The Legion #32

April 24, 2004

Quick Rating: Great
Title: Notorious

A victim of Element Lad’s rampage has come to take his revenge, and only one Legionnaire has what they want.

Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Pencils: Chris Batista
Inks: Chip Wallace & Jay Leisten
Colors: Sno Cone
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Cover Art: Eric Wight
Publisher: DC Comics

Legion continues to be one of the best comics you’re not reading month after month – although if you haven’t been reading this isn’t a great place to jump on. Back in the Legion Worlds miniseries, the hero named Element Lad lost his mind and nearly laid waste to an entire universe. Founding member Live Wire seemingly gave his life to defeat his former teammate, but was recently reborn in Element Lad’s body. This issue, an army of survivors of Element Lad’s rampage come to the Legion’s territory, giving a good thrashing to Mon-El in the process. Since he’s potentially more powerful than Superboy, this is something that makes our heroes kind of nervous.

Ever since his return, Live Wire as been forced to sit on the sidelines. He finally gets a spotlight this issue, showing what makes him a real hero in the faces of some very heavy odds. The rest of the team isn’t ignored either – Kid Quantum and Superboy each get many good moments… just none as good as Live Wire.

Chris Batista is one of the finest artists in Legion history. He is a fantastic artist, giving each character distinctive faces so that even without their trademark costumes you could pick each of them out easily. He does the costumes well, though, as well as the costumes of our villains. He has to share credit with our ink and color team, though, as Live Wire’s crystalline form looks really impressive – cold, crystalline but human all at the same time.

I love this title, month in and month out. The Legion is one of the longest-running teams in comics, and if you can’t tell why by reading this issue, you just aren’t paying attention.

Rating: 9/10

Legion Secret Files 3003

November 18, 2003

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: The Earth Spins Presents: The Legion Secret Files 3003

A Daily Planet reporter takes you along to meet the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Pencils: Leonard Kirk
Inks: Robin Riggs
Colors: Sno Cone
Art (Profiles): Tony Harris & Tom Feister
Letters: Nick J. Napolitano
Editor: Ivan Cohen & Stephen Wacker
Cover Art: Tony Harris & Tom Feister
Publisher: DC Comics

From the very beginning of the Secret Files program, the individual issues have been hit and miss. This may be the biggest hit yet, and it gets there by completely eschewing the standard Secret Files format and embracing the purpose of the book. Abnett and Lanning, rather than giving us a couple of fill-in-the-blank stories and a scattering of profile pages, instead work the profiles into the story itself, telling a nice tale that gives us insight into every member of the Legion of Super-Heroes and the world they live in.

We see how Cosmic Boy is dealing with Superboy’s sudden appearance in the 31st century, how Sensor is failing to deal with her transformation into a more humanoid form – beautiful to her teammates but hideous in her own culture – and how Live Wire is trying to deal with his resurrection in the crystalline body of Element Lad. (This is a particularly good segment, although it does call to mind the perfectly reasonable question of, “If the Legion can’t trust Live Wire because he looks like a member that went crazy and killed several of them, why doesn’t he at least stop wearing Element Lad’s uniform? The obvious questions are the most frustrating, aren’t they?)

We are also treated to a prologue and epilogue that tie in to the current “Foundations” storyline running in the regular Legion title, in which dark (but frighteningly familiar) beings are working for the resurrection of the greatest evil the DC Universe has ever known — Darkseid. Any longtime Legion fan who remembers the epic “Great Darkness Saga” should be getting chills at this point.

It’s always nice to see Leonard Kirk’s pencils – I was very sorry to see him leave JSA, and the Harris/Feister team continues to impress for the most part, although the double-page spread featuring Brainiac 5, Spark, Violet and Invisible Kid looks kind of sloppy – a couple of the characters look like they could have fallen out of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon.

If you’re interested in reading Legion and didn’t learn all you wanted from the fantastic Legion #25, this should answer any questions you have left. It’s one of the best Secret Files ever put out.

Rating: 8/10