The contagion spreads and we get new super-powered Earthlings while Brainiac 5 shows he has no sense of self-preservation... we look at Legion Lost (volume 2) #2 & Legion Secret Origin #2

Legion Lost (vol 2) #2

Here's your quick recap - a bunch of Legionnaires are trapped in the 21st Century. They went back through time to stop Alastor, a shape-shifting alien who wants to spread a contagion in the past and destroy the Earth. After facing off against Alastor, kind of (only Timber Wolf fights him and stops him), and failing completely at their task (the contagion is let loose), the Legionnaires decide to just head back to the future. While in their Time Bubble, Alastor explodes, destroying it and possibly killing Gates and Yera.

Let's see where the creative team of writer Fabian Nicieza and artist Pete Woods takes us in a tale called: "The Dawn of the Hypersapiens."

We're back in Red Lake Falls, Minnesota, at a memorial for the 24 people who died when Alastor attacked last issue. There's tension in the air, and not just because Wildfire is flying a half mile above it, which you would think would draw the attention of the air force. Wildfire is nice enough, thankfully, to actually explain why Alastor has come back to the past.

He says: "If the Legion of Super-Heroes had stopped the xenophobic uprisings in the future -- a brother wouldn't have lost his sister... grief wouldn't have become hatred... and hatred wouldn't have led Alastor back in time to release a deadly plague. We come here to see if anyone had been infected. And to try to find a way to forgive ourselves..."

I mentioned two weeks ago that if you had told me Nicieza had never read a Legion comic before, I'd believe you. Having Wildfire deliver this self-reflective narration kinda proves my point.

A man with glowing red eyes starts walking away from the memorial and Timber Wolf immediately accosts him. He asks the man if he's from Winath, because he's the twin of one of the deceased. Brin points out that he can smell the man's blood all over the debris, he knows his body temperature is high and he can't sense a heartbeat. Nothing about the glowing red eyes, huh?

The doctor explodes, demanding Brin leave him alone and we are introduced to our first "Hybrid Human."  He's an energy-based lifeform that thinks he's human.

Wildfire chases after what used to be a man, not wanting anyone to see how hard this is for him (he's an energy-based lifeform as well) and how hard it is to deal with the fact that they're responsible for this.

The "man" blasts Wildfire again and burns off his own false skin - he's now disembodied energy just like Drake. We get another shot of Wildfire's face with his face plate up and I don't like it any more than I did last issue. Just weird choices here for the characters, ignoring the stories of the past, and ignoring who they are.

Instead of chasing after the ball of energy, the Legion just sits around for two hours. Tellus tries to acquire their target telepathically but it's tough because the energy being has no brain.

Oh, and to continue with things not really making any sense, Tellus was somehow able to check them into a room at a crappy motel. Even stranger is the fact that the energy being is actually watching the motel from the trees. So Tellus is kinda good with his powers and not at the same time??

Tellus hopes that Dawnstar is able to find him with her tracking powers... ignoring the fact that she's literally standing beside him, drying herself off after a shower.

On the next page, she's flying through the polluted air, trying to find the energy being, and Wildfire knows she's suffering. She's a prisoner on this Earth (although she's not because, you know, she can fly in space without a transuit) and she, like the rest of the Legionnaires, may never be able to go home.

She could go to Thanagar and get back with her partner who we met in The Lightning Saga, right? She could be really selfish and get off Earth. But, again, I don't think Nicieza actually knows anything about her for reasons I'll get into later.

Anyway, Drake joins her and says that he should have traces of the being on his suit (they're calling him Scanlon because that's the dead body the being was inside/changed from... I don't know). So she uses her powers and, from those traces, tracks Scanlon to a house.

Where... and I can't believe I'm writing this, he's back in a human skin, doesn't have glowing red eyes, and looks normal again. Aside from the energy powers. Nope, no consistency at all.

Even more unbelievable is that the Legion shows up at his front door, knocks, introduces themselves, and Scanlon just lets them in so they can provide more exposition.

Changing into the energy being is the result of the contagion and the reason why Scanlon's never seen it before is because it won't be created for 1,000 years. Tellus is nice enough to enter his mind (which he's already said he doesn't have, but this book isn't worried at all about anything making sense) and lets us know exactly who Alastor is and what brought about this attack.

I know I've been complaining a lot about the story not making any sense in the slightest, but here are some more examples. And I'm going to use Tellus' own dialogue to show it.

"The man, Alastor... crafted a weapon... horrific... ironic... the ultimate punishment... he thought... he would change them all into aliens -- completely, forever --"

"-- he would break into the Time Institute... go back in time... save his sister -- and then release a pathogen... created by... Psion scientists--"

Okay, so what weapon did he create? The pathogen? But then he says it's created by Psions. So which one is it? Is there another weapon we don't know about?

Oh, and the pathogen would initiate Hypertaxis (remember this from the Abnett/Lanning Legion?) and change the humans exposed to it into a new form of species. 

The Legion is sent to stop Alastor when, thankfully, a Time Institute scientist sacrificed himself to send Alastor careening through time. Kind of a shame they didn't identify the scientist... and I'd also argue that he didn't really go careening through time. He ended up exactly where he wanted to go, right?

We get the rest of the exposition and Scanlon handles it very, very calmly. The Legionnaire start to wonder about Scanlon's reaction, why he's so unaffected by this, and wonder why that's happening. Wildfire then lets him know that, after absorbing some of his energy, Drake's fairly certain that his DNA has merged with an energy-based life form called a Teallian. So, Quislet.

Wouldn't it be nice if Scanlon showed any Teallian powers? 

And yes, in case you were wondering, that explanation completely goes against what Tellus said about Hypertaxis. I'm starting to think that these Legionnaires don't have a clue what they're talking about. Or someone doesn't.

Scanlon decides to embrace the change and we have a massive (and I mean massive) explosion that looked nuclear. Good thing the house was in the middle of the woods. Wildfire can't believe that someone would choose to be an energy being. Tellus has, once again, saved the day by creating a telekinetic bubble.

Scanlon flies above them, in an energy "body," (which Drake is jealous of because he can't do that yet) and the battle begins. It's up to Wildfire to fight him as the only way to stop living energy is with living energy. Instead of actually fighting, Drake tries his best to save Scanlon, even offering to share his containment suit. But Scanlon says that he's already dead, doesn't want to be human, and would rather just be energy.

So he dissipates, telling Drake that he has no idea what he's missing.

In case you were thinking anything was going to be positive here, Drake makes sure that we all know the Legionnaires aren't smart enough to solve any problems and they don't know what else could be happening.

Which is when they reveal a being under the water at Detroit Lakes.

 

Maybe I'm being harsher on this comic because it handles Wildfire so badly. Maybe I'm being harsh on this comic because absolutely nothing makes any sense. Maybe I'm being harsh on this comic because it's obvious the writer never looked at the finished pages so there are glaring mistakes.

But I do have to amend something I said before. Nicieza has read some Legion comics. He's obviously read the original Legion Lost, which is why he's borrowing the concept of having an individual Legionnaire narrate each issue... at least I'm guessing that's where he's going with this. And he read "The Legion," which is where he's borrowed the Hypertaxis concept.

But since I'm guessing that's all he's read, he has no idea who Tellus, Dawnstar, and Tyroc are and has a pretty limited knowledge of Timber Wolf and Wildfire. So if they don't feel like the Legionnaires we've come to know, that's not really a surprise. 

 

Legion Secret Origin #2

More recaps! The Legion has formed and added a fourth member: Triplicate Girl. Brainiac 5 and Phantom Girl are on Anotrom, trying to figure out why everyone was murdered there. A secret trio called the Security Directorate is running everything and want to see what this new Legion is going to do.

"Target" is brought to you by writer Paul Levitz, penciller Chris Batista, and inker Marc Deering.

We begin in Metropolis, where the Legion quartet are with R.J. Brande, watching as the new Legion HQ is being built.

I remember commenting on Brande's weird speech patterns when I was reviewing Adventure Comics and Levitz has leaned even heavier into this weird affectation. A reader pointed out that Levitz had said that Brande's speech was always weird, but I don't remember it ever being this weird. We get lines like:

    "Fuel we could buy; brave young woman, not so easy."

    "Children doesn't mean I think you are still child, girl." 

We have another assassination attempt (and I'm strongly resisting a current events joke) that is easily stopped by the Legion. The villains are blasted and their ship destroyed and, to be blunt, they might be the worst would-be assassins I've seen in a while. My favorite part is, of course, that Triplicate Girl does absolutely nothing. Really? You couldn't let her punch someone? Even now, Levitz pushes her to the background.

The Security Directorate is still watching, but this time they're arguing more about what to do with the team. Whereas last issue, when they were telling the Science Police what to do, here the S.P.s have asked them to deputize the Legion. Anisa, the Naltorian, says they should because she can foresee the Legion being important. Mycroft, the Earthling, doesn't agree and thinks that Brande's assassination might be better for everyone.

Either I missed it last issue, or it just wasn't clear, but I guess these three are the most powerful group in the U.P. And they are well known, not some shadowy group pulling the strings in the background. Or Levitz just changed his mind.

We then get an entire page of background on Brainiac 5 and Phantom Girl. The Directorate is pleased with both of them and Mycroft has shifted in personality from against these teens to not understanding what's going on.

Speaking of the pair of soon-to-be Legionnaires, Tinya reveals that she's there because Bgtzl's colony worlds were attacked by the same creatures that attacked Anotrom. Even though it was horrible to come through the wormhole between worlds, these creatures are tough enough to do it.

Yep, it's always far more entertaining for a character to just show up and explain everything than it is for a character to have to study, explore, and figure it out by themselves. We end with Tinya and Brainy agreeing to work together and for him to stop trying to study her to figure out how she can do what she does.

A wormhole (or some transportation portal) opens in front of them and an armed attacker emerges. Brainy, showing absolutely no sense of self-preservation, just walks towards him, asking for a sample. The armed man attacks, blasting the two, but Brainy's force field, and Tinya's powers, protect them. Tinya calls him insane, which is pretty accurate considering the way he's been acting in this series.

I know they're trying to make Brainy eccentric and weird, but he just ends up coming across as... well... childish and addled. What really breaks my brain about this is that I'd argue Levitz, during his second run on the Legion, wrote Brainiac 5 better than anyone else has. And now? Not so much. 

Brainy just touches the attacker (at least I think that's what he's done), there's another explosion, and the threat is over. The attacker is gone and the portal closed. Brainy now has to figure out a different defence and I wish any moments of this scene made any sense.

Since this is a Legion book, we need to meet more of them. We head to the U.P. cruiser, where Admiral Allon is in charge, and he gets a call from his son, Gim. In three panels we get everything we need - Gim's reconsidered his choices after the meteor accident and is now thinking about joining the Legion.

Back on Earth, the Legion and Brande have headed to his home. They talk about how beautiful it is before, and you knew this was coming, yet another assassination attempt occurs. Triplicate Girl finally gets to do something and drags Brande to a safe room.

Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad use their powers to fight off the incoming attackers. Garth even grabs a flying Ski-Doo takes off, blasting them.

The battle is over very quickly and Brande calls his assistants, like Pheebs (remember him from volume 6) and Latham. He tells them to get out the lists they've been preparing because the Legion needs some help.

Wow. So the richest man in the galaxy has now faced down three assassination attempts. Where are the S.Ps? Why isn't he doing anything to protect himself aside from surrounding himself with untrained teenagers? Is anyone going to investigate anything? This is a really bad way to make anyone in this book look... well... smart.

Back to the Directorate, who have also noticed that the attempts on Brande's life are simple and using low-level technology. They can't find any connection between those and what's happening on Anotrom aside from the teenagers. But Anisa is sure that something is pulling everything together. Well, someone is. The writer.

But we need every issue to end with something dramatic, so here's what passes for that this issue. Mycroft delivers a full-page speech about how the Legion may grow too powerful to be controlled by anyone. So he's going to go to the U.P. and see what they can do about it.

Yep... that's it...

 

This was a weird book for a number of reasons. At its simplest, much like Legion Lost, nothing made sense. If you're going to try to connect Anotrom and the assassination attempts, could you not do something, anything, to show the slightest similarity? I know we don't want things to be spoon fed to us, but why not have the same villains in the two different places? As it is, if we didn't have Anisa speaking in mysterious tones regarding the events, I don't think anyone would connect these two problems.

The art, to no surprise, is almost good enough to make me forget all my problems with the story. Batista delivers the goods and he's one of the few Legion artists I can remember who actually draws them like teenagers.

 

A new Long Live the Legion podcast episode has arrived. This week, we talk all about the DC animated movie Justice League vs the Fatal Five with Jim Purcell of the Legion of Substitute Podcasters. Check it out on your podcast platform of choice, on our host, or on YouTube!