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

i felt like the introduction of R'as al-Ghul as the villain, a former 20th century immortal villain dusted off and (attempted to) made relevant to face a Legion of Super-Heroes 1000 years later, was just an enormous fail. It worked for Darkseid, who had the sort of power you'd expect to face a *Legion.* He was a god, with his own armies, his own planet, his own team of lesser 'gods.' R'as is a martial arts-y assassin guy who, after Batman beats or kills him repeatedly, gets better. That's not even a super-power, because *every villain* 'gets better' after a superhero beats/kills them. He's just got the plot armor baked in and it has a fancy name.

The lightning in a bottle that was the Great Darkness Saga was not, IMO, going to be recaptured with R'as, and some sort of asspull mcguffin like 'this frequency of whistling paralyzes Durlans' or whatever.

With the introduction of new characters like XS, Kid Quantum 2, Gates, Shikari, Kinetix, GEAR, etc. I was enjoying the *new* elements of this Reboot (more so than the recast versions of Sensor or ugly things done to classic characters like Element Lad or whatever). So more focus on new villains, like the Workforce members barely touched upon (Dune, Meta, Abyss, Twine, etc.?) would have appealed more to me than dragging out a Batman villain. (And there *are* immortal villains, like Ares or Circe, that *might* have been a more credible threat to a 'Legion of Super-Heroes,' but even then, I really feel like the Great Darkness Saga was a hard act to follow, and it would have been better to try something else.)

It gets even worse when they actually bring Darkseid in!

Yeah completely agree with Set. Ra's just got tons of plot armor when facing the Legion. His magical forcefield in issue 6, and don't even get me started on issue 8.


and I agree, there was a lot of material to work with in the Reboot universe, without needing to bring Ra's in. The Emerald Eye was quite potent, the Fatal Five were quite dangerous. Chu - still imprisoned but potentially dangerous. The Affiliated Planets (not really villainous anymore with the dissolution of the Dark Circle but...). Potential White Triangle remnants. Robotica even.

Once Brainy got blasted, I immediately figured out what was going on from the prior issue when the seeds roll towards Zoe from the momentum, so I felt like that part was done well. I just had massive problems with the reason they were in the plot.

To the point about Kinetix - I distinctly remember when reading this the first time kind of checking out at that reveal. But this read through, I'm getting pretty far down into the weeds, and there's a lot of good here, from a storytelling perspective - until there's not. I actually ENJOYED Kinetix's role here as she has agency, but that was all tempered by the cheesy evolution reveal, which is really sad after the great one off from issue 5. (Of course, the fact that they kept Kinetix in this state also became an issue for me, but I'm actually looking forward to digging in to the rest of the run, as there has been quality writing here, and I'm assuming there will be again).

I always thought what they should have done, if they wanted a centuries old villain, was use Vandal Savage. I've always viewed Ra's as more of an eco-terrorist vs a conqueror just to conquer. (Thankfully, they would use Vandal Savage in the Legion/Star Trek crossover a decade later). But Ibby is right - they had a lot of stuff to work with other than Ra's - whether they were to use older concepts from the Legion's history or something from pre-DnA (which they were VERY reluctant to do).

The Legion #8

Released June 5, 2002
DC Comics, Color
24 Pages

Terror Incognita 3: Hypersapiens
Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning - Writers
Oliver Coipel - Pencils
Andy Lanning - Inks
Tom McCraw - Colors
Mike McAvennie - Editor

Synopsis

Issue 8 starts in the ICU. M'Onel is in bad shape in the OR, as the doctor's can't match his blood, nor cut into him to remove the bullet. Triad debates with herself about telling them the truth about his Daxamite background and about him being Valor. The debate is useless, however, as Kinetix walks into the OR and shoots green energy over him - one assumes to heal him.

Cosmic Boy becomes Exposition Lad, explaining the current Hypertaxis situation to their strike force and anyone who hasn't yet read the series as the moon is pushed closer to the Earth. We then get another page of exposition about the history of Ra's al Ghul and his current involvement with the Legion. Cos finishis his speech with a nice touch. Ra's has been listenting in and mocks Rokk's speech. Venge inexplicably freezes and disappears by apparent de-pixelization.

The Legion attacks and the fight begins with the Oversight Watch surrendering immediately. Ra's takes out Shikari with ease, then Cham by some super sonic whistle. Rokk tells the team to combine powers, but he still has the upper hand, taking out Rokk, Brainy, Gates, Vi and Jo in short order. Kid Quantum confronts Ra's, who considers her the most formidable in the team, and deploys some kind of a quantum mirror to refect the multiverse back at Jazmin, nullifying her and he prepares to kill Jazmin. Gates takes action and ports Kid Quantum out of harm, but not before severing Ra's hand via his portal. His hand oozes a gold liquid.

Ra's comments that the fires of the Lazarus Pit burn inside him and he reforms a hand with this energy. He accellerates the terraforming process then disappears using a personal footstep. The Earth is toast in 2 hours. Vi urges that they need to do something, but Brainy is at a loss.

Ra's reappears just to have a healed up M'Onel confront him and explain his healed state thanks to Kinetix. They fall into a chamber full of Ra's clones, to literally everyone's surprise; Ra's is confused and thinks he is the one and only. Ra's freaks out and blinds M'Onel with his Lazarus arm, but Triad splits and confronts Ra's herself, knocking him in the stasis clone chamber.

Kinetix controls the other Terrorforms to act as a buffer between the moon and the Earth, but are only delaying the destruction of Earth, not preventing it. Ultra Boy, Kid Quantum and M'Onel go out to help by taking out the terraforming engine. Suddenly the Legion World pops out of a portal in orbit around the earth. The rest of the Legionnaires pop out, including our team from issue 5. It turns out Legion World's destruction was just an illusion by Sensor. Imra's team was successfully able to get the Kwai's help and their navigators, and Gear and Lyle were able to create a Threshold large enough for Legion World. Apparently at some point Imra and Zoe communicated vie Eidoor via Titanet. Legion World is now in permanent Earth orbit as it is helping to keep the balance of gravity in place.

Triad and M'Onel end with the question of "What about the Terrorforms?"


Commentary

While overall a well paced story with lots of action, the premise of the story still has lots of problems, opens more questions than it answers and ends with a Deux ex Machina. Another issue in itself could have been added to fill in a lot of the action going on here without it being explained away in one page. That said, there were a TON of great character moments, mainly from Gates and Triad here. I think the action, mainly the overall fight with Ra's, was really well done. But the story started to fall apart for me (outside of the premise, that is) when Legion World shows up because a ton of action is told to us that happens to save the day. So in the span of about a day, the Kwai bring back Imra's team, Gear and Lyle create a huge Threshold device, and Zoe calls Imra on the telepathy phone to tell her what to do. And Imra still hasn't talked to Rokk about Garth. At least they ended the issue with the same question I've had, so I have hopes this will be dealt with next issue.

Art-wise, I think this is probably his best Legion issue to date. Very good job from Coipel in this issue with Lanning's inks. And as we've been discussing in the other chats, Tom McCraw can color the Legion like no other. He's mister automatic. My only criticism to Coipel's art is one of the first fight panels (right after Repulse surrenders) where it looks like Vi is punching Cham. Other than that, it was a great job.

Specific comments:
Can't Triad just say he's a Daxamite w/o giving away the Valor goods? Hasn't it been reported pre-DnA that M'Onel was Daxamite?

The reacap on Ra's reinforces my thinking that he is the wrong villain for this story.

What gives with Venge? I'm assuming this has something to do with Robotica. Ra's tells him to come back like the way I talk to my dog when she's misbehaving.

OW's surrender seemed like a bit of a cheat, but we'd seen them get their asses kicked before, so I guess no sense in having that replay take the spotlight off Ra's.

Ra's has a flight ring? I'm assuming that's what the Oversight Watch had as well? But that was never shown to us in seven issues of The Legion, nor Legion Worlds.

Has that Durlan whistle frequency deal been ever used before? They could have just brought out some cancelite.

Funny to hear Ra's refer to Vi as "the muscle" but that was just some bad planning there to let Jo knock her out like that.

The quantum mirror reflecting the multiverse was kind of cool, actually.

Ra's personal footstep confused me based on what had been told before. Don't footsteps have beings that guide them as their engine? Does he have an Imskian doing this?

Not sure I was good with the Brainy math scene. We know he can figure it out.

Her name WAS Zoe? Okay, M'Onel. I know you're the other big downer on the team other than Vi, but DAMN...

I was confused about Triad's ability to follow M'Onel so closely, but it was way cool to see her kick Ra's ass.

Didn't the terrorforms already have gravity powers? We saw them flying earlier.

Hmmm, if the "science" behind the plot premise is too complex for Brainiac 5, do ya think it should be used as a plot premise in the first place?

Ok, so the Legion pops back - Why is Chuck with them?

Overall Grade - C+. Great action story with lots of cool events undermined by a Deus ex Machina.

Yeah, was also thinking: if they say Mon is a Daxamite, what's the harm? I'm sure many people already suspected he was a Daxamite. I mean, he doesn't hide his powers at all! and what other worlds have those same power sets???

Ra's taking out the Legionnaires bit by bit. Still plausible, though a tad annoying at how easily he did it. but fine. Quantum mirror, Kari pressure points, tweeting Cham into submission... how the heck did he reverse Cos' magnetic field though, and with such force that a forcefield protected Brainy was knocked out?


Loved Gates' save of Kid Q II, yay. I also cheered at him severing Ra's arm and causing him pain, hah

Hated Zoe becoming a Terrorform who can basically do anything. Like, what? this is worse than her original powers, which were consistent. And now we lose her personality, one of the standout bits of her character. When this issue ended, I really kept hoping, with every issue, that Zoe would turn back - especially after DNA showed they got her personality right!!!!!

Yeah, I'm actually OK with the Oversight Watch surrendering, considering how outmatched they were before. Also in character, considering they were there for the pay.

Still wonder how Ra's dodged a punch from Jo too. I guess Jo was using super strength rather than speed, fine. no, actually not fine, did Jo need super strength to knock out a normal human like Ra's? Jo's become smarter in the use of his powers, he could have used speed to just KO Ra's, no? And then Ra's was able to come in for the knockout too? like what?

ok, my feelings on Ra's taking the Legion out. Kari and Cham were the first two, I can buy them being taken by surprise. Vi and Jo getting taken out, now that made them look sloppy. Ra's reversing Cos' field and taking out a forcefielded Brainy too, was just contrived. Jaz and the quantum mirror, eeerrrgh fine, Ra's is crazy-prepared so I can buy THAT. But all these happening in quick succession was annoying. On the plus side, Ra's was so arrogant the whole time it just made me hate him more.

Also did enjoy Triad being the one to take Ra's out in the end.

The Ra's clones, bleah. Why. How come Ra's doesn't know? Is Ra's himself a clone?

Chuck being with the Legion, why not? RJ Brande was also there, and he's not a Legionnaire. And with Chuck having been part of the Subs, I like the idea that he was a sort-of Legionnaire, despite not having powers. (I think a later issue would reveal him as an Honorary member).

Terrorform deus ex machina is just... yeah, I really don't know. at the end I'm also left wondering, why did Ra's try to crash the Moon into Earth again? did he really think he could stop it in time? Did he not think the Terrorforms would rally to stop his plan? Yeah I don't know, this is all just... also, how will the humans and others evolve when they're stuck in those volleyball seed-state thingies? Those things can't evolve, can they???

In the end - the action indeed was good, but if I poke at the plot hard enough it starts to not make sense.

Ibby is there an issue of Legionnaires where there is a news program and he's actually mentioned as being a Daxamite? Its nagging at the back of my mind, but I am not 100% sure. I'll try to check later myself.


Totally - I'm reading this and thinking, Okay, so she's basically a god now but with zero personality. Who's bright idea was this?? I remember back reading these ~2005 (I specifically was not reading this at the time and picked up all the issues after the fact as the first kiddo was born around this run) and kind of being like "Okay, here's another issue with monster Zoe.... Hey she's in a diner with Cos! Nope - all a dream..." Argh.


"Sloppy" is the perfect word to use for the Jo & Vi takedown. And Ra's hypnotizes Jo to sleep or something like that. But yeah, since Ra's is a Batman villain, I appreciated his Batman approach - be prepared for anything - but it was a lot. I still liked Jazmin's takedown though.


I actually found this to be kind of interesting and I'm assuming they pull on this thread down the road, since I know there are some covers with Ra's on them.


Yeah, I'll buy that!


DnA massively violates the "show don't tell" rule here and the ending just seems so rushed. And yeah, like I said in my writeup for 7 - Ra's never wants to destroy the Earth, just clean it up. And who does the sorting of the seeds? Who did it last time? Ugh.

I would not have minded it so much if they terrorformed one of the Rebooted characters from the original version, like Umbra, or Apparition, because these were 'old characters' who could use a little bit of something to freshen them up. But Zoe? We barely even knew her, and now she was totally changing to someone completely other? That's just a waste. These new characters should have been allowed more time to breathe, and save the radical transformations for Projectra or Element Lad, who already 'old' and 'familiar.'

(That said, I'm not in love with what was done with Element Lad, but willing to let it slide because it wasn't 'my' Element Lad that turned into the Progenitor anyway, but some AU version of him.)

I agree with Gas and Ibby's assessments of #8. It's a by-the-numbers conclusion that feels rushed and exposition-heavy.

I keep thinking about this series from the point of view of the audience DC was trying to attract, not older fans who had been following the Legion for decades (or even seven years for the reboot). It was common industry wisdom for decades that the audience for comics turns over every few years, and this thinking still seems evident in this run. Especially given the Legionnaires' ages, the series seems targeted for a young audience that would be wowed by all the emotional beats and not think too carefully about the plot. I was 38 when this issue was published and found it very unsatisfying--even less so now.

However, the heavy use of science fiction concepts is a lot for any audience to digest.

It wouldn't be so bad if the science was consistent, but it is not. Ra's' plan to shove the moon into the earth in order to initiate evolutionary change makes no sense. And we've got hyper-Zoe on hand to serve any number of plot needs: save M'Onel, communicate with Imra, and so. And then Ra's is taken out far too easily. After mopping the floor with the Legionnaires for several pages, he is undone simply because he can't cope with the idea that he, too, may be a clone. It would have been nice if this idea had been foreshadowed.

However, it was no surprise that Sensor's illusion powers had saved the day for Legion World. This and a lot of the other Big Emotional Moments (such as M'Onel's return to action) underwhelmed me. And I wanted to get into the spirit of things. However, there are just too many things that don't add up.

For example, nobody has to make a big deal over Mon being a Daxamite. It wasn't that long ago that the White Triangle invaded the earth, so the revelation that another super-powered Daxamite was roaming around should have surprised no one.

Venge, who has been set up since Legion World #1 to be a badass villain, conveniently disappears--and, yes, if I remember right, he's part of Robotica. So, I guess his disappearance is meant to set up the next storyline, but his departure right before the climax is, well, anticlimactic.

If I enjoyed anything about #8, it would be the well-choreographed fight scenes and the little traces of humor such as the Oversight Watch surrendering and Gates chopping off Ra's arm. (I was looking forward to a one-armed Ra's tussling with Mon--hinted at on the cover--but oh well.) And, I agree: This is outstanding work from the art team.

Re humor, I also liked Brainy trying to make sense of the Terrorforms while the Moon was crashing into Earth, and admitting it was beyond even him and that he needed a moment.

And the Brainy/Lyle rivalry at the end, where Lyle takes glee in how HE helped build the giant Threshold, and Brainy pouts because all he did was help buy time... poor Brainy.


hiya GL, there was a "news" program in Legionnaires 56 which examined M'Onel. Comparisons were drawn between him and Valor, with the program noting that nothing was known of M'On's origins. this program also established that newer Legionnaires didn't know the secret - Monstress was completely in the dark. This is all from memory though, so I'd also need to reread to be sure that they didn't mention he was a Daxamite!

I know there have been various histories of the LSH created over time. I'd love it if there was a chronicle of the behind the scenes work during the reboot, if people a)are willing to talk about it and b)remember. The whole swirl around Kinetix is one of the items I'd love to understand - pull in a character that really pops, change her direction, then when that plot is resolved, turn her into a mute, then completely uber-power her up but with no personality. Nothing made any sense, especially as DnA seemed to finally find her voice. (of course they did that too with Monstress, but the editor had told them to off her. Maybe it was similar with Kinetix.)


This is a really good point. Interestingly, my feeling on this is that the original Reboot team had a longer term view on the readership versus the editorial staff that came in after issue 100.


Another great point that I failed to mention. This clone thing literally comes out of left field.


Yep, given Sensor had hidden LW originally, it was no surprise that she made it disappear in battle. And as for M'Onel - you'd think that one of the medical techs would think, "Hmmm, this guy is a meta, how MIGHT we get him fixed up. Let's try a red light lamp"

And Venge disappearing at this point felt like being robbed.

Yes! Good memory - I went and checked this. Its him Jenni and Candi watching the program. They do not mention his background specifically.

The Legion #9

Released June 26, 2002
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

Baby on Board
Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning - Writers
Stephen DeStefano - Guest Artist
Tom McCraw - Colors
Mike McAvennie - Bad Babysitter makin' 6 creds an hour

Synopsis

In a stark change, we open with a Hanna-Barbera style of illustration with cartoon Jo, Tinya and baby domestically. Jo is watching the Magno Ball Game when Winema arrives with brownies. Suddenly the baby begins to grow when Timber Wolf pops in angrily as he and Jo fight. Tinya wakes up from the nightmare and sees the baby in a basinet next to herm who suddenly yells "Pain-Hurt!" Tinya again wakes up from the nightmare. Brin walks into Tinya's room reacting to her scream. Apparently the baby IS growing at an accelerated rate. Brin comforts Tinya.

They are still on board the Footstep liner that they boarded in Legion World 6, and have encountered the Robotican energy wave, damaging their ship and leaving them adrift in space for three days. Tinya is going to the ship's doctor to find out the results of the tests, while Brin will watch the baby, who conveniently flies away when he's not looking.

Tinya heads out and again feels the same pain message from before. A ship's steward sees her wincing in pain and asks if she's a Carggite as several on board have complained about headaches. Tinya again hears the pain and falls through the floor to main engineering. She pleads for the message to stop, but the engineers have no idea what she's talking about.

Brin is on the hunt tracking the baby who phases through a door, which Brin slams into. He follows the baby into a room and sees him on a pipe above. Brin lunges after him and the baby zips away at ultra speed, causing Brin to slam into the pipes.

Tinya meets the cheif engineer, some kind of a talking terrier who knows she's Apparition from the Legion as he's a fan. He tells her specifically what's happened, and Tinya asks to open an inner drive chamber that is typically only accessible by McCauley techs.

In the meantime, the captain's been keeping the passengers drunk for three days. The kid falls into a big bowl of liquid meant for a large robot-looking creature who reminds me of Marvin from the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie. Before he drinks the bowls contents, baby included, Brin pounces and knocks the bowl out of his hand.

The engineers keep trying to open the drive with little success, but Tinya pleads because she thinks something is alive in there. She gets another Pain-Hurt message and insists they open the drive.

Brin fights the large robot-looking guy. The waitress finds the baby (now mainly referred to as Cub at this point), gives him back to Brin and the baby then zaps the robot-guy with laser vision, along with most of the bar to the point of burning a hole in the wall. Brin calls Cub a bad baby, the baby crues then sneezes and the baby flies out of Brin's arms and phases through the wall.

The baby drops into engineering and phases through the engine, unlocking the chamber. Brin rushes in as the drive chamber opens revealing the three-headed mutant Vyrgan who is the force behind the Footstep drive. We get a sudden exposition dump - As we learned a few issues ago, the creature is some combination of Vyrgan, Carggite and Winathian that teleports the ship. They decide to disconnect the creature from the drive, and it dies. Tinya feels its emotions as it fades away. It feels gratitude and also knew that it was Robotica that hit the ship and told Tinya that Robotica was heading for Earth.



Commentary

And now for something completely different. I can't believe I wrote that synopsis. Now THIS is filler. And not great filler at that. I'm not a fan of the Cub character so I'd rather see a "day in the life" episode around the main Legionnaires versus Brin chasing Cub around most of the issue. We at least get to the root of the Footstep drive and the abomination that runs it. It raises a question about what the Legion did, as they cracked their drive open several issues ago and the readers were not shown this - one would think that Cosmic Boy would have shown all this to the media when they had their pre-Hypertaxis fight. But the main point of this issue is to show the reader what's going on with these drives - that could have been done issues ago as I just noted. But lots of other weird stuff in here - why didn't Tinya just phase into the drive to begin with? How did the creature know it was Robotica that knocked them out. One other item here is that it promises a confrontation between Brin and Jo, so I'm waiting for that payoff. Also, we saw Ra's use a personal footstep drive - how does THAT work?

I thought the Flintsones intro was actually kind of fun, but the rest of the issue just wasn't my cup of joe. The art was OK for what it was worth but it can't seem to decide if it wants to be cartoony or more gritty.

I'm confused as to the timeframe. Tinya says that the baby is weeks old, and they boarded the ship just after she gave birth. They have been adrift for three days. Have they been traveling for weeks or days?

That Chief engineer sure is a pushover. Tinya could make him do anything.

NOW the Think Fast is bothering me. I can't unsee it.

The engineers seemed to have some kind of genetics training as they were able to figure out the creature's makeup without the doctor's arrival. Speaking of - we never got the results of Cub's tests!

I said it before and I'll say it again. Brin is better for Tinya than Jo. Much better chemistry.

Grade - D+. I'm putting this issue well in my rear view mirror. We at least get something kind of light hearted from DnA, but its just not good.

I have sometimes felt the same, but then, a few times when creatives have gone back and chewed the fat about what they wanted to do, I regretted it. Shooter, in particular, but also Byrne and Wolfman and Claremont, have had some good or even great stories over the years, and yet when I hear them talk in interviews about what they *wanted* to do, or planned to do, but got stymied (or been given opportunities to share scripts that never happened in stuff like X-Men Forever), I think, 'well, thank goodness for whatever editor shot you down, because that sounded terrible!'

Never meet your heroes, I guess.

And then there's the opposite, the creatives who give *great* hype about their upcoming projects and it sounds like they are going to be amazing, and, pfft. Nada. Whole lotta hat to be seen, not very much cat in evidence.

Very good points, Set! I'd just be happy to hear WHY certain decisions were made, but I'd probably not like the answer I would get!

The Legion #10

Released July 24, 2002
DC Comics, Color
22 Pages

Thresholds
Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning - Writers
Day 1 - Kev Walker - Pencils
Day 2 - Kalman Andrasofszky - Pencils
Day 3 - Oliver Coipel - Pencils
Andy Lanning - Inks
Jason Wright - Colors
Mike McAvennie - Editor

Synopsis

Day One - A threshold opens on Xanthu. Shikari, Triad, Sensor and Kid Quantum step out. Jazmin is horrified at what's left of the place. Something approaches them fast, and it turns out to be XS with Star Boy soon after. There are apparently still thousands of people on the planet. Jazmin wishes that she could have been there to help Xanthu. Thom wants to hear news of Earth.

We get a quick update via Chuck channel surfing on Legion World as Winema Wazzo is sworn in as UP President. Ultra Boy is not happy. Rokk calls a meeting of the Legion. Its great to see, honestly. The purpose is to hold an election, and the winner is.... Kid Quantum!! Rokk gives Jazmin a pep talk. Ayla has concerns about Jazmin being leader. Imra says it should be a founder and gets awkward mentioning Garth. Ayla interrupts the congratulations to announce that she will be Live Wire in honor of Garth. And gives a backhanded congratulations to Jazmin.

Brainy and Shvaughn are on earth examining the capsule containing Ra's. The terrorforms have gathered in downtown Metropolis for some reason, and apparently one fifth of the population are little soccer balls. They look in on Zoe to continue the exposition. Brainy says that he thinks Robotica is months away.

It looks as if Legion World has turned into a transporation hub for Threshold travel. Ayla and Tasmia are heading out on their respective trips home. Cham told Ayla that Tasmia lost her powers, and Ayla tells Tasmia she's sorry, and Tasmia bites Ayla's head off. Ayla heads home and meets Mekt. They hold hands walking back to the house to tell their parents the news about Garth.

Back at Legion World, Jazmin is summoned to the command deck while in the shower. The Terrorforms have taken off and are spreading themselves around the world.

Day 2 - Invisible Kid welcomes Sharn Nux from Colu to Legion World to help with the Robotican threat. Jo writes a letter to Imra about the kiss in Legion Lost. Imra walks into his room and they talk about them NOT being in love with each other. Then the alert sounds. Robotica is on the way and this is likely why the Terrorforms deployed. Nux's plan is to deploy navy forces to intercept Robotica, led by the Legion. Jazmin confronts Winema about her sudden support and Winema says she was wrong about the Legion. Rokk gives Jazmin a pep talk. Chuck looks on grinning. RJ tells Vi that he's stepping into the background.

In Metropolis, in the Science Police detention center, Venge talks with Tharok, activating something within him that makes his robotic side take over and come alive.

Day 3 - The UP fleet is at Legion World and ready to deploy. Jazmin gives the order and the fleet thresholds out. Jaszmin leaves Triad the conn and the Legion heads out. Brainy contacts Legion World to let them know that Tharok has broken out of detention and is infecting the area with Robotican technology.

Kid Quantum orders Imra to try and read the Roboticans telepathically, and Ayla has a problem with that, so she and Jazmin butt heads about the strategy and code names. Robotica approaches and just before the fleet can fire - it vanishes. Triad calls the team - Robotica has suddenly turned all of Earth into a machine.


Commentary

This was a pretty good issue. After the last issue, I feel like we are back on track with the overall narrative here. In this issue we seem to be in a prep phase, getting ready for the new Robotica story. The three day coverage of the pre-Robotica events clipped along and although there may have been a bit too much exposition at points, the story clipped along with a lot of really good moments. Getting Jenni and Thom back is great, and Jazmin's reaction to the state of Xanthu was perfect. It's great to finally see a Legion meeting and an election no less! I like the choice of having Jazmin as team leader, as she shows her reluctance and insecurity, yet is still determined to do the job. Ayla and Imra have bad attitudes here, though. But the mention of Garth here made me think that Rokk should have started the meeting with some kid of acknowledgement of Garth's sacrifice. They were best friends and I don't think Rokk has said a word about Garth yet. The sudden misdirection about the attack at the end was an interesting choice.

The art here wasn't great. I'm not sure that there was a reason for this approach, but we only had Coipel for the shortest section of the book, and I didn't like the faces drawn by the guest artists. Also this is the second issue without Tom McCraw, and that may be part of the equation here.

Other notes - Wasn't Trudy turned into a football when Zoe was turned into a Terrorform? We're specifically told here that the footballs are still around.

Neat to see Vi hanging with Thom in the meeting room - I thought they had a nice relationship in the Reboot.

That whole thing with Ayla and Imra was just... odd. And yet another showcase of tactless Imra. Sheesh. Neither character comes off well here. Or for most of the issue generally.

Of COURSE Brainy voted for himself LOL

Cham blabbed to Ayla? So is their relationship on or not?

Cute moment with Gear, Jazmin and Sensor on the bridge!

That moment with Jo and Imra was weird, especially with the letter. I'm guessing he was going to write what he said? Jo isn't that complicated, but he IS a ladies man.

Good to see that Winema is sick of all the Earth bashing going on lately. But she does a rather sudden about face on the Legion.

Nice little Rokk/Jazmin moment there.

Winema looks like Chu the way she's drawn here.

Overall Grade - B. Good interstitial story with some nice moments but nothing earth shattering (that's next issue. Again.) Some odd choices with characters and the art knocks it down.

The Legion #11

Released August 28, 2002
DC Comics, Color
22 Pages

System Burn
Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning - Writers
Oliver Coipel - Pencils
Andy Lanning - Inks
Jason Wright - Colors
Mike McAvennie - Editor

Synopsis

Shvaugn, Brainy and Kinetix trudge through Metropolis, as Robotican technology is literally growing around them. The trio is discovered and the three are fighting back. Brainy's monologue tells us how this is happening - Robotica essentially transformed itself into energy and downloaded itself to earth via the technology embedded in Tharok - the classic definition of teleportation. They destroy the Robotican enemy in this area then move into a different location where the floor comes to life and grabs Brainy, dragging him away. Kinetix and Shvaughn get out of dodge.

We shift to orbit, where the Legion mounts an invasion of Earth but no one can break through the planet shield, not even Shikari. Kid Quantum is focused but overwhelmed with this being her third day on the job. Star Boy is determined not to have Earth share Xanthu's fate. Cosmic Boy informs us that the Terrorforms appear to be growing technology and are fighting among each other. The Legion regroups back inside. Invisible Kid posits that Robotica is on earth to take advantage of the hypertaxis situation and help themselves accelerate their own evolution. The decision is made to engage the Coluans to help find a way through the sheild when Legion World comes under attack by machine intruders.

M'Onel has an idea and leads a Legion team (including Ultra Boy) to Pluto aka Warworld. And Tinya arrives at Legion World with Brin & Baby to a warm welcome. Tinya says that she knows what Robotica really is.

We switch to Brainy being held by Venge who reveals his true self - Computo.

Back on Warworld, the team tries to activate it as M'Onel gives us a quick overview of its past. When suddenly the Justice League appears.

Commentary

This was such a great issue. In fact this is easily the best issue of the run so far. Everything moved along very fast, very little drag. The only knock on this is that we're still dealing with Hypertaxis and the terrorforms, but the pairing of this with the Robotica stuff works for me. I'm not happy we are dealing with yet another global catastrophe, but at least the repeated invasions is actually addressed in the script. The reveals in this issue, especially that of COMPUTO, were great. Very little to nitpick here. But I will.

Coipel's art was pitch perfect here. The only thing I didn't like was there were some coloring issues, especially on page 15.

Other comments:

Why am I not remembering the earth sheild in the reboot?

"Am not Zoe Saugin any more." Ah, bite me Andy.

I'm loving Triad here in this series.

"Earths been invaded plenty these last few years..." Yeah, no kidding LOL

Ayla's attitude is annoying.

Cool effect of Shikari's POV.

Lyle was overly dismissive.

Jenni looks almost Caucasian on page 15

The reunion with Tinya was nice, and Coipel draws a beautiful Tinya here. But does she know the secret of COMPUTO or is it something else that she knows?

Imra hesitates when she says its great to see her. Is that because of what she did, or that she has feelings for Jo?

Overall Grade - Easy A. Great pace, great story great art.

The Legion #12

Released October 9, 2002
DC Comics, Color
22 Pages

Choose Your Weapons
Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning - Writers
Oliver Coipel - Pencils
Andy Lanning - Inks
Jason Wright- Colors
Mike McAvennie - Editor

Synopsis

Picking up exactly from issue 11, the Legion away team is matched up against the JLA. In one corner, we have Superman, Martian Manhunter, Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Batman, Atom. In the other, M'Onel, Chameleon, XS, Ultra Boy, Gear, Shikari and Leviathan. Seven for seven. They pair off and start fighting. M'Onel and Superman fight to a draw. Cham gets suckered by J'Onn pretending to be Brande. Diana and Jo, admiring Diana's... assets... duke it out. Shikari and Batman fight to a draw, as she can see his moves. Lantern is trying to disassemble Gear. Atom tries the old inner ear disruption trick, but she goes smaller and takes him out, discovering that they are constructs in the process. Wally takes out Jenni, and Wally has no idea who she is.

At Legion World, help is coming from all quarters. Most recently the Khunds bearing Dreamer. Clearly Nura expected Thom to be dead at this point, so she's confused about her vision being wrong. THey also know about the COMPUTO situation, although Jazmin is one step ahead there.

RJ shows Tinya to Jo's quarters. RJ definitively clears up the kids parentage for anyone who didn't read Legion Worlds 6. Oh, and Tinya discovers the note that Jo was writing to Imra about them kissing!

Back on Warworld, reinforcements have been called to fight the Legionnaires that have won their initial fights like Vi. Gear works to connect into the Warworld computer and shut down the JLAers. Gear communicates with the planet and convinces it to help in the defense of Earth and deploys some big ass guns.

On LW, Nura and Thom reunite, but Nura is more than a little cold. The Khunds reveal that all the Robotican tech is effectively enslaved to COMPUTO. We shift to Earth where Brainy and the villain have a chat. COMPUTO clearly has daddy issues. COMPUTO clearly states here that his design is to hijack the hypertaxis to enable him to evolve.

Back on LW, the team readies for the attack on the shield and getting down to the planet to take out COMPUTO. Orin Fex from Colu communicates privately with Sharn Nux that her mission is to terminate any machine intelligence at any cost.

Commentary

Another really solid issue here. While its yet another world bender, the Robotica story seems to hold together a good bit better than Legion of the Damned or the Hypertaxis plot. I think it also helps that the fake JLA is a fun slug-it-out brawl. Warworld is working for me for some reason, and pretty much have the Legion back together. So all the Legion elements, the Sci-fi and classic superheroes make this a fun read.

Solid artwork this issue as well, although it seems as if we are stuck with Jason Wright on colors. He's OK but is no McCraw.

RJ has about the subtlety of a baseball bat talking with Tinya. Still I think that had to be there for the folks who didn't read Legion Worlds.

Am I a horrible person for feeling good about Tinya crying? Dump Jo and shack up with Brin!

Coipel has this weird thing about drawing Vi on her knees.

WHOA - we get a LEGIT reference to pre-DnA continuity here on page 18!

Keep your eyes on this Sharn girl!

Overall Grade - A-. Not quite as smooth or straightforward as last issue's plot, but still fun and nicely drawn overall.

Random thoughts...

Legion vs. JLA was fun. Well done to the team for giving Gear a chance to save the day. Cham's form holding all the lights was funny.

Poor Cham is becoming quite the punching bag, taken out by J'Onn (though to be fair, I don't think any of the Legionnaires could beat J'Onn one on one). Nice seeing Wonder Woman still standing later on - sorry Jo, but I don't think you could beat Diana so easily, nope.

Atom was really overconfident, eh. And Vi is a great fighter, whoo whoo.

Gates can't teleport across the Robotican shield. Wonder how it disrupts HIS power.

Sigh, more Zoe as Terrorform, but I remember when this first came out I still had SOME patience.

Agree that Lyle continues to come across as rude and a tad obnoxious. Also a bit of a backslide from his time as Legion leader earlier in the Reboot, where he did show considerably better social skills - and was a better foil for Brainy. Now, Lyle is also a smart guy but also a tad rude and lacking social skills.

Very much agree with GL re Ayla acting up. not cool. Imra too. Not cool.

Wow, Chuck Taine is on the roll call, yay!

Also liked Cos just being all WOW at the sight of seeing (almost) everyone back together

Lu, Lyle and Imra greeting Tinya was nice!

banter between Jaz, Gear and Sensor, A+ too

The whole triangle (square/) between Tinya / Jo / Imra / Brin was annoying. And yeah, I also think Brin was the better man for Tinya - Jo didn't really isn't coming out of this looking good.

Winema's about-face is interesting, to say the least.

Man, you're crankin' right through these reviews, Gas. It's good to see you on a roll. I don't know if I can catch up, but I'll share my thoughts as I can.

#9 . . . After a multipart storyline and much heaviness leading up to it, a fun filler was inevitable. Unfortunately, this isn't it. The Hanna-Barbera-like opening was fun, but after that, both the art style and the story seemed too simplistic until the narrative does an abrupt about-face at the end. I have several issues of the comic book adaptation of the Superman & the LSH animated series, and it was clearly created for a very young audience--simplistic stories and uncomplicated art. "Baby on Board" is on the same level, or at least most of it is.

I really hate "rapidly growing baby" storylines, and this one is no different. Cub's rapid growth adds nothing to the story; there are plenty of complications due to Cub inheriting both of his parents' powers. But while the baby using those powers and Brin failing at damage control were meant for laughs, they just made the characters look stupid. In the Legion's universe, is this the first time people from different planets have had children? Hasn't the idea of babies developing powers come up before? Maybe the Spirit of Metropolis footstep drive ship didn't have adequate facilities for such an infant, but with so many different sentients on board, surely the medical staff would have accounted for any contingency. It makes Tinya and everyone else involved look incredibly naive for not anticipating something like this.

I did sympathize with Brin, whose easy self-confidence takes a hit when he finds himself looking after a super-powered baby. Taking care of any baby is a challenge (so I'm told!), and new parents or parent-surrogates never know what to do when the kid starts crying or wanders away. Brin's haplessness was funny because it's an exaggeration of what real parents go through. The fight in the bar was utterly unnecessary, though. I guess the point was to establish that Brin can hold his own in a fight. (Can't have our main hero look too much like a doof, can we?)

While Brin searches for Cub, Tinya is on a quest of her own. She receives telepathic cries from someone in agony and traces those cries (actually, she falls through the ceiling) to the engine room. I, too, was mystified as to why she didn't phase through the inner separation chamber. It's been a few weeks since she gave birth. How long is she restricted from phasing? Note that she has no trouble phasing by accident.

Then, after we've spent the entire issue being treated to a light-hearted, fun story (or an attempt at one), DnA must have realized this is a Legion comic and they've got to remind us of the ongoing plotlines, you know, so we don't forget. So, our light-hearted, fun story turns into a horror story as the footstep drive is revealed to be powered by captive members of several species. Not only that, but the only way to disconnect them from the drive kills them. Parents, you can be forgiven for flipping through this issue and picking it up thinking it would a good story to read to your young children. But what must you or they have thought when you got to this part of the story? Maybe you can send their therapy bills in care of DC Comics.

One of the first rules of writing is that a story should not promise one thing and deliver another. It's okay to surprise the audience, but even adult viewers of Hitchcock films know they are getting a thriller, not the Flintstones.

And, to make matters worse, we end on a cliffhanger with a cartoon Tinya screaming something about Robotica. Parents, if you're confused about the disconnect between art and text, don't worry: The creators seem to be confused, too.

I appreciate the grade of D+, but it seems overly generous to me. If there were a grade of F-, "Baby on Board" would surely qualify.

The experimentation on the Vyrgans, Carggitrs and Winathians made me loathe Ra?s even more. I really cheer every time I see Gates chop his arm off

Also hated baby story. Chief engineer is indeed a pushover. Poor Brin was the one character I enjoyed most from issue 9, frankly

Agree on these observations. It also occurred to me that i think this is the ONLY time so far in the DnA run that we've seen Vi go small. They are taking the Leviathan name very seriously.


I am guessing they are just introducing this so that someone is contrarian to Jazmin's leadership. Ayla I can see maybe having this reaction, but not Imra, not at all.



I mean I've reviewed up to 12. A year's worth of issues and Jo still has no idea about the kid. It makes me think they hadn't really thought out this whole pregnant Tinya thing.

The Winema item is either a plot element that will come up later, or is bad writing.

LOL Yesterday was a mandatory training "event" that was basically a waste of time, but issues 11 & 12 were really good and efficiently written action stories, so there wasn't as much to parse through. But I'll slow down the pace! I don't want to get too far ahead!


I find it interesting that DnA's brand is the big smash-em-up planet bombardment stories, but they sorely lack the muscle for "day off" issues, which is a staple of Legion comics, one which the prior creative team could do with little effort.


Lots of good points here, although I may have enjoyed the baby aspect a bit more having had to handle a couple of them (in fact my oldest was born around the time when this issue came out!). I wasn't as hard on the ship's doctor issue here, as that's where Tinya was headed, but there is no other real mention of the doc after the action starts happening.


These are really great points here. Its a SERIOUS change in tone that is disconnected from the rest of the story. It also raises the question of what Brainy did when they cracked open their stolen Footstep.


This part did not make sense at all. Why would the chimera know ANYTHING about Robotica or specifically its true identity? This whole thing simply seems to be a setup for Jazmin to say to Nura "old news" in a couple issues.

And with the grade, I would agree that I was being generous, but I think I'd revise it to a D-.

yeah agree, why would the Vyrgan chimera know anything about Robotica???

and for that matter... i think we will see in a couple issues, it does not really matter... i mean, did knowing help the Legion deal with Robotica?? it helped Brainy figure out how to win the day, but he was captured anyway... so even without knowing Robotica was COMPUTO, it didn't matter did it.

And the Coluans and Sharn Nux could not have cared less, they just cared robots = evil and must be stopped

Tinya was headed to the doctor to find out why Cub is growing so fast. No mention is made of him possibly inheriting either of his parents' powers. What if he had phased through the hull of the ship?

Also, it's a good thing he didn't develop his powers in utero. It would give new meaning to the term "hot flashes"!

I may be overthinking this, but with so many populations having special abilities, surely someone would have taken into account the possibility of a baby Bgztlian phasing through the ship's walls. (Jo's powers would have been more unpredictable since they weren't natural). We've praised DnA for their world-building, but they don't seem to have considered the micro-levels of those worlds.


Good point!