It's Dark Circle madness combined with a touch of Oedipus... we're reading Legionnaires #62 - 65 and Legion #106 - 108!!

 

It's the Dark Circle saga... and I'm covering one extra issue to complete the whole thing... so let's get started!

Chapter 1: Balance of Power

Once again, just ignore the cover text because it's not connected to what's inside the comic. At least the picture is.

Here's your first lesson in comic writing 101: when creating a multi-issue story, the first issue should always exist to set everything up and lay the foundations of the story. Don't worry so much about action, just make sure all the readers know what they need to know.

And this issue follows that to a T.

We start with Dr. Gym'll examining the Legionnaires who came back from what he calls "The Edge of Creation" but we know as "the Fires of Creation," but I'm guessing they told the good doctor the wrong name... or they goofed and no one caught it.

Anyway, Gym'll is ostensibly testing their powers while, at the same time, complaining about their massive personality changes. They're all fine, powers-wise, and just annoyed at being tested over and over again. Well, M'onel and Umbra are annoyed. Brainiac 5.1 and Gates are annoyingly pleasant and kind and Kinetix has been lobotomized. Like, honestly, why take three of the more compelling Legionnaires, whether you like them or hate them, and make them far less interesting?

What's insane to me is that they could've done so much with all of these characters and actually used the Fires of Creation to change the way they think about the universe instead of this... stunningly boring way of changing these three.

On an aside, as much as I'm happy to see Umbra and M'onel together, they need to do something more with him. They're making it obvious that she's interested, but he's just a walking, talking empty shell at this point and needs to bring something to the table here.

As I predicted last column, XS has agreed to keep Lori's secret and won't let anyone know that the girl has powers. Of course, Lori's still lying to her and I'd like there to be some consequences if the truth ever comes out.

Then we get the beginning of the Dark Circle/Affiliated Planets/Leland McCauley story. He's selling his transportation technology that's built upon the Fires of Creation, not knowing he's helping the Dark Circle... but, to be honest, would their involvement stop him for a moment? I mean, why make him the unknowing participant when that's just not needed? They could've cut at least a couple of pages of this transaction and, instead, shown why some of the Dark Circle members (like the Sklarians) are involved.

To Durla we go, where we ignore last issue where they threw Chameleon into "jail" and see that he's still wandering around free. He gets approached by some other Durlans who aren't happy with the current leadership and finds out that "The Living Weapons" have been stolen. I'm sure this'll come up later, but I am confused by why he's actually there. Isn't he supposed to be investigating the Dark Circle for the Espionage Squad? Why go home and face all the problems when he could be undercover?

And if that made no sense, Sensor has returned home to discover that her father has become a slave-driver, forcing his racoon servants to work in the mines to produce something for the Affiliated Planets. They argue, Jeka realizes that all of her family are racist towards Durlans, and she abdicates, leaving her planet. Again, why go home when she's supposed to be investigating the Dark Circle? Honestly, at this point it feels like the writers aren't even paying attention to what they've done. Or, perhaps, Invisible Kid was stunningly incorrect last issue.

Andromeda, who's called that by her fellow Sisters of the Eternal Cosmos, is sent by the Mother Superior to go and protect the Durlans from all the xenophobia. Actually, I like this. She finally has to confront her own racism and do something to make up for her past mistakes. What I don't understand is why anyone would still call her Andromeda? Wouldn't they call her Laurel?

Then we get a big Gil'Dan argument between U.P. Representative Ar'by, who's the mole, and a big brain in a globe. Violet's there, shrunk down and recording with a tiny camera, and catches the two of them basically explaining every evil thing they've done. The brain finally notices Violet's there and attacks. She flees, aided by Invisible Kid, and gets all the data out. Too bad that no one in the 30th Century can build a camera smaller than what we can build now.

We finally get to see the effect of planets leaving the U.P. hit the Legion, as both Triad and Spark have to leave the team and head home to Cargg and Winath, respectively. This would be the point when I'd mention that Cargg hates Triad and treated her like garbage, so I don't understand why she'd go back. We also get the next step in the Luornu/Chuck romance as it looks like the complete Triad likes him. On the relationship front, Spark is really concerned about Cham, which means that romance is moving quickly as well.

Chapter 2: High Crimes

Things start moving a little bit quicker this issue, but there's still enough bad choices, bad dialogue, and confusion that it'll take a bit of time to figure everything out.

We start with Sklarian pirates on Imsk, trying to steal their technology. Some Legionnaires are there to stop them and Apparition faces off against Kono, both of them going immaterial and shifting through walls. As they stop the pirates, a Tyrazzian ship (Tyr's world, in case you forgot) shows up and destroys the stargate so no one can get home... or so we think. McCauley's teleporter takes over, grabbing the Sklarians and the ship at the same time. And dropping them off on wrong world, destroying the ship, and killing half of them. But the leader of the A.P. doesn't really care about the casualties and neither does McCauley.

So we go to Winath, where Ayla is enjoying her homecoming (does anyone know why Live Wire isn't involved in any of this? Did I miss something? Is my bad memory acting up again?) alongside Triad, who came with her because... anyone? Anyone?

The party is in full swing when Triad separates and two of them go and try to figure out why Winath left the U.P. Suddenly the fiddler performing kills the co-President of Winath. And reveals himself to be the Composite Man, claiming to be Chameleon. So the anti-Durlan hatred continues.

R. J. Brande gets Brainiac 5.1 to stop working with Rond Vidar on ways to locate the Time Trapper (Awesome! They're actually reacting to the events of previous issues!) and start fixing the destroyed stargate near Imsk. Brainy solves it amazingly quickly, sending M'onel with a new stargate. If it's that easy to fix, shouldn't it be that easy in the future...

Back on Winath, they've caught Triad and the other co-President is ready to go to war. Spark and Triad escape and head off somewhere safe. Ayla's lamenting that she's now a traitor to her planet and Winath assumes that the Legion is part of the conspiracy to kill the President.

At the outpost near Durla, Andromeda shows up to offer help, surrendering to the United Customs Depot, and finds out that since the assassination, everything's gone crazy. As she's talking to the Science Police there, another ship full of angry Winathians looking for blood arrive. She quickly stops them and, somehow, Sensor has arrived as well. Andromeda defends Sensor, and they realize that the entire planet of Durla is surrounded by a full-scale blockade.

This chapter is a major downturn compared to the last, and I wasn't even a huge fan of the first book. Nothing really makes sense, from the character's choices, to how beings end up in certain places, to what the Dark Circle is doing. Would it have been so hard to actually show why the Dark Circle is doing anything?

And I know I've talked about how much I like Jason Armstrong's work, but I just have to point out how horrible his Sensor is. Instead of a regal, friendly-looking snake, he's drawing her as an evil serpent. Just a strange choice.

Chapter 3: Winds of War?

No surprise, but the U.P. is in trouble. The Winathian President is demanding Cham be handed over to stand trial for his brother's murder. Vice President Winema Wazzo is busy interrogating the Gil'Dans who Violet recorded before. Apparition's uncovered a bunch of anti-Durlan pamphlets in Ar'dn's (the brain in the jar) apartment. So we're supposed to believe that a brain in a bubble, with no arms, is reading pamphlets...

The Legionnaires realize they need to get Cham off Durla and Invisible Kid is certain he's got the right plan to do it. When did he become leader again? Why did Saturn Girl get shoved to the background of this entire story? Do the writers know who the leader is?

Out next big reveal is that the Dominators are working with the Dark Circle (I'm guessing they're not Dark Circle members because they're not in the purple robes) and trying to figure out how Durlans got their powers. Kono doesn't seem happy the Dark Circle is letting the Sklarians die and they're all interested in the Durlan super-agent... who's talking to his sister.

On some asteroid, the Composite Man and his sister are arguing and fighting. The sister is one of "The Living Weapons" the Durlans were talking about before, so Cham want to find the rest of them who are buried underneath the volcano prison. The Composite Man defeats his sister and then goes off with the Tyrazzian who's come to bring him back to the Dominators.

You may wonder what is Invisible Kid's plan. It's to dress everyone up as a member of the Science Police and head down to Durla. They'll pretend to arrest him and take him to the U.P. government. Yep, no one would ever suspect that a bunch of Legionnaires (like Gates and Sensor) who are obviously not regular S.P. officers, would "arrest" Cham but not actually take him to prison. Man, this is a dumb plan...

They get down to Durla and help Cham save one of the weapons, who gives them coordinates to the sister's asteroid. No idea how they would know it, or why the sister chose one asteroid to live on when she could literally go anywhere and experience anything (which is what she claims she wants to do later), but I've already spent more time thinking about this plot than the writers.

They rescue her and start talking about how they can save Durla, which gets Cham even angrier about everything wrong with his home planet. He swear to take the fight to the A.P. and take over from the Durlan hierarchy. The Legionnaires are surprised by his desire to lead and fight... well, most of them are surprised. I think Kinetix is still brain dead.

I know they were trying to do a lot with Cham this issue, but his personality flip flops so much that it's kinda hard to get a read on him. On one page, he literally goes from a touching moment with Sensor, a sad moment when one of the Living Weapons dies, to wanting to fight the Composite Durlans. It's pretty jarring.

Chapter 4: Brainspotting

Can I just point out right now how dumb it is that everyone keeps calling Salu Digby "Violet" when her super-hero name is now "Leviathan"? I should've mentioned it before, but I think I've just blocked her new name out of my brain and since ever Legionnaires, even the new ones, call her Violet, it's been pretty easy to ignore it.

This is a pretty 'meh' book as part of the Dark Circle Rising story, so I'll recap quickly.

Brainiac 5.1, Kid Quantum, and Leviathan (shudder) have gone to Colu to convince them that they shouldn't join the A.P. He enters the Coluan dream net, shows he's changed and is better, and they all agree to not join. They also show him his mother's face, continuing this long-running subplot.

On Winath, Spark and Triad hide out in one of Spark's old treehouses and then one of the Durlans attacks. He says he's not the Composite Man, and since we know there are many of these Durlans, that's not a surprise. They fight, the Legionnaires get the upper hand, and then McCauley uses his transporter and sends the three to... Colu, right beside where Brainy, KQ, and Violet are. Now that's a convenient coincidence. Brainy adds the Durlan to the dream net and his mind is overloaded.

We get a scene at the Dark Circle HQ, where the leader kills the Gil'Pan member for calling him irrational. Yep, that's how you prove you're not.

Brainy also sees, in the Durlan's mind, that the Time Trapper is connected to all of this and that they might be facing the end of time.

And the Dark Circle troops launch an attack on the U.P. troops surrounding Durla.

Considering I have spent months complaining that the Legion stories are going too fast and need to slow down, I find it ironic that this issue just feels like filler and they've slowed things down too much. The new editor is having a strong effect already.

Chapter 5: Time Out!

It's absolute chaos to start! McCauley's abuse of the Fires of Creation has led to the source becoming distorted and warped. So he shuts everything down, angry that the A.P. leader won't meet with him. I would argue that they're writing him as too much of an idiot, but I think we all know that just because you're rich, that doesn't mean you're smart.

All the Legion teams regroup and plan to use the stargates to get to Durla to assist. The battle is going crazy, everyone scared about what's going to happen... except for Kinetix, who still seems like she's smoked some incredibly potent North slope trip weed. (I have many, many more Kinetix jokes, so consider yourself forewarned... man, they are just wasting her)

Which is when all time stops. Or freezes. Except for Lori Morning. She's trying to use her dial, but then her older version appears and puts her to sleep, saying that it's up to the Legion to fulfill the Time Trapper's plan.

On Durla, the Legionnaires are still moving even though no one else is and Kinetix has come back to normal. Brainy explains his theory - that the Time Trapper has been training them to rescue time. And somehow, the Legionnaires not on Durla are in the time stream... so I guess they got sucked in off panel. And how do they know it's the Time Trapper? Because Karate Kid is frozen, too. He's in the time stream, but frozen.

Brainy sends two teams from the time stream to two different places. One goes to Durla to help smash stuff?? I think that's it.

The other two go to... anomaly-space, which again, I have no idea what this is or why they're there. The writers aren't even trying to make this make sense, are they? They quickly discover that the Time Trapper is split into shards and they need to rescue him to stop the time freeze. They are able to build stargates within this new space to try to restart time.

While they're doing this, the Composite Man, who was in their custody, is watching them and is stunned that they're working to help everyone with no personal agenda. It's much better than a dumb fight in anomaly-space (which I'm guessing is where the Fires of Creation collapsed, but no one has explained this, or how they got there, so I'm just rolling with it).

The Legionnaires end up arguing over who's going to put their life at risk to pilot the ship Brainy built that will restart time. But the Composite Man grabs the wheel (or joystick) and flies into the masses of Time Trapper shards. Brainy just lets him go because, I guess it's okay to let someone who has no idea what the plan is, or how it works, do the most dangerous part of the mission.

Time restarts, Lori is fine again, Tenzil finds her disc, Winema Wazzo gets the Gil'Pan to help find the Dark Circle leader, Kono and the Sklarians quit, the Khunds on Durla are all defeated, and the anomaly is gone. As is the Trapper. And the Composite Man, who dies from his injuries.

Wow - that was a complete and utter waste of the Fires of Creation... and why bring the Time Trapper back so soon?? And why did the entire Legion need to be involved when Brainy basically solved the whole thing is no time at all? And why stop Lori when she did literally nothing and couldn't have helped at all? Just baffling story choices here.

Chapter 6: The End

And for those of you keeping score, none of the cover copy matched the titles of the issues within. None. I mean, why even do it at that point?

We get three pages of recap to start this issue. I guess they weren't writing for the trades yet, were they? What's even funnier to me is that the recap didn't help make sense of last issue - I'm still confused as to why the Legionnaires were "unfrozen" in time when it was the Time Trapper (who should've been the one powerful enough to do it) who was disabled and split into millions of shards... which, now that I'm typing it out again, makes even less sense.

I'm sure there was a good idea somewhere in here, but they're struggling to get to it.

To Durla we go, where we get two more pages of exposition, explaining what's happened in the past issues, before Cosmic Boy disappears, leaving only a whiff of chronozone... I wonder what that smells like...

The Time Trapper has pulled Cosmic Boy into some other time, congratulating him and the Legion for learning their lessons and saving the universe. Again, I'd like to point out that without Brainiac 5.1, they would've accomplished nothing. And Cosmic Boy was barely involved in any of the Trapper's "lessons," but why would any of that get in the way? The Time Trapper offers a reward and, instead, Cosmic Boy attacks him. By shooting blue blasts at him. When did his powers work like this? To no surprise to anyone, the Time Trapper angrily ages him to a skeleton and then sends him back to Durla, completely unharmed. Which leads Cosmic Boy to say:

I was just summoned to an audience... with the Time Trapper. I think he expected me to kiss his feet. Maybe I should have... he'll never be out of our lives... I just made sure of that, God help us.

Look, I know they're young... and stupid... and maybe I want the Cosmic Boy who sat at a table with Mordru and negotiated, but he couldn't have done anything dumber if he tried. Worse, he knew he was an idiot the moment he got blasted back to Durla. Are the writers just trying to make Cosmic Boy the most idiotic Legionnaire?

In one page, the Dark Circle leader kills the entire council. Yep, five panels and it's done.

Then we learn that R.J. Brande shoots target practice. I did not see that coming. And the S.P.s launch an attack on the Dark Circle HQ, discover the dead council, but the leader is flying away in a "shipsuit." Another new word that makes no sense...

All the Legionnaires fly back to Earth in order to track down the Dark Circle's leader. So it wouldn't have made more sense to start the search when on Durla and in "deep space?" But before they go anywhere, Brainy frantically heads to Colu. Saturn Girl's taken charge again, so I guess someone remembered she's the leader.

What's even funnier to me is that one of the search parties just heads right back to deep space. I'm guessing the opposite side from where they were, right?

So we go to Colu, where Brainiac 5.1 has gone... somewhere... but they don't actually say where. He talks to someone, but they don't sat who... and then his mom shows up.

They search party finds the shipsuit (okay, can we start calculating the sheer impossibility of finding one person in space??) and M'onel scans it to find out it's, of course, empty.

In a twist that should surprise no one, Brainiac 4 (Brainy's mother) is revealed to be the leader of the Dark Circle and starts trying to kill her son by cooking him within his force field. Why is she doing it? To feel something. Anything. The only thing that makes her feel anything is murder, so why not kill her own child?

Suddenly, Gates, Spark, and Live Wire appear and blast the machine, saving Brainy. Gates smacks her, knocking her out, and they hook Brainy up to a medical machine to save him. Brainiac 4 heads off to a psych ward. Gates tries to chat with Brainiac, who's become a jerk again. Well, at least that's one thing that's back to normal.

Back at U.P. HQ, Saturn Girl, Sensor, and Chameleon are named Special Ambassadors for Diversity and Inclusion (don't know why Imra's on this list, but ok) and they're unsure how to get the planets that quit back into the U.P. So things aren't looking great, are they?

Wow - that was just not good in any way, shape, or form. The story was bad, the big "reveal" that it's Brainiac's mom came outta nowhere and made no sense. Nothing from the previous five issues came together and we ended up with a gigantic mess. Such a disappointment...

Why keep going? To get to the end of the Dark Circle story, of course...

We start by arresting the former president of Winath, whose brother was murdered by the Composite Man, for stealing billions of credits. Which is something that was never talked about before, just some vague thing that Triad found on Winath. Glad to see it's still paper currency in the 30th Century. The Legion goes undercover to "get a confession," which is really just scaring him into talking and showing the money. I would point out that, since he was carrying all the money on his person, the Legion didn't have to do anything at all... but I'm nitpicking.

We learn that the Legion has been deputized by both the U.P. and the reborn A.P., so I guess this will be a storyline for a while.

Then we go to Durla, where the rebuilding efforts continue and R.J. Brande will become the first U.P. President to speak there.

Back on Earth, Brainiac 5.1 is still dealing with the psychological and physical scars of his fight with him mother. He goes into the dining area and Gates tries his best to cheer him up. I know that something happened in the Fires of Creation, but I have no idea why Gates is so attached to Brainy now. It's yet another plot point that makes no sense because they've never even tried to explain it. It was as if they just said "Brainy needs a friend" and chose Gates.

On the Legion Outpost Allon, we learn that Dyrk is still thinking about XS, Star Boy has fiery burps, and Xanthu is recalling all of their Legionnaires because they're staying in the A.P. So Star Boy, Monstress, and Kid Quantum all have to go home... again... do we really need to go back to Xanthu so soon?

Spark brings Sensor's father to Durla to join her. And she gives Cham a big hug upon seeing him. Again, such a wasted story opportunity here. The king is there to announce Orando is rejoining the U.P. and is appalled that he was part of the biases and bigotry leveled against Durla. No concern about the slavery, though.

The former Composite Durlan, the sister, is now the new Spiritual Leader and her name is Leejah. She also has no powers because of the injuries she incurred.

Oh, and Saturn Girl is still a member of the Science Police. I'm guessing I missed something in the mini-series I had no desire to read...

Andromeda decides to stay on Durla... because she wants to...

We also finally clear up Sensor's feelings for Cham - she loves him as a friend, so her father doesn't have to worry about that anymore. Since Cham and Ayla are now so close together, the triangle that never was is done.

We end with Gates cracking a joke and making Chuck and Brainy laugh... so I guess all is getting better, right?

You know, not a bad way to wrap up this big story.

Just some quick thoughts about the mess that was the Dark Circle story:

• So many wasted opportunities, from explaining why other planets would leave the U.P., to showing the Dark Circle as actually being a threatening organization, to not having a completely stupid Time Trapper subplot, to actually making Brainiac 4 a credible threat
• So just to be clear - we have four writers and an editor on these books and they have no idea what's going on... Legionnaires completely disappear, characters do one thing one issue and contradict themselves the next... I don't think they ever had any sort of credible plan for what the Dark Circle actually wanted...
• If anyone can tell me what the Legionnaires were supposed to have learned on the Time Trapper's previous trips through time, and how it helped them in this story, you're a smarter person than me
• I've honestly never been a big fan of Dark Circle stories, but this was one of the worst...

Our next Legionnaire in the spotlight... Shrinking Violet!!

I have spent a lot of time talking about Shrinking Violet in this column and I don't mind spending more time here. I think I can safely say she's one of the most popular Legionnaires (and not just for u/JimboFett87) and with good reason. From the moment Paul Levitz took over the book in the 1970's, she's been a critically important team member and one of the best-written female characters in comics. I know this sounds somewhat hyperbolic, but let's look at all the different incarnations:

• When she first joined the team, they pretty much wrote her as shy and reserved and didn't give her much else to do. I think she basically existed as a counter to Colossal Boy and really just spent a lot of time in the background.
• By the mid-1970's, however, they were trying to do more and more with her. They actually spent time showing her romance with Duplicate Boy and she's the first team member to date outside the group (not counting Superboy or Supergirl). They introduced the idea of Imsk having issues with the U.P., another first for the team. They were expanding her back story and trying to make her more than just the shy one.
• But her kidnapping, rescue, and newly-found strength and toughness made her a completely different character and one fans could really get behind. I mentioned this before, but it was great to see her be the star of her own story and have agency in what happened to her. She wasn't kidnapped to make another character change. She changed herself. And her fighter attitude and aggression continued.
• When the 5YL stories started, she became one of the first LGBTQ+ characters in comics and her relationship with Ayla shocked audiences but then became of their favorite romances. I know, in 2024, this doesn't seem like a big deal. But in the early 90's, having a mostly male readership supporting and accepting this couple was huge.
• Even her SW6 version was given tons to do and didn't just sit around like the rest of them. Yeah, her dating Devlin was a little problematic, but she had a plot line. Most of the SW6 Legionnaires didn't. And she didn't turn into a jerk like a lot of them.
• In the PZH Legion, she was a crucial part of so many stories and was written so very well that it's no surprise that anyone who started reading the Legion with these books loved her. She was a real teenage girl, with real issues and problems. She was strong, determined, and a fighter. She was the star of probably their best story, the Emerald Eye saga, and carried the book on her back for a while.
• On the other hand, I think they probably dropped the ball on her a little and I get the sense that they didn't know what to do with her after she became "Leviathan." She, unfortunately, got moved into the background more often than not.
• I can't say I ever really enjoyed what they did with her in the Threeboot, but that might be just me. They made her tougher, but they took away everything else that made her interesting.
• If any character benefited more the Violet from being multiple writers' favorite, I can't think of one. You know that these writers wanted to do something with Violet and protected her. And that was true for more than 20 years.

And that's it for this week. Hope everyone enjoyed and please comment below!