The Legion #1

Released October 24, 2001
DC Comics, Color
22 Pages

No Place Like Home
Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning - Writers
Oliver Coipel - Pencils
Andy Lanning - Inks
Tom McCraw - Colors
Comicraft - Letters
Mike McAvennie - Editor

Synopsis

The story begins immediately following the end of the primary story of Legion Worlds #1, one year after the Rift disaster and follow the public's reaction to the Legion Outpost's re-entry into earth's atmosphere.  Oversight is attempting to destroy the object but M'Onel tells them to stand down, as he is guiding the Outpost to as safe a landing as possible, avoiding the Metropolis skyscrapers.  He is able to guide the careening craft into a controlled crash landing in an empty park as helicopters over overhead.  The Lost Legion emerges and we get a two page reaction spread of media coverage, including discussion of homeworlds, powers, the Legionnaires killed in Lost - and Gates.  The world also meets Shikari.  

Venge and the Oversight Watch arrives (three of whom we met in LW 5), and M'Onel leaves with his new teammates to deal with a crisis in India while Venge remains. The Legionnaires board Venge's 'jet', and Shikari marvels at Metropolis, Cham marvels at the post-Blight recovery, and Brainiac tells Venge they may need a moment to adjust.  Venge drops the bomb that Brande is no longer president. 

Shifting to McCauley, he appears frustrated with the Legion's return. Repulse thinks they have no credibility, but McCauley feels otherwise. As his shuttle arrives at UP Congress, his motorcade is attacked by Corvan with his Oversight Watch completely occupied elsewhere.  McCauley is held hostage when suddenly Ultra Boy comes out of nowhere to neutralize the immediate threat, while the rest of the Legionnaires follow while Kid Quantum, Wildfire and Shikari take wave 2, with Cham, Brainy and Umbra all following up, each getting a chance to showcase their powers.

The crowd goes wild, and the Oversight Watch arrives after the Legion has taken care of things. Repulse and his crew immediately butt heads with the Legion (as before) and McCauley tries to mediate the situation; the Legion stole OW's thunder, but the Legion did a great job.  Vigo and Trudy, our newscasters from LW1, walk us out of the scene.

The Legionnaires go to get debriefed, and Shikari gets to be put under a microscope, so she is separated from them.  Luornu Durgo attempts to visit her friends and is shut down by security guards.  The Legion is on their way to Forte Hill via some kind of rail transport when Imra suddenly wakes up (she'd been dormant since the landing) warning of a trap as their train car apparently explodes.

Commentary

So this is the start of the new series!  For a #1 issue it checks off all the boxes - good pacing, introduces the characters really well for brand new readers, both on the level of background of what came before as well as what their specific powers are and how they work.  The immediate antagonists, beyond the obvious Corvan terrorists, are the Oversight Watch folks.  The issue had great pacing and I never felt the story drag at all, and ended with a good cliffhanger.  I definitely want to get to the next issue.  

Big points for the crash scene - very well done, as well as the media reaction spread. It summed up a good chunk of the Legion's story in two pages, although it still mainly focuses on DnA content.  I liked how subdued the Legionnaires were given what they had just been through.

The early McCauley pages I quite enjoyed, as he is clearly frustrated with the Legion's return, and even more so when he's taken hostage, as he knows the Legion is on the way.  The "oh no, not now" got a chuckle out of me. 

The next several pages of the fight sequence did a great job showcasing what everyone does.  I think its a textbook example of how to do this kind of introduction in a #1 story.  

Story-wise my main criticism is one around the diversion.  Repulse is shown to jet out very soon before McCauley lands, yet is already in India when the attack happens?  What is the Oversight Watch using to fly?  He could have easily come back to assist, and in fact, I was expecting to see him.  Obviously from a story perspective it was the mechanism to get the Legion to the rescue, but it opened a pretty massive plot hole for me.

I'm still not in a good comfort zone with Coipel's pencils.  He's massively improved in the almost 2 years since the first Legion of the Damned issue appeared, but I think his work here is a bit to rough and angular for my tastes.  Maybe it will be different with another inker, I don't know. He is one of those artists that seemed to be used a lot by McAvennie at this point in time that seemed to do better drawing environments and technology versus characters.  His cityscapes and technology were pretty good.  That being said, I kind of had an issue with his helicopters and an osprey-looking aircraft, which made it much too 20th century military for my tastes in a sci-fi book set in the 31st.  The prior art teams (mainly Moy) did a better job creating a more futuristic environment, so it made me wonder if the directions for the copter and Osprey were written in the script given DnA's penchant for quasi-military features in their narratives (not the first, nor last, time I wish I could see the script given to the artist for these things).

Overall, I'd give it a solid B due to the story and art criticism above, maybe a B+.  Great start for the new series, for sure.