Well, after finally completing ten long posts on the DC Crisis stories from the early 1960s to Crisis on Infinite Earths, you’d think I’d want to move onto something which features less characters and is of less importance to the DC Universe. But, that’s not the case. After Crisis on Infinite Earths (read my very long review of it here), the universe was very different. The history of nearly all the characters had been altered and some of it completely erased. Due to that, DC pretty much had to do a series that introduced or reintroduced readers to the heroes and villains. The result of that is Legends, a six-issue miniseries which stands as a prequel to numerous comic runs, such as Keith Giffen and J.M DeMatteis’ Justice League International and Suicide Squad (vol 1) by John Ostrander. Not only that, but Legends crossed over with nearly every title that DC were publishing at the time. With that said, the six issues of the miniseries is all you really need and the only tie-in/crossover that is of some importance is The End of the Justice League of America story (Justice League of America (vol 1) 258-261), which I’ll possibly cover in the future.
Legends 1-6 was published monthly from November 1986 to April 1987. It was written by John Ostrander and Len Wein, with art by John Byrne and Karl Kesel. Lastly, I have
read this story in the Legends 30th Anniversary trade paperback.
THE STORY
On the hellish world of Apokolips, Darkseid is watching over his empire when his slave, DeSaad, reminds his master that the heroes of Earth still defy him. Darkseid then says that the people of Earth see the heroes as legends and that they must be destroyed in order for him to rule over the human race. Glorious Godfrey and Doctor Bedlam then arrive before Darkseid unexpectedly. He tells his allies that he has a job for them on Earth, before telling DeSaad to prepare the Techno-Seed and start Operation: Humiliation. Meanwhile on Earth, Professor Martin Stein is working on a nuclear reactor when it is stuck by the Techno-Seed, causing it to absorb all the nuclear energy, manifesting itself as a giant creature called Brimstone. Stein summons his other self, student Ronnie Raymond and the two combine to create Firestorm. However, the hero is easily defeated by Brimstone. Elsewhere, the Flash (Wally West, new to the job) defeats assassin Deadshot and is adored by a crowd of citizens. The Flash then drops Deadshot off to the police, before heading to Titans Tower. In the Tower, TT hero Changeling is watching a TV debate between Billy Batson and a man named G. Gordon Godfrey (I wonder who that could be), who is strongly opposed to the superheroes. The Flash arrives and speaks to Changeling about the pressure of being the new Flash. However, during their talk, the power goes out. The same happens at the TV studio, causing Billy Batson to disappear and become Captain Marvel, which is witnessed by Godfrey. Captain Marvel heads outside to find a giant supervillain named Macro-Man, who is terrorising the streets. However, the villain is defeated by Captain Marvel when he reverts back to Batson, which sets Macro-Man on fire, seemingly killing him. Batson is devastated by this. Meanwhile in the Pentagon, Colonel Rick Flag meets with Amanda Waller, who is relaunching the secret Task Force X team. Flag is shocked when he sees the candidates for the team, but Waller tells him that the old team may be needed a lot sooner than she’d thought. While Brimstone continues his rampage across the city, Legion of Super-Heroes member, Cosmic Boy, who is visiting the past, attempts to fight the creature, but fails. Then, Cosmic Boy is aided by the arrival of the Justice League of America, consisting of Vibe, Vixen, Elongated Man, Martian Manhunter, Gypsy, Steel and Firestorm. However, at the same time, people find the burnt body of Macro-Man and all begin to blame Captain Marvel, causing Batson to believe that he should never become his heroic identity again.
After witnessing the death of Macro-Man, Godfrey says on TV that all superheroes are lawless and should be banned, causing adults to agree with him, but children to disagree. Batson watches in horror as he sees everyone around him begin to believe Godfrey. Batson walks into an alley away from Godfrey and begins to cry. Darkseid watches this from Apokolips and is pleased that his plan has begun working. He believes that all heroes can be taken down in similar ways to how Captain Marvel was. Darkseid then reveals to his allies that Macro-Man wasn’t real, but an animate possessed by Doctor Bedlam, who also rigged the animate to explode when Captain Marvel transformed back to Batson. As Bedlam is sent to rest after nearly dying as Macro-Man, Darkseid is surprised to find the Phantom Stranger, who tries to tell the villain that what he is doing is evil. But, Darkseid claims that the free will which humans have is a burden and that he is helping them. Meanwhile, Brimstone fights the JLA and Cosmic Boy, pretty much kicking their ar*e’s and defeating them. In prison, Floyd Lawton (Deadshot) meets Rick Flag, who tells the villain about Task Force X. After discovering that being a member will be dangerous, Lawton decides to join. Meanwhile in Gotham, Batman and Robin (Jason Todd) defeat some criminals holding hostages. However, the police and citizens turn on the heroes, attacking Robin and throwing perfume into Batman’s face. Although Commissioner Gordon saves Batman from the mob, the Bat-Mobile is destroyed. Elsewhere, Blue Beetle is attacked by police after beating a criminal and is shot in the arm, but luckily escapes on his Bug aircraft. At the same time, Green Lantern Guy Gardner saves an aeroplane from crashing, but gets into an argument with an angry mob, who try to attack the hero, but he prevents them using his power ring, before flying off. At the White House, Superman visits President Ronald Reagan, who, despite the hero blaming Godfrey’s protests for the violence, believes that all super-heroes should cease activity until the crisis is over. Back in Gotham, the police find Robin beaten up and bruised
unconscious on the ground.
Outside Titans Tower, protests occur and inside, Flash and Changeling find Sarge Steel, who is upholding Reagan’s decision and threatens to shoot the two heroes if they don’t leave the building. They comply. Elsewhere, Amanda Waller meets with the new Task Force X, featuring Blockbuster, Bronze Tiger, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Enchantress and Rick Flag. After they are all told (with the exception of Flag, Enchantress and Blockbuster) that they are wearing bracelets which explode if they fail to comply with a mission, Waller tells the members that they are going to fight Brimstone. Meanwhile, a young girl named Lisa finds Billy Batson crying and the two both admit that they are scared by the riots. At the same time, Brimstone is terrorising Mount Rushmore, but he is fought by Task Force X. After a long duel, Deadshot manages to defeat Brimstone with an accurate shot in the chest. However, Blockbuster is killed during the fight. In Gotham, Bruce Wayne visits Jason Todd in hospital, who is slowly healing after his injuries. Although Jason believes that the people may be genuinely turning against the heroes, Bruce doubts this and leaves Jason to rest. At the White House, Reagan is unsure of his decision to temporarily ban all the heroes. Although Superman disagrees, he trusts his judgement, before flying away. Elsewhere, Batson stays with Lisa’s family for dinner and afterwards, her father begins to shout about how he agrees with Godfrey and that the superheroes are menaces. Billy runs out the house and is followed by Lisa, who still both believe in the heroes. This is all being witnessed by Darkseid and the Phantom Stranger, who points out to the villains that the humans will win as the children see the heroes as legends. However, Darkseid reveals his newest weapon, named the Warhounds.
In Star City, two arguing police officers are stopped in their tracks by the villain Count Vertigo. He is quickly defeated as Black Canary arrives at the scene, but then, one of the officers threatens to shoot the hero, causing the other officer to try and stop him. Despite allowing Black Canary to escape, the police officer who helped her is killed by the other officer, who blames his death on her. Darkseid witnesses this with the Phantom Stranger, who asks if the same events are occurring in Skataris, home of Travis Morgan (Warlord), where the sense of humanity and virtue is strong. Darkseid ignores this and opens up a Boom Tube for DeSaad to enter in order to try and defeat Warlord. Meanwhile in Gotham, the Joker is committing a robbery when he is discovered by Batman, who takes out his arch-foe with a punch in the face. Other heroes also ignore the President’s ban as Guy Gardner takes out Ms Magnificent and her Pretty Boys and Blue Beetle defeats Chronos. At the same time, inside the Tower of Fate, Kent Nelson and his wife, Inza, witness the riots, causing Kent to become Doctor Fate and leaving to help the heroes in this crisis. Back with Task Force X, Captain Boomerang argues with Waller about leaving. But Flag announces that all the villains can simply leave after defeating Brimstone, which they all do. Elsewhere, Godfrey attracts a huge crowd, speaking about how weak President Reagan is as the heroes are ignoring his ban. He then speaks about how the government needs to be overthrown and that his new Warhounds will help him achieve this. At the same time, Captain Boomerang is committing crimes in public, but is quickly beaten by the Flash and Changeling. However, two Warhounds arrive at the scene, shocking the heroes. On Apokolips, the Phantom Stranger brings up the point that Darkseid would need to kill Superman in order to achieve his goal, causing the villain and begin his plan of bringing the hero to Apokolips instead.
On Earth, Billy is still haunted by what he believes he did to Macro-Man, but he and Lisa stop when they notice another riot going on. This results in Lisa accidently getting knocked unconscious when people begin to throw things at her. Due to this, Billy decides to become Captain Marvel again in order to negotiate with the rioters. Despite the fact that this fails, and they all attack him, they all suddenly freeze, before Captain Marvel is taken away by Doctor Fate. The same occurs to Black Canary, who is fighting a group of villains named the Laser League. It then happens to Guy Gardner, who defeats a villain named Sunspot, before Doctor Fate takes him. Blue Beetle attempts to hide on rooftops, but is accidently caught by a half-naked woman, before vanishing. Watching over his city, Doctor Fate takes Batman. Meanwhile, the Flash, Changeling and Captain Boomerang are being hunted by rioters and the Warhounds. Despite Captain Boomerang being captured, the two heroes are taken away by Doctor Fate. At the White House, Superman speaks with Reagan, who has started to receive reports about disappearing superheroes. Then suddenly, Doctor Fate arrives and although the President calls him an outlaw for disobeying his order, Doctor Fate takes Superman. Back to the rioting, Godfrey is given Captain Boomerang and he asks the protestors what should be done with him. The public scream for him to be fed to the Warhounds, but instead, Godfrey moves on and decides it’s time to invade Washington. This is being broadcasted on TV and watched by Amanda Waller, who orders all the members of the Suicide Squad to either retrieve Captain Boomerang or, if necessary, kill him. Meanwhile in Washington, at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, Godfrey and the rioters shout about overthrowing the government, but are shocked when they find that Doctor Fate, along with Captain Marvel, Blue Beetle, Flash, Black Canary, Changeling, Batman, Green Lantern and Superman have arrived. Darkseid (continues after image)
witnesses this and is confident that the heroes will be defeated, but the Phantom Stranger believes otherwise. In hospital, Jason Todd decides to get out of bed and become Robin in order to see if he can help.
While Darkseid and the Phantom Stranger both have different thoughts about what is going to occur, Martian Manhunter joins the heroes to help fight, but also mentions that the Justice League of America no longer exists. Then, the fight breaks out between the heroes and the Warhounds. While Godfrey watches the fight occur, he decides to make it harder for the heroes by activating a Boom-Tube, releasing Para-Demons from Apokolips. While all the heroes go off to fight Darkseid’s soldiers, Doctor Fate attempts to persuade the protestors to leave. But this fails when a Para-Demon steals the hero’s helmet, named the Helmet of Nabu, leaving him just as Kent Nelson. Luckily though, he still manages to escape from the angry mob since he can still fly. Rather egotistically, Godfrey praises himself before speaking to his prisoner, Captain Boomerang. Godfrey attempts to get information out of the villain about Task Force X and what their exact purpose is, but he refuses to speak. This is being witnessed by Deadshot, who nearly fires at Captain Boomerang in order to kill him, but is stopped by Flag, saying that there may still be a chance to rescue him. Flag then orders Enchantress and the Bronze Tiger to defeat the Hunger Dogs and Godfrey. But, using his strong power of persuasion, Godfrey manages to get Bronze Tiger over to his side, allowing him to escape the Suicide Squad. Although Captain Boomerang thanks Flag for saving him, Flag simply punches him in the face. While Guy Gardner takes out a Hunger Dog, another one is destroyed incredibly quickly by a new hero, Wonder Woman, named Diana, the Princess of the Amazons. Meanwhile at the White House, numerous gunmen controlled by Godfrey break into the President’s office in order to kill them. They seemingly succeed and shoot Reagan in the chest, but he still stands, before punching the gunman unconscious. The real Reagan walks into the room the false one reveals himself as Martian Manhunter. The two shake hands, before Martian Manhunter leaves to aid the other heroes, who are fighting the Para-Demons. In the end, all the heroes become surrounded by an angry mob, ready to tear apart the heroes when suddenly, children begin running out to the heroes, along with the bruised and injured Robin. Lisa and the other children speak about all the good which the heroes have achieved and how adults can learn from what they do. Godfrey, in rage, shouts at the protestors to continue, before punching Lisa. This causes the protestors to be instantly released from Godfrey’s control as they see him as the villain. Godfrey realises and decides to put on the Helmet of Nabu to gain almighty power. However, when he puts the helmet on, he screams in pain as the helmet’s power is too much for him, causing him to collapse. In the end, all the rioters and citizens want forgiveness, which Superman grants since they were being controlled, leaving them faultless. Doctor Fate, remembering that the JLA no longer exists, decides that a new one should be formed. Batman, Martian Manhunter, Black Canary, Guy Gardner, Captain Marvel and Blue Beetle accept this and join, with Changeling turning it down since he is already a Titans member and Flash and Superman saying they will always be around to help if needed. Wonder Woman doesn’t answer as she quickly disappears. Together, the heroes call themselves the Justice League. Meanwhile on Apokolips, Darkseid calls this defeat a mere setback and that it failed because humans are too unpredictable. He pledges to the Phantom Stranger that humanity is destined to fall to Darkseid, the destroyer!
MY THOUGHTS
Compared to the gigantic Crisis on Infinite Earths maxiseries, Legends is rather more pedestrian in terms of its plot and characters, but that doesn’t make it worse than Crisis. In fact, it can make it just as good than the maxiseries. The story and plot to Legends is an incredibly compelling one and while the idea of the people turning against the superheroes isn’t exactly original, the way it is done here is different and works well because of it. Instead of invading Earth using all of his Para-Demons, which would be the easiest way of doing things, Darkseid basically wants to humiliate the superheroes and trick them into thinking that they are no longer wanted. This is so much better than just a standard invasion, like we witness in the New 52 Justice League: Origin story (Justice League (vol 2 1-6). Actually, quite unusual for me, I think that Darkseid is actually a very good villain here, since he leaves all the hard work to his allies like Glorious Godfrey and Doctor Bedlam, which is what he would do. This is because he has so much power and an army, that there wouldn’t be any point in getting physically involved. To compensate for this, Wein and Ostrander cleverly involve the Phantom Stranger, who, for most of the story, argues with Darkseid, fighting on behalf of humanity. I’ll get more onto the interaction of these two in a bit, as I want to highlight the downfall of a lot of the heroes as the best aspect of the story. Billy Batson’s defeat of the fake Macro-Man is excellent, and it really highlights that he is still just a kid. For instance, when he sees everyone blaming Captain Marvel for the supposed death of Macro-Man, he hides in an alley, crying about it. This is very well
written, since Billy is just a child, and everything is too much for him. Throughout the story, he is definitely one of the characters that we follow that comes across as interesting, since we see him interact with other children such as Lisa, eventually causing Godfrey to be beaten by them. Other heroes throughout the story are defeated in shocking and hard-hitting ways. For example, Robin is nearly beaten to death at the end of issue 2, which is a fantastic way to end a part as it really highlights how much of a threat Godfrey and his powers are. Just like Darkseid, Godfrey is another character I quite like in this story, despite not being the biggest fan of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World titles. Its quite hard to explain, since he doesn’t do that much apart from make speeches about the superheroes and a weak government, but I guess it has to be his downfall. He doesn’t realise the strong bond between the heroes and children and after losing his temper with Lisa, causing him to punch her, he knows that he has lost. This bond between heroes and children applies to real life, as children see heroes like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman as heroes, which I think is very well applied here. Plus, Godfrey’s demise is satisfying as its good to see Doctor Fate, effectively saving the day… for once. Now, a fantastic aspect of this story has to be its pacing, particularly in parts 1-2 and 5-6. The story starts of brilliantly and when we see Brimstone, he comes across as a genuine threat, defeating the Justice League of America, who were, admittedly, a bit sh*t since they moved to Detroit. Anyway, the story moves along incredibly quickly and the first third of the story is incredibly enjoyable. The applies to issues 5 and 6, in which we see the heroes on the path of failure if they don’t defeat Godfrey in time. Then, the ending of the last issue shows the defeat of Godfrey and the formation of the Justice League, which is a good way to end the story. The middle of the story is quite different, but more on that later. This miniseries also introduces us perfectly to the new Task Force X, also known as Suicide Squad. This is where John Ostrander’s part in the story becomes noticeable, since he is to become the main writer on the Suicide Squad (vol 1) title. Already, interactions between memorable characters like Amanda Waller and Captain Boomerang are shown to us, proving that these characters work and will work with each other so well. The same applies to the other villains, like Deadshot, Rick Flag and Enchantress, all of whom are introduced to us and to the other members. This is effectively a prequel to the Ostrander run and the relationships between the characters are already concreate. Plus, we even see the death of Blockbuster, showing us how dangerous being in the Suicide Squad is. Honestly, the Suicide Squad parts of the story may be my favourite due to the (continues after image)
characters and how they interact with one-another. Aside from all this, most of the other heroes who are prominent in the tale are also very good. Near the start of the story, the Flash is speaking with Changeling about his new duties as the scarlet speedster and how there is so much pressure on him to be as good as Barry Allen was. This introduces his character to us like it’s the first time meeting him and because of that, we understand how he feels, and he really comes across as a 3D character. There are other characters in the story who are like that or just entertaining in general. For example, Green Lantern Guy Gardner is a fantastic character, probably the best Green Lantern along with John Stewart. That’s not just because of his attitude and his fantastic dialogue, but because he still has the morals of a hero, meaning that he saves peoples, like when he rescued the aeroplane crashing down. He is a hero, with a giant ego and attitude problem, making him a flawless character (until he became Warrior, which kind of ruined things). Some of the lesser known and obscure characters also stick out here, like Blue Beetle, who joins the new Justice League at the end of the story. Lastly, like I mentioned before, the Phantom Stranger and his interactions with Darkseid are very interesting and you can almost see a small amount of respect between the characters. The Phantom Stranger can’t stop Darkseid as he is just an observer if you will, but he will root for the heroes. On the other hand, Darkseid doesn’t try to destroy the Phantom Stranger or kill him, which shows that he really isn’t interested in him, but he is happy to speak of his plans to him. This creates a rather unique relationship between the two characters and because of that, it is interesting.
Like I mentioned before, this early and end of the story has some great fast pacing, but the middle is incredibly underwhelming. This is due to the fact that the plot basically goes on hold for a lot of it and we see scenes of heroes like Batman or Green Lantern fighting villains, showing us that they are ignoring the President’s ban. This feels like padding and they don’t add much at all to the progression of the story. With the exception of the Suicide Squad scenes, the middle of the story is fairly empty. Speaking of the Suicide Squad was I the only one who thought that the defeat of Brimstone was too simple. A regular shot in the chest from Deadshot and he’s down. This is the same monster which defeated the JLA. So, either the Justice League of America is really f*cking awful or Brimstone was a piece of cake to take down. After Brimstone is taken down, we see one of the stupidest decisions ever taken by a human being. Rick Flag tells the villains of Suicide Squad that they are free to go, causing Captain Boomerang to leave and commit loads of crimes. For starters, this is just dumb for the obvious fact that Captain Boomerang is a supervillain and now that he is on the streets, he will probably be stealing something. Amanda Waller was right to disagree with Flag, I mean, look what happened afterwards. They had to get Captain Boomerang back from Godfrey, which was an incredibly risky move. I will say that Flag was right to punch Captain Boomerang in the face for that. Apart from that, there is only really one other criticism, which is Wonder Woman. For starters, I don’t know why DC decided that she wouldn’t be a founding member of the original JLA after Crisis, putting Black Canary in her place. It just doesn’t make much sense, but in Legends, she just turns up at the end and destroys a few Hunger Dogs, before leaving. Are we just meant to accept that she just turns up for a bit and then leaves, with barely any character interaction? It just feels lazy. I get that the crossovers with other titles were meant to add to the miniseries, but what if you give a f*ck, but don’t want to buy a title you hate. I mean, its like when DeSaad has to go and deal with Warlord. What happened? We are never told about it and if you think I’ll want to read a high numbered random issue of Warlord, then the answer is no.
Now, to the art! And it is… John Byrne and Karl Kesel… boring. In all seriousness, the art is very much of its time: everyone pulls similar faces, random black lines and
quite unimaginative colouring. That’s not to say I dislike the art of the 1980s. I mostly love the art of that decade, but here it is not at its best. Byrne’s storytelling is just as effective as usual, but the finishes can look boring. He does the old trick of making Batman’s costume completely black, which I really don’t like due to a lack of detail. Byrne also makes a lot of people look the same, making some pages look too similar to the ones that came before it and one thing that really annoys me is the lack of backgrounds in most panels. It just come across as lazy and it shows that not much effort was really put into this. That being said, it really isn’t helped by the fact that the story is inked by Karl Kesel. Not the worst inker, but not the best. He’s like Frank McLaughlin. Everything is in one-line weight and the finished art can look quite boring and static. The art is just about average, nothing awful, but nothing great.
VERDICT
Overall, Legends is good miniseries which has a very enjoyable story and is full of great characters, both heroes and villains. While it does slow down in the middle, the story is paced well and the scenes featuring the Suicide Squad are most probably my favourite, along with Darkseid speaking with the Phantom Stranger. That said, while the writing by Wein and Ostrander may be borderline masterful in some areas, the art is not. The storytelling is pretty much on point, but the actual finishes by Byrne and Kesel are usually quite boring. Plus, the lack of background in some panels can make everything look half-done and it does make me question how much effort Byrne actually put into this, but that’s just me though.
Story: 8.5/10
Art: 6/10
Next Week: Marvels (Marvels 0-4). Written by Kurt Busiek with art by Alex Ross. Expected to be published by 12/01/2020.
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