Jim Shooter’s return to the Legion of Super-Heroes is neither a bang or a whimper. It just sort of is. At least, his run begins after the indecipherable Tony Bedard run so Shooter’s writing look’s competent at least. In fact, other than the fact that Supergirl is missing, this title could have just taken a six month hiatus between Waid’s last issue and this issue since next to nothing has really happened or changed in that time.
Shooter doesn’t even try to begin with a bang. There’s no Fatal Five, no Mordu, no Time Trappers or any other recognizable threat for the Legion. Instead of going for the big first issue, Shooter decided to just fit his story into the existing series; there’s nothing here that really sets this book apart from anything that’s come before it. Actually, this issue feels more “normal” than Waid’s forced themes and plots did on this title. It’s certainly more traditionally super-heroic that this title has been and actually seems to want to make some of these characters interesting and likable, something I’m not too sure that Waid was ever interested in.
Waid’s run stood out because he was at least trying to do something different with the team and brought a different point of view to it. That point of view has apparently been abandoned along with Waid and this issue, even after only one or two reads, fades quickly into the long history of Legion comics. I can’t tell what separates this issue from anything that Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning wrote on the title before the last reboot or even what Tom Peyer used to write on this book back in the nineties. Even if the plot is kind of generic, Shooter’s script works best when he’s developing the characters and their relationships. He does a nice job quickly establishing each character’s personality, continuing some of Waid’s development while being able to make them a bit more recognizable than Waid did.
Francis Manapul is a great artistic choice for this series. Manupul’s stylish artwork recalls earlier Legion artist Olivier Coipel, as well as hints of Chris Bachalo and Art Adams. It’s nice and gives the book a weird modernity that it’s lacked in the past. Manapul gives the book an energy that was lacking in Kitson and Calero.
It’s a good start for the Shooter/Manupul team it’s missing something. It’s odd to criticize a book just because it’s capable on almost every level but rarely rises above that.