Reviewer: Iain Burnside
Story Title: N/A
Written by: Mark Waid
Penciled by: Barry Kitson
Inked by: Gray/Pascoe/Kitson
Colored by: Chris Blythe
Lettered by: Phil Balsman
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Publisher: DC Comics
360 degrees of living breeds two types of comic readers – those who dig the Legion and those who simply don’t care about them. I used to fit quite nicely into the latter category. Given their frankly absurd continuity, trying to read any of their books always felt more like work than pleasure. Hell, not only do they have the double-whammy of the Crisis and Zero Hour to contend with, they also remained in a constant state of cross-eyed flux due to the time-travel element of their adventures. You surely know all of the complaints by now, they have become cliché. It was even worse than trying to explain Cable’s family tree over in the Marvel Universe. I could have quite happily remained blissfully unaware of the Legion too, but then those wonderful two names cropped up – Mark Waid and Barry Kitson.
Taken on their own, the lure of Waid or Kitson on a book would probably not be enough to get me to add it to the ever-expanding pull list. However, the two of them together? Hell, after the stunning slice of Greek tragedy in sci-fi duds that was their EMPIRE mini-series, I’d be a fool not to see what else they could conjure up. My appetite was whetted further still by the Legion’s crossover appearance in TEEN TITANS. That particular story was lacking any true depth, but as a refresher course in certain Legion characters, most notably Brainiac and XS, it was a fine piece of marketing. However, the first issue of the series proper was where the fun really started. Much like how Fabian Nicieza has used a clear vision of the type of story he wants to tell with the aforementioned Cable in order to propel CABLE/DEADPOOL to greater heights than it has any right to hit, Waid and Kitson hit the ground running with a wonderful premise. “Quintessential” is not just a lovely word, it’s an apt one to describe the series’ debut and, thankfully, the momentum carries forward into the sophomore effort.
Essentially, the story involves a few members of the Legion going to the planet Naltor, where the youth of the planet have lost the ability to sleep and to dream. This would be enough of a problem in any normal setting, but the people of Naltor are precognitive and so the effect is amplified tenfold. In the hands of a lesser writer, this intriguing premise could very easily have been mishandled. Waid takes the high road, however, and manages to not only make his characters agreeable but to make them justifiable too. In true “shades of grey” fashion, there is no real “bad guy” here, only a perfect circle of fallibility that left me tickled pink with anticipation for the future of this series.
For one, the two main characters in here – Brainiac and Dream Girl – are fully realised from the off. The entire issue is built around the diametrically opposed ways they approach life. The highly-intelligent former starts with questions and seeks answers, while the precognitive latter starts with answers and seeks nothing. When combined with the greatest character difference of all time in the mysterious distance between a man and a woman (cheers, Bono) this allows for some thoroughly engaging inter-play between the two. It all leads up to a charming pay-off in the final page that fittingly poses a question Brainiac can’t possibly answer.
Of course, being a book with the words “super heroes” in the title means that there is a certain spandex quotient that must be met. This is where Kitson’s designs come into play. This series has a limitless scope and thankfully he is up to the challenge. So we get the obligatory fight scene with some Naltor police-types… We get the tragic, senseless waste of a fine couch in the kind of whimsical training accident that the X-Men used to pride themselves on during the glory years… On the surface, this book flies by on its imaginative use of the medium. Digging a little deeper though, it’s easy to find some surprisingly wide and well-reasoned social and political commentary. It genuinely feels like there is no limit to what Waid wants to explore with this cast, and that Kitson is going to be there to match him every step of the way.
The greatest reason for digging this book at the moment, though, is that it leaves you with the feeling that things are about to really soar. It’s like being caught in that moment of anticipation when listening to your favourite song just before the chorus kicks in. Brainiac mentions the plans that he has for the Legion and their conflicting beliefs with the United Planets and if Waid & Kitson take the same slow-burn routine that worked so well in the pages of Straczynski’s SUPREME POWER then the first year or so of stories are going to be as stellar in scope as they ought to be for such a series. Really, just think about it. This is a team with a cast of dozens, all of whom can do amazing things and come with a lifetime’s worth of stories to tell. Get bored of them? There are literally thousands of kids on the Legion’s doorstep ready to stand in and be explored. Got nowhere to set the story? Invent any homeworld, planet, galaxy or anything that you like and see what happens. This is a book of infinite possibilities – and that’s without even getting to the time-travel nonsense. Some people say there is only one type of story and that it’s just the details that are changed. If that’s true, then with a team as talented as Waid & Kitson behind the wheel we’re in for some highly stimulating details…
Of course, it’s not all perfect. For starters, the book suffers from Stock Footage Cover Syndrome in that the prominent characters play no substantial role in the actual story. In fact, the same thing happened with issue #1, which had the oddly absent Brainiac on the cover. It’s not a big concern, but it’s one that will hopefully be addressed in the near future. Slightly more disconcerting is that there are three inkers for this book. There is no major change in tone to pull people out of the story, but it is still noticeable at times. Perhaps switching to using back-up strips rather than a single 32-page story would help to alleviate the pressure on Kitson as time goes on. On a more personal note, I found certain parts of the precognition theme to be a bit hard to swallow at times, particularly in the actions of the Naltorian elders. However, trying to delve too hard into the mechanisms of precognition in the pages of any one single comic book is probably too much for any writer to achieve, especially in a mainstream title. As it stands, Waid has done a perfectly acceptable job with the gimmick.
Sadly, there are some people out there simply unwilling to even give this book a chance. Those same clichés mentioned in the opening paragraph of this long and winding review, the ones that put people off the Legion in the past, are counter-balanced by equally stringent stereotypes. These would be the diehard fans that do not appreciate the undertow of political and social commentary in the book, that would prefer to see straight-forward superheroics and constant trips to the 21st century for the team, and that bitterly complain about Superboy appearing in the pages of TEEN TITANS instead of in here. I guess it’s easy to relate to that. The one common thread throughout most of comic fandom is that change must be feared, isolated, and then hit over the head with a baseball bat until it goes away. If you are one of those people and wish to remain that way then it’s understandable. However, this is no aimless shake-up of the status quo. There are no “Sins Past” here, just a soulful spin on an old premise carried off with style. Take it from a fresh pair of eyes – you are doing yourself a great disservice if you do not at least sample this series.
