Computo is back! Robotica has taken over Earth! Is there anyone left alive on Earth? We look at The Legion # 11 & 12!!

Let's begin with a recap - the Robotican threat has reached Earth and it's been turned into a machine. Most of the Legion is nowhere near the planet and the rest are sitting in Legion World, waiting for reinforcements.

The Legion #11

We've got Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (DnA) handling the writing chores and Olivier Coipel is back on full pencils. Not sure how much longer we're going to get to enjoy his European style of science fiction, so let's revel in every page, shall we?

Brainiac 5 is our narrator to begin as he explains how the United Planets have become more aware of the far away threat of Robotica after what he calls "The Great Rift Disaster." Glad to see he's still clinical. He, Shvaughn Erin, and Neo-Kinetix are making their way through some sort of tunnel. It's been completely covered with Robotica technology, which Brainy is quick to point out is life, but not organic.

As they battle with the Roboticans, Brainy tells us that, in deep space, the Robotica home ship exploded last issue (glad I completely missed that) and released a massive amount of energy. Energy, Brainy points out, that was transmitted to Earth as a pattern that then recreated its home world out of Earth. No idea how he would have a clue that happened, but let's go with it. And yeah, we're just throwing every science fiction concept from the past 20 years, aren't we?

You'd almost guess that Brainy is impressed by what Robotica is doing. Okay, you know that he's impressed.

Which is when Neo-Kinetix gets blasted by a Robotican machine that, for some reason that I can't fathom, has a helicopter blade and appears to be shooting a rocket launcher. Why is it that they can get so high-tech in some areas but so low-tech in others?

Before they can reach a threshold to get to Legion World, Brainiac 5 is grabbed by the Roboticans. They know who he is and want him to come with them. Then we get the big reveal for Neo-Kinetix. She's no longer Zoe Saugin and no longer Kinetix. What is she?

Then, to make the entire first 7 pages of the book make even less sense, Neo-Kinetix grabs Shvaughn, busts through a window, and flies away from S.P. headquarters. So they couldn't have done that before? Well, they needed Brainy to get captured, so we can't have any of the team do anything logical before the writers achieve what they want.

The good news is, of course, that Robotica hasn't shut down the threshold tech so the Legion and the U.P. fleet are able to get back to Earth and invade. We now get Kid Quantum's perspective -  she's the one who authorizes the attack. And, for some reason I don't get, she seems to think people won't be happy with her choice? Why would she figure that people would be disappointed in her leadership? They're trying to show that she's not super confident as a leader yet, but this is a really weird take. It would be as if Batman said to Robin, "do you think people will be happy that I want to stop the Joker?"

We learn that Robotica has strengthened the Earth's planet shield so no one can get in - only the attackers can get out.

We move on to Star Boy, and I really like the way they're switching to the different Legionnaires to get their perspectives on the attack. Thom is, of course, far more motivated after seeing what Robotica did to his home planet, Xanthu. He has to be pulled off the shield by M'onel before he breaks his hands trying to shatter it. It's so impenetrable that Shikari can't even navigate through it.

And if things weren't bad enough, we see that the Terrorforms are now fighting amongst themselves as some are changing into... robots. Yeah, this is just getting worse and worse. Sharn Nux, the Coluan who's a Robotican expert, posits that the Terrorforms are doing this because they see robotic life as the next stage of evolutionary life on Earth. So why fight it?

But Invisible Kid disagrees and reminds us all that he's one of the smartest Legionnaires by out-thinking the Coluan. He points out that there are two possibilities for the attack:

• The Roboticans are accidentally part of the evolutionary process that's going on
• The Roboticans chose to attack the Earth because it's going through the evolutionary process

I really like that the Legionnaires are showing far more depth of character than before. Lyle's sarcastic and short with the Coluan, probably because of her contempt for Brainy. Kid Quantum starts yelling, wanting everyone to work together. She's not a great leader yet, but Wildfire's a fan of her aggression.

Then the Roboticans invade Legion World, corrupting their computers by transmitting their patterns. We get my favorite line of this issue from M'onel:

"Gear likened the Robotican attack method to an old Terran com-tech process called "faxing.""

Okay, so the technoperson who's from another planet tells the 1,000 year old Daxamite who is the character they use to give information about current-day Earth about an obscure piece of Earth technology that barely lasted a decade to explain how Robotica is attacking everything. How would Gear know about this? Why wouldn't M'onel? Isn't it already established that M'onel remembers everything about 21st Century Earth?

I've long wondered how amazing M'onel's memory must be when he remembers Ra's Al Ghul after 1,000 years. But now I'm even more impressed by Gear. Does he know about every piece of technology every created? Is he just a walking encyclopedia or Wikipedia?

Oh, and where's the sarcasm tag?

M'onel remembers that there's a huge weapon out there to help with the attack. It's not Pluto anymore, right? It's Warworld. He leads a bunch of Legionnaires out to take over the planet.

Back on Legion World, they're waiting for either the Colu group mind to figure out how to get through the shield or the Robotican attackers to take over Legion World - whichever comes first. Kid Quantum is feeling a little depressed and it's up to... Saturn Girl??... to cheer her up. Okay, that's not the Legionnaire I was expecting, especially since Imra was so negative about Jazmin as leader last issue, but I guess it's an interesting choice??

And then Apparition, Timber Wolf, and the Cub arrive. Glad that the Science Police, with all the problems they're facing, took the time to get these three to Legion World... which may fall to the Roboticans.

Since we're getting to the end of the issue, it's time for some sort of shocking reveal that will get us to read the next one. DnA are consistent so far with this, so I'm expecting it.

Brainiac 5 wakes up, wrapped up in robotic tech, to be greeted by Venge. He lets Brainy know that he was never Ra's Al Ghul's right hand man, he was studying everything about the advanced evolution to assist his own species. He turns off his hard-light form to reveal his true identity:

Computo.

Yep, did not see that coming.

On Pluto, sorry, Warworld, the Legionnaires are wandering around looking for somewhere Gear can connect to the systems and get everything up and running. M'onel gives us the exposition we need, letting us know what is Warworld, why it replaced Pluto, and how he figures they can run this without problem - the Justice League didn't have their technology.

Shikari asks "Valorous Legion" who the surprise guests are. She's looking at the JLA - Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern, the Flash, the Atom, and the Martian Manhunter. 

On the positive side, I like how they're pulling every reference they made during Legion Worlds into these stories so there is a connection and the readers aren't completely in the dark. We saw M'onel find Warworld before, so it makes sense that he'd go back when it's needed.

And I really liked the surprise that Venge is Computo. It's a perfect way to up the ante here.

But would it have been so hard to have half of this book make any sense at all? I mean, they've kinda thrown out a lot of logic here.

The Legion #12

Just for anyone who's curious. I wanted to show some sales numbers before we got into this issue. The Legion #1 sold 30,419 copies, which ranked them 81st for all comics in October 2001.

This issue, number 12, sold 27,256 copies and, surprisingly enough, was also ranked 81st for all comics in September 2002.

The creative team has added almost 10,000 new readers since the Blight hit the 31st Century. The book is now outselling Wonder Woman, Titans, Wildcats, almost every Vertigo book, Savage Dragon, and every Crossgen (remember them?) book.

When you consider that a Legion comic hasn't sold over 25,000 copies since late 1998 (which was because it was part of a crossover) and a non-crossover Legion comic hasn't sold over 25,000 since 1997, you have to consider this new version of the Legion a success.

We begin this issue on Warworld, where the Legionnaires (M'onel, XS, Gear, Leviathan, Chameleon, Ultra Boy, and Shikari are surrounded by the JLA.

Just a quick aside here - why, oh why, did DC not use the same naming structure for the Legion? We had JLA. We had JSA. Why not LSH? I mean, the obvious reason is because no one ever referred to the team that way. But it would've made for some nice continuity between titles.

The Justice League immediately attacks and M'onel can't figure out either why they're still alive or why they're just from America, not from all of Earth. Superman doesn't give him a moment to talk - as soon as M'onel says "No" he's attacked.

The Martian Manhunter makes quick work of Cham by taking on R.J. Brande's form and tricking the Durlan. Glad to see we're still using the "Legionnaires are idiots when they need to be" trope.

Wonder Woman and Ultra Boy square off and Jo has enough time to be impressed by Diana's "rack." Okay, I know DnA want to make Jo a teenage boy with teenage boy hormones, but every single time they use modern slang, I cringe. Nothing takes me out of a comic faster than when the writers can't be bothered to have the characters speak time-appropriate. Also, as "piggish" as Rimborians are, did we really need them to add that?

Each Legionnaire pairs up with a Justice Leaguer. So it's Shikari against Batman. Green Lantern against Gear. Leviathan against the Atom. XS versus the Flash.

Before XS can figure out why the Flash doesn't know who she it, Vi has shrunk down into the Atom's ear and realized that the JLA aren't real - they're solid light constructs. So the Legion can let loose and destroy them.

Back to Legion World - ships from all over the United Planets, and from Khundia, have been arriving for the past two hours to help fight the Robotican threat. The Legion has been able to drive out most of the Robotican threat within Legion World (at least I think that's what Sensor is talking about). No idea why. Or how. But they're somewhat neutralized.

The Khunds come onboard with Dreamer, who Kid Quantum greets and tells her Star Boy is there. She's shocked - her dreams told her Thom would die. She gets past the shock to tell Kid Quantum that the Khunds analyzed the Robotican A.I. - it's connected to Computo. But Jazmin already knew that. Apparition told them. How? How could she possibly know this?

I swear, this book is rapidly becoming one of those bad summer movies where the "screenwriter" just throws crap on a page and doesn't care if anything they write makes sense. Honestly, would it be so hard to make anything make sense?

In another section of Legion World, Apparition is in Ultra Boy's quarters with R.J. Brande. Brande asks the question that should have been on everyone's mind: "Is the baby Jo's?" She's shocked he'd ask that... but I think it's a logical question for every reason we've talked about in this column. Him being gone for a year. Tinya showing up with Brin. Just as Brande apologizes, and promises they'll get this rapidly growing baby into a medicenter (again - war - kinda important, right?), Tinya finds the note Jo wrote to Imra in issue 10 about how they kissed and how he's not in love with her. (I didn't mention this in my reread because, to be honest, I didn't think anything Jo wrote down would be that important - oops).

Back to Warworld - the JLA keeps attacking and they've got all the skills and abilities of their real counterparts. They've also got their personalities, so Gear is hoping he can pretend to be injured and get them to go easy on him. With that distraction, he gets into the construct command code and shuts the JLA off.

And as he did that, he also connected with the Warworld operation system. Oh, and Gear speaks in Linsnarian (his home planet) technorganic slang - "foozled" and "squeedled." Now this I like. Finally - a character acting like both an alien and someone from the 31st Century.

Gear talks with the system and convinces it that it needs to help the Earth from the invasion in order to follow its programming. It agrees and activates the Warworld weapons. The planet changes into a massive fighting dreadnought, ready for the Legion's orders.

Once again, please don't any questions like "how does weaponry last for 1,000 years?" You'll only hurt your brain.

On Legion World, the Legionnaires head to talk to the Khundian scientists about the Robotican A.I. We have an awkward reunion between Dreamer and Star Boy and she doesn't seem too excited to see him. She quickly gets to the briefing and we find out that the Roboticans aren't actually under their own control - Computo is running everything.

We then head to Earth, where Computo is monologuing to Brainiac 5. Computo has come to Earth to evolve and, when he was Venge, he changed Ra's Al Ghul's plans so that machine life will evolve instead.

We also get a nice bit where Computo is trying to make an emotional connection with Brainiac 5, viewing the Legionnaire as his father. It's actually quite funny that the robot is having an emotional response while the organic being is refusing to.

With Warworld on its way, Kid Quantum prepares to lead the attack on Earth. The Coluan Sharn Nux wants to accompany them through the shield and be a part of the direct attack on Computo. Jazmin chooses her strike team, leaves Triad in charge of Legion World (so she's second in command for reasons??), assigns Saturn Girl to handle communication, Star Boy to ensure Warworld doesn't mess up Earth's orbit (have no idea how someone who makes things heavy would do that), and generally acts like a good Legion leader.

Which is when we get the big twist - Sharn Nux is under Coluan command to destroy any machine intelligence on Earth. She must exterminate Robotican's sentience... even if it also destroys the Earth.

So if you haven't already figured out where this story is going (*cough* argument about whether Roboticans are alive or not *cough*), you haven't watched any science fiction in the past 40 years.

Our next Legionnaire in the spotlight... Stone Boy!!!

You may be asking yourself, "why are you looking at the Subs now?" Or "aren't there better super-heroes to be writing about?" Or "finally! A Sub!"

Depending on your take on the Five Years Later Legion, some of the Subs became Legionnaires during the gap, some could be considered Legionnaires after they were part of the rebellion against the Dominators, or some could be considered Legionnaires when they were literally offered membership at the end of the Terra Mosaic story line.

Or, I just wanted to write about the Subs.

With that preamble, let's take a look at Dag Wentim, Stone Boy, from the planet of Zwen

To be brutally honest, I don't have a lot of memories of Stone Boy. He was great in DC Comics Presents when he turned to stone, fell headfirst into the ground, and was stuck there for the rest of the issue as they tried to figure out how to save him. He was great standing in the background of most issues and not doing much. He was great at standing amazingly still and rock-like. But there wasn't much else you could really point out as a highlight of his character.

Or so I thought. Just to make my brain even more overloaded on Legion lore, I've started rereading Legion comics from the very beginning of the Silver Age along with this series. Let me tell you a story from back in the 60's:

In Adventure Comics #315, cover date December, 1963, writer Edmond Hamilton and artist John Forte crafted this story. After seeing the Legion of Substitute Heroes defeat an invading army who attacked the Earth to get glass, the Legion decides to give every Sub a challenge - they'll each be tasked with a challenge and scored on how they handle it. Whichever Sub scores the best becomes a Legionnaire. Each Sub except Stone Boy passes their test, showing that they all actually deserve Legion membership. But Stone Boy gets the highest score because, even though he failed his test, Saturn Girl read his mind and realized that he surrendered to save a village instead of worrying about the challenge. He turned down membership to stay with his friends.

So, in an alternate universe, Stone Boy is a Legionnaire and Polar Boy, Night Girl, and every other Sub who has better powers are not.

Another fascinating part of Stone Boy in the 60's is that he's one of the first super-heroes I've seen who was second guessing his powers and wasn't sure if he was good enough to be on either team. By now, we've seen numerous Legionnaires express the same feelings. But I think Stone Boy was the first.

Thoughts? Opinions? Anyone really enjoying the Robotican storyline? Please share your comments or thoughts either here or back on Reddit.