Legion of Super-Heroes #1

Boy, I sure do love the Legion. Have I ever told you guys how much I love the legion?.... Really! That many times! Those are a lot of zeroes after that number one. Is there a decimal point hidden somewhere amongst those zeroes? No. Oh. Well, to repeat myself once more I love the Legion of Super-Heroes (their the series that got me into comics, as strange as it sounds) so hearing that not only was Paul Levitz continuing with writing the stories, but he was also keeping the current legion continuity from the pre-52 stories and not rebooting (because seriously that's something the fans of this series definitely don’t want to have to go through AGAIN!). So if your looking for a blast from the past then turn away as we head to the future in Legion of Super-heroes #1.

The issue opens above the planate Panoptes as 5 pods are launched from a ship and land on the planate. As the pods land we finally see that they hold 5 Legionaries, Chameleon Boy, Phantom Girl and Ultra Boy (fresh from the pages of Levitz previous Legion of Super-Heroes Title) along with Dragonwing and Chemical Kid fresh from the Legion academy (and the pages of Levitz second legion run in Adventure Comics). With all of the Legionaries out in the open Cham shifts into the shape of a soldier and re-briefs the team on their mission to infiltrate a military base that’s watching the Dominator empire (an enemy of the United planets in all 3 incarnations of the Legion) until contact between the base and the UP was shut down. With that said and done Phantom Girl and Ultra Boy activate a holographic disguise, making them appear as military personnel. Chemical Kid asks why he and Dragonwing haven’t been issued with disguises, to which Cham says that there’s been no news feeds of those two becoming full legionaries yet, making it easier for them to act as a couple of kids who’ve crash-landed on the planate after a joyride hiccup. The three senior legionaries then go off into the woods, leaving the 2 fresh faces to act as bate. Meanwhile on the ship that launched the 5 pods Gim Allon, the legionary known as Colossal Boy explains why he left the legion after a mistake that happened in his last mission, and how it resulted with his wife Chameleon Girl and others (six to be precise)…. Meanwhile back in the Legion headquarters, Current Legion leader Mon-El is putting the giant statue of Earth-Man up in the hall of fallen Legionaries, while Braniac 5 comments on how, maybe, the statue of Earth-Man shouldn’t be so prominently placed. The 2 Legionaries then go into the control room to video conferences with three different Legion teams, all on their individual missions. To find out more pick up Legion of Super-Heroes #1.

Paul Levitz once again produces a great Legion of Super-Heroes issue which doesn’t fail to pleas. Current legion events, such as the Legions battle on the world of the wise against Saturn Queens Legion of Super-Villains and the Legion academy’s battle against Cosmic King in the Legion Headquarters are still being played as relevant events, especially with the graduates from the Legion academy who watched their friend Oaa die taking down Cosmic King (most notably Glorith). But saying that there’s still a missing gap between those events and this one that explains what it is that caused 7 legionaries to go back into the past (Legion Lost) and that explains why Colossal Boy has now retired from the legion, though I’m expecting that plot line to be explained in the pages of Legion Lost. The primary story in this issue is the infiltration of the 5 legionaries into the military watchtower on Panoptes and seeing how the old Legionaries interact with the new. If there is one problem that I can find with the story it’s that it’s not exactly / at all new reader available. It doesn’t tell us who the legion are or how they came about, but sort of throws you straight into the action, but other than that it was a good story. On to artwork, and despite the not so glorious cover art by Karl Kerschi (in my opinion), Francis Portela has done a great job with the depictions of characters and the details involved, such as Shrinking Violet holding Lightning Lasses hand in the video conference or Shadow Lass clutching her hands at her chest in the same 2 page spread. There’s so much detail that you’ll always find something new on every re-reading. This is only made even better by Javier Mena’s colouring in the issue which is diverse and pleasing to the eye.

As a fan of Legion of Super-Heroes I give this issue a 4/5, enjoying the continuation from the previous stories and continuity as well as agnowledg that Flashpoint has occurred. Fans of the Legion of Super-Heroes will defiantly enjoy the issue, while new readers or strangers to the series might be scared off. To you guy’s I’d advice either to jump into the series headfirst and get through the confusion by reading a couple of issues (as I did) or to pick up next months “Legion of Super-Heroes Secret Origins”, written by Paul Levtiz which introduces us to the legion (I think that’s the reason why this issue isn’t aimed at new readers) or you can pick up Legion Lost, which despite still being confusing only deals with a small handful of Legion characters rather than a huge back log of them. So as I return to the year 2011 I give Legion of Super-Heroes #1:-

4/5