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Legends of Tomorrow #1 Review

Comic Books

Legends of Tomorrow #1 Review

It’s a bold move, but DC is putting out an extra large issue (eighty pages!) of Legends of Tomorrow to coincide with new episodes of the CW’s show of the same name. That’s four stories for $7.99 — featuring a slew of different legendary talents spinning yarns about Firestorm, Metamorpho, Metal Men and Sugar and Spike.

However, such a hefty price tag and ambitious offering begs the question: Is it good?

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Legends of Tomorrow #1 (DC Comics)

Legends of Tomorrow #1 Review

Why does this book matter?

Old school writers with impressive resumes such as Keith Giffen and Len Wein (to name a few) team with artists such as Eduardo Pansica and Bilquis Evely to bring us tales of Firestorm needing to retrieve stolen research, the Metal Men taking on a mysterious cyber terrorist, Metamorpho being imprisoned by a millionaire industrialist and private investigators Sugar & Spike retrieving a cache of stolen goods from a certain Batman villain.

Legends of Tomorrow #1 Review
Cool full page spread in the Metamorpho story.

Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?

While this collection isn’t perfect it certainly carries quality storytelling within. My favorite of the bunch is Sugar & Spike written by Keith Giffen and drawn by Bilquis Everly. This story runs 20 pages and is good from beginning to end largely because Sugar and Spike’s banter is fun and rife with surprises. They’re investigating a warehouse where a certain Batman villain is developing a chop shop of sorts. I’ll leave it at that to avoid spoilers, but it was a joy and so flipping good it might just make this entire book worth a purchase alone.

Legends of Tomorrow #1 Review
Cool designs and a fun story.

Making this story even better is Everly’s pencils which are reminiscent of chapters of Dylan Dog. The lines are thin and very pleasing with a lot of detail going into the backgrounds making the experience vivid and interesting to look at. Keep your eyes out for Everly in the future; this is a fantastic story largely due to her clean lines.

The second best story in the bunch is Len Wein’s Metal Men with art by Yildiray Cinar and Trevor Scott. The story certainly has a classic feel, but the inks by Scott and pencils by Cinar are quite nice to look at. Combined, with colors from Dean White, these Metal Men (isn’t there a woman in there too?) look shiny and gorgeous. They’re each rather unique and it’s fun to see how Wein makes them combine at one point. The story certainly feels like it has filler, but the creator of these Metal Men is interesting and with the nemesis (named Nemesis) Wein creates an interesting dynamic. The characters feel slightly updated too and make sense for the internet era.

Legends of Tomorrow #1 Review
That looks painful.

Rounding out this book are the Metamorpho and Firestorm stories, which both have fantastic art. Aaron Poresti and Matt Banning make Metamorpho look great – and open the story with a cool dream sequence – and there’s never an awkward panel or bad transition. The Firestorm story drawn by Eduardo Pansica and Rob Hunter is adequately dark and well inked too.

It can’t be perfect can it?

The Firestorm story wasn’t bad per se, but it’s hard to relate to the protagonists who share the power as Firestorm. They’re high school kids working with a scientist and I’m not sure why. I’m not familiar with the character and this is supposed to be a new beginning of sorts, but it was too mixed up in high school drama to get things going. The power is certainly interesting especially since they share it, but not enough time is spent on that aspect. Aside from the surreal opening the entire 20 page story is about Stagg trying to reel in his daughter who’s empathetic to the testing he’s doing on Metamorpho. It barely leaves the confines of the lab – there is the flashback opening and a threat looming near Mars – and establishes Stagg’s daughter well enough, but it appears to be repeating itself in regards to her character way too much. The premise is solid though so we’ll see if it can move along at a faster clip next month.

The Metamorpho story is also a drag largely because it doesn’t go anywhere.

Legends of Tomorrow #1 Review
Sugar & Spike is possibly the best comic story of the week!

Is It Good?

Like any multi-feature some stories are stronger than others and while a few are a bit of a bore every story looks fantastic. The Sugar & Spike story is so damn good I’d recommend the book to anyone, but overall this is worth checking out.

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