“Legion Lost” #0 is the first time I’ve checked in with this book since the crossover with “Teen Titans.” Up to that point, I had enjoyed what Fabian Nicieza was doing with the team and Pete Woods’ artwork was well-matched to the story. Following “The Culling” crossover, Tom DeFalco took over for Nicieza and Woods remained on the art chores. I walked away from the book at that point, choosing to do a little culling of my own.

Right from the first image, it appears as though Woods is having a blast with this book. The opening page is filled with a zany assortment of bizarre aliens fighting against Timber Wolf. The issue if very clearly set in the future given the nature of the background architecture, but Brad Anderson throws out some retro coloring that immediately gave me flashbacks to the cover of “Blue Devil” #17. There’s little comparison between the splash page of “Legion Lost” #0 and the cover of “Blue Devil” #17 beyond the general energy of the respective scenes.

The scene in this adventure is the planet Zuun and the adventure is the origin of Brin Londo — the character fated to become Timber Wolf. As far as origin stories go, this one is rather cliche heavy. The hero loses his family, vows to avenge them and continues on a journey of self-exploration, trying to hear destiny’s call. Along the way he wrestles with the severity of which his actions should be meted out for vengeance and finally finds the right answer for himself.

Tom DeFalco, like his cohort Howard Mackie over on “Ravagers,” overwrites this book to the point of boredom-inducing detail. The caption boxes contain narrative better suited for a prose piece than for a comic book where the visuals are supposed to take the lead. The characters acting between and through captions speak with flowery dialog that needs more water to grow or some severe pruning to be concise and direct.

While Woods’ art is decent and his storytelling is strong, the characters and writing just aren’t enough to hook me into “Legion Lost” beyond this zero issue. I just read Brin Londo’s origin and I’m not sure where the other heroes are. I’m also foggy as to where the title is headed from here, but there are plenty of other comic books that are more interesting right now.