Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Reading the Legion: Archive 34

I think RJ did, in fact, want to be the person to vet the Legionnaires in conjunction with the team itself. Each planet having a member does indeed give them skin in the game, but it also enables Chu's oversight.

Good approach to put some focus on the new unknown member XS - we're familiar with the other characters, regardless of their tweaks - and have the opportunity to learn a bit about Jenni's personality and power. Would that Bendis had done the same with his new characters!

Funny thing with Legion funerals, the families are never present. Maybe this was just a ceremony before the body of James Cullen is sent home. Probably not much to send home after the bomb, but that isn't addressed. It's a sad irony that his stasis belt did him in by not working and now it's wrecked his remains.

I recall RJ's dialogue being, "These are kids, what gives you the right to tear them away from their lives?" So I always thought of it as more, "I only want them here if they want to be here! Let them volunteer!"

Legionnaires 20
The Descent of Mano
Issue Information

Summary:

How will the Legionnaires survive the bad place Mano left them in last issue - on the surface of the moon with no environmental shielding or oxygen? And how do they stop an opponent who, with enough time, could actually blow up the whole Moon?

Also, it is sibling rivalry as the issue ends with the introduction of Ayla Ranzz!

Thoughts:

Mano's on a crazy mission of vengeance here. Yikes!

Cosmic Boy does a good job saving the time while he's straining to hold onto consciousness. As a swimmer, I can appreciate how hard it is to concentrate when your lungs feel on fire.

XS tries valiantly but falls. Luckily, Chameleon was there to help.

Tinya reacts with disgust at Cham's touch. I wonder, couldn't a phased Apparition have just sank into the ground to get to safety?

Ah-Heet-Dees-Plees! Heh. Cham should use that line more often. Sadly, I doubt he understands what he said at all.

Mad props to the Legionnaires for staying despite being in danger, and for Brande to warn them of it and urge them to come home. Props to Lyle as well, for acknowledging Brainy's intelligence and coming to him for help.

And mad SLOPS to McCauley for being the greedy, paranoid and amoral nasshead that he is.

Whoo! Brainy figured all THAT out without even being there? Very smart, alright. I love the scene on page 13 where the Legion charges into action. Would have loved it more if they were flying, though. I miss those flight rings!

"Can't you even read a clock?" Heh.

The scene of Tinya walking in on the naked guy is funny AND believable - in a place like that, you'd get horny too. Naughty writers! (I wonder if that's his girlfriend back home, or a performer).

Great teamwork from Cos and Gim there!

Mano's escape raises a lot of questions. Just how thin was that floor? Surely he's not just using the blaster to carve an entire tunnel?

Cham and Lyle double-team McCauley again, like they did Doyle. They make a good pair. But wait! Wouldn't Tinya have been in a better position to follow McCauley? I'm starting to feel like Lyle's getting all the glory. Of course, since he's the only one who can talk to Cham it should have been him. But... did he NEED to have told Cham to punch Mano? Hello, Cham can't speak Interlac but that doesn't mean he's stupid.

Jenni tries hard throughout, trying to help search even. You'll get there, girl. Don't worry. She does it in a way that's endearing rather than annoying.

Ugh, McCauley tries to buy off the Legion. Nasshead!

And Garth's runaway status is coming back to haunt him. Enter Ayla!!

Wow. The surprises just keep on coming.

Yes, until the reboot happened, the Legion was at the periphery of my comics experience. The interesting thing about this particular reboot, though, was that the issue numbering just kept going from the numbers prior to the zero issues, which in some ways encouraged you to go back and look at earlier issues to get an idea of what had come before, if you liked the relaunch. And of course, if you open that door, there are decades of stories prior to experience that you don't get as much with something like the Threeboot or especially the Bendis book.

Mano's weakness is the need to recharge so he's not absolutely powerful. His emotional restraints are absent; he wouldn't stop out of fear, remorse or pity, just a physical brake on his destruction. He's sort of the anti-Jan Arrah, sole survivor of a planet exterminated, able to blame one man for the crime, although his fellow citizens, unlike the Tromians, were complicit in their destruction.

I never thought of this before. I had only heard the comment that this had very valid reasons for being number 1's instead of continuing the numbers, better to many readers than the 5YL had. What a great thought that being the middle of a number series might encourage readers to look in to the earlier version(s).
Of course if you compare it to today getting anew number 1 every year or two is nothing unusual (especially from Marvel).

Legion of Super-Heroes 64
Sibling Rivalry
Issue information

Summary:

Cover doesn't lie - Ultra Boy shows up at Legion HQ to scope out the team. He has pretty bad timing though, as Garth's status on the team is still uncertain. What will Cos do?

Tensions between Garth and Ayla over their Legionnaire status and their powers, as well as Ultra Boy's spying, lead to a heated confrontation where Garth takes the decision away from Cos' hands and leaves the team.


Thoughts:

Enter the familiar face of Ultra Boy! His costume's pretty much unchanged from the Adventure Era too. In his intro scene he gets to show off his street smarts and his fighting skills - note, fighting skills. It's not clear if he used strength or speed, but somehow I think not. He certainly didn't need them to polish off two non-powered bullies who wanted to steal his jacket.

And we pick up where we left off, with Ayla Ranzz/Spark coming into the Legion and Live Wire's fate left unclear. The scene also highlights how new and loose the team is - Cosmic Boy is the only one who even talks to Garth in this scene, and Triad and XS are the only other ones who seem to notice he's not in good spirits. Gim, Tinya and Imra are even crowding around Ayla. On the one hand, it's good that they're welcoming. On the other, what about Garth? (Gim and Tinya haven't shown yet that they're particularly sensitive, while Lu's always been observant and Jenni's always been compassionate).

Or perhaps, nobody really realized how bad things were until RJ Brande came in and said he couldn't talk the UP out of bumping Garth off the team.

Imra rises to the challenge, and she even takes the lead when they confront Chu. Cos is more diplomatic, but his message is clear as well. (And of course, Garth is pretty happy that Imra's sticking up for him - but Imra quickly tells him it's not just him).

Chu's reaction is interesting. "Just a couple more draftees, and after which I promise you we'll listen to your concerns!" She already knows the Legionnaires have bones to pick, at least about their membership. Hmmmm. (At least she's giving them enough importance that they didn't have trouble seeing her without an appointment).

And the bombshell is dropped. Garth is a runaway on Winath because he's underage (UP worlds don't have a standard age of majority yet, a good mirror of Earth's present state). Mekt's villainy is an issue for Garth, but not for Ayla, because it is Garth who wants to find Mekt. Chu's not making Garth's search an issue though, as she expressly tells Cos he can make this call - then she follows it up with "Don't give me a reason to start doubting you too." Oy. Boy, is she a seasoned politician.

We get some insight into other Legionnaires - Brainy prefers pure theory (?) to Lyle's practicality of tactile engineering. So, to test a theory Lyle would actually build something while Brainy would...? Why does Lyle sneak around the lab invisibly, anyway? He's in Legion HQ. And he derides Brainy back by saying, "yes, you would ignore it."

Tinya gets into a fight with her overbearing mother. I'm all on Tinya's side here - hey, Winema gave her consent. They didn't destroy the moondome, Mano did. And they saved a lot of lives. Winema's approach doesn't help at all as she doesn't even acknowledge Tinya's good intentions. And I don't see Chu giving them flak over the destroyed moondome. At least Tinya gets some comfort from Jenni.

Gim's teaching Cham some Interlac, and Gim is showing patience for once. Good job!

Lu's very disciplined with her workouts, we can see. Wouldn't expect anything less. Jo mentally tells himself to skip it - I would linger too, Lu's looking good.

And Jo's attracted to Tinya, big surprise! But his reverie is interrupted by Imra. Good show, her telepathy's sharp as ever.

And enter Ayla! Uhoh, talk first, Spark. Imra had the right idea. When Imra tells Ayla she doesn't have to prove herself, is that insight gained from telepathy or is it just a guess?

Despite the sibling rivalry, Garth comes in and saves Ayla (though frankly, Jo was just restraining her. I don't think she was in that much danger).

Garth's statement is cryptic at best. "The Lightning? something he has to warn her about?" He could easily have told her earlier. And if there's something dangerous with the lightning, why join the Legion in a role where he'd have to use the lightning often?

Garth is pretty sharp with his guess that Jo can only use one power at a time. At the same time he's reckless - look at the destruction he caused. Garth realizes that, to his credit. He walks away from the team...

... into a new one with some familiar (to Preboot fans) faces. Is that Evolvo Lad? Spider-Girl? Karate Kid??? and McCauley, who claims to have met Mekt? Uhoh!

This is a good issue that serves to further cement the personalities of many characters. Ayla is more level-headed than Garth, but she also has an impetuous streak of her own. Garth can be reckless and emotional, but is mature enough to realize his mistakes and take responsibility. Imra has a very strong will and is pretty fearless. Rokk is ever the diplomat.

The Legion is such a young team, but look at all the upheaval they've been through. Kid Quantum dead, and Garth replaced with Ayla. Whew! Toss in all the other drama (Winema Wazzo) and you can see they've got their work cut out for them.

Legionnaires 21
Enter the Workforce
Issue information

Summary:

We meet the Workforce, and they're basically glorified corporate security due to McCauley's micromanagement. Poor Garth.

The Legion also gets possibly its most intriguing mission yet - to check on a prison cut off from the outside world because of the failure of the electromagnetic tunnel that allows exit from its location - inside a star.

Unfortunately, what seems to be a routine mission does not turn out well, as someone is willing to use force to stop the Legionnaires from repairing the tunnel.

Things are going to get pretty hot in here!

Thoughts:

First time we see the full Workforce in action, and when Live Wire calls them professionals, we know it means it's because they're paid tons of cash. Why else would they put up with a jerk like McCauley?

Who, by the way, is a total ass who makes questionable decisions. Besides his lack of concern over the guy Inferno killed (?!), his bloopers with Spider-Girl, Evolvo and Ultra Boy were really stupid. Ultra Boy or the telekinetic Evolvo could have taken the crate, Live Wire or a recovered Ultra Boy could have gone up against the thugs, and any of the long-ranged attackers should have covered Ultra Boy when he was chasing the crooks. Sheesh. Poor Garth didn't know what he was getting into.

Over to the Legion. After seeing how bad the Workforce members have it, it's doubly a pleasure seeing them!

Saturn Girl's sensitivity shines through when she asks Spark what's bothering her. I like to think that, though her telepathy makes her more sensitive to others, she's internalized it enough that she doesn't need to use her powers to do so.

Lyle and Triad show their naughty sides. Darkseid 2? Burn. I'm a bit surprised that Lyle didn't research about Brainy's lineage, but I'd guess he's not all that impressed with the Coluans - he knows they're intelligent, but he finds their preference of theory over practical applications to be a waste. Despite his cheekiness, Lyle does have the grace to apologize to an obviously angry Brainy.

The premise is very excitingly futuristic - a prison inside a star. Whoa! Nice characterization of the Wakeets too (education is distasteful? huh, but I can imagine some cultures WOULD find molding the youth to be tough).

Too bad we didn't actually see any Wakeets. Based on Brainy's description though it doesn't seem like any of them would actually dirty themselves operating the prison.

Imra's telepathy continues to be fraught with limitations - she has trouble reading mentally disturbed minds, and the physical conditions of her environment can hamper her. I guess it's not as easy as reading a book. Big surprise that the inmates are full of anger and hatred - I'd hate to be imprisoned inside a hot, sweaty star myself. I wonder though if they should have been sweaty at all, or at least to that extent. I would expect there to be little humidity inside a star.

Spark continues to show her thoughtful and intelligent nature - asking Brainy politely about his codename, and being sharp enough to understand why she should be careful with her lightning. She also showed a lot of concern for Cham, being the most distraught when she thought he'd died.

I wondered if it was wise to bring Cham along despite neither telepathic Imra or Durlan-speaking Lyle being there. If it hadn't been for his shapeshifting...!

Whoops! And what a cliffhanger the issue ends on - we're not sure if the half of the team who went to check out the generator is alive, and the rest of the team's about to get mowed down by hundreds of inmates. Wow, I bet the Legionnaires all thought this would be a routine mission!

Spark is probably my favorite Legionnaire this issue, as she was thoughtful, intelligent and compassionate and pulled her weight on the team.

We get some insight into other Legionnaires - Brainy prefers pure theory (?) to Lyle's practicality of tactile engineering. So, to test a theory Lyle would actually build something while Brainy would...? Why does Lyle sneak around the lab invisibly, anyway? He's in Legion HQ. And he derides Brainy back by saying, "yes, you would ignore it."

Lyle is established as the practical scientist, Brainy the theoretician, although Brainy seems to be in the guts of practical science, whatever he's doing there. Lyle clearly has ideas for the floating rock - not hard to imagine what if you know the Legion.

Garth is irresponsible - he hid his background from Rokk and Imra, and caused a lot of damage fighting Jo - but he's smart (figuring out Jo can only use one power at a time) and fair (not blaming Jo for what happened). That's a good change of preboot SW6 Garth, who blamed everybody but himself. He does snipe at Ayla, but sibling rivalry and spats are natural.

We don't know at this point if Jo is Rimbor's official rep, or if he's possibly shown up with intention to join the group.

There are a few brief glimpses into other Legionnaires' lives - Triad working out, Gim teaching Reep, Tinya fighting with her mother and Jenni concerned for her. It all contributes to a deepening sense of who these Legionnaires are, just as one would get to know a friend over time. They're different enough from the preboot versions to maintain some suspense as to how the story will develop.

Saturn Girl's sensitivity shines through when she asks Spark what's bothering her. I like to think that, though her telepathy makes her more sensitive to others, she's internalized it enough that she doesn't need to use her powers to do so.

The artwork for Planet Hell is well done, it really looks washed out as a scene would in extremely bright light.

There were a number of elements which detracted from the story and could easily have been modified for more realism. Sending young, inexperienced Legionnaires in alone to evaluate the condition of prisoners and staff would have been more acceptable if they were accompanied by U.P. psychiatrists/prison specialists and a backup contingent of Science Police. The five year delay in sending help to the prison strikes me as unnecessarily long; why did the U.P. or some sentient rights group not intervene? Three months - or three weeks - might have been adequate to establish an emergency. McCauley's dollar-store brain globe image directing the Workforce team showed him to be more incompetent than is believable for a wealthy man. The team could have bungled the job on their own, with McCauley just chewing them out afterwards.

I always thought that the Workforce was interesting, as they were definitely portrayed more as a mercenary team but not sinister. I always thought that they would slowly slide into the state of being darker and becoming a LSV style group, but they never went there with these characters after Garth came back to the Legion.

I thought the Workforce was a great way to quickly introduce a whole bunch of past Legionnaires without making them a part of the main team. I was actually pretty disappointed that so many of the Workforce members ended up switching to the Legion proper.

Perhaps for a telepath of Imra's level, while walling herself off so she doesn't have to cope with everyone's thoughts all the time, it would become natural to her to have a low level detection of the way the thoughts of those around her going, almost like an empath but not quite. It would just add to the normal social cues we all learn to a greater or lesser degree and having experience of how people think inside their own heads would give her more insight and empathy towards issues that can be troubling.

Legion of Super-Heroes 65
Breakout
IssueInformation

Summary:

Planet Hell part 2! Last issue's attack destroys the prison's power grid, freeing all the prisoners! The Legionnaires and the newly-arrived Workforce have to put down the riot while preventing any escapes. Drama and poor cooperation (at least on the Workforce side), as well as overwhelming numbers, make their job harder. It's a moot point though as the loss of power not only wipes out the prison shields but kills the magnetic tunnel that will allow exit from the prison. Oops!

Thoughts:

I echo Triad's words - take a look at what's coming. Yikes! Can't blame XS, Triad and Lyle for freezing for a moment. At least they recover quickly after Imra and Gim swoop down and grab them. Their jetpacks should have saved them though, right?

Good job, Cos, for calling Brainy out for dissing the others while also being fooled himself. Nice use of his powers too - shielding them from the blast AND "levitating" the others out of there.

Points to the other Legionnaires "on the ground" too -

Gim shows good thinking in crippling the ships; leaves the Legionnaires in a bad position but at least they're containing the prisoners.

Luornu, despite being overpowered, shows good tactical thinking - she knows the Legionnaires are outnumbered and she was the first one to react during the initial stampede.

Imra's ability to trigger sleep and stimulate pain in her enemies is nice and broadens her versatility.

Lyle really makes good use of his powers, being able to turn his jetpack invisible, taking out the guards, and blinding prisoners by removing their goggles.

Enter the Workforce. They make a sharp contrast to the Legionnaires - Inferno kills a prisoner and lets her guard down (necessitating a save from Triad); Spider-Girl gets subdued once and mind-controlled the next time; and Evolvo doesn't take down any prisoners that we see. Even Karate Kid gets mind-controlled; he does sarcastically call out Inferno for killing a guy though (I'm sure the writers kept his hands relatively clean to keep the door open for future Legion membership). The Workforce members don't demonstrate teamwork at all, unlike the Legionnaires who watch each others' (and the Workforces') backs. Even Garth seems a little off his game, possibly because of his resentment towards Ayla - not only doesn't he thank her but he chooses to argue with her in the midst of battle. Ayla doesn't bite, thankfully.

And Ultra Boy? He loses major points for making goo-goo eyes at Tinya while obviously being involved with Spider-Girl. That is a big no-no, pal. You wouldn't like either Tinya or Sussa when they're mad (and you haven't even met Tinya's mom yet!)

All in all a good issue which moved the plot along and provided a lot of nice moments along the way. When you think about it, not THAT much happened and it was basically a big prison brawl but it allowed the writers to highlight each of the dozen-plus characters involved. Lots of good moments here.

I really should check this thread more often! For some reason I miss the updates... great discussion, folks.

I agree with FC, that this Garth is more sympathetic than SW6 Garth. Smart, fair, though also with his secrets and a bit of a temper (fighting Jo, lashing out at Ayla).