We're at issue #100! Too bad the first part couldn't be as good as the second - we look at Legion #99 and 100 and Legionnaires #56 and 57!

Hello everyone!

I'm back after an epic road trip, refreshed and rejuvenated. Who am I kidding? I'm more tired than I was before. But I saw some great things and, sadly, spent way too much money. So let's jump into this slightly shorter version of my usual missives.

LSH #99

We rejoin the battle against C.O.M.P.U.T.O., or Computo as I will refer to it, with one of Triad's personas possessed by the evil machine and only Spark left standing against it.

We're also dealing with the second part of the Apparition/Phase reboot of a reboot as the two heroes from Bgtzl are trapped in a touchstone and facing each other for the first time.

We have another guest artist, which I can understand as Lee Moder has to do more pages for the big 100th issue. But I still can't figure out how the editor is assigning these pages. Derec Aucoin (who's another artist who's better than Moder) first handles all the Apparition and Ultra Boy pages, which makes sense as he's handling the backup story. But then his pages just start appearing in the Computo battle. I'm not too sure why they did it this way but it does throw off the flow of the story.

Another irritating thing they do here is call in Robin, Superboy, and Impulse for help. Why is this irritating? Because they take over the book. After a certain point, the Legion just become backup characters in their own story. I get that the writers won't get to "play" with these characters in a couple of months, but that doesn't mean they should just put them front and center and let them dominate.

By the time the book is over, nothing much has happened with Phase and Apparition (well, it looks like they kinda merged and then the story is dropped on page 8. Cosmic Boy has also been taken over by Computo, so both he and Triad are the big threat to the Legion. Computo has taken over the computers of the world and is planning on killing all humanoid lifeforms.

And the story continues in Action Comics #741. Which I won't be reading. So let's hope they explain everything next issue.

Some side points here:

• Shvaughn's diary and notes about the Legion comes back to haunt them as Computo's read them all and knows everything about the Legionnaires because of them. The Legion is automatically angry at her and wants to blame her for... doing her job? I mean, did none of them think the SP officer assigned to them wouldn't take notes? Also, why would you take notes on an old computer, knowing that there would be no way to carry that data to the future?

• Brainiac 5 goes full sociopath here. Triad's in danger and could die in a few hours, Computo has literally taken over a nuclear power plant and transformed it into a battle cruiser, and he's more excited about talking to it and using it to get back to the future. No empathy, no connections with people he's been with for a while, no concern for the planet Earth as a whole. I mean, at this point, wouldn't the Legion just kick him out if and when they get back to the 30th Century? Would anyone trust him ever again?

• Worst line of the issue, from Ultra Boy, of course: "Tinya! I know you're alive, honey... 'cause I still am, and I couldn't live without you!" Wow... I know they often say comics are just soap operas in spandex, but I think soap opera writers would be embarrassed by that line.

Legionnaires #56

It's the first issue of 1998 - wow, time is just flying here. I've also gone back to reading these in publishing order because the events of this issue do tie into the next LSH issue. And since we're about to return everyone back to the future, I think it just makes sense.

This issue is a spotlight on M'onel, with a bunch of bubbling subplots. If you like M'onel, you'll like this issue. If you want to see almost any other Legionnaires, you'll be a little disappointed.

For the first 6 or 7 pages, we recap everything that's happened since M'onel (or Valor) returned from the stasis zone and became a Legionnaire. I quite enjoyed seeing the different responses from XS (who knows what happened) and Monstress (who doesn't), and although the recap went on probably 2 pages too long, it did help place everything down in writing and make some sense of the Valor worship in the 30th Century.

But M'onel can't stay on Earth, frustrated by all these beings worshiping him, and heads off into space. Where, of course, he runs into the Khunds. First he saves a bunch of light aliens and then heads to Daxam, where the Khunds are trying to recruit them into their empire. He breaks off a recruitment speech by talking about past Khundian aggression, and then fights off a bunch of them with the last bits of his power. The Daxamites reject the Khundian offer (strange that it's only happening in one place) and tell them to leave. They also tell M'onel to leave as well. They are a completely isolationist world who want nothing to do with anyone from off-planet. I guess that explains all of my past problems with Daxam - they're in hiding. Of course, that would make them even more dangerous to the U.P., right?

The big reveal, however, is that every other Legionnaire has disappeared. Yes, I know it makes no sense that a temporal disruption would only affect the Legionnaires on Earth, and then it wouldn't grab M'onel, who literally has the most temporal energy of any member of the team. But they needed to keep him there for some reason (probably didn't want him going back to the 20th Century) so this is what they did.

We also see that the space station, now named Legion Outpost Allon, is operational and Dyrk Magz, formerly Magno, is going to be manning it. He and Chuck Taine chat a bit about why he's there and what they'll do moving forward. I do really like that the Legion has created this whole support team of these two, Tenzil, and Dreamer. It's good to see that the team isn't just made up of the heroes.

The other big reveal is that the Dark Circle are the group behind the Khunds. They're making their play to take over the universe after learning from the mistakes of the White Triangle and Mordru. I'm not sure why they could learn from Mordru's mistakes. But anyway, it's nice to see a long-time Legion foe start to make waves in these books again.

Look, let's be honest - this is a fill-in book that's just marking time until the entire team is back together. We get some great artwork from guest artist Todd Nauck. This is one of his first jobs in comics and, although you can tell he's young and still finding him way, you can see the energy and enthusiasm he's bringing to the pages. I think he would've made a great artist for the Legion book, opposite Jeff Moy. But, of course, that's not going to happen.

LSH #100

Before I get into the issue, let's just talk about how insane it is that this is the only time the Legion has had a 100th issue. They've had a 300th, but that was Superboy's book first. They've had a few 50's. But only achieved 100 once. For a super team that's been around for so long, that's just crazy to me.

The main story is the final showdown with Computo and the resolution of the Apparition reboot. Computo has taken control of all communications and computers in the Northwest, preventing anyone from calling 911 and rerouting air traffic. Some members of the Justice League are now helping, so the Legion has some heavy hitters to try to stop the vicious computer.

Brainy is in a funk, unsure of how to stop Computo, so Triad reminds him that he's the one who can save everything. He starts getting back to work and we see that Brainy's placed a forcefield around the Legion computers so they won't be taken over by Computo... so why doesn't he place forcefields around Computo itself to limit it to the being it's possessed? We also learn that they only have a few hours before the time portal collapses and they can't get home. And that Cosmic Boy has ordered the Legionnaires to clean up their mess before heading back to the future.

The plan they come up with? Fire off an electromagnetic pulse to disrupt Computo. I've seen this before, in Ocean's Eleven and Goldeneye, and you can't tell me that a Responsometer (the Metal Men's computer) or a Mother Box (the other part of Computo that's built by the New Gods) would have the same weakness as a computer made in the late 90's. Of course, Robin's idea was to create a virus, which we've also seen in Independence Day... so the writers aren't really reaching for anything new, are they?

In case you were wondering, and I was because I don't think we've seen the time portal before, it's literally a huge hole is space and time, floating over Metropolis. And Superboy is flying beside it, making sure no one gets in or out. So let's get this straight - there's a literal hole in time over the biggest city in the DCU, which is populated by both heroes and villains, and no one's trying to get through it?

Also, why was there no reference to this in Legionnaires?

Back in the subplot, Tiffany Cross (the psychic who can see into the touchstone where Apparition and Phase are trapped) is trying to figure out what's going on. But not before Shvaughn is able to awkwardly drop some exposition explaining why she was wrong keeping notes on the Legionnaires and doing her job. Tiffany enters the touchstone and sees the merged Apparition/Phase.

Back in the real world, they've figured out their plans and Triad (the remaining two) have come up with team assignments. And they're looking rather suspicious, so we can only assume something bad is coming.

In the touchstone, we get the truth revealed in a one-page, no text, memory recap of what really happened with the girls from Bgtzl. From what I can make out, their father is a Carggite, fell in love with Winema Wazzo, prayed to the Luck Lords for help, had triplets, gave two of the babies to the Lords, and then it gets confusing. I could have this completely incorrect, so please correct me in the comments. I think it's this:

• Winema raises Apparition, apparently not knowing she gave birth to triplets

• One of the three becomes a casino dealer and then is taken by a fire demon

• Phase gets sent back to the past and trades places with a Durlan (which was originally R.J. Brande but who knows what's happening now)

• The casino dealer is still with the fire demon (which I'm guessing will be a future story)

Is any of that right? Does any of this make sense? Shouldn't all three of them be long dead since Carggites can only be separated for short periods of time? Sorry, but I hate, hate, hate this reboot.

To the South Pole we go, where some of the team (and the Martian Manhunter) are ready to plant the electromagnetic pulse rod. Of course Computo/Cosmic Boy shows up to interrupt the plan. They battle and a new Legionnaire, a secret member called the Weirdo Legionnaire, shows up to fight. But it's actually Iron, the Metal Man, who takes over and removes Computo's suit from Cosmic Boy. Even though the suit is gone, Computo still controls Cosmic Boy's mind (I'm guessing he's the easiest mind to control, judging from past events) and they have to keep fighting. Imra gets rid of Computo, cursing the fact that she has to enter Cosmic Boy's mind again (glad she's showing some bits of regret here) and they defeat the computer. I'm not sure how much of this actually made any sense, and I think they've just, once again, given a character a power they didn't have before, but let's move on.

The next big reveal is that all the Triads are mentally linked and Computo is in control of all of them. So, logically, you'd expect them to do something with this Triad and try to get more info, right? Or restrain her so she can't do anything. Or knock her out so she can't tell the other Triads what's happened. Right? Nope. Luckily Cosmic Boy still remembers everything and they know the next target is the time portal.

To the time portal they instantly go (because time doesn't matter to the Legion), and Cosmic Boy flies through it, leading the rest of them to wonder what he's doing. We all know, don't we?

To the North Pole, where they're trying to plant the other rod. Ultra Boy gets blasted, which we saw multiple pages ago in the touchstone. So I'm guessing they're not stuck in time? Or can see the future?

Anyway, Apparition bursts through Ultra Boy to save him. No idea what happened to Phase, but who cares? She's not a star of this book, right?

With the rods in place, Superman (this is the electrical Superman - remember him?) blasts the world and Computo blasts him back. At least, I think it's Computo.

And, luckily for Computo, the Legionnaires had stopped fighting it for a few moments but the battle is back on. And Tiffany has magically appeared as well. No worry about the fact that she'll freeze to death in minutes...

But the cavalry arrives. Cosmic Boy got the rest of the Legion from Earth (which now makes sense why M'onel didn't make it) and they're all ready to attack. Sensor then uses her powers to confuse Computo, making it see the Legionnaires using the "wrong" powers. As it's distracted, they implant a virus into Computo and it shuts down. Superman blasts it one time for good measure and they reunite the three Triads.

We get a nice double-page picture of everyone chatting, happy the battle is over. We learn they're going to leave Inferno in the 20th Century (did no one learn anything about time travel?) so she can enjoy her mini-series and then, I'm guessing, completely disappear from DC continuity. I'll take a look at that mini-series next week... not looking forward to it...

And they fly back to the future, taking Ferro and Koko with them. Brainy yells that it's not fair and I have to agree.

And so ends the Lee Moder experience. I really wish it had been better and I'm not sad to see him go.

For better art, we turn to the next story, where Alan Davis draws the tale of Ferro's first Legion mission. It's a nice short story as Ferro tells what happened to a stranger and reveals that Medusas are real (not Greek myth) and even exist on Imsk. Look, it's not the smartest story in the world, there are huge plot holes, but it looks beautiful and I was so happy to see Davis draw more Legionnaires that I didn't care.

The next story introduces us to Jason Pearson, the new Legion penciller. This is a great "day in the life of" story that focuses on the team being back together and moving into the new Outpost. I'm not going to try to recap everything that happens here, but the focus is almost completely on the relationships of the team. My only gripe is how Chameleon and Sensor have so much chemistry but they're not ready to give up his crush on Spark... or whatever she's called now that her powers have changed. Art-wise, I'm not that impressed but it is better than Moder. So I have somewhat high hopes.

I'm going to skip the Brainiac 5 dream story and move to the one I'm most interested in:

Paul Levitz writes and Walter Simonson and Bob Wiacek provide the art for the final story in the book.

Andromeda discovers something they call the Fires of Creation, a mystical, almost religious place deep in the cosmos. Her image then begins appearing in Legion Plaza (so I guess they're not staying on the Outpost) and calls for M'onel to join her. Which he does... heading off to parts unknown in a quest for some sort of cosmic truth. In this 12-page story, they blow away everything the regular creative teams did before, both story and art-wise. I don't know where they're going with this and I don't trust the current creative team to make this work, but let's see what happens.

Legionnaires #57

We're back to the old continuity, where the stories flow from issue to issue now that we're no longer in the 20th Century. This issue sets up a lot of what's going to happen in the future (you woulda thought that would've been done in issue 100, but what do I know?) so let's recap:

• Brainy is leading a team to investigate the Fires of Creation from issue 100. He's bringing Umbra, Kinetix, and Gates along with him. Of course, XS is not happy that Umbra is going to see M'onel and not her, so Cosmic Boy offers to join her for some food to make her feel better. So we've just completely forgotten that Cosmic Boy was, in fact, in love with Imra and is just calmly and rationally okay with the next story point:

• Also, why are they letting Brainy do anything? He literally created a supercomputer that was ready to kill 20th Century Earth. And didn't regret it... why aren't they investigating him?

• Saturn Girl and Live Wire head to Titan so Imra can finally figure out why Aven placed the telepathic barriers on her mind that we destroyed in the 20th Century. For Garth, this is a chance to hang out with the girl he's in love with (which, again, they've never shown at all and, at best, he's got a crush on her) and she gets to find the truth. We get some extended telepathic conversations and it looks like she's going to keep training with Aven to get stronger.

• Spark is hiding something regarding her powers and looks like she's struggling with something. Dr. Gym'll thinks she's hiding something, but Imra's doesn't agree. Subplot, right?

• Apparition doesn't want to talk to her mom, especially now that she's found out that she has a twin... who's still in the touchstone, I think... and if they're twins, then why make her father a Carggite? And where's the third one? Wasn't that part of the memories? Doesn't she know she's missing a sister? None of this makes any sense...

• Ferro can't be fixed, even with 30th Century medicine. Wow... now that's a horrible disfigurement and, to be honest, just stupid.

• The United Planets meet and call the Sklarian thieves to their chambers to talk about why they were attacking them. Yep, cause that's how governments work. No surprise, the Sklarians break out of their chains, start shooting up the place because the Science Police are incompetent buffoons, and Invisible Kid knocks them all out. Then, once back in custody, some unseen force kills all the Sklarians before they can reveal who's behind their actions... But we know who it is - the Dark Circle.

• And finally, the Legion Espionage Squad is back, adding Sensor to the mix. They're charged with figuring out who's behind these attacks.

I know this is never going to happen, but it just would make so much sense for Cosmic Boy to snap at some point, any point, during any of these events. This guy's gotta be going crazy right now.

 

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

 

This will be short and we'll talk about Andromeda next week. I only want to talk about Supergirl the Legionnaire, not anything else she's done. We're kinda talking about two runs - the original and the Threeboot versions.

• For me, the only Supergirl/Legion stories that matter are the Great Darkness Saga run that moves into the 300s of the second volume. She came to help fight Darkseid, stayed for a bit, distracted Brainy, and then went home when she realized it wasn't the same Legion she remembered. I would imagine that would be completely true for her - the Legion had so dramatically changed by this point that there wouldn't be much she'd see as the same. They were older, more battle-hardened, and were a product of the 80's. Supergirl was still stuck in the 60's or 70's and didn't really have a place anymore.

• Now I say that the 60's Legion/Supergirl stories don't matter as much to me because they just always felt kinda empty. I just don't have the same nostalgic love for those as I do for the 80's stories. Sorry.

• As I've mentioned before, I always liked the Supergirl/Brainiac 5 relationship and how it affected him. I think it would've been fascinating to try to write an actual love story between the two but, with two different books, that would've been impossible...

• For the Threeboot version, I just never felt she fit the book at all and just seemed like a way to boost sales (and she did) but didn't accomplish much else. Truth be told, I felt her honest heroism just didn't work with the cynical Legion. And the fact that she just viewed everything as a dream just irritated me after a while.

Thoughts? Do you agree? Disagree? What are your Supergirl/Legion memories? And what did you think of LSH #100??