Batwitches a-wing everywhere!

SATURN GIRL: Vi cradling Gim, Imra cradling Cham... it'd be nice to see a male be nurturing here, too.

CHAMELEON: "Have you had a fourth of your body mass vaporized, too?!" Cham is the best line magnet of the team.

STAR BOY: He was there.

ULTRA BOY: "Holy Ni Neveh" A tad too cutesy, here. Guess Norima wouldn't have thought so. Too bad she's just another ill-conceived Shvaughn Erin fake-out. What is up with those?

Maybe she'll develop a to-the-death attraction to Jo and get herself some superpower or other and show up at the next tryout.

Next issue will probably wrap up the Rimbor mission, unless there's a surprise (which'd be welcome) in store. I've gone from enjoying this stint on Jo's planet to really not caring much at all this issue. There was something missing. Purpose. Glimpses into Jo's Rimborian life...

PHANTOM GIRL: She was there.

BRAINIAC 5: He almost went an issue without a line, till his expositional bursts on the last page. Has he ever been in an issue in which he didn't get any lines?

LIGHTNING LAD: Reactional exposition.

M'rissey: I devoutly hope that super-business managing isn't going to actually make this guy a member. Projectra's super-wealth was bad enough.

Ikilles: Boy, did he go from sort of interesting with hints of complexity to total drooling pirate king in a hurry.

RANDOMNESS:

-I wanted more of Invisible Kid's mission, but I was glad to see the 'rightful' colonists appear. Wonder if there'll be a Norgopolis on Velmar V?

-Where was Giselle?

-Why even bother with the United Planets team? They had zero impact in this story.

-I'm torn between a perverse fascination with the Ikonns orgiastic tendencies and mild disapproval. What do y'all think?

-I was bored by the Rimborian Legionnaire/cop fight. Anyone else?

-I thought President Kieselbach was Circe from 5YL there for a second.

-OKKK. Corny or just Val?

biblical tidbits about Ultra Boy's etymology:

Jo Nah = Jonah, prophet of God
Ta Rshish = Tarshish, name of a village in Lebanon where Jonah wanted to travel
Ni Neveh = Nineveh, flourishing capital of the Assyrian empire where God sent Jonah to preach

don't know the reference for Norima yet.

You know, I really don't think this issue was written by Shooter. At most, I think it was his plot, either scripted or heavily edited by someone else. It just didn't "sound" like his writing, or at all like his previous issues.

I wonder if the Rich Johnston rumor was true, and this issue had to be completed in house in between the time Shooter allegendy walked off the book and the time he came back, with his name kept on as sole writer to save face?

Lending credence to my "based on a plot by Jim Shooter" theory?

What is she president of, anyway? Earth? Jupiter? Not the UP.

this issue, while others violently rubbed me the wrong way on various moral basis, seemed like uhm... really confusing instead.

i have to say that i LOVE, LOVE sanford greene's art, i've met the man, i own two sketchbooks, i've had kickass conversations with him at cons, he's super nice and amazingly talented. that said, man, SOMETHING happens to this man's art between the ultra fine pencils and the finished product. he's actually worked on the baby comic version (LOSH31C) and teen titans and i thought he did a great job on both. wow. i'm aghast at the inking and color on this. his line art is SO crisp, just check out his webpage, and it is really REALLY not suited for heavy handed inking.

ayla's uniform was switching between cuts and styles from panel to panel, again, i don't think that's his bad, he's got a character design background and always seems like a stickler for getting all the accessories right. some of the faces were just really bizarre and strange looking... i'm not sure if sanford's art + the way it was handled here was appropriate for this story. his art is very simplified with an animated feel to it, and this story had an attempted rape in it and death and some really close calls. so it was kind of like seeing the cute, kid-friendly animated series characters have really, really horrible things happen to them.

there are these weird globs of sweat or SOMETHING coming off of ikilles and ayla's face, i don't know if they were tears or sweat (i'm ASSUMING ikilles wasn't crying @__@?)?!! there didn't seem to be a lot of communication between the different artists working on this book, is all i can think, and i think that falls into the lap of the editor for bad organization.

check the coloring and inking mistakes on brin on page two? @__@;;!! some panels are SO NICE (the scene of vi and saturn holding gim and cham was well executed) but a lot are really bad (page 2, last panel?!!)!

final verdict? i think there were some time problems on this book. like seriously. sanford is known for being very fast, so if this was a last minute decision it makes sense that he was filling in because he'll get the job done, but i don't think it was handled well at all. for the most part, the pages with the fewest panels look the best (page 6 or page 8 are very nice).

manapul's style is very detailed, which means it takes the inker a long time to ink, and the colorist a long time to color. maybe this was a break issue issue but it just didn't come together well! also, when you have a team, it's not easy to switch gears and work with a totally different art style.

okay, enough about the art. story wise, this issue made me more confused than crisis. and crisis drives me to drink. ok not quite crisis confused...

like others, i thought those pirates were going to be cool characters, and they just turned out to be... weird and confusing! and gross and creepy

i dug the biblical references, i didn't know what they were until this thread but i thought all of it sounded "alien" and appropriate.

norima's reaction is... weird, right? RIGHT? another shvaughn fake out, but is jo giving off pheremones? the problem with shooter's writing is that i'm never sure what's supposed to be intentionally weird to the reader and what's supposed to not be weird. are we supposed to be confused that some random cop loves jo? are we supposed to think this is someone from his past? or is this shooter writing another weird girl that makes no sense?

m'rissey did a lot of things that i thought querl should be more than capable of handling with his big ol' brain. i agree with lyle whiplash.

im glad m'rissey finally explained that he was doing, and that the story is finally moving ahead in some manner, there'sa fine line between moving ahead quickly and not showing the things that i thought were probably more important *like some of the teams actually in the act of coming home* RAMBLE FOREVER

I've finally figured out what's bothering me.

It's not that Imra's in love with Ultra Boy.

It's not that Norima is in love with Ultra Boy.

It's that Jim Shooter is in love with Ultra Boy.

Threeboot Jo is quickly becoming my least favourite character and if we're going to start having everyone swooning over him now, I think I'll be wiping vomit off the pages of future issues.

I had some favorite lines in this issue

"Cazhmir Please! Not In Front of the Crew. Not Again"

"I Just love the plump ones!"

"Let me guess --he said that our lawyers are all over him, our pr firm is standing by to release the vid-pix of his "vacation" on Sirenia, and that you need to apologize ever so politely and get out."

"Please! I have a wife, 3 kids, and a toy poodle."

and most favorite line...by Invisible Kid:

"You two said I was a wimp..A wuss! Well, I guess you don't have to be a "warrior" to make a difference, huh?...Go Florg yourselves."

Brin and Taz soooooooooooo had it coming!

I didn't mind Greene's art as much. JD Smith as the colorist for this title has been nonstop disappointment. too much water color action and effups to count. I say bring back Nathan Eyring, the previous colorist, Brian Miller or Moose Baumann. they can do fantastic futuristic settings w/out missing.

also, I second the Element Lad costume. nothing really changed. I would preferably like a green/yellow scheme. hope to see Sun Boy's new uni as well. here's a story for Shooter: while on a mission, Element Lad and Sun Boy fight off those Alien Life-Eradicators on some distant planet. after the altercation, the denizens of the planet congratulate the two, but they cannot tell which character is which, so Ulu Vakk (the Legion's new gay costume designer ) changes EL's to avoid confusion. I blame my girlfriend for that bit, he he.

btw, thanks for the ups on the biblical references. I can spot those a mile away. studying theology is a hobby for me as well as comics and music.

for those kiddies out there who actually read this whole diatribe, a consolation prize from my home and native land:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8f23IRy554

I seriously yearn for the return of Element Lad's dark-blue-and-green 'up arrow' costume.

Then again, I'd rather see it on that version of Jan anyway, not this new guy, whom I've gotten used to seeing in that cape.

M'RISSEY: Seems to me Lyle could've played his role (they look so much alike) but I guess being Legion Business Manager isn't exactly a position of glamour. But it's all good if it frees Lightning Lad to finally lead and closes out the political plotlines for good.

LIGHT LASS: I couldn't figure out at first why Ayla didn't use her anti-grav powers when she was tied up -- but I guess it's because guns were aimed at her teammates, and if she moved they'd be blasted to smithereens. That's the only explanation I can think of. Being tied up shouldn't prevent Legionnaires who have energy, elemental or mystical powers from using them.

SATURN GIRL: The several Pieta scenes make her appear a Madonna of sorts (not the singer from Detroit). Shooter may be trying to endear her to the audience before she gets kicked out on her butt.

ULTRA BOY - Let me tell you from a girl's perspective -- we all know Jo is a big, fat jerk but we just *have to* to rub against that body. It's a biological mandate.

ELEMENT LAD - They have to do a lot better than a recolored costume...like maybe an actual spotlight story.

CHAMELEON: One-quarter of his body mass gone?! That's like a whole proty and then some. I always look forward to things that explore Durlan physiology, culture and powers.


It's truly unfortunate the art undermined the story because there was a lot going on.

Two word summary: UGH-LEEE!

Is he related to Jae, Jim or Stan Lee?

tromium: ohh good call on the m'rissey thing. actually, i thought IK was going to walk in and see him and go "HEY, MY LONG LOST BROTHER THAT I NEVER TALK ABOUT".

or i was hoping he's a clone from the past, sent form the future... to the past. then back to the future.

i thought those vines were canceling out their powers but then they were saying 'don't move or we'll kill you". so.. uh yeah, no one tell anyone that the legion can be defeated by the cunning use of ropes tied to rocks.

it does beg the question of how Cos had been juggling all that previously.

i've been reading super old issues for the podcast, and you know how there are anachronisms and the characters over explain what they're doing and their powers again and again? and people fall in love in the space of a panel? it felt like that, sort of campy logic going on. so i guess shooter somehow time traveled to retrieve his 14 year old writing skills in this.

but i'm still grateful that some annoying plot threads ended and something else can start.

About M'Rissey, Urban legends Revealed tells the whole story :


here.

Hah! That is it exactly!

That's beautiful. *sniff*

now that you mention it, ultra boy does keep popping up without his shirt on....

Mystery Lad wrote:

M'rissey: I devoutly hope that super-business managing isn't going to actually make this guy a member. Projectra's super-wealth was bad enough.

Shame on you for dissing super-business managing powers! You just *know* that super-organizational skills and super-knowing all the stuff M'rissey knows powers would be super useful! (I wouldn't mind having super-wealth powers myself, either)

I am actually groovin' to M'rissey! He may be the character find of 2008!

I'll shoulder that shame. In my book, Karate Kid gets the one 'pseudo' super-power exemption.

Maybe M'rissey and an unknown super-wealthy wannabee Legionnaire can form a booster organization.

M'rissey the character find of 2008? Really? Just in the Legion, Giselle, Ikilles, Fruit Lad and Spy are more interesting to me than M'rissey.

Beyond LSH, there's the new guys in JSA, Young X-men (I know you're not reading that one), the Initiative...

What about M'rissey makes him so appealing to you? I'm not seeing it.

He fixed everything... I like that.

Hee-hee-- hard to argue with that!

I kinda need my own personal M'rissey... well, that's his appeal to me anyway. Of course I can see why he wouldn't appeal to a lot of folks... as a legionnaire anyway.

Maybe as "support staff"?

I need my own personal Lester Spiffany / threeboot Projectra, 'cause a friend with super-wealth could really liven up my week.

I knew the Jo Nah reference (Ha-ha! Could there be anyone less prophet-like?), and caught the Nineveh one. I thought Ta Rshish referred to something, but had no idea what.

Thanks for supplying the answer! Let us know if you come up with comething for Norima.

Very plausible. Alternatively, perhaps it was banged out in a hurry if a concord was reached near the time of this issue's deadline.

A possibility that also casts the art in another light, if true...

Lyle and M'rissey do look too alike. I have a feeling Lightning Lad might not be leading too much longer.

Great. Point. Why *didn't* she use her powers? I can see a certain period of grogginess. Was she scoping things out?

These scenes hardly had the dramatic weight to merit Pieta poses. But that's what they were.

Some boys would agree. Some girls wouldn't, too.

I'd be happy with some more scenes in that dorm apartment!

The origin of the threeboot Proty!

As you all know, I haven't read this issue yet (got 42 yesterday and REALLY loved it!) but have you guys considered that there might have been some editorial "change" in this issue in order to make it fit L3W? This is not very unlikely.