L.E.G.I.O.N. '90 Annual #1

L.E.G.I.O.N. '90 Annual #1 (September 1990)
title: "Childhood's End"
writer: Alan Grant
penciller: Jim Fern
inker: Jeff Albrecht
letterer: John Workman
colorist: Lovern Kindzierski
editor: Art Young
cover art: Jerry Bingham
review by: Mike "Nostalgic Kid" Lane

Recap: In Adventures of Superman Annual #2, Vril Dox and Lar Gand travelled to Earth to find his father, the evil Brainiac. Due to faulty controls, they lost control of their ship and clipped an airliner on the way down. Superman saved the plane, but Dox's ship crashed into the ocean, and eventually, into an underground tunnel of Project Cadmus. Lyrissa, Lady Quark, Strata, Telepath, Lobo, and Phase were following in a separate ship, and were met upon their arrival by Superman. He overheard one of them mention the name Dox and became suspicious they were allied with Brainiac. He offered to help and went ahead into the tunnel where he found Lar Gand fighting the hero Guardian, who also mistook Vril Dox for his father. While they fought, the telepathic director of Cadmus, Dubblix, was possessed by Brainiac and forced to sabotage the project's reactor. Superman and the L.E.G.I.O.N. realized that they should not be fighting just in time for the alarms to sound. Superman and Lar Gand get the reactor out of Cadmus just in time. Before letting Dubbilex go, Brainiac told his son that he is on their home planet of Colu and challenged him to a confrontation. Superman tried to convince Dox that killing his father is wrong, even if that father is Brainic, but Dox did not listen and set out once again to find his father.

Action Comics #863

Action Comics #863
Title: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes Part 6 of 6 - Sun Rise
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Gary Frank
Inker: Jon Sibal
Colorist: Dave McCaig
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editors: Nachie Castro and Matt Idelson
Executive Editor: Gary Frank
Reviewer: Jude Deluca a.k.a. Sarcasm Kid

PREVIOUSLY: With the universe on the brink of war and the Legion scrambling to stop the Justice League of Earth, the Legion of Substitute Heroes are finally called into action as the Legion's wild card. While the Subs invade the JLE's satellite looking to avenge their fallen comrades, Superman and the Legionnaires finally discover most of their missing team-mates held in Earth-Man's stasis chambers. Brainiac 5 tries to free Sun Boy, but Earth-Man gets the drop on Colossal Boy and Superman. It finally comes down to Superman and Earth-Man for the fate of the Legion, the Earth, the universe, and the 31st Century.

And so we finally reach the end of this arc. We finally get the big showdown between Superman and the wannabe Nazi who has usurped his symbol for a petty grudge against the Legionnaires.

Action Comics #862

Action Comics #862
Title: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes Part 5 of 6 - Revenge of the Rejects
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Gary Frank
Inker: Jon Sibal
Colorist: Dave McCaig
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editors: Nachie Castro and Matt Idelson
Executive Editor: Gary Frank
Reviewer: Jude Deluca a.k.a. Sarcasm Kid

PREVIOUSLY: The Legionnaires discovered that Brainiac 5 assumed the role of Colu's leader to stall the United Planets from launching a full scale war on Earth. We get a look into each of the individual members of the Justice League of Earth and also discover Colossal Boy's wife, Yera Allon, has become an official Legionnaire as Chameleon Girl. Unfortunately, Superman and the other Legionnaires fled Colu when Brainy gets outed as a traitor. The universe is inching ever closer to war! 

We've finally come to my favorite part of this story arc (aside from #864's epilogue story), where for once I have more to applaud on Johns instead of deriding him.

As you can see from the cover, this issue features the official reappearance of the Legion of Substitute-Heroes, who've been largely missing since a couple of cameos in the Reboot Legion's era. But most surprising of all is Johns expands the roster by including a Legion Reject who has never before been associated with the Subs, and she happens to be one of my absolute favorites of the old school Legion applicants.

Action Comics #861

Action Comics #861
Title: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes Part 4 of 6 - Chameleons

Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Gary Frank
Inker: Jon Sibal
Colorist: Dave McCaig
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editors: Nachie Castro and Matt Idelson
Executive Editor: Dan Didio
Reviewer: Jude Deluca aka Sarcasm Kid

PREVIOUSLY: The Legionnaires rescued Polar Boy and discovered Brainiac 5 is on his home planet of Colu. Superman meets up with several Legionnaires underneath Metropolis, then are ambushed by the Justice League of Earth. Forced to retreat, Superman, Dawnstar, Wildfire, Colossal Boy, and Polar Boy crash-land on Colu, where they discover Brainiac 5 is now in total control and plans to have them terminated!

There isn’t a lot of action in this issue (despite the title), as we mainly learn about what Brainy has been going through on his home planet. Secrets and motivations of the individual Justice Leaguers are brought to light. We also learn there’s another Silver Age Legion Reject within the League’s ranks, and the status of two more Legionnaires gets revealed in the process.

The issue does have a number of references to "The Lightning Saga," the story that ran in Justice League of America and Justice Society of America establishing this Legion's return. For those who don't recall, a group of seven Legionnaires (Star Boy, Karate Kid, Dream Girl, Wildfire, Timber Wolf, Dawnstar, and Sensor Girl) were sent to 21st Century Earth to invoke an experiment involving lightning rods similar to the ones used to revive Lightning Lad. We never found out what the Legionnaires were specifically trying to do, but as a side effect they inadvertently brought Wally West and his family back to the main DCU. At the end of the story, Star Boy and Karate Kid did not return to the future. 

Action Comics #860

Action Comics #860
Title: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes Part 3 - Lightning and Shadows
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Gary Frank
Inker: Jon Sibal
Colorist: Dave McCaig
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editor: Nachie Castro and Matt Idelson
Executive Editor: Dan Didio

Legion Roster: Superman, Dawnstar, Colossal Boy, Wildfire, Polar Boy, Shadow Lass, Night Girl, Lightning Lass, Timber Wolf, Brainiac 5

PREVIOUSLY: Superman learned all about what a xenophobic nightmare Earth has become in the 31st Century thanks to a bunch of Legion rejects crying about reverse racism.

The Legion founders tried to search for Batman's kryptonite ring as proof of Superman's alien origins and were brought down by the Justice League of Earth, just like the Legion Espionage Squad were.

Superman, Dawnstar, Wildfire, and Colossal Boy hope to find Brainiac 5 and another Legionnaires being held captive in an alien internment camp that looks disturbingly similar to the Legion's original headquarters.

In this issue, we find out more about what's happened to the other Legionnaires and how they've dealt with the persecution Earth-Man and the League have spearheaded with their "Neo Nazis of the Future" nonsense. And Geoff Johns does more of what he did in the last issue, which I'll share my thoughts on later.

Action Comics #859

Action Comics #859 
Title: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes Part 2 - Illegal Aliens
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Gary Frank
Inker: Jon Sibal
Colorist: Dave McCaig
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editors: Nachie Castro and Matt Idelson
Executive Editor: Dan Didio

Legion Roster: Superman, Dawnstar, Wildfire, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Phantom Girl, Invisible Kid II, Ultra Boy, Shrinking Violet, Blok

PREVIOUSLY: A rampaging Brainiac drone in Metropolis catches Superman's attention, but the drone turns out to be controlled by none other than Brainiac 5. A blast from the robot brings forth long buried memories and Superman recalls his first time meeting the Legion of Super-Heroes when Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad traveled to 20th Century Smallville. It's been a long time since Superman saw the Legion, and now they need his help, because as Superman discovers, someone's messed 31st Century Earth up, starting with the fact that Earth's sun is red and the Legionnaires are fugitives.

I'll be picking up where the previous reviewer left off and attempt to finish recapping "Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes." As always there will be my hate/love/hate with Geoff Johns and what he did to the Legionnaires when he brought them back. I look back on how much I loved everything about this story. I can't believe I was so young, so naive, so stupid.

Action Comics #864 Review/Recap

Action Comics #864 (2008)
Title: Batman and the Legion of Super-Heroes
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Joe Prado
Inker: Jon Sibal
Colorist: David Curiel
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editor: Matt Idelson
Assistant Editor: Nachie Castro
Cover Artist: Kevin Maguire
Reviewer: Jude Deluca, a.k.a. Sarcasm Kid

I have what you’d call a love/hate relationship with Geoff Johns’ writing. Well, it’s more hate than love at this point.

Things I love: Stars and STRIPE, the variety in the different Lantern corps, Bette Kane as Batwoman, that he actually tried to do something with Duela Dent, the One Year Gap Titans, Cyclone, Darla Dudley, Rainbow Girl in the Subs, the Legion rejects he brought back, and Action Comics #864.

Things I hate: Um, actually…

I don’t wish to use this as another excuse to rant about my dislike of Geoff Johns in gross detail. I’d prefer to sum it up by saying that over the years the glaringly racist, homophobic, juvenile, patriarchal, and misogynistic elements of his writing took a toll on me around the time “Brightest Day” began and which only grew worse with the birth of the New 52. I started to hate seeing his name associated with any projects for DC, especially those concerning the Titans, the Legion, and Wonder Woman, and I would rest better knowing he had no further involvement at DC.

That said, Action Comics #864 still holds a very important place within my heart and remains one of my favorite comics for a number of reasons I’ll divulge in this review/recap.

Action Comics # 858

ACTION COMICS # 858
Superman And The Legion of Super-Heroes Part One
Title: “Alien World”
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Gary Frank
Inker: John Sibal
Colorist: Dave McCaig and Hi-Fi
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editor: Matt Idelson
Associate Editor: Nachie Castro
Reviewer: Myk-El

RECAP:
In “The Lightning Saga,” seven Legionnaires travel back to the present day (or at least, to 2007) on a mission so secret even they don’t know what it is. Not until the Justice League teams up with the Justice Society to bring them all together. As it turns out, the Legionnaires intended to sacrifice themselves in order to “bring him back.” As an added bonus, they end up bringing back Wally West and his family. Their mission completed, the Legionnaires have returned to the 31st century. And now, so have we.