LEGION OF SUPERHEROES: WEEK FORTY SIX

A WOLF AT THE DOOR

YOU think therefore I AM…

Hello! Welcome to another mek-tacular installment of dinosauric delights. Since it’s Thanksgiving weekend in the United States (sooorry, Canada), I figure it would be a good time to mention all I have been thankful for over the past year. I don’t know about anyone else, but it’s been another roller-coaster for me: life being the usual mixed-bag, full of triumph and tragedy. There’s a ton of things I could be down about right now, for sure. But instead, I’m staying positive and infusing the world with some good old holiday cheer. So, here it goes…

Thanks to Mother Nature for not burning, flooding or otherwise disastering my over the past twelve months. I know there have been a lot of folks facing life-changing conditions thanks to your vengeful wrath. My heart goes out to all those who have suffered. Now, Momma: keep it down for a little while, will you?

I am thankful for a roof over my head, a little extra cash in the bank and a terrorist/cuddle-bug cat that have helped me survive through some non-employment issues lately. It’s been a while since I’ve had to face re-entering the daunting job-market, and I have yet to find any new professional positions. Fingers crossed, that will change in good time.

Thanks to all my family and friends who have put up with all my incessant rants, poor dispositions, bad jokes, and general stupidity through the years. Those who haven’t yet disowned me yet: what is actually wrong with you people? If there’s one thing that I excel at, it’s either constantly stuffing my foot in my mouth or completely isolating myself away from people. Those who have stood by me, despite these afflictions, are literal rocks of humanity. I should not be so lucky…but I AM eternally grateful.

And, finally: my gratitude to Dough Boy and everyone else at ComicBookRealm for providing a space for people to blog, chat, catalogue and everything else they like to do regarding their comic book collection dreams. I’ve been a member for almost four years now and there hasn’t been a week where I haven’t checked out the site at least once. I’ve used the collection tracker to record all my comics, and continue to add to the plies, after every new purchase. It’s awesome to be here.

Of course, my main obsession this year has been this very Legion of Superheroes blog. The challenge of reading a comic each day for an entire year would be much harder if I did not have an outlet to express my thoughts and emotions over every issue. Thanks to anyone who has taken the time to peruse, skim, or gawk at any of the previous posts. There’s only seven weeks (gasp!) left to go, so please take a gander and leave some kind words before I’m done, if you would.

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Oh, and how could I forget? Most of all, I’m thankful for comic books in general. I love these silly sequential pictograms so much; I don’t know what I would ever do without them (probably mow the lawn more often?). Through all the wonderful travels, miserable losses and crazy experiences that I’ve been through: comic books have always been my special light and joy. They keep my imagination and sense of wonder fervent and intact. They provide an escape form the mundane or bat- crazy periods I often become engaged with. In short: comics keep me centered. They are my favorite thing in the world. Thank the almighty Grok for comics!

Hats off to everyone on my list, and then some. Now let’s go get some turkey!

LEGION OF SUPERHEROES: WEEK FORTY-SIX

Legion Roll Call:

Brainiac 5-super smart, Chameleon-shape changer, Kid Quantum-energy manipulation, Saturn Girl-telepathy, Shikari-tracking, Ultra Boy-multiple powers, Umbra-darkness, Wildfire-energy blasts. M’onel-super everything, Cosmic Boy-magnetism, Triad-triplicate self, Spark-electricity, Leviathan-size change, Gates-teleportation, Invisible Kid-invisibility, Kitnetix-terra-form, Karate Kid-martial arts, Ferro-metal, Timberwolf-feral, Apparition-phase ability, Star Boy-alter mass, XS-speed, Dreamer-precognition.

The story so far…

After a year trapped in another universe, the lost Legionnaires returned to find a lot had changed on planet Earth. The Legion of Superheroes was disbanded, their remaining team-mates had split up, and Ra’s Al Guhl was President. Upon their arrival, the heroes were immediately set upon by Ra’s side-kick: Mister Venge and the Oversight Watch team. Running for their lives, the group was eventually rescued by Cosmic Boy and the whole team eventually reunited on Legion World. Ra’s Al Ghul attempted to speed up the evolutionary process on Earth, which ultimately caused the rise of the world-defending Terraforms. The Legion defeated Ra’s when they infiltrated his lunar base and Triad knocked him into a stasis chamber. Once the villain was contained, the team discovered the existence of hundreds of Ra’s clones preserved in his hide-out.

After this latest planetary threat was contained, Apparition’s mother became the new President, and a contingency for facing Robotica was decided. The United Planets warships were transported via threshold, into space to head off the mechanical armada’s path. Instead of engaging their adversaries in battle, however, the robots just self-destructed before they reached the UP fleet. In effect, Robotica converted itself into a pure light-wave signal; beamed directly to Earth. There, Mister Venge keyed the signal to the imprisoned Tharok, and the robot sentience was physically alive once more. Before the UP fleet could return home, Robotica managed to assume control over the entire planet, and erected an un-penetrable shield around the globe. The Legion went to Pluto to grab Warworld, but even its firepower, combined with Legion World and the entire UP fleet could not break Robotica’s grip. After capturing Brainiac 5, Mister Venge revealed himself to be the dreaded Computo. He postulated his plans before the prone Legionnaire: explaining his desire to use Ra’s Al Ghul’s terraform technology to evolve himself. Brainy, while captive, decided that his only resort was to assist with Computo’s plan.

Side note: in the previous week, I explained that Ra’s unleashed some form of toxin across the world, in order to help speed up the course of evolution. Either I read the whole thing wrong, or missed a part, but: that detail is incorrect. There was no airborne deadly gas, or other such genocidal agent involved. Ra’s simply seeded the world with pods that caused the Earth to burp up powerful beings, considered next-level on the evolutionary scale. Kinetix just happened to be near one of the “seeds” when it popped, there-by her genetic code was hastily re-written, while she was still alive. Sorry if I am not totally comprehending all the sci-fi mumbo-jumbo right away in this series. Dan and Andy were very ambitious in the first year of The Legion, but not all their outlandish story-beats were effectively portrayed. Just keep it simple, kids. It’s only comic books.

And now…

The Legion #14-20 (2003)

Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning

Drawn by Olivier Coipel, Kev Walker, Alejandro Barrionuevo & Chris Batista

What is going on with Brainic 5? Computo has just taken over the Earth, erected a shield to keep everyone else out, and is slowly converting everything into robotic creatures…and the green boy wants to help?! He might need to get those do-dads on his forehead examined. Well, more specifically, Brainy wants to assist in Computo’s desire to evolve. Maybe in the advancement process, Computo will see the error in his ways? Perhaps that kid with twelfth-level intelligence has a good idea after all. But, while he is busy negotiating with the mech-monster, the rest of the Legionnaires are still trying to get planet-side. After Kinetix gets infected with some of the techno-organisms, she learns how to communicate with the Robotica hive-mind and opens a path for her team-mates to threshold down. Cosmic Boy leads a team, including Chameleon, Sensor, Invisible Kid, Wildfire, Spark, and Kid Quantum to the surface. There, they battle back some Robotica assault-drones and finally wind up at Computo’s base. Although they try to get at the source of all the Earth’s troubles, Brainiac holds them off. Rather than allow his team-mates to fight Computo, the jade genius, instead helps the cyber-terror in its conversion into pure energy. Once achieving a higher-form of existence, Computo blasts off into some unknown region of space. With their leader gone, Robotica ceases all hostilities. The Earth is saved once more.

Huh. I guess Brainiac 5 isn’t such a turncoat after all.

With Computo now advanced beyond such petty pursuits such as world-domination, the rest of Robotica is unwilling to continue their conquest of Earth. These sentient machines are allowed leave from the planet, unharmed, and continue to exist on Warworld from here on out. The United Planets participants are not too pleased with this development, but President Wazzo insists that the Robotica threat is gone and they may now live peacefully on the planet formerly known as Pluto. Meanwhile, Timberwolf joins the Legion and is formally introduced to his new team-mates. Since his wolf-clan is rival’s with Ultraboy’s “dragons” on Rimbor, the two fellas don’t initially get along well. Timberwolf narrates his first day with the Legion: chronicling some awkward first impressions, a trip to Shanghalla to pay respects to Live Wire and Monstress, then a trip to Trom with Kid Quantum. It’s all very quaint and sweet, until T-wolf is selected for inclusion on a mission to escort Tharok to the prison-world, Takron-Galtos. He joins Shikari, Ultraboy, Wildfire and XS on the mission, and that’s when everything turns terribly wrong.

If you have been following the LoSH for any length of time, you might expect that wherever there is Tharok, the rest of the Fatal Five are usually not far away. In this iteration, the remaining four members of the fatal group include: Mano, Persuader, Empress, and Validus….and they are indeed looking to break their friend out of prison. Not, if the Legion has anything to say about it, though! The four villians suddenly ambush the transport ship and Legionnaires meet them for battle. Wildfire takes on Persuader, but the masked axe-swinger just chops the hot-shot’s containment suit in half. That’s one down. Next, Shikari tracks down the Empress. Empress knocks her out easily, when the alien tracker is distracted by Wildfire’s demise. Now two down. Validus takes out Ultraboy with a psi-beam. Mano kills the ground beneath XS, causing her to crash. All that’s left is Timberwolf. Four against one? This could get ugly…but the wolf-boy just runs away and hides from the villains instead.

Sounds like this newest Legionnaire is a bit of a loser, right? Kind of a lame-duck? Not so fast. With their competition vanquished, the four villains release Tharok from his bonds, and together, they plot which direction to head off to next. Except, when they attempt to leave in the transport, they discover it’s been incapacitated. Timberwolf removed the ship’s reactor interface when he ran off. Now, the Fatal Five must get it back or face a larger Legion contingent on their tail. One-by-one, they come after T-wolf. Each one he meets and dispatches with ease. While hidden in some darkened confined spaces, Timberwolf uses his physicality as an advantage over each of his foes. It’s a glorious five-page slug-fest; where this newest Legionnaire brawls, slams, stomps, slices and generally struts his stuff over the bad guys. In the end, Timberwolf throws the Persuaders axe at the Eye of Ekron, which causes it to explode, knocking Validus out in the process. A master-stroke. Beautiful execution.

M’onel has a problem…so instead of turning to Kid Quantum or Brainy or any other of his Legion-pals for help, he does the stupidest thing possible. He goes to see Ra’s Al Ghul. What? The UP Science Police had since transferred Ra’s and all his clone-bodies over to Legion World for safe keeping, and M’onel just couldn’t help himself, I guess. The valorous-one just had to go make a deal with the devil. So, while Ra’s is fully secured in a containment cell, M’onel explains his trouble to the , in vivid detail. You see: after the Robotica threat was extinguished, the Legion went to Xanthu to see if they could help restore that world from its ravaged state. They brought some of Ra’s seed-pods to see if they could jump-start some accelerated evolutionary development on the planet. While planting the seeds, however, one of the old robot combatants woke up and blasted a seed into Sensor’s face. The Legionnaire suffered horrible disfigurement from the ordeal and had to be placed in a medical bay for treatment. Since then, the poor snake-lady has been experiencing genetic unwinding and is currently near-death. Since these seed-pods were designed by Ra’s, M’onel figured the old might know a way to save Sensor from devolving into a pile of goop.

Stupid M’onel. I think it has been well established that this kid is not the brightest cabbage in the patch, but the one thing you do not do…what every story in creation ever tells you…is: you never, never, ever make a deal with the devil, unless you are prepared to lose your soul. But, M’onel asks for help anyway, and Ra’s agrees to assist. What could go wrong? Well, as M’onel is in the middle of transporting his grizzled foe to the medical bay…of course Ra’s escapes. The bites his lip, spits blood into a guards’ eye, then takes the wheel of the transport barge. Then it crashes, and he runs away to the storage facility that contains all his clones. He releases the clones to cause a distraction for the Legion, then slips away for the threshold chamber. When the Legion finally catches up with the dude, he’s all naked and ready to jump through any open gate available. M’onel shows up and punches Ra’s in the chops. The old is down, but he still has a few tricks up his…errr…well he doesn’t have sleeves, so…aww M’onel is fighting the naked old dude! Eww!! But, yeah: Ra’s is smart as and is still able to hold his own against the full roster of fully clothed Legionnaires. Ra’s beats them all and is just about ready to jump through a threshold, when he gives himself up. The Legionnaires are baffled. He just wanted to gain their respect and prove he could get out any time he wanted, all along. But, right now: Ra’s wants to fulfill his promise to help Sensor. He willingly allows the Legion to escort him to the medical center, where he saves the snake-lady and all is well again in the universe.

Oh, all except Sensor looks different now. She’s basically a hot chick with a tail now. Thanks, Ra’s.

Here begins a five-issue story named “Dream Crime”. The first half is described in the following segment, while the conclusion of the story shall be examined next week.

After all the excitement she’s been through lately, Saturn Girl decides to take a well-deserved break from the Legion and visit her home on Titan. She brings her girl-friend, Dreamer, along for the trip. Once arriving on Titan, Saturn Girl hooks up with her mentor, Aven, and together they show Dreamer the wonders of their home-world. After a while, the group arrives at the Titanet Tower, where hundreds of telepaths facilitate the entire galactic communications network. Dreamer decides she may be able to contribute her precognitive powers to the group, as an enhancement to the quality of transmissions. While inside the tower, however, Dreamer is afflicted by some terrifying visions of death surrounding her. Before she can be roused, another looming figure appears in her minds eye: the menacing shadow of Darkseid.

While Dreamer is shaken by this horrifying premonition, Saturn Girl partakes in a meditative session with Aven. Once subdued, she becomes mentally trapped within a complex dream-world where things seem normal but are totally impossible at the same time. There’s a scene where she is a waitress at RJ’s Diner, way back before she ever left the planetoid for Earth. Of course, Tenzil is the chef. Then, she is thrust into a different dream-state: waking up in a bed at the medical bay. There, she finds herself surrounded by all her friends, telling them about her crazy dream: just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. There’s Brainy and Ultraboy and Kid Quantum and Chameleon and Shikari and Monstress and Apparition and all the others huddled around her. She relates to them her most peculiar dream for a while, and then Live Wire drops by. Wait. He’s dead, isn’t he? Oh, and Monstress? Yeah, everyone’s all right. Was all that Legion Lost stuff just a dream?

What the heck is going on?!

“I AM more. The MORE I think. The MORE I am. The more I WILL be…I will be EVERYTHING.”

These sparse, yet chilling words are sprinkled throughout the Dream Crime story so far. There’s the vision of Darkseid, so you might think he’s responsible. But it’s still unclear. Like a dream, this storyline meanders around for a while before knocking the reader over the head with a sledge-hammer-type reveal. Has Saturn Girl been dreaming the whole time, or for only part of it? Nothing is yet certain. One thing is for sure: at the end of issue #20, we see she is incapacitated and under some form of restraint. Behind her is the villain reveal.

The unnerving narration goes on: “I am more. YOU think therefore I AM…and I am…UNIVERSO!”

Rest, little girl: rest…while I twirl my mustache at you from afar…muu-ha-haaa! Ohhh, Universo is back. But, is she yet dreaming this too? We’re only two parts through a five-part story, silly. Anything is still possible.

After a somewhat convoluted and overwrought first year, The Legion really comes into its own with issue #14. Here, the recent exposition-heavy, fight and flight formula is discarded for more cleverly worked designs. The first year seemed to set the table, so to speak. Now, we are into the real meat of the series: complete with mashed potatoes and lotsa gravy. Yum. Are you ready for Thanksgiving yet? I digress. The conclusion of the Computo conflict really threw me for a loop. There was no final battle or continuation of the old deus ex machina, or Triad tri-fu maneuver to save the day. There’s some real logic in solving a problem by empowering the villain rather than utilizing a well-placed karate chop. Color me impressed. Then, there’s the return of Ra’s Al Ghul. Now, it bothers me that Dan and Andy had to resort to using an old Batman villain to cover their need for some Moriarty type, but I really start to dig the character in issue #17. His devising an escape plan just to prove his superiority and not actually make off into the galaxy is another unexpected twist. My favorite issue so far has got to be #16, though. The way the Fatal Five trashed the Legion, only so Timberwolf can undress them all in the end is amazing. It’s just an enthralling display of heroism in the face of impossible odds. This spotlight on Timberwolf is D&A’s answer to Die Hard. Great stuff.

Although the writing picked up to an amazing level with these issues, the artwork suffered the loss of Olivier Coipel. To my eyes, Coipel is among the best artists to ever render a Legion tale. I love his compositions, distinct style, visual flair, and all the intricate detail she brings to every panel. From Legion of the Damned to the Computo saga; his work became more polished and wonderful to behold with each passing issue. His dynamic flair and incredible designs forever changed the look of LoSH comics. Not to shed a tear: Coipel went on to provide some nice work over at Marvel for years after. But, to me, OC will always be THE Legion artist. Starting with issue #15, Kev Walker became the new penciller on the series. No slouch himself, Kev provided some very cool work when he picked up the reins in 2003. I’m sure the Timberwolf two-parter would not be nearly as great without his deft storytelling abilities. Then, Barrionuevo picked up issues #17 and #18, which are also quite easy on the eye. Lastly, Chris Batista handled the Dream Crime story to great effect. Gone are the days of mediocre artwork on the Legion of Superheroes. These guys are all incredible talents.

Grade A.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday, and remember…the MORE turkey you eat, the sleepier you GET…so read your COMICS before you eat dinner, so you don’t fall asleep with your nose in a book and get that cranberry sauce all over the splash page. I speak from experience.

Gobble Gobble.

Next: The Dream Crime is solved, and a boy of steel is found.

Long Live the Legion!