Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Legion of Super-Heroes #2 (2019) - SPOILERS

OUT NOW!

Overall, this issue seemed a bit more substantive than the first one.

Some thoughts:

--I really liked the recap page.
--Weird that the "sleep" thing works on Wildfire.
--Uh, Rose is Legion Liaison to the U.P. now? Huh?
--Daxam is apparently capital of the U.P.? Weird.
--While I still like the idea of Frichtman tags, trying to read them backwards, blurry, and sideways is super-annoying. Plus, wouldn't they be disadvantageous in battle?
--Ultra Boy is sorry for being descended from such an evil man!
--Does Cham hint at R. J. Brande?
--Looking forward to learning more about the Legionnaires on their missions.

More later.

I think the purple Halo Girl is not Tinya... because she isn't named in all the story....

And in the infamous Doomsday Clock 12 Imra named a legionnaire girl Soultaker? Who is this character?

I don't think she's a Legionnaire, she might be part of one of the international hero teams

Yes, can be another character..., but she looks like the new Ayla Ranzz...

She not one of the international heroes and seems to be a Legionnaire. Maybe she is a Katana legacy earrings look like shuriken and Soultaker is the name of Katana's sword.

She looks pretty clearly distinct from Ayla to me.

Anyway, the most exciting thing I got from skimming Doomsday Clock: Earth-1985 is now a thing.

Legionnaires.....

Ok, this my not my Legion but I really really enjoyed this issue.

1. I LOVE that all the Legionnaires we know are back, with code-names, real names, planets and powers (mostly) intact. Seems like Phantom
Girl is a teleporter now, ala Gates. Ferro Lad soon! It feels like coming home half-way

2. I LOVE the reintroduction of Interlac and the Mission board symbols

3. I am having a blast learning all the new spins on the old characters. I just re-read Mark Farmer/Alan Davis "Superboy's Legion"
and this has the same kind of feel and excitement.

4. I LOVE that even though not all the costumes are well-designed, at least they kept the colour schemes of most of them for the most part.

5, #2 was much better than #1, focussing a lot on the Legionnaires and world building. Superboy didn't play so much a part in the story which
is great. I get that DC is trying to get the Superman and Batman fans on board, and at least the inclusion of Damian is organic and pays
homage to the friendship between the Supersons.

6. Finally, I LOVE that I have a LSH comic to run to the comic store to every month now.

I’ve wanted a comic set in the DCU of immediately before (or after if the event played out slightly differently) Crisis for forever now.

I don’t think I trust that story to be told while Dudio is still in charge there though.

As for LSH #2...

I’m sorry to say but I continue to think that this is the worst-written start to a new Legion series ever. It seems objectively bad to me. If I didn’t know better I’d think Bendis was a brand-new writer.

There were a couple of small elements I liked (the awry “Sleep” command, the lunch-meeting... umm that’s it) but everything else just felt so haphazard and cliched; exhibit A being the team’s antagonistic relationship with UP President Brande (a reveal that I’m convinced was supposed to be in an accidentally omitted word balloon in the last panel of issue #1). If Bendis intends to repeat the Chu-sting storyline from the Reboot, he’s got big shoes to fill.

Rose and Thorn’s whole presence continues to mystify me (not in a good way) and now she’s the Legion’s UP liaison? ... Huh?

Those Frichtman tags have very quickly proven to be an idea that was only good in theory too. What is the purpose of them if the reader can’t read them? They just make busy panels look even busier.

I don’t see this book being an ongoing success at DC as it is unfortunately (for its fans). I predict an initial spike followed by a rapid decline. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re already considering ways to retool it.

Yeah, that seemed like an inexplicable behind-the-scenes promotion. I was like, 'did I miss a page?' No.



Yeah, it would have been cool if whatever viral internet thing (an actual airborne nano-tech virus that plugs you into an augmented reality of information-on-demand, perhaps?) is causing those tags were 'smart' enough to only appear when you first encounter a new person, and then don't show up again unless someone specifically asks for them (like when Imra is pointing out that Jon has forgotten her name, she could perhaps make the tag appear again, momentarily, and / or show him how to access that information, without it being constantly hovering behind everyone).



It does seem to have a fair number of false starts for a new launch.

So far I'm reading this, Young Justice and Wonder Twins, so far, and, of them, only the Wonder Twins is what I'd consider to be entertaining, and have an actual bit of storyline and characterization going on, while Young Justice seems to be more like the Legion is going to turn out to be, a bunch of colorful characters tumbling endlessly through a roller-coaster ride of whiz-bang images with no rhyme or reason or plot or meaningful development...

So, on the upside, Wonder Twins has been fun. More so than I expected, since I bought the first one on a perverse 'how bad is this going to be? are they going to go all Giffen's Inferior Five on them and make them total losers?' whim, and was pleasantly surprised that it's been pretty heartfelt and yet light and fun.

Not really what I wanted to pin my entire DC pull list on, though, one book. I can afford more. I wish they'd write a few more worth buying.

And now Damien. Damian? Ugh. Don't know. Don't care. If it's spelled like the devil-kid from the Omen, that would make sense...

^ Right. This book may as well be set in the 21st century for all its focus on those concepts.

Getting back to Doomsday Clock for a second, what a total failure the Legion’s reveal in that book was. A big splash page featuring the triumphant return of “lost mentors” and “forgotten friends”... except Superman’s reaction to all of these “friends” should have been “Who?”. And it’s not like any of the readers had cause for excitement either since we’ve only known these characters for one or two issues ourselves.

So, more in detailed thoughts upon a second read;

Page 2 - 3
Chunky Timber Wolf can indeed move, which is nice.
Neat to see Bouncing Boy such a wrecking ball of destruction.
Might-be-Star Boy shoots zaps. Whatev.
Thin Ultra Boy has Ultra-Breath? Huh, was that ever a thing, previously? I know he 'has all the powers of Superman, one at a time' but I've never really see him use super-breath or microscopic vision or super-ventriloquism or any of the more exotic ones...
Saturn Girl is (maybe mind controlling, maybe causing a hallucination) making one foe shoot another. Cool.
What I assumed was going to be Lightning Lass is back to back with Lightning Lad shooting completely different beams. Light blasts, like the 'Light Lass' of Superboy's Legion? Or just a graphical representation of her 'make things super-light' power from back in the day?
Color-coded Trips is Tri-jutsu-ing it up. You go girl(s)!
Maybe-White Witch shoots pink zaps out of her staff. Interesting.
I like the graphic for Brainy's force fields, small and only appearing to block attacks at specific points, not surrounding him on all sides. It's a very different (and potentially flawed...) line of defense, but one that might suit him, as he has the brainpower to anticipate attacks at the sort of speed that might be required to precisely block attacks with small shields like that.

Page 5
Maybe Purple Phantom Girl is appearing out of a circular portal and punching someone, and not just 'phasing' in the old sense of turning intangible. Could be she's popping in and out of a fourth dimension, or Bgtzl, or whatever.
And gosh, those Frizzy Tags never seem to show up on anyone I *want* to know about, like purple maybe Phantom Girl, or Dr. Fate Alien, or Green Radioactive Skull Guy! It's a frikkin' plot!
Seriously, though. These aren't *my* Imra and Garth and Rokk and whomever. I kinda want to know more about the new characters, like Monster Guy and Gold Lantern, not yet *another* version of Ultra Boy (and I say this with Ultra Boy being one of my favorite Legion dudes)...

Page 11
The UP hall is on Daxam. Interesting, since that planet is supposed to have such high gravity that it produces super-people, which is fine for folk with Legion flight rings, but suggests that either there's tech in place for the convenience of otherworldly delegates, or that President Brande is kind of super herself. (Which she suggests later, referring to an un-enhanced human as 'fragile') Or maybe Daxam isn't particularly Krypton-like in this 'boot. Who knows.
Her initial thoughts in Interlac "I asked for the Legion of Super-Children and instead I get this?" (I had to translate it, so you don't have to!)

Page 12
I like her attitude and her appearance. "My sentence to finish!" Ha. Hope she's just a cast-iron bitca and not a villain.

Page 13
Interlac parting comment "Yeah sure..."

Page 20
I like how everyone has something different and alien looking on their plate (Imra with her levitating dish of maybe ice cream, for instance), and Superkid has a pizza.
Timber Wolf's dad was a wolf? Ugh.
Ultra Boy is talking about his 'Father-One?' That *could* imply he's got a 'Father-Two.' As in, two dads. Vaguely interesting, since I know nothing about real Jo's parental situation and this therefore doesn't particularly bug me (like Brin's scientist dad being replaced with a wolf does).

Page 21
"A monument? Gotham was a garbage fire..." Ha.

Hmmm... I'm still on the fence as I've not seen much yet
This feels like one big giant first issue rather than two separate issues

I'm looking forward to the split teams and see about the character interactions in a smaller setting.

Oddly, Bouncing Boy being a super ball of doom was gratifying. I'm looking forward to Tenzil's powers being shown on-page.
The Phantom Girl worm hole thing was noticeable and I don't get it. We will see.
I kind of wish that they had focused on unknown Legionnaires in some of these fight scenes. Their power displays would have spurred our curiosity rather than comparing to characters we've known for so long.

I've reconciled to the "we destroyed the planet and are left with floating cities" thing. Considering the state of environmental damage, I'm actually ok with the idea of the Legion being a positive vision of the future amidst a ruinous event.

I'm not sure what to make of Rose/Thorn and the UP President. It's confusing.

Oh, are we talking Doomsday Clock here?

Agreed. I'm not looking forward to what the current management does with it, but at least it's the first time they've given us some sort of "Earth-1" equivalent since COIE.



Yeah, I'm liking Wonder Twins quite a bit as well, but it's only a twelve-issue series! It and the absolutely awesome Superman Smashes the Klan are the two things from DC I'm really enjoying at the moment.

Yeah, they *might* be going with a different visual from 'goes through/around stuff by phasing' than the traditional 'turns intangible' graphic they've used, making it appear more like she's portaling through stuff. I vaguely recall it being a theory, back in the day, that she moves 4th-dimensionally, and doesn't technically go *through* objects in her way, so much as 'around' them in a 4th spatial dimension that we can't perceive or interact with. Our eye would have no way to account for that. A wall or surface could be utterly impassible to us 3D life-forms, and bam, she's just 'walked around it' in her expanded 4D perception...

Or not. Perhaps purple portal girl isn't Tinya/Phantom Girl at all!



Ditto. I've got decades worth of experience with stories about different versions of Rokk, Imra, Brainy, etc. Let's hear more about green radioactive skull guy!

My plan on logging in was to detail the powers shown in the fight and spell out the Interlac translations .... and now I don't have to! Thanks Set!

My favourite bits were Triplicate Girl triple-kicking, and Bouncing Boy's incredible damage roll!. It took me a while to realise that the blue-coloured parts in the top left were Cosmic Boy magnetically affecting the Horraz armour. Also at first I thought Cham was imitating a Horraz instead of Imra mind-controlling one. I kind of like Brainy's new Force "screens" with the added tactical advantage of angling the reflected fire into the enemy. Of course he wouldn't want to get distracted but he seemed to show pretty good multi-tasking while apologising to Superboy in the middle of the battle. And yeah I don't know what "Light Lass" was doing either.

We did get to see one new member's power when Beast Boy/Monster Lad turned into Godzilla. Also it's not just about what the new kids can do but what the old gang can do these days as we saw with Imra. Oh and Cham apparently only has three fingers and a thumb on each hand in his humanoid form.

Is it worth thinking about who went to sleep and who didn't? The core three didn't but then it was their plan and they knew it was coming. Karate Kid is the only other apart from Superboy and Tortor, and note that Mon-El was affected. He is lying at the core three's feet.

What happened to the Horraz after the flood? DId they drown? Get washed away? Get pushed back through the portal by the flood portal but only the Horraz? Also unleashing gigalitres of salt water on sleeping people is not likely to end well. It's a bit surprising that only Trip-Yellow needed resuscitation. Actually the flow of the story kind of skipped over that as a minor scene element. Trip-Pink had to give Trip-Yellow mouth-to-mouth resuscitation! That means she wasn't breathing! Nobody panic - oh nobody is? Well moving on.

Rose as Legion liaison is a bit of a surprise. Looks like she is also going to be acting as a king of adult advisor as well. She certainly should have the years of experience for it although not everyone learns from their own mistakes. I also wonder if her minor physical similarity (female, long straight hair, redhead) to a past Legion liaison (from the UP) had anything to do with Bendis thinking of using her. I suspect that we will never get a solution to her confusing continuity with joining the Legion. In Millennium she clearly meets the Legion for the first time but Superboy is already there. In LSH she is a member with a flight ring and is known to at least some of the team before Superboy joins. The Millennium scene just doesn't fit - and it feels like the urgent message she had for the Legion, and for Superboy, is not quite as urgent as just moving on. Still I think there is interesting story material here and I look forward to seeing it unravel.

I am still enjoying this so far. It is not "my Legion" (although I don't really know what that is anymore) but it feels to me like a "legion". They are a team, they are young, enthusiastic, optimistic, and with a stack of cool powers. I have seen worse and I look forward to seeing how this iteration works out.

The remaining Interlac bits (other than the President's comments - does this mean she is speaking two different languages, Interlac and another?):
p1 top left - "Headlines" (Interlac "h" and "L" are too much alike. Also no capitalisation but then comics lettering is all capitals)
bottom - "Message from Krinn" and the rest say "message waiting"
p18 under description of Heaven "Kosher menus available upon request" so I guess at least one religion has survived into this 31st Century.

Oh and Planet Gotham is "the safest place in the galaxy for a reason." I wonder what that reason could be? I think we will find out pretty soon....

Another thing that I noticed was from looking at who did the most talking in the episode.

Discounting President Brande (totally missed that name at first) the order of the Legionnaires (approximately) is:

Rose (thanks to her liaison speal), Ultra Boy (thanks to his Dad speal - he also had lots last issue), Superboy, the core three, Brainiac 5 (yay!), and then ... purple possible Phantom Girl! A number of others get a line or two but "Tinya" butts in several times and makes sure she is being heard. She comes across to me as, shall we say, forthright in her opinions? I look forward to seeing what is done with her. Unfortunately she isn't on any of the "teams" so less time next issue I guess.

BTW where did everyone else go at the end who wasn't going on a mission and leaving Superboy alone? Oh well I guess it is a big HQ. (City-size HQ strikes me as a dumb idea when apparently you are only going to have 30-odd members.)

Thanks to Set & stile for the Interlac translations!

The dinner scene was great - instead of a formal meeting room. As they were approaching the dining area, there were already a number of sentients down there - suggests something like DnA's Legion World, with support staff.

Using Rose as liason makes sense to me, reminiscent of 3boot Theena - although she does mirror Shvaughn in looks. She's older, more experienced, probably volunteered for the job. I look forward to her role being developed and clarified.

I like that they're providing some depth to a few Legionnaires at a time, a gradual introduction, but wish they would post a Meet the Legionnaires page on-line with clear tags (not in the comic, it would take up too many of the few pages). Even with the magnified option on the Comixology version, I couldn't read them very well.

There's a lot of world-building here, developing their own jargon and social/political constructs, even small details like floaty dinner plates, which I really appreciate.

The tone is good, upbeat, enthusiastic, some light humour. I might not even mind Damien showing up next month, as long as he doesn't hog the story.

Not getting too much of a vibe from this issue, but I'll continue to read.

Glad to see that I could eat in Legion HQ if I'm ever there.

Yeah, I was wondering what happened to the Horraz as well. That just seemed like a major plot point that got skipped over.

The Trip resuscitation bit was weird. I wondered if they couldn't have just re-integrated?

Also, that would've been the perfect opportunity to use Matter-Eater Lad. He could've ingested all the water!

I totally missed that! Glad to see proof of others in the HQ.


I feel the same and yes I imagine she not only volunteered but suggested the need for the role.
Or Sugyn! He could have dealt with it no problem I'm sure.

I could complain endlessly about the writing and plotting and characterization, but one thing I have to say is that this artist is killing it.

He's being regularly challenged to try and fit a dozen or two characters, all with kind of busy and distinctive looks, on the page. None of them have their classic kind of 'shorthand' look that's easy to remember, but something new and challenging (well, except for Dream Girl, whose new look is probably easier...).

I would not be surprised *at all* if one of the reasons these books have been late is how much time they take to draw, and I feel bad for the guy, 'cause this is not an easy job to tackle, and a somewhat thankless task to be ask to re-imagine the looks of two dozen much-loved characters (whose fans don't necessarily *want* them to look different...).

it's a girl !

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6JP4hwhCy9/

I liked this issue.

I really appreciate Bendis for not just introducing EVERYONE in the Legion right away, but rather it looks as though he is going to have us meet the Legionnaires organically and as it will suit the stories he's about to share with us.
That seems logical to me so I'm willing to wait to meet everyone (although I have to admit I am very nervous about the intro of Dream Girl as she's always been one of my favourites, so I hope he treats her right!).

I already don’t like this “Madamhonor” woman. It’s funny, I felt exactly what Imra later said out loud after she reads Rose’s mind regarding experiencing the meeting with the president! I don’t know if Madamhonor will be a villain, but I agree with what someone said before, that she would serve the stories better as a solid dye-in-the-wool biatch.

Can’t wait for issue #3 next month! LLL

It felt to me like the threeboot did a much better job with the gradual rollout of characters. I think the difference is that then we didn't see everyone at once, and so there wasn't just this big crowd of characters standing in the background that we were eager to learn about but weren't finding anything out about.