Is this the best DnA Legion story? Is Magnetic Kid the most forgettable Legionnaire? We look at The Legion #3 & 4

To recap what's gone on before: President McCauley is dead and replaced by... someone?? The Legionnaires who were gone for a year crash-landed on Earth, got blown up by McCauley and his goons (especially Mr. Venge, his "assistant"), escaped into tunnels deep under Metropolis, and instead of getting covered with toxic water (although I think they'd be able to handle radiation poisoning in the 31st Century) are saved by Shikari and The Bouncing Boy, a ship piloted by Chuck Taine.

So the band is getting back together...

The Legion #3 

Yet another cover I really like. Using Interlac to have the book stand out on the shelf, and by putting the text at the bottom of the page, makes this far more interesting than usual comic covers. They've also captured a number of the Legionnaires' personalities in this single image, so I'm digging that as well. It's amazing to me that this is the same art team, Olivier Coipel and Andy Lanning, who did the Blight storyline - they look like two completely different art teams. Maybe that's because Lanning isn't covering the pages with ink anymore and we actually get to see what Coipel can do.

We get a nice first three pages as the fleeing Legionnaires are welcomed aboard The Bouncing Boy and everyone is introduced, just in case there's someone reading this book who doesn't know who everyone is. Once the hugs and reunions are over, they head up to the Footship Drive ship Cosmic Boy's team "liberated" back in Legion Worlds and are heading into deep space. I know this is a bit of a digression, but here are some initial thoughts as I look over the group:

• We have Shrinking Violet, who's been Leviathan for a while now, and whose real name is Salu Digby. Kid Quantum refers to her as "Vi" when greeting her. We already have too many characters and names to make sense, especially for new readers who have just joined the book. Why make this extra confusing? Why not just make her super-hero name "Violet?" Or have the team members call her by her real name? I know she chose Leviathan to honor Gim Allon, but it's just an added layer of confusion for new readers.
• When looking back at DnA's run, their handling of Brainiac 5 will always be one element put into the plus column. With just a few lines and panels, they've already elevated him from jerky smart guy to awkward curious guy and it's just sooooo much before than anything done before in the PZH Legion. His banter with Invisible Kid is one of the highlight of the book.
• As much as I like Olivier Coipel's pencilling more and more, there are always just a few moments when it kinda drags me out of the story. As someone mentioned last week, I don't know when Triad became Power Girl, but I'm guessing DC wants this book to appeal to a more... solitary audience.

Back to the running subplots, as McCauley announces that they're going to terraform the Moon, but is quick to remind Venge that they've been modified per his instructions. And he's been ignoring the Orandan delegate (so we'll find out what happened to Sensor, someone who didn't even get more than a couple of panels in Legion Worlds). And they're distracting M'onel. But, most interestingly, Venge almost seems to be afraid of McCauley. Foreshadowing??

Then we get the next big reveal, as The Bouncing Boy takes everyone to... Legion World! It's a huge planetoid, kinda like Weber's World, that's cloaked and deep in space. They started building it just under a year ago and it's independent from the U.P. Who's rich enough to build it? R.J. Brande, of course.

Next, we get the grand tour. It has "enviro-rings" that replicate each Legionnaire's home planet. It's being run by Gear (we all remember the guy who could directly communicate with and grow tech, right?). Helping keep the build hidden under an illusion is Sensor, who pops out to say hi. Triad's been running things from Earth and Cosmic Boy and his team were the ones who grabbed the 'Step-ship.'

But that technology isn't enough for Brainy - he's got some ideas for using the dimensional threshold that got them "lost" and making a better way to handle interstellar travel. To no one's surprise, all those ideas are only in his head and not on any computer.

Brande then reveals his master plan - the U.P. needs a Legion again and this time, he wants it "to truly be a Legion." So does this mean it's going to be even bigger? More members?

With the Legion back, it's time to get everyone back. M'onel, on yet another time-wasting mission, gets a message on his Omnicom from the Legion but it's muffled by static. Shikari and Chameleon show up on Winath, travelling through some sort of dimensional portal. Cham and Ayla hug, both excited to see each other. Well, maybe Cham more than Ayla. But Brainy's thresholds are working, which Invisible Kid is both happy and disappointed (because of Brainy's smugness) about. The only "downside" of the threshold tech is that Shikari has to be the navigator through the "doors." So she'll be really busy.

We get our first bite of reality as Cham has to deliver the bad news to Ayla - her brother's dead. Mekt overhears the conversation as well, and the darkness around him is definitely letting us know he's headed back to being Lightning Lord.

Or maybe Shikari won't be as busy as I thought. Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl are going to visit Shikari's galaxy to see if her people, the Kwai, will join them and act as guide for this new technology. And once that's done, Rokk wants to go to Vyrga to find out what happened to Gates - he's been missing for a year as well.

Interesting things on page 18 - Kid Quantum has a new haircut. Okay, more interesting is that Ultra Boy doesn't seem too concerned about reuniting with Tinya and more worried about Imra heading back to Shikari's galaxy. Okay, I guess that's one way to handle someone treating you like an emotional infant and tricking you for months... but if we get something more interesting with the Tinya/Jo relationship, I'm all for it.

Some Legionnaires head to Kwai-space on a Legion cruiser, but Shikari is unable to stay with them - she needs to go back and help the Legion. So it's Saturn Girl, Spark (who is the eye candy for this issue - geez, they're pandering), Wildfire, and Invisible Kid, alone and on the other side of the galaxy, back at the exact place where Live Wire sacrificed himself to stop Element Lad.

Back on Earth, M'onel confronts McCauley about bugging his communicator and monitoring him. McCauley says one simple word: "Lights." The room is bathed in a red glow (red solar energy, I'm guessing) and McCauley starts beating M'onel senseless. McCauley tells Venge that M'onel has outlived his usefulness... "So orders Ra's Al Ghul."

You wanted a big shocking, twist ending, you've got it.

As much as I really enjoyed this issue, I just have one very big nit to pick. Imagine how much more dramatic this reveal would have been if we didn't already know McCauley was dead? If we saw the skeleton last issue but they didn't identify who it was? Even better, don't show the skeleton at all and make us wonder just how long McCauley hadn't been McCauley. Could Ra's Al Ghul have been part of the Blight? Could this all have been part of his desire for power? They could've gone so much deeper with this...

The Legion #4 

We start in the Footstep Drive Research Annex, which looks like a prison, with a very cheerful guard who's checking in on those behind the cell doors, which are labelled with different planet names like Cargg and Winath. He refers to everyone as "bug," which I'm guessing means we're going to wrap up the Gates mystery. Once the guard gets into the cell, we see a tortured and battered Gates lying behind a damping field. Luckily they don't drag this out and the field disappears. And so goes Gates.

Gates quickly knocks out the guard, uses the keyfob (really? we still have keyfobs in the 30th Century?) to get out, and meets... the Legion, here to rescue him. His first response: "It's about sprocking time!"

Back to Earth, where Ra's Al Ghul is overseeing the terraforming of the moon. He comments that he's "forging the destiny of a species," which means that something bad is coming. So he's not too concerned about the break-in at the footstep plant. He and Venge watch as the engine starts changing the moon and they start talking about how change is coming and the human race will embrace their destiny. Okay, this is getting worse, right? Once Ra's uses a holographic projector to become McCauley again, they reveal that they've tracked the Legion to their base and the fleet is ready to attack. And that Ra's will take care of M'onel himself.

At the prison/footstep research facility, while the Legion breaks everyone else out and incapacitates the guards, Brainy and Gates provide the valuable exposition to explain why Gates was locked up and how the footstep drive worked. Basically, they used Gates' DNA to give other Vyrgans teleportation powers and then hard-wired those Vyrgans directly into the ships. So, essentially, there was an imprisoned Vyrgan in every ship that had a footstep drive. When they started running out of Vyrgans, they started testing on Carggites and Winathians. Hence the numerous missing Carggites we learned about in Legion Worlds. Is it bad that I'm kinda disappointed that this is how they're handling that subplot? Also, considering how the Carggite ambassador talked about the thousands of missing people, how big is this research facility? Are there more? And how many of their test subjects died in the process? Are we talking genocide? We just can't stop this series from going down some really dark holes, can we?

Then they tell Gates that the Legion knows that McCauley isn't really McCauley and they're going to stop him and make him pay for his crimes. Unfortunately, they don't know who he really is. But, then again, who would guess it's Ra's Al Ghul?

First interlude - Invisible Kid, Spark, Wildfire, and Saturn Girl are in Kwai-space, trying to figure out why there are lightning flares at the place where Live Wire died in Legion Lost. Instead of doing the smart thing, and leaving one of them in the craft, or using the craft for protection, they all fly in to discover... energized Tromium crystals. So that's disappointing. Even more disappointing - the Kwai start attacking.

Back to the main story: M'onel is trapped under red solar light, stuck as Ra's prisoner. The Legionnaire recognizes him and they talk about who they were and how they're remembered. Ra's talks about how he's making the future and wants M'onel to join him. Of course he refuses. Ra's talks about how there's no one in the 31st Century who can match him - no detective, no Amazon queen. The Legion can't do anything - they're dead. And then he shoots M'onel. Which bruises him. So Ra's waits - in a few hours a bullet will kill the Daxamite.

There's a protest in Metropolis against the terraforming, so the Science Police have shown up to ensure nothing bad happens. And who's there to watch over everything? New officer Zoe Saugin. She talks about all her costume changes as Kinetix and her partner, Cill, wonders if that was her most notable achievement as a Legionnaire. She blows him a raspberry and they talk about why she joined the S.P.s. The Earth shakes, there's something weird happening, and they're blinded by a flash of light.

Second interlude - we go to Xanthu. The planet is ruined. The machines have taken over. They're destroying the planet, mining for everything they can. And they're still getting destroyed, as Star Boy and XS continue to work together to destroy as many robots as they can.

On Legion World, Umbra and Sensor are chatting about the former's new wardrobe. Since Tasmia lost the darkfield, she is back wearing ceremonial Talokian clothing (so she's the eye candy for this issue) and fearing evil spreading across the galaxy. I'm just going to say this for the record - I thought Mike Grell occasionally stepped over the line in making the Legion sexier but Olivier Coipel is trying to one-up him with almost every issue.

In a great bit of storytelling, DnA jumps through every big moment to wrap up this issue, so let me break down all of them:

• The Legionnaires who rescued Gates have arrived on Earth, ready to face Ra's - and they're immediately surrounded by the S.P.s who are going to arrest them!
• Ra's Al Ghul has returned to give M'onel one last chance. He refuses and Ra's shoots him, blood splattering everywhere!
• The Earthgov Battlefleet have arrived at Legion World and opened fire - it looks like the planetoid is destroyed!

Is this becoming a pattern? Every second issue ends with a huge explosion and we think the Legion is dead?

This is how you write a comic book. You set the stakes, keep making them bigger and bigger, and give the reader a reason to come back next issue.

I'm going to completely nit pick like a madman here... I'm only doing this because I'm really enjoying this story and I wish it could've been tons better. Just imagine if we didn't know it was Ra's Al Ghul yet. It's just McCauley, with a handgun from the 20th Century, facing off against M'onel. He talks about how he's going to change history. He says the line about the detective and the Amazon queen but we still don't know who he is. There's a mystery.

And at the end, when M'onel is even weaker, right before he shoots to kill him, McCauley turns off the holographic projector. All the reader sees is his clothing from behind. M'onel's shocked: "You?! How?!" Then the single shot is fired. M'onel is lying on the ground, close to death. And they don't reveal it's Ra's until next issue.

Our next Legionnaire in the spotlight... Magnetic Kid!!!

Ahhh... poor Pol Krinn... such a brief time with a flight ring. Such a shame that he never got to achieve much more than just being a younger brother.

He's so unimportant that not only does he not have his own Wikipedia page, you also get pictures of some kid with cutlery stuck to his body instead of him when you Google "Magnetic Kid."

Anyway, unfortunately for Pol, he was really only created to give Cosmic Boy a family. A few writers would expand a little bit, making Pol either just as good of a Magnoball player or someone even better. He would show up every few years, get into some sort of danger, and then disappear again. And this was true both pre- and post-Zero Hour.

But for a few short years, with Paul Levitz writing the book, Pol moved from the background to the Legion. Driven by the nuclear bomb that exploded in Metropolis, killing his mother, he joined the Legion Academy so he could use his powers for good. There, he trained with Tellus and Shadow Lad, among others, and became a hero in his own right, but knew he'd never become a Legionnaire - as long as Cosmic Boy was a member, he could never join. He wore Cosmic Boy's old uniform and basically lived in the shadow of his big brother.

In a shock to everyone, Rokk resigned and suddenly, Pol found himself a Legionnaire. He chose a name that actually explained his powers (I still have no idea why they called him Cosmic Boy in 1959) and served with distinction. He was a little naive, a little shell-shocked, but did his best and proved to be a fairly valuable member of the team. I really enjoyed his interactions with Polar Boy and Tellus, setting up a kind of "junior" squad of Legionnaires.

We also got one of the more interesting moments in Volume 3 as Lightning Lass started showing some interest in Pol but he was completely oblivious to it. It was cute and kinda funny to see Pol completely unaware of what's going on around him. And can you blame him? Lightning Lass was his older brother's friend, much older than Pol, and an experienced Legionnaire. There's no way she'd be thinking of anything other than friendship with him. It would have been great to see the creative team develop this.

This made Pol's sacrifice during the Magic Wars just a little sadder too. To open a magic gate, Pol flew in and, essentially, unalived himself. It was a sign that the Legion was getting darker and might have been a bit of foreshadowing to let us know what the 5YL stories were going to become. It was also pretty stunning - I remember reading that issue and I'm not exaggerating to say I almost dropped the comic... which lowers the value, so that's always bad, right?

And that's it. I can't say I have great memories of him, or that he has any great emotional connection, or that anyone's going to be demanding his return to the team. Heck, even the PZH Legion found a different Braalian to take Rokk's place. I think he's the perfect example of what happens when a creative team wants to elevate a character to the best of their abilities. But no one else wanted to...

Please leave your comments below and let me know what you think of The Legion or Magnetic Kid. I've noticed we're getting fewer and fewer comments so I'd love to see some more people responding - it's always great to read your thoughts and see if you're enjoying or hating the book.

Until next week!