Top Of The Pile: Supergirl & The Legion of Super-heroes

Except for changing trains on the way to Euro-Disney last November, my trip to London yesterday was my first outside of an ambulance for more than two years.

Rachel and I met up with Paul (our best man to be) and Jim for a drink and some food in a lovely pub at the end of Warwick Street. But not before I'd had a chance to do some shopping ... well, try to.

The city had changed in subtle ways and several of my old shopping haunts had either closed or moved. While I appreciate the increasing number of Asian shops opening around central London as Chinatown expands, it's a shame that places like Comic Showcase in Charing Cross Road have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

Eventually, with some guidance from Paul, we made our way to the Forbidden Planet (I'd forgotten it had moved to a bigger and better venue several years ago) and Rachel patiently waited while I bathed in the geeky goodness and bought up an armful of comics - mainly, I noted later, DC titles.

Among this grab bag of 'test titles' was several issues of Supergirl and The Legion of Super-heroes. Back in the day the Legion was one of the first team titles that Steve had introduced me to and, in my DC collecting era - before I got hacked off by their hokiness - the Legion had always been a staple.

I'd gathered it went through several reboots in my time away, but this new incarnation seems like an attempt to pull an 'Ultimate' reinvention on the title. And it really works. It's got the fun and excitement, the internal conflicts and the external challenges, the stylish locales and the campy character names (Cosmic Boy, Light Lass, Saturn Girl, Element Lad etc) and really reminds me why I loved the title in the '80s.

Because it is set a thousand years in the future, an encyclopeadic knowledge of the DC Universe isn't necessary to enjoy these space opera tales - unlike other more mainstream team titles like the JLA.

Slick artwork from Barry Kitson, snappy dialogue from Mark Waid, lots of busy scenes with lots of exotic characters - the only things missing from these issues were giant monsters and space battles, but I'm sure they will turn up eventually (or have already appeared in the back issues I have yet to pick up).

I'm still a Marvel zombie at heart, but this title will go someway towards restoring the balance in my monthly subscription from Paradox, where DC titles are currently outnumbered by small press publisher Dynamite!