Review: «Legion of Super-Heroes» (Vol. 4) #1
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Date: November 1989
Writers: Keith Giffen, Tom Bierbaum, Mary Bierbaum, Al Gordon
Pencils: Keith Giffen
Inks: Al Gordon
Colors: Tom McCraw
My first taste of what became known by the Legion fandom as the TMK run—so called because of its chief writers, Tom Bierbaum, Mary Bierbaum, and Keith Giffen—came somewhat accidentally. I’d been reading and enjoying the reboot Legion as a teenager and, not knowing anything about the franchise’s history, reached the very logical conclusion that its story began with issue #1 of the title they’d called home. Fortunately for me, my father, an avid DC comics collector, still had that issue within easy reach, so I pulled the issue in question out and immediately realized I had no idea what was going on.
As I would eventually learn, I was not the only one to feel that way. The first issue of Legion of Super-Heroes‘ fourth volume is both dense and unfamiliar. As the first bit of text notes, it is five years later, and things have changed quite a bit, not only in the world the Legion inhabits, but also in the very way their story is told. There are no action set pieces or super-heroics. There is arguably no real plot—at least not any with a beginning, middle, or ending. Most importantly, there is no Legion.
What we do have, however, is a series of vignettes, told in a nine-panel grid that I’m told is meant to be inspired by Watchmen, but whose pacing actually suggests webcomics, beginning with a brief recap of who the Legion were, and then taking us to the situation on Earth, including a catch-up moment with Dirk Morgna (née Sun Boy) to show us that his loyalty is no longer with the Legion. We then head to the actual start of the story, as another former legionnaire, Cham (née Chameleon), decides that it’s time to bring the band back together, which he then proceeds to begin to do.
Most of the rest of the issue is spent on Rokk Krinn (Cosmic Boy), Cham’s first recruit and the closest thing to the protagonist of the story—and a somewhat peculiar one, at that. Prior to this run, Rokk often felt like The Other One of the three original legionnaires. Whereas Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl got the early flashy stories and a romance which solidified them as crucial to the Legion’s identity, Cosmic Boy was often just there, and only notable because of that.
Here, however, TMK do quite a lot in a short period of time to give Rokk some real weight and humanity, revealing that he is married (to the former Night Girl, who in previous stories had harbored a crush on him) without superpowers, stuck in a homeworld occupied by another planet and which has clearly seen much better days, and dealing with the emotional fallout of the war which got Braal occupied in the first place. And yet, to the book’s credit, the writers don’t use this as an opportunity to re-imagine Cosmic Boy as a late-eighties / early nineties anti-hero. Rokk isn’t angry, or at least not primarily so; mostly he’s tired. Even then, it’s not all dark clouds. His marriage to Lydda is as happy as it can be, under the external circumstances, and when he encounters Cham, there’s joy in the reunion.
This balancing act of light and dark is a crucial part of the book, and of the series. For all that this run is superficially akin to Watchmen, this is ultimately a hopeful story about hope. The Legion may be gone—the result, we’re told, of an organized and ultimately successful years-long government campaign to undermine them at every turn—and most of what we see of the world suggests that it ultimately failed to prevent galactic collapse, but people are more resilient than structures. Salu Digby (Shrinking Violet or just Vi) may have spent years in military prison, after turning against her superior officers (she’s a soldier now, and a veteran of the same conflict as Rokk, if on the opposing—and ultimately victorious—side) but now she gets to say goodbye to all that and reunite with her beloved Ayla (formerly Lightning Lass, not seen in this issue).
The last few pages of the book, meanwhile, are largely concerned with world-building. We get three consecutive text pages elaborating on what caused the Great Collapse that ruined everything and how the Legion ended up disbanding, and a final one showing and advertisement for high-end apartments located in what was once Legion headquarters. Altogether, they do quite a bit to show us the new status quo, the Legion’s place within it, and why it might be necessary for it to return. We also get a page consisting entirely of black panels with three unidentified—if villainous-seeming—speakers, which is the sort of thing that really fueled accusations that the book was often impenetrable.
All told, if one was hoping to find a Legion book featuring, well, the Legion of Super-Heroes, there is reason to be disappointed. Not counting flashbacks to past stories, we get Rokk for ten pages, Cham for four, Vi for three each, and Dirk for two but really just one and change—barely a squad and far from a Legion. But then, this is not a book that it as all aimed at giving long-time fans what they expected or hoped for. It’s certainly not what I was expecting or hoping to find, as a fan who knew next to nothing about the preboot.
And yet, this is also not not the Legion. There are a ton of references to past stories and lore. The cast is by and large recognizable, even outside of costume—the old characters outnumber the new. Keith Giffen is an old hand with the property, and the Bierbaums are fans, and it shows. More importantly, the series isn’t hostile towards the fans: it doesn’t look back at the series’ earlier days with disdain, as the flashbacks to the earlier days are depicted with genuine affection and respect. And while there’s no real super-heroics, there is still bravery, and determination, and even heroism, such as when Vi refuses an honorable discharge if it means being silent about the war crimes her planet apparently committed.
It is also simply a well-made book. Keith Giffen and Al Gordon’s rough art is perfect for the harsher world of 2994, and the nine-panel grid allows for some extremely efficient storytelling. Every page (with the probable exception of the first) tells a story, and reveals something about the world, the characters in it, or the tone of the story. Additionally, it has aged astoundingly well. The word may look far too white, even for a book published in 1989 (compare it to, for example, Suicide Squad, which at the time featured three Black characters in its core cast and several other people of color in its extended one), but as a story, it continues to be just as enjoyable and poignant as when I was teen—moreso, really, now that I’m actually the same age as Rokk, Vi, and their peers. Additionally, it is still a story unlike few others. While super-hero comic books are drowning in nostalgia for the writers’ and fans’ favorite stories, this is a book where it forms the backbone of the story, and one of the very few where it actually rings true. The world of the Legion had always been more dynamic than the rest of the DCU, the flow of time and change affecting its characters in more lasting and permanent ways than their present-day peers. This story, then, takes that idea to its conclusion; if it feels like everything is different, it’s because it actually is.
When I first heard that the TMK run was being collected, I was somewhat hesitant about buying it, and not just because it would mean plunking down $150 just to have these stories in a more easily accessible package. It’s been a solid decade, if not more, since I last read this run, and I fear the possibility that I am no longer a person who can enjoy it, and that their physical selves cannot compare to my memories. In addition, the TMK run was controversial, and not just because they took existing characters in new directions: one of the issues I most clearly remember is memorable because it tries to say something positive about queerness without the tools to properly do so, and I’m not at all sure how I’ll feel about it when I get there. Going by this first issue, however, I feel much more optimistic.
Chasing Sheep 
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