3 out of 5

I have little to say about this because it doesn’t feel very inspired at this point.

As often happens – Tales of the TMNT, B.P.R.D. (or maybe as has happened twice…) – the side-title has overtaken the primary title.  Petersen’s infrequent Mouse Guard contributions were buoyed by the first couple volumes of Legend, and did what any good supplemental issues should do: seemed to build on the MG world.  Except… there’s not much to the Mouse Guard world.  It’s a good trick, what with the quotations from ancient tomes or mentions of past tales suggesting a whole history written down somewhere.  Which is very possible, but after many years, we haven’t really seen too much evolvement of that concept, except to explore The Black Axe a bit.  We’ve been riding high on David’s wonderful art and his serious treatment of anthropomorphism; a dream come true for any NIMH or American Tale fan.  This isn’t to criticize, as the main stories are absolutely enjoyable and they’re not just empty art.  I simply mean to suggest that there’s not some future a la those two other titles mentioned where we do actually start to build a full universe (and continuity) that grows way beyond the original seed; instead we’ll probably get occasional main stories (maybe, hopefully there are more in the future) that detail some singular, isolated event, and more Legends books.  The first volume of which was a little bumpy but it had its heart in the right place; the second volume was a lot more focused and seamless.  This third volume, though, is just way too comfortable.  Which is why I led in with my preamble: Petersen has established what he needs to now to just let this go on on autopilot, and that’s how this book reads.  Same shtick as before: share your stories about the guards, and they’re written and illustrated by guest creators with linking pages by David.  The stories are all pleasing, and vaguely link to The Guard.  But I truly just feel like I’m watching mid-season Saturday morning cartoons now, filler stories between opening and closing ‘important’ episodes.  And in realizing how easily this stuff can just continue in this fashion sheds light on how little of the world has actually been established, so there’s not much for the Legends books to build on.

If you’ve been pleased by the previous books, there’s nothing to stifle that here.  If you’re looking for, I dunno, for that hint of something more the first couple Petersen-penned volumes had, it’s pretty absent in Legends Volume 3.