Jet lagged and ready to go! Let's look at Legion Worlds #1 & 2

And I'm back, jet lagged but ready to go in the next chapter of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's (DnA) take on the DCU of the 31st Century. Fresh off the shocking events of the end of Legion Lost (Live Wire and Monstress dead and Element Lad revealed as the genocidal villain), the remaining Legion members have returned to their own part of the universe.

With sales better than they've been in years, DnA, different artists for each issue, and editor Mike McAvennie now reintroduce the rest of the Legion members with this six issue mini-series that explains what everyone else has been doing over the past year. Each issue focuses on one planet and the Legionnaires living there.

I have to be honest here - I don't know if this is the best way to do this. Wasn't the whole point of Legion Lost to get new readers to try out the series? Why do this? It just feels, before I even begin, like one of those horrible mini-series that DC and Marvel pump out that don't really go anywhere and can feel like a cash grab. Why not immediately jump into the new series and slow burn the reveals to get new readers up to speed? Or, and I know this sounds crazy, just have 8-page backups in the first 12 issues of the new Legion title to explain to the new readers who everyone is? Don't raise the price - consider it a "gift" to fans who are jumping onto this new title.

But that's why I don't work for DC... these ideas are crazy...

Let's begin!

Legion Worlds #1 

We begin, and this should come as no surprise, on Earth. Because why go into outer space when you're writing a galaxy-spanning science fiction book?

The artists this issue are penciller Yvel Guichet and inker Dexter Vines. Neither are newcomers to comics at this point, but Guichet is fairly new to the world of DC. He worked on the Harley Quinn special in 2000 which was her first appearance in comics. So this isn't an example of Legion editorial hiring unknowns. We've got some name talent on this series. Wow - did not expect this.

We start off above the atmosphere, where M'onel and Tharok are battling as they fall to Earth. The former leader of the Fatal Five has been upgraded tremendously and is giving the Daxamite a run for his money. Tharok breaks away and blasts towards Metropolis, hitting shipping cruisers and generally wreaking havoc. We learn the M'onel is working with the Science Police to stop him.

They crash together into buildings and the 31st Century's version of a highway and Tharok's left unconscious. Suddenly, a drone disengages from Tharok's body and flies away at speeds M'onel can't match. So he freezes it with his superbreath and picks it up. So his breath is faster than his flight? Got it. Doesn't make sense, but got it.

A newscast recaps the actions and it is kinda funny watching them post "links" all over, helping viewers get more information about what happened. On one hand, it's great to see that they were thinking towards the future and wanted to make things more "high tech." On the other hand, their high tech is already standard just 23 years later.

U.P. President Leland McCauley joins the broadcast, talking about how much better and safer the Earth is post-Blight, and leagues better than when R.J. Brande was running everything. Then they ask McCauley if he regrets disbanding the Legion of Super-Heroes. He does a nice job faking tears and says that 11 Legionnaires died to save the universe, eleven adolescents whose loss still affects him to this day. He says the Legion is passed and M'onel is part of his future vision to rebuild the Earth.

M'onel, however, knows that McCauley is a snake who he can't trust. But he is the democratically-elected leader of the U.P., so he follows him and watches over Earth. He flies to S.P. HQ to chat with Shvaughn Erin about Tharok and his new tech. While there, he meets Junior Science Police Officer Zoe Saugin (we knew her as Kinetix), they chat a bit about how she's doing and that Dyrk Magz (we knew him as Magno) is also an S.P. recruit on Braal. In one page, they pretty much turned Kinetix into an airhead chatterbox. Not how I would've done it, but at least she's alive, right?

Back to the problem at hand - the drone that came out of Tharok. It's sentient and may have been controlling Tharok to get to Earth. M'onel immediately assumes there's some big threat and when the S.P.s discover the drone communicating in a completely alien language, his fears are confirmed. Some other robotics come alive, start attacking, and M'onel is quick to the rescue.

The robotics are taking over officers, infecting their minds under the control of something called "Robotica." One officer named Dewar is dead, erased by the machines. Now we have our next big threat!

M'onel goes and talks to McCauley and we learn that Robotica isn't unknown - it's a distant robot invasion of the outer sections of the U.P. McCauley's advisor, Mr. Venge, agrees with M'onel that this threat is far more dangerous that McCauley believes. Venge? I guess we can just assume he's a bad guy as well, right?

M'onel then heads to the memorial for the Legionnaires who "died" saving the universe: Saturn Girl, Live Wire, Element Lad, Brainiac 5, Chameleon, Umbra, Monstress, Kid Quantum, Ultra Boy, ERG-1, and Gates. Gates?? Hmmm, he wasn't in Legion Lost. We have our first mystery.

Triad arrives and we learn it's been one year since they were lost. They talk about Kinetix and how they're not really surprised she didn't remember what day it was. Okay, let's just keep slagging her, right? Triad is now running Brande Industries, dispersing it because the President wants the company shut down, even as she fights him, legally, every step of the way. Triad tells him that she wants to talk about something important but M'onel is called away to something important.

As he heads off to face another object from Robotica, he knows what Triad wanted to talk about: Valor. More interesting subplots a coming, I think. Does he reveal to the universe that he was Valor and is viewed like a god on many planets? As he ponders what to do, he fights off the huge, evil machine and destroys it. More clues to what's coming with Robotica.

Just then, another vessel appears in deep space. The lost Legionnaires are back!

After the main story, we get an 8-page backup showing another side of Earth. Maybe I could be a DC editor... Olivier Coipel is back on art, which is a nice change of pace. I really liked Guichet's work on Harley Quinn, and some of the other books he's done, but this issue just didn't work for me. Coipel does a really good job on the short story.

We follow Triad back home and she starts watching the news. They're still covering the battle between Tharok and M'onel and, for some reason that makes no sense to me, Triad does open the links to get more information on the two combatants. They continue getting this background information and we learn more about the Legion, the Presidential Oversight Watch, and other bad news. We close out with the exciting news that the lost Legionnaires have returned!

And some more info we learned:

• The Presidential Oversight Watch is made up of M'onel, Mr. Venge, Repulse (from the Workforce), Brainstorm, Twine, and Abyss - I'll just assume that, aside from M'onel, they'll be villains working against the Legion
• McCauley Industries invented something called the "Footstep Drive," which allows ships to make short dimensional hops - so no more stargates
• They've built the Weisinger Interstellar Port - I know he was a very important editor in the history of the Legion, but can we stop naming things after him now that we know he was, to put it nicely, a horrible person?
• The Robotican threat continues, artificial life encroaching on U.P. borders - man, they're not being subtle about this, are they?
• A pandemic has hit Vyrgan, Gates' homeworld - that's not good, is it?
• And R.J. Brande has disappeared.

Lots of subplots being developed here and, hopefully, we're going to see them pay off well. Unfortunately, that's kinda what this book felt like - just a flimsy story that only existed to set up the future. Could we have seen more drama with M'onel working with McCauley? Could we have seen Kinetix struggle with becoming an S.P. trainee? In fact, does that choice vibe with anything we've seen about Kinetix? Wasn't she always about chasing power? So why would she just be a drone in the S.P.? Could they have done anything with Triad instead of just having a short story of her watching TV? Could we have seen the battles she's facing over Brande's company?

Legion Worlds #2 

Off to Winath we go, so I'm guessing we're going to get a lot of twin-related stories. Our artist for this issue is Enrique Breccia, an Argentinian who started in comics in the early 70's. He didn't start getting work in the US until 2000, so I guess he's an experienced newcomer?? He's probably most famous in North America for his work on Swamp Thing. Needless to say, he's a talented creator - McAvennie is bringing some great artists to this series.

We start the book as Ayla Ranzz returns home to Winath. It's taken her 6 months to get here now that there are no stargates. Wow... we finally get a sense of just how big the universe is. DnA have really embraced the sci-fi elements of this book, haven't they?

Ayla boards the shuttle to planetside alone, something that's an anathema to Winathians. But unlike last issue, the S.P.s she meets are impressed by who she is and impressed by what the Legion did a year ago. Glad to see that not everyone is happy the Legion is shut down.

We get a flashback to that horrible day when the rift collapsed and she lost Garth. Watching the Outpost fall into the rift and seeing how much she hurt when they lost the eleven Legionnaires was powerful.

I'm of two minds as to how DnA re-introduce Winath to the readers. On one hand, they obviously spent a lot of time thinking about what farming would look like in the 31st Century - climate controls, technological advantages, farming collectives to ensure farms don't shut down when something goes wrong. But do they need to always have farmers driving trucks and dressing like they're from a country song?

Ayla gets to Garth's grave and is met with a surprise - Mekt is there, too. He's out on parole, wearing a custody tag so his lightning powers are regulated and his medications are controlled. He's working on the farm now, with their parents, and trying to get better. She, still angry at Mekt crippling Garth, doesn't understand why they'd trust him. Okay, so I'm guessing we're getting the "Mekt redemption" issue that we've seen at least a few times by now.

A huge windstorm hits and Ayla rushes into action to save their neighbors - the Begz family. As the barn collapses around her, she uses her lightning powers to protect the children. Mekt arrives to help and Ayla is already suspicious. No surprise there, of course.

She realizes that the storms all started when Mekt came home, so she puts on her costume and rushes off to investigate. She watches Mekt get onto a shuttle to Outreach Tower and flies after it. And yes, it makes perfect sense that when you're following someone and you don't want them to know it, you'd wear your brightly-colored superhero costume.

At the tower, Ayla and Mekt discover that it's other families using the climate controls to damage other farms so they can make more money. She blasts them, knocking them unconscious, but it's up to the siblings to shut down the controls to save their family farm. They work together, stopping the disaster and saving everything.

Days later, Ayla gets the good news - the missing Legionnaires are back and the Outpost has returned. She wants to get a message to Garth and then Mekt blasts the gravestone, happy?? that his brother is back.

This was a much slower story than last issue and, thankfully, they didn't retell Ayla's origin. There were no real surprises and I really hope they keep with the Mekt redemption storyline moving forward. To be honest, I was hoping that they would've done something more... interesting... here. Like having any other Legionnaire join Ayla. Or having her homecoming be a little more complicated - it would have been far more interesting to spend some time showing that Winath wasn't her home anymore, that she had outgrown it, but Mekt was fitting in perfectly.

I really like Breccia's artwork and the way he handled facial expressions and layouts. As I said before, I wasn't a fan of everyone looking like they worked on a farm in Kansas in 1999, but I can see why they went for it. Unfortunately, it really undercut the feeling of this being a book taking place 1,000 years in the future.

In the second story, we get Dan Abnett writing alone and the artwork is by Darwyn Cooke... wow! That's a huge get, isn't it? We see Ayla's mom being visited by her twin sister on the Ranzz family farm. They clean up, chat about the past, talk about Mekt, Garth, and Ayla, and reminisce about the good old days. They talk about the struggles on Winath with the lack of housing and people losing their farms. This story happens before the previous one and it ends with Ayla returning home.

It's a great-looking story but, to be blunt, it really feels like a complete waste of 8 pages. We are introduced to two characters we've never seen before this issue and we'll probably never see again. They don't set up any future subplots (or I'm guessing they don't) and nothing of import happens. It's just a nicely written and drawn conversation between two sisters.

At the end of this issues, all I can think is this: they shouldn't have spent an entire issue on Winath. There just wasn't enough to do here, especially when you're trying to introduce new readers to all the Legionnaires they don't know or bring Legion fans up to speed. There are so many other planets they could've gone to and given readers a more exciting and important set of stories.

But Breccia and Cooke are brilliantly good, so focus on the pictures instead of the words here.

Our next Legionnaire in the spotlight... Dawnstar!!

Did you realize that the Legion only got three new members in the 1970's? Wildfire joined in 1974. Tyroc in 1976. And Dawnstar in 1977. That's it. And you could argue that they really only got two as Tyroc was never used and disappeared pretty quickly.

Full disclosure to start - Dawnstar is one of my favorite Legionnaires for a number of reasons, but one of the biggest ones is that she feels more "modern" than a lot of the Silver Age Legionnaires. Much like Wildfire, she could fit into any superhero team and doesn't need any updating or a new name. She also has a very interesting power set and incredible look. Mike Grell's design really stands up, especially with the over-sized wings, headband, and color choice.

What's most fascinating to me is that Dawnstar's origin story may be even more racist than Tyroc's and yet she hasn't gotten one tenth of the backlash Troy Stewart received. Just as how all Black people had moved to Marzal Island so the creators could explain why we never saw them in previous Legion comics, all Indigenous people left Earth and settled on Starhaven. And as bad as most people perceive Tyroc's costume, no one seems to have problems with Dawnstar's "throw some tassels on and call it ethnic" costume that was probably supposed to be animal skins in some versions. Just a cliched mess, right? Oh, and to make it even worse, when they first explained her powers, writer Paul Levitz said that she had developed her tracking and flight powers through selective inbreeding. Don't think they didn't retcon that as quickly as they could...

She was also the first Legionnaire to join for the money - she needed to get paid to help her home planet. Every element of her back story was unique from what we had seen before and it made her far more interesting than a lot of the characters who had joined before her. I mean, Chemical King died the issue before she officially joined the Legion and, for the most part, fans were more excited by her presence than saddened by his sacrifice.

Some other random points to consider about Dawnstar:

• She was the only Legionnaire to get pulled into the early issues Crisis on Infinite Earths, making her more well-known than any other Legionnaire to new DC readers. Having George Perez draw her for multiple issues didn't hurt her popularity either - I'm stunned DC didn't try to capitalize on this more... actually, maybe I'm not that surprised.
• Based on some interviews I've read/heard, I think she's always been an artist's favorite to draw. Greg LaRocque has said that he loved drawing her and he's not the only one. She has such a distinct look and such an uncomplicated costume.
• For everyone who looks back at the "will they/won't they" subplots with her and Wildfire with derision, I can only tell you this: this was one of the most compelling storylines in the Legion in the 80's and kept many fans enraptured. Yes, it's like a soap opera. Yes, it's over the top in many places. But readers cared about these two and wanted to see them together. Every barrier placed between them added to the drama and readers loved it. There's a reason why the first thing Geoff Johns and Brad Metzler did when they brought the original team back was to get them back together.
• There are very few moments in comics where I actually get angry at what the creative team has done with a character. For the most part, I accept that they're taking them on a journey and, whether I like what they're doing or not, I'm fine with it as long as it makes sense. What they did to Dawnstar in 5YL made me about as angry as I have gotten over a comic. Cutting off her wings was bad. Having her possessed by a bounty hunter was bad. But having her former teammates do nothing to try to help her? That was worse. I know that she was never that connected to Brainiac 5, but when they revealed that he knew Bounty was Dawnstar and did nothing... or that none of her former teammates even recognized her, that was the worst. For all the good things that came out of 5YL, moments like these sour the series for me.
• And then Dawnstar disappears for many, many years. Nothing in PZH. Shikari essentially replacing her - we'll talk more about her in a while. Again, like Wildfire, I cannot understand why the creative team would ignore two of the most popular members. As I mentioned before, if you were a DC comics reader in the 80's, you knew who Dawnstar was, for no other reason than her appearance in COIE. But since they were stuck in the 60's, we got more and more characters who hadn't been relevant in decades.
• I was just a little disappointed that we never really got to see Barry Kitson's take on Dawnstar in the Threeboot. I think he could have made her look amazing and she would have been a great character for the series. Yet another opportunity lost as she really only showed up once and just as a cameo.

You may have noticed that I'm not talking about anything following the New 52 reboot when I do these character studies. This is, honestly, because I'm waiting until I get to those series in these rereads to really dive into it. Sorry for this, but it's just easier for me to only have to keep track of 3 versions of the characters, not 5.

Please let me know your thoughts below - what did you think of Legion Worlds? What do you think of Dawnstar? Agree? Disagree? I always love to read your opinions here.

Until next week!