Reviewer: Ben Morse
Story Title: “Foundations: The Final Chapterâ€
Written by: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Penciled by: Chris Batista
Inked by: Chip Wallace
Colored by: Sno Cone
Lettered by: Ken Lopez
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Publisher: DC Comics
I haven’t read “Legion Lost†(still waiting for the TPB), supposedly the seminal work of the DnA Legion run, so I will keep that in mind, but near as I can tell, their entire borderline (remember that word) brilliant run on one of DC’s greatest properties has been almost universally marred by one fatal flaw: they start strong and then finish weak. In particular with their villains, they do a great job of presenting threats so incredible that you’re salivating to see how the Legion will get out of this seemingly impossible fix without suffering major setbacks, and then they…just kinda do. Villain dispatched in under an issue by some bizarre twist of events that occurs in a couple panels after being built up for five months; two or three Legionnaires end the book with a smile, oblivious to the devastating upheaval in the infrastructure of the United Planets (which is mentioned at the beginning of the next issue…seriously, the U.P. has been in upheaval for about five years now and yet by all indications the citizens are all still kicking back and relaxing in their hoverchairs). It happened with The Blight (way back when), with Ra’s al Ghul, with the Fatal Five (despite a bitchin’ fight), with Universo, and now in this arc (I’d say Computo was the one exception).
Way too much time was spent setting up “Foundations;†actually I take that back, because the first couple parts of the arc were fabulous, maybe the wrap-up/final battle should have just been a few issues longer. To draw an obvious comparison: you look back on “The Great Darkness Saga,†the classic Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen Legion of Super-Heroes from the 80’s on which “Foundations†was loosely based. “Great Darkness†was an epic storyline in which you got the feeling the Legion was facing a huge threat, beyond anything they’d ever encountered (evidenced by the fact that said threat takes out several of the Legion’s previous “biggest threats ever†along the way). It took literally everything the Legion had, plus an incredible amount of assistance from every other hero in the 30th century and from beyond (because if the Legion handled it alone, it would look pretty silly next time they actually had to struggle to put Mordru down) for the LSH to make it out alive and they still suffered major scars. Also, little side-plots like the Legion leader election were opened up and closed over the course of the arc; longer standing subplots like Chameleon Boy’s suspension from the team and the romance on the skids between Timber Wolf and Light Lass were progressed, but not fully brought to resolution.
“Foundations†had another great build; the initial encounters with the Servants of Darkness and the scope of the 25th issue (with all the different artists) conveyed a true threat. The return of Live Wire was the first fumble, as DnA’s biggest contribution to the Legion mythos (killing off Live Wire) was overturned, something that had been foreshadowed almost since it occurred, and suddenly none of the Legion wants to talk to him, so we don’t get any of the moments we’d waited years for. The guest run by “our†Superboy was one of the high water marks of the arc, but the intriguing conflict between him and Cosmic Boy isn’t even addressed in this final issue.
But really the main problem is the way Darkseid is taken down and the ease with which it is accomplished. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t read the issue, but it’s another last second “gee whiz, what a zany idea†solution; Darkseid, not to mention the end of all time (not just the universe, not even the freakin’ multiverse, all of time), should not be taken out in one issue, let alone a few panels.
Another thing “Great Darkness†did well was to effectively utilize every Legionnaire, even if only for a couple panels. It all comes down to four Legionnaires in this issue and really only two do anything of note. The large cast of Legion is the challenge all writers face, but if they can’t handle it, it’s probably a bad idea to sign on. DnA have done some great work on issues spotlighting specific characters in their run, but they’ve struggled in handling the whole team, and that takes away a lot of what has traditionally made the Legion unique.
I could go on: what happened to Mekt Ranzz after issue #25? How come Live Wire can figure out the highly-scientific solution to the chronal problems and Braniac 5 never thought of it? How did not a single Legionnaire die despite facing millions of paratroopers, Servants of Darkness on the power level of the JLA and two Darkseids? How did Darkseid get the Servants to begin with? But to be honest, this is all nit-picking. The main problem is that DnA set up a storyline and a threat they couldn’t possibly do justice to in one issue and they weren’t able to. It is of course worth mentioning that the one saving grace of this issue is the beautiful, smooth and highly underrated art of Chris Batista. But the problem remains: DnA are great architects, setting up sprawling, exciting, intriguing storylines, but when it comes to closing the deal, they come up short every time.
