Legion #25
Originally presented at Comixtreme.com.
Quick Rating: Excellent
Title: Foundations
On the anniversary of its founding, members of the Legion of Super-Heroes take time to remember their past, even as several elements that will play into their future are set into motion.
Writer: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Pencils: Chris Batista
Inks: Robin Riggs, Chip Wallace and Doug Hazlewood
Colors: Sno Cone
Additional Art: Eric Wight, Tony Harris, Tom Feister, Dave Cockrum, Al Milgrom and Paul Rivoche
Letters: Jared Fletcher
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Cover Art: Tony Harris and Tom Feister
Publisher: DC Comics
Review: As a longtime Legion fan, this issue was like a visit with old friends to me. It is Founder’s Day, the Legion’s anniversary, and this issue follows several segments of the team as different storylines unfold. Saturn Girl takes a group of new Legion cadets through a retelling of the team’s past (a lot of fun for those of us who remember the old-fashioned tales of "Legion Auditions"), while other members make startling discoveries about some of their fallen teammates, and a team exploring deep space makes the most startling discovery of all.
Abnett and Lanning have been doing a spectacular job on this title for several years now, pruning a lot of the dense elements that may have scared people off. In this issue, it almost feels as though they’ve finished setting up the pieces just the way they want them and now they’re ready to really cut loose and tell their own tales. This is a perfect jumping-on point for anyone who has never read a Legion comic before - the story fills you in on all the historical points of the team you need to know, and several new elements are introduced in this issue that will certainly set the stage for the Legion for the foreseeable future.
Chris Batista has really come into his own on this title, and some of the additional art is also quite nice, particularly Tony Harris and Tom Feister’s outer space sequences. The only weak point, artistically, is Dave Cockrum’s segment, which tells the history of the fallen Legion founder, Livewire. The layouts and anatomy are a little clunky at times, and it looks a bit off.
Overall, if you’ve ever wanted to try Legion, this is the time to do it.
Rating: 5/5
Note: Good as this version of the Legion of Super-Heroes was, it still got rebooted about a year later. Fortunately, the reboot is excellent too.