What do you call a reboot that is not really a reboot? Well that’s simple, right? Legion of Super-Heroes, just like Green Lantern, can be added to that list of books not going through a total reboot. To be honest that makes me kind of sad.
‘Legion of Super-Heroes’ #1 is still in the 31st century, Earth Man still died at the end of whatever the last issue of the last volume was numbered and Mon-El was still a Green Lantern for a little bit (Ion actually, but who is worried about that?)
If I look thought my many, MANY boxes of comics I don’t know if I can count all of the various Legion #1’s I’ve accumulated over the years of reading comics. I do know I was hoping this book would be an all new Legion story. It would have been nice to take it back to the beginning, start fresh even. It looks like this book will run parallel to the Legion Lost series that came out earlier this month (here is my review of Legion Lost #1), and the Legionnaires hurled back in time are gone, for now.
‘Legion of Super-Heroes’ #1 was a real chance to start this book over, especially since I dropped Paul Levitz last run on Legion of Super-Heroes after only 4 issues. Mainly because it started out good with some hardcore xenophobia happening within the United Planets, only to be sidetracked to Apocalypse. Zzzzzzzz…
This latest in the long line of Legion #1’s features a team in shambles, and to fill their thin ranks the Legion is forced to promote some junior members from the Legion Academy before they are ready for full-time hero duty. So here we have a Legion filled with neophyte heroes not quite ready for hero time. The other Legion cliche in this book… How could there possibly be a Legion story where someone on the team wasn’t bucking to oust the current leader and take over. Seriously, due to the high team turnover there are more heroes voted off the “island” than on Survivor; The Legion has spoken… hit the bricks.
So while I’m not crazy about Paul Levitz staying on one of my favorite team books of all time, there is a bright spot in this book. The artwork in this book is fantastic. Franics Portela and Javier Mena do a great job with this epic space tale of young heroes coming together to save the day. Now if only the story to go along with this renumbering was just a little better, all would be well in the Legion of Super-Heroes.
The New 52 features two Legion books, and while Legion Lost wasn’t perfect it will be the Legion book I continue to get once the hoopla of the New 52 runs out. Just like this book Legion Lost is not a reboot, per say, but it is an all new Legion story that is worth checking out for a while.
Legion of Super-Heroes #1
Writer: Paul Levitz
Artist: Francis Portela
Colorist: Javier Mena
Cover: Karl Kerschl
