REVIEW: Legion Lost #3

Or – “It’s Timber Wolf Doing What He Does Best…”

…and what he does best ain’t pretty.  Soon, he’ll be joining the JLA and the JLA Dark, as well as fighting with Cosmic Boy for control of the team in a group schism that will shatter the status quo forever.

Or, y’know, not…

LEGION LOST #3
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Pete Woods
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Brian Cunningham
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $2.99

Previously, on Legion Lost:  Seven Legionnaires (Dawnstar, Wildfire, Timber Wolf, Tyroc, Tellus, Chameleon Girl and Gates) set out of a mission to find a villain known as Alaktor, but found themselves thrown through time, stranded in the past and infected with a strange virus.  The entire world of their past is at stake, and two of their number were blown to smithereens, while the virus has begun its work: transforming Terrans of 2011 into the forms of aliens from the 31st century.  Can five Legionnaires turn the tide against a foe that they can’t even SEE, much less understand?

“I AVOID TECH.  TECH USUALLY APPRECIATES THAT…”

When writing this review, I realized something that hadn’t really occurred to me before:  These five Legionnaires, even having served for over 3 decades, are among the latest additions to the LSH cast of characters.  For a moment, I thought that we were seeing another case of “Silver Age Or Bust”, a common syndrome to anyone who has read Legion of Super-Heroes before, but then I remembered that Quislet and Polar Boy were still active in the other monthly LSH title.  This issue has the Legionnaires holed up in a hotal room while Dawnstar seeks out the transformed human from last issue, while Timber Wolf handles the narration duties.  Last issue revealed that the transformational virus is designed to turn humans into aliens, for some reason, and we see a few horrified normies being infected (including an awful scene of a man being slowly turned into a Durlan as his face melts) while T-Wolf chafes at being cooped up with his teammates.  Pete Woods does really great work with the art in this issue, especially as Tellus is forced to create a telepathic field to conceal their nature from a waiter, and his Dawnstar is the best rendition of the character since Keith Giffen…

I TRULY HOPED THAT WOULD BE THE CASE…

There’s a rampage by a creature called a Rdrayyj (which I’m pronouncing “Roid Rage”) and a big fighty-fighty, and Timber Wolf stealing a very well-drawn police car.  There aren’t many artists who do good looking regular cars anymore, and I have to say that the car chase is one of the artistic highlights of an already interesting issue.  Timber Wolf discovers that the Rdrayyj is seeking out Durlan DNA, and also that his own body is changing, as he develops new super-powers during the fight.  The story is quite well-handled (although I don’t know if there really is a Great Mall Of Fargo) and Fabian’s work this issue helps to rehabilitate several of the problems I had with issue #1, specifically in the revelation of why Durlan DNA is important, and I have a pretty clear idea of who and what everyone’s gimmick is.  The Legionnaires lost in time thing has been done a number of times before (post-Zero Hour, notably) but we’ve seldom been given a group this diverse and deserving of a shot at the big time without a founding member or big gun on board, and I still hold out hope for the return of Gates, the last remnant of the second incarnation of the Legion.

THE VERDICT: I’M A DOCTOR, NOT A BRICKLAYER!

This issue provides a look into the mind of one of the most underrated Legionnaires, and provides us with a little bit of action and some intrigue to get us going.  There are still some issues with Alaktor as a villain and his overall reason for doing whatever he’s been doing, but the book looks good, it reads well, and the cast is fun.  It’s still the superior version of the Legion being offered (although the sister title is improving from their rather dismal debut) and Fabian & Pete are making the team as fresh as a fifty-year-old book filled with time paradox and alternate universes can be.  Legion Lost #3 leaves me with an overall happy feeling, something that hasn’t happened in quite a while, earning 4 out of 5 stars overall.  I may be emotionally swayed by the threads that may lead to the return of Chameleon Girl in this issue, but we are who we are partly because of our biases, right?

Faithful Spoilerite Question Of The Day:  Given that the team is in the recently rebooted New 52 DCU, do you think we’ll see Batman or Superman guest-starring first?