Back in 1989 to 1994 I bought and read all 70 issues (plus four annuals) of the original L.E.G.I.O.N. series beginning with L.E.G.I.O.N. '89 #1 and ending with L.E.G.I.O.N. '94 #70. Yes, the official title of the series changed with each new year. It was slightly annoying.
Even more annoying than the title was when the series was canceled as part of DC's crossover event "Zero Hour" in 1994; only to be immediately reborn as R.E.B.E.L.S. '94--beginning, of course, with issue #0. (What the hell is an issue #0 anyway? It was a clever gimmick associated with the "Zero Hour" event 15 years ago, but the continuation of the gimmick among publishers to the present day is just silly.)
Oh . . . uhm . . . back to the matter at hand. I read all 18 issues of the original R.E.B.E.L.S. (for those of you scoring at home, that would be R.E.B.E.L.S. '94 #0 to R.E.B.E.L.S. '96 #17).
Anyway, when I saw that DC was going to re-start the series with a new R.E.B.E.L.S., I suddenly had all sorts of nostalgic feelings for the late 1980s to mid 1990s. Thus, I decided to give the new series a try. Fortunately, it isn't called R.E.B.E.L.S. '09; it's simply R.E.B.E.L.S..
As for my feelings of nostalgia . . . oddly, the slightly annoying titles of the original two series are just about the only thing I recall of them. I recall not hating them, though--which is good (I guess).
I do recall the concept involved Vril Dox, Jr. (aka "Brainiac 2") creating a "police force" that seemed more like an organized protection racket--or, perhaps, a privately contracted security force (or, specifically a "Licensed Extra-Governmental Interstellar Operatives Network"). Essentially, it was a prototype of the Legion of Super-Heroes some 950+ years before the actual team was to be created in the DC Universe.
Actually, I recall not liking that idea at the time because I thought it cheapened the proper Legion's origin to have Vril Dox, Jr.'s L.E.G.I.O.N. as the prototype from a millennium earlier. Still, Keith Giffen had plotted (though not scripted) the first 12 issues of L.E.G.I.O.N. back in the day, and it was an entertaining-but-forgettable series.
The forgettability of the original series (and its sequel, the original R.E.B.E.L.S.) is a problem for this current series. It's basically a continuation of a team and characters that haven't been seen by most regular readers of DC Comics for over 13 years (in fact, 13 years and one month, to be exact).
Oh, 15 years ago "R.E.B.E.L.S." was an acronym that stood for "Revolutionary Elite Brigade to Eradicate L.E.G.I.O.N. Supremacy" (I kid you not). That story involved Lyrl Dox (aka "Brainiac 3," Vril Dox, Jr.'s son) taking control of his father's private security force--which caused Vril to put together R.E.B.E.L.S. to combat his son and L.E.G.I.O.N.
In this new series, someone has taken control of L.E.G.I.O.N. and Vril is putting together his band of R.E.B.E.L.S. to combat L.E.G.I.O.N. (and the unknown person responsible for taking control of it). My money is on it being Vril Dox, Sr. (aka, the original Brainiac).
I'm probably wrong, though--and that's the reason I'm going to keep reading this new series: I want to see who the villain is behind this initial plot.
Thus far, the story is not very compelling. I forgot to pick up the second issue until I saw that the third issue came out this past Wednesday. I meant to pick it up, but I forgot about it.
See? It really is a continuation of the original series that ran from 1989 to 1996--it's "entertaining but forgettable."
When I realized I missed the second issue I asked the clerk at the comic book store if they still had any copies of R.E.B.E.L.S. #2.
"Who publishes it?" he asked.
"DC."
"It's not superhero, is it?"
"Yeah, it's superhero."
"It is?"
"Yeah."
"I've never heard of it."
Then he went to the shelf where he knew to look for superhero series beginning with "R" that are published by DC (I always have trouble in that store because I don't know which of their numerous shelves I should look on for recent-but-not-current releases).
Anyway, then he said, "Is this it?"
It was. However, that can't be a good sign for this series--a comic book store clerk who considers himself knowledgeable about superhero series published by DC and Marvel had not heard of R.E.B.E.L.S.
I suppose he had forgotten about it.
Nevertheless, it's an entertaining enough story with dialog that doesn't draw attention to itself and illustrations that seem to be a sort of pleasant mix of Arthur Adams's "sketchy lines" teamed with Gary Frank's design sense (Frank, of course, recently re-designed Vril Dox, Sr.'s appearance over in Action Comics).
The best thing I can say about the three issues of R.E.B.E.L.S. that have been published thus far is that they didn't annoy me in any way and I was pleasantly entertained while reading them. However, Tony Bedard's reliance on earlier works for his current series--the original two series from 89-96 and the recently canceled Legion of Super-Heroes series that he wrote several issues of--may make it difficult for new readers to feel comfortable getting into this series.
There is no real introduction of the concepts and characters. Bedard simply launches into his current story and expects readers to figure things out as he goes along. I don't mind that type of narrative approach, but I'm not sure the plot is compelling enough for most potential readers to stay with it--especially those readers who don't already have some nostalgic interest in the L.E.G.I.O.N. and the Legion.
What did you think of this book?
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