This week, on the Major Spoilers Podcast, the crew takes a look at Legion Lost by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, with art by Copiel and Lanning.
The Legion of Super-Heroes finds itself stranded in a distant galaxy, on the home planet of the vicious alien race known as the Progeny. While some of our heroes struggle to repair their damaged spaceship, the rest attempt to forge an alliance with the peaceful Kwai. But can the Legion help the Kwai defeat their oppressors and still make their way back home to Earth?
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3 Comments
Legion Lost was the story that brought me back to the Legion. After the fight with Mordru, it felt like the reboot didn’t know where to go, so I dropped it. I came back for “Legion of the Damned”, and while it wasn’t the freshest story concept, it felt like the books had a point again. This miniseries functioned a lot for the reboot as the Five Years Later run did for the original – it brought a major tonal & artistic shift to the series and drove it forward while respecting its roots. But that’s the DnA run in a nutshell – I’m getting ahead of the mini.
Legion Lost worked largely because it reduced the Legion to a mere handful of characters and threw them in a totally unfamiliar millieu. Unlike the 20th century team, you didn’t know who or what to expect, and the end reveal, which appeared to subvert what had been suggested as a heroic sacrifice in the first issue, was very effective. The scratchy art (with the exception of the fill-in issues not done by Copiel) made everything feel desperate and alien and appropriately dingey. One thing I loved was how DnA took underused, often disliked characters like Monstress & Umbra and tried to make them as valid as the more popular players. They also played with the history in a way I personally found nice with Shikari, who has the Dawnstar power set but with a unique design blessedly free of any unfortunate “Magic Native American” trappings. There’s very few complaints other than the fill-in artist that I have with LL; even the seemingly random subplot with the Singularity illustrate the newly found universe’s nature nicely (and do come back into play in the series proper, at least). It’s one of the reasons I will easily say that DnA’s Legion that came out of this mini is my favorite iteration of the team.
I know in the past Matthew has said that he’s not entirely fond of this mini (I believe he used the phrase “chicken hair” to describe the designs), but he has his valid reasons. It’s harder to write praise than be witty with insults, so I can only hope that I could adequately share my admiration for the series that reconnected me with the Legion.
Wow, Dan Abnett? I didn’t know he wrote anything besides Warhammer 40K…
When is the show usually recorded?