I'm sure some will read this post and regard me as a Bendis-hater. Let me say that I was drawn to Bendis very early on through Alias and Daredevil. I thought he was weaving some complex characterization and interactions. I gave his Avengers series a shot and did not enjoy them one bit. Bendis doesn't write team books that I want to read. Part of that is he isn't doing deep dives into characterization.
Let me say next that I did not read his Superman run. I may have read Action Comics a little in the 80s but wasn't a regular buyer of any Superman title. So coming into Legion, I only have a passing knowledge of Jon Kent and Rose and Thorn. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Character Design
Some of the first images we had of the Legion shows characters who looked different and we had no idea who they may be. Some of that is Sook's designs and I do like some of them. Dawnstar with her new spirit wings is an interesting concept and gets away from that whole oddity of flying through space with bird wings. There was an oddity, you have to admit. Promotional art showed a character with purple skin and a halo with no indication of who it was. Dream Girl was made of sand. Element Lad was green and Matter Eater Lad was bulky with an exo-skeleton. Some characters appeared to be more recognizable. Cosmic Boy looked like he was given a slightly darker complexion. Possibly Asian. Early art showed some other characters were given different skin hues. Projectra appeared to be pink. Karate Kid was decidedly Asian. Bouncing Boy was darker skinned and Ultra Boy was a skinny boy with a somewhat darker skin tone, possibly Latinx. There were also some new characters as well. Sun Boy was turned into plasma being.
We first get promotional art of the 1st issue cover. Then in a surprising change, we see that Garth is now Black (and Ayla) and Bouncing Boy is Caucasian. It seemed to be a quick switch and...odd.
Speculation was confirmed that characters were essentially based on a time period of Legion history from the 70s or 80s. Were Ferro Lad and Chemical King members? Would there be an Invisible Kid. If so, which one. The presence of the White Witch was throwing it off and there was no Tyroc. No Tyroc.
Now, most people know that Bendis created Miles Morales, a new multi-ethnic Spider-Man. He later created RiRi Williams and Naomi McDuffie, attempting to add diversity to character. Bendis has two daughters who are Black so presumably, he created Riri and Naomi for them, or so the story goes. And Bendis seemed to create a new diverse character in the Legion, a Gold Lantern. But no Tyroc. We do find out there is an Invisible Kid. He doesn't become visible but we find out his name is Lyle.
The question I asked is why Bendis would ignore one of the Legion's one diversity characters and switch races of other characters. Now, I will acknowledge there was a version of Computo whose AI appearance did match that of Danielle Foccart. But Bendis could have also added Kid Quantum, or Gear, or XS. I know other writers have race-switched characters. We saw it in the Threeboot. It happens in TV adaptations of comics. Generally, I don't care about that stuff. I was just bothered that he didn't lift up the bit of diversity the Legion did have over the years.
However, as we come to find out with Shrinking Violet who was race-switched, it really didn't matter because she didn't have one word of dialog in 12 issues. If Shrinking Violet was your favorite character, you could have pretended she was never there.
Also, the purple girl with a halo. That's Phantom Girl and she uses the halo as a teleport portal. Now, we do get a bit from her during the artist spotlight issues. Come to find out she was actually romantically involved with Mon-El, not Ultra Boy. And that is the only time we see her phase. I can only surmise that the artist knew that has always been her power and he drew that. If this is Tinya from Bgztl, it also contradicts the Phantom Girl we got in The Terrifics in the post-Metal DCU. But really, Bendis would never care about that. Why change her powers? If he wanted a teleporter, why not Veilmist with her magenta hued skin. Or Gates?
Well, we really didn't have an alien looking Legionnaire in this version. No methane-breathing swimmer like Tellus. No energy being who has to exist in a ship like Quislet. And no insectoid like Gates. We have Blok who is a humanoid, bipedal stone creature. We have another humanoid in Monster Boy. And Doctor Fate appears alien with 4 arms, but still bipedal and we don't see anything else.
So really, it feels like the Legion of Superheroes in name only. I feel like Bendis has tried to sell the Legion to us as updated versions of our favorite characters. I don't think he accomplished that.
The Ranzzes and Inconsistencies
Going back to the sudden change with Lightning Lad and Bouncing Boy. At one point, I guess it might have been raised to Bendis why he had a Black electricity based characters, when we have Black Lightning and his children who appear on network TV and Static still seems to be a fondly remembered character. Bendis supposedly wanted to hint at possibly some lineage. Well, we later find out that Garth and Ayla are 2 of many children from a poor family on Winath, maybe in issue 6 or 7? One Black member of a Facebook group I'm in was annoyed with that depiction. Maybe Bendis meant well, but it's not that great of an idea. Also, no indication that there was a Mekt either which was one of the defining characteristics of Garth. Also, long time readers know that Cosmic Boy's family was seen more as the poor family despite Rokk being an athlete.
From the earliest promotional art, Ayla appears to be Light Lass, not Lightning Lass, complete with feather motif. Now, I have written before about my disdain of Light Lass's powers. In one scene, it looks like she is doing an actual light blast, not anti-gravity. However, we see her start using lightning powers without a reason why, even while wearing a feather costume.
Moving on from the Ranzzes, we later see the Invisible Gentleman, aka Jacques. No mention of Lyle. We see Jacques become visible and he is Black. But then he storms off panel and is neither seen or heard of again. What was the point of all that anyway?
Nevertheless, some reader points out that in some reprint version, it is no longer Lyle who announces himself but Jacques. I have to ask myself if Bendis is literally making this up as he goes month to month. Beyond that, part of the fascination of the Legion was learning these characters, their names, their powers and the origins. Some people say just enjoy the ride. I can't. It's not fair to readers to just write off some last minute changes as wibbly wobbly timey wimey.
I feel like editors should have done a better job keep Bendis on track.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium
So if you are like me, you probably bought this two-part series at $5 an issue that many thought would be some type of preamble or world building to the upcoming title. It was a focus on Rose and Thorn, a character I virtually knew nothing about but Bendis had used in his Superman run. It seemed to be required reading for the new series. And it wasn't poorly written. Probably could have been one issue though. Nevertheless, it seems to give an importance to Rose that she may be some how integral to the Legion series. But Rose isn't really developed over the first 12 issues. She does get a few lines. She is made Legion advisor, not sure why. But otherwise, she doesn't add much to the title. So for this, Millennium appears to have been just an attempt to cash in on Legion fandom. There really is very little world building in this. We get a sense of things that things have been up and down for Earth and there is a Kara Zor-El appearance but it was a total skip.
The borrowing from prior continuities
So Bendis decided to borrow bits from other Legions. For example, Projectra's name is given as Wilimena Morgana Daergina Annaxandra Projectra Velorya Vauxhall. This was her name from the Threeboot. Colossal Boy also indicates he is from a race of giants, just like the Threeboot version who wanted to be called Micro Lad. Also, we get an Earth that is constructed from a network of domes, just as New Earth was after its destruction in the 5YL version. Perhaps he is trying to sell this as a post-Crisis-New52-Convergence Legion and that's what these nods are for. Personally, I feel it is just laziness or he is jealous he didn't think of it first. Decide for yourself what it really is.
New characters
So there were actually several new characters introduced for this version. We primarily see Dr. Fate, Monster Boy and Gold Lantern. Dr. Fate is just a deus ex machina for the book and I'm not sure why would we would need both Dr. Fate and White Witch on the team. Monster Boy gets a few panels and dialog; naturally since he is a Bendis creation. I don't hate him but he is somewhat limiting. Gold Lantern was a snooze. He looks very much like he would fit into the emotional spectrum but we find out he really isn't but not through any turn of events in the story, just Brainiac saying so. Remind me why I should care.
There was also Soultaker who was some type of Katana legacy that made an appearance in Doomsday Clock and nowhere else. We seen in the early art X-Ray Girl who had quite a lot of speculation about her. She appears in a lot of panels but there is nothing said about her, she has no dialog and we don't see her powers in action. We also find out two somewhat alien members were planned from Sook art called Entropy Kid and Radius Lad. They make a few background appearance but don't even factor into the large scenes.. Comics Vine actually has some background on their powers given by Doughnut42.
Radius Lad is mute, but he is also a living antenna that can tap into a signal anywhere in the galaxy. He projects these signals as his voice , which he can weaponize depending on the signal. He also is an armored roly-poly that is nearly indestructible when rolled up.
Entropy Kid can accelerate or reverse the current state of decay of any matter. For example, he can bring a young branch to fruit instantly, or take it back to seed.
X-ray Girl can make any solid object transparent with her touch.
I guess their powers are OK but Radius Lad and X-Ray Girl sound like they would be more appropriate for the subs. Entropy Kid just sounds like Kid Quantum powers. Also, sounds like the female character has the lamest powers. Can't we just get over the poor representation of female and their powers in the Legion. Given all these characters in the Legion, the characters that appear to be male outnumber the females about 2:1 with the males still appearing to be more "powerful." Can't we get past this?
Ferro Lad
This was actually a bright spot in the title. Ferro Lad appears and he is Black, harkening back to how Jim Shooter originally intended the character. He has some dialog which almost infers he turns into Nth metal, not iron, which is odd to call him Ferro Lad. I'm a big fan of the character and was glad to see him back. The weirdest part was that previews tagged him as being a member when we hadn't actually seen him. I'm going to go back to poor planning on Bendis's part.
The title was misnamed
If you were a fan of Princess Projectra, she doesn't get many panels. Many characters don't. It's quite apparent after you read the conclusion of the first 12 issues that this series leaned heavily into Superman lore. We learn that Mon-El actually is a Kryptonian El, not a Daxamite. But that he also has Zod lineage. And at the end, Rogol Zaar makes an appearance. I had to go to wikipedia for that one. He's a Bendis creation that was a failed attempt at creating a new big bad. I've seen posts on Reddit and CBR forums and quite a few people regard him as not very engaging.
The real focus of this series has been Superboy. He has the most lines, the most panels and the most story. He's our POV character looking in on the future. For these reasons, the series should have been called Superboy & The Legion of Super-Heroes. I think that would have set reader expectations of what the series would be. The Legion are for the most part, supporting characters in this book.
My conclusion
I gave it 14 issues, When I started writing this, Future State had already been published but I didn't buy those issues. Some people have stated they were good issues, leaning more into the 5YL style. I didn't read the issues but have raid some reviews. Nevertheless, we see Triplicate Girl become Duo Damsel. *sigh* I guess we just need to rehash that another time.
I think the Bendis Legion may be enjoyed by people who have never read the Legion before. Some longtime Legion fans may enjoy it, but I see many longtime readers not. A friend gave it 6 issues before he dropped it. The takeaway is every person had different expectations of what it would be. I honestly tried to give it a chance. A friend stopped reading at 6 issues. I think it was at that point that I started to make my judgements and realized I wasn't really enjoying it.
Possibly part of my disappointment is the fact that I read very few comics these days because I simply don't enjoy them. Maybe younger generations view Bendis's writing style differently. Bendis doesn't like to show, he likes to tell you. He likes full pages full of dialog, but Bendis has a hard time in team books of giving characters their own voice. For me, it's not working for this book.
