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By Jason Bourgeois
Anyone reading enough of these, or who knows me really well outside of these rants, knows I have two comicbook loves; the X-Men and the Legion of Super-Heroes. The former I came to on my own, and the latter is so totally the fault of the Collector Times very own editor. Since she shoved them down my throat, I mean, since she introduced them to me back around 1996, I became a fast fan, and very soon had an extensive collection of their exploits going back to the 70s with very few holes.
The Legion has always been around in one form or another since their inception in the 50s, and like all things their popularity comes and goes in cycles. They were positively huge in the 80s, outselling even the X-Men at times, if I remember correctly. If not, it was definitely up there as one of DC's top sellers, along with the Titans. They had a number of books, miniseries, etc. Then things waned, but not before they had a modern spinoff called L.E.G.I.O.N. The series came and went before my time, morphing into R.E.B.E.L.S., which I only ever got one issue of, since again, it was before I got into the LSH.
The Legion's popularity is once again on the rise, thanks to Geoff Johns, and some others. He brought them into his Superman books, and brought them back as the version almost everyone considers to be the best; the version from the 80s. Which is essentially the original version, after some changes. Even this version is different from all those that came before, but it boils down to being the version Paul Levitz left behind sometime around 1988.
While they have yet to come back in their own series, somehow the REBELS have come back already, and have had their own title for almost a year now.
LEGION/REBELS was always an interesting book, since it was essentially a precursor to the LSH with many of the same alien races, a similar theme of a peacekeeping force, and many elements that would cross over between the two titles in various ways. Yet, the Legion was the original version by almost 30 years by the time LEGION came around. So it came before since LSH was in the future, but came much, much later than many of the adventures. Time travel makes my head hurt.
This time out, it's much the same, with a number of familiar characters to the Legion, and a few from the old book as well. Vril Dox is pulling a new gang together after his LEGION police force was stolen from him by an unknown force, a force later revealed to be the one, true Starro the Conqueror. The book is written by Tony Bedard who did an amazing job writing CrossGen's Negation title, about a band of disparate escapees and refugees traveling through space. So he knows this material well.
The book got off to an iffy start, and doesn't quite capture the creativity and imagination of Negation, but it's pretty solid work, and the best Tony has done for DC thus far. The new characters are creative, and the war against Starro, which has filled the title's entire run so far, is intriguing. The new, true origins of Starro take away from the weirdness of a giant space starfish, but make him far more of a credible, identifiable threat, which works well for the story at hand. There's something about a single, malevolent entity being behind this invasion that works a lot better than space-borne sealife would have been. Also, who doesn't love a bad-ass barbarian king with a giant sword and shadowy visage? And when his face finally is revealed during his origin story, it's well worth the wait, and quite the payoff.
With the Starro War well and truly underway, and the Blackest Night getting caught up in the middle of it, the book has really taken off from its slow start, and is a thoroughly engaging read. The art is amazing, and has an almost woodcut feel to it at times. I love this unique style the penciller has, and will definitely look out for him in the future, if and when he leaves REBELS.
Sadly, as I write this up in praise of the book, I am fully aware that its sales are not good, and is deadly close to cancellation. I hope people looking for a giant, star-faring space saga is something someone reading this might be interested, and the book gets some interest, because it really deserves it. The book is definitely worth a look, before it's gone for good.
Jason M. Bourgeois
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