The Legion fights the Ravagers and Cosmic Boy has a good night! We read Legion of Super-Heroes (volume 7) #8 & Legion Lost (volume 2) #8

Legion of Super-Heroes (vol 7) #8

First, before we do anything else, please check out this public service announcement:

https://youtube.com/shorts/fga8wL-f0H8

With that out of the way, let's get started! We just wrapped up the Dragonwing story which was a little anticlimactic as best and disappointing at worst. We also learned that Sun Boy is powerful enough to burn away an entire Sea of Fire.

Let's see where we go from there. This issue, titled "1 of 5," (I wonder if that's where Josh Williamson got the idea for the new version of Brainiac 5) is written by Paul Levitz with art by Steve Lightle. I always love it when Lightle comes back to the Legion, even if it's never for long enough.

We begin in a medi-center on the planet Zardon, where a cat-looking woman is threatening a doctor. She wants to find something and the Doc just won't share the information. A big Venom-looking creature kills another staff member and they hope that's enough to get the doctor to tell them what they want to know: "The gold master for Nano-Amp #108."

They threaten to kill the doctor so he gives up the information, pointing towards... something. The woman orders Venom, sorry, Sitka, to bust through the wall to their goal. They go to grab something after a man with three eyes identifies what they want from the collection of light spheres and the fire-user of the bunch decides it's now time to burn the doctor.

Which is when he goes flying, due to some invisible force. More specifically, it's Invisible Kid to the rescue. Even though the tri-pod gets the orb, Jacques is able to defeat Sitka and the woman (who I think is named Jerl) and save the doctor.

Jacques turns and asks the doctor if the villains got away with the Computo circuit Brainiac 5 created to help with Danielle's care. Nope - "something worse, I'm afraid."

Mon-El and Ultra Boy are flying outside the planet's atmosphere, searching for something. Jo comments that Zardon is worse than Rimbor, which is saying a lot.

They spot the three-eyed thief and bust into his ship to retrieve the chip that was stolen. I always find it fascinating that there is never, ever any explosive decompression whenever a Legionnaire smashes into a regular ship and the person inside is never killed.

They grab the chip and signal Brainy that they've got it. Since Brainy only delivers bad news these days, our favorite Coluan lets us know that the information on the chip has probably been sent out in a fleet of drones and "the technology that created Tharok has been stolen."

We get our first big cliffhanger - "Someone is trying to recreate the Fatal Five."

Time for the next story of this issue - "Founders' Night" is written by Levitz, pencilled by Yildiray Cinar and inked by Dan Green. 

Cosmic Boy is sitting in front of the Monitor Board, trying to figure out where the seven missing Legionnaires have gone. So they're not assuming they're dead anymore? Huh?

Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad interrupt his efforts and let him know that "The whole world's not on your shoulders." I'd argue that, since he's the only one who seems to care about this stuff, it kinda is. 

Imra and Garth try to drag him away from his duties for a night off, but Rokk says he's on the Monitor Board tonight and can't go anywhere. Brainy tells him he's useless to the team if he breaks down, so he takes over and send Rokk for a night off. Since Brainy can't end a scene without denigrating a teammate, he lets us all know that if he couldn't find the missing Legionnaires, no one can.

The trinity heads off to Istanbul for a night on the town. They head into a nightclub, one recommended by Sun Boy no less, and Rokk laments that Imra and Garth have each other and he's got no one.

Which is when Night Girl enters the picture. She grabs Rokk and drags him onto the dance floor.

Of course, Legionnaires never get a night off, even off-duty ones, so Brainy calls Garth and orders him to run interference for the weather control before it shorts out.

Two pages later, Garth's taken care of the problem and the storm has cleared. He flies back to the club, hoping for a last dance with his wife, and they see that Rokk and Lydda have rekindled their romance.

The first story was interesting and I honestly wish it had been able to go the full 22 pages. That’s because the second story was pretty much nothing, even though I did enjoy seeing Lightning Lad back in action and the artwork was really good. 

Art-wise, it’s Lightle and Cinar, so the book looks stunning. You can enjoy this one for the pretty pictures alone.

  

Legion Lost (vol 2) #8

It's the Prelude to The Culling, whatever that means.

From what I've gathered from the two-page "article" in this comic book, DC is launching some new books and one of them, The Ravagers, is directly spinning out of this big event. The Culling storyline is taking over Teen Titans, Superboy, and Legion Lost.

Did it work? We'll take a look at the entire story next week (shudder) but I wanted to see if DC made a good choice using these three books to usher in a new title.

In April 2012:

• Teen Titans #8 sold 50,814 copies to land in 23rd place
• Superboy #8 sold 28,710 copies for 75th place
• Legion Lost #8 sold 19,816 copies... 117th place

I'm thinking this crossover is to help Superboy and Legion Lost get some much-needed sales.

"Ravaged!" is written by Tom DeFalco with art by Aaron Kuder. Let's see what fallout we have from Timber Wolf stealing a duffle bag full of drug money and Tellus carrying a huge secret.

We begin on "A sprawling scientific complex for an organization called N.O.W.H.E.R.E." located in the Antarctic. We're introduced to the person I'm assuming is the villain, someone with the horribly-nineties name of "Agent Psykill." Director Centerhall wants him to apprehend a "wolf boy" in New York City.

First question of the review - are we still writing the Legion, especially this version, as if they're teenagers? Because they’re not.

The final panel of the page reveals that Psykill is a huge, bald man whose entire body is one big suit of armor with no hands - just lasers, I think. I dunno. I'm getting some serious crappy Image vibes here.

In New York City, Tyroc blasts Timber Wolf (and the bag of money) to let him know that they shouldn't be stealing from "primitives." Brin counter attacks and, once again, Tellus creates a psychic shield to protect the team.

Dawnstar gets in front of Tyroc, reminding him that he's the leader (I still have no idea why he was the leader or is still the leader. He's done nothing for 7 issues and just seems to complain a lot). Chameleon Girl wraps herself around Brin to get him to stop fighting. Gates vents about how horrible it is that they're trapped in the past, providing much needed recap dialogue.

Brin rushes out and Dawnstar rips into Wildfire for not helping. Outside the hotel, the worst subplot, a thief named Oz, is waiting for Timber Wolf and still wants a share of the stolen money.

As they stride away from the hotel (and no, in case you were wondering, Timber Wolf is doing absolutely nothing to hide his costume), Psykill and Rose are watching them, guns aimed at the pair.

Who is Rose, you may ask? Rose Wilson. Daughter of Deathstroke the Terminator. Considering she leaps off a tall building, spins, jumps off an awning, and lands on the street without injury, I'm just going to assume she has super powers. She's disappointed that she can't kill Timber Wolf, and she's also impressed that he heard her coming. She draws a pair of swords, ready to fight.

Back at the hotel, Tellus can't sense Brin anywhere and Tyroc decides to "hunt him down and make sure he's all right." Yera wants to join him, but he rejects her.

Which leads to the next big twist - she still has to complete their real mission in the past. In her thoughts, "Alastor and his ridiculous virus were never" their primary task.

Which is when Colossal Boy suddenly shows up. He misses her and her response, yes her response to seeing the husband she never thought she'd see again is, "What are you doing here?" She reveals that they broke up and their relationship has been long over.

So he punches her. Of course it's not Gim - he never punches first. It's a new villain - Misbelief.

Hmmm... okay... so Gim quit the Legion because his wife "died" but they were already split up, which is something they never addressed in the LSH book. Would it have been so hard for these two editorial teams to talk once?

Tyroc strides to the elevator (why would he not just fly out the window?), thinking about how he should've done better as leader and how he "shouldn't allow the prophecy to..." To no surprise, DeFalco is just throwing out everything that happened in the first six issues and starting again.

A gust of wind hits him and then gets stronger, throwing Tyroc into the wall. It's Windstrom! I'm not joking, that's what it says in the comic. So either it's a horrible name or a typo.

Back in the room, Tellus realizes that he no longer senses Tyroc and Yera (did they not hear Yera fighting, or yelling, or anything?) and then Psykill bursts in and grabs Wildfire. The pair smash through a number of walls before crashing out of the building.

In true "new villains arrive" fashion, three more of the team crash through the windows to attack the remaining Legionnaires. We have Ridge, who looks like a walking, talking crocodile and is somehow fast enough to punch Dawnstar in the face. Crush can stretch her limbs and wraps herself around Gates. Hammerfist (or Hammerfissst, as Crush says it because, I guess, she has a lisp) attacks Tellus and just keeps punching and punching his psychic shields.

We also learn the name of their leader, Harvest. Or if not their leader, the person who gave them some device that prevents Tellus from psychically contacting his team.

Dawnstar and Ridge keep fighting and within three lines of dialogue, our villain is already emotionally breaking down and talking about family. Maybe he's been spending too much time with the Torretos. 

But before we get to the end of any battle, we have to jump back to previous fights. Yera is still fighting Disbelief, who uses the Durlan's fear of drowning to defeat her.

On the street, Timber Wolf and Rose continue fighting. He notices that she's trying to keep him away from the hotel and figures that they're under attack as well. What's Oz doing? Taking pictures of her, of course.

Wildfire blasts Psykill and reminds him that the Legion never quits and never surrenders. So the villain tells his teammates to turn on their psy-shields and lets loose a three-block psychic blasts that knocks every living being unconscious.

They grab the Legionnaires and load them onto their craft. We learn that almost everyone will be fully recovered within the hour and they won't be able to investigate the blast. For some reason, we focus on the cell phone in Oz's hand, so I'm just going to assume he's going to continue playing a big part in this.

This one was pretty average. It’s always great to see big fight scenes, but I am kinda sick of the Legion being easily beaten again and again. I kinda wish the villains were a little more memorable.

On a more positive note, the latest Long Live the Legion podcast is out now. We talk to Paul Kaminski about the new Legion book coming out September 2nd. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23q4Qx7IRx0 !