It's Splitsville as the two books take off in different directions! Plus another horrible annual! We look at LSH 84 - 86 and Annual 5 and Legionnaires 41 - 43

Before we get started, I wanted to talk a little bit about an interview I just listened to with Paul Levitz and Paul Kupperberg, two long-time friends who started working at DC Comics in the early 70's.

They mentioned three things that really stood out to me and because Levitz may be considered the best Legion writer of all time, I think it's applicable here.

First, they talked about how they got into comics at the absolute perfect time. I've read a number of books that talk about how certain peoples' successes are just as much a product of when and where they were born as it was their hard work. I'm not talking about nepo babies here, I'm talking about how they were extremely lucky to be interested in their field at the right time in history. In the case of Levitz and Kupperberg, they got into comics in the early 70's and they were fortunate because of so many factors:

• They lived in New York, where all the publishers were located
• They wanted to be writers, at a time when becoming a writer in comics was easier than becoming a penciller (you can argue that this has always been the case, but I think it's infinitely harder to be a comics writer now than then)
• Both big publishers were rapidly expanding their lines to get a higher market share, so they quickly needed more talent than they had
• Longtime comic creators were either retiring or were losing their fan bases as they weren't making comics that spoke to younger readers

For those of you who don't know the history, Levitz was 16 when he started getting freelance work from DC, 20 when he became an editor, and 22 when he became the editor of the Batman line of comics. He started writing the Legion at 21.

Levitz learned how to write comics before he could drink alcohol and learned from the best at DC. His early work on the Legion was, to be nice, less than stellar. But he learned on the job, got better, and took the opportunities he had and ran with them. Would anyone have that chance now?

Second, they both talked about how the business of comics resulted in a lot of work that was done to get the product out and onto newsstands without worrying about quality. I think we, as readers, tend to view and critique these comics as if the creators are always trying to put out their best work. The reality, especially with comics pre-1990, is that they're content creators and the content doesn't have to be good - it just has to be printed.

Third, Kupperberg talked about how the best year for comics is 11. When you're 11 years old, that's when you find your favorite comics and characters and you keep that for the rest of your life. I think that's true for everything - when you're a tween, you find your favorites and nothing will ever come close to that. I imagine that most of us, as Legion fans, probably found the Legion when we were in our early teens and that's why we love them. True? Anyone discover them at a later age?

I think this also explains why, for example, volume 4 of the Legion was written by writers channeling their inner 11-year-olds. And post Zero Hour writers did the same.

Anyway, let's get started with this week's issues:

I think this is the first time I've split up a story line between two columns so let's see if everyone remembers where we left off.

Shrinking Violet is now Emerald Violet and a villain.

Leviathan is dead.

Apparition is back and a ghost.

The Legion has been possessed and are all green.

Ultra Boy is still horrible at using his powers.

Let's jump back in, shall we?

LSH #84

I'm going to keep the stream of consciousness until the end of the Emerald Violet saga...

We start off with the Workforce, and Inferno is worried about what's going on with the Legion. Of all the Workforce members, she's the one who is most unlikely to care about anyone else but I guess XS slapping her last issue really changed her mindset. So she quits the team, melts her way through a wall, and goes off to save the day.

Has no one ever just walked out a door in this universe?

Now let's meet the Emerald Legion, the new version of all our beloved characters. The Emerald Eye is so powerful that not only is it able to change costumes, hair styles, and genetics (Gates becomes a completely different alien), it's also able to age the Legion about 10 years. Or it's just Lee Moder working his magic... The high point is M'onel getting Leviathan's old head wear. So is he Violet's new crush?

They witness a crime occurring on the streets of Metropolis so Violet changes the criminals into cartoon animals. What? What??

Apparition is the only one unaffected by the Emerald Eye and she's pleading with Ultra Boy to snap out of the trance he's in and start fighting back. I was wondering whether they might turn Apparation into some crazy hallucination by Jo and her mother, but this proves it - we have a ghost in the Legion. And Saturn Girl senses her as well!

On an aside, I'm not too sure if I'm happy with the return of Apparition, as much as I liked Phantom Girl in the original continuity. Her relationship with Ultra Boy was pretty cringe-inducing and her death was a giant waste of the character. If they continue making her unimportant, I'd rather they just let her stay dead. Let's see if they actually give her some agency and not just exist as one half of a badly-written couple.

Apparition flies back to Legion HQ for help (so she's not tied to Ultra Boy anymore?) and we, once again, break the laws of science. Shvaughn Erin, who you may remember was changed into a baby last issue, is now speaking in full sentences... as a baby... Okay what?

Then we get an amazing surprise appearance of Nura Nal, who had a prophetic vision of the Legion in an explosion and only half coming out. Of course, Marla ignores her as a crackpot and she's gone again.

Which is when Inferno arrives, again burning through a wall to the monitor room. How does she know where she is? How did they not notice her burning through other walls to get in? How many walls have been destroyed by "heroes" since we started this run? I know it's more dramatic, but Chuck will never be able to quit with all the damage around him. I guess working for the Legion as an "architect/repairman" is a guaranteed paycheck.

Saturn Girl is the only one free of Vi's mind control, so she starts probing for more information. Violet quickly realizes what she's doing, kicks her off the team (so she goes back to her own costume), and she has to face off against the others. They let her go, realizing her mind is too strong to be controlled (but not Brainy's??), and Violet transports them all into space. She reshapes a passing ship into an Eye-shaped satellite.

Saturn Girl gets back to HQ, says hi to Apparition, and then lays into Inferno for being "a strutting bully." I always like direct, blunt Imra. They decide to go fight Violet and the rest of the Legionnaires and they're taking baby Shvaughn into battle. Just let that sink in for a moment...

The Legion starts reshaping the Earth but there are fractures in the ranks. Gates' political beliefs about self-determination and how this is all Imperialism leads Violet to revert him back to an egg. The other Legionnaires aren't happy because she broke the group-mind and punished him when they could have just controlled him.

Gotta love the fact that Gates' mind is the second strongest on the team.

Suddenly Kinetix starts fighting with Violet, trying to take control of the Eye. She says that it's been feeding her power because the Eye knows she's the one who should have been chosen. With this distraction, Saturn Girl starts freeing the other minds and they start rebelling against the Eye.

Violet, in her anger, blasts Kinetix and almost kills her. This snaps her out of the Eye's control and she starts screaming that "it wasn't supposed to be this way!" She wants it all undone and she wants to go back in time and change everything.

There's a huge explosion and the Eye-satellite shatters into pieces...

This big event is what causes the two books to split and no longer be interconnected. So, to make things easier for me and for you to follow, I'm going to split this column into two parts. We'll start with the Legionnaires and then move to the Legion.

And, by the way, I'm not tied to this. If you'd like me to keep jumping back and forth, I'm more than happy to.

Legionnaires #41

This books stays in the 30th Century with half of the team as they try to navigate the future without 7 of their members. I've mentioned before that I like this creative team much more than the one working on Legion, so I've got higher expectations that they're going to make this work.

This issue is, essentially, a recap of what's happened before, an explanation of what's going to happen in the future, and the fallout from the battle with Violet.

Let's cover the basics:

• Live Wire is, once again, acting like he's been dating Saturn Girl for years and she's the only teammate he cares about. When he wakes up on the wreckage of the exploded Eye-ship, his only concern is whether Imra's okay. Also, in one of the weirdest moments of the issue, when he's presented with a chance to regrow his arm but at the loss of his powers, he thinks: "I wanted my arm back... I wanted to be a whole man again... for Imra. But now..."
• We're left with this team of Legionnaires: Live Wire, XS, Kinetix, Star Boy, Element Lad, Chameleon, Triad, Invisible Kid, and M'onel.
• R.J. Brande shows up on the UP Solar Fleet (why do they have a solar fleet? Why solar? Are they only protecting suns? Are they only protecting the Earth? None of this makes any sense) and is nice enough to exposition dump to explain everything. Rond Vidar spotted a massive chronal fluctuation in the explosion so they're certain the Legionnaires have been shot back in time. Of course, they're not going to do anything to look for them, but at least they know... kinda... that they're still alive. Shouldn't Vidar and Lyle immediately start trying to figure out how to make Brainy's old time platform work?
• There's some great bits of character work here, with Violet's regret for what happened, Kinetix's regret for not being able to save Vi and Leviathan, and XS frantically running around the world to try to find some sign of Cosmic Boy. She remembers kissing Rokk and how happy it made her feel and, even though she's completely wasting her time, she can't give up and let him go.
• We then go to Shanghalla for Leviathan's funeral. Brande gives the speech commemorating him and the team, and parents of the remaining teammate, stand and look sad. Why is this the first time we're seeing a Legionnaire buried here? Why didn't Apparition and Andromeda get buried here? Was it solely because the former UP President was trying to destroy the Legion? Was it because the writers knew neither of them were really dead?
• Winema Wazzo shows up where she's not wanted, again, and tries to recruit Gim's parents to try to end the Legion. But the Allons won't have any of this plan - they knew how proud Gim was of being a Legionnaire and they knew this was always a possibility. Gim's father says, "My boy was a soldier! He knew the risks!" I'm not sure this would be my take on losing my teenage son, but at least it's a counterpoint to Winema's insanity.
• We end the issue with half the team, plus Kinetix's mom and brother, grabbed by Mysa and teleported to some magical world. To next issue we go...

Legionnaires #42

This issue wraps up the long-running Kinetix as magic-user story in what I can best describe as the worst possible way to do it.

To be blunt, Zoe was far more interesting, both visually and power-wise, as a magic user who has access to information that she never should have known about. Yes, they went overboard with her crazed quest for power, but I think they could've done so much with her as a new sorcerer, slowly becoming more confident and comfortable with her powers.

The quick recap is this:

Mysa has kidnapped Kinetix, XS, Live Wire, Invisible Kid, and Kinetix's mom and brother (whose name is Thanot... no jokes here) to her planet so she can take Zoe's mystical powers back. In my mind, this should be simple because Mysa is the one who gave her the powers in the first place - couldn't she just take them away just as easily?

Nope - Mysa needs to use the Star of Akkos, which was last seen a year ago as the reason for Kinetix losing her original superpowers in the first place, to remove her current powers. And to make even less sense, this mystical artifact can take anyone's powers away, so Zoe is able to use it to threaten Mysa.

In case you're wondering whether Zoe's family have any other role than as hostages, we get a horrible information dump from the mother that reveals that Mysa and Zoe have been linked since before birth. When she was pregnant with Zoe, the mother found an injured Mysa and used another mystical artifact called the Scepter of Sybolla to return her to full strength and health. The power of the magic affected Zoe and that's why she had her superpowers.

So many questions here:

• How many mystical artifacts has Zoe's family had contact with? Are they all over the galaxy? How are they not more famous or powerful?
• Do all of these artifacts have to have alliterative names?
• How can Zoe's mom remember something from over 15 years ago with such clarity? I get that's it was a fairly big event, but come on, it's been 15 years. I barely remember yesterday...
• If Mysa and Zoe have this mystical connection, why wouldn't she want to help Zoe or train her to be a better sorcerer? Why just try to use her to find the Eye? Why not teach her and then face the Eye together?
• Is this the best they could come up with for a White Witch reboot?

So, because we're completely throwing out any sense of a good story here, Mysa agrees to return Zoe to "normal" by stripping her magic powers and giving her back her matter-controlling powers. So she could've taken her powers back all along and didn't need the Star of Akkos. This entire issue has been a complete waste of time.

This was one of those books where you can tell the writers just wanted to return everything to pre-Emerald Eye and didn't care if it made any sense, or improved the book, by doing so. It's a big miss.

The only good thing to come out of this issue is that they named Live Wire the new team leader.

Legionnaires #43

More stream of consciousness - I like doing this style so I'm going to jump back and forth.

It's Legion tryout day! Love these issues, especially for the characters with bad super-powers.

We have a Legion Plaza full of familiar faces. Give yourself one point for every character you recognize!

Lori Morning is complaining... again... because she doesn't have a power to become a Legionnaire. Tenzil doesn't seem to think he has a special power, either - not good if you're a Matter-Eater Lad fan.

We get our usual collection of bad costumes and character names before someone accidentally shoots her cat's paws at the crowd. Another Braalian, Dyrk Magz, uses his magnetic powers to stop them and Garth is already apprehensive about replacing Cosmic Boy. Kinetix tells him to be open-minded.

They cut down the numbers by saying they only want people with actual powers, not one's that are artificial. And at least a third of the crowd is gone. And Iron Man. And Batman. And, I guess, Karate Kid wouldn't be eligible. Not sure I like this new interpretation of the rules. I could make the argument that Brainiac 5 doesn't really have any super-powers either...

We go to Morgna Industries. where they're talking about how Dirk was cured and, who knows, in another reality, maybe he could've been a Legionnaire. So I guess the Emerald Eye's cure stayed for him but not for Garth. Wonder why... Also, why even introduce Dirk is you're just going to write him out this quickly?

We get our first group of rejected applicants - Radion, Blast-Off, and Polar Boy. McCauley and Spider Girl are outside, recruiting for the Work Force. Nice touch here. They take the first two and reject Polar Boy because he's short. Again, I know I've said this before, but I don't know why he's always rejected. He's got far better powers that at least two of the "finalists" we see later. Also, Spider Girl is already all over Radion, so we know she's... needy?? Flirty?? And over Jo.

And knowing where things are going, I had no idea the introduction of Radion and Blast-Off would be so important to my favorite Legionnaire, cause they seem pretty boring right now.

Brek runs into Lydda Jath (Night Girl), who went there just to meet Cosmic Boy and they start talking about how there has to be some other thing they can do to put their powers to good use. Love this - great way to start up the Subs as well.

Next we're introduced to Jeka Wynzorr of the planet Orando. She has illusion casting powers and thoroughly impresses the Legionnaires.

And Nura Nal arrives, with her precognitive powers. She immediately falls asleep (narcolepsy is part of her power) and she knows that she'll be rejected. Star Boy asks her out as she leaves and she says he's busy, but she isn't. He's confused, but so are we all.

We get Arm-Fall-Off Floyd (sorry, Splitter), which is a nice call back to the past. Somehow he's a finalist.

And then, Dragonmage. It's great to see them bring someone back from the volume 4 Legionnaires. It's also nice to add a little diversity, as he's from the New Shanghai colony. Well, it mighta been, but Live Wire rejects him immediately because they don't want another sorcerer. Which is a bizarre take after what happened with Mysa and the Emerald Eye.

Oh, and Stone Boy is rejected.

We get our final five: Dyrk Magz of Braal, Floyd Belkin of Lallor (Arm-Fall-Off Floyd? Really?), Tasmia Mallor of Talok VIII, Cahvey Cannus (dog guy) of Sirius Station, and Jeka Wynzorr, Princess of Orando.

Suddenly, the Legion are attacked by some fish-looking creature, blasting everyone and knocking out most of the Legionnaires. Cahvey runs in terror. Floyd splits and can't help. Dyrk rushes into action, Tasmia uses her darkness powers, and Jeka rushes into the black bubble, wrapping the villain up in the form of a snake.

We see it was a test to see how the applicants would react and the alien was Cham. And that the snake is Jeka's true form. She's not a pretty humanoid. And one of the Legionnaires thinks she's gorgeous, but since the word balloon isn't actually pointing to anyone, we don't know who said it. Pretty sure it's Cham.

The new Legionnaires emerge with new costumes (and arms) and new names: Magno, Umbra, and Sensor.

Just an aside on the new Sensor. I have to be honest, when I first read this issue, I was not happy with what they did to Projectra. For me, the Jeckie/Karate Kid romance and marriage was one of the strongest couples in the old continuity and this felt like they were completely throwing that possibility away.

However, as I've gotten more and more adjusted to this, and stopped saying "This is not MY Legion", I've come to see this as a good idea. I like having more non-humanoid characters and having different "looks" to the team. The Legion is always one of diversity and alien races. And I can't say that the Legion should have more alien characters and then complain when they actually do it.

Okay, that wraps up the Legionnaires this week. Let's see how the Legion is doing in the 20th Century.

LSH #85

I spent a lot of time complaining during the Emerald Violet story that it felt so rushed and it would've been nice to slow down and let the story breathe a little. Now that the team has been teleported to the 20th Century just in time for The Final Night, I see why they had to rush. They had to make sure their books lined up with this story so they could get a sales bump.

Also, Final Night can't really exist without the Legion. They are going up against a Sun-Eater.

Oh, and that sales bump was very, very real. Pre-Final Night, both books were selling under 20,000 copies a month. Final Night pushed the Legion to around 33,000 and Legionnaires to about 27,000. They would stay above 20,000 for the next two years.

I would make the argument that they should have flipped the books as Legionnaires was a stronger title with a better creative team, or replaced Lee Moder before Final Night to help them even more, but considering the sales declined slowly but steadily, I'm not sure if anything would've helped. They added almost 50% new readers without a change to the creative team. Splitting the books into two separate stories worked too.

We're back in the 20th Century with six Legionnaires (plus a ghost, an SP officer, and a Workplace member) suddenly appearing over Metropolis. Luckily, Shvaughn Erin has returned back to her own age... although I'm not gonna lie, I would've really enjoyed the amazing adventure of baby Shvaughn.

We have Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Spark, Brainiac 5, Ultra Boy, Gates, Apparition, Shvaughn Erin, and Inferno. Why Inferno? Honestly. Of all the Workforce members I wanted to see more of, she's definitely at the bottom of the list.

They appear in a green bubble, which is the Emerald energy that pushed them back through time. Gates starts teleporting the Legionnaires out of the green bubble and, once everyone's out, they realize that Shvaughn doesn't have a flight ring. It's almost like a Wile E. Coyote moment as they're all hanging there, she realizes she shouldn't be flying, and she starts falling. Luckily Jo is still carrying Apparition's ring, so he gives it to her. I don't know how Inferno is flying because she wouldn't have a Legion flight ring either, but let's not think to hard about anything that's going on here.

To make things easier, ghost-wise, Saturn Girl links everyone's minds so they can all see Apparition. So that's covered. I would've loved to see Gates respond with a "Who is she?"

This first issue just shows the Legion chasing after the green bubble they were in, trying to capture it and see if they can use it to get back to the 30th Century. It's badly written and doesn't work at all. Let me explain why:

• The last time the Legion went back to the 20th Century, to crossover with Superboy's book, they spent a bunch of time dealing with the language problems. They wrote all of the Legion's dialogue in Interlac and really stressed how much of an issue this is. Here, everyone speaks English and most of the Legion acts like they can understand English. Then Brainiac 5 just presses something on Spark's telepathic earpiece and suddenly everyone can understand everyone else. Again, Shvaughn and Inferno don't have the earpieces, or would have different ones, right? Or would everyone in the 30th Century have one? Also, that's the solution? Just one press of a button?
• Inferno keeps blasting things and people with no concern about whether she's going to kill them or not. Brainy gives her bad news so she engulfs him in fire - good thing he's got a force field. I know they're trying to show conflict, but how can you work with a super-powered destructive psychopath?
• Time and logic are, once again, ignored for story purposes. On one page, we see the Legion about to enter the sewers and then the Special Crimes Unit (SCU) reacting to these new, alien beings in Metropolis. On the next page, the Legion are down in the sewers and they meet up with the SCU troops, fully-armored up, and ready to fight. Basically, the SCU are faster than Superman.
• Speaking of Superman, I had completely forgotten that he had long hair at this time, so that was a surprise. Also, he had the most bizarre reaction to meeting the Legion that I could've possibly imagined. He recognized them, but knew them by different names since he had met them pre-Zero Hour. So he was expecting to see Lightning Lad. Instead of a normal reaction, like, "Wow! The future is completely different! What's going on?", he just thinks "Oh well, the timestream changed more than I thought. No worries..."

The only thing I did like was the way the Legion reacted to some things in their past, like their revulsion at people eating dead animals and their belief that a part of a support wall was actually The Great Wall. Those were nice touches.

But, at the end of it all, this issue just exists to get the team into the 20th Century so they can help with the next big story: The Final Night.

LSH #86

One thing I've never understood with the Legion is when they bring back the dumbest parts of the book as some sort of nostalgia trip. In my opinion, and I know most people won't agree, I think there are two stories in Legion history that are just silly on so many levels that they should be ignored/rewritten for modern audiences:

• The team holding lightning rods to kill a team member and bring Lightning Lad back to life
• All of Ferro Lad's backstory and his sacrifice to kill the Sun-Eater

We'll talk about the lightning rods many months from now. Let's focus on the Ferro Lad story now.

I honestly think the whole Ferro Lad story only works in the 60's. The idea that someone is so ugly, so deformed, that no medical techniques can fix him just doesn't make sense today or back in the 90's. We have Dr. Gym'll talking about regrowing Live Wire's arm - wouldn't they be able to regrow Ferro Lad's face?

Also, and thankfully this is addressed this issue, the idea of letting a teenage boy fly a bomb into a Sun-Eater to kill it just makes no sense at all. Especially with drones, remote-controlled space ships, and superheroes who are far stronger than steel.

I get its place in Legion lore, and I get how powerful that sacrifice was, especially to readers in the 1960's, but I feel like it's a story that's best left to the past.

And yes, I fully expect to get a ton of comments telling me how wrong I am. Please don't hesitate.

 

One of my biggest problems with the Legion being back in the 20th Century to fight a world-ending threat is actually kinda addressed in this issue. They know, for a fact, that the Earth isn't destroyed because they lived on the Earth 1,000 years from now. So there really isn't any credible threat for them.

Since this is post-Crisis, we also know that there isn't a multiverse. So the team hasn't jumped back to an alternate past and this Earth could be destroyed. They're in their own past. They know they'll beat the Sun-Eater. This is why Shvaughn and Ultra Boy are so positive they'll succeed. Wow, never thought I'd see Jo be the smartest Legionnaire in this timeline.

To even further show they'll succeed, since Superman met a different version of the Legion in the future, which also survived to the 30th Century, they know have two examples that show they'll defeat this foe.

I know that this is one of the basic problems with comic books elevating threats. We, as readers, know that they'll succeed and there's no way the Earth with be wiped out. But if the characters know that as well, you really lose the suspense of the story.

Since all the main action is happening in the Final Night mini-series, we get more of the Legion adjusting to life in the 20th Century:

• Saturn Girl can't handle the toxic emotions of people at this time, especially Lex Luthor and Kyle Rayner (seriously, why did they write him as such a jerk to Ferro?)
• Gates can't understand how there can be homeless people and, more importantly, how Ultra Boy and Ferro can just stand around and let them stay there
• Brainy can't understand shopping for low-tech parts
• Spark can't understand that Imra can date Rokk and it's not a betrayal of her brother because Garth and Imra never dated... ever... and he can't claim a girl's loyalty just because he liked her... I mean, this is actually getting kinda toxic...

In fact, we finally get the Rokk and Imra kiss that we've been waiting for. At this point, I'd prefer these two being a couple and let Garth and Ayla deal with their jealousy.

This book ends with the cliffhanger of Superman planning to fly the spaceship carrying the force field that's going to protect the sun from the Sun-Eater and Ferro looking dramatically at the audience and we have to read Final Night #4 to figure out what happens next.

LSH Annual #7

We're into the Legends of the Dead Earth. I honestly have no idea what the premise is for this or why I want to read about this, but since it's Wildfire, I'm in... let's just hope they don't screw this up.

We start off with Wildfire leading a team of, I'm going to guess new recruits to something. He hands them flight rings and says they're all Legionnaires now. But as we head up into the sky, there are already some cracks. The recruits don't like each other, even though they're facing some unknown threat that blows up stars.

They warp somewhere into space and end up in front of a big ship. The battle starts, the new team starts fighting amongst themselves and get killed. Wildfire gets blasted from behind and the big cannon destroys a sun.

Membrain, the only newcomer who survives, grabs Wildfire's energy and the flight rings and heads back to Rimbor, which is where their headquarters are located. They decide to go back through Wildfire's memories to see if he can remember something from the past that can help destroy this big cannon. We see that his origin is still the same and he was in love with XS. So no Dawnstar in this timeline? But he figures out how to win, so Wildfire flies to Durla to get two Durlans for the battle.

We move to the future, where now he's recruited two of each hero - from Braal, Cargg, Renii, and Durla. He's also recruited teenagers this time, just like the Legion. I guess he didn't do that before. They start training and getting ready for an attack that happens every 100 years.

Instead of waiting another 100 years, the bad guys want to destroy Rimbor's moon now, because that's where the Legion HQ is...

Okay, why would he recruit a new team, knowing that they couldn't fight for 100 years? And Wildfire wanted them all to have kids - is his plan to raise the children to be warriors so 100 years from now they could beat the cannon? Does anything here make any sense? Oh, and that was his plan... just... ugh... he wanted these heroes to have babies, who would then have babies, and then their babies would fight. Does he not realize that he'd need more recruits to make babies not genetically connected so he wouldn't have to deal with inbreeding? Is this the dumbest plan I've read in a while?

We suddenly realize that they're not facing robots, they're facing Durlans, so they've already lost two of their team. But the battle starts and Wildfire flies into the cannon. Since we're running out of pages, we don't actually see any of the fight - we just see that he's destroyed the cannon.

So, honestly, none of his plans actually worked and the team didn't actually end up fighting anyone. The team just turned around, knew that Wildfire got in, and then boom. Wow this was dumb.

Wildfire makes an impassioned speech about why the United Planets are good and the Legion is, too, and we're mercifully done. This wasn't Jamm level bad, but it was close. Just a complete waste of paper and any fans of Wildfire would be disappointed by just how stupid the story was.

This was... meh... Mike Collins is the artist and he's really just nothing to get too excited about. I think the two inkers, Mark Farmer and Robin Riggs, really saved this issue.

 

Our next Legionnaire in the spotlight... Superboy!

 

What do you think of Superboy as a Legionnaire? We're not talking about any other version of the character, just how he was handled in the Legion. My comments are all about Kal-El Superboy, not Connor.

• I really waffle back and forth between wanting him on the team and preferring when he's not there. You can't argue that, from a sales standpoint, having Superboy on the team brings more readers to the book. So that might be the best reason to keep him.
• I think, unfortunately, he became a bit of a crutch for the team through many incarnations and the writers would just use Superboy as the way to resolve every problem. Instead of the Legionnaires having any agency, they just stood around and watched Superboy fix every mess.
• One of the worst parts of having Superboy on the team is that you really can't do anything with him. You can't have him change. You can't pair him up romantically with a Legionnaire. You can't put him through any sort of emotional or ethical quandary. He's just there. He's essentially a less-interesting M'onel.
• When you think of some of the most important Legion stories, Superboy is part of them, even after he left the team. I think of some of the most iconic Legion images, like Superboy and Supergirl punching Darkseid, or Superboy's funeral, and you have to agree that his presence is key.
• On the other hand, some of the best Legion stories came once he was gone and, if you consider the Levitz/Giffen or the post Zero Hour runs the best the Legion ever was, there's no Superboy.
• I always thought they should've done more with Superboy being able to cut loose in the future. He didn't have to hide his identity, he could be himself more than he could in the 60's, and he could use all of his powers at their strongest. I would've loved to have seen a story where Superboy seriously considered just moving to the 30th Century on a full-time basis.
• I also would've liked to have seen a Legionnaire with a negative opinion of Superboy. Let's be honest, if I was Bouncing Boy, I'd pretty much hate Superboy and want him to stay as far away as possible.

 

Thoughts? What do you think of Superboy on the Legion? What do you think of the Legion in the 20th Century?