Legion Lost #3
Written by: Fabian Nicieza
Art by: Pete Woods
Colored by: Brad Anderson
Lettering by: Travis Lanham
Published by: DC
Cover Price: $2.99
Note: This review is for the digital version of the comic available from DC Comics on Comixology
Am I the only one who saw Red Rage on the cover of this book and thought it was going to be some kind of crossover with Red Lanterns? I am not even sure why the villain in this issue would be called Red Rage, though it’s all over the cover and solicits. “What does Timber Wolf have in common with Red Rage, a creature that eats the marrow from its victim’s bones? What secret does Tyroc hide in plain sight? And what frightening truth does Tellus uncover?”
Then again, I am not all that sure what they are talking about in any of that solicit…Tyroc barely appears in this issue, much less has a secret. Same with Tellus. But I digress. On with the review!
Summary (contains spoilers):
The issue starts with the lost Legion members in a hotel room. Tellus is using his telepathy to try and track down at traces of Alastor (the villain from the future who released the Hypertaxis plague before he seemed to get blown up), and Dawnstar is looking for the Hypersapien they fought in the last issue. Wildfire and Tyroc are trying to cobble together a sensor they can use to find any other Hypersapiens. Timber Wolf is getting rather impatient cramped in this little hotel room.
While this is going on, the Legion’s presence is raising all kinds of red flags with a mysterious group who seems to be in charge of monitoring superhuman activity.
Timber Wolf sees a report of a serial killer who seems to be sucking the marrow out of his victims. Timber Wolf is pretty certain this is a Hypersapien killer, and sets off on his own to track him down. He starts with last victim. He finds Durlan DNA in the victim. In a rather unsanitary way:
I definitely don’t see Gibbs doing that on NCIS…
This Hypersapien seems to be hunting down and killing others affected by the Hypertaxis plague. Timber Wolf steals a police car and takes off after the killer. Timber Wolf finds it in the process of attacking it’s next victim in a mall. After a fight, Timber Wolf’s claws fire ou tof his hand to slice up this Hypersapien. This power change makes Timber Wolf realize that he must be infected with the Hypertaxis Plague. Timber Wolf quickly realizes why this Hypersapien is hunting down Durlan DNA…Chameleon Girl is trying to pull herself back together.
Review: One thing that I can see turning people off in this book is that it’s very exposition heavy. Scenes like this page happen quite a bit in Legion Lost:
It really can seem like a bit much, and it doesn’t always read smoothly. That said, I am a total geek for this kind of thing. I actually like it when a comic really takes the time to keep the reader in synch with what’s going on. I read well over 40 comics a month, and sometimes it’s hard to keep track of everything. It’s a very old school technique of comic writing, and i happen to be a fan of it.
My biggest issue with this issue is that we get a lot of scenes of characters standing around hand wringing without seeing if it serves any real purpose. With all the exposition in the beginning about everything each Legion member was doing, really the only person who was effective was Timber Wolf who went out and actually did something.
It’s also not clear who this mysterious group monitoring superhuman activity is. There is already enough people and groups out there doing that (DEA in Batwoman and Project N.O.W.H.E.R.E. in Teen Titans and Superboy come to mind). I know that superhumans are viewed suspiciously in this DC Universe, but all these faceless organizations are getting a little tiresome. As of now, they are just all blending together to me.
Don’t get me wrong, I still liked this book quite a bit, but it just felt like this issue was all about building to later events. Even the reveal in the end about the Legion member still being alive would have been more impactful if DC Source hadn’t spoiled it last Thursday. Even the art on this issue felt a little lackluster after the first two issues. I don’t know, maybe I was just in a cranky mood when I read it…
I know I might be sounding a bit nitpicky, especially since I still would still give this book a score of 8 out of 10, but with Nicieza and how much I enjoyed the first two issues, I was just expecting a lot more from this issue.
Final Score: 8.0 – This issue seemed to spin its wheels a bit. A little too much set up with not enough pay off.
