Is this the darkest Legion story ever told? We say goodbye to some old friends, hello to the new creative team, and look at Legionnaires #77 - 79 and Legion #121 & 122

The times are dramatically changing and we say goodbye to the longtime creative teams that, believe it or not, crafted this version of the Legion for 6 years. To put this into perspective, Paul Levitz's second run lasted 7 and the 5YL Legion lasted 5. So they're one of the longest runs in Legion history.

I wanted to make a point about the sales on this book to clarify an error I made before. Up to this point, this was the lowest-selling Legion book ever. The only saving moment they had was Final Night, where sales spiked up again because of the book's connection to DC's big crossover. But once that was over, they just went back down again, eventually cratering and heading for cancellation.

But, post-threeboot, Legion sales were even worse. Every Legion book follows the same pattern - nice sales for the first issue and then an almost precipitous drop quickly after.

However, and this is where I'm going to be a little mean, I think that this version of the Legion is the worst-selling Legion book when compared to the rest of the comic industry at the time. I think that Legion v7 selling 15,000 copies a few years ago is much worse than Legion v4 selling 17,000 in 1999.

Let's talk about the high points of this run:

• I'm going to call out Jeff Moy first. He lasted the entire run, brought a youthful energy and enthusiasm to the book that the other title was never able to match, and made the book his own. Yes, I could nitpick anatomy, perspective, and storytelling problems, but I can't argue with the simple fact that he drew the hardest superhero book for six years, hit all his deadlines, and created a good-looking book. His Legionnaires were fun, happy, and looked their ages. He's also a part of some of the best stories of the run and his contributions were unparalleled. I don't know if he gets put onto the Legion artist pantheon but he definitely deserves consideration.
• I know it seems obvious to say that Mark Waid was the best writer this run saw, but I don't know if that's something you can argue against. I think they really missed his talents when he left and the book would've been much better if he stayed.
• Roger Stern and Carmela Merlo brought a competency and professionalism to the writing team when they joined and brought back a lot of the youthful energy the book needed.
• KC Carlson oversaw one of the worst times in Legion history (the end of 5YL) and somehow made a reboot work that didn't completely offend longtime readers. It's a tough job to oversee two interconnected books (also something that was never attempted before or since) and made it work.
• We got some classic Legion tales: the Mordru battle, Violet and the Emerald Eye, the creation of the Fatal Five, the Daxamite attack on Earth
• We got the definitive takes on a few characters: Triad, Invisible Kid, Shrinking Violet... and some great updates on a few: Brainiac 5, Star Boy, Bouncing Boy, Matter-Eater Lad... and some of the best new Legionnaires: Gates, XS, Kinetix, Kid Quantum, and Monstress.

And the low points:

• For every Moy book that looked good, we got some really bad artwork from Lee Moder and Scott Kolins.
• I still will never figure out why Tom McCraw kept his plotting job after the bad ending to 5YL and he had just as many misses with this run. I know he's constantly talked about as a Legion historian, but there needs to be more to your job, right?
• I've seen a lot of posts defending Tom Peyer, but I just never saw it. He'd get one good issue out of 12 and, for the most part, dropped the ball more often than he scored. There were too many times when it just felt like he was phoning it in.
• Some absolute clunkers of stories: almost everything after the Mordru saga, the reintroduction of Invisible Kid II, almost everything involving McCauley, almost everything involving Apparition and her past...
• Some horrible new versions of the characters: Apparition, Ultra Boy, Element Lad, Saturn Girl as mind-controller... some shaky new versions: Live Wire, Cosmic Boy, M'onel, Umbra... and the worst new character in the Legion: Koko.

All in all, it's a run that has high highs and painfully low lows. I will still argue that this run needs to be included in any reboot/relaunch of the Legion and ignoring some of these characters and changes would be to the detriment of the series. But I also don't think it comes close to the second Levitz run or the first couple of years of 5YL.

Let's continue the reread:

Legionnaires #77 

The entire Legion heads to the beach for sun, sand, romance, and to catch a thief... kinda...

These are the kinds of issues that this creative team has shown they do well so I'm expecting it to be fun. I've said before that I love it when the Legion is hanging out and just being friends.

Let's focus on the important parts of the story:

• Almost the entire team heads to Summer World, a planet that is basically all beach, so they can relax, spend some quality time together, and bond.
• While there, Element Lad wants to figure out who's been stealing stuff the past few issues (such as the crystals a while ago), so he's got Sensor, Monstress, and Kinetix to help. They go undercover (yes, the gigantic woman and the talking snake) to try to figure out which really rich person was behind all the crimes.
• In a fun twist, the criminal ends up confessing and turning himself in as he realizes that the Legionnaires are after him and he can't take the strain and pressure. Yes, it's silly, but it works in this issue.
• Lori Morning arrives as well, alongside Amilia Crugg, and we get a nice fashion moment with Monstress.
• To show you just how seriously the Legion is taking Jan's quest for the thief, Monstress deserts him to join Lori and XS to go on some rides. Like I said before, this issue is just about fun and anything remotely heroic is put to the very far back burner.
• On the romantic front, Chuck and the Luornu's spend some time together and it's revealed that at least two of the three personalities like him. We also get more Dyrk/XS moments, which I'm glad to see, and the introduction of a Monstress/Jan romance... now I'm sad that we won't get much more of this before the change in direction.
• I also have to give credit for how they handled Kinetix here - she finally gets her personality back and was key to a lot of things going on in this issue.

Maybe it's because I just had a nice, hot vacation, but I really enjoyed this one and loved that it showed the personalities of the Legionnaires again. Although, to be honest, I would've loved to have had just a couple of panels of Gates complaining about the opulence, the sand, and the heat...

It's also the final issue for the writing team and I think Tom McCraw, Roger Stern, and Carmela Merlo really leaned into what they did the best. It's a nice way to wrap up their run.

LSH #121 

In a complete change of tone, we're back with the Fatal Five (four?) story. Let's go random stream of consciousness while I read...

We start with a desolate planet called Tenazor and a huge ship crash lands into the surface. Is this the Fatal Five? Someone else?

Oh, and I have to say I love the Walt Simonson sound effects they use here - not sure if they paid him for the style and look but they should.

Half the team is flying back to the Outpost (although at this point I'm honestly not sure who's assigned where, but that might just be my bad memory... or I'm wondering why the lightning twins aren't here) when their beach memories are interrupted by Brainiac 5, who's nice enough to recap last issue. He tells them they warped the whole Outpost through a stargate and they crashed on the planet from the first page... even though the ship that crashed didn't look big enough to be the Outpost.

Umbra and M'onel have already arrived at Tenazor and, since it's under an orange sun, the Daxamite is only at half strength. Which is perfect when going against the Fatal Five. The villains have already started turning the locals into slave labor, because they have to make the villains even more villainous, right?

M'onel tries to fight everyone by himself, uses absolutely no strategy aside from attack, and gets blasted by the Emerald Eye. I will repeat what I said last issue - does any Legionnaire actually think before they rush into battle? He and Umbra are quickly defeated before the rest of the Legion arrives, including Gates and Brainy.

We get a nice moment between Kinetix and Violet, as the latter worries about facing the Eye again and Kinetix reassures her that she's afraid because she hated the evil that she did. They hug and I, once again, wish they did more with Zoe.

Brainy comes up with the incredible plan of while the Legion is fighting the Fatal Five, he'll sneak in and regain control of the Outpost. Yep, that's it. No need to consider strategy, or the best members for attacking the different foes, or how Ferro is going to accomplish anything...

Subplot: Dreamer has, of course, a bad dream about something ending too soon for the Legion. We all know it's this series (only 4 issues to go), but wouldn't it be great to do a subplot with Dreamer where she wakes up, surprised by a good dream?

The battle starts and Karate Kid takes down the Empress (who I guess isn't tied to the Eye at all) with one move. Wow - they could've actually written a compelling fight scene and let the two of them go but, instead, just let Val defeat this killer with one move. Kind of a waste, if you ask me.

As the fight continues, and the Legion actually uses teamwork to go against the Persuader, we get a very strange scene with Gates single-handedly teleporting the Eye away. He also gets to throw in some nice socialist dogma while he's doing it, just in case there was anyone who wasn't sure what his political beliefs are. Just kinda overkill right now...

Element Lad and Kinetix try to change the Emerald Eye into something less threatening, Sensor makes Validus think his lightning is going against him so that Violet and Ferro can knock him unconscious. (That's something I never thought I'd see in a Legion comic).

And then Koko takes off to save a green monkey. Yes, you read that correct. We're interrupting the action to focus on Koko saving another monkey.

Brainy distracts Tharok, allowing Dyrk to cut the power to the Outpost and end the threat. He blasts the villain with a force field (just going to say now that I really liked that they added this to his arsenal - using the force field as an aggressive weapon was a great add to the character).

Element Lad creates a magnesium flare and blinds the Emerald Eye. Another thing I didn't think I'd see in a Legion comic.

We wrap everything up very quickly, as the villains are captured, M'onel flies the Outpost back into space, and Brainy leaves Koko on the planet so the white monkey can bond with the green monkeys. The Legion wonders what harm Koko can do, but we see that he's already leading the monkeys with a Legion wristband on him.

That's not going to go well, is it?

I actually kinda liked this one, if only for the massive amount of teamwork used. They probably didn't need to reform the Fatal Five for this, and they defeated them really, really easily, but the Legion worked as a team, so that was okay for me. Or maybe I'm just in a better mood today...

The more I think about it, the more I feel like the creative team used the Fatal Five for no other reason than they knew this was their last chance. It's their final issue and I think they wanted to go out with a bang, using the best villains in the Legion arsenal. I now kinda wish they had scrapped a lot of the previous issues and done something a little more epic. But that's been a constant complaint for the McCraw/Peyer team - they just never knew how to actually lay out a storyline.

Legionnaires #78 

Here we have it - the first regular Legion title written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (Or DnA). Oh, and a barely remembered artist named Olivier Coipel shows up for the final two pages as well. Let's see how they handle these characters...

One of my favorite things to notice during rereads is how well the new creative teams introduce new concepts and ideas and how well they keep characterizations consistent. In some cases, the teams slow build, adding things here and there and try their best not to completely recreate the book. In other cases, they immediately start throwing their new ideas in.

Rereading this book, there are a couple of elements that are almost immediately evident:

• A more scientific slant to the book. Rather than have the book feel like a regular comic book, DnA immediately throw in basic sci-fi concepts such as Asimov's Law of Robotics (almost too much of that, but I'm still happy they're doing it). Brainiac 5 comes up with a solution to their problems by reprogramming their opponents. The book finally feels like something that is happening in the future. (On a complete aside, why would Brainy use anything by Asimov? Wouldn't Colu have come up with their own rules for robots because they created robots first? Or because they are superior, intellectually, to Earth?)
• Continuing with that, the introduction of Robotica. Unless I completely forgot some older Legion story, this is the first time we're hearing of a robots-only world... okay, I can think of a couple from the very old days of the Legion but I'm not sure that's what they're referencing. I doubt any reader knew where this was going in this first issue by the writers.

A change in a few relationships:

• Jo and Tinya immediately change, as they show her want to work away from her husband and do something without him. In one page, they establish that they're not just an annoyingly-attached couple that can't exist without the other. It's also the first time Tinya felt a little like Phantom Girl.
• Live Wire brings up the idea of marriage to Saturn Girl and she's receptive. Wow - that's fast. But, again, they immediately throw out the "Garth can't handle the separation and acts like a petulant child" storyline and have him acting like a more mature character.
• XS and Monstress joking together about their teammates, showing that they're more connected than we thought.
• Brainy no longer being a complete ass, but just kinda snarky and curt. It's a subtle change, but shows some growth.

One smart think DnA did here was just use 4 main characters for the story: Cosmic Boy, Apparition, Brainiac 5, and Monstress. Instead of being overwhelmed by the gigantic team, they went small (something they'll continue for over a year) and focus on just a few of the characters.

And finally, the last two pages start the destruction, as stargates are destroyed and whole systems are wiped out. Death and destruction are coming and heading towards Earth...

LSH #122 

Legion of the Damned, Part One

After reading this book, I spent some time trying to think of comic series that underwent dramatic, intense changes in both style and level of quality. I mentioned this before, but I always find it interesting when series get new creative teams and go in dramatically different directions. I like to see what big and small changes they make.

For this series, the change is incredibly dramatic.

The only comparable book I can think of is when Grant Morrison and Richard Case took over Doom Patrol. It went from a fairly standard, somewhat uninteresting superhero book to a trip through Morrison's crazed vision of a broken bunch of heroes. The book was immediately 10000 times better and eventually joined the Vertigo universe to allow Morrison to push the envelope even further.

I can't imagine what it must have been like at the end of 1999, after spending years reading the Archie Legion, to suddenly have everything shift to such a degree.

DnA have taken everyone's fears of Y2K and turned them into the Blight, an evil alien consciousness that has taken over the Earth, destroyed everything (including Interlac, which is no longer on display), and taken possession of the Legionnaires, turning them into slaves.

At the heart the of Metropolis is The Stem, the huge organism from which the Blight conjure energy ribbons for transportation. It's also believed to be part of the network that brought the Blight to Earth.

There are almost no beings left on Earth, just the Blight. The scared few who are free are trying to escape by getting resistance leader R.J. Brande to use the last remaining stargate to help them get off planet. And leading them are Live Wire, XS, Chameleon, and Shvaughn Erin.

But they face the possessed versions of Umbra, Ultra Boy, and Karate Kid and, except for Cham, fall under the Blight's control. Cham's lost, desperate, trying to find help, when the four Legionnaires from last issue (Cosmic Boy, Apparition, Monstress, and Brainiac 5) finally return to Earth with no clue of what's happened.

Wow, we just got really, really, really dark.

Legionnaires #79 

Legion of the Damned, Part Two

DnA and Olivier Coipel continue this story, so I'm going to assume that this whole series was done months earlier to ensure they could hit this bi-weekly schedule. In that case, the previous creative teams had to know that their run was over far sooner than I guessed before.

We start this issue with Cham explaining to the four what happened and just how quickly the Blight took over the Earth and their former teammates. His big reveal, of course, is that everyone was taken to The Stem.

To further stress the darkness of the story, we see inside The Stem and see XS's fate. She's been taken prisoner and is now being processed for power sapping. She's trapped inside a cocoon, breathing some strange liquid, but because of her powers, she cannot be kept unconscious. So she's aware of the horror around her. She's heading towards the end and knows she's about to lose everything.

Then we get a flashback to when the four finally reached the Legion Outpost. Tinya is being her usual annoying self, whining about not getting to see Jo. Monstress is trying to keep positive but Brainy is tired of her tantrums. It's moments like these when you remember that Tinya's around 16 years old... and married... and emotionally immature. Last issue's change is already tossed to show that she sometimes is going to act like a little kid.

As the four board the Outpost, they immediately realize that it's empty, hasn't been used in a while, and something very bad is happening. The Blight recognize they're onboard and blow up the Outpost just as they get away. But the blast destroys their ship and they crash on Earth. I guess the Blight brought the Outpost to Earth at some point, right?

Tinya wakes up from that nightmare (strange that she's super annoying in her own dream) and chats with Cham about how they need to get into The Stem to try to figure out what's actually going on.

Within The Stem, XS is being taken further into the chamber when she starts communicating with a telepath. She's waking up, her speed powers allowing her to get over the sedative. She sees the remaining Legionnaires hanging from the ceiling, like food, and then decides it's time to escape. She also recognizes the telepath - it's Saturn Girl. She bursts from her cocoon, grabs Saturn Girl, and starts running.

Outside The Stem, the five head towards the huge organism, looking for a way to get inside. Brainy spots a opening and explains the science behind how they can get in. I'm just going to point out right now that I really like the way DnA are handling Brainy. He's actually acting super intelligent, and above the rest of the team, and irritating in a stubborn, smug way instead of just being an ass.

Inside The Stem, Jenni's too tired to continue and Imra tells her to leave her behind. Then Imra shares what she's seen, what she's learned inside The Stem and XS is stunned.

To make matters worse, the Blight have sent all the possessed Legionnaires to destroy those who are free.

We'll finish off the Blight next week!

Our next Legionnaire in the spotlight... Element Lad!!!

To me, Jan Arrah is the soul of the Legion and the one who made the Legion a family instead of just a team. Having suffered from quite possibly the most horrific origin story of any super-hero ever created, he became the backbone of the team and one of the best leaders ever. Perhaps he, more than almost any other character except for Dream Girl, benefited from being the team leader during the Levitz run and that's what's coloring my judgment here. But I don't think so. I think the strength of the character has been there from very early on and Levitz and Giffen leaned into it, turning him into a must-have Legionnaire.

Sadly, post-5YL, he has never been used to his potential and most of the creative teams don't seem to understand his importance.

• Let's go back to the beginning - his entire planet was wiped out by Roxxas, leaving him as the only survivor of the planet Trom. As a child reading these books, I don't think I ever quite understood the magnitude of the suffering or the crime. As an adult, it's stunning that he can even get out of bed in the morning.
• Looking back through the issues, has Jan always had the best (or worst) hair of any Legionnaire? From the feathered look in the 70's to the awesome perm in the 80's, he's always been styling an epic do.
• I actually quite liked the way they turned Jan bisexual in the 90's and made it something completely normal and natural. It was epically progressive writing for the time and surprising from one of the big two comic companies. Looking back on it now, however, I do wish that their whole motivation for changing his sexual preference had been for a better reason than "he wears a pink costume."
• Speaking of costumes, I've always liked the Element Lad costume - especially when he had the Interlac letter E on his chest. It just felt more futuristic, if that makes sense.
• What I didn't like about that change was how they handled the Shvaughn Erin side of the story. The Jan/Shvaughn romance had been one of the strongest parts of the series, romantically, and a mature relationship that readers were happy to see. I honestly think they were in the same category as Jo/Tinya or Mon-El/Tasmia. But to reveal that Shvaughn was essentially a stalker who changed their gender to get close to Jan really debased it.
• I always love the issues where Jan lets loose and actually shows just how powerful he is. I mean, think about it - he could kill Superman in a heartbeat. He could've killed Darkseid and ended the Great Darkness Saga in one move. Luckily, his moral code is one of the strongest, but he could easily defeat any other Legionnaire. I think of that early 70's issue where he's about to kill Roxxas but can't - he just can't go against his own morality.
• I was far less of a fan of Jan in PZH as they just turned him into a stoned airhead who stumbled around, never really did anything of any importance, and seemed completely clueless about any social interaction. When he suddenly turned into a mineral, that made things worse. Sadly, they were only starting to use him in a slightly interesting way at the end of the series.
• And I really struggled when he turned heel at the end of Legion Lost. I get the reasoning but he just wasn't the character to do it to. It was so out of left field that it felt like something being done for shock value instead of story value.

Thoughts? What are your memories of Element Lad?

Next week we get to the end of the longest Legion title to ever exist and see what happens to the characters after that. See you next week!