JLA vs LSH #1

Justice League vs The Legion of Super-Heroes #1
The Gold Lantern Saga: Part One

writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Art: Scott Godlewski

Colors: Ryan Cody

Letters: David Sharpe

Associate Editor: Chris Rosa

Editors: Micke Cotton and Paul Kaminski

It's here! The mini-series no one here at Legion of Super-Bloggers has been waiting for, but the story we couldn't stop: Justice League vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes! 

We bought and read it so you wouldn't have to. 

JLA Roll Call: Green Arrow, Black Adam, Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Batman, Aquaman, Naomi, Superboy

LSH Roll Call: 24 or more members, but no idea really, because there isn't a call out. Here are the characters whose names were given and/or had some dialogue in the issue: Gold Lantern, Mon-El, Monster Boy, Lightning Lass, Ultra Boy, Wildfire, Cosmic Boy, Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy, Triplicate Girl, Saturn Girl, Timber Wolf, Blok, White Witch, Lightning Lad, Dawnstar, and others who I think I remember as Element Lad, Dr. Fate, Dream Girl, Karate Kid, Phantom Girl, Shrinking Violet, and Sean Connery as Zardoz 

Summary: 

The Legion is being watched as they battle a Garfu. After it is captured, there is a sudden disturbance in the Force promise of Darkness and the red-haired Triplicate Girl disappears. The Legion reports to the United Planets council and the universe is on High Alert. 

Meanwhile, just as the Justice League defeats the Legion of Doom, they, too experience an end to things, but Wonder Woman manages to NOT get "pulled away." Instead, the severely aged Triplicate Girl (single, red-haired variant) appears "now." She tells them she is friends with Superboy, so Batman calls Jonathan Kent. 

In the 31st Century, Superboy shows up and won't tell anyone why they have to accompany him back to the present. It's not clear as to WHO accompanies him back, in a Time Bubble (I count sixteen on the next page) where the Triplicate Girls are not overjoyed to see each other. As the groups meet each other for the first time, another Great Darkness occurs, and this time Gold Lantern is the only one who does not disappear. 

Review: 

So, that's the story in three paragraphs. Satisfied? You the reader are either going to buy this, read this, and like this, OR you're going to buy this and read this knowing you won't like it. Nothing I can say will change your opinion. So I'll just add a few comments I had as I was reading this. 

Who is watching Gold Lantern at the very beginning of the story? Am I supposed to know? I assume I'm supposed to care. For that matter, who is Gold Lantern talking to? I kinda assume it's the Guardians, but that doesn't really make sense. And while we're on the subject, what IS a "Gold" Lantern? Is there such a thing? I know we have a whole rainbow of lanterns now, but I thought yellow energy was from Qward. If this isn't what his deal is, shouldn't DC be making that more obvious? 

I hate to say this but the art by Scott Godlewski isn't very good. The "action" where the LSH battles the Garfu....I'll send my Legion Archive collection to anyone who can tell me exactly what happened there. Gold Lantern bubbled it up? What did the others do? The disappearance of Triplicate Girl was done very, very badly. In fact, There wasn't nearly enough Kirby Crackle to show that she was being taken away. (In his defense, the similar scene with the JLA was done much more clearly.) 

Two pages of nothingness. For. Dramatic. Effect. 

Two pages at the UP session, with one whole page basically blank. For. Epic. Scale. 

The JLAers labelled and powers described, because, well, someone may not know who Wonder Woman is. (This is sarcasm. Whose asinine idea was it to ID the JLA, but NOT to ID the LSH?!?!) 

I do like that the JLA is shown defeating the Legion of Doom. THAT is the coolest part of the book, bar none. 

Who or What is "Naomi"? Should she really be in the story if she's part of the current continuity that will be forgotten in, what, two years? 

Triplicate Girl aging is another slight against the artist. Scott didn't make them look all that young, so I really didn't notice this red-haired single was supposed to look all that old. 

I like that Lighting Lad and Lightning Lass are trying to talk to the remaining Triplicate Girls. As the only (?) siblings in the Legion, I thought that made sense. 

NO idea why Superboy couldn't just tell them that Triplicate Girl #3 was stuck in a time warp. WE already knew it, and the reveal in the comic wasn't done very dramatically. Plus communication is always a good thing. 

No word on Aquaman's trident, which was, I dunno, the subject of a huge Legion story-line? Not even in one bit of throw-away dialogue, by maybe Ultra Boy? Nothing? Really? 

Two (TWO!) full pages showing that the stars of the book have disappeared.