Sorry for the delay posting this. Get-a-Life Boy had a run-in with Infectious Lass, and temporarily changed his name to "Sick-as-a-Dog Lad."He's feeling better now, and ready to tackle the backlog of Legion-related comics from the past few weeks.
-8 May 2011
(SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers. Don't read it before you've read the comics.)
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #12 (2011/06)
"False Trails"
ROLL CALL:
Brainiac 5, Colossal Boy, Dream Girl, Earth-Man, Element Lad, Gates, Invisible Kid (Jacques), Lightning Lass, Mon-El, Phantom Girl, Star Boy, Star Boy (Earth-247 Legion), Star Boy (Earth-Prime Legion), Tellus, Timber Wolf, Dyogene, Harmonia Li, Atta/Akka, Hunter (Adam Orion), Immortus, Lightning Lord, Questor, Saturn Queen, Stegus, Sun Killer, Zymyr
CUTE BOYS: Brainy, Brin, Gim, Jacques, Jan, Jo, Mon, Thom, Thom, Thom, Okinawa Scientist
On Rimbor, a Legion team (Colossal Boy Phantom Girl, & Ultra Boy) interrupts Lightning Lord and Akka in their attempt to recruit new LSV members. Despite the appearance of Lightning Lass, the villains escape when Zymyr teleports them away.
On Earth, Brainy hooks Thom up to a machine that will draw the multiversal energy out of his uniform (thus curing him). He leaves Dream Girl in control of the process, tells Dr. Li he will get back to her, and then leaves to assemble a team to deal with the situation on Colu.
On Colu, Saturn Queen and the LSV are after the location of the mysterious third world of immortals. The Legion team arrives (Brainy, Earth-Man, Element Lad, Invisible Kid, and Timber Wolf). The LSV keeps them busy until Questor finds the data he's after, then most of the LSV departs, leaving Akka and Lightning Lord behind to deal with the Legion.
At the same time, Dyogene and Mon-El examine the wreckage of the Rock of Eternity. Dyogene despairs that there are only two Green Lanterns left to deal with this threat -- Mon-El tells him not to underestimate the Legion.
The art in this story is so dynamic, it's incredible. Notice particularly the use of energy (in many different forms) and the way it alters the light in each scene. And the way the panels are structured, so the the art seems to overflow boundaries and almost leap off the page.
It's not often that I notice good comic art -- I tend to read for story, and usually notice the art only when it detracts from the story -- but even I am very impressed by what Cinar is doing with the Legion.
BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS:
Five alternate Star Boys are visible in the multiversal energy being pulled out of Thom. Clockwise from upper right: Star Boy of Earth-247 Legion, Star Man of Earth-22, Star Boy of Earth-Prime Legion, the original Star Boy, and a red-hooded Star Boy of Yildiray Cinar's own design. I, for one, would love to see an entire alternate Legion in Cinar-designed costumes.
Brainy comments that Thom has had worse luck than most of the Leigonnaires. Again, Garth is traditionally the unluckiest Legionnaire -- but Thom has also had his share of bad luck, so I guess Brainy's more or less right.
CHRONICLER'S ERROR?:
Last issue her name was Akka; this issue it's Atta. Actually, either is correct: the Sklarian letter "ktay" can be pronounced either as "k" or "t."
----------
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES: THE CHOICE (Hardcover)
This beautiful volume collects the first six issues of the new Legion of Super-Heroes title. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it, as I've covered the stories already.
BONUSES: While there aren't any text pages, there's a lot of additional art in this book. First, there's Cinar's cover, which is not only another dramatic and dynamic group shot, but also shows attention to detail in the faces of the individual Legionnaires -- he's done a fantastic job of capturing the personalities of some members. Check out Brainy, Brin, Garth, Imra, Rokk, and even Shady in particular.
The stories are separated by full-page drawings of various Legionnaires: Saturn Girl, Dawnstar (and her boobs), Lightning Lad, Ultra Boy, Earth-Man, Chameleon Boy, and Timber Wolf (with two S.P. boobs in tow).
The Jim Lee alternate covers are included (in publication order), along with the complete image of all six in graphic order. Which raises a question -- hey, DC, how about producing that image as a poster? You can charge us an unconscionable amount for it, you know we'll pay.
As an extra bonus there are also 11 pages of Cinar sketches, including four try-out pages he did for the Legion assignment. Hey, DC, let's see the whole story that these pages illustrate! You can charge us an unconscionable amount, you know we'll pay.
The back cover also has an image that looks new, one with a sulky-looking Sun Boy who is just begging to be comforted by one of his buddies. While Cinar makes all the Legionnaires look as hot as possible, his Sun Boy is incredibly cute...it's hard to believe that Earth-Man slept with Shadow Lass instead of Sun Boy.
PROOFREADER'S ERROR?: The blurb on the front cover flap states that "An accident at the Time Incident leads to the destruction of Saturn Girl's homeworld..." Uh, it's the Time Institute, not Time Incident.
----------
DC COMICS PRESENTS LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 100-PAGE SPECTACULAR One-Shot (2011/06)
By now everyone knows about this: it reprints the "Legion of the Damned" storyline, and the comic was recalled because the stories were printed out of order. (Proofreader's Error, anyone?). Some comic shops went ahead and sold copies -- my comic shop guy didn't even find out about the recall until he was sold out. Fortunately, I got my copy. It's an interesting oddity for insane completists to have in a Legion collection.
This is supposed to be reprinted with a different colored logo (white instead of yellow) and presumably a different date on the cover. I had all sorts of snide and snippy things to say about this storyline, but I'll save it until the reprint comes out.
----------
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment