Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Re-reading the Threeboot

I had the same thought.


Indeed! I didn't realize, but 36 is the last Bedard issue before we get to the Shooter run!

Well put.

This is a REALLY good point, stile!

Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes v5 #36

Released November 28, 2007
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

The Quest for Cosmic Boy - Epilogue

Tony Bedard - Writer
Dennis Calero - Artist
Nathan Eyring - Colorist
Mike Marts - Editor

Synopsis

Saturn Girl tries to focus on the primordial mind of Evolvo Lad after he has taken out Supergirl and Lightning Lad, but there's not much to control. So she works to revive Supergirl. The sequence is narrated where Imra is addressing Brainiac 5 in the future as some kind of a debrief. She notes how much Supergirl loves the Legion.

Supergirl tries to get Briany to help, eventually forcing her authority for him to help, but he effectively hangs up on her. Garth zaps the ground beneath Evolvo Lad and he falls into the structure, right into a ring that also has another circular portal view that shows 21st century Earth and a fight between Black Adam and the Marvel family. She recognizes that her friends are in trouble. Supergirl threatens to destroy the machine, prompting Evolvo Lad to re-evolve.

Saturn Girl figures out the scheme and sends Garth out on a perimeter sweep under false pretenses. She detected "Chronexus" in Evolvo's thoughts in the brief moment he was "normal"; a device that Brainy apparently made (in Action Comics) that allows visibility into other times, if not actual time travel. This has been upgraded to a one way portal to the past. Kara is there by mistake and needs to go back to her proper time. The hunt for Cosmic Boy has all been a ruse by Brainy. Garth arrives back and gets the details - Kara is returning home and Garth will be leader as the runner up.

The story catches up to Brainy and Imra talking directly. Or actually via dreams. Brainy is asleep and Imra is in his mind, along with Dream Girl, leading to her discovery of Nura's new nature. Imra and Nura both chastise Brainy, and he spills the details. Cosmic Boy's name needed clearing. Mekt would have likely taken over the Legion, but Brainy planted false evidence. Wildfire is an ally. And Supergirl had to go back home. Oh by the way, her memories were wiped.

Garth is in Rokk's office making sure that Kara made it home ok, not knowing that Brainy & Evolvo wiped her memory on the way out the door. The Legion celebrates Garth as the new leader.

Commentary

The main hook of this whole thing revolves around the device introduced in Action Comics 850, which I had not read, but checked out for context. Its a special issue that looks at Superman's history by way of the Legion as the framework story of Kara using the device to examine Clark's past and her part in it. Interestingly it shows Clark with a Legion ring.

But back to this story. It's titled as an epilogue, but that's a misnomer. An Epilogue is typically a tag or wrap up to a few loose ends, but this is a full on chapter. I'd consider the epilogue here to be the scenes with Garth, but the rest is a very intentional final chapter where we say goodbye to Supergirl in the series.

It's all done well enough, but the whole thing leaves me scratching my head. I'm guessing Imra sent Garth away as she didn't want him forcibly confronting Brainy. Also, didn't all of the Legion learn about Dream Girl when they took care of the Dominators? Similarly, Brainy's scheme, while interesting, seems to be built on an odd premise - that of the possibility of Mekt taking over. My understanding was that Ayla had successfully convinced everyone that he was a psycho, so the reveal of Brainy falsifying evidence felt wrong, just as the so-called likelihood that Mekt would have taken over. Of course, every bit of the last six issues was to tie up all of the loose ends from the Waid run, but in the end the storyline feels like it was built on a false premise (we never find Rokk AND we lose Kara) and as a result the story doesn't really stick the landing as well as it should have. Maybe another issue would have made that work a little better, but this felt like driving down the road at speed and needing to hit the brakes a bit too hard to avoid a crash.

As the official end of the Waid run, I'm very curious to see where this goes, as I really did not read any of the Shooter issues. But I will say that 36 issues into the series, I've still not yet gelled with any of the remaining characters on the team. All the ones I kind of like, Supergirl and the original Nura, get shunted aside.

Grade = B-. Decent, but rushed, end to the Supergirl run.

This has been an interesting six issues. Brainy manipulative as heck, the Wanderers and Mekt dealt with along with a fascinating new perspective on Winath, oh and a starring role for Tenzil, a reintroduction of Wildfire and a "powering-up" of Brin, a terrific new portayal of Evolvo Lad and the return of Supergirl to the 21st Century.

I particularly enjoyed how Evolvo Lad was used. In the past he was very much just an average power level character but here his strengths are portrayed far better in ways I never thoguht of before.

Being a Superman fan I enjoyed Action Comics 850. It was a great dive into his character as well as a journey for Kara coming to a new appreciation of her cousin. Although the Legion aspect is used more for setting and for giving Kara someone to bounce her thoughts off, they are protrayed well and consistent with Waid's Threeboot presentation. Exactly when it happens is unclear. AC #850 was published the same month as SLSH #29 near the end of the Dominator War but it seems to fit in earlier in her time with the team. Apart from the mention in SLSH #36 there is no need for the AC #850 story in terms of Legion plot but it is still a good read for an LSH fan that feels right for the Threeboot.

I had forgotten about the Dream Girl reveal in SLSH #30. I suppose you could say that all the rest of the team knows is what Dream Boy told them and a non-committal, busy-now-talk-later comment from Brainy, so Imra might still be surprised to see the reality of the previous reveal here and appreciate Brainy's explanation.

At the time of first publication I don't think I enjoyed this very much, but this reread has given me a new appreciation of what Bedard was attempting to do - or what he had Brainy do. The balance of the two issues (mostly) for each mini-team makes sense and I like it a lot more now. The artwork by Calero is quite different and has a more static feel, like frozen snapshots even in the action sequences. I didn't like it at first and it is still far from my favourite but I think I now appreciate its different approach more as an alternative to a more standard portrayal.

I can hear what you are saying about it feeling a bit rushed GL, but I don't mind it so much now. Overall like a changing of the guard and it would have been interesting to see what Bedard and Calero might have done if they had stayed on.

Yeah there was a lot of good here. It both serves as a nice wrap up story, but also has some good character focus.


Yes, both in his advanced and primitive forms. I've always liked the character, and really appreciated how they portrayed him here.


Yes, I just assumed it was pre-Dominator, and the setting worked as a framing device.


Yep, that or the reveal in 30 was just so fast it didn't have time to sink in.


Yep, its not my fave, but I definitely enjoy it a lot more.


I do wonder when Shooter was approached and signed for his run. I'll have to look into that.

So I did do some checking on when Shooter was announced. He was officially announced in September/October 2007, which would be in line with his starting to write issue 37, if we give a 2-3 month production time.

That said, I did see here on LW there was an industry article discussed in July 2007 (now no longer available), but there was initial discussion in late 2006. So it's probably fair to say that Waid gave his intentions to DC management as early as then, which was basically in the early part of the Dominator storyline.

No doubt Bedard was a fill in while they worked on some kind of a contract with Shooter.

Legion of Super Heroes v5 #37

Released December 26, 2007
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

Evil Adventus Part 1: Conflict

Jim Shooter - Writer
Francis Manapul - Penciller
Livesay - Inker
Nathan Eyring - Colorist
Mike Marts - Editor

Synopsis

The first page is striking - in both art and situation. Trip's situation and the faceoff of Val and the monster is definitely attention grabbing. He punched through the creature completely while his arm is broken. Trip is out of commission being overpowered - Val think she should never have been sent. Garth seems distracted when Tinya calls him. At HQ he's quite overwhelmed with Leader duties, even as his sister helps him.

Imra, Thom, Brin (looking normal) and Lyle are on Triton to help stave off an impending attack, but no one does anything. Imra calls her mother.

At HQ, Garth is still dealing with random requests when Val smashes Garth's robotic concierge. Val is upset about the situation he and Trip were in, then promptly collapses. Garth calls a mostly naked Tinya to take Val to the infirmary. He looks at the roster and realizes he's made some mistakes.

The city manager on Triton sounds the alarm as Lyle is captivated by a striking young snowboarder with special powers, who is jumped by rivals. Invisible Kid takes them out while she is knocked out, then takes care of the mugging victim and gives her a flower.

Elsewhere, the city manager goes to shelter as dozens of the same creatures attack the Triton city. Brin and Thom go on the offensive while Imra narrates a log, which distracts her and is almost attacked before Lyle pulls her to safety. The creatures appear to be drawn to life.

Back at HQ, Garth, Ayla and Tinya are stymied because they can't afford a transmatter portal to help the team on Triton. They opt to try to use Projectra's influence. She and Imra's mother are meeting with the UP Secretary of State. Because Orando no longer exists, it is removed from the UP rolls and Projectra has no status. She leaves in a huff, and assaults the guards assigned to remove her with illusions.

On Triton, a battered and bruised Lyle is looking to hide to get a breather and finds the body of the snowboarder from before, apparently dead. He takes a moment to be sad about it, but one of the creatures closes in on him and attacks. On Earth, Garth finally reaches Projectra, but its too late. The Triton team is on their own and Garth starts to beat himself up as seven new candidates enter HQ.

On Triton, Brin stands alone against the creatures.


Commentary

So here we are with the much-anticipated Threeboot Shooter run! I must confess to be extremely curious here, given its reputation, and I only thumbed through some of these in the past, so I don't know really what to expect. So I'm looking forward to reading the next 13 issues!

This is definitely a creative break - the writing and art styles are very different right off the bat. Manapul & co's art really seems to click with the Legion, as the Legionnaires look right (and are distinct), there's a lot of interesting looking aliens and the backdrops are dynamic. The tone of the writing is also very much changed from both Waid and Bedard in both good and not so good ways. In the "good" column, the story seems to flow a little easier and the discussions seem to focus on the topics at hand versus these broader themes like "adults v kids" that I found distracting, which I think has the effect of tuning the motivations for the characters to things that are more personal vs abstract. Shooter also doesn't mind focusing his story on just 1/4 of the team, and it works since we already know there are a lot of Legionnaires; he doesn't feel the need to throw everyone together here.

But to the story itself, it was a good initial setup issue into this new arc. Mysterious creatures invading the solar system attacking life forms, but to what end? The real story to me in this issue is Garth's difficulty in taking on the leadership mantle. And we get the bonus thread with Projectra being stateless. Overwhelmed leaders are typically a good Legion trope, especially when its someone like Lightning Lad, where we saw that a bit in the Reboot, but is definitely more reflective of his time as leader in the v2 era. It all worked really well - for the most part. There were a few bad choices made that definitely knocked the grade down.

The whole "Oh-kay-kay-kay" thing that was used twice. Stop it. Having some modification of current speak to be future speak does nothing other than take me out of the story. Also the whole inclusion of what is audibly "KKK" is not a good choice, IMO.

The blatant cheesecake shot of Tinya in her underwear. This is similar to the panel of Ayla changing from DnA's The Legion - it's there for simple titillation & does not do anything for the story. If this is going to be the new normal I guess that's ok, but it comes out of left field.

The "Mission Log" narration - seems kind of useless and it gets them in trouble. I've always assumed the Legion issues are "passive log captures" of the events via the flight rings, so you shouldn't need to audibly do that - in fact it should be something that can be done telepathically. But whatever. It totally took me out of the story.

But even with those oddities, it was an interesting read for me. A few other notes:

I'm appreciating how the motifs have carried over creative teams - like HQ's shape and it still being under reconstruction, Projectra still dealing with her planet's fate, Imra's & Lyle's parents, etc.

Another interesting aspect - everything in this story happens in Earth's solar system instead of all over interstellar space, as has been all of the series prior.

In a rare mistake, Manapul & team messed up a bit, as Imra is drawn (and colored) to look like Ayla in the top panel of page 7 (digital).

I'm glad Imra's mother is still alive - I wasn't sure if she was lost in the Dominator invasion of Earth!

I think this may be the first duty roster shot we see in the threeboot, and it shows the Legionnaire along with the planetary system they are in.

Grade - Solid B. I'm interested enough to read more!

This is off to a good start - lots of action, a striking new character and a few new plots, the curious invaders, Gazelle's story, Projectra's de-princessed, Garth's leadership headaches with U.P. control.


Good point, this is an established team - and it's rare (and welcome) to not have Brainiac 5 around. I'm also happy to see the animosity to adults thing, if not gone, at least toned down or replaced with friction with bureaucrats.


Same in the paper copy. I missed that! Just focused on the words.

Tinya in her undies didn't bother me - just figure Shooter/Manapul are shouting "She's sexy! They're all sexy!" We'll see if the guys get the same treatment....

Trivia point/speculation: Tinya says, "Saturn Girl's tough as durium". I initially thought this was a call-back to Adventure #312, but it was a duralim wand that Imra used to attract lightning in order to revive Garth. Durium, however, is a synthetic resin invented in 1929, so I wonder if Shooter meant to use "duralim" instead.

It just seems like its more relatable - I guess if your target audience is 15 year old kids, the adult v kids thing might work, but I guess that the Legion's audience skews older. But more to the point, I don't think they showed why AvK was a compelling motivator to form the Legion. What was it that was SO bad that it killed galactic society? It wasn't well portrayed because is was so abstract. Everyone hates, and understands the madness of, beaurocracies.


But they're ALREADY sexy. And its Shooter, so my guess is no.


Great catch, FC! Given that was his era of reading and entering the creative pantheon of the Legion, I'd assume he did mean that.

Legion of Super Heroes v5 #38

Released January 23, 2008
DC Comics, Color
22 Pages

Evil Adventus Part 2: Cataclysm

Jim Shooter - Writer
Francis Manapul - Penciller
Livesay - Inker
Nathan Eyring - Colorist
Mike Marts - Editor

Synopsis

The mysterious snowboarder wakes up from hibernation on Triton while the Legion squad of Saturn Girl, Star Boy and Timber Wolf fights on, with Invisible Kid MIA. Imra grabs a blaster and blasts a bunch of aliens while the other two are joined by the newcomer, named Giselle, easily taking care of business. They seemingly defeat the aliens, who then start to adapt into sturdier opponents.

At HQ, Lightning Lad, Light Lass and Phantom Girl try to raise the team on Triton. Ayla tells Garth he needs to be tactful in his new political position. The UP comes by with some new, politically connected, recruits. Garth & co try them out and none of them seem to have any useful powers. Garth loses his temper in dismissing them and also angers the UP. He then meets latecomer M'Rissey

The fight on Triton does not go well, and Giselle is a free agent out for her own interests. Saturn Girl manages to enable some SP officers to make a last stand when reinforcements arrive. She offers Giselle Legion membership, but is turned down while Star Boy revives Lyle.

At HQ, Ayla and Tinya convince Garth to get some sleep, but he stays behind and breaks down while his sister silently watches.

Commentary

Some neat stuff here. The art is a direct continuation from the prior issue so that is a good thing and some of that visual language does not need to be re-interpreted and the action moves pretty well.

Story wise, I feel like this is more setup, but I'm willing to keep it going. We don't understand more about the creatures, but the team meets a potential new ally in Giselle and Garth certainly seems to be over his head in a big way. Giselle being her own agent was kind of predictable, but I wonder if this will pay off down the road. I also appreciated the baddies "leveling up" dynamically and also wonder if this is something that will be dealt with later. The fight on Triton seemed to move pretty well, and I appreciated Imra just grabbing a blaster to provide a level of offense. But ultimately, the Triton plot seemed like a paint by numbers intro story.

The better meat was in the HQ stuff with Garth. I appreciated Ayla and Tinya giving Garth a helping hand. Also, the "tryouts" were fun - political connections don't get you anywhere with Garth Ranzz. Some of the candidates were intriguing, though - Virus called to mind Vi's "Legion on the Run" name, as well as Infectious Lass' powers. Voice reminded me visually of Canary from Gail Simone's end of The Legion, but I had to laugh at Garth being manipulated, with Ayla quickly ushering them out as Voice went on about traits that she was able to use for manipulation. Spy calls out fellow nominee Sludge in his ogling of Ayla. Garth really needs to listen to his sister more often, especially given his stressful crying at the end.

The oddity to me is this M'Rissey character. He has a name that sounds like an artist that I loathe, so that's not a good thing, but I'm wondering what his deal is. He's obviously been singled out.

Grade - B+. More of the same from last issue and waiting to see where this goes.

Manapul's art was my favourite part of this run, I dig his style

I like Gazelle's look and her character concept - she fits in nicely with my fondness for characters that have big limitations, and considering that she replicates Timber Wolf in broad strokes the whole thing with her metabolism is a good way of differentiating them and gives her openings for other power applications. I remember liking that we were on Triton too, there's not a whole lot of development of the Sol system in Legion comics generally speaking so it is untapped potential!

Sludge had a cool power concept too - it's a shame that a lot of these characters didn't get to stick around long enough to become a memorable part of Legion history...M'Rissey I could live without but I don't actually hate him. Morrissey on the other hand is kind of a twat

Yeah, I'm curious about M'Rissey - I just don't know anything about him.

Also, I agree with your point about the solar system - the Legion always goes to so many places, its nice to remember there are still a lot of places local to Earth that can host stories!

The tryouts were fun, back to the stupid and useless power sets, for the most part. You wonder if it's a set-up of some kind, since the U.P. government could surely come up with some viable candidates, political connections or not.

The Legion has gone from a youth movement to "U.P. lackeys", according to Giselle. Sounds like she could be a candidate for Mekt's Wanderers.


More likely named after Rich Morrissey, a big Legion fan who died in 2001.

I laughed at some of those applicants. Fruit Boy is probably my fave (and he's cute too!)

Agree on this 100% - she has the perfect attitude of the core group.


I didn't know that! Thank you for that detail! That was nice of Shooter to do that if that is the case.

The art was a relief after the last few issues - I didn't enjoy the Search for Cosmic Boy art (or storyline) other that Tenzil's appearance, so the more stylised and kinetic artwork worked for me.

I think Shooter breathed a necessary breath of fresh air into the series, though at the time this was released I was disappointed by the joke applicants though looking back at it they were actually quite fun. I've incorporated a few of Shooter's characters into my own fics.

M'Rissey was named after a fan that had died, Shooter said in an interview - can't find it, sorry but will try again and post a link if I do. The idea that the team needed a Business Manager, a role that perhaps we'd expect Brainy to take, was an odd one but it does make sense as it relieves a bit of pressure from Brainy to focus more on Legion stuff.

The Projectra storyline really hooked me in. It's good that he ran with a serious plot point from the previous creative crew that they seemed to have forgotten to develop.

Threeboot was the first version I read through (I think Lightning Saga and Great Darkness Saga were only LoSH-ish TPBs/arcs that I read before 3boot).
I didn't have any real set notions of how the characters were so I enjoyed most all of it.
I have the entire TPBs from 1 through the Dominator war and really like what they did (I think I now have through the send off of Supergirl)

Really like this version of Dream Girl.
Vi's introduction was great. Mon-el send off/twist was good.
Cosmic Boy vs. Brainiac's machinations was interesting.
Cosmic Boy flipping out and dropping tons of flight rings to the ground was an interesting power indicator.
Karate Kid's attempted heart to heart with Phantom Girl was wild.

Evolvo Lad's brute side was the best here while Reboot version had the best intelligent side ( in fairness though I can't remember much from him in the original).

The feel here is definitely different for sure! It also seems a bit off since Cos isn't around.

I agree with all the highlights you've pointed out there. Lots of great moments, and really good plotting from Waid. Its just the personalities of the Legionnaires that I'm a little ambivalent about. But they seem to have changed a bit as we shift to Shooter's writing.

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long delay here! I was on vacation and I thought I was going to be able to keep the rhythm going, but I just needed to sleep.

So here's the new review!

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Legion of Super Heroes v5 #39

Released February 27, 2008
DC Comics, Color
24 Pages

Evil Adventus Part 3: Downfall

Jim Shooter - Writer
Francis Manapul - Penciller
Livesay - Inker
Jo Smith - Colorist
Mike Marts - Editor

Synopsis

Projectra goes to a castle in Metropolis; presumably an embassy or home, only to find it guarded. She terrorizes the guards to get in, only to find Councilwoman Sydne Ardeen waiting for her in an empty house - everything taken because of Projectra's massive debts. Sydne gives Projectra a choice - accept her advice and behave or continue to have outbursts and face the consequences.

At HQ, a mysterious figure is at the monitor board.

Back on Triton, Imra and Brin are looking for their Invisible Kid, who soon arrives with Star Boy. The natives emerge from shelter to find their city in rubble. Brin talke to Giselle while the city manager rants to the media about the Legion and the freaks in their midst. Brin snaps and goes after the City Manager, but is stopped by Imra, who stops Brin and mind tricks the other Tritonians. Brin takes issue with what Imra did and kind of manhandles her, saying she had no choice.

In New Beijing, Earth, Element Lad, Colossal Boy and Ultra Boy are looking for a muskrew infestation while two bystanders look on. One muskrew is left and Gim goes after it, tracking it down to the pet of an underground gang, led by Kubla and Min, who immediately starts a brawl. Somehow Kubla gets the best of Gim and is able to steal his flight ring, but before Kubla can eliminate Gim, he shrinks to normal human size. Gim then takes out Kubla by surprise, but Min then knocks out Gim. Jo and Jan arrive to save the day.

Back at HQ, a skimpily dressed Ayla and Tinya are hanging around the common room as they can't sleep. Ayla is stressed by his brother as leader, and she hates not sleeping with anyone - yes in that sense. Luckily, along comes Val! I guess they both get lucky!

The mysterious stranger is mystified about Projectra being in the Depot District when Garth comes in, but the mysterious stranger disappears.

Back to Projectra, she sees a store being looted in the Depot district. She admires the jewelry, and summons an illusion squad of SPs to subdue the looters. Then she leaves after calling the real SPs, a looted bracelet on her wrist.

Commentary

Pretty solid issue here. We pick up exactly from #38, but add some interesting details. We see that the team is not super accomodating to Imra's whims about when she uses her powers on her own teammates, which is a good thing. The thread of the mysterious interloper to move our way through the issue is well done, as we get to see who is where and dip into other aspects of the story, yet still don't know what that person's endgame is yet. Speaking of the story, the mission on New Beijing was portrayed as routine, but became an interesting action event, with Gim being suprisingly bested in that situation. I wonder if we're going to see Kubla & crew in the future?

I will admit that I rolled my eyes at the Ayla/Tinya/Val scene. I was in a coed dorm, and the girls NEVER lounged around the common area dressed like that. Still, the quirk of Ayla sleeping around with the guys was talked about a lot but never actually addressed directly in over three years of issues, so seeing this was actually a thumbs up. I still think they totally missed the boat by not having any LGBT characters here.

Of course, the best part of this issue, as signaled by the cover, is Projectra's story, which bookends the whole thing. I'm glad that Shooter is addressing this, as she has basically turned into the Element Lad of this run. That kind of a situation would surely have impact on someone of her class, and so we see it. Its a good move, and true to character, but the turn at the end to theft I feel is an ominous portent.

Manapul's art here is great. I'm really gelling with it and it really fits the narrative.

Some other items:

Imra seems quick to pull the trigger on chilling out her teammates when they get out of control. First Jo, now Brin. The tension was good between Brin and Imra - and needed.

Brin definitely is of the camp that doesn't respect Lyle.

And we get the Shooter spin on adults v kids - this time the Legionnaires are freaks. Okay fine. I thought we were going in a different path, but I guess we have to respect the continuity. "rolleyes"

Jan not wanting to dirty his hands was funny. I don't think they ever really dialed in on that with Waid's writing, but it does seem to fit well with him.

I'm glad to see that Shooter has made an effort to connect his stories to the past continuity with the reference to the Dominator War on the lower levels of Metropolis.

Here we go again with the cheesecake - which I guess actually goes somewhere, with Ayla seducing Karate Kid. I liked this for the reason if you're going to talk the game for three years of issues, you may as well show it (the lead up, that is. Get your mind out the gutter, you perv!).

Tinya is a history buff! Who knew?

The "Two at once" comment by mystery man? Ok, slow your roll there, champ.

Overall Grade: A-. Despite my thinking going into this run, I'm kinda digging what I'm seeing so far!

After the fill-in artists of the last few issues, any of whom are not bad artists, but who had no real time to get a feel for the team, IMO (Coipel, in particular, was doing some *beautiful* work on Thor, only a little later, IIRC), Manapul was a breath of fresh air. Clean, dynamic art, all of the faces distinct and identifiable not just by the color spandex they were wearing. And Giselle was gorgeous in all her alien-ness. Too often, the male Legionnaires (Tellus, Gates, Cham, to a lesser extent) get the fun alien looks, while the lady Legionnaires all have to look like Earthly beach babes, even if they are supposed to be aliens (which *most* of them are, as there aren't a lot of Earth-ladies in the Legion!). One of the few places I strongly disagree with Shooter is when he later mentioned that he didn't like how 'alien' Gazelle looked and asked Manapul to tone it down and just make her a human redhead (which, IMO, coincided with a noticeable decline in the quality of Manapul's art, perhaps not at all a coincidence, as no how matter I appreciate what he's done for the Legion, Shooter appears to remain an unpleasant boss to work for...).

I did like how a few of the new Legion applicants were like, 'Subs, but even WORSE.' Instead of Chlorophyll Kid, we get Fruit Boy. Instead of Infectious Lass, we get Virus. Clearly not all of them are 1/1. It's not like Sludge is some sort of riff on Polar Boy (even if both of them make slippery surfaces, PB does so much more)!

Given how Brainy has believed in this run, I'm kind of surprised the Spy didn't get a backdoor invite to be his mole on the UPYH or whatever, couched in manipulative double-speak, "Your team will be the Legion's covert arm, don't talk to the rest of the team about this, it needs to be kept quiet for plausible deniability (and not because it's all bullshit and the rest of the Legion has no idea that I'm using y'all as my personal covert dirty tricks squad and will eventually set you up as patsies to take the heat off of us in the court of public opinion)..."

I was wondering why Gazelle looked less alien when she reappeared later, I had just put it down to the artist evolving her design...that's sad that he was made to do it!

I wonder if the Subs' significance in the 5YL era made it so that people didn't want to treat them like jokes so much afterwards? I may just be projecting I guess, but the only place I can think of they have been used for a laugh in years was that Special with the Inferior Five and that was more good-natured fun than "look how dumb this character concept is"

I mean honestly, make Night Girl a kickass martial artist and Stone Boy a kickass wrestler and none of the original Subs need any kind of modification or enhancement to be a legit member of a superteam these days. Heck, give Chlorophyll Kid a handful of Black Mercy seeds and he could take down Darseid on his own!

I didn't realize this, but I'll have to keep an eye out. I know Shooter has his place in comic book history, but yeah, he seems like a very unpleasant person to be around.


They never really leaned into any espionage squad concepts here on this run, and that's too bad. The only time they went in that direction is when Cham was on his covert mission and met up with Jeyra.

That's a good question, raz. And I think you're on to something. The Subs were definitely given more prominence in 5YL, and they were definitely comedy relief in the cartoon. But they had a few powerhouses - and why Night Girl was never paired with Shadow Lass on a regular basis - even on a mission to say "this power set really makes sense on the team even temporarily" is beyond me. Lydda could kick some serious butt!