Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Reboot Re-read: DnA Legion

Thank you for pointing this out. I was so focused on Leland's skeleton, I didn't even bother looking at the one in the foreground. That is definitely Amilia's headgear, but the skull doesn't look Khund-ish to me. Of course this whole thing raises the questions of WHEN exactly Leland was killed - was it before or after Rifts? And we saw Lori at the memorial dedication, but no Amilia if I'm not mistaken. So what happened to her? She was good friends with Amilia.

I'll give a pass on M'Onel for the body disposal, but after a year's worth of corpses, wouldn't he think something was up?



Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking and why I thought it was done so on point.


Yes, and was also in line with the McCauley we met in LW1.

This sounds right to me. And to your point, the end target being collected editions at the bookstore is still the end goal, I think. But yes, individually these issues do seem to be an act in a series' episode. Not that I'm complaining, mind you; after doing the LW reviews at damn near 40 pages each, these are a walk in the park!


The subdued-ness I thought was good and on point given what had just happened, but I agree there could have been some variation in reaction. Especially M'Onel. I think he should have been a little more enthusiastic as well.


I had a similar thought! LOL


Agree - its a good jumping on point for someone new, but all it's really doing is taking the background from Legion Worlds, and putting all the character pieces on the playing board's Go space to start the new series.

And I'll have to see if I get used to Coipel as we move forward.

The Legion #3

Released 12/26/01
DC Comics, Color
22 Pages

Legion World
Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning - Writers
Oliver Coipel - Pencils
Andy Lanning - Inks
Tom McCraw - Colors
Mike McAvennie - Editor

Synopsis

Picking up where we left off, the Lost Legionnaires have been picked up by the crew of the Bouncing Boy, Cosmic Boy, Triad, Invisible Kid, an enlarged Violet and Chuck Taine piloting. Lots of reunions, notably Brainy/Lyle, Cos/Imra/Jo and Cham getting friendly with Triad Orange and Neutral with Chuck looking on from the pilot's chair getting misty eyed. They head to the Footstep Ship stolen in LW3.

Shift to 'McCauley', apparently in admiral garb dedicating a plant that will terraform the moon. He and someone (maybe Venge? its unclear) confab about ignoring the Orandan ambassador, Robotica seems to be a looming threat, and stalling M'Onel from seeing the Legionnaires.

Speaking of the Legion, they are emerging back into space and Shikari detects a cloaked planet, leading to the reveal of Legion World. It's apparently been under construction for a year. Brainy makes the obvious deduction that Brande is behind it, and he pops out to welcome everyone. New flight rings are distributed and we get the tour of the house. The place has multiple habitats and was designed when Brande thought a new Legion may be needed. We see that our old friend Gear was brought in to oversee the construction. We meet Sensor, who was integral to hiding the place. Brainy reveals that he still has all the specs for their Threshold drives in his head. Brande reveals his vision. Because the UP is in such bad shape, he wants to rebuild the Legion as an example of cross-planetary cooperation.

Four days later, M'Onel is at a deactivated stargate. Apparently things still leak through the network occasionally. He begins to get suspicious that what he's doing is busy work and also gets a signal from the Legion. He flies off in a rage.

We switch focus to Ayla on Winath. A portal opens and Shikari pops out looking for Ayla, who thinks its an attack. Cham follows and wraps her in a big hug. Apparently Brainy and Lyle have been busy in the last four days. We get a nice back and forth between the two. Cham drops the news about Garth with Mekt listening from afar. She doesn't take it well.

Back to Legion World, Rokk and RJ are discussing going BACK to the Lost galaxy to broker an agreement with the Kwai to assist in navigation using Brainy's new portal device. Imra is regretful and wants to be on that mission to understand Garth's fate for herself. Then Rokk wants to find out what's going on with Vyrgra (spelled correctly) as there had been an assumption that Gates was in the lost crowd. Given all that's happened there with a pandemic, its the place to go. Just wear a mask and get vaccinated. Ahem.

Jazmin sports a new look, and Ayla arrives to throw her hat in to the mission back to the Lost Galaxy. They head out in a new ship to the Kwai galaxy - Imra, Ayla, Wildfire and Lyle. Ayla strips down and puts her Spark uniform on as we get a one page rundown of how Legion Lost ended. They discover an energy anomaly pulsing electrical energy.

We switch scenes again to Metropolis where M'Onel aggressively confronts 'McCauley' who promptly shifts the lights to the red sunlight spectrum and kicks M'Onel's ass. We are then given the reveal of Leland McCauley is actually Ra's al Ghul.

Commentary

Issue 3 was interesting. I had extremely high hopes for this issue given that the Legion was basically reunited at this point. However, it didn't really deliver as I felt like it should. There was a lot of stuff going on here; a lot of parallel threads going on that required a lot of scene jumping, so the pacing felt off. But a lot of really cool stuff happened in the meantime. I think it was the little things that detracted it for me which I'll get into below, but they were minor relatively speaking. Coipel's art here, with the exception of the M'Onel scenes here are much better than in the previous two issues, with the exceptions of the M'Onel scenes, for whatever reason. I also knew going in who the imposter was, so that had no shock value for me, which likely affected my perception of the pacing.

So, on to the nitpicking!!

The Legion's Back! That in itself is super awesome! But answer me this. Why the SPROCK is Violet enlarged in a small spacecraft??? I get that they don't do any kind of Roll Call or Name Badges or anything, so DnA and/or Coipel is scripting out them showing off their powers in really stupid ways. Same with Triad. Small space - we don't need three of you taking up more space if we don't need it. DnA seem to take the adage of "Show don't tell" to an extreme. In the M'Onel fight at the end of the book, it works great. Here its just stupid.

And Cham certainly seems to be getting very friendly with her while Chuck looks on. I was surprised that it wasn't Lu Purple under Cham's arm instead of Orange. Wonder if DnA or the colorist got that messed up (I doubt it - McCraw tends to know what he's doing with the Legion). Also neat little background tidbit with Chuck and Vi at the helm in the back of the frame before they get to Legion World. Rokk sure needs to use stronger passwords. Maybe he should invest in LastPass? Or at least some kind of a random string generator. But its kind of a weird pick. I could see the 5YL Rokk using Pol as a password, but not this Rokk.

I'm not sure if this was ever addressed in fandom elsewhere, but I take it that Legion World is essentially the reboot version of Weber's World. Based on Brande's description, it sure seems to be meant to serve the same purpose. But Brande's speech about the Legion and its purpose don't really seem to MEAN anything this time more than what he's said in the past. Like in the beginning of the reboot. SMH.

The Garth situation was brought up WAAAAY too late. We are 65 pages into the story, and we just now get to seriously significantly Garth's death? To HWW's point, this seems to be a problem of the 22 page issue layout more than anything else, but even still, I feel like this is too late. I'm glad that we get to visit Winath to pick Ayla up using the new technology. Its interesting though, as Winath appears different here than in LW2. More farm robots and less Oklahoma - this seems to be more pre-DnA than the LW Winath, which is an odd choice given the work they did on that issue building Winath. It's good to see the Cham/Ayla relationship again and hopefully go somewhere. Or not.

I love RJ's scooter and I want one.

I will say this. Coipel draws a very pretty Ayla. I don't mind pics like the whole Ayla changing scene. I'm not a prude. But wouldn't she have changed before they got into the cruiser? Were they in THAT much of a rush?

And Ra's al Ghul as the big bad is a horrible idea for the Legion. I'm glad they were able to get to the imposter reveal sooner than later, so that's good, but the reveal of who it is, I've never liked. Still, the way he kicked M'Onel's butt was pretty solidly done.

Overall Grade B-

From what I recall, the tendency from Vi to be standing in the background at giant size for no reason is one of the super-annoying quirks of this run.

Vi - "I will use this power wisely, and always in your honor. And any time Dan and Andy want to show that I can grow within a small space."

Re Cham being friendly with Lu. I find DNA's Cham a bit of a low-key charmer. in Lost he developed deep-ish friendships with Tasmia, Candi, Wildfire, Kari... now we see Lu... it's definitely informed my own characterization of him when I write stories

After reading Legion Worlds 6, I remarked that Sensor and the "dead" Gates were the two missing ones. Good to see the mystery of Sensor was solved now, and that she was off being useful with her illusion powers the whole time. Also makes sense why they could not reveal her...

Imagine RJ, Sensor and Gear as the only ones on Legion World the whole time, lol. also, it's a freaking planetoid, how did they make sure nobody crashed into it this whole time? and the idea of Legion World is cool, but I wonder how RJ was planning to build to capacity? He has a handful of allies... what was the end-game here?

it was easy to retrieve Spark, makes me think: couldn't they have easily tracked down a few others? Kinetix for example, we know exactly where she was... and we saw Triad trying to reach M'Onel. Couldn't Kari have path-found herself to the others shown missing?

Well, actually he's been shown to be a flirt with pretty much all the ladies pre-DnA! So all that was in character - I think the weird thing for me was that Lu Orange and Purple should have been swapped, as THAT would have made more historical (and personality) sense.


For a quick second I thought you meant Sensor was missing ala Gates, but he was just missing from AFTER the memorial. But I had similar thoughts - in the words of Douglas Adams, "Space is bigger than the biggest thing ever" so they could plop LW literally anywhere in space and Sensor wouldn't have to do much work to hide the thing. But otherwise, poor Gear is left to do all the grunt work!! I imaging the Subterfuge squad helped out when not subterfuging, though.

As to Kinetix, I'll get into it in the LW4 review, but between the start of the series and that issue, about 5-7 days have passed. She doesn't even mention the Legion's return (making her an uninterested ditz) AND the writers give a dig at her pre-DnA presentation. I *really* think McAvennie had a problem with the character.

#2 and #3 roundup:


All the women in this book are well-endowed. Look at Twine on p. 1 and Kid Q on p. 6 of #2, and Ayla on p. 17 of # 3. Now we understand why Vi *had* to be giant-sized . . .


Agreed. Cos and Imra were founders with Garth and probably the closest friends he had in the Legion. Something should have been said way sooner.


I'm comfortable with the idea of LW being its own entity with some superficial similarities to past story events. When Shikari was introduced, there was a lot of fan speculation that she was the reboot Dawnstar. DnA emphatically denied this, and, despite some similarities in power and personality, 'Kari is really her own character. Not everything has to be a reboot of something.

I also think the tendency to look for reboots deprives the story of the freedom to go where it needs to go. What Brande proposes here is truly a new step for the Legion--a literal global vision. But both fans and writers have an inclination to stay rooted in the past--and this often prevents a series from moving forward.


I had the same problem with Brande's speech at the end of LW # 6. Sadly, writing a truly inspirational speech that doesn't come off as hackneyed seems beyond DnA.


Good points. With the Legion confronting not only the Oversight Watch but also Sci-Cops and Venge, I would expect them to be much more overwhelmed than this. But the sci-cops seem to step aside to make way for the post-humans to fight. Awful nice of them. Those cops should have been trying to get a bead on any Legionnaire they could.

So now we've got the reveal that McCauley is dead and being impersonated by someone, and in # 3, we learn by whom. Big Reveal after Big Reveal. I wish the mystery of McCauley's true identity had played out a little longer. The story seems to be rushing along for all the wrong reasons. I agree that Ra's al Ghul is the wrong choice for the Legion. Talk about reboots and living in the past. Ra's fills the same function as Darkseid in the original boot and was no doubt intended to create the same kind of buzz. But you can only draw from the same well so many times.

These issues did have some good moments. Lu's rescue of Shikari was great--a reminder of how resourceful Triad is. And the last page reveal of Shikari with The Bouncing Boy made my heart soar. Issue #3 hits a lot of good emotional beats, as well: the reunion, Cham telling Ayla about Garth's death (and Mekt's creepy remark), and Ayla insisting on going on the mission. This is very true to her personality, not that anyone objects.

But, yes, the away team rushes too quickly to return to Kwai-space (and I was disappointed that Shikari didn't stay with them)--and then there's a hint that Garth may still be alive . . . and then Ra's al Ghul! Paradoxically, things are happening too fast but without enough meat on the bones.

Well sure, but it's the Legion, so it will always have some kind of ties to the past. But DnA was being a bit too clever about Shikari - "Yeah she has wings. And tracking powers. But she's not Dawnstar." Okay...

The Webers World thing stuck in my head as I recently read it as part of my classic Legion read through. Same exact purpose. Different name. And that's all fine at the end of the day. I was just wondering if folks made the same connections 20 years ago.


And now I see what you mean.



I see what you mean about the rushed nature of things. The Ra's reveal could have definitely been stretched to the next issue. In fact, the Ra's cutscenes are exactly why the book's pacing is off. And the team definitely didn't need to go to the Kwai galaxy right away.

I'll never say no to any Ayla scenes! But in context of the story, the clothes changing was just gratuitous, in my view, and more in keeping with the pre-ZH Ayla rather than what was characterized since.

I like how they at least addressed Mekt here, and I hope to see more, as his ominous end of LW2 was a great setup.

With Legion Worlds having presented so much, I wonder if DnA figured they had laid all the background out, so decided to charge into the new series full throttle. Assuming this would be collected in a trade (it hasn't yet, I don't think) anything in the story so far wouldn't make any sense to someone reading that trade.

The Legion #4

Released January 30, 2002
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

Moon Rise
Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning - Writers
Oliver Coipel - Pencils
Andy Lanning - Inks
Tom McCraw - Colors
Mike McAvennie - Editor

Synopsis

Issue 4 begins with Darren the orderly walking into the Earthgov Footstep Drive facility (Not UP, which I find interesting). He walks down a long corridor lined with cells labeled in Interlac and Arabic letters bearing a world name and a number. He ominously tells them that it will be the last day working. We finally meet Gates, apparently held captive for the last year as a test subject. Darren prepares to kill Gates when the power goes out. Gates toys with Darren for a bit before popping out of a portal and clocking him, stealing his keycard. Gates pops out to find the Legion in the corridor: Leviathan (Violet), Triad and Brainy.

Ra's is overseeing the lunar terraforming platform when informed about the Footstep lab issue as he and Venge activate the engine. Ra's is pleased that another of his plans is underway, the most ambitious yet in only the way a plan of the Demon's Head can be. He changes back into the McCauley form and is told that they have found the location of Legion World so that Venge and the fleet may attack it. M'Onel will be left for Ra's himself.

We switch over to see the breakout at the Footstep facility; Cosmic Boy has joined them and Large Vi is apparently ripping the doors off. Brainiac 5 breaks down how they found him as guards attack: They opened up the drive and found Vyrgans "wired" into the drive core. McCauley's team used Gates as a DNA source to track the teleporting gene and used it to find potential teleporters, kidnapped them and killed the rest. Since there were so few Vyrgans, they also used Winathians and Carggites. This story unfolds as the rest of the Legion: Cham, Ultra Boy, Kid Quantum and Shikari, kicks the butts of the lab guards. Gates is carried away by Briany on his back. Triad lays it down that they're going after "McCauley" once they've cleaned up the lab.

Interlude 1 - in the Kwai galaxy, the away team approaches the electrical anomaly. They discover tromium crystals, but no Garth, crushing Imra's and Ayla's hopes. They are suddenly attacked by what appear to be Kwai warriors.

Back with M'Onel, Ra's confronts him and they each know the other; Ra's knows M'onel is Valor. Ra's teases that they are similar in that they both were seeders of potential. Ra's makes the offer for M'Onel to join him. Ra's shoots M'Onel with a revolver but only bruises him. Apparently the Red Sun light takes time to affect a Daxamite to that degree.

We shift to Zoe and Cill on patrol. They debate the terraforming efforts and Zoe's history as a Legionnaire. Apparently Zoe doesn't watch the news feeds... But its too late to argue as some kind of tremor hits and they are lost in lights.

Interlude 2 - We witness the rape of Xanthu, but thankfully XS and Star Boy are still kicking, combining their powers to stay alive against the Roboticans (one assumes that this force combo is how they got out of the cliffhanger from LW4).

Back on Legion World, Umbra has changed out of her Legion costume into something skimpier, apparently more native to her world, since she's lost her powers, and ruminates about it with Sensor and Brande when the Earthgov fleet appears.

Then, in a sequence of frames across the next three pages, Venge orders the fleet to attack Legion World, the Footstep liberation team is smack against a squad of SP forces, Ra's shoots M'Onel doing significant damage, and Legion World is caught in an explosion.



Commentary

Super solid issue here. Great pacing and pulling together of many plot threads laid out since LW1 - The Footstep drive, the disappearances on Cargg, the Vyrgan pandemic, even Valor - in a way that did not seem too ham-handed to me. The role of Ra's in the whole thing is pretty clear, but I do have some questions, which I'll get to below. I think it definitely became apparent after issue 3, but definitely with issue 4 DnA have become much more comfortable as Legion writers. Everyone has some kind of role to play here. Coipel's art did the trick - decent, not as good as the prior issue, but good on certain panels, not on others (the background guy on page 10 looked like a rag doll when viewing using guided view on digital). Very minor nitpicks, but I hope interesting discussion topics.

I liked the way the opening sequence with Gates was laid out. There was no way Darren was making it out conscious! The Ra's sequence was also well done. Lots of good foreshadowing going on there. I may not like the fact that they are using Ra's here, but he's definitely acting like Ra's.

Vi is big again? Good lord. I get that she'd use the big size to rip the doors off, but Cos is there too, right?

The use of Vyrgans as the engine of the Footstep drive is chilling. Also used to tie in the disappearances on Cargg with the Vyrgan cover story introduced in LW1. Not sure about the Winathians tho - I guess the fact they make twins makes it easier for them to breed? I get the Carggite connection, but the Winath one seemed to be a stretch.

Nice moment with Brainy carrying Gates and his explanation for disappearing, as it calls back to the pre-DnA days. I am left wondering if we get all the details about the McCauley assassination - when did Ra's take over and how? Interesting that the Blight swings in and all this happens, which intimates that Ra's murdered McCauley sometime before the Blight hits - maybe during the Blight - and had this idea in mind for the Footstep drive almost immediately. My only beef - where did Gates 'port to during the chaos of 125? Deep space? He wasn't wearing a transsuit!

The Ra's M'Onel confrontation was well done, and makes the appropriate call out to Wonder Woman and Batman, but to me it reminds me of how out of place he seems in a future setting. I like the idea that it takes time under a red starlight for M'Onel to lose his powers. It doesn't seem to be very DCU canon, but it works here.

I'm gonna keep my comments on Zoe short, but I have a feeling that Cill's comments are basically Dan/Andy/Mike's opinions on the character. The rest of my comments on the matter don't belong in a review.

The Xanthu interlude was fascinating to me, especially with the Close Encounters worldship in the background. Nice neat way of showing how Thom and Jenni have stayed alive for the last several days.

DnA/Coipel sure do like going for the sexy don't they? Again, not too much of a big deal for me here; Tasmia's costume calls back to the Grell design, and Tasmia herself seems a bit tempered here.

Grade - Solid A. Any nitpicks I have here are relatively minor. A lot was packed into 22 pages and it didn't drag. I found myself enjoying this issue readthrough more than any other so far since LW3.

Go Gates! My heart aches a bit, to think that poor Gates suffered so. But Gates kicked ass and didn't cower. Brainy carrying Gates is a nice nod to their friendship

Nice seeing the Legion spring into action, and with such compassion too.

Zoe... ah Zoe. I felt like DNA got a good handle on her personality here. I do wish she'd gotten more respect, but that is neither here nor there. She had a good scene.

I agree, this issue hit a lot of high notes. nice pacing, nice action, nice look into other characters like Jenni and Thom.

Tasmia's costume... meh. Why? but ok.

And Triad! I loved her attitude here!


She was rather popular character. For some reason she had haters in all the wrong places.


I think I don't have a problem given that I've been reading a lot of 70-s/early 80s Legion lately, and this is in line with her costume then, so its not that out of place in that regard. But... yeah... I guess you can't have Ayla strip every issue, so Oliver has to have something to entertain himself with...

True, but I wonder how much is too much? What can we "keep" from the past while still being open to new directions?

I've read with interest your and Ibby's thoughts on Kinetix. To me, Kinetix was always sort of there. I neither liked nor disliked the character, so I'm fine with DnA consigning her to sci cop purgatory (similar to Val and Andy being stranded on Steeple). There's no reason why every past Legionnnaire has to return to the new team. In reality, some people would move on.

Of course, we Legion fans love even the minor characters, and we want to see Condo and Dirk take their rightful places in the team even if their reboot incarnations went in very different directions. But when R.J. said he wants the Legion to be truly legion, it got me to thinking: How far could this thing really go? Does R.J. want hundreds of Legionnaires--like the Green Lantern Corps (and there I'm making my own "reboot" comparison!). This never really plays out in the series, but it's an interesting idea. They've certainly got the space for all those new Legionnaires. So maybe there was a plan to feature both Dawnstar and Shikari . . .



Your point is well taken, and perhaps such comparisons were inevitable. I think Shikari's powers fulfilled a story need in Legion Lost. Where the comparison to Dawnstar really struck home with me was in The Legion #3, when Shikari sees Legion World before the planet becomes visible. Dawny, too, could see through illusions to find paths that weren't visible to others (cf. Superboy # 229, when Superboy and Sun Boy crash into different sides of a vertigo wall while Dawny calmly walks straight through the middle). DnA didn't try very hard to emphasize her differences from Dawny.



Oh, having her change on the ship was pure titillation for the reader. Luckily, of the two guys piloting the ship, one is hinted to be gay and the other doesn't have a body so there was no apparent threat to her privacy. Nevertheless, Imra felt it necessary to stand guard.

Well, I hear you about a prior version of a character or thing not being pulled forward. It can be its own thing. But in the case of Kinetix, who was/is a favorite among many, she was new to this version of the universe, so most of us expected her to be a member of the team as she had been, given that she had a witty and snappy personality. But the writers and editors made a lot of odd choices around her character.

This is a bit of a sidebar, but a large chunk of the Roger Stern Legionnaires run was scripted by his wife Carmela Merlo, so she was responsible for most of her character's personality. When the character of Kinetix was shunted off to the LSH title after LSH 100, her character was inexplicably changed. So essentially, Merlo was the only person outside of the first year of the reboot Legion to consistently write her personality. But its odd, because DnA certainly seemed to find a voice for her peppy personality; maybe they didn't have the chops to handle that AND her power set on a regular basis, so they changed both.


I had a similar thought about RJ's plan. Is he looking to build a movement similar to the threeboot with hundreds of Legionnaires?


Yes, this is exactly the crux of my issue with the writers about this. She is a character with exactly the same attributes as Dawnstar other than race/homeworld. But she's not her. Same with the Legion World. They may not pull specific characters or things over from the pre-boot, but they sure pulled the concept, so why not go all the way for the fans before the reboot? Shikari certainly did meet the story need in Lost, but Dan and Andy could have just come out and said, "We're not doing Dawny, so we have Shikari instead. Hope you like her" but they likely were playing coy so as to not bait the fans.

Which has interesting implications for the question of whether the threeboot could simply have continued on from the reboot...

I remember reading that the reboot originators had planned to turn Zoe into the Emerald Empress. If true, that might explain why subsequent versions of the character were inconsistent. When a character starts off with a particular arc in the writers' minds, and then that arc is abandoned, it can lead to uncertainty about what to do with the character.

Agreed. This issue has a good balance of plot and character dynamics with surprises and forward movement in the plot. The opening reveal of Gates is well done, as are the quick jump cuts on Page 21--going from the police ordering the Legion to submit to arrest, then Venge yelling "Fire!" and Ra's shooting M'Onel. Very effective in building tension! (But did we have to end with another explosion?)

I also appreciate the immersion of this series in science fiction. The explanation of the foot-step drives and Gates' abduction are long-winded, but they make effective use of the sci fi elements of the series. Likewise, Ra's plan involves terraforming the moon to usher humanity into a new age. He's a totally mad demagogue, but his plan is detailed enough to seem credible in a sci fi world.

I also loved the art throughout. Some of the scenes are breathtaking, such as the two-page Xanthu spread and the images of the moon on pp. 5-6. For the most part, the characters convey movement and emotion in appropriate ways--especially M'Onel's heroic defiance and the shocking first image of Gates behind the dampening field.

My only nitpicks involve some of the transition choices between story and art. On Page 11, the away team is shown flying outside the ship, which led me to wonder who was flying the ship. We needed perhaps to see them leave the ship. On page 18, Umbra and Sensor belong in the third panel but are extended upwards into the second panel--in which they are also shown by the window. This led me to think they were initially standing behind Chuck and Gear, and that someone else was standing at the window in front of them. Stylistic choices in art are great, but they should never be confusing.


Not only is she big, but she's also featured prominently on the cover even though she has little to do in the story.


There's also a callout to Superman ("The icon").

It's interesting that Ra's chooses to shoot Mon with a 20th century revolver when there must have been more convenient ways to dispose of a Daxamite under a red sun. Not only is this method of execution barbaric, but it also says something about Ra's old-fashioned mindset. Disposing of his enemies by leaving their bodies in a radioactive coolant reactor might be another indication of this thinking. There are plenty of things in the 31st century that can vaporize bodies.

But his shooting of Mon is a truly horrific scene. More than anything else, it establishes Ra's cruelty.

Exactly. Like I said, they at least got Ra's down, even if I don't think he's the right villain for the story.

Ra's plan even fits but 1000 years later its even more epic.

I think the one thing that bothered me here is that in all the Batman literature, its pretty much stated that Ra's goes crazier every time he uses the Lazarus Pit. Here, its 1000 years later and he's as diabolically sane as ever.

Well they had first planned for her to have the eye and be the Empress, but they switched it to Violet when the fans sniffed out their plans, which I think made for some interesting stories. Then with the Mordru story, they were toying with the idea of giving her the Eye to use as a Legionnaire (the "Emerald Princess" sketches). Then when KC Carlson left, they just gave up and spaced her out via the anomaly when Merlo wasn't going to be writing her.

I always wondered if the Threeboot shouldn't have just been the reboot four years out. They'd all be late teens at that point.

There's a Waid quote where he says something like he really wished he could have just started his new series with "Five Years Later..." but decided it wouldn't work for the vision he had.

The Legion #5

Released Februray 27, 2002
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

Credo
Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning - Writers
Peter Snejbjerg - Guest Art
Tom McCraw - Colors
Mike McAvennie - Editor

Synopsis

We pick up the story in the Kwai galaxy as Saturn Girl, Spark, Invisible Kid and Wildfire are under attack by Kwai while investigating a strange phenomenon. They spar, but in the end its all been a big misunderstanding. The Kwai didn't realize the four were Legion and thought they were attempting to desecrate what they view as a memorial to the Progenitor's victims. THey then head over to see the boss Kwai. Once there, they find a plethora of starships banding together after the fall of the Progenintor (whom we last saw in LL fleeing the Progeny fleet).

Coursing through the refugees, the heroes encounter a few young Progeny. Ayla is compassionate towards them, but Imra and the new Kwai friends have a different view. The team (mainly Imra and Lyle) have an interesting debate about tolerance vs. seeing what people are capable of. The Kwai Matriarch summons them, ending the debate.

Imra offers a pact - an alliance where the Kwai serve as navigators in return for protection from the Legion. The Matriarch is intrigued but wants no part of violence or war. She invites the Legionnaires to stay for a while. Ayla and Wildfire head off to look for any news about Garth, while Lyle and Imra try to smooth out the edges of their earlier spat. They are interrupted by the Credo, a group who wants to erase any Progeny with prejudice. Lyle throws that in Imra's face, and even quotes the Legion charter at her before being shut down by Imra via some kind of telepathy. Herros, one of the more aggressive Kwai whom the Legion met earlier, is first to step up and tells the Credo that there are Progeny among them.

Ayla and Wildfire find the Progeny in the sewers. Ayla is moved and sympathetic to their plight, Wildfire not so much. They are interrupted by the Credo moving in to slaughter the helpless Progeny, guided by the information given to them by Herros. Wildfire and Spark come to the Progeny defense, Ayla taking damage. The mere fact of the Legionnaires defending Progeny turns all of the Credo against them. Wildfire is taken down - apparently by a freeze ray - while Spark hides. Lyle invisibly attacks, but then is frozen, revealing his position. A Credo lackey shoots into the ice and we see blood making Spark react from hiding.

Imra finally flies in responding to the emergency only to find dead Progeny and a scared child Progeny holding on to a toy. Spark is on the run when Imra finally arrives and mentally hacks the Credo to not attack any other sentients, and that the Progeny are under the protection of the Legion.

Lyle is apparently fine ('Tis but a flesh wound!) and the Credo have been sent packing, albeit still barking their racism, so apparently Imra's little hack wasn't permanent. The Kwai Herros apparently left with them.

Epilogue - The Credo we met earlier and Herros meet Singularity, our old friend from Legion Lost who was seeing a projected world. He is apparently the mastermind behind Credo and they set out with many Progeny set up on pikes lining the road.


Commentary

I have a complicated response to this issue. This whole issue was filler and setup for the future, but it was very well done filler. In fact, I think the sole existence of this issue is to setup Singularity as a recurring enemy, as the main story could be, "Hey, let's go to the Kwai and ask if they want to help us. Matriarch, you cool? Yeah come with us." That's probably about 10 pages max. So therefore the sole purpose of the conflict is to introduce Credo, therefore Singularity. The problem is that is stops the momentum of the primary Ra's story arc.

The story itself had some excellent elements - the friction between Imra and Lyle was very well done. What do you do with the non-combatants of your defeated enemy? In the old school biblical and bronze age stories, they would be massacred. Enlightened thought, and the Legion code, forbids this. But what about people who have been directly affected by the other? Its an emotional question for someone who's been through a situation like that, and it takes a lot to overcome those emotions. In fact, even though Imra laid down her ultimatum to the Credo, I still don't know really how she feels. She can't bring herself to break with the Legion code that she herself wrote, but we aren't privy to her thoughts, ironically enough.

We had a guest artist this issue. I really liked Snejbjerg's art by the end of the issue. He did the pencils and inks by himself, whereas Coipel needs Abnett to ink, but I think he did a great job with the alien environment and the different species all over the place. I'm also left wondering - we're only five issues in. Why do we need a guest artist already?

Specific comments:

You mean the Kwai didn't get the memo that the big L belts mean Legion? The four page fight seemed to be a waste. "Oops, my bad!"

The revelation about the Progenitor being former Legion was not shown until the end of Lost and Shikari wouldn't have said anything to them. The whole "we hear he may be related to you" stuff felt wrong.

The heart of the story - the debate about the enemy survivors - was extremely well done. In fact that aspect of the story is really sticking with me.

That said, I REALLYreallyreally don't like DnA's Imra. They've taken a wonderful strong character and have turned her into someone almost unrecognizable to me, someone vengeful and who'd ACTIVELY use her powers against her own friends versus her enemy. Not a good look.

By contrast I love pretty much everything about their Ayla.

Wildfire got taken out extremely easily. I didn't think a freeze ray could do that to an ERG.

Having the Progeny under the protection of the Legion is a nice bookend to having Jan create them and unleashing them on the universe.

I kind of feel like the Lyle in jeopardy situation was a cheat.

Amazing, though chilling, imagery at the end with the Credo leaving town. Intentionally reminiscent of the Romans, I think.

Overall grade - B+. A padding setup story in the middle of a strong arc just starting to really accelerate takes some points off, and I think the story as a whole could have been a bit tighter. I also can't stand what DnA is doing with Imra. But the heart of the story is too good to dock it down further.

lots of good thoughts here!

Re Triad in Legion 4, yeah, loved her being all "we're going to McCauley NOW. Trust no one has a problem with that? Good."

Good point re Tasmia's new costume being a throwback to the 70s/80s era. It just seemed so out of place for me compared to most of the others. And I did appreciate the sort of uniform central stripe look most of the team had then.

Re a Legion World, having hundreds of Legionnaires would make absences (such as Zoe, Val, Andy) even more glaring!

re Wildfire not having a body - true, but we know he still appreciates the female form in Legion Lost 10, he thinks about finding Shikari and Kid Q II attractive

More on Kinetix: I agree that DNA got her personality well (LW 1, LW 6, Legion 4, Legion 6). Power-wise, she only levitates coffee cups in LW1, but does some impressive flying and turning rubble/debris into flowers in Legion 6 later on. Now, the rubble into flowers is a bit beyond what I'd expect; she changes the form of things, not the substance. Turning big chunks of rubble into tiny bits, or clumping them up into one big chunk, sure. changing them to flowers? er.

Yeah, Ra's villainy is really in play with how he repeatedly shoots Mon, checking in from time to time to see how weakened Mon has become.

thanks GL, now I know Merlo is whom I need to thank for Zoe's greatest one-liners!


Re Threeboot being a 5YL Reboot, yeah, I struggle to see how this universe would evolve into that Threeboot one (with the whole anti-authority, generation war thingie) in only 5 years' time...

I did like issue 5. Snejberg was good. Lyle quoting the Constitution to Imra and suggesting how close she was to the situation - even pointing Ayla out as an example (Ayla is Garth's brother, but she's calm about the Progeny; Imra being all I WAS THERE, I SAW IT!). realistic and well done.

re Imra, I do forgive her for not trusting the Progeny, but I also dislike her using her telepathy to smack Lyle. You'd have thought she'd have learned from her fake Tinya in Lost, and she even makes that speech in Legion Lost 12 about swearing off meddling with her friends' minds...

agree it was good filler, agree that the momentum of the Ra's story is kind of cute. I like the small cast of 4 Legionnaires, everyone getting something to do. Credo was set up well, and is realistic considering all that the Progeny did before. I find it interesting that the burned out city at the end, hints to the depths that Singularity would go to to take out Progeny - did any innocents get in the way? What did he do about them?

Also: I think DNA did a great job with Gates' personality. "What took you so long?" "Told you he'd be ungrateful. hah!"