Legion of Super-Heroes #7: Nothing Keeps Happening

Bendis’ work on LOSH has been disappointing at best, and an example of the worst excesses of a vanity comic series at worst. Issue #7 leans hard into the latter category. It looks nice, sure, but the issue itself contains nothing particularly memorable, nor does it meaningfully advance any of its dangling plot. This is a hangout issue, and that’s all it is. There are no real hooks to keep readers engaged, just a lot of talking heads and a limp ending that was probably supposed to read as a shocker.
The plot, such as it is, involves the Legion confronting the United Planets for their actions in the first six issues, Lightning Lad moving his family into a new home, voting on a new leader of the Legion, and then it ends with with Crav Nah attacking Legion Headquarters, which was already telegraphed in issue #6.
That’s makes it sound a lot more exciting than it is. Every single one of these scenes plays out over several pages of dialog—which, admittedly, is still very good. It’s witty it’s snappy, and, when Bendis wants to do the work, helps distinguish the characters from one another. Saturn Girl’s constant irritation and Superboy’s aw-shucks goodness come across more strongly here than ever.
Aside from that, it doesn’t have much going for it. All of it is talking, and the shine of character interaction fades when there’s nothing compelling happening around it.
It’s got gorgeous art at least, provided this issue by Stephen Byrne, and Jordie Bellaire’s colors make things pop, as usual. The fact that it has to hold up something so deeply boring and unnecessary does a disservice to their work.
What became most obvious while reading it was this: why? As a Bendis series, it continues to showcase his historical issues with writing team books. As a sci-fi action series, it stacks up poorly against Morrison and Sharp’s Green Lantern, which packs more action and plot into a single issue than most of what’s happened in LOSH so far (and that’s only slightly hyperbolic). As a marquee series by a massively popular writer, it doesn’t seem to be performing all that well. And $4 an issue is a lot for what has felt like a whole lot of nothing so far. “Writing for the trade” went out of style a long time ago. Single issues should be more than a segment of the inevitable collection. The medium deserves better than that.
If great art hampered by lazy writing is your preference, read Legion. If not, the series can definitively be skipped over.