Legion Worlds #6 Review

Released September 26, 2001
DC Comics, Color
39 Pages

Story #1 - You Are Here:Rimbor
Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning - Writers
Kilian Plunkett - Artist
Tom McCraw - Colors
Comicraft - Letters
Mike McAvennie - Editor

We follow the typical LW intro exposition, but this time its Tinya Wazzo thinking about husband Jo Nah's advice of never leaving the Q as an image of Jo is imposed on the background of the establishing shot.  Tinya flies into the foreground.  Sure enough, she is spotted by the Cobra gang, who cat-call her.  Following her husband's remembered advice, she keeps moving but flies right into another hovercar.  She phases to pass through it, but her little bundle is not so lucky.  Tinya herself ends up somehow landing in an alley. The bundle was gelato, but now the gang-bangers are surrounding and threatening to rape her.

Out of nowhere, the Vipers are attacked by a "Wolf" on the Cobra "turf" with an assist from Tinya herself.  Tinya and her rescuer talk about how it was stupid to go wandering outside the "Q" (so the newcomer and Jo's advice were both ignored) and Tinya at least admits it was stupid.  But she had a craving for gelato as, it is now revealed, she is VERY pregnant.  Why she didn't ask her friend to get it for her is beyond me.  But her friend again reinforces the advice that Jo had given her over a year ago - DON'T GO OUT ALONE. 

We now visit three men looking for Tinya.  These three appear to be the same three who spoke with Winema Wazzo at the end of the LW3 backup story.  They hold a Jinx-dog, a Durlan animal who is a great tracker when a target's DNA is provided to it.  And this hexaped has a replica of Tinya's head sticking out of the side of its body! The exposition notes that it has a "bio-sympathetic nature" which is what causes the head replica.  A bunch of Emerald Dragons threaten the three men - wearing Ultra Boy's sign as he was apparently a member of that gang. THe three men then reveal their secret - they are not humans, but rather wearing human "suits"; one is a Dominator, one is a Gil'Dan in a robot suit, an another is a very burly man. One assumes they disposed of the Emerald Dragons.

The next scene takes us to the Wolf Gang den, where Tinya has returned.  Her savior, Brin, shows concern over Tinya and wants to take her to the doctor. She apparently shoud not be phasing while pregnant (nor should she be dropping several stories into an alley).  We get a little more backstory here- she's with the Wolf Clan because Tinya apparently saved Brin's life, so her being there is something of a life debt going on here.  We do get recognition (thankfully) that Tinya is half Carggite, which is part of why Brin is so concerned.

Tinya rests in little Hubble's room, and the readers are finally given some backstory exposition. After the rift incident, Winema took control of Tinya's life for four months, so naturally she ran away to the biggest crime den in the galaxy looking for traces of her husband's life.  She started asking around about his people, got in immediate trouble and somehow met Brin.   

The hunters, again in their human suits, field a call from Winema on Earth.  True to form, Winema insults her daughter and reveals that she declared Winema legally incompetent.  

Brin and Tinya discuss their owing each other their lives before a meeting Tinya is about to have.  Apparently in the event where Brin saved Tinya, Tinya also saved Brin on a "wild night."  Tinya goes in to meet Jo's mother. The reboot Jo is apparently a bastard child who ran away from home. Tinya wants to try and connect with Jo's family for emotional support. She tells the woman (unknown if this is Mytra) that she is the VP's daughter, who naturally then wants a payoff.  She phases away, hurting herself, before Brin comes in to break it up.

Back at the Wolf Lounge, the crew is starting to freak out about the baby coming.  Then news comes of the Legion returning to Earth!  And Tinya's going into labor!  One of the crew rushes to get the doctor, but is attacked by the hunters who have tracked Tinya to the Wolf hideout.  The hunters burst in and, finally, address Brin fully - Brin Londo, AKA Timber Wolf. Xoth (the Dominator), Swool (the Gil'Dan) and Kuga (the other guy), along with their Durlan hound are here to take Tinya.  

The climactic fight sequence begins and it turns out, Kuga is a Carggite, so triplicates for the fight.  Xoth enters Hubble's room to examine Tinya. He's just after the baby, as no money was offered for Tinya herself, threatening to deliver the baby as a C-section without the anesthesia.  Brin goes into Timber Wolf mode and dispatches Kuga, then focuses on Swool. 

We are given exposition telling us that the Jinx-dog is growing more like Tinya, so is sharing birth pains and, as we see, a maternal protectiveness, so jumps at Xoth, grabbing him and pushing them both out the window.  Tinya cries out to Jo and the baby suddenly appears above, and outside, Tinya's stomoch.  Brin struggles with Swool, who then is dispatched by Tinya phasing through his exo-suit, damaging it and saving Brin.  Mother looks amazing and the baby is fine.

What is apparently the next day, Brin and Tinya (now wearing her Legion jumpsuit) are headed back to Earth, having pilfered the hunters' tickets on the new Footstep Liner that happened to be at the starport. They leave both having found something in each other and toss about baby names.

Story #2 - A Moment Here
Dan Abnett - Writer
Mike McKone - Pencils
Marlo Alquizza - Inks
Tom McCraw - Colors
Comicraft - Letters
Mike McAvennie - Editor

This story takes place a year prior, at the memorial of the Legionnaires lost in the rift.  Newly elected President McCauley dedicates the memorial and disbands the Legion in one fell speech.  He offers travel to anyone who wants to return to their home.  Then the narrative splits.  Rokk and Ayla muse about hope; Val takes Andy under his wing for his journey; Tinya and Lyle confer, where Lyle tells Tinya he knows she's pregnant; Dyrk, Shvaughn and Zoe discuss Dyrk becoming a Sci-Cop and Zoe enlisting, with Shvaugn seeming a bit resistant; Vi and Jeka talk about Saturn Girl and how so much has changed; M'Onel meets with Venge. 

Rokk tries but fails to give one of his pep talks.  Luornu suggests they keep the flight rings based on a recording she received from RJ Brande, who gives the speech Rokk couldn't about how the Legion is a state of mind, a belief that they all share. 

A year later the lost Legionnaires return, and we end with "The Beginning..."

Commentary

So let me start with the art. The art is great in the lead of this issue.  Sets the perfect tone of a sci-fi urban sprawl gone horribly wrong, yet still busy.  A lot of used, dirty tech, like in Star Wars.  It very much reminds me of Nar Shadda from the Star Wars universe; a densely populated, dirty city, lots of species of aliens, lots of bars, lots of flying cars.  It was also easy to tell who was who in the different scenes, and the action storytelling worked really well, so big kudos to Plunkett.  Brin handles his opponents in spectacularly brutal fashion throughout the story and I was glad to see Tinya taking action and agency.  The only thing I wasn't a fan of was "ghost Jo" in the sky at the beginning.  He looked weird to me.

I'll put the bottom line up front here.  I have always disliked the reboot Tinya Wazzo.  I dislike entitled rich kids getting everything they want, making bad decisions and coming out without serious consequence - OR - having serious consequence but then not learning from that.  And this ABSOLTUELY holds true in this story - which means that DnA did their characterization spot on here.  

This was a mostly fun read of a story because it was set up so well and the little tidbits of background were strung out through the tale like breadcrumbs, so the reader has to progress through to get the entire story. I was a bit surprised they didn't spend more time with the Emerald Dragon gang, but I guess they wanted to put most of the focus on the new Timber Wolf, which was fine with me.  I ended up liking this Brin more than I thought I would - he's ferocious in combat, but has a heart of gold and a light side as well, which was nice to see. 

The good bits here:

The hunters in their humans suits was a good call back to the backup LW3 story as well as being creepy as hell.
The gag about towels and hot water.
The hacker kid in the Wolf lounge.
The "I know Tri-Jitsu" "Do you know first aid" exchange was great.

The not so great bits:

Most everything was in Interlac, but some stuff was using our Latin alphabet that seemed out of place.
Tinya's horrible judgement was on display from the very first panel here, from going out herself for gelato, to talking to Jo's mother, hell, to running away to Rimbor in the first place (I know - shut up, Jim, then we don't get a story).
I feel like Tinya as a teen mom is a bad idea, so I'm curious to see where they take this.  In most sci-fi, kid characters (as in ten or younger) don't fare well. 

Granted that this was published just before 9/11 but Tinya & Brin stealing the plane tickets felt weird now. 

I may have missed this, but what the hell is a 'Q'?

Where this issue completely steps on the rake is the bit with the Jinx-dog.  Waiting to the very end to tell us the species also develops the same feelings as the host is a massive Deus Ex Machina and undercuts a lot of the story.  They could have done a better job of developing that aspect of the animal along the story rather than a) hinging it all on the word "sympathetic" and b) springing that on us at the end.  I don't know, have it sniff out the gelato or something.  It also would seem to me that aspect may make them a not-so-great hunting animal.  

Overall I *did* enjoy the story, mainly because of Brin.  Hated the magic dog bit at the end, and in the end Tinya walks out into the sunshine.  Who knows if she's really learned any life lessons at this point?

One thought that occurred to me when reading this - we saw the action in Ayla's story from when she escaped the outpost.  It would have been great to have seen what happened with Tinya, as she and Vi were separated from Jo in a big explosion.  I'm assuming its a "we'd rather not bore you with the details of our escape" kind of situation, but given the fact that Jo and Tasmia got trapped and Vi and Tinya didn't, it seems like a big deal.  Also having Vi and Tinya in the same escape pod as she freaks out would have been interesting.

Another interesting aspect that occurred to me - the writers have an interesting opportunity to set up a love triangle with Brin, Tinya and Jo. Personally, in this story, I felt like Brin and Tinya have a million times more chemistry than Tinya and Jo EVER had in the reboot, so that can be a great angle to go down from an inter-team perspective.  Especially since the "bad boy Jo" kissing both Shvaugn and Imra have already been introduced.

Secondary Story - this was probably the best backup story of the six, as it ties the whole series together. The only section that felt out of place was the Vi and Sensor chat, as it didn't really seem to mean anything to the rest of the Legion World stories.

It was nice to see a couple glimpses of Lori Morning, dressed in purple. Never to be seen again.

And the ending was pitch perfect.  I found myself getting a bit emotional reading Brande's speech, especially after the long, dark ride of DnA beginning with Legion of the Damned, then leading into the Legion's return.  It definitely left me wanting to see what's next.  This backup, paired with Lost, shows that DnA were really starting to get a handle on some of the rhythm of the Legion here.

The art, however, on the backup was very uneven.  Some art, like McCauley, and Brande, was great.  Other faces, like Vi, XS, Zoe were all over the place and I found it jarring.

So, of the six issues, I'd rank this second, but a very close second, to LW3.  I feel like LW3 you could pick up and have a fun sci fi superhero story and have it all be self contained, especially in the backup.  LW6 is great, but to get the full effect, you HAVE to have read all five prior issues.  

Looking back at the series its very evident that these are all done to set up plot elements for the up coming monthly title (which we'll get to soon, of course), so I'm interested to see what gets picked up and how.