Justice League vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes #1 – Brian Michael Bendis, Writer; Scott Godlewski, Artist; Ryan Cody, Colorist
Ray – 8/10
Ray: It’s been a while since we had a new Bendis Legion issue, since the original series ended. Now his two franchises collide in an issue that’s surprisingly fast-paced for the popular writer. Narrated by Gold Lantern, the mysterious heir to the long-disbanded Lantern Corps, he’s in the far future trying to rebuild his legacy and be a member of a much larger group. Grounding the story in a single character helps a lot, even though we don’t really know too much about this mysterious Lantern yet. But the normal days of the Legion turn abnormal in a hurry when a mysterious cosmic event strikes, nearly sucking all of them into oblivion and seemingly claiming the life of one of the three members of Triplicate Girl’s system. This, of course, is the return of the Great Darkness—one of the most feared events in Legion history, and something that immediately raises the stakes in the 30th century.
In the present day, the Justice League—sans Superman—is busy with their own minor crises. Then the missing Triplicate Girl stumbles out of a portal, mysteriously aged, and the same energy nearly claims Diana. It doesn’t take long before the two teams contact each other and are brought back together by Jon Kent for a team-up. This feels much more like Bendis’ writing—complete with massive splash pages of twenty characters talking. It’s a fine first issue, if really much more setup than plot. But as the title makes very clear, that’s not where things are going. This is going to eventually be a showdown between the two teams, and the issue doesn’t really do a good job of setting that up. Like the series that preceded it, it’s fine, but often gets lost in just how much it’s trying to do in a single issue. Hopefully the plot that comes will live up to its highly regarded predecessor of a Legion storyline.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
