The Legion of Super-heroes returned to the DC Universe with a new ongoing title in 2019. Brian Michael Bendis was brought onboard to script the title. Though it’s already been canceled or at least put on hiatus as of issue #12, the entire short lived run has been collected into to two trade paperbacks, Millennium and Trial of the Legion. Millennium takes everything ever established about the Legion in DC history before and chucks it out the window much as Mark Waid’s reboot of the title in 2004 did. Though Bendis’s run lacks the emotional power of Waid’s, it is surprisingly a decent attempt to breathe life into the team again.
In this version of the Legion, the Earth has been destroyed and all that remains are giant, space station cities that orbit the wreckage of what is left of the planet. The Legion, newly formed, needs a hero from the past to teach them how to better be heroes in their own era and travel back in time to recruit Jonathan Kent, aka Superboy. Kent is brought into the future, joining the team, and soon learns that he has an even greater destiny ahead of him.
This book isn’t full of “in your face” political preaching as some comics are today, instead truly focusing on its storyline and characters. While there are certainly some big changes to existing characters that older readers may struggle to deal with, it is a reasonable and realistic reboot. Beginning with an explanation of how this new future world has came to be, Millennium builds in action and drama with each issue making for an enjoyable and fun Legion read.
