I don’t understand why DC’s TV show, Legends of Tomorrow, is so much better than the comic book. (A comic, after all, has no budget restrictions to deal with - anything can happen!)
To be fair, the comic book with that titled just started this week - and aside from featuring Firestorm, it has nothing in common with the show.
Instead, the oversized (and at $7.99, not at all inexpensive) issue features an odd mix of heroes, feeling for all the world like a collection of castoff ideas.
It includes four 20-page-long stories, each one mostly focused on introducing the characters, including the Metal Men, Metamorpho and, believe it or not - Sugar & Spike.
Firestorm is written by original creator Gerry Conway, but the story doesn’t do much more than provide a cliffhanger for the next issue.
Metamorpho (one of my old favorites from the ‘60s) spends the entire story a prisoner of evil industrialist Simon Stagg.
The Metal Men, written by Len Wein, is the only standout - and is a largely self-contained story. We get info about the robotic team, a desperate rescue attempt, an introduction of the cast - all the things you need in a “first issue.”
As for the Sugar & Spike story - I’m honestly not sure what to think. The brother and sister team originated in the Silver Age as babies who got into lighthearted mischief and adventures. Now, in the modern day, they’ve grown up to become detectives. We see them on an odd recovery mission as they have a shootout with a deadly gang in a deserted warehouse. Written by Keith Giffen, it’s funny - but I think I preferred them as infants.
I can only assume that DC’s executives (rightly) figured none of these series could stand for long on their own, so they tried repackaging it this way.
It still doesn’t work.
I wish it did - I like all these characters, but there’s nothing here that demands my attention.
Sorry.
Grade: B-
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