Abnett, Lanning, and Batista's finale where they squeeze five issues into two! We look at The Legion #32 & 33

 The Legion #32

And we're back! I hope everyone had a great holiday, no matter which holiday you were celebrating, and we're ready for an amazing 2025. My boundless optimism in the face of everything going on in the world will annoy my friends and family, but I can live with that. It's the Legion way, right?

My only New Years wish? That DC Comics gets a Legion title up and running in 2025. And if they get me to write it? That would just be gravy...

Let's stop this review to go over a little inside knowledge about comic books. How do you know when a title is about to be cancelled? Here are some not-so-subtle clues:

• The cover artists get replaced by whomever is the cheapest and youngest talent the publisher can find
• The creative team leaves very, very quickly and never get to wrap up any of their subplots

Tony Harris and Tom Feister are no where to be seen - instead, Eric Wight handles this cover. It's pretty... generic... and doesn't really grab the attention that the previous covers did. Wight did some work on previous issues, and he would end up winning the Russ Manning Award for Most Promising Newcomer in 2004, so he was positioning himself to be a comics mainstay.

Thankfully, writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (DnA) and penciller Chris Batista are still working on the book. So it's not all bad, right? That's called foreshadowing, your key to quality entertainment.

We begin on Legion World, where Garth Ranzz, still trapped in Jan Arrah's crystal body (??) is complaining to Dr. Gym'll about his life right now. He no longer needs to sleep so he just kinda sits around and worries about whether he'll turn evil like Jan did. He also is starting to look more like Garth did, if that makes any sense. New hair style. Face is being drawn a little differently. But no one trusts him because they all think he's going to become a bad guy.

Since it's now 2025, I'm going to try my best to not point out all the story holes here... like the fact that the Legion has already said they forgive Jan. Or how most of the Legion have no memory (since they weren't there) or what Jan did and wouldn't care.

Crap... already ruined that resolution.

Garth wanders to the threshold room, where Brainiac 5, Shikari, Umbra, and Superboy are waiting to see what's going on with the doorway to the second galaxy. We are ignoring that it's the middle of the night because that would change the story. Shikari senses something is coming, trying to get through.

M'onel bursts through the threshold, a Kwai guide behind him. He's been through a fight, his clothing in tatters and he's bleeding from the mouth. He orders them to shut the threshold down and hits the floor.

Right behind them are members of the Credo (you remember them, don't you?), one of which immediately stabs the Kwai in the back. The Legion rushes into action to fight back the attackers and Timber Wolf, who just got back with a bunch of cadets, joins the battle. Wait, Timber Wolf, one of the newest Legionnaires, is training cadets? In the middle of the night? What kind of training were they doing?

The battle is fairly even until Garth blasts one with his electricity. The Credo members call him "The Cursed One" and flee back through the threshold. They also say, "The One must be informed!" Which, as Garth himself says, isn't good.

A freshly clothed and bandaged M'onel gives up the recap on what happened, and Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Kid Quantum have joined us. The Legionnaires who went on the mission to the second galaxy, Chameleon, Gates, and Kinetix, and R.J. Brande, have been captured by the Credo. The Credo are rapidly expanding throughout that galaxy and anyone who stands up to them is lumped in with the Progeny and targeted for death. Brande tried to negotiate, but they see the U.P. as corrupted by the Progenitor... and since they saw Garth, that's pretty much confirmed their opinion.

M'onel then states, "When I first came through the threshold, before I knew what you (Garth) were... all I saw... was the Progenitor. All I saw was Element Lad, a being who has caused half a galaxy to rise up in hatred." Which, of course, makes no sense because M'onel had absolutely nothing to do with the Progenitor, or Jan as a villain, or any of this. Man, DnA wrote these stories - did they not remember who was part of Legion Lost? Or was everything they've been writing about the Legion forgiving Jan all garbage?

So the entire Legion, except Garth, fly through a threshold towards Amshana, the planet where the other Legionnaires are being held captive. Kid Quantum gives the orders, making sure Superboy, Ultra Boy, and Wildfire don't do anything... interesting. Really? We're lumping Superboy in with the two hot heads?

They're greeted by a bunch of Credo ships and, after Kid Quantum threatens them with the massive power of the Legion, they are taken to Credo's leader.

They enter a massive warship that's parked on the planet's surface. Singularity (remember him from Legion Lost?) emerges - he's the leader of the Credo and he's wondering why they don't start killing the Legionnaires right now... which makes me wonder why he didn't already kill the other Legionnaires, but why be consistent?

They posture, they speechify, and the result is Singularity says that they can have their four members back if they hand over the Progenitor. There won't be any battle if they just surrender the being responsible for all the death in their galaxy.

Oh, and M'onel refers to Superboy as his old friend. At least this remains consistent through all the reboots and all the relaunches. Superboy and M'onel should always be friends.

Back on Legion World, Garth wants to go to Amshana and surrender. He knows he's going to be tortured, but he figures he might be able to convince Singularity the truth about Jan... okay, that's kinda dumb. Jan literally murdered Singularity's entire home world, but Garth thinks he can convince him that Jan wasn't all bad?

Garth tells Kid Quantum that he's going to do this, ignoring everything she said. Which, considering he's not really a Legionnaire at this point, is kinda all up to him.

We get a surprise line of dialogue from Shrinking Violet... "Cos? A word?" And she's small, too. I'm speechless.

On Amshana, Garth has just surrendered himself to the Credo. Somehow he got through a threshold without the Legion realizing and he offers the trade. Singularity, continuing to earn his villain status, just laughs and says his offer to Kid Quantum was all lies. He's not going to let anyone go - in fact, they're all going to be executed tomorrow at dawn.

Can I just point out that, once again, the cover doesn't match the story in the slightest. This has become a constant problem for this title.

The Legion #33

Is this Chris Batista's first cover for The Legion? Can I just say it's about time?

And, because this is how things work in comics, this is also his last issue of the series. He'll be back in a number of years, but I don't want to spoil that...

R.J. Brande is sitting down, talking about how great the Legion is and how it was inspired by the great heroes of 1,000 years ago. He states that he's an envoy of the United Planets and he's trying to make peaceful contact with this new galaxy.

Which is when Singularity punches him across the face and we realize Brande has been tied to a chair and is being tortured. Singularity absolutely towers over Brande, and his fists are the size of Brande's head. And, if I remember correctly, he has super strength and fought Ultra Boy. Luckily, the writers have forgotten that and Brande is only bleeding from the mouth.

To the cells we go, and the four captive Legionnaires are stunned when Garth comes in, shackled with special restraints that, I'm guessing, prevent him from using his powers. Of course the four prisoners have trouble believing this, but Kinetix and Brande hear something in Garth's voice. Garth is nice enough to recap what happened before and then a mysterious voice tells them to start believing Garth.

It's Invisible Kid (to no shock, but I'm glad they used him correctly here), alongside Sensor, Apparition, and Violet to the rescue. It's the Espionage Squad! They quickly remove everyone's shackles and power-damping collars and the Legion are ready to fight back. I'm hoping that Sensor made herself, Violet, and Apparition invisible, because this is already kinda straining the logic. Oh, and how did Garth not know he was being followed? Or did he? Who knows anymore?

Alarms start going off, not only because the Legion has escaped, but also because Star Boy is lifting the Credo command ship off the ground. So we've just stopped trying to keep his powers consistent, have we?

Umbra then blankets everyone in darkness so no one can see the rest of the Legion attacking. The battle is joined and the team bursts into the command center to face Singularity.

Elsewhere, everyone gets to use their powers as they make quick work of the Credo. Unfortunately, Singularity is a little harder to beat, so Superboy rushes off to help. They trade punches and I guess Singularity is only super strong when his fists are glowing... so there's no way he would've broken Brande's jaw before...

For no reason whatsoever (or because they only have 7 more pages), Singularity slams his fists into the power conduits and overloads his own powers. He's going to make himself explode so that he can kill everyone there. Since the Legion are connected to the Progeny, it's the only way he can stop them. Surprise, surprise, the Credo are not happy with this new plan.

Garth contains him in... I think it's inert metal... or Tromium, since that's the miracle material in this series, or maybe good old fashioned Inertron... which would mean he's going to explode within, right? So he's dead? Or Garth killed him to stop the explosion? I'll be positive and just assume he's become a living statue, even though it makes no sense.

Since Garth, who everyone thinks is the Progenitor, saved everyone's lives, the Legion just lets all the Credo members (who are mass murderers) go and let everyone know that the Progenitor isn't that bad of a guy.

Cosmic Boy and Kid Quantum chat a bit about this being Brande's dream - a united galaxies, and then the team heads to Earth.

We get a final moment of Saturn Girl and Garth walking and chatting and reconnecting before they finally hug and we get our happy ending. Of course, they hug in front of the statue that was built of the Legionnaires lost way back in... Legion Lost. Why is this still up? I mean, none of them actually died... Why not take down the statue and replace it with something more uplifting?

In case anyone was wondering, this is what it looks like when you give a creative team two issues to tell a five-issue story. Man, that was rushed, badly paced, and made no sense at all, but I can't criticize anyone for it. DnA and Batista did their best and the action sequences were great. We got a happy ending and, to be honest, that's really the best a creative team can hope for when they know they're leaving a book.

 

Instead of giving my final thoughts about DnA's run on the Legion, I'm saving them for three weeks from now... when I'll publish my look back at the entire Archie/Independence Day Legion...

Our next Legionnaire in the spotlight... Karate Kid II!!

Of all the characters I've talked about, this is the one that I think may have made the least sense of any of the Legionnaires. The fact the he basically got treated like garbage for his entire run reinforces that belief.

From what I've heard and read, Paul Levitz really liked the original Karate Kid. He wrote some of Val Armorr's series (which would hold the title of worst Legion spin-off if Inferno didn't exist). But, in a somewhat futile attempt to keep Keith Giffen on the Legion, he promised that he'd let Giffen kill Val. Which lead to Legion of Super-Heroes volume 3 #4.

Giffen didn't stick around, however, so I guess Levitz figured they needed to get a new Karate Kid. Or DC figured they needed the character to still exist since they were making money off those Karate Kid movies.

In one of the best issues of Steve Lightle's run on the Legion (#13), Timber Wolf heads to Lythyl to plant some seeds (Val's will was a little strange) and he and Val's old sensei kidnap a kid named Myg and bring him back to the United Planets. The sensei trains the kid, teaching him how to be a better person and a hero. The kid, Myg, soon takes on Val's old name and becomes the new Karate Kid. He even joins the new Legion of Substitute Heroes (as seen above).

I'm sure that if Levitz had stuck on the book, or if 5YL hadn't begun, Myg would've eventually earned Legion membership and we would have had at least one great moment between Myg and Projectra. Instead, Myg joins the Legion when they suck, gets captured and broken by the Dominators, and fights against our favorite heroes.

Then, in what can only be described as a death that ruined the character for good, Myg was killed in Final Crisis by Radiation Roy. Let me repeat that: Radiation Roy killed him. I don't care how much you level up a villain - it's still Radiation Roy.

I was very happy to see the new Karate Kid when they first introduced him, even though, right from the very beginning, it was painfully obvious where Levitz was going with the character. I always liked the idea of a non-super-powered Legionnaire, and thought Myg could be a great addition.

It was also nice to see (unlike Val) an unambiguously Asian character. Although, looking at the way George Perez drew him in Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, he wasn't given that memo.

I think it's probably for the best that Myg get retired to the long boxes of Legion history, never to be seen again. We have the original Karate Kid back so there's no need for him anymore.

 

Until next week, please leave your comments on the Reddit boards and I'll be back with the first non-DnA books of the series.