DC Universe: Legacies by Len Wein
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Framed as a DC version of Marvel's excellent Marvels, there's no shortage of talent on this book, from writer Len Wein through to a roster of artists that would be the envy of any company: Kuberts ndy and Joe; Dave Gibbons; Walt Simonson; Keith Giffen; Jerry Ordway; Dan Jurgens; Brian Bolland; Frank Quitely; Bill Sienkiewicz... the list just goes on and on. And in the end, it's that talent that save the book because, really, it's really just not that good.
DC has great characters and no mistake: right down to the third-tier supports they have a fantastic range of powers, costumes, and personalities. But the 'everyman' police officer who fills the role of narrator and his story is pure schlock, and take up far too much of the narrative. Rather than an avenue for readers to view the miraculous workings of the overpeople who populate the DC Universe, it overshadows the narrative to the point that the superheroes become an interruption and a distraction, and what we do see of them constitutes, for anyone who has a passing familiarity with DC's major storylines, nothing more than a precis of the major events. There's no angle here, no spin, just a quick precis of the storyline and then on to the next interminable run-down of this average man's very average life.
Whereas Marvels was a brilliant distillation of the Marvel Universe's ethos and philosophy, this is little more than a primer: well-written occasionally entertaining, but ultimately little more than an expertly illustrated Wikipedia article in drag.
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