Two first issues but only one writer understood the assignment! We look at Legion of Super-Heroes (volume 7) #1 and Legion Lost (volume 2) #1

 

Legion of Super-Heroes (volume 7) #1

Full disclosure - I was going to write a bit about the insanity of the New 52, what with yet another reboot (kinda), with the inflated sales numbers (because all of them were returnable), how it really didn't last more than 5 years before DC threw it all out again, how they cancelled so many books, and how Marvel still managed to regain the sales lead after less than a year... but I figured this  paragraph covered it!

Once again -  sales numbers:

Legion of Super-Heroes (volume 6) May 2010 - 51,900

Legion of Super-Heroes (volume 7) Sept 2011 - 54,800

Legion Lost (volume 2) Sept 2011 - 51,300

These are total sales, not just the first month, so they're a little higher than what I've shown before.

What can we glean from these numbers? First, that first issues, especially ones that are connected to big events, lead to sales.

Second, that Legion fans will keep coming back, no matter how bad the previous series was.

Third, that the event doesn't matter - all that matters is that number 1 on the front cover.

And if you're curious, because I know I was, here are the worst-selling New 52 number one issues:

Men of War #1 - 39,300

O.M.A.C. #1 - 40,200

Blackhawks #1 - 40,400

Static Shock #1 - 40,900

Voodoo #1 - 43,800

Mister Terrific #1 - 43,800

I, Vampire #1 - 44,200

Hawk and Dove #1 - 45,000

One of these books lasted longer than Legion Lost. Any guesses which one? The answer is at the end of this review.

"Renegade World" is written by Paul Levitz and drawn by Francis Portela. A nice positive here is that we have a new editor: Chris Conroy. I'm just praying he pays better attention to what's going on in this series than the last one.

Oh, and we have no reboot here. The events of Flashpoint did absolutely nothing to the Legion, so we're just kinda continuing from what happened two months ago.

We begin above Panoptes, where it looks like some ships are heading down to the planet and breaking through the atmosphere.

Who are on these ships? Why the Legion, of course. The first to land and emerge are Chameleon Boy and Dragonwing, who figures this is still a training exercise because it's so peaceful.

Joining them are Phantom Girl, Ultra Boy, and Chemical Kid. And, out of nowhere, a military officer appears to debrief them. Seriously, I have no idea where this guy came from, who he is, or what military he's with. Tinya mock salutes him... why?

Oh damn... I'm an idiot. It's Chameleon Boy in disguise. Wouldn't it have been nice if they had done something, anything, to show that change happened? Like show a shape-change. Or include some text or dialogue.

Cham tells them that Panoptes is a military watchworld that was keeping an eye on the Dominion. But they haven't made contact for a while, so it's up to the Legion to infiltrate and investigate.

Tinya turns on distorters so she and Jo now look like they're military as well. But Dragonwing (Marya) and Chemical Kid (Hadru) don't need them because no one knows they've joined the Legion. I included their real names because I guess I've got to learn them now that they're Legionnaires... even though I have no idea why... and if they're Legionnaires and Power Boy isn't, I'm already irritated.

Jo burns up the ships so no one knows they're there. Great exit strategy... 

Marya and Hadru get to stay in costume and pretend to be teenagers whose hookup ended badly. Is this how teenagers normally dress in the 31st Century? Also, wouldn't their rings by a big giveaway?

Hadru is not impressed. The elder Legionnaires leave to start investigating and tell the rookies that they need to look like shipwrecked teenagers. Can I safely assume already that Chemical Kid is going to disobey orders, do something stupid, and ruin this plan?

Can I also wonder why the Legion would send two rookies on such an important mission when this is definitely a job for the Espionage Squad? Why not bring Invisible Kid? Or Shrinking Violet? Or two people who haven't shown that they don't follow orders, don't understand the simple concept of teamwork, and don't have any respect for anyone?

If I wasn't annoyed enough, we get a page revealing that Colossal Boy has left the Legion and rejoined Starfleet. Really? We're not even trying to differentiate this book from Star Trek? He's melancholy because his wife went missing and he just quit. I guess this is better than him getting knocked out every fight. But wow... as someone who actually like having Colossal Boy in the Legion, this is a kick in the teeth.

Back on Panoptes, the three Legionnaires have infiltrated the base and begin their search. Cham turns into a bug for a closer look and says to the other two, "...please... no Swat team jokes." Ugh.

As he flies through, we get a little more recap, an explanation of why they brought the rookies, and a comment on how he wishes they had a telepath (Tellus) or Gates anymore. I guess Saturn Girl is still on leave? Quit? Who knows...

Back on Earth, at Legion HQ, Mon-El takes over to ensure the Earth-Man statue is placed correctly. Brainiac 5 wonders if it should be moved to the back, but Mon points out that Earth-Man was a true Legionnaire at the end.

We get a great Brainy line that I agree with: "A lifetime should be weighed, not simply the moment of death."

Maybe Mon-El is feeling guilty that they didn't trust him with the Green Lantern power and turned to Earth-Man to actually save the universe.

They head into the main meeting area and we get a recap of the members and what's going on:

• Cosmic Boy is with Invisible Kid, Lightning Lass, and Shrinking Violet and they're rounding up the last of the LSV
• Element Lad, Shadow Lass, Polar Boy, Sun Boy, and Comet Queen let them know that somewhere is secure... 
• Dream Girl, Star Boy, Glorith and Harmonia Li are somewhere together

Cosmic Boy's not happy they added so many Academy kids so quickly but Mon-El says that roster is smaller than it's ever been, so they need new blood.

Is there anyone else left in the Academy? Are the past graduates pissed that they weren't asked to join? Are you trying to tell me that any of these new Legionnaires are better choices than any prior grads?

"Sorry, Power Boy. Thanks for spending the last decade at the Academy, honing your powers and teaching the new recruits. But we'd rather leave you on Takron-Galtos and recruit the students who were directly responsible for their teammate dying at the hands on Cosmic King."

Dream Girl lets them know that the only effect Flashpoint had (and who knows why the Legion would know what Flashpoint was) is that time travel is now completely done. They can't call Superman anymore for help.

Mon-El wishes he still had the Lantern ring and Brainiac 5 wishes he'd quit being leader and put him in charge. After all, Mon-El oversaw the most casualties of any leader. I'm just going to assume that Legion Lost will tell us about the tragedy that sent their teammates into the past and left them all believing they're dead.

And also, if Earth-Man's statue is in front of any of the Legionnaires in Legion Lost... 

Back to Panoptes, where Chemical Kid and Dragonwing kill some time talking about what's going on. Glorith is in the Time Lab and they're stuck out there. Marya basically throws herself at Hadru, kissing him, when a bunch of soldiers burst through the foliage. 

They pretend to be taken and are not happy about it. She says that she's not going out like Oaa. We remember him as Variable Lad, who died because Cosmic King was too tough of a villain for all the Academy students to deal with. She says she's planning on burning something if this goes badly. Yep, glad they went with stable heroes to join the Legion.

Let's head to the Time Lab, where Glorith is complaining about the heat and Harmonia has lost her last name. I'm sorry, but Harmonia has to be too old to join the Legion, right? They finally let us know what her powers are: "Natural Elemental." She blasts Glorith with some cold air to help but the young magician is still saddened by Oaa's death.

The dialogue gets really, really stilted (love when Nura calls Glorith "child") and Star Boy shows he has amazing hearing. They talk about changing the past and how sad they are that they lost so many teammates.

Back to Panoptes, two soldiers are talking about how they have strange orders that don't make any sense. They complain about the new guy who's shown up and then move the communications tower into a new position. We also find out they're going to lock up Chemical Kid and Dragonwing... before they figure out what to do with them permanently.

The pair take that as the threat it is, so they start attacking the soldiers. One of them knocks out Hadru, which is when the other three Legionnaires arrive. They've dropped their disguises and the fight begins.

Ultra Boy uses his penetra-vision on the tower and figures out that it's sending signals to the Dominators - not what it's supposed to do. Cham tells him to break it.

But just as he's about to, someone grabs his wrist and hits him, sending Jo flying. Ultra Boy throws a very large rock back at him, which the attacker easily destroys with one punch.

They're all shocked because Cham lets them know the new villain is a Daxamite... question mark?? Maybe?

This was a very, very weird first issue and it also seems like they don't want new readers to jump onboard. I also have no idea why they didn't embrace the chance to make some bigger changes to the title as they're relaunching and they know they're going to sell a ton of copies.

I know this would've felt very similar to Legion Worlds, but why not show the remaining Legionnaires actually dealing with the loss of their teammates? We get a scene in the hall of heroes, but we have to eulogize Earth-Man instead of Dawnstar? And yes, her statue was in the background.

Why not show the Legionnaires, on duty, dealing with the fact that they have 14 active members? Why not show them making the tough decision to bring in new Legionnaires that they don't believe or ready? Why not have one of them turn it down?

And, of all the possible new Legionnaires you could've chosen, you go with these Academy students who proved in Adventure Comics that they didn't deserve a spot??

Instead, it's just a continuation from the last two series and not enough information for anything to really make any sense to a new reader. Why do they dislike Earth-Man? Why was Mon-El a Green Lantern? It's as if they were purposefully trying to make this book as difficult as possible for a new reader.

If there's one positive, it's that the artwork is really good. Portela is improving all the time and I thought the details he added were just amazing.

Trivia answer:

Blackhawks, Hawk and Dove, Men of War, Mister Terrific, O.M.A.C., and Static Shock were all cancelled with their 8th issue.

Voodoo lasted 13 issues.

I, Vampire lasted 20 issues... 3 longer than the next series we're going to reread. 

 

Legion Lost (volume 2) #1

On paper, this is the Legion comic that I'm most excited about for a couple of reasons.

First, we have a lot of my favorite Legionnaires: Wildfire, Dawnstar, Tyroc, Timber Wolf, Tellus, Gates, and Chameleon Girl.

Second, we have Pete Woods on artwork. By the time this series came out, I was already familiar, and a fan, of stuff on Deadpool and some Batman books. He had also done a pretty good job on Last Stand on New Krypton, so at the very least, I know this book's going to look good.

Third, we have Fabian Nicieza writing it. To be honest, I had long dropped the X-books by the time he did anything on them, but the fact that DC is bringing in a big name Marvel writer to handle this book shows they're actually investing in some talent.

I wonder now if this was the book DC figured was going to be the big hit. And if they couldn't figure out what went wrong.

 

We begin at Red Lake Falls Medical Center in Minnesota, and a man is speaking an alien language, growing in size, calling the people scum, and saying they all deserve to die. He also appears to be super strong, throwing an EMT across the room.

There's a huge flash of blue light in the parking lot and the Legionnaires suddenly appear in a time bubble that's shattering into pieces. The story is called "Run From Tomorrow" and we have a very interesting note in the credits: special thanks to Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning!

Are we embracing the reboot Legion here? Is this a move back towards those stories? Are we ignoring the Retroboot? Or do they just want to show some love to the writing team that revamped the Legion?

Another thing of note in the credits - we have editor Brian Cunningham, who was the editor of Legion volume 6. So different editorial teams are handling these two books... that's... a choice...

The next page is recap and introduction at its most obvious. Every character refers to the other by their full Legion name (or by "Yera" so maybe she's not going to be called Chameleon Girl here) and they also explain that they are following someone called "Alastor" from the future and they barely broke through the Flashpoint Breakwall, whatever that is.

Okay, as painful as this is to write, it is "First Issue Lesson One" of comic book writing, especially in the Marvel style. You assume the new readers have no idea who anyone is so you write painfully awkward exposition.

Why did they have to wait to chase after this villain and possibly wreck their Time Bubble? Tyroc explains that they needed to help people in their own time first. I'm confused as to why in Legion #1, Dream Girl said it was impossible to travel through time after Flashpoint but it just seems like it's dangerous here. Point one of the editorial teams not communicating.

First Abnett/Lanning connection: Wildfire's new costume looks very similar to Olivier Coipel's design. I just hope it's harder to destroy than what we just saw in LSH volume 6.

The trip through time has affected our heroes. Yera is having problems keeping her humanoid form and Tellus helps her telepathically. She also feels kinda... funny... but not as bad as Dawnstar, who throws up in some bushes.

Tellus comments that they need to find Alastor before he releases a pathogen so Timber Wolf, following his "old dog nose," chases after him. Tyroc tells him not to go off on his own and it looks like he's the leader of this team. Which is already better than anything we saw last series.

These first couple of pages really show a huge difference in writing styles and editorial strategies. Levitz doesn't explain who anyone is, relying on the text boxes to give character names, powers, and origins. He's also making it very difficult to follow if you didn't read the previous Legion title. Nicieza doesn't have those text boxes, and he's instead introducing everyone through pretty clunky dialogue.

 

For example, we get this bit:

Tyroc: Out Flight Rings aren't working.

Wildfire: Of course not.

Tyroc: Luckily, between Chameleon Girl's shapeshifting, Tellus's telekinesis, and my harmonic manipulation -- most of us can fly on our own.

 

Ugh...

But, and I'll give him credit for this, he does seem to be doing his best to make sure new readers are clear with what's going on. It's a fascinating difference in styles and first issues.

Anyway, more exposition lets us know that Alastor has been in the 21st Century for nearly 30 hours, the Legionnaires transuits aren't working properly so all the pollutants are messing with them, and none of their other tech is working either. Oh, and Yera had an acting gig at the Time Institute... nope, that doesn't make any sense to me either.

Timber Wolf rushes off again, tracking with his nose (which isn't being overwhelmed by the pollutants in the air, even as it's affecting Dawnstar who's, you know, the tracker), and tells them to fix the Time Bubble so they can get back to their own time.

Elsewhere in Red Lake Falls, the local police have been called in to handle the chaos at the medical facility. Or what's left of it. 

A huge green alien is on the rampage, telling them he's going to make them pay. He destroys the police car, probably killing the two officers, and then hears something...

It's a little girl, crying, who needs help finding her sister. He threatens her, she says please, and then he collapses unconscious and turns "human" again. 

Three hours later (and we know this because the caption says "Thirty-Two Hours After Release" and it said Twenty-Nine before), the Legionnaires are still trying to fix the Time Bubble and Dawnstar is just now recovering. Without the transuit filter, she can't sense anything. Yera comments that it doesn't explain why she's felt nauseated, too, so I'm just going to assume she's pregnant. Why? Story cliche number 76 - nauseous women are always pregnant, right?

Just as I'm trying to ignore that trope, they do something with Wildfire that breaks my brain a little. He pops open his face mask and reveals his energy "face" underneath. You can see an outline of his facial features. He does this as he uses his powers to weld something on the Time Bubble. I honestly wish I was kidding.

They still don't know where Timber Wolf is so Dawnstar forces herself to use her tracking powers to find him.

She flies up into the sky and realizes that they're too late - the pathogen has already been released. Gee, you think maybe it would've made more sense to track down the villain first and then fix the Time Bubble?

I mean, based on the captions, we know the pathogen was released hours ago. But they don't. Which means that they were, selfishly, less concerned with saving others and more concerned with saving themselves.

Brin shows up and dumps an unconscious Alastor on the ground. As they start talking about him, he comes back to life and says that he promised the human race would pay for what they did. They took away his hopes and dreams... and his sister. I guess that explains why he collapsed when he saw the girl.

Tyroc's response: "Let's get the hell out of here."

Umm... pathogen? That's going to destroy the Earth? Is there nothing they can do? Don't they have any plans to solve this? If you're human like, say, Wildfire, are you not worried that you're suddenly going to blip out of existence? I understand that all their tech has stopped working (except the Time Bubble, for plot reasons), but surely some of them are smart enough to build some tech? If they're smart enough to repair the Time Bubble, can't they build something to counteract the pathogen?

Nope. 

They all get back into the Time Bubble and struggle to get through the Time Stream. Alastor keeps ranting about how he's changed the future and doomed everyone. Then he starts changing into the alien form we saw earlier, which is apparently enough to destroy the Time Bubble.

The pressure builds and builds and Tellus tries to contain it with a telekinetic shield. Gates says he'll teleport him into space, which they aren't actually in because they're actually in the Time Stream but that's me nitpicking, right?

Yera tries to help, Gates tells her to stop and generates a teleport hole, and the Time Bubble explodes. Alastor detonated himself.

Luckily, Tellus had generated a protective shield and everyone's fine. Well, Gates and Yera are missing, but the rest are all good. Tellus can't sense them anywhere and Timber Wolf says that their organic residue is falling with the rain. So we've killed off two Legionnaires already? Wow...

Dawnstar tells them that she can't sense any trace of Alastor's DNA, or him, at all. So he might've just blown up or he might be somewhere else. If you're wondering how this makes sense considering he's the one who blew up and the other two didn't, you're not alone.

Wildfire delivers the bad news: "The Time Bubble is history -- and now so are we. If the pathogen has been released on Earth... then we might be infected too. So... what do we do now?"

Umm... the pathogen WAS released. Dawnstar already told you this. So you are all infected. Well, Wildfire isn't because he's pure anti-matter energy. But the rest are...

 

If you told me that Nicieza had never read a Legion comic before this, I'd believe you. If you told me he had only read the first Legion Lost, I'd believe that, too.

I also know that Nicieza was juggling a ton of work outside DC at the time, so I would hazard a guess that this book isn't really high on his list of priorities. It's a pretty paint-by-numbers book that never actually feels like a Legion story. If that's what they were going for, it worked. But if that's what they were going for, then why publish a Legion book? There are a ton of DC characters you could've done almost the same story with. Why create a Legion book and ignore everything about the history?

On a more positive note, aside from a few really weird design choices (like giving Tellus hands or claws), I kinda like the new looks for the characters. Especially Tyroc. Woods keeps the energy level high on this book and makes everything look good.

 

After reading both books, it is blatantly obvious that Levitz had absolutely no idea what was going to happen in Legion Lost because all references in that book do not vibe with this story at all. Strange how having two editorial teams, and Legion Lost being edited by a team that misses details all the time, leads to these kinds of problems.

You may have noticed that I ask a lot of questions this column (and I know I do that a lot). It's because confusion was the dominant emotion while reading these books. I just don't understand the decisions make for either book.

As first issues go, I think Legion Lost delivers far better than LSH does, but that's kinda damning with faint praise. In both cases, the artwork is the strength and the writing is pretty underwhelming.

Podcast news! The latest issue of the Long Live the Legion podcast has just been released! 

In this episode, we  talk about the Death of Invisible Kid with Eric & Peter from The Legion Project Podcast! It's a deep dive into a single issue and one of the most fascinating stories of the 1970s.

Check it out where you listen to your podcasts, or on Podbean. 

It's also on YouTube!