Is Brainiac 5 a villain? Who is the mystery Legionnaire? Why can I not take this Justice League seriously? We look at Action Comics #860 & 861

Action Comics #860 

Here's the quick recap before we start. The 31st Century sucks. Earth has become incredibly xenophobic. The sun is red. Absorbancy Boy has become Earth-Man and hates aliens. Superman has no powers and everyone on Earth thinks he was born there. Propaganda is incredibly powerful, huh?

Superman, Wildfire, Colossal Boy, and Dawnstar have to come to the old Legion HQ, now Alien Holding Camp 6736, to try to find Brainiac 5 and another Legionnaire.

Chapter 3, called "Lightning and Shadows," is written by Geoff Johns, pencils by Gary Frank, and inks by Jon Sibal.

We begin our story in the former Legion of Super-Heroes headquarters, where the new Justice League, made up of Legion rejects, are investigating whether or not Superman has come back to the future. The villains, led by Earth-Man, talk about how they've corrupted the legacy of Superman and how, by killing him, they will own his name and story forever.

To the holding camp, where the warden is trying to beat a confession out of a former Legionnaire. He's interrupted by a Code Red - the Legion have arrived. The four Legionnaires have broken in to find Brainy and get everyone else out too.

The prisoners are stunned to see Superman but soon question whether he is who he's claiming to be. After all, Superman doesn't bleed.

They get into Brainy's cell and Dawnstar realizes that Brainy created a wormhole and left for Colu. A planet, according to Wildfire, that's more hostile than Earth. But there's one more Legionnaire in this holding camp. They shut down the power supply so Polar Boy, the Legionnaire being "questioned," no longer has to suffer from the power dampeners.

Colossal Boy hands him a flight ring, and Polar Boy is happy to wear it. Unfortunately, he's got to create a new right arm - something Tusker, one of the rejects, took from him. Brek gets to make a great speech about how, after he was rejected by the Legion, he got better and improved his powers. How he earned his ring.

(I'm completely ignoring the fact that Polar Boy killed the warden and the other guard in the interrogation room - it's 2008, so the Legion were allowed to kill whomever they wanted)

They wander through the sewers, leading all the other aliens away from the camp, and are greeted by Shadow Lass and Night Girl. They get their flight rings and take everyone to the new clubhouse. It's a huge underground chamber where, I'm guessing, the aliens and the resistance can exist in peace.

This new clubhouse, discovered by Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad, has become a new Metropolis spaceport. Using stargates and wormholes, they're able to transport aliens off Earth and to their home planets. We meet Lightning Lass and Timber Wolf, hear the rumors about what happened to some Legionnaires (Chameleon Boy's on Durla, Mon-El is back in the Phantom Zone, and White Witch was given to Mordru to keep him off Earth), and that the Subs are gearing up to fight back. Oh, and Double Header was killed.

As they get ready to take a stargate to Colu, their plans are interrupted by one thought in their heads - Earth-Man now has Saturn Girl's powers and can read their minds. And with that, the Justice League attacks.

Superman rushes into action but both Dawnstar and Timber Wolf grab him. Brin, after making an incredibly racist comment to Dawnstar, tells her she's got to get Superman to Colu to meet with Brainy.

So the four get onto the pod and, just as Justice Leaguer Storm Boy blasts the ship, gets through the stargate to Colu.

Storm Boy does yell an interesting thing as they fly away:

No, damn you. This is our chance. Stop, you bullies! 

The Legion, bullies? Where will this plot lead to?

The pod crashes on Colu and the five are immediately swarmed on by Coluans looking for knowledge.

Superman wakes up and is shocked to see that his captor, and the person calling for his death, is Brainiac 5.

This was a "light" issue, in my opinion. Not much really happened and it really felt like Johns wanted to up the threat, remove a few more Legionnaires from the story, and push our "main" characters onto Colu.

 

Action Comics #861

Chapter 4, called "Chameleons," written by Geoff Johns, pencils by Gary Frank, and inks by Jon Sibal.

I just realized something - it's the same creative team for all 6 issues... wow... I didn't think this happened anymore. I wonder if that's just the difference between a book that's selling well and has a good budget for talent compared to one that doesn't.

We begin with a nice recap as we jump from Braal to Titan to Winath. The Earth has officially seceded from the United Planets and they're still spreading lies about Superman not being Kryptonian. The citizens of these planets are stunned that Earthlings are believing these lies about Superman... no comment about current events...

The big revelation is that since Earth has started imprisoning all aliens (wait, they're just starting to do this?), Winath is waiting for the Coluan battle plans before the big attack.

We're on the cusp of intergalactic war.

Now this is how you ratchet up the stress of a good story. Just keep introducing greater and greater stakes so everyone is under much more stress.

Speaking of Colu, Brainiac 5 has grabbed Superman and the 4 Legionnaires with him (Dawnstar, Wildfire, Colossal Boy, and Polar Boy) and is going to kill them. He's been appointed leader of Colu by his people and he can't help the Earthlings. They're, in his words, "little more than emotionally volatile animals."

When questioned about his plan, the one that brought Superman to the future, Brainy's face twists up in confusion, then anger, and he says he was wrong. His solution is to destroy the Earth. Brainy orders the robots with him in the room, turns to Superman, and reveals, of course, that he's been waiting for them to arrive.

He's been playing dumb. He learned it from Dream Girl. He claims she was playing dumb to keep from intimidating Star Boy. I love this bit.

He took over as Colu's leader to slow down the attack plans and has been wrecking everything while ruling Colu with an iron fist. He releases everyone and we find out that not only is Superman late - Brainy expected him months ago - but that 75% of the suns within the U.P. have turned red. So Superman's pretty much going to stay un-super. And we're ignoring basic astrophysics.

Brainy also reveals that there's a Legionnaire helping him from within the Justice League's satellite. Well, since the title of this issue is "Chameleons," I think we all know who this is going to be.

We head the the Human Cultural Center, the school that's also the Justice League's HQ. They're surrounded by children, spreading their propaganda, as they add Shadow Lass, Lightning Lass, and Timber Wolf to their prison. No Night Girl? Really? Of all the Legionnaires who were there, she's the one who escapes?

I gotta protest here. There is no way, absolutely no way, that this bunch of losers on the Justice League could or should be taking out so many Legionnaires.  Even if we accept that Earth-Man has the powers of a ton of Legionnaires, the rest of them? Timber Wolf, by himself, can wipe through most of the Justice League.

Once alone, the Justice League talk about their plans, and Earth-Man reveals that he knows Brainy is still working with the Legion and just posing as Colu's leader. He got that info from Timber Wolf's head. So Brin knew but the ones with Superman didn't? How?

We also get the big reveal of another "member" of the team - Eyeful Ethel. She's Tusker's girlfriend. You might remember her from her tryout in Adventure Comics #330. Her power? She has eyes all over her head so she can see 360 degree around herself.

Earth-Man tells them to get ready for the next part of the plan - to execute every alien on Earth. The plant sitting in the corner comes to life and isn't too happy about this news.

We then get something that actually kicks this issue up a notch for me. Rather than the Justice League be boring, undeveloped villains, Johns gives them each a page to show off just how horrible they are. Golden Boy turns a lawyer into gold (killing him of course) so his mother can take a vacation. Storm Boy wants his mechanical powers improved so he undergoes yet another surgery to give himself more power. As the doctor begins, unable to use anesthesia because it may damage his weather control system, Storm Boy rants about how being rejected by the Legion can affect someone. Radiation Roy tries to hook up with Spider Girl, who rejects him because she's only with Earth-Man now and because Roy is horribly ugly.

Maybe it's because she was one of the only characters I liked in a lot of 5YL, but seeing Spider Girl as a callow villain isn't working as well for me as I expected.

Earth-Man stands in his room, surrounded by the Legionnaires he's captured, and he absorbs their powers once again. He plans to head to the stars to wipe out aliens after he's gotten rid of all the aliens on Earth. He gets a call from Spider Girl, leaves, and a machine turns into a little girl. She's stunned by the sight of all the imprisoned Legionnaires.

She wanders into another room and sees that Sun Boy is hooked up to a machine. The girl files a log, saying that Brainiac 5 was right. Sun Boy is stuck in a solar engine and is manipulating his solar wavelength. She tries to shut it down...

When Earth-Man returns. He could sense her with Saturn Girl's telepathy. She's not really a little girl. She's Chameleon Girl - Yera Allon.

Okay, not the Durlan I was expecting and I'm also certain this is the first time Yera's been a Legionnaire.

To no one's surprise, Colossal Boy (Yera's husband, if you didn't know) isn't happy with this revelation and he swears he's going to kill the Justice League if they hurt her. Polar Boy says they have to keep the Legion code but Gim and Wildfire are tired of waiting for Brainy's plans to reach a conclusion. Tempers are flaring when the voice of reason enters.

Superman calms everyone down and we get back on plan. Brainy tells Gim that he would've never sent Yera into danger if he didn't know she could handle herself as well as any Legionnaire. Gim gives Brainy a flight ring and goes to prepare their trip back to Earth. But Brainy's not coming. He has to stay on Colu.

We get this great bit of dialogue:

 

Wildfire: What are you smiling about?

Polar Boy: You saw how Superman handled that. It still takes everything I've got not to ask for his autograph.

Wildfire: Brek... You're still such a sub.

 

As they head to the ship to fly back to Earth, the robots and Coluans have invaded Brainy's lab, calling him a traitor. I have no idea why anyone on another planet would listen to the Justice League about anything, but why have important plot points make sense?

All of them get onto the ship and Brainy makes the next reveal - without him there to slow everything down, the Coluans will complete the battle plans in four hours and the universe will go to war.

Yep, keep ratcheting up that tension!

 

You'll notice I wrote way more for #861. There was just much more going on than in the previous issue, which is probably why I enjoyed it more. #860 felt like an issue that just kinda moved everything forward a little bit but at a pretty slow and easy pace. #861 sped up and did a lot more.

I'm now stuck with just one question that I'm struggling with for this entire story. How did Earth-Man defeat the first set of Legionnaires? Now, with all the powers he's got, it makes sense. But in the beginning? I'm still going back to this - the Justice League is pretty under-powered to go at the Legion.

I also wish Johns was doing a little bit more with the Legionnaires. I get that Superman is the star of this book, and he's juggling a bunch of Legionnaires, but only Polar Boy and Brainiac 5 have really gotten anything to do, character-wise. Colossal Boy gets a couple of panels to be angry, but now much else.

But I'm honestly excited to see where this is going, and I can't say I've felt that way about a Legion story in a while.

Thoughts? Please share on Reddit or here.

And our latest episode of the Long Live the Legion podcast is out! We spend a lot of time talking about the Bronze Age of the Legion. So check it out wherever you find your podcasts or on YouTube!