Legion Worlds #3
Released June 27, 2001
DC Comics, Color
39 Pages
Story #1: You Are Here: Braal
Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning - Writers
Paul Rivoche - Artist
Tom McCraw - Colors
Comicraft - Letters
Mike McAvennie - Editor
Synopsis
After the tiny tidbit in LW1, where Zoe tells us that Dyrk has been stationed as a SP officer on Braal, we are dumped in media res with Dyrk 12 hours in on the job and dealing with crazy Magnoball fans. Nice bit of exposition on the fact that he's lost his native magnetism powers, but his SP and Legion training sees him through without the need for backup. We get a little conversation with Dyrk's partner that this is taking place within 12 hours of the events of LW1, so that's a nice little advancement of the timeline. The conversation reveals details about Dyrk's brother Omar, also a SP officer on Earth, as well as the introduction of the Footstep stardrive technology (originally mentioned in LW1). Rapid interstellar travel IS possible without stargates, but very rare and expensive.
As Dyrk and Kolkin travel back to HQ, they fly over a stadium just prior to a big game. The police captain gives the squad their marching orders, revealing the current problems on the street - ticket scalpers, drugs, and few UP's most wanteds, including two mystery vigilantes. The captain pulls Dyrk aside to discuss his posting, and the discussion reveals that Braal has a significant amount of xenophobia running through it. We're left with a mysterious panel of the captain silently staring after Dyrk as he leaves.
Dyrk and Kokin are staked out at the top of the stadium during a snowstorm, giving room for a "don't eat the yellow snow" joke. We find out that Pol Krinn is playing for the Meteors in the game below. Kolkin asks about what Rokk Krinn got up to after the Legion disbanded but is interrupted by action in the game and Dyrk finding Kroll, the drug pusher in the stands with others. The SPs follow the perp and watch the drug deal go down, when suddenly the two vigilantes, a man carrying a shield with a suspicious 'L' and a large female (its hard to tell if the other is a woman, we are just told that through dialogue). The man drops down from the ceiling and the woman apparently appears out of nowhere.
Dyrk & Kolkin make their move after the perps are taken out by the vigilantes. The last perp is mysteriously knocked out after the female vigilante points him out. Dyrk holds the vigilantes at gunpoint while Kolkin calls in for backup, while also muttering that Dyrk should have ignored the situation. The vigilantes tell Dyrk they are all on the same side when Dyrk's gun flies out of his hand. The two vigilantes split up, with the female apparently disappearing, while Dyrk chases after the man. The two tussle in a melee that Dyrk ends by blinding his opponent who turns out to be Cosmic Boy!
Back at base, Dyrk talks with his captain about the media frenzy that this is starting to generate and the question of old loyalties to the Legion. He's given orders to grill Rokk about his teleporting associate and Dyrk and Kolkin head to the other SP base where the Footstep ship is also docked. In their discussion, they talk about how bad things are and the dream of the Legion and Rokk's desire to make a difference. As Dyrk leaves, the prison is suddenly under assault by a spherical craft bouncing around and causing damage, including critical damage to the Footstep ship seen earlier that apparently threatens to explode on the dock. The ship is ejected into the atmosphere, but during the confusion, Rokk apparently escaped.
Dyrk jumps into action with his flight ring and flies to the rising ship. On board he sees Cosmic Boy, Inivisible Kid, Violet and Chuck Taine, all in their Legion uniforms. Chuck had been piloting the spherical ship - the "Bouncing Boy". Rokk refers to the crew as "Subs" as in the Legion SUBterfuge team (not the other one, Legion fans). It turns out the whole thing was a planned heist to steal the drive! Rokk allowed himself to be caught, Vi (the larger vigilante) shrunk to be on Rokk, and Lyle just stayed invisible. Rokk stays coy and doesn't tell Dyrk the reasons why they are stealing the ship, but promises to do so as Dyrk boards an escape pod back to Braal. The Subs fake the explosion of the ship and head to Earth to help their newly-returned friends.
Dan Abnett - Writer
Rick Burchett - Art
Tom McCraw - Colors
Comicraft - Letters
Mike McAvennie - Editor
Synopsis
The secondary story continues the trend of adding background flavor to the Legion universe. This tells two stories - one of how Titan has stepped up to handle the FTL communications for the UP by way of the TitanNet Relay as well as personal telepath adepts for more specific and direct communication, and another of Vice President Winema Wazzo dealing with various UP crises.
We meet Winema apparently distracted by her male telepath adept, who has been providing the exposition and explanation of TitanNet. In turn we get to see what's going on with the Athramites, who are facing economic crises due to no one buying their things, the Carggites facing a crisis of five thousand abductions, and the Coluans threatening to withdraw from the UP if the Robotican threat is not dealt with. Attempts to reach Xanthu and the AP worlds are unsuccessful.
In the midst of that, news comes of the Legion outpost's return and a stunned Winema communicates with a trio of men on Rimbor.
Commentary
By far, this is the best Legion Worlds issue to date and probably the best Legion issue since before Legion of the Damned. Everything in this story was a home run for me. First, let me start with the art. Burchett's style was solid, very reminiscent of late Bronze Age or the mid 80s. Great inks, colors and - best of all - designs. His vision of Braal is an amazing mix of Star Wars and Blade Runner. Both the tech and the people were very well drawn and it was easy to follow the action, which was presented extremely well. My one single beef is that it was difficult to tell that Rokk's vigilante companion (Vi) was a woman - it was only through the dialogue that I understood that point.
The story works so well, starting as a police procedural and shifting into a heist with our favorite characters, and the story is set up with the police briefing very naturally. The reveal of the Subs made me SO HAPPY - I literally had not been happy reading a DnA Legion title up until that point. LW1 was a breath of fresh air compared to the gloom of Lost and LotD, but - even with a stormy alien environment, this issue was like sunshine. The pacing was perfect.
I think the best part of the story is when the subs are revealed, its never specifically said what was going on or who did what - Vi was the large vigilante and Lyle was whacking people left and right - the reader is assumed to be intelligent enough to come to these conclusions on their own. Also, small details of the universe are slowly revealed, like the Footstep drive.
The reveal of the Bouncing Boy was just awesome. The only downside to the story is that I knew we were only halfway through the LW series, so the mission to help their friends would have to wait.
Similarly, this issue's backup story is also very well done. Unlike the previous issues, the details of the universe are naturally revealed as part of Winema's conversations. It was fun to see the Athramites again, so kudos to Abnett for bringing them back. The details about Cargg were interesting - more details from the quick mention in LW2's backup story, although Abnett seems to have a penchant for always showing Carggites in their triplicated form to drive the funny hat point home. It also sets up future LW stories, namely Rimbor and Xanthu. Its curious to me that the Vyrgryan crisis is not mentioned at all, despite being referred to in the two prior issues. It was also good to see Winema's scheming nature had not changed - she's a great foil for the Legion - but instead of being portrayed as somewhat hysterical as she had in the past, here she comes across as calculating and cold.
Overall, this was a fantastic comic book and a fantastic Legion issue all around. In this issue, the creative team is firing on all cylinders on every page.
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