Legenderry: A Steampunk Adventure

Legenderry universe

by Bill Willingham, Sergio Fernandez Dávila (Illustrator), Johnny Desjardins (Character design)

Bill Willingham, the bestselling author of DC/Vertigo's Fables, reimagines the most iconic characters of the Dynamite stable in a gorgeous and expansive Steampunk universe! A mysterious woman named Magna Spadarossa searches the many kingdoms of her world to find her missing sister, Sonja. From glamorous airships to clockwork cities to primordial jungles, Magna evades the pursuit of strange and dastardly villains, thanks to the help of many brave heroes. Featuring Red Sonja, Vampirella, Green Hornet, Kato, Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Silver Star, Captain Victory, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Zorro, as you've never seen them before!

Genres: Comics, Steampunk, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Superheroes

184 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2014

About the author

In the late 1970s to early 1980s he drew fantasy ink pictures for the Dungeons & Dragons Basic and Expert game rulebooks. He first gained attention for his 1980s comic book series Elementals published by Comico, which he both wrote and drew. However, for reasons unknown, the series had trouble maintaining an original schedule, and Willingham's position in the industry remained spotty for many years. He contributed stories to Green Lantern and started his own independent, black-and-white comics series Coventry which lasted only 3 issues. He also produced the pornographic series Ironwood for Eros Comix.

In the late 1990s Willingham reestablished himself as a prolific writer. He produced the 13-issue Pantheon for Lone Star Press and wrote a pair of short novels about the modern adventures of the hero Beowulf, published by the writer's collective, Clockwork Storybook, of which Willingham was a founding member. In the early 2000s he began writing extensively for DC Comics, including the limited series Proposition Player, a pair of limited series about the Greek witch Thessaly from The Sandman, and most notably the popular series Fables

Reviews

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will always compare everything Bill Willingham does to Fables, fair or unfair. And it seems to pale in comparison. I normally love when modern writers borrow characters from the classics, and Willingham has done this with characters from the pulp action, fantasy and adventure of the 19th and Early 20th century and integrated them into the Steampunk framework of his imagination. I was more inspired by the artwork than the actual story. As far as the narrative itself, it was vaguely interesting. I think the cameos were the most fascinating aspect. If my library gets the next volume, I would read it.

[L. McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

SUPER FAST REVIEW:
This was so close to a 5-star... so close.
This book has pretty much everything going for it. The story is a cool one. The characters are interesting. The artwork is amazing! There’s a lot of great action scenes throughout. There’s a bit of comic relief. It’s also pretty suspenseful.
Unfortunately the villains seem very bland. I would still recommend this if it weren’t for the ending. Fuck, what a terrible ending! It just kinda ends after a big action scene without really wrapping much up and I kinda hate that a lot.
I guess I still mostly enjoyed it so I guess if you like steampunk and/or Dynamite you should try this. If not, ehh... maybe read some other books about these characters to see if you’re interested and wanna read more including this.

4/5

[Vasa Curcin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointing effort from Bill Willingham. Humourless, with a cast of characters who fail to establish any personalities for themselves. Lavish artwork serves mainly as a distraction from a ridiculously slight story and soon becomes tiring - every single female character looks like they stepped out of a porn set and the artist generally seems unable to do facial expressions. One for hardcore fans only.

[Michael Cairns · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good fun read. Nothing mind blowing, but enjoyable. I liked Willingham finding yet another way to throw together a bunch of disparate, unconnected characters that the readers already knew, and I thought he did so with some panache.
I also loved the art, which suited not only the writing but the whole flavour of the comics.
My main complaint is the final issue, that wrapped everything up a little neatly whilst leaving plenty of loopholes open at the same time.
Recommended for fans of WIllingham, Red Sonya and steampunk.

[Solace Winter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wavered between 4 stars and 5 stars on this, but ultimately it had to fall on 5 stars. The reason it's closer to 4.5 is that there is a LOT of dialogue, and while I don't mind reading, sometimes it felt like it was forced in situations where there should not be so much. At one point a character laments that another character talks too much, though at the same time this character often does as much, or more, speaking. It was almost as if the author was afraid to leave a page with just a pretty picture or with action taking precedence over a death speech.

However, that is my only criticism. The story is compelling and does an almost brilliant job of introducing all of the characters it wants in its universe for this steampunk adventure. Magna goes from one group to another in search of her sister, Sonja, and comes to meet many people along the way, such as Green Hornet and Vampirella, who do have their own Legenderry comics coming out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a Phantom one.

From start to finish, this novel kept the introductions going and the action moving. However, there is no solid conclusion to this. I hope that a conclusion is introduced later, or in another person's series, otherwise this story does become just a catalyst for a reason to reinvent a universe. It's great universe, and I'm happy to know they made it its own world instead of just going, "This is Britain, but re-written." I'm not much for historical reimaginings, at that point you might as well just create a new world with a time period you enjoy, and Willingham did just that, with something familiar (characters) that anyone could enjoy.

[Gonzalo Oyanedel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo que parecía un crossover al uso toma visos de interés gracias al guión de Bill Willingham, quien - lejos de limitarse a ofrecer steamer de conocidos personajes - opta por dar una razón y un objetivo a este micro universo, sin grandes caracterizaciones pero muy coherente en su premisa. Más de lo que se podía esperar.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice re-imagining of these pulp era characters into a Steampunk setting. Very good art and story make this a excellent read. If you are looking for something new with your old pulp heroes this is very recommended.

[Eddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story with so much promise and actually no ending WTH So disappointing

[Joseph Gagnon · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were more superheroes in this issue, I am sure of it ... I'm just not sure who they were. Steve Austin ... makes me think of the "wrestler." I was amused that it was a "lion," "tiger," and a "bear" that attacked the ship. That made me chuckle.

I did enjoy this one a bit better than the previous two ... but I'm not sure exactly what is going on. Magna's on the run ... on the swim by the end. She jumps ship right before it crashes into the ocean. I hope she knows how to swiiiim.

It did occur to me that I could look up these characters, and get somewhat of an idea of what is going on ... but I feel like I should be able to understand and enjoy the story even without prior knowledge of the characters.

Read more commentary here: http://www.rjspindle.com/content/lege...

Merged review:

Well, the story doesn't continue to be any less clunky. I do understand something about the story from this second issue though ... there are superheroes in this universe. The Green Hornet and Kato to be exact. If others have been mentioned/featured (I wonder about Scarlet, and Magna's sister Red) I do not know them. I do not know superheroes well enough to know if I have missed any. I feel like I may have ... or I might as I go on. Not that it would be a big deal if I could get the story straight.

We seem to be following Magna. We've left Scarlet and her asskickery behind for the Green Hornet ... to tell you even more truth, people ... his appearance threw me. I was trying to get into the whole new universe going on here, and his entrance jarred me. Perhaps, if I had recognized a superhero sooner, I would not have been thrown so much ... or even thought it was neat. Personally, I don't feel like it added anything to the plot here. This could have been handled just as well by Scarlet ... if not better.

Iiiiii dunno guys. This isn't looking good for me. On the one hand, I am glad this is a limited series ... I'd hate to stop a story in the middle. On the other hand, I am sad that my first steampunk adventure is so far a flop. We'll just have to wait and see what the next issue brings.

Read more commentary and add your own here: http://www.rjspindle.com/content/lege...

Merged review:

Meh. I'm disappointed. I wanted to like this ... but there were a bunch of things I couldn't get past while reading. More than once throughout this issue I thought the dialogue was clunky and unrealistic. It was far too stylized. As far as I can tell, this story takes place in it's own universe. This is not set anyplace "real." Not even in a real country. So I can't really say if this is American or British steampunk. And even if it is it's own unique universe ... I feel like fancy turns of phase were just thrown in to "make it feel steampunk."

The art was gorgeous. I did linger on some pages to take in on the glorious detail. I would love to see this art with a better story.

Even the story itself failed to capture me. I felt like there were a lot of stops and starts. Oh, a specific bit from the beginning that is confusing ... Scarlet (right before she kicks ass) basically says, "Two things before I do this. No three things. Actually no, two things. The first thing is really complicated and makes no sense. The second thing is that there is really only one thing and that is I am going to do this." And THEN she freaks out about the hitmen getting blood on her carpet when they attacked her staff ... but she freaks out by ripping a man's arm off ... thus getting more blood on another carpet, lol.

Iiiiii dunno. It seems like a first draft. An idea. Something that could be good, but still needs more work. I hope the next issue pulls things together.

Read more commentary and add your own here: http://www.rjspindle.com/content/lege...

[Christy Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I selected this graphic novel on my Kindle because I love steampunk and some of the artwork reminded me of the Lady Mechanika series. While it does have some entertaining elements, the story felt really muddled and episodic. I realized part way through that this was a steampunk version of already established comic book characters like Red Sonja. I never read these comics so the characters were virtually unknown to me. The story was entertaining enough but not one that stayed with me for very long.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, but I'm a nice guy so I'll round it up.

Now. I haven't read FABLES. I should and will read it eventually, but in the meantime I'm kind of grateful I haven't because it looks like a good chunk of the negative criticism LEGENDERRY is receiving comes from the comparison to Bill Willingham's long-running and critically acclaimed other series. But I haven't read it so I can't comment on how the two series' stack against each other.

OK, got that out of the way. I started reading LEGENDERRY because it was included in Dynamite's Humble Bundle several months ago. The first issue started off slow but by the second and third issues it got considerably better, especially with the appearance of Green Hornet and Kato. I found it fun enough to keep up with it on comixology.

I think I may be in a unique position to really enjoy the set-up here: I'm familiar enough with Dynamite's other licenses (Vampirella, Captain Victory, Six Million Dollar Man, and so on) to get a kick out of them appearing in the story (and their new stylistic presentation), but I'm not so devoted and attached to the characters to be disappointed in the execution. The exception is Red Sonja, who I've been reading for a long time. She's one of my favorite characters. I was both curious and skeptical at how she'd fit in the story -- she shows up near the end in a nicely done twist, and I'm actually pretty happy with the steam-punk version. Unfortunately the series ended just as she was getting fleshed out but luckily for me, she now has her own limited series -- I haven't read it yet though!

Sure, the dialog is a little goofy and strained and there are a couple instances where the artwork seemed off (a coloring issue? Or maybe it was only noticeable in the digital format? I typically read print comics). Hence the 3.5 star rating.

I found LEGENDERRY a fun, simple, light, goofy, and easy limited series to read, which is absolutely not a negative critique. I read and enjoy guys like Jonathan Hickman and Grant Morrison a lot, but I like the silly light-hearted stuff too. Gotta have some fun and flashy to balance out the dense and dreary. LEGENDERRY delivers in that regard.

[Florin Pitea · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was O.K. overall, but nothing to write home about.

[MerryMeerkat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Legenderry A Steampunk Adventure #1 5 Stars, buy it
 
Self Purchase, Comixology

I like how spunky and confident the main character is.  The plot was a lot of fun and the main character, a woman kicked some serious bad guy ass. The woman owns a nightclub and mid dinner a woman comes running in screaming for help. The main character, whose name I can’t remember, comes to her rescue and kills the men who were chasing her. It’s determined that the woman needing help was looking into the disappearance of her sister and despite being told to stop looking she kept inquiring. The main character and her companion are determined to help the young woman.   
 
A very promising comic (I think it’s a mini comic in that there are only 7 issues). It’s written by Bill Willingham who is the long time writer of Fables so it’s no surprise its written well. My only complaint is that the women are all busty and are exploding out of their clothes. It’s not a big deal but just a minor annoyance.  It’s supposed to be steampunk but so far, it only seems minorly so. In anycase, I really, really enjoyed this and if you like kick ass women and steampunk I really recommend this. Will go purchase the rest of the series now. :-)

[Cale · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a novel concept - Dynamite took their licensed titles and smashed them all together in an alternate Steampunk world. It shouldn't work, but it does, both because the characters are familiar to their regular versions, but also aren't locked into it. Seeing characters like The Phantom and Zorro interact with Red Sonja and Vampirella in a consistent environment makes this work better than the Swords of Sorrow crossover did. It helps that the story is interesting, even if it is another take on villains gather to defeat heroes, and the dialogue is crisp and fun, especially Magda in all her incarnations. The climax is over-the-top but doesn't really close the story off, allowing for more adventures, and the world-building explaining how things got to be the way they are is fascinating, especially as to how it brings in some of the more far-flung licenses. All told, a very interesting experiment, and as a fan of steampunk, something I'd love to see more of, which they've been happy to provide in the character spinoffs.

[BellaGBear · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the artwork was very impressive, - It must be a joy to draw and think up so much steampunk outfits - the story did not manage to capture me at all. it was not understandable to me why the characters did what they did.

Also I think it is very weird to walk around like the lady did and still claim to be a respectable women in sort-off victorian times :P.

Probably will not read more of this.

[Alex Sarll]

Dynamite's revival of a slew of old pulp vigilantes has had some successes, but also - and most especially in the team-ups - a tendency to cluttered attempts at crowd-pleasing which fail to hang together as more than half-arsed theme park rides. Now, combine that with the tiresomely ubiquitous steampunk vogue, resulting in the Green Hornet et al draped in goggles, cogs and airships...and then flee, because it's quite staggeringly mediocre.

[Lady Entropy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had some nice moments, but was, all in all, forgettable. I did like how steampunk did take a front and stage aspect, and the reveal about Sonja's location, but I think that the obsession with including so many characters from other properties cost it a bit of sparkly.

[Greg (adds 2 TBR list daily) Hersom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Legenderry is over the top -which was kinda a given- and some elements were just down right silly, But..
It was a damn fun to read.

[Dony Grayman]

Aventura steampunk de la liga legendaria de Willingham.

[47Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read victorian-sounding dialogue in a while, so that aspect is entirely welcome. And finally, a reference to forty-seven. Thank you! The story follows a young woman who is sought by a group of villains who intend to take over the world. She meets several characters from the Dynamite universe that are adapted to the steampunk setting. It might have been even more enjoyable if I had been more familiar with the original characters.

Madam Pendragon (Vampirella) is the owner of Club Scarlet, the most fashionable club in the Big City. A woman suddenly barges in followed by a group of men intent of capturing her. Madam Pendragon takes offense at ther presence and kills them using her superhuman strength. It turns out the woman she saved is Magna Spadarossa, the sister of Sonja, and the men following her are clones who want to stop her inquiries into her sister's disappearance.

On the first leg of Magna's journey on the way to the city of Landing the vigilantes Green Hornet and Kato are put to the test against another group of clones while in their carriage. Magna then boards the blimp Victory which is attacked by beasts from Moreau's island. She is saved by the $6,000 man (a staggering amount in Victorian days), but still ends up in the water. She manages to swim to shore where she meets the gun-wielding Phantom and his mechanical dog sidekick called Devil. After saving each other from Moreau's monster men, Magna, showing spectacular physical abilities, and Phantom fall for each other, but her mission comes first.

In Landing she meets Silver Star and finds that the city is celebrating the awakening of Flash Gordon. The bad guys behind it all need Magna for a ritual to resurrect Black Mass. She had her memories rewritten to forget her real identity of Red Sonja and one of Flash Gordon's machines enables her to remember who she is.

The funniest part of the story involves Sonja's cowardly horse, Clover. Because of his tendency to run from a fight Sonja swears to cook him when her journey is over. She meets Zorro and the two head for the Principality, the place that the bad guys want to start a war to conquer the world and split it among themselves.

Sonja and Zorro are masquerading as a traveling couple to gain infomation on enemy troop movements. The first battle will see 600 warriors, 12 of them the heroes Sonja met in her journey, win against an army of 30,000. The war is only starting.

[Nathan McMahan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Buy for the art, stay for the...well....Buy it for the art.
Super clunky dialogue, with bouts of clever and tons of attempts to be clever.
Can NOT believe this was written by Bill Willingham, unless it was on a dare. As in, I DARE you to write this over the weekend.
Lots of cool ideas that never stay around long enough to congeal.
Seems like a lot of 'wouldn't it be cool if' scenarios. Like The Phantom's constant companion, Devil, a loyal wolf in the source material, is a clockwork, sentient, robot canine that primarily chatters incessantly and is obsessed with getting his master hooked up so the family line can continue.
No serious threats to anyone except minions, then expect them to have their limbs ripped asunder in the most graphic fashion possible.
The women (both of them) Vampirella and Red Sonja, are as by the book Amazon warrior badass stereotypes as they come. No hint of characterization, humanity or relatability, no chinks in the armor, doubts or internal conflict.
The men do not fare much better, most being self centered, egotistical louts, fully enamored with themselves and desperate to prattle on about it for pages on end.
I personally think this might have been better with a few more issues to flesh out the world and a few of the characters given considerably larger parts while other could have been mere passers-by in the greater narrative.
I loved the idea of the series, the execution much less so.
---also to note, the supplemental materials, at a glance takes up most of the last third of the book and includes a full script for the first issue, character sketches and a plethora of variant covers.
Like I said, buy it for the art.

[Matt Eldridge · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once again, Dynamite comics has an interesting premise that gets squandered by the finale.

As usual, my biggest complaint lies within the artwork. There's no real dynamic or interesting character designs for such a radical steampunk alternate universe, they mostly seem to come from the first three google images when you search for "steampunk". I'm not kidding when I say that Red Sonja and Vampirella have the same face and body.

In all the times I've read something from Dynamite, they just about always seem to have the wrong art team on board to make the books. This is done in a style that would be more fitting for something like a dark crime story instead of a high steampunk fantasy. Even the variant covers seem to have a better grasp of what the art should look like instead of the interior artists.

On the brighter side, the writing actually pretty decent and well paced, until the last two issues of the book when it features a six month time skip and a disconnected story. The interesting supporting cast doesn't even come back until about the end of the final issue. Even the main villains of the book have little interaction with the protagonists, even though they're the archenemies of the featured protagonists in the story. And unfortunately, it ends in a cliffhanger because god forbid Dynamite try to leave a story with a satisfying conclusion instead of yet another franchise product.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been waiting for the Comic Book universe to produce a great Steampunk adventure, and this book got so close. The artwork was great and the reimagining of the characters all worked. Also, moving the story from the usual steam streets of old London town added a well-used new dynamic. The problem with the book was in the ending - if that is the right word. The book just seemed to stop with no resolution. I know the comic book world often leaves stories hanging to drive up interest but this wasn't that. It was a disappointment, there wasn't even an attempt to round things up in a hurried fashion. Other than that, this book did deliver on its promise of being a Steampunk adventure. It has both those elements. There are airships, clockwork animals, and an unusual cast of characters. The story is thin but that is acceptable due to the artwork and steampunk visuals. If it wasn't for the weak ending this book would have gotten a 5-star rating and I'm hoping that the future issues will correct this because this looks like a series I would want to follow.

[Goran K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Crossover of at least nine different franchises, with beautiful art and almost no story or personalization of characters. This just didn't work for me. While visually it looked stunning, story lacked any nuances and made linear progression, with pretty lazy ending, even the twist was predictable and it all just looked pretty bland to me.

I have a feeling that towards the end even author lost interest and wanted to wrap it up, and while it reminded me of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1, I enjoyed Moore's work more (and also had a feeling the quality dropped towards the end of the second Volume).

In conclusion, this graphic novel looks great, has a nice setting, but story is just too thin for my liking. Too many famous characters but not enough flesh.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun but also kinda dumb. It's a big team-up of random characters from Dynamite's stable (circa 2014), including Red Sonja, Green Hornet, Buck Rogers, and... The Six Million Dollar Man. And it's steampunk versions of all of these characters. So... yeah.
It's written by Bill Willingham, who is a great writer, and he's doing an OK job here, but there are too many characters and not enough time to do any real character development. The art, by Sergio Davila, is quite good. The character designs for the steampunk versions of all of these characters is fun but predictable after a while. (Goggles! Top hats! Etc!)
I had the first five issues of the series from an old Humble bundle, and I liked it enough to pick up the last two issues on Comixology. I will say that the ending wasn't really much of an ending and more of a setup for an expanded Legenderry universe. Which is fine, but I didn't love this enough to keep going with the other stuff published under the Legenderry banner.

[angelofmine1974 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great graphic novel. I love steampunk to begin with but adding famous superheros in it made me even happier! So the villain Blackmass seeks to destroy the world and devour the souls. So there is a war starting and Red Sonja is trying to stop the war from spreading. Along the way she meets all the heroes from Flash Gordon to Zorro. The illustrations were amazing and It was a kaleidoscope of color throughout. Kudos.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not that good. Sometimes I think Bill Willingham writes like a 70s sitcom. Some of his books are all walk-ons and cameos from a huge ensemble cast. Sometimes that works, but it does not work here.

The heroine (a brain-washed Red Sonja) spends the first half of the book being passed from one set of of walk on heroes to the next in a graphic game of hot potato. Vampirella, Green Hornet, the phantom, and some others make appearances to smash some villains, spout a few lines, and hand Red off to the next scene. Everyone is steampunked-up, but its like cosplay and has no impact on the story.

The villains are a shadowy cabal scheming to bring their master to power by marrying him to Red with no real detail on how that helps or what they get out of it.

It was a disappointment and might not quite deserve two stars.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is first graphic novel I ever read, other than the comic books as a child. I enjoyed the story and how it brought other characters from past comic book history into it. I am hooked on graphic novels now. Hard to read on a kindle, this is the kind of book where you enjoy the art work as much as the story.

[TheBookDragon'sReview · Rating 3 out of 5]

A steampunk tale that centers around a woman in distress who stumbles into a nightclub where she is saved by a vampire, the green hornet, and a few other recognizable characters. They all band together and begin the quest to help her find her missing sister.

It was an entertaining read but I fell like there should be more to this story.

[wbforeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

So Bill Willingham from the creator and writer of Fables, does a mashup of steampunk and every character in the dynamite comics has the rights too and i mean everything red Sonja, Zorro, Steve Austin the 6 million Dollar Man, the green hornet the phantom, the only one that didn’t show up was the shadow. This was a fun book. I thought the use of the steampunk element was done well and it fit in with the characters. I also enjoyed that every issue was basically a team up of different dynamite characters. My biggest problems with the book as is with every dynamite book. The art was very inconsistent, but that’s to be expected for a dynamite book and the art was better than usual. the ending felt empty. this build up to this big bad guy getting reincarnated to come back, and they don’t even fight him or his subordinates. our heroes fight, his army and call it a day. it just felt very much like an incomplete story that I wish this series was a 12 issue max series or something a bit longer. maybe that’ll be in the sequel but I don’t see that coming anytime soon.