Written by Fabien Nicieza
Illustrated by Pete WoodsSeven heroes from the 31st century have traveled back to the present day. Their mission: Save their future from annihilation. But when the future tech they brought with them fails, they find themselves trapped in a nightmarish world that, for them, is the ultimate struggle to survive!
Don’t miss the start of this all-new LEGION series illustrated by Pete Woods — fresh off his spectacular run on ACTION COMICS — who is joined by writer Fabian Nicieza (RED ROBIN)!
The Legion is lost, and Fabien Nicieza and Pete Woods have been set on a quest to find them. Or something like that. Is it another solid addition to the new DC universe?
Find out after the jump.
Before reviewing Swamp Thing last week, I read it four times just to make sure I properly grasped it. I wanted to give it the review it deserved, and I feel as if I did, giving it a 9.5. It’s been the best DCnU book so far, so it deserved what it got.
Before reviewing Legion Lost this week, I read it through three times just to make sure I properly grasped it. After the third time through, I came to a decision: there is no way it can be. This book is an incomprehensible mess.
Earlier on, I was talking to MC EIC Matt Meylikhov about the book, and about how it is the worst book so far from the DCnU. While Hawk & Dove previously held the title, this book surpassed it. Why? While Hawk & Dove was poorly drawn and filled with one-note characterization, at least I felt like I understood it.
Legion Lost should come up with footnotes in the comic to help readers understand what is going on.
I’ve never been a big reader of Legion books, but from what I’ve read I’ve enjoyed. While I recognize some of the characters in this book (namely Gates, Dawnstar and Wildfire), the rest are completely lost to me and are not even sort of introduced in this book. No one is really. This book reads like the 17th issue of a series that just so happens to be the second issue of a new arc. If Fabien Nicieza was attempting to write for new readers, he failed miserably. Scratch that, if he was writing for readers, he failed miserably.
Not only that, but this book is perhaps the most guilty about dragging previous continuity in of any book. While Green Lantern and Batman & Robin clearly brought a lot of previous baggage with them, at least their baggage was understandable to human beings who had perused a Green Lantern or Batman comic before. Legion Lost was filled with lines about a “Flashpoint Breakwall” (really?!) and about how they are coming from a time that is different than this newly divergent one (is this book a walking reset button for the DCnU?). Legion Lost completely fails at making characters known to us, let alone developed, and it also is a convoluted mess of in media res plot.
The only part of the book that I enjoyed was when two characters died, but that might have been tied to the fact that we were that much closer to this book being over.
Pete Woods’ art is nice, I have to give it that. Woods is a talented guy, and he can turn the crap he is given in this book into the occasionally pretty flower. But even he has problems, as this book is a deluge of imagery, with every page overloaded with things happening and never giving the readers eye time to breathe and take in what is happening. While that falls on the script more than likely, I feel that Woods is talented enough to make more of it work than it does. That said, when he’s given splash pages to work with, he definitely makes them work. Perhaps this whole book should be splash pages for the indecipherable dialogue to live on?
In my Batwoman review, I shared that I split art and writing into equal amounts of our 10 point scale. In that review, I gave an extra point to art because JH Williams III’s art was that great. In this case, I am going to give Fabien Nicieza negative one point for writing because it was that bad, and Pete Woods a three on art. For those doing your math at home, that is a…
Final Verdict: 2.0 – Pass
