The Future Version of the Future. Seems Redundant Right?
The Good: There are a few interesting plot hooks with Chameleon and The Umbra, but since it's only a short jaunt, we'll never get any fruition.
It is kind of interesting that this issue pretends to be an actual One Millionth issue that has previous issues and a subsequent #1,000,001.
The Bad: As much as I constantly praise the use of limited 90's era 3D to represent things we can't understand, and as much as the space covers like this show some great emptiness, this cover doesn't work. Like the Legion always is, this cover is crowded, and frankly, all the characters look so apathetic and bored.
This issue starts off ripping off Green Arrow's framing device, which wouldn't be terrible, if it weren't the very next issue. The use of it also isn't nearly as smooth and coherent as Green Arrow's.
The first few pages are swamped with exposition text. Pages 2 and 3 especially look like massive walls of text are literally consuming the images.
Peyer is trying WAY too hard with these heroes. Brainiac 417? IMplicate Girl? THE M'ONELVES? He also tries way too hard to come up with futuristic technology. I loved the subtlety and lack of BS in most of DC One Million, but this issue is just an explosion of nonsensical madeup future jargon that never really makes sense.
Why is an all-powerful reality warping device A FUCKING CHILD'S TOY!? Children have the GREATEST capacity for destruction. I've written essays on why children are evil. They haven't learned the difference between right and wrong. If you have something that can make this terroist a huge threat, why do we give it to children!?
Except I guess that was a dream or something. Nothing really makes sense in this issue. We get some many imaginary call-backs to big plot things that don't exist. Granted, that does give this issue a good sense that it's a genuine #1,000,000 issue in a long series, but it makes reading it a chore because there's never any context given for anything. Plus, it's not that monumental for such a milestone if it WAS a #1000000 for an ongoing that long.
The artwork is probably the worst of DC One Million. It looks so sketchy and lazy, like the artist just wanted to draw the basic characters and then just turn in a work that's barely done. It doesn't look AWFUL, but it looks kind of bad.
Some bits of Wildfire's dialogue are simply atrocious. A few of his sentences make absolutely no sense from any standpoint.
The pacing is shit because we never get to know any of the characters. They all come across as extremely flat. And the plot feels like it relies on knowing a lot of stuff that we don't know. There's just far too many plot elements that don't get any buildup or explanation.
In Conclusion: 1/5
I feel bad for the writer. He had to take a team who's main gimmick is being 'the future's superheroes' and make a story about them in the future. DC One Million makes the Legion all but redundant. I mean, why should we care about the guys who are only 10 Centuries after the original superheroes, and carry on none of their legacies? We get a small handful of heroes who have to futurize futuristic characters who are ancient by these standards. Nothing really works well, and it's as awkward as reading a normal Legion comic, but without the added benefit of any kind of context whatsoever. The whole thing is just a big incomprehensible mess.