On August 25, DC Comics released Legion of Superheroes #8. The issue is written by Brian Michael Bendis, who is joined by colorist Jordie Bellaire, letterer Dave Sharpe, and so so many artists, including Evan “Doc” Shaner, Jeff Lemire, Jöelle Jones, Liam Sharp, and Alex Maleev, among others, each doing one page per artist.
Legion of Superheroes #8 was billed as an artist extravaganza, and as indicated above, contains the work of a number of notable DC artists.
That’s fine enough, but it falls a little flat due to the unexceptional nature of the story. There are some flashbacks to previous Legion auditions, the Legion defeats the king of Rimbor, some drama happens with Mon-El and Cosmic Boy (separately), and then President Brande puts the Legion on trial.
Extraordinary revelations include the fact that Mon-El is a descendant of Jon Kent, which longtime Legion fans may balk at given that it erases the Daxamites from Mon-El’s history. However, perhaps Bendis will address this in the future.
While the story itself is a bit lackluster, the artists bring their A-game to this issue. Some stand out pages includes Dustin Nguyen’s, with his Dream Girl sequence, Darick Robertson’s Timber Wolf page, and Michael Allred’s Ferro Lad, each of whom is joined by Bellaire on colors.
Nguyen’s page showing Dream Girl’s Legion audition is gorgeous because of the golden glow given to Dream Girl and the effects added to the page when she shows the Legion how she sees them. At the same time, the Timber Wolf sequence is quintessential Robertson, which has about as much blood and viscera as you’d expect him to add into a Legion story. While Allred’s style is a bit cartoony, longtime Legion fans will enjoy seeing Ferro Lad take center stage.
Of course, the lettering in Legion continues to be gorgeous, making this Legion book look truly alien and genuinely futuristic.
While the writing in this issue falls somewhere between “by the numbers” and “a bit all over the place,” each artist creates a very unique looking page. It would’ve just been nice if the issue had a more noteworthy story.
What did you think of the Legion of Superheroes #8? Tell us in the comments below!
