Writers: Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning Artists: Chris Batista, Eric Wight, Tony Harris, Tom Feister, Dave Cockrum, Paul Rivoche, Leonard Kirk (p), Chip Wallace, Robin Riggs (i)

Publisher: DC Comics

Pity us devoted Legion of Super-Heroes fans. Not only does our beloved band of teen-aged super-heroes from the future get re-booted/re-launched/re-imagined every five years, but the title gets completely shafted when it comes to trade paperbacks. While other similarly tiered DC super-hero titles like Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, JSA, JLA and Teen Titans have their monthly issues collected into trades regularly, Legion of Super-Heroes over the past twenty years have had a whopping total of TWO trade paperbacks published: The Great Darkness Saga (which collects the Legion’s first encounter with Darkseid, arguably the greatest Legion story ever told) and The Beginning of Tomorrow (which collects the opening issues of the 1994 Legionnaires/Legion of Super-Heroes reboot). And that’s it.

(Okay, okay, I know, that’s not really “it.” DC Comics *HAS* published twelve hardcover Legion of Super-Heroes Archives volumes (more than any other Archive subject), and I’ve been assured that more are on the way..., so don’t pity us too much.)

The publication of Foundations should then have us Legion fans tickled, right?

Wrong. Quite the opposite actually. Most Legion fans would contend that several other DnA (Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning) story arcs are far, FAR more deserving of a trade paperback than Foundations. The list starts with Legion Lost (the twelve issue 2000-1 mini-series whose individual issues for a long time now have fetched a high price on Ebay) and would include Legion Worlds, “Legion of the Damned,” and the Ra’s Al Ghul story arc that opened the 2001 The Legion re-launch. Hell, one could argue that the five issue Universo story arc “Dream Crime” that appeared in The Legion immediately before “Foundations” is more deserving to be collected in a trade paperback.

Of course, the one component featured in Foundations that these other story arcs lack is... Superboy. The “Boy of Steel” returns to the super-group whose formation he inspired in pre-John Byrne/Mike Carlin Man of Steel continuity*. According to DC marketing executives, the presence of Superboy in this story arc justifies a trade paperback. The Legion #25 (the first appearance of Superboy in the series and the initial chapter of the “Foundations” story arc) DID sell more copies than any other DnA Legion issue before or after it, so even if I find fault with DC marketers’ taste in Legion stories to collect into a trade, I cannot fault their logic as they did choose to collect the issues of The Legion that sold the best.

“Foundations” begins intriguingly enough (SPOILER WARNING!) as three costumed youths (resembling the early-Silver Age versions of Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy) approach teen-aged Clark Kent on the streets of 20th century Smallville and “expose” him as Superboy. The scene replicates the Legion of Super-Heroes’ very first appearance in 1958’s Adventure Comics #247, and Eric Wight perfectly conveys here a Silver-Age ambiance. However, unlike the original encounter from 45 years ago, THIS Clark Kent doesn’t understand what these strangers are talking about. “I don’t HAVE a secret identity!,” he cries. So the three Legionnaires take young Clark into the future to show him his destiny. The next 33 pages (drawn by Chris Batista, Tony Harris with Tom Feister, Dave Cockrum, and Paul Rivoche) present the 31st century Legion of Super-Heroes and their “Foundation Day” activities: remembering their dead, indoctrinating their new recruits, and thwarting an attack on the United Planets’ President’s starship “yacht.” These pages sufficiently bring a new reader up to date on what has happened to the Legion recently and what lingering problems confront the team. The Legion also discover Superboy (a.k.a. Kon-el) floating in space and a teammate thought dead resurrected in a bizarre way. The final two pages of the issue are the kicker though. Returning to teen-aged Clark Kent and his strange companions, the final two pages (drawn again by Eric Wight) reveal that Clark wasn’t brought to 31st century Metropolis..., but 31st century Apokolips.

Again, the first issue of this “Foundations” story arc really sets matters into motion in an intriguing way. Unfortunately, the story drags on for the next five issues in redundancy. The fights are redundant. Cosmic Boy’s impatience with Superboy is redundant. Kid Quantum’s weird hallucinations are redundant. The Legionnaires’ deliberate neglect of the resurrected Legionnaire is redundant. By the time the story reveals that the Legionnaires will have to tackle TWO Darkseids (one from the 31st century, and the other from the 8th century—when Uxas first became Darkseid), the story has lost its punch. Chris Batista’s art is clean, but it presents too many splash pages (and even double-splash pages) that eventually leave the reader numb rather than exhilarated. Near the end of the story Batista fills these splash pages to the brim with Legionnaires, Parademons and other Darkseid minions, all in dynamic poses. But these enormous battles lack choreography, flow and direction. It becomes difficult to visualize the battle in its totality. Because all the characters are chucked together, I don’t understand how the battle proceeds in time or physical space. In other words, I’m looking at pretty images but not reading a story, and that leaves me detached.

Another problem with “Foundations” is that it reads like a desperate attempt to repeat (or even trump) the 1982 Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen Legion masterpiece “The Great Darkness Saga.” Instead of the one Darkseid opposing the Legion in “Great Darkness,” “Foundations” has two. In “Great Darkness” Darkseid has gray evil servants resembling Orion, Superman, Kalibak and an Oan. In “Foundations” the older Darkseid pulls Orion, Green Lantern, Hawkwoman, Firestorm, Big Barda, and Lobo from the 21st century and transforms them into unwitting servants. It just seems that “Foundations” tries to appeal to Legion fans’ admiration of “The Great Darkness Saga” by raising the stakes and the concept of the 20-year old story. However, while “Great Darkness” was fresh, complex, monumental and suspenseful, “Foundations” is derivative, simple, predictable, pedestrian and concludes lamely (basically, the Legion “beats up” the older Darkseid).

Between 1999 and 2002, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning did a remarkable job re-focusing and re-vitalizing the Legion of Super-Heroes with their stories “Legion of the Damned,” Legion Lost, and the Ra’s Al Ghul arc. Unfortunately, by the end of their tenure as Legion writers, they seemingly wrote parodies of their earlier work; “Foundations” is heavy on the cosmic jeopardy and sci-fi techno-babble while light on meaningful characterization. It is a tale full of super-heroic sound and fury, signifying... this reader’s perplexing boredom.

* For those not familiar with Legion history let me explain that back when John Byrne re-booted Superman in 1986, Superboy was removed completely from DC continuity. According to re-written DC history, Superboy (as a young Clark Kent) never existed. Because the Legion of Super-Heroes established themselves in the 30th century in large part to carry on the heroic example Superboy set in the 20th century, the removal of Superboy from DC’s overall continuity caused an ENORMOUS contradiction in the Legion’s raison d’etre. How can a super-hero group be inspired by a hero who never existed? In 1987 Paul Levitz decided to make Superboy a creation of the Legion’s nemesis, The Time Trapper. This Superboy was placed in a “pocket dimension” (resembling a 1950-ish Smallville, USA) and was a separate person from Superman. However, by 1990, Superman editor Mike Carlin forbade Legion’s creative team of Keith Giffen, Tom and Mary Bierbaum, and Al Gordon (also known as “TMK”) from using even this pocket dimension Superboy. So TMK made Valor (formerly known as Mon-el) the Legion’s muse, and Legion creators since then have carried on this substitution. In the aftermath of the “Death of Superman” story arc, a new Superboy was introduced—“Kon-el.”