REVIEW: Justice League United #8
Justice League United #8
Written by JEFF LEMIRE
Art by NEIL EDWARDS and JAY LEISTEN
Cover by ANDREW ROBINSON
THE FLASH 75 Variant cover by KARL KERSCHL
1:25 Variant cover by ROD REIS
Synopsis:
The penultimate chapter of “The Infinitus Saga” is here as the fate of the future is decided in a battle between Justice League United and the Legion of Super-Heroes!
Review:
I have to preface this review with the statement that I am a huge fan of the Legion of Super-Heroes. That’s not a surprise to anyone that frequents the site, however that does mean that I am the type of reader that DC wants to pick up the Justice League United storyline that re-introduces the Legion to the New 52. After reading this issue, I doubt that, however.
From the cover, there is no indication that the Legion is anywhere near this comic. We’ve got Hawkman and some spaceships. The cover copy doesn’t event mention the Infinitus Saga, which is the story that this comic falls smack into the middle.
Inside, the comic is very Legion heavy, though, with Lemire, Edwards and company giving us a view of what has transpired in the 30th century. Dream Girl takes the rest of the Legion back to help Brainiac Five’s team stop Infinitus from even coming to pass. This is where it gets confusing, especially for long-time Legion fans.
The roll call gives a run-down of the Legion members, with Colossal Boy being renamed “Colossal Lad” and White Witch being mis-colored, which is a smite on an otherwise nice coloring job from Jeromy Cox. However not included in the roll call are several Legionnaires from other versions, including the “Archie Legion” of the 1990s- Magno, Monstress, Andromeda, Kinetix, Kid Quantum, and Ferro. XS is there, but when last seen, she was with the first Legion, having not gone with her original Legion to explore the Multiverse. Also there are some Legionnaires from the grim Giffen series of the early 1990s that fought with clones of the original Legion- Dragonmage, Computo and Matter-Eater Lad is wearing that version of his costume. There are many problems with these appearances (see below) and no explanations for their presence. I would be interested in hearing it, but based on how Lemire has told the story so far, I am not holding out hope.
The artwork is good, and as I mentioned, the coloring is very nice despite an error or two. The Justice League is completely over shadowed by the Legion, making them guest stars in their own comic, which seems all too brief by too many splash pages and double page spreads. This story highlights the Legion, but doesn’t explain them except in the most general of terms, shows characters that remain unnamed, and has them abandoning innocent people in need to accomplish the larger goal, even after being told that the team they sent back is already changing the past. This issue is a big muck-up, despite looking pretty.
This is a dark time for Legion fans, and what should have been a bright new dawn for the team is becoming a quagmire of inconsistency, confusion and mis-characterization.
*The problems with the Legionnaire Appearances: (1) Magno lost his powers and did not rejoin the Legion after it reformed following the return of the members lost in another galaxy. (2) Kinetix transformed into a Terrorform image and was killed by Mordru in Legion of 3 Worlds, the same story that renamed Duplicate Damsel (3) Monstress was killed by a deranged Element Lad in the other galaxy she was stuck in with the other lost Legionnaires. (4) Shadow Lass is explicitly referred to as being in medical stasis on Mars, yet emerges with them in the 21st century.