Justice League: Another Nail #1 (2004)
by Alan Davis
This miniseries is the follow-up to the EXCELLENT “Justice League: The Nail”, also by Alan Davis. The Legion doesn’t appear on that one, but there’s a connection in this one.
Perhaps related, Mark Farmer is the inker here: he wrote Superboy’s Legion.
The premise of “The Nail”, which I highly recommend reading if you haven’t, is that in THIS reality the Kents missed Superman’s landing because of a nail.
So that miniseries followed what happened to Earth without Superman. But at the end of it, we discovered that the alien child ended up being adopted by an Amish couple.
I can’t praise that miniseries enough. Also Jimmy Olsen turns out to be the villain, so of course I ended up loving it.
Since Amish Superman showed up at the very end of the miniseries, we didn’t get to see a lot of him. Moving on to the sequel, we discover that he’s basically Shy Superman.
But issue 1 doesn’t have anything related with the Legion, so let’s move on.
Justice League: Another Nail #2 (2004)
by Alan Davis
It’s worth noting that the second miniseries has A LOT of characters, even more than the original (which was already pretty busy).
The vast, VAST majority of them don’t end up doing much of anything except giving Alan Davis more characters do draw.
Which is fine by me since I love Alan Davis, especially since he doesn’t draw weird faces like he did for “Superboy’s Legion”.
Including the Metal Men is an additional bonus for me!
There are, however, some weird stylistic choices. I didn’t have a problem with Davis giving new and unusual designs for the Legionnaires, since it was a good way to make them look more alien.
But what’s the point of making Zatanna looking like she’s Asian? I wouldn’t have a problem with it if this was a brand new interpretation of the character, but everyone else is the classic design so she stands out.
At the end of the first miniseries, Superman’s Amish parents die. So he’s basically been adopted by the Kents.
Which I only mention because of this hilarious bit where Amish Superman tries new disguises.
Notice I’m not really talking about the plot of the miniseries. It’s a complex mystery full of twists and turns that involves basically the entire DC universe, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care because it doesn’t have enough of a connection with Amish Superman.
Justice League: Another Nail #1 (2004)
by Alan Davis
You would be justified in asking: is there going to be any Legion in this Legion Apocrypha?
Well that’s solved by a cameo by an adult Ultra Boy, who for some reason in this version has married Princess Projectra and has kids (presumably Phantom Girl’s children).
Since Amish Superman was never Superboy, he’s never met the Legion. The connection to the 20th century is made through Flash, which makes sense since he’s often traveling through time.
The reason why they’re here is that Wonder Woman and Aquaman are currently lost in time, specifically in dinosaur time.
Yeah, uhm, the plot has gone just a liiiiiiitle out of control.
Of interest for this review, the Legionnaires (in their Superboy’s Legion designs) are seen fighting the Fatal Five.
Supergirl is directly above them, so I’m counting this as her being a member.
And that’s the extent of the Legion’s contribution, last seen returning to the future once the reality-warping threat is dealt with.
Does any of this show up in any regular continuity?
Ultra Boy does have a kid with Phantom Girl in the reboot!
SHOULD any of this have happened in regular continuity?
Nah.
Silver Age-ness: N/A
Does it stand the test of time? N/A
Well it’s not a real review, so I can’t give real scores. I can’t really recommend this miniseries unless you’re an Alan Davis superfan… as mentioned, the story is all over the place.
If you’re fine with spending money for 3 issues full of Alan Davis at his best drawing nearly any DC character you can think of, you’ll enjoy this one. But don’t expect much else.
We are legion
Active Legionnaires: 8
-Ultra (Boy?)
-Princess Projectra
-Cosmic Boy
-Sun Boy
-Colossal Boy
-Chameleon Boy
-Phantom Girl
-Supergirl
8 people have been members