Category: Legion of Super-Heroes
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The cover promises the Fatal Five’s return; while they do return, there’s also a mystery villain who starts the issue. He flies off towards Earth in his mystery ship; a ship crash lands on Earth, and the Fatal Five emerge from the ship, attacking Mon-El and Shadow Lass (who ditch Princess Projectra to get busy…
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I’ve always had a soft spot for Steve Ditko’s art. Even thirty-ish years ago, when I was starting to recognize creators in Silver Age books—hunting down older comics to read—Ditko was already a reclusive, right-wing crank. No doubt complaining about wokeness since 1985. History’s just proven his being quiet about it was the only difference…
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Writer Gerry Conway maintains his enthusiasm through this Legion entry, though he doesn’t have as many pages as usual to fill. Paul Kupperberg writes a backup—with pencils from Steve Ditko!–and eight fewer pages is what Conway needs. He also gets to break away from the Legion story for a few pages to explore a planetary…
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Half of this issue reads like writer Gerry Conway’s excited to be on the book. The other half reads like he’s miserable, detailing the petty bickering of superhero teen bros as they try to upstage one another. But when Conway’s writing about married colonists Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel? He’s having a ball. The marrieds…
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Given Jim Starlin once took his name off a Legion story because it wasn’t published as a Super Spectacular, I started wondering if regular writer Gerry Conway just did the plot for this issue—letting J.M. DeMatteis handle the script—because there’s a Radio Shack advertisement posing as a Superman comic accompanying. With pencils by none other…
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Turns out the only time Wildfire isn’t a raging asshole is when he’s ostensibly worried about his kidnapped parents. Either I forgot, didn’t realize, or didn’t care his parents had gotten taken last issue. They didn’t stand out (I think some parents got kidnapped off-page) because they weren’t assholes like their kid. It’s a really…
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When I was a kid reading Who’s Who, I always thought Wildfire had one of the coolest designs. I can’t believe I hadn’t seen Cosmic Boy or whoever’s dressed like a male stripper (maybe I blocked it). But, as ever, Wildfire proves to be not cool; two big examples this issue, first being shitty to…
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James Sherman is back on art after an extended period, now going by “Jim.” His style’s simplified, with a lot less detail. He’s still got fantastic composition and his people—again, simplified—have a lot of personality in what he does give them. Last time he was on the series, he was doing these lush, expansive sci-fi…
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Ric Estrada takes over on pencils—John Calnan still inking—and I guess I hope he takes over from Joe Staton. Estrada’s not great on distance or action shots, but his close-ups are okay. And his not-great stuff fits with writer Gerry Conway’s Silver Age-y Legion. For example, this issue has the Legionaries hitching a ride on…
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Writer Gerry Conway finds his tone for Legion of Super-Heroes and it’s Silver Age homage. The issue has Joe Staton and John Calnan on the art; it’s not great, but it doesn’t have to be for a Silver Age homage. Obviously, the costumes are different, and it’s hard to imagine Wildfire having his temper tantrum…
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I actually did a quick Google, and nothing came up (despite the image results showing the very obvious covers side-by-side), so I’m going to assume this detail isn’t an undeniable fact: Legion of Super-Heroes #259 looks ridiculously like Whatever Happened to the Man on Tomorrow a couple of times. I didn’t even realize the covers…
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This issue resolves way too cute. Levitz sets up a complicated, timed ending and then doesn’t deliver. The issue doesn’t even have a cliffhanger… it just has a happy, wink wink ending about Brainiac having to give Mon-El a compliment. It’s too passive; it’s almost like a Saturday morning cartoon. Otherwise, the issue is often…
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Nicieza keeps going with the Timber Wolf narration. Sure, he’s the only character doing much for this issue, but it doesn’t excuse the lousy narration. I wish third person exposition hadn’t gone out of style in mainstream comics. Writers were much better at it. Otherwise, this inoffensive series continues to be inoffensive. Nicieza doesn’t concentrate…
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Legion continues to be fine. Levitz is preaching to his choir though; he’s got cute little jokes between boy and girl Legionnaires I’m sure he was doing back in the eighties. He’s having fun and he clearly likes the characters. It makes the comic entertaining to read, but not necessarily entertaining overall. Levitz makes some…
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Reading Legion Lost feels like reading a nineties comic someone told you was really, really good… only for you to go back and read it to discover it’s okay, but painfully endemic of the period. I mean, where Woods came up with the hairstyles is beyond me…. It’s not a bad issue, it’s just a…
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My issue with Legion of Super-Heroes—to some degree, with all the incarnations in the last five or so years—is it’s just a refresh of the Paul Levitz, pre-Crisis Legion. Notice I didn’t say rehash. I said refresh. Even here—with Levitz relaunching the title for the big DC line-wide relaunch—it plays on the good memories of…
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Legion Lost looks a lot more like old, nineties Pete Woods than the Woods I’d gotten used to a few years ago. He’s looser. Maybe it’s supposed to be more “fun.” But Legion Lost isn’t fun. It’s a TV pilot about young superheroes trapped in a past they didn’t make. In a lot of ways,…
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