Reprinting: The Legion of Super-Heroes #7-13 (2005- series)
Rating: * * * 1/2 (out
of 5)
Number of readings: 2
This is the second volume collecting Mark Waid and Barry Kitson's re-imagining of the venerable franchise about 30th Century teenage super heroes. The first volume was essentially establishing this new take on the characters (the Legion now being a kind of teenage movement rebelling against the sterile conformity of their parents' worlds), while beginning to introduce a greater story arc involving a looming galactic conflict.
With this second volume, the greater threat is now front and centre, as the Legion work to prevent an invasion of the United Federation of Planets, while also weathering a split in their own ranks as the rivalry between leader Cosmic Boy and resident genius, Brainiac 5, forces other members to choose sides.
Whereas the first collection featured a number of tales that were more character-based, this collection, by focusing on the bigger menace, is much more squarely in the adventure-suspense category. And because it is the resolution of the conflict (as opposed to the beginning) should be more satisfying as an exciting page turner. Sometimes an ending without a build up can be as unsatisfying as a build up without an ending (remember, I like to try and review these TPBs on their own -- trying to consider them from the point of view of someone just picking it up, randomly, in a store). With that being said, I think enough of what went before is recapped that it shouldn't be too hard to pick up on the story.
But I find myself waffling back and forth.
As much as I enjoyed aspects of these issues...there were equal aspects that didn't quite work for me.
For one thing, though it does a nice job of generating a sense of grand, apocalyptic suspense at first...as we move toward the climax, it seems a bit anti-climactic. For what ends up being a 13 issue arc...not as much happens as you might expect. The great strategies and brilliant deductions characters make are really kind of tepid and simple (the Legionnaires figure out that the invaders need only strike a few specific targets to bring the Federation down...but when it's explained, you're kind of left going: well, duh. Waid has set up a pretty simple infrastructure where certain planets monopolize key industries). And there's just a sense that the mind boggling overwhelming threat...ends up seeming pretty minor when you can have a handful of Legionnaires apparently battling an army of thousands to a standstill!
The saga is enjoyable...but somehow doesn't quite live up to its own promise. In fact there's an intriguing idea that the villain's motive for the invasion is, essentially, to kick the UFP out of its socio-political stupor. In other words, his motives are the same as the Legion's, a fact that is alluded to a few times -- but it never really seems to take us anywhere.
In my review of the first volume, I suggest that Waid can almost be too clever. Which seems like an odd criticism. But in writing his witty lines and presenting his thoughtful, imaginative concepts...he can kind of sacrifice the reality of the characters. For instance there's a scene where Brainiac 5 goes into a long explanation about the forces that bind the universe...all as a way of explaining how Light Lass and Star Boy, with their ability to manipulate the forces of gravity, are essentially manipulating the very building blocks of the universe. It's an interesting (and amusing) sequence, well told, presumably something Waid had been brooding about for years and was just waiting for an opportunity to articulate.
But it was an awkward digression in the context of the scene itself.
It was clever for Waid to write...dumb for Brainiac 5 to say when he said it.
And for a series so focused on the characters and the personalities, Waid sometimes relies on just telling us things he should be showing us. At one point Cosmic Boy refers to Sun Boy being his right hand man...um, but where in any of the scenes did we get that impression? In fact, Cosmic Boy and Sun Boy barely had any scenes together!
Another plot thread has a schism threaten to split the team apart, and everyone blames Invisible Kid (for snitching on one side to the other). But Invisible Kid denies it and it just seems awkward the way his protestations are ignored by all and sundry (this too is an example, maybe, of Waid putting his ideas ahead of his characters, as it leads into an 11th hour surprise revelation).
The series can be thoughtfully written and cleverly told, with witty quips and some surprise revelations and twists (Dream Girl's lack of prophetic vision). There are some nice character bits, even if Waid seems too aware of them being nice, belabouring an emotional scene by dragging it out over multiple pages
But it can also be astonishing poorly and lazily written. Characters that seem to act according to the needs of the scene, rather than according to the nature of the character (or, at least, it's not articulated why they are doing what they do). For instance, why does Invisible Kid side with Cosmic Boy's team...when Brainiac 5 was the one who recruited him, and Cosmic Boy had, previously, been rather hostile toward him? There's a whole lot of things that seem as though Waid had concepts, but no idea how to develop them logically...so he went ahead and threw them in anyway. Even the whole schism in the group seems kind of unsubstantiated, as it's not really clear what Brainiac 5 (or Cosmic Boy) were really doing to warrant such violent antipathy toward each other.
Even the very philosophy of the group (and the comic) seems unfocused, as if Waid liked the idea of a rebellious movement...but wasn't sure what to have them rebel against (or was told to keep it largely abstract and apolitical). So there's talk of rebelling against conformity, and how the UPF needs a kick in the pants...but, um, why? How is the "system" not working: is their rampant poverty? Racism? And the LSH is supposed to be leading the fight in the name of freedom and individuality...but Waid makes the group an oddly paramilitary organization -- with a rigidly enforced chain-of-command -- and when the crisis looms, the heroes insist "individual differences...are an unaffordable luxury."
It all smacks a little of Waid and Kitson not really having worked out the nitty gritty of their premise.
I'll admit, I quibble about the violence in the series. I know "heroes don't kill" and "minimum force" are ideas seen as passe and childish by modern comic readers raised on Quake II video games and George W. Bush's world view -- but I personally liked the idea of heroes who had ideals and scruples. It's particularly glaring since Waid clearly modelled his Legion movement on the 1960s hippy movement...but then has contempt for the "peace and love" aspect of the hippy philosophy. And there's one panel in issue #13 that I would argue threatens to push the comic into "mature readers" territory because of its graphic gore.
The art is mainly by Barry Kitson (with a few other artists pinch hitting here or there, or drawing short back up tales) and Kitson is a sturdy, realist artist that gives the whole a solid visual foundation. But Waid tends to draw faces rather similar, so I frequently found myself getting confused about some of the characters. And maybe a problem is that as Kitson draws the characters -- and maybe as Waid writes them a bit -- they don't entirely come across as teenagers. Which wouldn't be as much of an issue except that, as noted, this version of the team wants to really play up the teen/generation gap angle of the series.
Ultimately, I did like Death of a Dream -- and it's a more sustained, consistent tale than were the issues collected in volume 1 which were deliberately more episodic. But, I'll admit, reflecting back on it, my enjoyment falls short of enthusiastic.
This is a review of the story as it was originally serialized in the monthly comics. Cover price: ___ Legion of Super-Heroes: Enemy Rising 2008 (HC TPB) 176 pages
Reprinting: The Legion of Super-Heroes #37-44 (2008)
Rating: * * * * 1/2 (out
of 5)
Number of readings: 2
Jim Shooter began his comics career in the 1960s writing for The Legion of Super-Heroes (a child prodigy -- he was only thirteen!) where his stories became the creative bench mark for the team. He returned to writing the team in the mid-1970s...then went onto a long, tumultuous career in comics, becoming Editor-in-Chief at Marvel for a long, seminal period, then founding the initial (well regarded) Valiant line, and a few other less-successful comics' companies, all the while gaining a controversial reputation before leaving comics entirely.
And now he's back writing the Legion! And as an indication of the bridges Shooter had burned over the years, it apparently took a while for DC president Paul Levitz -- and one-time Legion scribe himself -- to convince other DC brass to okay it. But in Legion-fan circles it couldn't help but be viewed with a certain nervous-but-giddy expectation.
The result...is really pretty exceptional. And unlike so many modern writers, Shooter isn't trying to dazzle us with flash and sizzle (in these first eight issues of his run, he doesn't kill off a regular, rape them, or reveal a hitherto untold secret that changes "everything we thought we knew" about them...or any other of the cliches new creators employ to show how "creative" they are). He's just trying to tell stories and characters.
Those expecting a repeat of Shooter's 1960s heyday will, of course, be disappointed. Comics styles have changed, Shooter's style has changed and this is the current interpretation which reinvented the Legion and recast the characters. And Shooter effortlessly slips into the new milieu and characterizations. And he easily orients the novice reader so you can pick up a lot as you go.
Of course, another -- less fortunate -- way Shooter follows the modern style is in the way the story can be kind of gritty and violent, with an alien menace that seems to be an ill-defined hybrid of living and unliving organisms, but which the Legionnaires have no compunction about using lethal force on (this from a team that in the 1960s were careful not even to hurt insects with their powers!) and the visuals can, likewise, be a bit bloody in spots. And Shooter even gives Legionnaires with "passive" powers (ie: Saturn Girl) guns!
These eight issues form an odd narrative arc. There's a mysterious menace threatening the United Planets that goes unresolved as it's clearly a bigger story arc (hence the title: Enemy Rising). Yet there are other arcs that climax in the final issue here, allowing this to satisfy as a story arc. It's an odd conclusion in that it smacks a bit of a Deus ex machina solution, even as Shooter lays the groundwork for it early. There's plenty of character bits, plenty of action, lots of witty quips and humour, yet also human drama. And within the greater arc, there are adventures and stories that are resolved in an issue or two...even as each issue has the feel of a being a chapter in a longer work.
The comic is very, very funny...yet the humour usually manages to stem from the characters, rather than seeing too obviously imposed by the writer (ie: having the characters say things too obviously self-reflective).
The LSH has the largest membership of any comic book "team"...and Shooter revels in juggling all these characters, making sure everyone has a moment, a point of view, sometimes cramming a scene with a bunch of them, but never losing sight of their individuality. There's more going on in a single issue than a lot of contemporary comics will have in an entire TPB collection!
A scene in issue #40 is a beautiful example of Shooter's handling of characters, as a dilemma arises that has them arguing. The dialogue is "real", but as well, why each character takes their position is unique to them (some personalize it -- "if it was me..." -- some considered it as an abstract moral question, others regard it academically as a legal question). It's also not cut-and-dried, so its not a matter of a "right" and a "wrong" side. I'd argue a lot of writers working with ensemble casts -- whether they be comics scribes or TV writers -- could learn a lot from that one scene...and mayhap Shooter's entire run.
Admittedly, a lot of the adventure-"plots" lean toward just big fights. The new menace the LSH faces is mysterious marauders who land out of the sky, killing and destroying everything in their path -- and self-destructing before their bodies can be examined. (But Shooter does succeed in making us curious about what will be behind it all as Brainiac 5 notes various incongruities about the invaders). At the same time, Shooter shows more cleverness with the fights than a lot of comics writers. The invaders have the ability to adapt and mutate to any threat, meaning the heroes have to constantly come up with fresh and novel ways to fight them.
The strength of this run is Shooter's ability to juggle a panorama of characters and plot-lines (okay, I don't suppose you can juggle a panorama...but you know what I mean). The characters come alive, in all their vices and virtues, so that we empathize with them all (even when they're at odds with each other). Lightning Lad is the new team leader, and is woefully out of his depth, bordering on incompetent; but we remain sympathetic to his vulnerability. And there's a lot going on, both with the characters, and the various plot threads, so that sometimes little, throwaway scenes will turn out to have greater relevance a few issues later. I commented in my review of the earlier Waid-scripted stories that Waid wrote cleverly concocted characters...Shooter writes people.
In fact a criticism I had of Shooter's late '80s/early '90s work was that it could be a little cerebral. As if he was over-thinking the characters. But here the humanity of the characters is beautifully evoked. Shooter also effectively creates a sense of the LSH being teenagers, full of the insecurity and missteps of teens.
The art is mainly by Francis Manapul -- a relatively new talent (I believe). Manapul is a confident, detailed artist who quickly makes the team his own. Initially I wasn't entirely sure if I'd like it, his style having hints of a kind of Jim Lee-esque, vaguely Manga influenced style. But quickly he won me over. He's also well paired with Shooter, his style able to shift to suit the comedic and the serious that is inherent in the scripts, and clear enough to realize the action scenes which, as mentioned, are more than just anonymous scenes of people hitting each other. He also has a nice compositional eye for scenes of people just standing around talking...and there's a lot of that in Shooter's dialogue heavy script. And he too evokes the youth of the characters in little visual extras -- like having posters on their bedroom walls.
Aaron Lopresti pinch hits an issue and does a perfectly acceptable job. However, the final issue also has a guest artist -- Sanford Greene -- and I'll admit the work there was less successful for me. Greene has a much rawer, cartoonier style that seems more appropriate for a comedy comic, or one aimed at younger readers (in fact, apparently Greene has illustrated issues of The Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century, the non-continuity Legion comic based on the animated TV series). Aesthetically it's less attractive, and stylistically it jars uncomfortably with the grittier material (such as a villain threatening to rape Light Lass!).
I've often commented that my reviews are based -- somewhat -- on the idea of how well do these TPBs read on their own. And in an industry seeming overwhelmingly obsessed with never ending story arcs and on going continuity, it might seem like an impossible criteria to impose. But here Shooter shows how it can be done. Yes, plot threads are left dangling -- the mysterious invaders remain a threat and their agenda yet to be revealed. Nonetheless, we do get a climax to a secondary story arc. As well, Shooter makes us interested and involved with the characters so that we can enjoy what's depicted, even if it doesn't lead to any specific conclusions.
In short, Enemy Rising is entertaining as a run of issues read on their own...and entertaining enough that you want to keep following the story, not because you need to know how it ends, but simply because you're enjoying the ride.
Of course the problem with lengthy arcs is whether the creators will stick around to see it to fruition. Shooter has, apparently, already had clashes with DC brass and walked away from the series once (only to return without missing an issue) -- so will he actually stick it out to bring his ideas to their intended climax?
Only time will tell...but based on these issues: here's hoping.
This is a review of the story as it was originally serialized in the monthly comics.
Cover price: ___ NEXT (to Legion reviews page two)
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Written by Mark Waid (co-plotter Barry Kitson), with Stuart Moore. Pencils by Barry Kitson, with Kevin Sharpe, Georges Jeanty, with Dale Eaglesham, Ken Lashley. Inks by Art Thibert, Prentis Rollins, Mick Gray, Drew Geraci, others.
Colours: Sno Cone. Letters: Phil Balsman, various. Editors: Stephen Wacker, Harvey Richards.
Written by Jim Shooter. Pencils by Francis Manapul, and Aaron Lopresti, Sanford Greene. Inks by Livesay and Matt Ryan, Nathan Massengill.
Colour: JD Smith, and Nathan Eyring. Letters: Steve Wands. Editor: Mike Marts, Jeannie Schaefer.
