I'll be repeating here a lot of what I said in my latest "Capsule Comments" roundup of weekly comic book purchases, but you can read that review here, if you are so inclined. Whether you read the capsule review first or not, be warned that panelogicals are long-form reviews. You may want to go grab a snack, you're gonna be here for a while.
But first off, before launching into the snark, let me present my theory for exactly why this "may be the worst comic book ever published," as I teased in my twitter links to this page. The sharp-eyed reader will note that this issue claims to be "Part 4 of 6" in the "Infinitus Saga." Previous issues, however, have listed the story as a five-part event.
My guess is that writer Jeff Lemire plotted out the story before the directive came down from The Powers That Be at DC to wrap up all current plot lines before the "Convergence" cover-our-asses-while-we-disembark-so-sunny-Cali linewide mega event scheduled to start in April. Rather than write one stand-alone issue for JLU #10, because what comic book writer today is capable of doing that, Lemire simply padded out the current saga with one plotless filler issue.
Aside from no plot to speak of, my theory also answers why there are so few words and panels in this comic, such that I was able to read the entire issue in five minutes, 15 seconds. To wit: It was a last-minute rush job.
So, without further preamble, let's get to work picking it apart.
COVER:
This issue shipped with three covers, which seems somewhat conservative by modern industry standards. The best is the Flash 75th Anniversary variant, by Karl Kerschl and Dave McCaig, which apes Carmine Infantino's cover to MYSTERY IN SPACE #60, and not just because it relies on Infantino's superior design sense. It also apes the Silver/Bronze age staple of mixing copy with the cover image. That compliments the cover drawing, in my opinion, and helps to lure in the casual reader, perusing comics on the stands. While one might simply glance at the other two covers for this issue and move on with a, "Hawkman, meh," the clue that this story takes place an amazing 25 trillion miles from Earth against an entire world of tentacles almost compels the reader to pick it up. And, as often as not, once the comic is in the readers hands, its sold. That is the covers job after all, and this cover does it best.
As noted, the regular and "regular variant" covers both feature Hawkman. That seems an odd choice for a story that features the Legion of Super-Heroes so heavily that it basically relegates the JLU to cameo status in their own book. My guess is that JLU #9 will feature Hawkman pretty heavily and that these covers were initially slated to go with that chapter. If my theory on this chapter being filler holds, then it may have been that it was simply easier to use the covers originally planned for this issue and figure out what to do for covers on the final chapter, now scheduled for Issue #10, than to commission new covers for #8 on the fly.The "regular variant" cover by Rod Ries, pasted at the bottom of this review, is marginally more interesting then the regular version, at the top. It's just a shot of Hawkman. So, you know, whatev. The regular cover, though, makes little sense. It seems to depict Hawkman as the god-like warrior directing an alien armada. But, when last ween in Issue #7, he was working solo for Byth, presumably under mind control, while the Thanagarian fleet was on the opposite side, defending against the Infinity Wraiths. And, while the painted feel of the regular cover is cool, it's impression is cold, and impersonal. This one really could have benefitted from some cover copy to tell us why we should care.
PAGE ONE
This is actually a decent prologue, and using Dream Girl, who can see the future, to recap the past, is inspired. Over the four panels, as we move in tight on the stars reflected in Dream Girl's eye, we get a genuine sense of foreboding. Nice work.
1:1
This is Nura Nal, of the planet Naltor, codename: Dream Girl. Thus, the line, "It all started with a dream . . ." is a play on her as well as a lead-in to the official Legion bio. She is a platinum blond. For that reason, for the first 30 years or so after her debut in ADVENTURE COMICS #317 (on-sale Dec. 26, 1963), her hair was white. Sometimes she was given silver highlights (a wide spread of blue streaks using the old dot-matrix coloring), but always, the base color was white. Over the last several years, however, she has been getting yellow highlights, to the point where she has become an actual blond. My cynical guess is this has to do with her being depicted as somewhat of a ditz ever since the 1994 "Zero Hour" reboot. I presume this personality shift was done to depower her somewhat and limit her potential to be a walking dues ex machina. That depiction, altered somewhat — she was said to be so ditzy because she experienced multiple timelines simultaneously — stuck through the 2004 Mark Waid "threeboot," while the 2007 Geoff Johns "retroboot," which is the version we seem to have here, returned Nura to her more powerful persona.
1:2
I think the proper word here is "intragalactic," not "intergalactic." Otherwise, why would the Legion only become, as stated in the next panel, "symbols of hope uniting a galaxy." Why just one? Why not every galaxy in which R. J. Brande was an industrialist?
The idea that Brande wanted "a team of young heroes made up of every race in the United Planets" is specific to the reboot version of the team. Originally, there was a rule that every member should have at least one unique super-power. Then ensured variety and kept the team from becoming the Legion of Super-Superboys. During the threeboot, it was said that, technically, any teenager anywhere could claim to be a member. It was only during the reboot, when the U.P. drafted members onto the team, that we were told of a goal, never quite met, to ensure every member-world had a Legion representative.
1:3
"Inspired by 21st century legends like the Justice League" is a new contrivance. Originally, of course, the team was inspired by Superboy, as the said when we first saw them in ADVENTURE COMICS #247 (on-sale Feb. 27, 1958). The Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot of the mid-1980s resulted in Superman never having any adventures as a boy, and near-constant hoop-jumping ever since to explain just who or what inspired Brande to fund the Legion's formation in the first place. Generally, whether in the form of pocket-universe Superboys or Teen Titans, or champions of the heroic age, the inspiration was always young heroes, to sort of explain why Brande felt justified in sending 13 and 14 year olds out into harm's way to fight crime and corruption. Lately, however, because EVERYthing in the DCU must revolve around the Justice League, they've taken over the role of historic inspiration. You'd think that's lead to the White Witch leading a team called Legion of Super-Heroes Dark, but what do I know?
1:4
I'll only say here that I appreciate this starscape image appearing painted, rather than photoshopped. Inserting photos into comics almost never works as it tends to jar, and thus draw the reader out of the narrative.
PAGE TWO and THREE
Here, in three panels, we get an overview of the Legion's growth, from three neophyte founders to an actual legion of super-heroes. Unfortunately, these panels represent a real missed opportunity. One of the big critiques with this story has been how Lemire has played fast and loose with continuity. After all, in the most-recent Legion series, Paul Levitz killed off Star Boy and Sun Boy, added new members Chemical Kid, Dragonwing and Harmonia, and had the team's leader, Phantom Girl, bug out under pressure and flee to her home dimension. Yet all three are back in this story, while the new additions are nowhere to be seen, as if the entire New 52 series never happened. For many fans who hated the cowardly depiction of Phantom Girl, one of the Legion's most experienced and capable members, and the unnecessary deaths, ignoring the New 52 was an easy trick and Lemire explained his rationale for doing so in an Oct. 30, 2014, interview with Newsarama, saying:
"I'm just bringing it back to what people think of as a classic Legion and not worrying too much about all the minutia of continuity. It's very much the classic Legion."
Okay, that's all fine and well, but in this issue we are treated to appearances from several members of the reboot team, some of whom were dead, last we knew. Now, it's worth noting that the reboot Legion was explained away wirh the threeboot as being from an alternate dimension, specifically Earth-247. That reality was destroyed, although much of the Legion survived. If Lemire wants to undestroy that reality, that's fine with me, although he may have to get a new Earth number from Grant Morrison. What is not fine is that what we have here is members from that reality, such as Kinetix, Monstress, Andromeda and Kid Quantum, mixed in with the "classic" Legion as if they've been part of the mix all along. Well, no. You can't do that. There's "not worrying too much about the minutia of continuity," and then there's ignoring it altogether. But I guess Lemire gets away with it because it's the Legion. I'm not so sure DC would let him pen a Justice League story that, without explanation, includes the Detroit team, a handful of Justice Society members, a revived Elongated Man and, what the heck, some Milestone characters.
The missed opportunity is that Lemire could have had his four-colored cake and eaten it, too, right here on Page 2. Instead of two panels showing the progression of the team, he could have called for four, slowly upping the character count to include the reboot members who never appeared as members of the "classic" team. Last issue, Lemire had the members of the short-lived LEGION LOST title show up. Since this show's his story accepts at least that much of the New 52, it would be easy enough for readers to accept that new heros were initiated into the Legion in addition to Chemical Kid and Dragonwing, since the seven members lost in the 21st century were presumed dead in the 31st. Many fans have balked at Gates and XS being moved by Geoff Johns from the reboot continuity into the retroboot, or current team, while leaving others stranded in limbo. There's been enough online joy expressed fans at seeing these abandoned members, despite their nonsensical addition to this story, that Lemire could have made himself a hero my giving fans some logical way to include them in current continuity. Of course, the Convergence event promises a new boot, so it's probably all moot, anyway.
2:1
The three founding members of the Legion, from left, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, and shown fighting Universo. Nothing wrong with that, although it generally takes more teamwork and less brute force to bring down the master manipulator. If it were me, instead of depicting the founders in their current costumes, I would have called on artist Neil Edwards to show them in their original costumes, from their first appearance, just to reinforce the "in the beginning" sense this panel is trying to portray. I also would have put them up against some villain we've never seen before. Legion fans are a creative lot and, I'm sure, would have had a ball naming this early nemesis and coming up with a backstory for him. Heck, it wouldn't even surprise me for that into to eventually get folded into official continuity. Where the Legion is concerned, stuff like that has happened before.
2:2
So, here, to depict how much "the Legion's ranks grew," we add all of three members to the founding trio. They are, from left, Colossal Boy, Bouncing Boy and the second Invisible Kid. They're matched up against the original Fatal Five, Validus, Mano, Emerald Empress, Tharok, and the Persuader. Never mind that there's no time at which this roll call of Legionnaires would have gone up against this line-up of Fatal Fivers. That's me being charitable and "not worrying too much about all the minutia of continuity."
Again, if it were me, I would have had Edwards draw a team consistent with the line-up from about the time Matter-Eater Lad joined the team, in ADVENTURE COMICS #303. I'd ask to see the team gang tackling some group of villains, such as the Chameleon Men from ACTION COMICS #287, since I'm sure they tried to invade the Earth more than once. I'd have had Saturn Girl, now in her classic Silver Age costume in the back, clearly communicating with a phantom-state Mon-El, who is pointing the team forward to their adversaries. And, just to throw a real bone to true Legion fans, I'd have directed Edwards to show electricity coming from Star Boy's eyes.
My next panel on this page would have depicted the Bronze Age team, including the latter-day Adventure series members, as well as Wildfire, Tyroc, and Dawnstar, probably at Chemical King's funeral (with Ferro Lad and Invisible Kid statues seen), along with some text about losses along the way. Finally, my fourth panel would have show the team circa 1988, with Tellus, Quislet, Polar Boy, Sensor Girl and Magnetic Kid in the line-up, as well as Blok, White Witch and Invisible Kid II.
3:1
And, on this page with the current team, I would have included all of the reboot members this issue adds in, this intimating that they are more recent additions to the team, utilizing versions from the New 52 Earth, which handily explains away deaths and whatnot we'll discuss later.
What we have here instead is, sans explanation, somewhat confusing. To this point in Lemire's story, which started in JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED ANNUAL #1 and continued in JLU #s 6 and 7, what we've seen has been Geoff John's retroboot team. Now, just to recap, for those who don't know, when Mark Waid's do-over failed to catch on, John's returned the Legion to it's original continuity, explaining that the Waid version, or threeboot, was actually the Legion of Earth-Prime — in other words, the far future of our earth. He then reintroduced the original Legion, appearing to pickup where the
[IN PROGRESS, POSTED BEFORE COMPLETION TO TEST PICTURE LAYOUT ON NEW TEMPLATE]
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