fbpx
Comics

Legion Lost: Volume 2: The Culling by Tom DeFalco and Pete Woods (graphic novel review).

Seven members of the Legion Of Super-Heroes are trapped in the 21st century, having journeyed into the past to attempt to capture a rogue metahuman called Alister and stopping him changing the past. In the previous book, ‘Run From Tomorrow’, they failed. With the second volume, ‘Legion Lost: The Culling’, they have brought themselves to the attention of the Metamarines and the Echo organisation, not to mention other adversaries and problems.

LegionLostVol2GN

Chief of these for Wildfire is his containment suit being damaged and his energy body is slowly leaking away. The teleporter Gates is also aware that both Wildfire and Tyroc are also doomed to die in the past and can’t tell them their fates.

Without giving too much of a spoiler away, they do briefly return to the future but overshoot their own time period to a time when the Earth is devastated and in the remains of the Legion headquarters are statues of memorial of themselves. Forced back into the past, they have no idea if they appeared in an alternative version of the future or if they are stuck in the past. I’m still puzzled why they don’t do the Heinlein manoeuvre (he predates ‘Torchwood’ which did a similar thing) and leave a hidden message for the Legion of the 31st century to discover and come back and rescue them. It isn’t as though one of the Science Police doesn’t know but that’s a big spoiler and I shouldn’t go there.

I’m a little confused with a continuity break after the opening story when they join up with the latest version of the Teen Titans to take on Harvest and although the final part is shown here, it definitely feels like I’m missed something after their initial capture.

In many respects, this is action all the way, with only a brief break to recap Timber Wolf’s origin, which hasn’t really changed much other than in detail over the various versions. The odd times where they are shown trying to blend in really needs some thoughts on expansion although I guess today’s generation are less interested in their characters having any down-time.

I should point out that although this book was released in 2013 from the comics from 2012, DC Comics are moving away from doing Legion stories from any of the 52 realities out there, so these books are literally a last stand for the LSH.

GF Willmetts

June 2014

(pub: DC Comics. 224 page graphic novel. Price: about £ 5.00 (UK) if you know where to look. ISBN: 978-1-40124-025-7)

check out website: www.dccomics.com

UncleGeoff

Geoff Willmetts has been editor at SFCrowsnest for some 21 plus years now, showing a versatility and knowledge in not only Science Fiction, but also the sciences and arts, all of which has been displayed here through editorials, reviews, articles and stories. With the latter, he has been running a short story series under the title of ‘Psi-Kicks’ If you want to contribute to SFCrowsnest, read the guidelines and show him what you can do. If it isn’t usable, he spends as much time telling you what the problems is as he would with material he accepts. This is largely how he got called an Uncle, as in Dutch Uncle. He’s not actually Dutch but hails from the west country in the UK.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.