We get a new team of super villains and their leader is yet another genocidal maniac... do we need that in the Legion? We look at Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #5 & 6

 

 

Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #5

I haven't commented on this before, but I just wanted to point out how good the covers have been so far. And this is especially good. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for aliens and lots of heads.

Barry Kitson is back on art duties, which is great news. Let's see if writer Mark Waid can keep things moving along and actually progress on any of the subplots.

We begin in the camp surrounding Legion Headquarters. United Planets Delegate Klarkev is working to infiltrate the numerous teenagers milling around and gets offered a free tattoo. The Legion logo is everywhere, as are aliens. Yes - I love it when Legion comics show all the different aliens in the DCU.

Unfortunately for the U.P. and the Science Police, none of Klarkev's transmissions are getting through - the Legion has placed numerous psi-scramblers all over to block any transmissions.

General Toling4rd of the S.P., who's not happy about anything that's going on, makes it abundantly clear that his organization is as anti-Legion as you can get. He argues with members of the U.P. council, who see the Legion as a marketing tool to help recruit new member planets. Toling4rd thinks the U.P. is insane for working with the Legion. He accuses them of being too soft of the Legion, who have already recruited 81,000 members to their cause. He also points out that half the Legion have parents on the U.P. council.

Oh, that's the nice twist.

I'm normally not a big fan of using the S.P.s as the villains, just because they honestly shouldn't be able to stand a chance against the Legion, but I think it's good having this counterbalance between them and the U.P.

Our roll call this issue: Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5, and Lightning Lad.

To Rimworld 19 we go, where Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl are trying to help them fight against some unseen force that's trying to destroy the U.P. Some sort of energy wave hit the planet, destroying everything, and even the S.P.s have fled in terror.

As they start organizing the underagers and finding out what powers they have, a new attack begins and Garth flies out to face it. He's joined by a speedster while Saturn Girl calms everyone down.

Who's already searching? Brin Londo. So we have our Timber Wolf...or Lone Wolf... glad they didn't wait 6 years to bring him back this time. He's not a Legionnaire but someone who used to work with the team. And used to date Light Lass. Oh, and he was the one working with Brainiac 5 two issues ago and came to help, going against Cosmic Boy's orders.

On Earth, Shadow Lass and Ultra Boy are out "on patrol," which means they're just flying around and staying in their happy places. Jo spots an attractive model on a billboard, ogles her, and then his powers are out of control and he sets the billboard on fire. I guess he fired... prematurely...?

Then he speeds up and flies away, slamming into a building. We learn that this happened before, when he set fire to Shadow Lass' bed. But he hasn't told either Brainiac 5 or Cosmic Boy because he doesn't want to be experimented on or kicked out. Shadow Lass calls up Karate Kid for help, tells him to not hold a grudge, and tells him not to tell anyone.

Back to Rimworld 19, where they're trying to raise the kids' spirits by telling them fanciful tales of Legion adventures. Brin and Imra leave the group and she starts telling him what's going on - they're in an unwinnable situation and they're all going to die. Brin tells her that they need to be honest, but before they can resolve that, the next attack begins.

It's a group of super villains and their first move is to engage psionic filters so no one can communicate telepathically. One of them gestures and a huge barrier rises out of the ground.

Lightning Lad flies up to the villains and tells them to identify themselves. Our new villainous team: Terror Firma. The leader and the one who moves mass? Elysion. Another one, Zepha, gestures and blasts Garth away.

He zaps her back, hurting her, and now the rest of her team can't fly. They crash to the ground, ready to continue the fight. Saturn Girl keeps sending calming thoughts to the rest of the "Legionnaires." Brin's not happy with her playing with other's minds. Lightning Lad isn't happy either - they think the others should feel fear but she's more concerned with making sure they survive this.

Before the battles gets too bloody, Elysion takes a hostage and tells them they need to surrender - there are more villains coming and they're going to kill everyone. The kids can't understand why Elysion isn't on their side. But he tells them it's not about age - it's about reality. He kills his hostage to make his point.

Lightning Lad surrenders, dropping to his knees. Elysion begins speechifying, talking about how the only reason they took this planet was to show how strong they are and how they want the U.P. to take them seriously. Unfortunately for him, he gets close enough so Lightning Lad could electrocute him.

The rest of Terror Firma are stunned. Saturn Girl mind blasts two of them while the rest look to escape. They open a transmatter gate and sprint away. But not before mentioning that Lemnos will be very angry with Elysion. They all escape, blasting Brin before they go.

Brin follows them through the gate, telling the Legionnaires to give his regards to Projectra. Another interesting relationship twist, right?

They call Cosmic Boy and Brainiac 5 to relay what happened. We learn that the U.P. is losing planets because of these threats. And, to everyone's surprise, Brainy and Rokk agree on something - these planets need to unite to survive.

We go to Otherspace, where the villains are talking about how the mission was actually a success - they're throwing everyone for a loop. Lemnos, their leader, talks about how he's united them under his guidance and how they're going to conquer the galaxy. Brin's watching all of this, looking more than a little scared.

So we have a new Legion of Super-Villains... yes?

I didn't mention this in the review but I wanted to call out the dramatic change to Saturn Girl. She doesn't speak at all - all her communication is done telepathically. The previous series kinda hinted at that, showing how no one on Titan speaks with their mouths, and I'm glad to see Waid and Kitson have taken this one step further. It makes complete sense that she'd never actually communicate orally so I really like this change.

I also wanted to call out the fact that, for the first time, one of the established Legionnaires (Lightning Lad) actually looks like a teenager. It's a nice touch that I'm happy to see.

On the negative side, none of the story actually made sense. If the villains could so easily defeat the Legion, which they did, why would they run away when Elysion got blasted? If they were commanded back, I'd get it. But they showed time and again and they could handle the two Legionnaires (and Brin). So why retreat?

 

 

Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #6

Another excellent cover - Kitson is really knocking them out of the park, isn't he?

We begin this issue learning about Legion financing - who pays for the Legion to operate. Things like Flight Rings and transmatter fuel cost money. So who pays? Princess Projectra of Orando, the richest planet in the universe.

After bribing the security guards with Element Lad's comics, Cosmic Boy and Star Boy get a royal audience with Projectra, who is... privileged is the nicest way of putting it, right?

Our roll call this issue: Cosmic Boy, Sun Boy, Karate Kid, Star Boy, Ultra Boy, and Shadow Lass... although, judging from last issue, this list doesn't matter much.

Rokk spends the next couple of pages essentially begging for money and justifying it with all the good they can do across the galaxy. Projectra wants to go on missions, even if she doesn't have any powers, and Cosmic Boy tries to help her understand that keeping her on Earth is the best use of her resources. We also learn that there are horrible things happening on Orando and Projectra doesn't care - she's with the leader of the Legion and, in her words, "might finally get to do something important!"

I think now is the time that every one who complained about Projectra turning into a snake last reboot should be thankful that at least she was an active member of the Legion and did more than spend money.

To Brainiac 5's lab, where he and Dream Girl are arguing over Terror Firma (that's a dumb name) and whether her powers are actually useful. But she did provide them with an image of Lemnos, the leader of the band of villains from last issue, so her powers are useful. She asks him out for drinks but Brainy just wants to figure out who the mystery villain is.

Next, we are in Sydney, Australia, which is covered in snow and ice due to a polar shift. Strange that they can't control the weather in the 31st Century. Karate Kid and Shadow Lass have brought Ultra Boy there so they can figure out what's wrong with his powers. Val decides it's a focus issue, so he challenges Jo to attack him. Val's reactions send Jo to the ground and Ultra Boy gets mad. He throws Karate Kid high into the air, bragging about his powers. So he's an arrogant ass... Why are we supposed to like, or care, about Ultra Boy at this point?

Karate Kid flies back, unharmed by a being with super-speed throwing him into the air, and then shows what control looks like. With one strike, he causes all the snow and ice encrusting the Sydney Opera House (which is still standing in 1,000 years). Can we just say that Karate Kid has the same power as Karnak, the Inhuman? Would it be so hard to just give him something? I mean, I don't believe that martial artists can train for decades and be able to magically figure out the weak point of every structure and hit it with enough power to, in this case, move 70 or 80 kilotons.

Back at Legion HQ, Chameleon is testing Invisible Kid by shapeshifting into ancient super-heroes and referring to the comics they appeared in. These are the moments where this reboot breaks my brain. I get that they're using the comic books to show the Legion's inspiration to become a super-team. But they're using real comics from our universe. The mental gymnastics that you have to use to believe that, for example, John Stewart was okay with DC Comics publishing stories about him, or that somehow DC would know anything about Captain Comet, or that the existence of Silent Knight wouldn't just break history, is too much. Or are these stories happening on Earth-0?

Back to Projectra's chambers, where King Voxv interrupts again to let them know that invaders have come and are tearing Orando apart. Cosmic Boy wants to send a rescue team, but there is an EM tempest so a transmatter jump will only work if they create enough power.

Luckily, and for no reason whatsoever, Brainy already has what they need. Sun Boy is going to generate plasma radiations to boost everything. But before they can go, Voxv is murdered by Elysion (I think...) and the planet is completely destroyed.

Cosmic Boy returns to Projectra to comfort her - he tells her that they're going to bring the planet's killers to justice and that she'll be all right... because she's a Legionnaire.

This is the first issue where I just don't get it. Why introduce Projectra just to destroy her entire planet? Why de-power her? Why make Orando a economic center of the U.P. and then wipe them out? This book was moving along so well, story wise, and moving at a nice pace and this was just an abrupt right turn that didn't work for me at all. I get that we're upping the stakes and making the villain more threatening, but this issue was just a return to the last version of the team. Planets blow up, the heroes do nothing, and the villain's a genocidal maniac. Yawn.

 

Next, we get a backup story with art by Scott Iwahashi.

Brainiac 5 is alone in his lab, trying to figure out who the mystery villain is.

Which is when the villain shows up. He introduces himself as Praetor Lemnos and suddenly Brainy remembers who he is. He's the richest man in the universe, an arms dealer, and Brainy can't believe that he forgot all of this.

Lemnos tells him that his super power is a psionic handicap - he corrupts the electrons and brain chemicals related to memory. So when he leaves a place, all memory of him disappears, including recordings. He's been maneuvering things behind the scenes, trying to bring about more progress in the universe. Unfortunately, his plan for progress is through war. 

I guess this means that he has enough control over his powers so that Terror Firma can remember him. But everyone else he encounters doesn't. But once he meets someone who's forgotten him, they instantly remember him again. This just seems like a lot of hoops to jump through to get us to "Brainy can't remember the bad guy."

He's the one responsible for the destruction of Orando and Colu is next on his list. Lemnos wants everyone to know he's the one who brought about the betterment of the universe, not the Legion. And Brainy won't remember any of this until Lemnos wants him to.

He leaves, and Brainy is back, alone, wondering who the mystery villain is.

 

The last 3 pages are the illustrated Letter Column. I don't know who came up with this plan, but it's genius. Chameleon and Cosmic Boy answer the letters and we get more background information on the Legion ideals and some insight into the Brin Londo/Projectra relationship. Just a great addition to the book.

 

Before we get into the Legionnaire in the spotlight, I want to draw attention to my biggest complaint about the series so far - too many characters look too much alike. I know it's been a longtime running joke that the Legion is made up of brunette white guys with the same hair cuts, but this series has taken that to a new extreme. When I make points saying that I'm guessing who this character is, it's because they've done nothing to make it obvious who we're dealing with.

What's worse is that any "markers" that should make it obvious who the character is may be forgotten by a different artist. Lemnos has two distinct marks around his temples, as drawn by Kitson, but Iwahashi never adds them. So why have them at all?

I'm no longer complaining about the soul patch - it's probably the only way I can tell Element Lad and Sun Boy apart.

 

Our Legionnaire in the spotlight... Celeste Rockfish!!

Please head over to BlueSky and follow the amazing artist Gene Gonzales. His Legion work is incredible.

I think the best way to tell how important a character was in the grand scheme of comics is to do an image search and see what comes up. When the best option is the one I posted, and there's literally nothing else that's usable, that should tell you everything you need to know. The art's great - the character... not so much.

I think Celeste Rockfish or Celeste McCauley (and I understand why she wouldn't use that name) or Neon (which was horrible) could've been an epically good Legionnaire. She had a great back story. She had a great set of skills, working as a private detective. She was part of some of the best issues of the early stages on Volume 4 and really stood out from everyone else.

Unfortunately, I don't think she existed as anything more than a way for the creative team to get around DC's edict that said they weren't allowed to use any Green Lanterns. Instead of putting a ring on her, and giving her a cool costume, they just had her absorb the ring's energies. She couldn't control her powers, which was a nice touch, and they completely ignored the whole "will power is critical to Green Lanterns" aspect of the power set.

Then she died, became a boring green energy being, and the book just kept sinking into the creative mire. She became a Darkstar for a couple of panels and then disappeared.

I don't know why she couldn't be brought back, especially keeping the Leland McCauley connection. How could you not have great stories of Leland's niece joining the Legion, even if it's purely in a private detective capacity, and see what happens? Or have her investigate a new Legion, turning slightly villainous. There are many ways you could take this character and keep her interesting.

 

That's it for this week - tune in next week for more Waid/Kitson Legion stories and the Legionnaire in the Spotlight I've been dreading for a while. I have no idea how I'm going to say anything nice about the Legionnaire I hate the most...