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DC Universe Online: Legends #1
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer(s): Marv Wolfman & Tony Bedard
Artist(s): Howard Porter, Livesay, Adriana Melo, & Norman Lee
Cover: Ed Benes

“Legendary”: Here I was actually ready to brush this book off as some lame-ass attempt to cash in on the video game release of DC Universe Online. However, I actually ended up liking the story as DC Universe Online: Legends takes us beyond that awesome trailer for the game and into the world Lex Luthor helped bring about. Most of the heroes are now dead, and Lex has realized that Brainiac has played him for a fool and intends to “delete” the planet Earth after he takes what he needs. Realizing he’s been set up, Lex makes a desperate move to a secret base of his and puts the call out for help. After convincing one of the heroes that he’s legit, they go about the planet gathering up whoever they can before they’re killed by Brainiac’s forces.

After seeing the trailer for DC Universe Online, my immediate thoughts were, how did Lex make it through time to reach Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman for help? How did he last long enough against Brainiac’s forces once he realized he’d been screwed? Well, Wolfman and Bedard definitely answer some of those questions and more in this issue, while making it a great companion piece if you also own the game. They even take us back to the very beginning via a flash back on how Brainiac and Lex came to their agreement, so I’m assuming with this much information being covered that we’ll get the full story by the time the series wraps up. I also loved the fact that Marv and Tony would show Lex’s true nature throughout the issue, especially when he used Black Adam for his own benefit. That was a great sequence! I was actually shocked to see August General In Iron as one of the remaining heroes, only due to his obscurity status, so kudos to whoever said he should make it.

When I saw there are several artists working on the title, I was a little skeptical about how long the book would look consistently good from page to page. Then I realized that this title is a bi-weekly one and will go on for 26 issues, so in all fairness that’s one hell of a schedule for one artist to keep up with. So it’s understandable that different artists would take on different parts of the story. I don’t know enough about each one to differentiate their styles in this issue, but I will say that all of them helped make it look good. There wasn’t an area of the issue where I felt the art wasn’t holding its own or helping to move the story along for the reader.

My only concern is the length of the series, and I’m hoping it’s not dragged out for the sake of just putting out more issues for us to buy. Other than that I’m looking forward to seeing the fallout from Luthor’s obsession with trying to kill Superman which brought all of this about in the first place. DC Universe Online: Legends is starting off pretty great, and even if you’re not a gamer this title could just as easily be a fun alternate reality tale for you to get into.

Till next time!

Infinite Speech
infinitespeech@comicattack.net