Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Week of 22 June 2011

I did not see any Legion content in DC Comics this week.

Kid Flash Lost #1, a Flashpoint spinoff, takes Bart to the year 3011 in the Flashpoint universe. There, Earth is part of Brainiac's empire and there's no hint of a Legion. (I knew I didn't like the Flashpoint universe.) Two more issues are scheduled; I suppose it's possible that some Legionnaires may turn up (Jenni, maybe?), so it's worth watching this title.

Proceed with extreme care, however, and take every precaution, or you might accidentally read some of it. If you do, apply an antidote as soon as possible: re-read some old Legion stories as quickly as you can.

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Sunday, June 19, 2011

Week of 15 June 2011

(SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers. Don't read it before you've read the comic.)

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 14 (2011/08)
"False Dreams"


ROLL CALL:

Brainiac 5, Dawnstar, Dream Girl, Element Lad, Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Star Boy, Ultra Boy, Wildfire, Aven, Dyogene, Master Kong, Harmonia Li, Akka (died), Blue Entity, Hunter (Adam Orion), Immortus, Lightning Lord, Questor, Saturn Queen, Sun Killer, Zymyr


CUTE BOYS: Brainy, Jan, Jo, Lar, Titanian boy in grey jccket & greenish pants


Harmonia Li uses the multiversal energies in Thom's suit to open the way to her "adopted world," the world of wisdom. She prepares to leave with Thom and Nura, but first the ring construct Mon-El demands an explanation. Which, apparently, Li gives offscreen -- for next thing we know, they're hurtling toward Colu to gather the other Legionnaires and head for Wisdom World. Nura has a vision of herself standing on Shanghalla, with Brainy telling her that Thom's power won the battle.


Meanwhile, on Colu, Ultra Boy slaps Immortus down, at which point Aven and the Titanians take over to neutralize him and "guide him back to the way."


Saturn Queen and LSV have another meeting with the blue entity. In order to boost Hunter's tracking abilities, SQ kills Akka (whose name is back to "Akka" this issue).  The LV (minus Akka) appear on Wisdom World and are met by Master Kong, who supposedly died 3500 years ago. They immediately begin wrecking the place.


On Colu, everyone is wrapping up when Harmonia Li arrives with Thom, Nura, and green Mon-El. Li announces that her foolishness at the Time Institute has placed Wisdom World in danger.


Cut to a weird space, where Dyogene and the real Mon-El meet Dawnstar, who is still on the trail of the blue critter. Mon-El seems surprised to see her. She says that the trail ends at a dimensional barrier she can't pierce, although maybe the power ring can.


Dyogene says that maybe they shouldn't go after the blue critter, since "his strength has gestated for centuries, awaiting the day when hubris would free him to complete the evil his creator wrought." Dyogene counsels letting Wisdom World fall, saving their strength to protect Oa. He says the rings can't take them through the barrier.


Then who should arrive but Harmonia Li and the rest of the Legion! And Mon-E says, "I told you not to underestimate the Legion."


Obviously, we're getting to the end of this arc -- all the threads are coming together. And darned if I can figure out where they're going.


The blue critter was created by someone centuries past, in order to bring chaos to the universe. It's been dormant underground on Earth all this time. When Li tried to look at the beginning of time (which, might I say, was pretty stupid for someone who's been keeping company with Confucius), she somehow loosed the blue critter.


So who is the blue critter? Who was its creator? When Levitz does this kind of thing, it usually ties into existing DC continuity somehow. Anyone?


Tell you what: I have here  a pristine, shrinkwrapped copy of Legion Archives #1 that I recently saved from the "50% off" rack at Twilite Zone and have been saving for a prize. If anyone leaves a comment guessing the actual identity of the blue critter, I'll send that person this prize. So comment away!


BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS: 


Nura's exclamation "Thank Delphi!" refers to the ancient Greek oracle. Nice.


"Master Kong" is a translation of Kung-fu-tzu, aka Confucius.

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Sunday, June 12, 2011

Week of 8 June 2011

I did not see any Legion content in DC Comics this week.

No, that's good news: this week, DC is all about the Flashpoint crossovers, and I don't think any of us wants to see the Leigon dragged into that train wreck.

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Week of 1 June 2011

(SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers. Don't read it before you've read the comic.)

ADVENTURE 527 (2011/08)
"A Comet's Tale"


ROLL CALL:

Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5, Chemical King, Cosmic Boy, Dawnstar, Duplicate Girl, Lightning Lad, Night Girl, Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Tellus, Timber Wolf, Ultra Boy, Chemical Kid, Comet Queen, Dragonwing, Glorith, Gravity Kid, Mandalla, Shadow Kid, Stone Boy, Variable Lad, Saturn Queen

CUTE BOYS: Brainy, Brin, Chemical Kid, Chuck, Condo, Garth, Gravity Kid, Jo, Rokk, Shadow Kid, Stone Boy

A recap of Comet Queen's origin story, followed by some updates on her more recent activities. Oddly, there's no mention of her time with Rokk, Lydda, Luornu, and Myg in the second Legion of Substitue Heroes.

Basically, she graduated from the Academy (along with Mandalla and Shadow Kid) and went into service with the Subs. (This looks to be after Superman & the LSH and possibly after L3W. After Titanfall, an encounter with Saturn Queen erased most of Grava's memories. With the help of Tellus, she regained many of her memories, and went back into the Academy to retrain.

I see that we're back to making fun of the Subs. I don't mind when they're treated with humor -- as in Superman & the LSH or in Straczynski's recent Brave & Bold two-parter...but to me, there's a basic nobility about the Subs that a lot of people miss. Sure, it takes courage for Ultra Boy or Wildfire to go up against evil supervillains -- and even more for Legionnaires like Invisible Kid or Shadow Lass -- but all the Legionnaires have their experience, training, and teamwork. For someone like Stone Boy or Comet Queen to go up against the big bad guys (which they have done, many times) takes enormously more courage.

Besides, the Subs are the team who produced Polar Boy and Night Girl, who certainly had the Right Stuff to become Legionnaires.

Anyway, it was good to see answers to some of the questions we had about Grava, and to have her star in a story. I've always liked her irrepressible optimism, her goofiness, and her unbounded confidence. Matching her with Chuck was brilliant -- the two have similar personalities. If anyone deserves to be part of the Legion, she does.

Perhaps Grava needs the same sort of transformation that's happened to Chuck: maturity, wisdom, whatever you want to call it. She needs to get over her crush on Chuck and find someone else to fall in love with and, maybe, marry.

Perhaps Glorith is the right girl for the job.
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