It's the final battle with Lemnos and Terror Firma and no one faces any consequences! We look at Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #13 & 14

Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #13

This is it! The final battle! Legion versus Terror Firma and Lemnos! Dream Girl is dead! Atom Girl (Shrinking Violet) has returned! Three Legionnaires are fighting 10,000 soldiers! Cosmic Boy has taken over the intergalactic communication system the United Planets have been using and is broadcasting his own message of resistance and rebellion!

Oh, and we get another amazingly good cover!

Our creative team this issue - writer Mark Waid, layout artist Barry Kitson, and inker Mick Gray.

We begin on Lemnos' planetoid... or headquarters... Karate Kid, Ultra Boy, and Brin Londo (who we know as Timber Wolf) are fighting their way through 10,000 of Lemnos' soldiers. Terror Firma, minus their critically-injured leader, Elysion, are ready to kill as many Legionnaires as they can.

The soldiers have orders to storm the transmatter gates and begin their assaults on the different U.P. planets. But the gates are flickering. What can that mean?

It turns out, it means that only a few are getting through. Some are half teleported, resulting in their gruesome deaths. If the Legion ordered the gates shut down, does that mean they're responsible for the deaths?

The other Legionnaires on Lemnos' planetoid, Phantom Girl, Projectra, and Triplicate Girl, have joined in the fight and, mid-punch, they're trying to figure out what's going on. Only one gate is still working - the one kept open by the Legionnaires on Ttrxl.

Bursting through the transmatter gate, ready to fight, are Lightning Lad, Sun Boy, Star Boy, Chameleon, Micro Lad, Saturn Girl, Light Lass, and Shadow Lass.

After a brief recap to explain Projectra's powers, Saturn Girl gets into her brain and the two of them send a individual image of terror into the mind of every single soldier.

On Dormir, Cosmic Boy broadcasts the victories to every underager in the galaxy. Not sure why the adults can't see it too, but I'm guessing Rokk only cares about the kids - if the adults see this, so be it. Legionnaires on every planet are capturing Lemnos' soldiers and it looks like they've won the war.

The super-powered fighters, Lemnos' chosen, begin their attack on the Legionnaires. As the fight begins, Cosmic Boy orders Sun Boy to evade the fight and follow his new orders. Ultra Boy finally calls Micro Lad by his chosen name (glad I'm not the only one respecting his choice). Star Boy makes the air too heavy to breathe, forcing the people he's fighting to pass out.

In Lemnos' control room, Cosmic Boy appears as a hologram. He orders Lemnos to give up and call off the attacks or he'll make Lemnos beg for mercy. Distracted, our villain doesn't even notice Sun Boy show up behind him and punch him in the face.

From the ground, Lemnos talks about how both he and the Legion have the same goal - but Lemnos has integrity in how he's going to achieve it. We see the damage done to Earth, Elysion being given medical help, and Rokk is stunned when he sees Dream Girl's body. He starts fading out.

Just then, the Terror Firma members burst in, using an unconscious Micro Lad as a battering ram. One of them puts Sun Boy in a stasis field and Lemnos orders his chosen team to kill the Legionnaires.

The battle continues outside and the Legion is making short work of the others. Such a shame that none of them noticed... I dunno... their largest teammate gone and walls completely destroyed.

Luckily for Sun Boy and Micro Lad, the chosen are arguing with Lemnos. They don't understand the orders - why kill the Legion when they were told the Legion was on their side? They don't want to kill helpless people. They don't want to fight on the losing side. They want to get out.

I'll return to this point later, but why are they suddenly becoming squeamish? Didn't they help kill millions of people across the galaxy?

Which is when Cosmic Boy fades back in again and starts yelling at them. He's angry at these villains - they don't get to just quit, not after all the damage they've done. They argue back - what else are they supposed to do after the U.P. sent them into exile because their ancestors were criminals?

So they're from the futuristic version of Australia?

Sun Boy breaks out of stasis and chases after Lemnos, who gets to a transmatter gate. Suddenly Brainiac 5 appears through the gate and blasts Lemnos with an arm cannon. He grabs him and pulls him through before Sun Boy can react. The gate disappears.

Outside, the Legion has defeated what's left of Terror Firma. Sun Boy leads the remaining members out and just when they're starting to wonder how long they're stuck there, Brainy appears in a transmatter gate and orders everyone through. He tells Cosmic Boy that Lemnos has been taken care of (I have no idea why Cosmic Boy is asking this - he didn't see Brainy grab Lemnos).

And then Sun Boy announces that the he and the remaining members of Terror Firma are sticking together. He's been wanting to quit for a while and this is the perfect chance - he never wanted to be a Legionnaire and now he can teach these people some responsibility. Saturn Girl reads his mind and knows he's not being controlled - this is his choice.

Before they head back through the gate (no rush at all because Brainy just had to bypass a bunch of stuff and it's incredibly unstable), Cosmic Boy sends another message through the communication system to let everyone know it's time to celebrate their victory.

For the epilogue, we see Dream Girl's body in some sort of bubble. Brainy stares at her and then wipes off another containment unit. Inside is Lemnos, and Brainy orders him to save her.

We get another back-up story, written by Stuart Moore, with pencils by Ken Lashley and inks by Paul Neary.

We're back when Legion HQ collapsed and Brainy is reacting to Dream Girl's death...

Which quickly leads to a flashback of one hour earlier. Star Boy and Dream Girl are chatting about what's to come. And then we jump two hours earlier. And she gets a feeling of dread towards the future.

Three hours earlier, Dream Girl and Saturn Girl are talking about which boys to date. Nura has given up on Brainy and is more interested in Star Boy now. She gets one more horrible premonition and then reminds Imra to not try to predict the future.

Why did they print this? The whole point of the Brainy story is that, because he loves Dream Girl, he's going to sacrifice everything to bring her back. And now we know that she doesn't feel the same way. And her telling him that she foresaw their marriage was just a lie? Does anyone actually read these back-up stories?

We also get a letters column, with Shadow Lass and Karate Kid hosting this time. They explain who the comic is created, with Kitson providing the pacing of the scenes and some dialogue suggestions as well. They also talk about whether the Legion will be involved in Infinite Crisis. Or Day of Vengeance. Or any other crossovers. It was nice to see Polar Boy pop in... and some great Amanda Conner art.

 

Okay, before I get into next issue, let's talk about this whole Legion versus Terror Firma story.

First of all, I think this might be the best Legion story I've read since... probably the first Legion versus Ra's Al Ghul story at the beginning of The Legion. Waid and Kitson do an excellent job building the story, making you hate the villain, and show the team come together from the chaotic mess they were at the beginning. I know this is pointing out the obvious, but there's a reason why Waid and Kitson are so highly respected in the comic industry. They know how to craft good stories.

I also think they're a really underrated partnership and I love the fact that they're working hand-in-hand. As they mentioned in issue #13's letter column, it's a partnership, not just Waid's or Kitson's vision. I've always thought that the best comics teams are the ones where everyone has a voice in the story. Think Levitz and Giffen. Or Wolfman and Perez. Or Claremont and Byrne. I think we've kinda fallen away from this as the focus goes more and more towards the writer having complete control.

As much as I'd like to just blindly praise this, I can't. I think this whole storyline suffers from multiple flaws that I can't really look past.

One, which I've mentioned numerous times in past columns, is that the Legionnaires are, for the most part, unlikable. Does any reader want to support Ultra Boy? Does anyone care whether Cosmic Boy or Brainiac 5 is running the team? Do any of the characters actually act like their fellow Legionnaires? Are any of them friends, or are they just constantly looking for new people to hook up with?

Two, for all the reboots, for all the changes, I just can't wrap my head around their almost insane worship of DC's Silver Age. Every single moment they show the characters treating those old comics like they're epic literature just takes me out of the story. Not because I don't think those stories are good. But because it just makes no sense to me. The only comparison I can come up with is this - imagine a bunch of teenagers reading Shakespeare and using that as inspiration for their deeds. It doesn't work, does it? And that's not 1,000 years old.

This books really feels like two people in their 30's (and I have no idea how old Waid and Kitson were at this time) trying to write how they think teenagers act... without really knowing any teenagers.

Third, the massive, massive plot holes. How can Brainy recreate a transmatter gate? How did he know Lemnos would be there? How can three Legionnaires defeat 10,000 soldiers? Why did everyone suddenly forget the chaos and decide to be altruistic? They never were before... why start now? Why does everyone suddenly think Cosmic Boy is a great leader when he was a horrible one only a few issues before? This book is entirely run on lucky coincidence instead of skill or teamwork.

And fourth, and this is the biggest one for me, it's the escalation of threat combined with the lack of consequences. To recap, Lemnos killed everyone on Orando. Everyone. And destroyed numerous planets and outposts, killing more people. He destroyed Colu's infrastructure after infecting everyone with a virus that turned them into savages. The Terror Firma team helped him do all of that. So what's their punishment?

Nothing.

Leaving Lemnos alone, because Brainy is obviously acting alone here, and focusing solely on the others, Waid has them just get away scott free because they had bad childhoods. Sun Boy wants to make them act more responsible, which is nice, but these are still mass murderers.

I've said this since Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning took over the book and I'll say it again - once you escalate the villains' behavior, you immediately run into a problem when you're using legacy DC or Marvel characters. It's okay for, say, the Authority or Planetary to kill the villains after they do something horrific because those characters have been established to have more flexible moral codes. Same with Wolverine. Or the Punisher. You can give the reader a more "satisfying" ending when the villain gets their "just desserts."

But the Legion, with this strict "no killing" policy, struggle when the villains become genocidal. When your villains kill millions of people and the heroes just grimace and let them go free, you have an insane response to what occurred. I'm not talking about revenge, I'm talking of consequences for actions. I'm talking about fair punishment.

I think back to when Projectra executed Nemesis Kid in volume 3 and Legion fans went crazy, arguing about whether that was acceptable or not. Paul Levitz elevated the villain and showed a Legionnaire react appropriately. It lead to discussion and the Legion ended up having to skirt the edges of the rules to allow her to stay on the team as Sensor Girl.

But now? How can there be any response, especially if you're Projectra, but to (at the very least) incarcerate every one of these villains? They destroyed her entire planet, killing everyone. And they walk away to, hopefully, be redeemed. I don't think you can walk back from that. They should all be in Takron-Galtos for the rest of their days.

I just don't think you can have this both ways. You can't have the fresh-faced, innocent response to genocide. When you escalate the villainous behavior, you have to escalate the hero's responses. If you don't, the story doesn't work and you end up with an unsatisfactory conclusion.

 

No, this article hasn't gone on long enough, so here's another really positive point I wanted to make. Sales!

At the start of 2005, Legion #2 sold 42,176 copies

At the start of 2006, Legion #13 sold 32,719 copies. This was the 54th best-selling comic of January.

This is the best-selling Legion book since before Zero Hour. So for all the criticisms, and all the problems many Legion fans have with the characters and the stories, this is also the most successful Legion book in over a decade.

The Legion Omnicom website makes the case that Legion sales are usually hovering around 25,000 copies per month. After looking at the data they present, I can't help but agree. So if this book, even after losing almost 10,000 readers, is still selling far better than what the Legion usually achieves, you have to consider this a success. I would think DC editorial would do everything they could to keep Waid and Kitson happy.

Unfortunately for the Legion, two other things are happening in 2005:

One, Infinite Crisis is selling like mad and giving Geoff Johns an even louder voice to the powers-that-be.

Two, other DC Comics, such as All-Star Batman and Robin and All-Star Superman, are out-selling a vast majority or Marvel books, resulting in the Legion's 32,000 copies looking pretty mediocre.

This will become important very soon...

 

Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #14

Waid is joined by guest pencillers Ken Lashley and Adam DeKraker and guest inkers KWL Designs and Rodney Ramos (do I need to point out that KWL are Ken Lashley's initials?).

We begin in the aftermath of the war between the Legion and Terror Firma. We get a shot of some Legionnaires raising the Legion flag over a battlefield, hearkening back to the Battle of Iwo Jima. The United Planets meets, talking about how the public views the Legion as heroes and the U.P. as a bunch of idiots and cowards. Delegate Ardeen (who just so happens to be Saturn Girl's mother) talks about how the Legion will not be punished for this.

Instead, the U.P. rewards them, naming them an independent extension of Earthgov. They're officially sanctioned and equal in power with the Science Police. They're also given a ton of credits (money) to run everything - they're no longer resisting, they're now working within it.

We also learn that Cosmic Boy has gone on leave and named Lightning Lad the new leader.

For some reason, Star Boy, Triplicate Girl, and Karate Kid are moving rubble around what used to be Legion HQ. Really? No construction equipment on Earth? Star Boy uses his powers to find Invisible Kid, who's there as well, and they all apologize to him. They have realized that it was Atom Girl (or Shrinking Violet) who told Brainy that Cosmic Boy broke into his lab. Karate Kid is sorry and wants to shake hands. But Invisible Kid disappears.

Elsewhere, Light Lass wakes up in full costume and in Micro Lad's bed. But with someone other than Micro Lad. And there's also a gigantic dog. She is greeted by Chameleon, Ultra Boy, and Phantom Girl, who joke about how they knew Light Lass wouldn't remember where she was and then tell her that she slept with both Micro Lad and his brother. But nothing happened, because Gim's brother is gay. Man, incestuous threesome jokes in a Legion comic? Not what I was expecting.

But I do want to point out a nice thing they added - Gim has a Star of David necklace beside his bed. Glad they're keeping some of his back story in this reboot.

They fly into the massive kitchen and we discover that they're staying there while Legion HQ is rebuilt. They meet Atom Girl and we learn that the globe that everyone thought Atom Girl was hiding in is actually the entire Imskian civilization. Brainy saved them all so Atom Girl is very loyal to Brainy.

On a quick aside - they refer to her as Shrinking Violet on the cover but as Atom Girl throughout this issue. So which one is it? Once again, I'm fairly certain the editor isn't paying attention to anything.

Gim's brother walks in and orders the Legionnaires around. Atom Girl punches him, knocking him out. Okay, so she's prone to violence and doesn't have a sense of humor.

Back to Legion HQ, where Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl are talking about how the rest of the Legion are reacting to the U.P.'s offer. Opinions are divided, with some not trusting the U.P. and others wanting the money. Imra points out that there's no need to worry about the universe forgetting the Legion - there's already a huge crowd outside the HQ participating in a memorial for Dream Girl.

The two fly down to talk with the crowd and talk about how much they miss Dream Girl. Unfortunately, they also run into Sun Boy's parents, who aren't happy the Legion left him out in space.

And because we've gone a few pages without any action, someone starts blowing things up, angry that Dream Girl is dead. He claims he's Nura's boyfriend and he blames the Legion for her death.

Invisible Kid sits on top of a building, staring at the Flight Ring, wondering if he belongs on the team. Atom Girl surprises him and he falls off. She grabs him, wondering why he's nervous. The truth comes out - he was the one who betrayed the team. He told Brainy. He feels guilty that everyone is blaming Atom Girl.

But Atom Girl isn't mad. She likes when people talk about her. She likes having rumors spread about her. So they fly off together, friends, as long as Lyle tells everyone she dangled him over the city.

Back to the violence, as the Legion tries to control Nura's "boyfriend." He has the power to send any attack back towards the aggressor, so the Legion is having a little trouble with him. So he can reflect their powers...

Triplicate Girl, since she has no powers, is able to get him under control and then Saturn Girl reads his mind - he never even met Dream Girl. He was just obsessed with her.

Since "Reflecto" started the chaos, the S.P.s have shown up to stop it... with more violence. They're going to arrest as many of the kids as they can. So Lightning Lad gets involved.

He shows the S.P.s the Legion's newfound authority. And orders them to release everyone they've arrested. Since they're a branch of Earthgov, with equal power and rights, the S.P.s have to stop.

But Lightning Lad has made the decision to accept the U.P.'s offer by himself. What does that mean for the rest of the Legion?

I really enjoy these post-gigantic-storyline issues. It was nice to see Lightning Lad in charge and Waid stayed true to his "think with his heart" personality. It's also great to see the other Legionnaires out of action and acting like people. These are the stories that make us care about the team.

I'm not even going to try to figure out how Light Lass, who is probably too young to drink, ended up in bed with two brothers and doesn't remember how she got there.

I will say this - I was really, really impressed by Ken Lashley's pages, especially considering he pencilled, inked, and colored them. Let's see more of those!

 

Our next Legionnaire in the spotlight... Bloodclaw! 

 

Bloodclaw joined the team, threatened a few people, and then realized that metal claws were, quite possibly, the worst weapon to have when facing the reincarnated zombie version of Magnetic Kid. He ended up killing himself when he cut himself with his own claws.

Man, what a waste.

He lasted a grand total of two issues, so he wasn't the most inconsequential Legionnaire I've written about. But he's close.

 

The second of our two-part look at Saturn Girl has also just come out. The Long Live the Legion podcast is going strong, thanks to everyone who has taken the time to listen. We really appreciate it!