The Comic Book Pull List by James West

Hello everybody! Today I begin my triumphant return to the comic book review world…let’s get started, shall we?


LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #4 by Paul Levitz, Yildiray Cenar, Francis Portela

Long live the Legion! Seriously. I love the Legion of Super-heroes. Probably because they’re based in space which is almost always an automatic win for me (i.e. Green Lantern, Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, what have you), but their very concept is so appealing to me. This is, of course, if they’re in a good book. The Legion has one of the most convoluted continuities in comic books. There was the first Legion, which existed from 1958 until 1994 when Hal Jordan went nuts, became Parallax, caused Zero Hour, and wiped them from existence…then there was their post-Zero Hour reboot, which was actually pretty good from what I remember (and the costume designs were probably collectively at their best)…and then in 2005 it was rebooted again, this time (regarded as the Threeboot…get it?)with writer Mark Waid (Kingdom Come, JLA: Year One, like every Flash book in the 90’s), and I’m reading some of those now and the story is fine but something about it just isn’t grabbing me…anyways. This current book takes place after yet another reboot, which says that all three of the versions of the Legion all exist just in different realities. The new book is about the classic original team, which is fine with me, because I think it helps clean up some of the overly complicated history. Well, to the actual review: Levitz does wonders, since these are the characters he built up quite well in the 70’s and 80’s, and each member (and there are a lot) manages to come off with their own “voice” and personality. The art is clean, but dynamic, and pretty much perfectly suits the book itself. My one complaint is Saturn Girl’s haircut…well anyway, the book just started, so if you want to pick it up, it you won’t regret anything.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #48 by James Robinson and Mark Bagley

This issue finally wraps up the Justice Society crossover where the Starheart (magic meteor that gives Alan Scott his Green Lantern powers) goes ballistic and posses Alan and every man, woman, or child on Earth with some sort of latent meta-human ability connected with magic…pretty Apocalyptic stuff. Robinson/Bagley’s run has been very on and off for me, although this issue is all throughout pretty good. Everything culminates, ties up, reverts back to normal, et cetera…and it’s done in an exciting way. I like the way Robinson characterizes, but I just think there’s still a bad taste in my mouth from when, after two issues, the great line up he started with changed. We lost some characters I would like to have seen work with each other (Hal Jordan, Mon-El), and every time I see an opportunity where they could have been used effectively, I get disappointed…also, there is a size-changing British gorilla and a gay blue alien on the team instead of Wally West, who is currently doing nothing right now since Barry Allen is headlining the Flash title. So, right now, while JLA is pretty good, I just personally see a lot of missed opportunities. Dick Grayson is so bad ass, though.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #8 by Judd Winick, Keith Giffen, and Aaron Lopresti

And DC’s currently/ consistently best book continues to deliver without disappointment. The classic Justice League International roster (Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Fire, and Ice) have teamed up with some new replacements of their former fallen members (Blue Beetle and Rocket Red), to hunt down Maxwell Lord, who has convinced the entire world (our protagonists aside) that he never even existed, let alone kill Ted Kord and try to take over the world. The book gracefully combines the comedic banter between the team mates and the very serious situation they are in. It really is just sooo good. And it comes out every two weeks (along with Brightest Day, which comes out any week GL doesn’t come out), and is about what is probably the most important event occurring in the DCU right now, save for maybe, just maybe, Bruce Wayne’s return. Speaking of, in a previous issue, Dick Grayson was shown to be doing his homework after Booster visited him. So, if he jumps on after convincing himself that maybe the JLI isn’t crazy…well that would pretty much be the only thing to make this book better.

That’s all folks! See you next time, and remember to support your local CBS (comic books store, for all you laymen out there).