Supergirl & the Legion of Superheroes: Adult Education - Mark Waid & Barry Kitson and others

This is the penultimate Mark Waid Legion book. The last is The Dominator War but I've yet to track that one down.

This one continues the bittyness of the last volume but the understory has started to pick up speed and so I'm genuinely intrigued to see how it pans out in the the last volume. Some of the art in this volume is really pretty bad with Kitson being much less involved in the book. It does sport my favourite of all the covers though.

Supergirl & the Legion of Superheroes: Strange Visitor From Another Planet - Mark Waid & Barry Kitson

I'm not sure why they felt the need to add S-girl to the title but for the most part this book revolving around her arrival was a little thin.

Pretty much entirely made up of short tales with a small pair of narrative threads detailing the avoidance of a robot uprising and Brainiac 5's attempt to revive Dream Girl.

Waid has a nice effortless writing style. It's warm and friendly but I like a big idea or two in my comics and that's what's missing here. Perhaps it's just warming up for the next volume.

Legion of Superheroes: Death of a Dream - Mark Waid & Barry Kitson

The second volume of this Legion re-imagining continues on immediately from where the last volume left off. With the scene setting and re-introductions out of the way this time it's a much slicker story with a lot more focus. The team has finally worked out just who is making a move against the UP and is on the offensive.

There's no real depth to this but it is fun. Lot's of old-school Legion soap-opera in spaceness and a big fight scene. The characters aren't as rounded and developed as they were back under Levitz and Giffen in the old series but they mostly retain their characteristics and Waid can usually be relied on for a readable romp of a tale.

Puppet Master - Joanne Owen

I bought this book in Hay-on-Wye (small Welsh town with many, many bookshops) back in January when we went there on a birthday book-buying jaunt. What originally caught my eye was the solidity of the thing. This copy is a chunkily made hardback that had real presence on the shelf. The cover illustration is utterly abysmal but the art on the inside is beautiful, a real treat for the eyes.

The story concerns a young girl in Prague who is kidnapped by a nefarious Puppeteer who is attempting to acquire the magic powers inherent in the girl as the ancestor of the countries founder. Yeah, I know that's a terrible synopsis but that is essentially what's going on. Throughout the narrative Owen weaves several myths and legends that help situate the novel. It's gothic leanings are clearly on display and allow the novel a period feel without dating it.

It was on the whole a groovy little read with some engaging moments but the end seemed bitty and a little shoddy. Overall, fun but flawed (with hideous cover art).

Legion of Superheroes: Teenage Revolution - Mark Waid & Barry Kitson

Back in the late 80s early 90s when I was working in a comic shop in Cardiff I was loaned a large stack of the Paul Levitz Legion comics. With the exception of the dumb as fuck names I loved them. A glorious, big superhero sci-fi extravaganza. I was hooked. Later came the Keith Giffen '5 Years Later' storyline which to this day I still adore and features some of my favourite ever comic art,

End of last year I read, from the library, a Justice League comic called 'The Lightning Saga' which featured various members of the Legion. It got me fancying some 30th century action so I picked up the 2 Mark Waid Legion books from a few years back. They are a complete relaunch from the stuff I know - apparently there was another relaunch before this and another with the Lightning Saga Legion Which has taken everything back to the old time Legion with Levitz back writing too.

Anyway, the Waid Legion is a militantly teenage organisation fighting for the freedom to be unique amidst an oppressively moralistic society. It's very much the angsty emo Legion but luckily it's got a fun little story bubbling at it's core and beautiful Barry Kitson art.

This first volume takes a little while to get into the story as it spends most of it's pages introducing and re-introducing characters. Some old faves are missing - no Mon-El - and others are changed - Element Lad is even wetter and Ultra Boy is a headcase - but it's mostly a fun re-imagining with only a few wtf moments - the Phantom Girl origin is massively naff.

It should be fun seeing where he takes / took this.