I Am Legion

I Am Legion / Je suis légion #1-3

by Fabien Nury, John Cassaday (Illustrator)

In 1940s Europe, a group of Allied spies try to track down a dangerous force that seems to jump from body to body, leaving nothing behind but a bloody trail and questions.

Europe, December 1942. The global conflict has reached a fever pitch. The Nazis are at the height of their power, but the Allies have had their first victories both in Stalingrad and in the Pacific. Never has the war’s outcome been so much in doubt. Amidst this chaos, the destinies of several men will cross through a project code named "Legion," which consists of a series of horrific tests that a young Romanian girl with apparent supernatural abilities must undergo. Her 'skills,' if fully exploited by the Nazis, would give them unimaginable power…

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics

184 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

Born in 1976, Fabien Nury began his career by co-writing with Xavier Dorison the script of W.E.S.T (Dargaud), a hit series illustrated by Christian Rossi (six volumes between 2003 and 2011). Nury independently wrote Je suis Légion (2004-2007, Humanoids Associés), a trilogy illustrated by the American John Cassaday. Translated into eight languages, the series continues with several other illustrators under the title Les chroniques de Légion (Glénat). In 2007 he also started working on Le maître de Benson Gate (Dargaud) with Renaud Garreta. From 2007 to 2012, Nury wrote the script for the six volumes of Il était une fois en France (Glénat). The historical series, illustrated by Sylvain Vallée, received wide critical and public acclaim (850,000 copies sold). Amongst other achievements, in 2011 he received an award for best international series at the Angoulême Comics Festival. Since then Fabien Nury has been gaining success in various genres: Mort de Staline (The Death of Stalin, Dargaud/Europe Comics, forthcoming), in historical narrative; Steve Rowland, volume 5 of the XIII Mystery series (Dargaud, art by Richard Guérineau) in thriller; Corey Silas ( Glénat, art by Pierre Alary) in detective series; and Atar Gull (Dargaud, art by Brüno) in literary adaptation, based on the novel by Eugène Sue. In 2013, he created Tyler Cross with Brüno, (Tyler Cross, Dargaud/Europe Comics, 2015) a noir graphic novel. The album was praised by both critics and readers (over 50,000 copies sold) with volume two in August 2015. In 2014, Fabien Nury published the fourth and final volume of L'or et le sang (Glénat), the script by Maurin Defrance and art by Merwan and Fabien Bedouel. With Tierry Robin he created the two-part series Mort au Tsar (Death to the Tsar, Dargaud/Europe Comics, 2015). In 2014, with Eric Henninot he also published Fils du soleil (Dargaud), an adventure album adapted from two novels by Jack London. As for audiovisual, Fabien Nury co-wrote with Dorison the scripts to a feature film Les brigades du Tigre (directed by Jérôme Cornuau, 2006) and a TV movie Pour toi, j'ai tué (directed by Laurent Heynemann, 2012).

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once upon a time, John Cassaday worked on a French comic. Humanoids finally brought that comic to the U.S. It's a cool idea, tying some of the strigoi legends into World War II. The execution is the issue. The story flits back and forth between a large cast and it's difficult to keep everyone straight. It gets better towards the end. As characters get killed off, the storytelling becomes more straight forward. Cassaday's art is its usual brilliant self.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting twist on World War II. There are a lot of twists and turns, and it was hard for me to follow in places, but it was a cool story.

Some have commented about the great artwork by Cassaday - and a lot of it is great - but the story suffers partially from several of the characters looking too much alike. With a plot as twisty and turny as this one, you need to be able to tell everyone apart.

[Koen Claeys · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it ... but it could have been so much better. The story is too slow, too complicated, doesn't make sense, .... but still: good ideas and interesting concept made it worth my time. Cassaday's artwork is impressive (as always) but can't hide the shortcomings of the story material.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Μ'άρεσε αυτό το κόμικ. Είναι πάνω σε εποχή που με ιντριγκάρει πολύ (μεσοπόλεμος - Β.Π.Π.) με κατασκοπία, δολοπλοκία και δεν συμμαζεύεται. Αυτό ίσως είναι και το μοναδικό κακό του, ότι όντως από ένα σημείο και μετά δεν συμμαζεύεται. Πολλοί χαρακτήρες, πολλά σημεία ανεξήγητα κατά την διάρκεια, πολλές διαφορετικές ιστορίες και απότομες εναλλαγές μεταξύ των ακόμα και ανά 2-3 σελίδες. Δεν κρατάει καλά την ροή.

Και το τέλος είχε ανακατατάξεις και twist αλλά και αυτό φαίνεται ότι μαζεύτηκε κάπως άτσαλα (ειδικά στο σχέδιο με τον Χίτλερ). Ή από την άλλη θα έλεγα ότι μαζεύτηκε πολύ βολικά. Και εδώ αναρωτιέμαι τι συμβαίνει και πολλά όμορφα και καλοστημένα κόμικ το χαλάνε λίγο πριν το τέλος. Τέλος πάντων. Το σχέδιο κινηματογραφικό και φωτογραφικό σε μερικά σημεία, μ'άρεσε πολύ και ταίριαζε. Ωραίος ο Cassaday.

Γουστάρετε ξυλίκι επιπέδου, backstabbing και βρικόλακες με φόντο την Ευρώπη του 1942; Ορμήξτε.

Λεγεώνα με λένε, γιατί είμαστε πολλοί.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

What could have been an interesting story about a secret Nazi project involving vampires is told in a very confusing manner, sometimes seeming as if pages were shuffled about randomly, with no transitions between scenes. Cassaday's cinematic, hyper-realistic art, while technically good on a panel-by-panel basis, does not suit comic book storytelling, and his limited facial range makes many characters look alike, adding to the confusion. Neither the writing nor the art has any punch to it. Disappointing.

[Büşra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fena değildi ama bazen kim kim ayırt edemedim bu ajanlık işlerinde :)

[Sourojit Das · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant marriage of Vampiric lore with well-known World War 2 themes - a resurgent Vlad Tepes penetrating the upper echelons of the British Intelligence establishment, Radu the Handsome (consigned largely to the role of Vlad's "traitorous" brother in history) making an unholy alliance with the SS, the Abwehr planting the seeds of an Anti-Hitler plot - it all comes together beautifully in three fast-paced volumes

[Johan · Rating 3 out of 5]

World war 2, nazis, medical experiments and vampires strigoi. What could go wrong? Lots of characters, lots of locations, and lots of plot twists make it at times difficult to follow. That problem gets solved as more characters die as the story progresses.

[Murat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hikayeyi takip etmek oldukça zor. Çok fazla sayıda karakter ve hızlı geçişler var.

[The_Mad_Swede · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published in French in three albums, Le faune dansant (The Dancing Faun, June 2004), Vlad (January 2006) and Les trois singes (The Three Monkeys, November 2007), this series (Je suis légion in French) by French comics writer Fabien Nury and American comics artist John Cassaday mixes an updated take on vampire lore with historical WWII events and the result is an enjoyably chilling narrative. Stanley Pilgrim is a British investigator on leave after his wife's death some six months earlier, but who is called into service when the entirely blodless corpse of rich man Victor Thorpe is discovered in Thorpe's own burned down house. The narrative is multifaceted, has a large cast and takes place in Britain, Romania, and even Spain, but on many levels Pilgrim's investigation into these matters is at the heart of the narrative, even if it does not fully limited the overall focalisation.

Nury's writing is good, with a strong infusion of historical detail to set up the parameters of his intricate plot; and Cassaday's art brings the characters and setting very much to life in a manner that effectively tells the story. The result is a really recommended read.

[Abigail Pankau · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s 1942, and the SS has a secret research project in Romania that centers on a little girl with strange powers. Meanwhile, an investigator in London is looking into a mysterious death that has ties to British Intelligence, while British Intelligence mounts an assault to stop that secret research project. All this ties back around to showdown with an entity that might be the basis for the original vampire mythos.

This was OK. It was an interesting idea, but it was very confusing for the first half because it’s very hard to tell people apart or even know who is who because most people are never named, and it often jumps from group to group with no transition. It is enigmatic because it’s a spy thriller, but it feels like it’s too unnecessarily ambiguous. Too confusing to be truly enjoyable even though the idea is interesting.

[Seth · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a little hard to follow. there are lots of characters and plots within plots going on. but it's still really good. beautiful art. and the story is a page turner, as a mystery, a war book, and a book of the supernatural. plus who doesn't love occult-dipping naziz? i sure do.

[Craig Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book so far. If you don't mind a more serious tone in your comic books as well as lengthy dialogue, then I'm sure it'll pay off... or I hope so.

[Steven Morton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept but I think I would have enjoyed much more as a novel where more explanation would be needed.

[Comics Alternative · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://comicsalternative.com/euro-com...

[Kris Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nazis. Vampires. The occult. When you combine the Nazis with either one of them, something interesting is bound to happen. When you combine them with both, you get something very interesting. In this case, we have the more supernatural aspect of vampirism in play. Ana is a 10 year girl who can use her vampire powers to make animals and humans slaves. This is obviously appealing to the Nazis. There is also a spy angle which keeps the strange goings on grounded in “reality”.

I Am Legion is extremely well written, being super dense and text heavy for the first third of the book. There is a lot of dialogue, and it is best to read this in a few sittings than to try and digest it all at once. This is to be savored, not guzzled.

John Cassady is one of the best artists working in comic books today, or any day for that matter. He has an understated style, where people look like people and not hyper-muscled, hyper-sexualized models. I enjoy his panel layouts as well, and they range from a few panels a page to as many as 8 or 9 panels a page. There are very different paces and structure depending on the scene.

Like all Humanoids books that I've read, this was highly enjoyable and different from my more mainstream American superhero comics. Don't get me wrong, I'm not too cool for superheroes, I'm just enjoying some of the more out there stuff more so these days. I am keeping a close eye on everything that Humanoids releases, and so should the more discerning comic book buyer looking for a change of pace.

Another outstanding, high quality presentation from Humanoids Publishing. Super heavy duty coated stock paper coupled with sewn binding equals OCD swoon. The cardstock cover has a coating of decent thickness that will ensure durability with repeated handling. All of this may sound nit-picky to the average bear, but if you are a collected edition obsessive or a connoisseur of well made books, then this stuff is extremely important.

This is a translation of a series of graphic novels originally published in French. I counted four typos in the translation, two of which were words grouped together likethis and another where the word was spaced like thi s. The fourth typo was using AN where A was appropriate. I am not pointing this out to be a prick, but rather in the hopes that this will be corrected in future printings.

[Ανδρέας Μιχαηλίδης · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, this had all the makings of a great comic, but as many people have already written, it complicates matters too much with many concurrent plots, too many characters and not enough space to familiarize yourself with them. At some point, roughly midway the twists and turns barely make sense. I am not certain whether my copy was flawed and repeated around a dozen pages, but whatever it was, it certainly did not make things any easier.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

You have classic WWII spy warfare, all well and good. You have someone possessing bodies and seemingly jumping from one to the next, using some form of blood magic. OK, fair enough, although you need to pay attention when someone is possessed or not. You have Project Legion, essentially the Nazis trying to use a (not at all) teenage girl with possession powers to turn the war, AND a faction within them working to make the project fail (which faction turns out to be related to Operation Valkyrie). Um, ooo-k... THEN, you basically have two possessing influences, one being Vlad Dracula and the other being his traitorous brother Radu, who in fact don't care one bit about this war, but about one that took place 500 years ago. Eeeeerr...

And various other subplots involving Churchill, British secret services, grand larceny, etc etc.

It is too ambitious, too much in too little space. The art is still beautiful though and overall not a bad comic, although rather tiresome. I think it would have made a great movie (or two).

[Monika Kilijańska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Podczas II wojny światowej nazistowscy dygnitarze potajemnie przeprowadzali dziwne eksperymenty na więźniach. Wszystko wydaje się zależeć od dziwnych mocy, które rozwinęła mała dziewczynka i które naziści chcą wykorzystać. Ale czy Ana Anslea jest tylko małą dziewczynką? Jej wspomnienia przecież sięgają tylu wieków… No i ta jej moc przemieniania każdego, ludzi i zwierzęta, w bezwolną marionetkę. To może być fantastyczna broń! – zakrzykną zafascynowani nią Naziści.

Tymczasem w Wielkiej Brytanii wywiad tropi spiski. Jego działania przerywa nagła śmierć kluczowej, wysoko postawionej postaci. Wszystkie ślady prowadzą do człowieka u władzy. Jednak jego motywy kompletnie nie są znane. Przecież nic nie zyskuje na śmierci, nie miał także nic zamordowanemu do zarzucenia. Chyba że nie działał sam, a właściwie inaczej: nie działał samodzielnie jako byt.

Tak naprawdę i o i sama Ana są tu marionetkami w rękach demonów, pojemnikami na moc z krwi. Tak naprawdę bowiem nie oglądamy Europy w oparach wojny, a rywalizację dwóch mitycznych, demonicznych stworów, toczących braterską walkę od wieków. Cały światowy konflikt zbrojny jest ledwo przykrywką ich działań. Do tego mnogość postaci i wątków sprawia, że komiks jest wymagającym, ale równocześnie niezwykle satysfakcjonującym tytułem.

Więcej na https://www.monime.pl/jam-jest-legion/

[Bill Coffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fabien Nury and John Cassaday collaborate on a tale of a last-ditch effort by the Nazis to breed a supernatural weapon to win WWII, and of the Allied effort to discover and derail the plot. Cassaday's art is terrific throughout, and the story is solid, but it all skips a beat in execution. Much of the problem comes down to composition; the action often leaps without warning from one story line to another, and it can be hard to understand easily where the story is taking you. Plus, the intrigue here all gets just one step too complicated to make a whole lot of sense - there's the wheels within wheels thing you get with a lot of espionage stories, but should we really care? The rival machinations within the Nazi war machine over what kinds of weapons get developed produces some interesting drama. The weird infighting among Britain's own secret service, not so much. The other thing is that this often can't really decide what kind of story it wants to be. Is it a hard-nailed WWII espionage thriller or a vampire story? You can have both, of course, but I Am Legion never quite brings these things together as harmoniously as it ought to, which is a shame, given how much promise this had. Still, these are only reasons why this is good and not great, and a good read is still a good read.

[Rick Ray · Rating 1 out of 5]

By premise, I Am Legion seems like a fun but campy B-movie about Nazi secret experiments to create their army of Übermensch to win the war. But Fabien Nury's approach is much more grounded, instead favoring an almost procedural espionage type of story. It could have still been fun, except the dialogue is incredibly dry and overly descriptive, bogging down the narrative with unneeded details about inter-department politics. Historical details are peppered in here as well, with known events from the Second World War filling in some of the narrative beats. The ideas here are strong, but the final product is a bland tale involving science experiments gone wrong amidst some banal work drama.

Adding to staleness of the storytelling is the static artwork from John Cassaday. It's interesting to see a mainstream American artist team up with a French writer for a French-language comic, but Cassaday seems a poor fit for a comic that lacks much action. Instead, the limited expression designs of the characters adds to the already lackluster storytelling. I Am Legion is about as forgettable of a comic as it gets.

[Camilo Guerra · Rating 4 out of 5]

En 160 paginas, tenemos : Una lucha de vampiros, espías Ingleses corriendo de lado a lado, conspiraciones nazis que intentan destruir y acabar con todo ( incluidos ellos), una resistencia que se las pasa peludas para sobrevivir al tiempo que intentan salvar a quien pueda.Todo , en menos de un mes de historia , clavados en la 2 guerra mundial.

No había leído nada de Fabien Nury, pero este señor se marca una historia llena de giros, con una trama solida, perosinajes a montones, MONTONES, que cumplen con su función y no están solamente por llenar espacio, con dialogos rapidos e inteligentes,mientras el arte de Cassaday es lo mejor que le he visto, al nivel de sus mejores numeros de Planetary, cubierto por un color precioso de Laura Martin que no hace sino realzar el arte.

¿Entonces que pasa?, ¿porque no 5 estrellas?, pues toda la paciencia y tiempo que tenían en los dos primeros tomos, al final, se ve muy estrellada la historia y metida a la fuerza, dejando varios personajes sin la fuerza que habían tenido, pero puede que solo sean ganas mias de molestar.

[Cristina Alves · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://osrascunhos.com/2017/09/27/i-...

I am Legion é uma banda desenhada francesa (Je suis Légion) que decorre durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial na Roménia, e nos remete para o monstro nacional, o vampiro. Neste caso o vampiro é uma jovem rapariga em estudo pelos nazis que pensam utilizá-la como arma de guerra.

Encarcerada, fazem-na comandar vários soldados em simultâneo para provar a perfeita coordenação que é atingida quando uma só mente desenha uma estratégia e não existem hesitações. Será esta a arma perfeita de que Hitler necessita?

Enquanto assistimos às experiências desenvolvem-se algumas conspirações, algumas do lado dos nazis, outras do lado da resistência romena em que se envolvem, até, alguns transformados, alguns vampiros com interesses próprios.

De desenhos que oscilam entre grande detalhe (como acima) e pouco detalhe (para cenas focadas na acção), I Am Legion constrói-se lentamente em várias frentes que se vão cruzar nos momentos de maior tensão. Acima da dualidade nazi / aliado encontram-se os interesses próprios e serão estes que, por diversas vezes, fazem com que as estratégias não sigam claros caminhos para o sucesso.

Negro e pausado, I Am Legion transparece um ambiente de hostilidade, entre o soturno e o secreto que aproveita as lendas locais romenas para as cruzar com as experiências nazis, recordando um pouco os filmes de horror que cruzam nazis com zombies. Neste caso os sem alma não são visíveis a olho nu, são fantoches controlados de longe que agem quase normalmente.

[Soobie has fog in her brain · Rating 1 out of 5]

Non mi ha convinto.

La premessa (nazisti + vampiri) mi aveva incuriosito parecchio. Tipo Dead Snow con i nazisti zombie. Non ho mai trovato una vittima che voglia guardarlo con me! Comunque, l'esecuzione di Io sono Legione non mi è proprio piaciuta: troppi intrighi e personaggi. Mi perdo io, in queste cose.

Già all'inizio ho cominciato a perdermi tra personaggi e intrighi. Chi era quello? Da dove viene quest'altro? Eppur ho continuato a leggere ma ho solo apprezzato un livello ultra-superficiale.

Disegni molto funzionali alla storia. Ho adorato specialmente le vignette in bianco e nero.

[Ryan Fohl · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a lot of characters, but most of them die. I’m more interested in the vampires then the spy stuff. The story is exciting and has some surprises. The vampires are uniquely different. The art work is excellent. (Those stained glass windows) As someone who works with blood all day, the artist made the blood look great. I also appreciate that they never showed a complete swastika. Fuck Nazis

“They worship a trinity of monkeys.”

What I learned: Learned about admiral Canaris, one of the leaders in the military resistance against Hitler.

[Alessandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strepitosa, bellissima storia, degna di un romanzo di Follett, Forsyth, Harris o Le Carrè. E ci troverete di tutto… spie, traditori, personaggi storici e inventati, azione, suspence, amore, odio e molto di più. Il tutto condito da una salsa di soprannaturale che, dispensato come in questo racconto, non solo non guasta, ma è la vera ciliegina sulla torta (in realtà è il condimento principale) di un pranzo luculliano esibito sotto forma di una storia eccellente, esaltato da disegni splendidi ed espressivissimi. IMPERDIBILE.

[Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gotta love a short run graphic novel series for a quick read!! Loved the concept, definitely got confused between all the characters because let's face it, historical fiction about England, Germany, and Romania during WWII is gonna have a lot of people who look very similar to each other.
There's more to this story, but I loved the spookiness relating Legion to Dracula and I respect the resistance to the urge to draw this out over more issues.

[Jefferson · Rating 1 out of 5]

John Cassaday is an excellent draftsman so the artwork is technically very good, but it doesn't save this extremely dull story that consists of page after page of talking heads punctuated by all the usual "Nazi occult experiment" tropes. Very unoriginal.

[Zardoz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very unique and interesting twist on vampire horror in a WWII setting. The plot is complicated and involves two vampires, the British government, two different Nazi factions, a American congressman, the Romanian Resistance, and a Romanian family. What’s really amazing is that it all works.

[Iranoctis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eigentlich ein großartiger Plot mit zumindest soliden Zeichnungen, aber einfach nicht gut und zu zerfasert erzählt. Zu viele Personen mit zu wenig Charakter, zu wenige Höhepunkte, zu wenig historische Kontextualisierung. Sehr schade.

[Kosmas Panagiotis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Το διάβασα στην Ελληνική έκδοση από τις εκδόσεις Anubis. Δουλεμενη ιδέα και σενάριο, το σχέδιο εξαιρετικό, όμως οι υπερβολικά πολλοί διάλογοι, ο αργος ρυθμος και τα πολλά πρόσωπα με έκαναν να. χάσω τον ρου της ιστορίας σε πολλά σημεία. επίσης αρνητικό, δεν κατάλαβα ακριβώς το τελος...