The covers: Two covers to find, flight ring not required. The Regular cover by Ryan Sook has Rose, or is that Thorne? No, it’s Rose. She’s looking through the debris of a crashed ship or a ruined world at the panorama of destruction before her. The circular aperture creates a familiar ring that holds an L and reflection of light that resembles one of the logos that the Legion has used in past incarnations. Neat idea and tease for this book. The Variant cover is by Bryan Hitch and Alex Sinclair. This features the four heroes that are from the timelines in this book flying toward the upper right with several Legionnaires behind them. This looks to connect with the next issue of this series. A neat idea to have connecting covers, but couldn’t the title characters have received the focus? I’m just left “Meh” by this. Overall grades: Regular A- and Variant C
The story: This is a terrible way to reintroduce a team to new readers. This is also a terrible way to reintroduce a team to veteran fans. Brian Michael Bendis focuses on Rose and Thorn jumping around future timelines, trying to figure out where she is, with each persona wanting something different: Rose wants someone to protect her from Thorn, because when she comes out she’ll be angry, while Thorn wants to know where the heroes are. She’s Bruce Banner and the Hulk, though not as powerful, nor interesting. The four time periods visited are a future where Supergirl has become president, the world of Batman Beyond, Kamandi’s apocalyptic future, and Tommy Tomorrow’s high tech society. Nothing is specifically learned in any time period and there’s no resolution to Rose/Thorn jumping about in time. There’s no Legion in this issue. No mention of them, nor any sign of them. Not a one. Why bother making this book? The only thing I learned about the protagonist running about in time was that this was a waste of time. What a worthless story. Overall grade: F
The art: Jim Lee, Dustin Nguyen, Andrea Sorrentino, André Lima Araújo are the artists on each tale and inkers are Scott Williams, Nguyen, Sorrentino, and Araújo. The Lee and Williams pages look good with two double-paged spreads looking sharp: one has Thorn battling Superman and the other has Thorn battling the Suicide Squad. These are neat, but where’s the Legion? Batman Beyond is by Nguyen. For a story set in the future, this looks as though it’s in modern day Gotham City, Nguyen can’t be blamed for that because the story is split between a rooftop and inside an abandoned building. He’s also stuck drawing the hero without his mask for the half the tale, which destroys the Batman element of the tale. There’s a lot of close-ups and no backgrounds. It’s not visually entertaining. Worse is Sorrentino’s Kamandi tale that’s full of silhouettes and characters with hair in their faces. Settings are lost in dark colors. I don’t remember Kirby’s Kamandi being so visually muddled. Araújo’s art looks great because of the futuristic wonders and streamlined looks. The full-paged splash that he creates is staggeringly beautiful. Sadly, it’s only the concluding chapter of this issue. Having four different artists on a relaunch isn’t a brilliant idea, but they do the best they can with the story they’re given. Overall grade: C
The colors: Alex Sinclair, John Kalisz, Dave Stewart, and Jordie Bellaire are the colorists on each chapter of this issue. Sinclair gives Lee’s art bright colors and it makes them look wonderful. These are the colors one associates with comic books — bright and bold — and it makes the visuals fun. Kalisz doesn’t have much choice for colors on Nguyen’s tale. Things are dark, murky and colors looked smeared at times. And old fans say 5YL is dark! Worse is Stewart on Sorrentino. The colors reminded me of 80’s comics with the new paper screwing up what colorists were doing. It’s just not good. Bellaire gives Araújo’s art Moebius-like colors and it looks very cool. Fifty-fifty for colors, just like the art. Overall grade: C
The letters: Dialogue, “AND THEN…”, yells, and sounds are created by Dave Sharpe. The sounds are the highlight, with several in the second tale looking particularly cool. The AND THENs also are neat and dramatically tell the reader of a transition that’s occurred. The dialogue looks fine. Overall grade: A-
The final line: The story is pointless and makes this book a cash grab for fans wishing to finally journey to DC’s future. I was thinking this would be about the Legion, given as how that name is at the top of this book. Nope. Didn’t happen. There are seven pages after the tale that show the characters and give some of the creators’ opinions on the new direction of the series. This is a lazy way to promote this reboot. The information on these pages should have been revealed in a story, such as this comic that featured the Legion’s name at its top. Skip this book. Don’t waste your time or money. Pointless and sad. Overall grade: F
To order a digital copy go to https://www.comixology.com/Legion-of-Super-Heroes-Millennium-2019-1/digital-comic/797613?ref=c2l0ZS9hamF4U2xpZGVyL2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC8zMTUyMA
To see the covers visit my Instagram account: patrickhayesscifipulse
Share this:
