Johanna Doesn't Like Geoff's Legion: Action Comics #858

Wow, really not a lot this week to try from the "Big Two" (snicker). There wasn't a single thing that interested me from Marvel. On the DC side, I don't read event tie-in titles, which leaves out six books. Given the increasing levels of violence and ickiness in the DCU, I wasn't interested in the Halloween Special. The same goes for skipping the book wearing its fetish on its sleeve, Death of the New Gods. The Confidential and Classified books are beginning to resemble slush pile fill-in dumps.

So what's left? Well, Action Comics #858 starts a Legion of Super-Heroes guest-star story. But it's written by an Architect, Geoff Johns, so my bias going in is that it's going to be more concerned with either tying up some loose end from some other story or showing off some bit of ancient comic trivia than telling a story.

The beginning, a more jaded, violent twist on Superman's origin, reinforces those negative expectations. Then there's an old-fashioned "Clark Kent, Daily Planet dweeb" scene and a flashback to the teen meeting the Legion founders for the first time. Then the jump forward to the far-future crisis. Which instead of involving some kitschy twist on technology instead is anchored by graffiti and a shootout with authority (and a loving closeup of Dawnstar's cleavage).

I've seen all this before. And that seems to be the point, reinforcing a "we're all fans together, isn't this cool?" familiarity... but I'm not part of it and I don't want to be. Show me something new, something exciting, something imaginative instead. I don't even know if this is "my" Legion or one kind of like it or one with some "clever" twist to fit some other story told in the meantime. Seeing the "classic" group just reminds me how much has changed how often. Awful, because I'm bitter.