Legion Worlds #4 Review
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Released July 25, 2001
DC Comics, Color
39 Pages
Story #1 - You Are Here:Xanthu
Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning - Writers
Duncan Rouleau - Artist
Jaimie Mendoza - Inks
Tom McCraw - Colors
Comicraft - Letters
Digital Chameleon - Separation
Mike McAvennie - Editor
Synopsis
In the same spirit of Legion of the Damned Part 2, we are treated to a three page summary of the fall of Xanthu at the hands of Robotica, including the brief history lesson of Xanthu formerly being a UP world, then signing up with the Affiliated Planets, controlled by Khundia. As in the Blight invasion of Earth, the Robotican invasion of Xanthu takes no time at all, using high technology and bio-weapons to subdue the planet to the point of hand to hand combat being the last defense.
This brings us to XS, recently arrived on Xanthu after Star Boy/Thom Kallor had been there a while as part of the Amazers. In interesting gear. Just in time to help with the fight. She comes into play with her typical rushed style, which is welcome to see after so long. She tells us the intel she's just delivered came from Dreamer, then she's off. It turns out she's been turned into a super-fast courier, a living voice mailbox, which is a pretty good use of her power.
Her journey is interrupted by forces escorting refugees suddenly encountering a Robotican patrol. The narration states that she is dedicated to preserving the lives of the refugees. All havoc breaks loose. We see acid guns and Jenni being knocked over by a pulse weapon and she is saved by Star Boy himself. The focus shifts to Thom as he adjusts gravity on the drones to turn them into weapons and flattens the advancing robots. Meanwhile, Jenni sends word of an inbound escape route by way of Insect Queen digging tunnels in the form of a giant bug. The effort takes its toll on her, and she collapses unable to close it behind the Xanthian forces. That leaves Thom to collapse the tunnel. (to cool effect)
Back at Xanth Prime, the heroes return and attend to the casualties, including Insect Queen, all while under constant energy bombardment. We meet Q'Bahl, telling us that they've saved roughly 8 million refugees, which seems horrific with a planet in the billions, but they are at the point that they must evacuate the refugees due to food concerns. Thom and Atmos listen to the evac plan. The invaders have their own force screen around Xanth Prime's which will crush the city when unprotected.
We are now introduced to Dreamer, aka Nura. We learn that she's been able to pinpoint the enemy shield source because her precognitive powers have been amplified, and that she's the main reason so many have survived. Arguing with a Khundian major, Krex, Jenni reiterates her philosophy to not kill. Nura foresees Krex's death. We get a nice moment with Nura and Thom before shifting to the next mission.
The Robotican army advances. Jenni moves to scout ahead, but her super speed creates a wake that the enemy can detect. All hell breaks loose (again), and Thom, Atmos and Insect Queen join the fray. Atmos has turned into a berserker from rage, and Insect Queen is almost killing herself with fatigue. XS and Star Boy enter the generator quipping the whole time, joined by Atmos. Jenni finds the control room but is attacked by the AI, who is in turn attacked by the Khund strike force. Jork has the opportunity to eliminate the AI, but Jenni stops him, saying a captured AI may provide more intel. Cue a "I want my honor" speech from the Khunds. Thom increases the mass of the generator so that it drops down into the planet to be crushed.
Back at the city, we are told that the mission was a failure due to the enemy regrouping, eliminating the launch opportunity, but the captured AI may enable the Xanthians to fake a signal out and get the launch window back. Major Krex again asks if saving any AIs is really worth it due to the sheer destruction without any communications to the Xanthains that the Roboticans have wrought. Then, in a ping pong, we're told by Atmos that there are too many forces in orbit. Thom proposes to stay as part of a rearguard action to enable the evac to happen. Nura and the Khunds agree that Thom should go.
The evac begins, and Thom realizes they won't make it all out in time. Thom and Jenni stay behind to help Jork as Nura is whisked away, even as Jork meets his predicted fate. The evac proceeds and all eight million leave Xanthu. (At close to light speeds... six weeks to the Khundian border, let's not talk about relativity...) Nura looks back at the planet in tears, as we're left with a cliffhanger where Jenni and Thom are surrounded by Robotican Forces.
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Story #2 - War Makes us Weapons
Dan Abnett - Writer
Rick Leonardi - Penciller
Al Williamson - Inker
Tom McCraw - Colors
Comicraft - Letters
Mike McAvennie - Editor
Now, she's undergone serious combat training in addition to the wakefulness. She never sleeps, even when she's - ahem - sleeping with Thom. She sees her visions in real time and, apparently, aren't wrong. In addition to Nura, Thom has also been powered up, having refined his skill set for the war effort, and Thom's concern for Nura's bad dreams in Widening Rifts has led them to this moment. Apparently she had a dream about the rift, and Thom blames himself for not being with the Legion. She also predicted the Robotican invasion.
The final bit of the story shows her vision of the end of Xanthu, Naltor, The Infinite Man Progenitor, Shikari, and most ominously, a memorial to Star Boy.
Commentary
This issue was a bit of a mixed bag for me, but overall very enjoyable, much more so than when I first read it many years ago (even when I did a quick scan of it a few months ago). The primary story's art was again, serviceable, but as in LW1, I found that the art worked better for the environment and technology versus the people. I was very distracted by Jenni's design, for example, but I thought the art worked very well for the Robotican forces as well as the level of destruction and the Xanthuan environment. It is interesting that most of the LW primary stories so far have been one illustrator doing the pencils and the inks. I have found so far from this series that I seem to enjoy stories with separate inkers better than the single illustrator method.
As to the story, I wasn't in love with how this opened. We get yet another variation of the intro of Legion of the Damned where the main planet falls within hours, so it's DnA going back to the Warhammer well to bust up a planet again. I wasn't a fan of LotD, and this was not a good way to begin the tale for me. The beginning was also a bit confusing as the narration seems to show the pictures of how the invasion happened, but it seems to end up being a slow zoom in on XS herself.
At this point, the story picks up. Jenni's rushing around acting as a voice mail courier, which is a pretty cool idea, given the scenario. That being said, games of telephone always end in problems, so its not perfect. The narration following Jenni is good, as we hear what they are doing and how, using forces like Insect Queen to evacuate refugees, and leveraging Star Boy to crush the robot forces. I noted that Jenni says "mate" to a soldier, so it made me wonder if she had a British or Australian accent. :)
The banter between Thom and Jenni during this whole story was casual and fun, giving the story a much needed lighter side.
During the evacuation briefing scene, I kept flashing to the Empire Strikes Back evacuation from Hoth. Nura's intro was cool, and its immediately clear that she's not the same Nura that we're used to seeing pre-DnA (which is a good thing).
The next scene where the strike force goes after the shield generator, had a neat Terminator future style to it. Jenni's speed also being her weakness - her wake giving away her position - was well done. And the one-pager sequence of Thom crushing the generator was excellent. I also liked the idea of capturing the AI and mining it for information. I'm not really sure about what Atmos' purpose is during this section.
The final sequence is also done well, with Jenni and Thom in a big cliffhanger situation. I was a bit frustrated with the exposition of "close to light speeds" leading to a six week travel time to the border. Seems to me that the Xanthuan refugees would be sitting ducks to the Robotican forces at that point. I'd have flipped the ending so that the last panel was that of Thom and Jenni, but that's just me.
I found the second story, about Nura and how she amped up her powers, to be MUCH more compelling and interesting versus the main story, which had some plodding parts to it. Nura's story is very well told, very well drawn and is a page turner. I love how DnA turned Nura into something of a badass. It's probably the best thing they did for their run - actually improving on a character as part of their deconstruction.
Interestingly, this is the first LW story where the return of the Lost Legionnaires is not mentioned.
Overall, the main story is good, but I found a bit of a mixed bag from a pacing perspective. I enjoyed the secondary story much more, which is the first time that has happened as part of this series.
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