We're back to only focusing on one book and, unfortunately, it's this one... it's a spoiler-free headline for my reread of Legion of Super-Heroes (vol 7) #17 & 18

Legion of Super-Heroes (vol 7) #17

Here's your recap: Phantom Girl was just elected Legion leader. Validus isn't on Takron-Galtos and the Persuader's axe isn't... wherever it was being kept.

I was also wrong, again... the Legion Lost characters don't seem to be coming back to the future any time soon, so I imagine this means we're going to get a steady diet of Chemical Kid, Brainiac 5, and Phantom Girl and the rest of the Legionnaires will stand around in the background.

"The Beginning of the End" is plotted and scripted by Paul Levitz, plotted and pencilled by Keith Giffen, and inked by Scott Koblish. Giffen being back on the Legion can only mean one thing - DC is desperately trying to figure out how to get readers back and, yet again, that means the Legion goes back 30 years to try to recapture their old magic. I know that if I was trying to get younger readers to check out my titles, the first thing I'd do is hire creators in their 50s and 60s and wring the last ounce of nostalgia out of them.

You can say that I'm being ageist, but I think we can all safely say that Keith Giffen's name on a book is no longer the draw it once was. Don't believe me?

Issue #15 - 16,912 copies sold 

Issue #16 - 16,496 copies sold

Issue #17 - 15,242 copies sold

To be completely honest, this does kinda hurt me to write. I love Giffen's work, even the stuff that's less accessible and popular. I think he's one of the most important creators in comics in the past 60 years. I think his run on Justice League is the best version of that team ever.

But hiring him to draw the Legion, much like hiring Levitz, was an attempt to cash in on the 40 and 50-something comic readers who remember "the good old days." It was not an attempt to get anyone new to read the book.

As much as I hated Legion Lost, at least they tried to appeal to new readers. I think that was the mindset behind those two books - Legion was for the old fans and Lost was for the new ones. When Lost failed so spectacularly, DC went back to the old adage of "new readers don't want to check out the Legion because it's so complicated... and it doesn't matter what we do to it." Then they hire writers who don't understand the characters, handcuff them so they end up producing crap, and it all becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Having said all that, I really, really, really have my fingers crossed that bringing Giffen, and his incredibly creative mind, back on the Legion will fix what ailed it.

My worst case scenario is that they hired Giffen, knowing the book was headed towards cancellation, and he's going to leave wreckage in his wake.

 

We begin the story somewhere in space. A Legion cruiser has crashed and Phantom Girl is nice enough to talk to herself and explain everything that's happened. I know that we've all decided that thought bubbles are stupid but if you're going to dump exposition, why not use captions? I don't know anyone who walked through a traumatic moment explaining everything that just happened.

She tells us that the ship shut down and she was barely able to phase before the crash. But she's hurt, something smells bad, she's covered in mud (it's Giffen, so that has to happen, right) and she can't speak with the aliens there because the translator's dead.

Can anyone explain to me how, if she phased before the crash, Tinya would be hurt at all? Or how mud would stick to her if she phased?

Regardless, she's also nice enough to tell us twice that this is her first mission as Legion leader while surrounded by more Kirby Krackle (TM) than we've seen in a while. Her Flight Ring doesn't work, so she can't call for help. Then she finally heads back into the ship to see who else survived the crash.

Polar Boy is shaken up but survived due to creating an ice cocoon around himself and Invisible Kid. Jacques has headed off to find Sun Boy and Tinya contradicts herself by telling Brek that she's fine - "nothing hurts a phantom."

She enters another part of the ship and Jacques tells her not to look. Which leads to the big reveal - Sun Boy saved them all by piloting the ship to the surface. Oh, and he was also decapitated.

What? WHAT?

I guess on the positive side, they didn't turn Sun Boy into a sex freak before they killed him. But really? Again? I never thought I'd say this, but I guess putting Sun Boy into a mainly-red costume should've told us that there was a target on his back. And since Karate Kid's already dead, they had to kill someone else.

Phantom Girl has an emotional breakdown (because she's a girl, of course, and unstable... ugh...) and moans about the fact that Dirk didn't die heroically, he just died saving them. Uh, I'd argue that he died heroically and saved their lives, but what do I know?

Jacques tells her to pull herself together because they have a friend to bury. They're not even gonna bring him back to Shanghalla? Polar Boy finally sees what happened to Sun Boy but they're not going to show Brek reacting to losing his close friend because... well, it's comics, and the boys all have to be tough, right?

We head to Rimbor, where Ultra Boy and Glorith watch as the city falls apart. As do their camouflage outfits. Okay, so is technology shutting down again? Didn't we already do this story?

Chameleon Boy looks out at the chaos and wonders why so many systems are shutting down all over the planet. He knows that Tharok isn't powerful enough to do this, so we have a mystery.

Since their Flight Rings aren't working either, Jo flies Glorith towards the one section of the city that still seems under power.

Back at the crash site, the locals are trying to talk to Polar Boy but, of course, they can't understand each other. The Legionnaires don't know where they are because, of course, no computers to navigate. Polar Boy finally yells at the aliens, telling them to shut up, and wanders off to talk to himself and give us more exposition.

We get a nice ad here for a new series starring Vibe. Vibe got his own series. Wow... Drawn by Pete Woods. Oh... Pete... I'm so sorry for this... but it's work, right?

Polar Boy finally gets a good sense of perspective and realizes that the village they crash landed into is build on top of an "organic stone arm." He tells us there's "only one thing in the universe like that -- and it's a myth... the Promethean Giants..." So he rushes back to Phantom Girl to tell her what he's found.

Am I weird that I'd like one big threat in the universe to NOT be named after Earth mythology? I know Earthlings spread out across the galaxy and it makes sense that they have some cultural impact. But wouldn't it be great to say that these are "<insert strange alien adjective> giants?"

Let's go back to Rimbor, where Cham has discovered that one building still has a power feed. Everything else is shut down, but they might be able to use a quark relay link to reach Legion HQ. The only problem is, of course, that they've discovered Tharok's been there and may be responsible for everything.

Before they can do anything else, the servo-robots come to life and start attacking. Since they're not alive, Glorith casts a "spell of dissociation" and they all fall apart. While Ultra Boy and Cham look surprised, Glorith simply states that she does "not like to be touched." You'd think the pair of Legionnaires would have seen enough magic to not be surprised by this. Or maybe we're finally elevating Glorith to "decently effective" Legionnaire. Or we're just reliving what they did with the White Witch.

Back "on the Promethean giant," because why have any mystery here, Brek explains that there creatures have been legendary for much of Earth's history and I guess I can't complain about the name anymore. I also can't complain because they've been a part of DC history since Jack Kirby introduced them in the New Gods back in 1971.

I can complain, however, about what happens next.

The aliens cook and eat Dirk's body. And Phantom Girl doesn't seem to be shaken up by it. Jacques calls it a nightmare, I call it a big middle finger to Sun Boy, and I wonder why Giffen hates him so much.

The cruiser shudders with a strange energy and Tinya wonders if they can power it up to get out there. Polar Boy finally responds in a normal way, attacking the aliens and calling them cannibals. Okay, they're not really cannibals because they're not human. But they just ate his best friend.

The cruiser explodes and the giant comes to life. We get a massive, two-page spread of the creature, looking very much rocky and Kirby-esque.

We head somewhere else because we haven't gotten to the big cliffhanger yet. Somewhere on the edge of the U.P., Tharok has found the Persuader living on a quiet planet. He's taken over because the locals "are very... willing." Ugh... why oh why does every story Giffen has worked on with the Fatal Five in the Retroboot have shades of sexual assault hinted at in the dialogue?

Tharok is no longer half-man, half-robot. He's only kinda robotic and in a form that "can move between worlds incorporeally." His plan is to reunite a more powerful Fatal Five and "strike the deathblows to the United Planets."

They're going to strike at Legionnaires' home worlds and who's up first? Validus, of course.

 

I've mentioned Kirby a couple of times in this review and that's for a good reason. If you love Jack Kirby's artwork and really love seeing Keith Giffen do his best impersonation of The King, then you'll really get a kick out of this issue. It's about as good of a Kirby pastiche as you can get.

If you're a reader under the age of 30 who wants to see something that looks modern and that will reach new readers, this might have less of an effect.

What I'm about to write may anger some of you, but I'm going to say it anyway. Doing a Jack Kirby tribute in a DC or Marvel comic in 2013 is just a death knell for the book. Who are you doing this for? Not for new readers. Not for young readers. For that matter, I don't want to see a Steve Ditko tribute, or a John Romita tribute, or a Mike Grell tribute, or a Jim Starlin tribute. Not in 2013. And not today in 2026 either.

If you want to do a single page or call back to yesterday with a flashback scene? Great. Or do what they did in Legion of Super-Heroes v2 #300, where they did alternate universe stories drawn either by or in the style of older artists? Awesome.

But a whole issue? Who is this for?

 

Story-wise, I think this is a really great way to start the final, epic storyline for this series. We have two huge threats, we have a re-imagined Tharok, and we have a Legion in crisis.

We even have a Legion death that kinda matches a lot of them from the past. The sacrifices of Invisible Kid and Karate Kid aren't deaths that ended the entire crisis, or with gigantic stakes, but smaller deaths that saved a smaller group of Legionnaires or stopped one part of a bigger plan.

But why Sun Boy? Again? Like, honestly, what did he do to deserve this? And to be eaten after he's died? Did they need to desecrate the body too?

And why are they cutting Phantom Girl down every moment they get? Of all the female Legionnaires, she's one who should be an effective and strong leader. She's been with the team since almost the beginning, she's brave and ready to face any danger imaginable, and she's never been one to break down emotionally - unless she thinks Ultra Boy is dead. Why are they doing her dirty as well?

 

Legion of Super-Heroes (vol 7) #18

Let's see where this epic story is going, shall we? "Home's End" is written by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen with art by Scott Kolins (p. 9-20) and Tom Derenick (p. 1-8).

The Legion HQ is 1/3 gone and on fire. We get some dialogue saying that the universe falling apart isn't the Legion's fault but we have no idea who's saying it.

Oh, it's Harmonia, who's paired with Dragonwing to try to keep the rioting people from getting into the HQ... I think... Harmonia's nice enough to explain that the quark relays that failed last issue were the reason technology around the galaxy, and especially on Earth, have failed.

She also gives a little comment about how none of them know how to live in harmony with nature. Well, of course. We don't know how to live in harmony with nature in 2026, it would be exponentially worse 1000 years from now.

Dragonwing lets us know that Harmonia is deputy leader (why would any Legionnaire vote for her?) and wants to know what they should do next. Instead of doing something, she gives a speech, promising that the Legion will figure out who caused all this destruction.

Which is when they reveal a journalist, with float-cams, is there to press Harmonia for the truth. He wonders if this is the result of one of Brainiac 5's experiments (good guess). The cams are running on batteries in case you're wondering why they have power and nothing else does. Or why he would think anyone could see what he's recording. So the powers causing this are strong enough to shut down Flight Rings, as seen last issue, but not batteries. Got it.

Instead of dealing with the reporter, Harmonia just hits him with some wind and stops the interview. Then she sends Dragonwing flying to... save her from some rocks, I think... I understand why - flying rocks have been the Legion's biggest threat for a while now.

Out in space, Mon-El is flying a Legion cruiser (which doesn't look like any other cruiser that we've seen before) and talking to Cosmic Boy. So their comms work. And whatever is powering the cruiser is working. But not well enough to actually propel the ship forward. They decide to head to Weber's World and I'm starting to wonder if I'm just not smart enough to understand what's going on.

So the quark relays stopped working, which pretty much shut down all power on Earth, but that didn't effect the cruisers? Except the cruiser that crash landed last issue. And it didn't effect the batteries but it did affect Flight Rings? And the robots could still work on Rimbor but nothing's working here?

Also, I'm fairly certain that this is the first time we've ever hard of "quark relays" as an explanation of how the technology works in the 31st Century. I don't think it's a great idea to have your entire massive story revolving around a technology you've never seen before.

Joining Cosmic Boy onboard are Lightning Lass, Shrinking Violet, and Shadow Lass. Rokk asks Ayla to use her power to "re-power the systems" and Vi complains, saying "She's not your little battery, Cos -- show some dignity, please." Um, if they don't have any power, they all die in space. What is Vi complaining about?

Then Rokk says that this is the worst thing to happen to so many worlds since The Great Darkness. So I guess The Magic Wars never happened in this universe. This leads to Shadow Lass recapping the battle against Darkseid and the servants and worries that it will take her own planet back to barbarism. Wow - she finally got to do something that doesn't revolve around Earth-Man.

Let's head to Rimbor. There's no power anywhere, people are resorting to scavenging, and Chameleon Boy and Ultra Boy have to provide the elements Glorith needs to cast a spell to get them out of there. Jo generates some fire and Glorith opens a portal to The Sorcerers' World.

We get a dramatic art shift and we're back at Legion HQ. Brainy is working on getting both the computers and a cruiser up and running out of obsolete equipment. Okay, so it's only stuff that uses quark relays that have shut down? They get monitors running and see what's being broadcast from the float-cams. The world is being destroyed - fires, riots, crazy weather... Can anyone explain why Brainiac 5 has power and, if he's able to give the HQ power, why are they not trying to get power restored to the entire planet?

Dream Girl's response to this story: "It's hideous, Thom. Hold me." Hey, Star Boy, what role do you play on the Legion? Thanks for asking, I'm the emotional support animal for one of the members.

Brainy wants help getting as many ionic relays working as he can - they're not corrupted. He posits that since Tharok doesn't have any quark relays in his computers and relies on much older tech, he's impervious to these problems and is probably laughing at the destruction.

Of course, since we all read LSH #0, we know that Tharok's using old Brainiac 1 tech. You would think Brainy would've identified this a looooooong time ago, but that's asking too much right now.

The Promethean Giants have all come to life (I think), moving through the cosmos, and three Legionnaires are still on one of them. Phantom Girl, Invisible Kid, and Polar Boy have survived the Giant coming to life but some of the aliens who lived on that "planet" have not. Brek is not sad they got what they deserved. We get another shot of Sun Boy's bones, Jacques grabs Dirk's ring to take back to Earth, and Tinya keeps acting like she's never seen anything bad happen before. It takes Brek calming her down and reminding her that she won't be blamed for what's happened.

They head into the village and the other aliens are still there. They try to communicate again and then the Giant flexes its finger and starts destroying everything.

Speaking of destruction, the HQ is collapsing, so Brainy orders the rest of them to get into the cruiser he's building, saying that he'll finish it inside. It looks like some debris is going to crash onto Dream Girl and Star Boy, so Element Lad converts it to... something??

Nura jumps through the closing door of the cruiser and turns back to get Thom. He tells her that he's moving as fast as he can, but his leg is still...

And he's crushed by falling debris.

Nura stands there in shock. Brainy yells at her, "We have no more time, Nura -- he'll have to dig himself out, if he can."

Element Lad grabs her, pulling her away from the door.

And the cruiser takes off, blazing fire behind it, and there's a huge explosion where the HQ used to be.

Back at the Promethean Giant. The finger scratches, destroying the village. Who's in control? Tharok, of course, has turned the Giant into his puppet.

The next issue blurb: "Next: Emerald Empress does the unthinkable!" We've already killed off two Legionnaires who've been around since the sixties. What's unthinkable now?

 

I'm suffering from a bit of whiplash here. I already wondered why kill Sun Boy and have aliens eat his body. Now I'm wondering why they'd kill Star Boy.

We talked about Thom, and his place in the DCU, during the podcast episode dedicated to him (episode 36, if you're curious) and I wondered if he might have been the most well-known Legionnaire at the time. He played a key role in the JSA and has shown up throughout many of DC's big events.

So, of course, we have to make him useless and then kill him.

I have so many questions but let's stick to the big ones:

• Why tease Validus at the end of #17 and not have him appear in #18?
• When did Legionnaires stop trying to save people?
• Why was Brainy so willing to leave Thom behind?
• Did anyone tell Levitz and Giffen that they're just redoing The Magic Wars?
• How bad must it have been behind-the-scenes at DC for Levitz and Giffen to want to burn it all down?

5 issues to go.