Kinetix got some powers by learning an ancient ritual to heal her mother, and instead of being satisfied with that, she kept hunting for more and more superpowers. Three years later, she gets exposed to an energy pool and was able to move matter and control it. So she's basically wandering around looking for radiated spiders and hoping to get bit.

Also, did she always have healing powers? Did she ever use them before in the Legion?

But, unfortunately, she isn't satisfied. When she and Vi discover the Star of Akkos, she loses all her powers and is back to "normal". I guess there's no more Kinetix in the Legion, right?

Finally, we get to Leviathan's origin, drawn by Mike Collins and Ron Boyd. His origin is basically the same as before, getting exposed to a meteor and suddenly being able to grow tall. But what changes is his reason for joining - he discovers that his superior officer promoted him only because of the powers and is going to use him to move higher up the ranks of the SPs. So Gim quits and joins the Legion.

I honestly would've liked to have seen them do something a little more interesting with his origin, maybe change it up a bit, or show a stronger relationship with Gigi Cusimano. But this really only existed to show Shvaughn that the Legion has values and Gim's a good guy. Kinda disappointing for me.

The end result is Shvaughn happily becoming the Liaison Officer and that plot point is resolved. Wouldn't it have been better if she was still angry at Gim, angry that he quit the SPs, and basically forced into this new role for her career? At least more interesting.

Also, after reading this and comparing Mike Collins work to his other books, I'm now fairly certain that it's Ron Boyd's inks that have been ruining so many of these Legion issues. I'm sure he's a nice guy, but he's not a good inker.

We get pin-ups of every Legionnaire, providing vital statistics (I'm amazed they're still using Imperial measurement in the 30th Century) and then info on Brande, the Legion HQ, Legion equipment, and the UP. I always like these, especially learning more and more about the universe the Legion lives in.

I really liked this annual and all the background info provided... even if it further showcased Lee Moder's anatomy problems - Andromeda is 6'0" and Kinetix is 5'2" - check out any of his books to see how badly he handled their heights.

And now, the new feature:

 

 

 

Let's talk about Lightning Lad/Live Wire...

 

 

Although, really, this is just an excuse to post some amazing artwork.

I know that we all have our own "idea" of who this character is, and I wanted to bring this up to try to get some more input from the readers. I want to know what you think of when you think of Lightning Lad/Live Wire. For example, for me:

• He's Lightning Lad. Full stop.
• He's short-tempered and tends to act without thinking, which is why he struggles as Legion leader and makes many mistakes.
• He's brave and ready to make whatever sacrifice for his friends, who he's incredibly loyal to.
• He's not a Proty.
• He's far more powerful than he tends to be portrayed as.
• He belongs with Saturn Girl and that should be somewhat canonical, or, at least, something the writers should be working towards.
• He prioritizes family over work, which is why he was content to retire and raise his kids.
• He is the "heart" of the Legion, in both good and bad ways.

How would you describe your vision of Lightning Lad/Live Wire? Please share in the comments below, as well as your thoughts on everything I've written... which is a lot...