I'm surprised that a crossover between the Star Trek and the Legion of Super-Heroes franchises has taken this long to organize. On one side you've got the paramilitary wing of a utopian interplanetary federation from the 23rd century, staffed by a bunch pretentious starship officers. On the other you have an exclusive clique comprised of obnoxious, peer-rejecting, super-powered teenagers hailing from all corners of a peaceful interplanetary coalition in the 30th century. How could these two organizations not totally get along?
The first issue is pretty much a setup for the kind of inter-dimensional hopping that occurred during those old JLA/JSA team-ups. The two groups start out in their respective universes before getting sucked into an evil version that amalgamates the features of both. Think of it as Mirror, Mirror meets the Keith Giffen Legion, with a dash of the Galactic Empire for extra flavor, if you're into making those kinds of geeky references. Frankly, you have to be that kind of person to enjoy this, because unfortunately, that's what mostly happens for twenty-plus pages. That's the cliffhanger. One moment, things are hunky dory. And the next, they're fighting for their lives in a dystopia without the slightest idea how they got there. The story takes its sweet time to get moving. What the reader is treated to at the beginning is several narrative-heavy pages introducing the alternate timeline, followed by the plot flipping back and forth between parallel events involving the Enterprise crew and a half-dozen Legionnaires. There's a lot of mileage gained from the storytelling device were adjacent panels/pages mirror each other visually in order to compare/contrast the two timelines. For example, the Legionnaires are first seen piloting a time-bubble en route from a mission. Then the scene shifts to James Kirk conversing with his crew on the bridge of the Enterprise as they prepare for shore leave. There's a lot of generic banter from everyone about what kind of R&R they will pursue once they reach Earth. The Legionnaires are hyper-muscular in their multi-colored spandex costumes, while the Starfleet officers are more normally proportioned in their matching cardigan sweaters. The reader gets to see the differing technological malfunctions that sends each group to different parts of the Evil-verse (which shouldn't surprise any longtime fan of either series). And the primary action sequences are comprised of both sets of our brave heroes running around like headless chickens for several pages until they turn to their respective brain-trusts for an answer. Obviously, they're Braniac 5 and Mr. Spock. That's right bitches, the nerds rule no matter what the universe.
The bottom line? A fairly uninspired debut to what looks like a by-the-numbers crossover event without a lot of impetus behind it. I can't really see this appealing to too many people outside of the usual nostalgics and completists. Younger readers would probably be better entertained finishing their Harry Potter/Edward Cullen/Percy Jackson, shonen ai fanfics.
