two links:

#1 -
http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/11/legion-lost-3-comic-excerpt

#2 - from DC blog source -
http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/

I love the 'ironic T-shirt' on page six. Hilarious!

I'm calling it now...
<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">...that yellow beastie with the wings that Red Rage is fighting inside the mall is Yera!</span></span>

And maybe, on that last page at DC,
<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">. . . the panel below the glowing Tellus and Dawny, is a gate being reformed for Gates to pop out of! I can only hope. sigh</span></span>

Wow. The art is much better in this issue than it has been previously. Good show!

Tellus the hypnotist. Glad to see his telepathy being put to good use. I don't remember my Preboot issues that well, but it seems to me that Tellus' telepathy is more powerful now.

Love the interaction between the Legion guys. Wildfire and Tyroc seem to be building a budding friendship.

Given my own preference for describing Tellus' telepathy in oceanic / aquatic / sea-of-sensation terms, I love that Fabian has gone that route too!

And given my preference for Brin's hero monicker being more than just a code name, I'm happy with the direction Fabian is taking Timber Wolf in, too.

*delete*

*delete*

But...

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">The monster doesn't look yellow on the cover. More like light purple.</span></span>

*delete*

Oh, I agree with you that his name didn't really make much sense in the beginning but fairly early on the artists started to play with Drake's image and the writers began changing his power set, and not just to make him more like Wolverine.
I think they did it to trade in on his name, which I think is a great one.
Fabian might be going that way too, because wolves and werewolves are so 'in' right at the moment.
I think.

As to the isolation, they aren't there because of Wildfire's contamination, imo, but rather, because of the other's possible and even probable contamination, whether they can actually contract the disease or not.

The virus might not be easily 'disenfected' from anything, either.
If the Psion knew his business, he would have made the disease capable of traveling multple ways and in an encapsulated form, which can not only be very hard to destroy/ but also, hard to detect.

We have bacteria and virus' that are native to Earth and here right now, that are both.

Drake's energy might destroy them, and the Psion contagion, too, but maybe not without injuring or killing the host, as well.

I'm just terribly excited about the possibility that Fabian will use Drura/Infectious Lass at some point, to deal with things.

I don't at all love that the young man who was exposed to zuunium and special radiation by his dad to develop super-human agility and strength has been retconned over the last four decades to be a clone of wolverine, with claws, heightened senses, feral animal instincts, etc. but, it is what it is.

He's been an ironic Wolverine clone for decades now, so changing him back to a non-animalistic, non-werewolf-y sort of Brin would be rightly seen as a retcon by those who have never known the original Brin, who was more likely to be characterized as an android than a wolf.

I'm not a huge fan of characters being re-characterized in 'shorthand' (Rokk having a 'magnetic personality,' for instance, or Garth becoming a 'hothead'), so the idea that Timber Wolf is becoming increasingly 'wolf-like' in characterization feels lazy to me.

I'd be similarly annoyed if Star Boy was re-characterized as a Jersey-Shore-esque 'celebrity' just because he's got the word 'Star' in his codename.

Still, the Timber Wolf-as-Jojo-the-Dog-Faced-Boy ship sailed long ago, and the last twenty years worth of Legion writers were all on board, so it's far too late to quibble over, I suppose.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Does it really matter in the end, though? Yera is a shapeshifter, so she can change her color.</span></span>

I too prefer Timber Wolf to remain super-acrobatic and super-strong rather than Wolverine-lite...especially when giving him enhanced senses kind of makes Dawnstar less special. That might not be such a big deal in a team of 20+ people where you can have them mostly on separate squads, but when your whole team consists of 5-7 people (depending on how long it takes Yera and Gates to come back), it kind of IS a big deal.

Besides which, if there is a desperate need for animalistic senses on the team, I don't see why Yera can't do that to a degree. So now we end up with potentially half a team of trackers, but the one thing that Brin could have added (combat speed and dexterity which is very different to Dawnstar's flight speed) is given up.

Ultimately the characterisation matters more to me than the power set, and I do love how he's been characterised thus far, but it's still a shame.

I would also have liked Tyroc to have his power defined as local area reality manipulation channelled through sonics, rather than just sonics. Again though, if we have to give that up for him to get the spotlight that he has had recently, I can live with that change.

You know, something else that just occurred to me...I kind of feel sorry for Dawny in this team. Tellus, Wildfire and Tyroc can all fly without the encumbrance of wings. Gates has the 'get somewhere fast' angle covered, and he can take passengers. Timber Wolf (and possibly Yera) can track prey. Wildfire can survive in uninhabitable environments. And all of them have other things they bring to the table.

Added to all of the above, Dawny excels in an outer space environment, and I don't get the idea these guys are gonna be having outer space adventures anytime soon. I wonder if this will become a plot point for her - she's always been quite rightfully proud and a little defensive about her abilities, and her perfectionism has already been noted in the series. I wonder how frustrating it is gonna be for her when her uniqueness in the Legion is all but gone now? Thoughts?

*delete*

Never mind sending Wildfire... can't they send him an *email*? Or call him on a cell phone?

*delete*

*delete*

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Then you are going to hate the upgrade to his powers this issue... half-assed odd take on Wolverine's claw action</span></span>

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">LOVE that Yera is back!!! Sort of. And she turns out to be the main monster on the cover.</span></span>

*delete*

Well, this is about the ugliest cover I ever saw and Timber Wolf's exploding claws are about the lamest and grossest power enhancement ever.

And was the rdrayjj alien supposed to be eating the winged alien? Ewww!

Yeah, I'm not sure how fond I am of the fact that Yera's been killing and eating people to try and reform her DNA. Even if she was "feral" and acting on instinct, it's still a pretty heavy deal to attach to her character.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Oh, I understood that, NLL. I was actually responding to cleome, and I meant to point out that the color shouldn't be taken as evidence for or against that monster being Yera, since she's a shapeshifter.

Apologies if it seemed like I was commenting on your response, and thanks for taking the time to explain!</span></span>

*delete*

Exploding claws were stupid when that guy from Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy series had them in the 90's, and they are stupid now. You want flying stabby things? Give us Porcupine Pete!

I am....not sure how I feel about the Yera revelation. It IS a heavy thing to have attached to her, but it might be the thing to stop her just being 'that Durlan who replaced Vi that time' forever. I reallly hope Brin doesn't have to kill her next issue. Funny that I called the right idea with the wrong character...

Licking the corpse: kinda (read: SUPER) gross. Could have done without seeing that.

Brin driving a car: hrmmm dunno if I like that. Driving a car is hard enough for people to learn when they're basically familiar with the concept. I don't remember the last time I even saw a wheeled ground vehicle in the 31st century...

It looks like the next few issues are gonna be spotlighting a different member of the team individually...looking forward to seeing Tellus' issue if that's the case!

According to Fabian on the DC boards, "As for Yera, no, she didn't murder anyone. Red Rage did." Red Rage is apparently a different being.

Maybe he ate Yera first or something.

I'm loving this book. Popping claws, corpse-licking & everything!

*delete*

http://dcboards.warnerbros.com/web/thread.jspa?threadID=2000246569&tstart=0&start=616

*delete*

I'm still having a hard time with this book.

Things I liked:

The team together in the hotel.
Brin's narration.
Brin driving a car.
Woods' rendering of Dawnstar was much improved this issue.


Things I didn't like:

The cover. Yuck.
The story still doesn't feel like it is flowing well.
Everybody suddenly referring to Tyroc by the new nickname of Ty.
Brin's exploding claws.


Yera's return? Creepy and confusing. We'll see how it plays out.

I was a little as to why the character that Brin was chasing, Red Rage I thought, was looking for and sucking the marrow out of Durlans.
Then, RR jumps at the bird human, Brin shoots it with his bloody claws (gross0, tells it to calm down, it collapses (?) and Yera appears.
Did she come from the RR or was she the bird it was on top of?

I don't think that driving a car would be much different than driving a personal hover craft/floating vehicle that we've seen in the Legion's past, but who knows?

Brin still looks like he has his acrobatic/agility powers, to me, just wolfy agility rather than a human ring or horse type of skill.
I didn't care much for the claws idea BUT, if Brin is showing changes, what will the others display, including Dawny!
That could be very interesting, as long as she doesn't start shooting her feathers at people.
Or, maybe that WOULD be okay!

Maybe she could shoot Hypertaxis infected feathers at people and change them into strange new villains!

I liked #3-- though that cover would've put me off if I was a 'bubble' sort of purchaser.

I think the creators should reveal that Tellus' people, or perhaps Tellus as an individual, have/has some sort of slow shape-changing adaptation that they have no control over. The more time he spends on land among humans, the more he adapts to look like us. 'Cause that posture and his hands where he's floating above the bed just isn't explicable any other way. 'Artistic choice' isn't a viable response, in my opinion. Not in an edited serial form of storytelling.

I did like the telepathy exploration. Someday, I'd like to see a mission featuring Imra, Tellus and Sensor Girl/Projectra. We've seen both Saturn Girl and Tellus, now, use their telepathy to mimic illusion. I'd like to see how their telepathic version is different than and or similar to Jeckie's.

I'm not sure what's going with Yera, though I look forward to finding out.

Brin's claws... what race does he get *that* from? Are all the adaptations directly traceable to a planetary population's traits?

I found his thoughts about expecting a change of some sort quite compelling. I wish it'd been drawn out a bit more. Maybe he'll push his teammates to experiment? Also, I don't remember ever reading him thinking of himself as a wolf before. Am I forgetting something? So far, he isn't really behaving as if his fellow Lost were Pack, is he? I wonder if his wolfishness will grow stronger...?

What will an encounter with real wolves be like? Or werewolves? Sigh- I'd like a meeting with Krypto... but that seems out of the realm of possibility just now.

I think Yera was Red Rage all along. She was trying to find and "eat" Durlan DNA to... rebuild herself? And the poor bird thing was, I guess, a human infected with Durlan DNA from the Hypertaxis bomb.

I remember a Preboot mission that featured Imra, Jeckie and Tellus escorting Universo to prison. Wish that had turned into a longer mission!

Maybe Jeckie "broadcasts" while the other two directly affect what the mind perceives. I remember the Threeboot version at least being mentioned to have that limitation.

The bird thing's DNA was already detailed, and very much not Durlan. Similarly, the creature doing the eating was described as being Okaaran.

So, I think that the Okaaran-infected person *ate Yera* (or, at least, whatever chunk of her it found), and was chasing down bird-alien to eat it, too. When it was defeated, Yera (or whatever percentage of her it Red Rage ate) burst free from it's body.

It wasn't terribly clear, but I'm not sure we weren't meant to possibly come to the (false) conclusion that Red Rage was Yera, on the final page, as a cliff-hanger.

The clues were scattered around (Red Rage being called out as Okaaran, the bird-alien as another species entirely), but not 'sewn up' for us (or for Brin) quite yet.

*delete*

It looked to me that after eating the bird-thing, there was enough Durlan dna in rdrayyj that Yera was able to consciously form out of him. Previous to that, I imagine Yera's instinct to reform was driving the rdrayyj on a more subconscious level.

*delete*

A real wolf encounter would be great! Especially since Brin's homeworld probably didn't actually have wolves on it.
But, colonists might have transplanted wolves to their world, for some reason.

Is there a DC werewolf?
There certainly seem to werewolves everywhere else!

And I sure hope they reintroduce Krypto ASAP!
He's one of my absolute favorites, along with Gates and Proty!
I'd love Brin to meet up with him.

He was just reintroduced in Action Comics #3.

The other thing that really didn't make sense was why Brin was standing around talking while the red rage creature was eating the winged creature. Why didn't he try to save her?

I liked this issue until I didn't.

The art was nice. I liked how full the narrative was; it really helped the story along. I liked the references to multiple alien species.

Timber Wolf's attitude was a bit tiring, but it was nice seeing him portrayed as reasonably competent instead of just rebellious.

Then there were the exploding claws. And the implication that Yera's rebirth motivated the murders. Bleah.

Say, if all of the Legion's future tech is so problematic, why aren't the two members who are so dependent on that tech (Wildfire with the tech in his suit and Tellus with the tech in his environmental apparatus) also encountering problems? Has that been mentioned already?

*delete*

Good point on the flight rings. At least Legion Lost (the DNA series) explained the loss of flight as the element itself being rendered inert.

Maybe if we're lucky, the non-fliers will realize that and use their willpower to fly... although in practice it doesn't seem to make that big a difference. Only Timber Wolf and Gates cannot "fly" by themselves, and Tellus' telepathy allows them to communicate with one another.

I agree with you that the art and writing should "meld" enough that there can only be one interpretation of that scene, unless the writer intended for it to be ambiguous. I really hope it's cleared up at the start of next issue.

I just assumed it was Yera because he was saying, "Chameleon Girl is trying to come back to life". So I assumed Yera had to consume Durlan DNA to do that.

But if the writer did say in an interview that Yera didn't kill anyone... I'm at a bit of a loss.

My theory is that Brin already knew it was Yera, and was trying to talk her down from it. I remember him clearly saying, "Back away from the girl" or something like that - I assumed the girl was the winged creature.

LOL!!!!
NLL, you are the cutest thing ever!

Yeah, realisim doesn't seem to have much to do wih any of this.
sigh

I've been confused, too, but I know that Brin wouldn't kill any of the hypersapians (or anyone else, for that matter) or let someone kill someone on his watch.

So, I know that what Fabian said was true, Yera didn't kill anyone and the story wasn't meant to come across that way or he wouldn't have said that.
Unfortunately, he and the artist weren't clear.
But, as a team, this is only their 3rd issue together and the whole concept is very complex.

We just need to remember that these are Legionaires and their mission is NOT to kill the hypersapeans.

*delete*

Yes.
I kind of hate that fact.

Which is kind of strange since I watch things like 'Criminal Minds' and a lot of news.

I guess I like to balance my life with hopeful scifi and fantasy works.

I watch Criminal Minds too, Candle. It's a show that deals with murders. It's supposed to be violent. They still manage to keep it from becoming overly depressing, while acknowledging that it's not all sunshine. And of course, the ray of hope is that there are good people who work hard to stop these killers.

Just like the Legion I guess they're the ray of hope when their universe gets too dark.

Hmmmmm... Off the top of my head, There was the werewolf in the Creature Commandos. The Hyena (an old Firestorm adversary) was a werehyena. Jimmy Olsen was a wolfboy once. Man-Bat is a werebat. And there were various werewolf menaces different heroes encountered from time to time. I don't think DC ever had a regular werewolf character like Marvel's Werewolf by Night.

For all the popularity of vampires (and, to a lesser extent, werewolves) in popular media, there don't seem to be a lot of them as long-lasting superheroes or villains.

Brin/Furball and Rahne/Wolfsbane are about as close as they've gotten to a long-term werewolf superhero, and the only vampire superhero I remember was that Team Titans guy. Comic-book 'werewolves' are more likely to be super-people who can turn into wolves or wolf-like humanoids, and not supernatural creatures.

An actual mystical lycanthrope, only able to be killed by silver or fire or whatever, could make for an interesting twist on the 'invulnerable' superhero.

The new Creature Commandos! Starring Dagon/Nightrider, Wolfsbane and Boy Zombie! Or not...

There's also Fang of the Imperial Guard, not that we've ever seen much of him though.

Batman fought a vampire or two back in his very early days!

The new Frankenstein series has a werewolf character, albeit the result of a lab experiment rather than a true lycanthrope. Not exactly a superhero, but nonetheless existing in the DCnU, which is a universe defined by superheroes, after all.

Looker of Outsiders is a vampire, too.

This may have been a dream but I seem to recall a Batman title (from within about the last 5 years) that showed him sitting at the Bat-Computer looking at head-shots of all the werewolf-type characters of the DCU for the purposes of some case.

I can't remember who was on it other than I'm pretty sure Anthony Lupus (from http://www.comics.org/issue/27290/cover/4/ and http://www.comics.org/issue/35587/cover/4/ ) was there.

---

edited to add - Wikipedia mentions that "A photo of Anthony Lupus was featured in "Trinity" #7" so that might have been the comic this scene occurred in.

Agreed.
That team of profilers comes across as a superhero group, imo.


I suppose that's why I disliked having EM as a Legionnaire, so much.
It's one thing to interview a serial killer/mass murder for insight into a case, it's another thing entirely, to make one a perminent part of the team, especially one that hasn't had a change of heart or served any time.
oh well

Thanks everyone for the vampire and werewolf information!
Did the Magic series or any of the Vertigos have them as ongoing characters?

It's funny that there have been so few in comics where they've been major players in so many TV series and movies!

Brin's not really a werewolf, but I think it would be interesting if he had to deal with some changing, especially the inconventient kind.

I know! Earth-Man hadn't shown any remorse at all by that time. That is also why I lost a lot of respect for Shadow Lass when she started her involvement with Earth-Man. Breaking up with Mon-El was understandable... but falling for EM???

I see Harmonia Li in the same light. She bears some responsibility for a lot of devastation, but neither she nor any of the Legionnaires seem to give that any thought.

Agreed, Tracker.
I liked her better before we found out she's an elemental who could have impacted the Time Institute/Titan destruction.

Shady breaking up with Lar didn't make sense to me, especially since he was supposed to be a much stronger character in the retroboot, with Cham giving him hope of rescue and his year of extended heroing during the New Krypton/Action stories.
In the original boot, she stayed with him through Elro weakness and his destruction by the Time Trapper.
That's how I became sure that it was the retroboot, rather than the original boot, which was further reinforced by her relationship with EM.
This Tasmia just isn't anywhere near the caliber of the original, or the rebooted Umbra, for that matter.
IMO.

My theory is that the Shadow Lass we've been reading about for the past couple years is actually Lady Memory, who used her mental powers to take over Tasmia's body sometime before the v6 series started.

Breaking up with Lar and hooking up with someone like Absorbancy Boy sounds about her speed.

Hermit, that's an interesting theory. Shades of Yera and Violet!

I completely agree. Preboot Tasmia stayed by Lar and even married him when he was at death's door; and she didn't even blame Brainiac 5 or the other conspirators, but accepted Lar's decision to go against the Time Trapper.

She was still an emotional woman, but she coupled that with maturity and rationality.

As for Harmonia Li, I agree, it's not as if she couldn't have blown the scientists away with her wind powers. She had better have a good reason for her inaction!

I also like the greater strength they're giving Mon-El. That v3 story where he developed an immunity to his lead serum, and went nuts lost me a lot of respect for him. I can understand his despair, but he came across as an extremely whiny and cowardly hero... if he was able to withstand the first 1000 year exile in the zone, you'd think he'd at least be able to wait a few days to see if he could be cured before going bonkers and tearing up Legion HQ,yeah?

I might be remembering it wrong, but I got the impression that while she knew it wasn't a good idea to use the time viewer to watch the creation of the universe, she didn't actually know how bad an idea it was - I didn't think she was actually aware that it was going to destroy Titan.

Of course, that doesn't explain why she didn't use her powers to help people during the actual crisis. It really seems like Harmonia having powers and joining the Legion is some spur of the moment whim that Levitz came up with much later after she was introduced and unfortunately it's not really the best idea he's ever had...

She's an interesting supporting character but I don't see that she has shown anything at all to indicate she should be any kind of superhero (let alone on the team!)....if her only purpose in joining the team is to raise the number of females on the roster, I can think of like a dozen women I would prefer to see before her....

Or... the Return of Uli Algor!

*delete*

We got lost, looking for werewolves and murderers.... and who knows, maybe the Lost team themselves are discussing Tasmia's behaviour.

:ontopicangel:

Was struck by the 2-page spread of Tellus featuring Kal and Kara, and explaining the team's reluctance to involve them. Wonder if Mon-El's (assuming the events of Action Annual #10 remain valid) presence in the Phantom Zone will be addressed--perhaps in the upcoming crossover with SUPERBOY and TEEN TITANS?

*delete*

I just read # 3. I am simply not that into it.

I'm sorry I get off topic and lead others astray.
I guess I'm just used to regular conversations that tend to just go where they will.
That's what happens when you grow up without being on the internet.

*delete*

So anyway, about Shadow Lass.....

With the pre-flashpoint Legion, all the questions were answered by the end of the first year of the series with Supergirl meeting the Legion and having covered off Mon-El and Superboy/man.

The legion's history makes it a slave to Superman reboots but early indications seem to show that the Morrison-Superman is no near as destructive to Legion history as the Byrne-Superman. So while I'm not exactly overjoyed at DC screwing around again, I'm willing to wait and see. Action 5-6 may provide some of the Superman and possibly Mon-El answers.

How will you know if you aren't reading? And why bother commenting on a comic you haven't read? Will you by Tony Defalco's first issue to see if it is any good?

*delete*

Mine was not a argument about buying verses commenting, it was a question based on curiosity. The fact that you have read the issues answers the question.

Dev-Em and Laurel Kent are character that have beeen changed in each reboot according to the changes in the Superman backstory.

Dev-Em: pre-Crisis: Kryptonian, Post crisis: some weird psychic powers and post 5YL a Daxamite villain. so changing him again is no big deal really. No doubt he will turn up eventally. It ws well over a year before the 5YL Dev-Em turned up.

Laurel Kent: I can't imagine the Manhunters crossover is still in continuity and the idea of her being Superman's descendant must be gone - it was always stupid anyway IMHO.

Both Laurel Kent and Dev-Em were Superman family characters and these will always be victim to the whims of the Superman editorial team. Better not to have ever had them.

Of course any story that had Superboy or Supergirl as a key character will be open to question, but this has been the case since the Man of Steel re-wrote the history of the Krypton Kousins post Crisis on Infinite Earths.

*delete*

NoLonger, as I said in an earlier post, Mon-El is very much part of the Superman family but he is appearing in Secret Origin #5 so presumably is being explained in that issue.

Believe it or not, I share your pain. The messing around after each reboot (CoIE, Glorith-verse and Infinite Crisis) has soreley pissed me off. But it is par for the course for comics today. Superman has been messed around more than most, which is why the Legion suffers. But when you look at other comics, everyone from the Justice League to the X-Men have suffered so I guess I have just accepted the reboots as a fact of comic life. I don't like it but I either accept and read on or stop buying.

Despite all the reboots and retcons, I still read the Legion because the magic that was there when I was eight has never gone despite the best efforts of DC.

It would make sense for the Legion Secret Origin series to become a Secrets of the Legion that covers the whole history to date and answers all the questions but clearly DC doesn't care enough to put it out. That won't make me stop reading though any more than a Pocket Universe, Laurel Gand or Wildfire being leftover bits of Red Tornado did.

*delete*