Legion Lost #10 review

The Legion Lost team get back to the future, but it's a future too far. A time bubble liberated from their enemy, Harvest, takes the heroes a few years beyond 3012, where they find ... no one. A catastrophe has devastated the Earth and the populace is nowhere to be seen.

Legion Clubhouse provides no clues, so the heroes decide to go back just a few years, to their own time, where the rest of the Legion can help avert disaster. Some hope - the time bubble shoots them directly back to 2012, where a strikeforce answering to Homeland Security, the Metamericans, is waiting for them.

Harvest is an interesting villain - when he's not on the page. In person, he's a corny megalamaniac, but as a backstage presence, he's rather effective. He's seemingly manipulating the Legionnaires throughout this issue, and may even have some hold over Chameleon Girl. She certainly knows more about him than she's telling, and other members are starting to notice. Leader Tyroc, though, is too busy freaking out internally over a grave he saw in his boyhood, and its connection to some prophecy or other, to demand explanation.

While there are disagreements, writer Tom DeFalco steers clear of heavy-handed fallings out. Even the biggest moment of intra-team tension has a point to it. Recent signing DeFalco is getting better at capturing the members' voices, while bringing the skill for plotting he honed at Marvel. The new antagonists here don't grab me immediately - just how many secret factions connected to Steve Trevor does the US Army have? - but we've not seen the box-ticking Trip (White Guy), Wideload (Big Black Guy) and Gunner (Girl, Probably Gay) in action yet. I suspect I'm just an old fanboy who can't get excited unless superhumans wear colourful costumes.

They do look drab though, don't they?

Drab, but very well-drawn, Pete Woods really is a force for good on this title, making every scene inviting to look at. It's a treat seeing him tackle the 31st century, even if it is a grubbier iteration than we're used to. And his Legionnaires have plenty of heroic character. Then there's the way he moves people around panels, in this case Chameleon Girl and Timber Wolf.

Brad Anderson's colours work in tandem with the softness of Wood's art to give this book a uniquely attractive look among the DC line.

Legion Lost #10 is the best issue in months, thanks in large part to the end of the truly awful Culling storyline. While Harvest's influence is still felt, the Legion are once more the stars of their own book, and with luck they'll quickly kick his arse to Takron-Galtos. The only disappointment is the ending, which aims for high drama but elicits merely a smile - I see no reason to worry. DeFalco and Woods have me convinced that this is a Legion team who can handle anything.