Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Reading the Legion: Archive 36

If I am right, Brainy was not in on it - Brainy mentions later in LSH 80 that he was also fooled by Cos' act.

And agree re Lori, she comes across as more likable and mature here, than in many of her later appearances! (even when she gets aged to adulthood!)

Legion of Super-Heroes 76
Bouncing Back

Issue Information

Summary:

New members Star Boy and Gates, as well as architect Chuck Taine, meet a frosty reception at Legion HQ. The team's morale is at possibly its lowest point yet, as Leviathan comes to blows with Cosmic Boy while Invisible Kid pulls Triad, Chameleon and Violet together into an Espionage Squad.

Spark returns and is punished by Cos. Valor leaves, frustrated at having to remain in hiding. Violet has a crisis of confidence after feeling ignored and searching for Kinetix in vain.

Kinetix awakens on the Sorceror's World, tended to by an old hag called Mysa who hints about power!

Winema Wazzo confronts Ultra Boy, who confesses his love for Tinya and wished that he had died instead. In a fit of emotion, she urges him to destroy Legion HQ to prevent more teens from dying.

President Chu shuts down the Time Institute in order to clamp down on time travel, and the issue ends with the Institute being attacked by a villain who looks like Starfinger... and who was sent by a mysterious woman!

Thoughts:

A lot happens in this issue - most of it unrelated, but at the same time there is a sense that many plot threads (the Xanthian member mentioned in LSH 66, Kinetix's fate, Lyle's dissatisfaction with Cos, Valor's fate) are starting to progress. But the threads are discrete enough that it feels like a jumbled mess with too much going on. It's easy to empathize with the overwhelmed Legionnaires.

The issue itself reads like a mish-mash of fleeting scenes with little true resolution. Lyle, Cham and Lu are together in one scene; suddenly, we see Lyle alone in one scene and Lu alone in another; then the three are together again. Gates and Star Boy join together but don't do anything. We don't get any hints as to what Lyle is planning.

On the plus side, there were plenty of little character moments. I know I was tickled pink by the introductions of Chuck Taine and Star Boy, and the return (and membership!) of Gates!

Gates easily stole the show, his snarky and opinionated comments had me cracking up (. And teleportation is way up high on my list of cool, tactically advantageous powers.

Chuck looks to be on his way to becoming unofficial Chief of Morale yet again (a moniker he took early in the Preboot!), and it's a welcome ray of light in these depressing times. Having him be an architect adds a nice dimension to the character. And his speech at the end - "We'd all be dead if not for the Legion!" - made me cheer. Come on Legionnaires, get your act together!

Finally, Star Boy's intro also is a nice nod to his Preboot days - the space-cruiser accident (which caused him to miss out on a lot of action!) and his friendliness.

Leviathan vs. Cos - Cos at least had the wits to stop the fight. At least he's still not a total wreck (though he does diss Marla and yells at the other Legionnaires). I don't side with his decisions, but he came out better here. Gim pushes an innocent Cham without provocation, and I'm sure he threw the first punch. Gim does have a point, though. Poor Marla tries unsuccessfully to diffuse the tension; it seems the Legion's adult advisor doesn't hold much sway here.

Kinetix is safe (thank grife!), but is still intent on power. Let's not forget that her lust for power caused her to be depowered in the first place, and nearly got her killed. Having her be found by the magical Mysa is a slight confidence booster, but doesn't soothe my fears entirely. Remember, Mysa as the Hag was one of the bad guys. So it remains to be seen - will she ultimately be evil in this reality?

Poor Violet is burning herself out with worry over Zoe. Vi seems to be the only one who IS worried; she was closest to Zoe, but I'd still expect the others (including the besotted Gim!) to worry about her a little bit. To add to her inner turmoil, Gim remarks that he should be the one worrying about Zoe, because of the way she used to smile at him. An annoyed Violet shrinks away with the classic line - "maybe she was laughing at your hat!", which causes Gim to remove his headgear.

Anyway, poor Vi's feelings are sad AND realistic; her closest friend is missing, Spark gets so much attention, and it looks like Vi has a crush on Gim - who has a crush on Zoe! Oy! She knows they are her friends, and she knows she has to be more assertive. I look forward to seeing a more confident Vi.

The Spark secret admirer subplot is revisited again, though all we really know is that someone is going through a lot of effort! Tenzil? Lyle? Someone else entirely? I don't mind Cos' punishment of Spark too much, though the unspecified duration IS a bit harsh. But we can't have a superhero team whose members just go running around without at least keeping the leader informed.

Touching moment between Jo and Winema is ruined by Winema's deep-seated anger and hatred. She accepts that Jo loved Tinya, but then urges him to destroy Legion HQ. Whooo. Say... wasn't there some other powerful being who is being used as a puppet by someone? Someone who wants to take the Legion down?

The mysterious Starfinger is eerie AND terribly powerful, and like in the Preboot seems to be a puppet. I'm interested to see where this goes.

The hormones are flying! Lori hates being treated like a kid, but still acts like one. Rond is devastated by the Time Institute shutdown, but we know he'll be okay.

And of course, the Science Police are being a tad bull-headed. Ah well.

Overall, this story was a big jumble. There's a sense of movement, but it's all confused. Too much is happening, and it's a big change of pace from the last few 2-parter stories. I got the sense that the writers were making up for lost time, so to speak; they just finished a couple of tie-in/crossover stories which they were forced to tell, and as a result a lot of the other scenes and developments they had been meaning to work on were bumped to this issue.

On the plus side, the massive number of developments does make me excited to see what happens next. It also gives a feeling that - maybe - there will be some sort of grand culmination of all these plot threads soon.

The art is serviceable, and Lee Moder is doing a good job helping us follow the action.

Legionnaires 33
The Inhuman Touch

Issue Information

Summary:

We continue from LSH 76, with the mysterious masked man who looks like Preboot Starfinger attacking the Time Institute. Despite antagonism from some Science Police officers, Saturn Girl and Rond Vidar manage to stop him, though he escapes.

The masked man later appears on Guron, a technologically backward world that is negotiating to join the UP. Chu sends the Legionnaires to stop him, but he takes most of them out - disintegrating the Legion cruiser AND Invisible Kid's flight ring, sending a tower crashing onto Leviathan's head, and "disintegrating" the oxygen around the others. Only Shrinking Violet remains, and she charges him as the issue ends.

Subplots:

1) We see a gift flying invisibly towards Spark while she's on Monitor Duty. Spark immediately figures out that it must be Lyle's doing, as he's the only male on the team who could have left it without her noticing.

2) A call from their mom shows that Live Wire left Winath almost immediately after Spark did.

3) Leviathan puts Star Boy and Gates through training. An injured Star Boy suddenly manifests electrical vision powers which he can't control. Gates continues to show contempt for the Legion, while Leviathan is still angry at Cosmic Boy for admitting Star Boy and Gates, but not Ultra Boy or Jan Arrah.

4) Lori Morning explores Metropolis on her own. She mistakes an alien shop owner for a pet. The Science Police are called in after the alien accuses her of harassment.

5) Violet's bravery at the end of the issue is also highlighted in more quiet scenes. She steps in to stop Cos and Imra from arguing heatedly about Lori by reminding them they are supposed to be friends. And when Spark gloats about Lyle being her secret admirer, Violet simply says she used to be jealous, but thought about it and would rather be happy for her. (A sharp contrast to LSH 76, where she was crying in bed about being ignored!)

6) On Takron-Galtos, the warden tries interrogating Brainiac 5 to figure out what he knows about time travel. He promises to try worse.

7) Kinetix recovers on the Sorceror's World. Mysa shows her an image of the Emerald Eye and says they need to find and destroy it before it possesses anyone else. Enthralled, Kinetix thinks the Eye is beautiful.

Thoughts

A lot happens this issue, with all the subplots being developed. And most of those don't seem related to the main plot. Instead, the Legion's diverse cast continues to get developed.

Right now it still feels a bit like the Legion is caught up in events, rather than shaping them. Mysterious masked man out to destroy them (we know his "master" wants him to destroy the Legion, but is the Time Institute also a target?). Using him to lure the Legion to Guron was clever, it's not a UP world so there would be less of a chance of someone assisting the Legionnaires.

Star Boy's electrical vision powers are a throwback to the Adventure Era, where he temporarily had Superboy-like powers. Poor Star Boy is a bit of a clumsy knucklehead here. In training, Leviathan tells him to stop Chameleon - Thom does so by sinking him into the ground with his gravity powers, damaging the gym. Gim predictably gets mad, and I agree with Gim here. Powers should be used responsibly, people.

Gates, on the other hand, shows much better power control. And nearly every line is a gem. "Training for what? Assassination? Torture? No thanks!" Later on when Cos tells the Legion to "watch him for cues", Gates goes, "have no fear master, we wouldn't DREAM of thinking for ourselves!" (to which Cos retorts, "Gates...SHUT UP!" That made me laugh out loud. Two issues in and I already love Gates.

Lyle's fear of heights is mentioned again, in battle - did the Masked Man know that, and is that why it was Lyle's flight ring he destroyed? Lyle does sneak in a fun snarky line. Leviathan tells him to hold on, to which Lyle responds, "If there was anything to hang on to, there wouldn't be a problem, would there?"

Imra's hand-to-hand continues to shine, by the way. She beats the masked man at the Time Institute with her fists and flight ring as she can't hit him telepathically.

All in all, a nice issue. Lots of character moments, some good action. The main drawback is that the overall plot does not seem to move forward so much, and the Legion is still stuck in a rather unpleasant relationship with the UP and the Science Police. On the plus side, while that atmosphere is felt this issue, it's quite a bit more upbeat than the last one was and the Legionnaires act like a much better unit in battle.

Lastly, as a Kinetix fan, I have to comment - the cover features her finding the Emerald Eye, but she only gets two pages in the issue! Whaaaat!

Gates mentions weight when teleporting, and we see some attempts to limit his power. It IS a useful one... we've also seen attempts to limit Saturn Girl's telepathy, and of course for Andromeda we have that handy lead weakness too.

thanks for that bit of science re Gates teleporting from orbit!

Chuck giving everyone a small wake-up call was great.

and indeed, some great hand-to-hand from Imra vs. Starfinger - I think her first really good hand-to-hand fight since her introduction, if I am right.

in this case when Chuck told them to check their attitudes at the door

I remember this bit!

I remember I wasn't wild about Chuck being relegated to support status in the reboot, but that speech was a really good way of very quickly showing that he was going to be treated respectfully as a member of the cast and not just be an easter egg.

The Bouncing Boy was another one, but I guess that's a long time coming yet

The multiple plots were a plus for me - kept every pot boiling. It did feel a bit chaotic, but the Legion is in a bit of disarray at this point. Cos seems to be in over his head with no deputy-like support. He's got two new members, one who isn't 100% functional and one who absolutely doesn't want to be there, one other member in prison, one missing, one pretending to be dead, Valor under wraps and a time-displaced kid wandering around. It's pretty sneaky of Lyle to organize action against Cos, but that's espionage for you. Don't know if they'll ever really resolve their differences.

Chuck does shine here, the outsider voice that can speak to everyone. It's cool that he's an architecture student and not some slacker cutting out of work to go to a ballgame.

Mysa the Hag AND the Emerald Eye - that's an interesting mix of Legion history. You just figure Zoe's headed for big trouble here.

A few teasers for Spark's admirer. Whoever it is is going overboard with the gifts. Violet's reaction shows that she's growing in self-confidence; I wonder if she was a favourite of Peyer and McCraw.

GL has a point that Jo is unbelievably devastated by Tinya's death - he's supposed to be a tough guy - but maybe it's partly guilt that he couldn't save her.

Always liked Lee Moder's skinny Legionnaires! I may be in the minority and have only encountered one other fan as enthusiastic as I am.

great point, FC. I remember feeling sympathy for Cos at times during this era - who would not be stressed, with all that going on? also with Brainy in jail, nobody can search for XS...

re missing Zoe, it was an interesting / nice touch that Mysa mentioned casting a spell so nobody else would worry. Did Gim already start flirting with her at this point? ah yes, Gim mentioned that to Vi in the scene where she insulted his "silly hat" (and immediately shrank out of sight, lol!) And the Mysa scene ties into this, with Vi's friendship being stronger than Gim's crush - I liked that bit

Legion of Super-Heroes 77
Lock Up
Issue information

Summary:

The Warden of Takron-Galtos illegally enlists Nara Minsork, a roge Titanian, to probe Brainiac 5's mind and learn the secrets of time travel.

Minsork uses illegal technology to dig into Brainiac 5's mind, and finds his memory of the last time he felt pleasant - the day he was born.

Yet, Brainy's memory of that moment is objective because he already forgot what he felt. And that's why he wanted to travel through time - it was the only way for him to see his mother's face again, as Colu expunged all records of her. Brainy uses his complete control of his mind to threaten Minsork that he will trap her in it, unless she gives up this memory and allow him to suppress it again.

Thoughts:

The issue is told from the point of view of Nara Minsork, not of Brainiac 5. It actually works here; Minsork's telepathy allows us to see how a Coluan's mind would differ from an ordinary sentient. And to also see how far advanced Brainy's 12th level intelligence is from the typical Coluan's.

It also makes for more dramatic reveals of Brainy's time on Colu. He was bored to death simply because he was so much smarter than everyone else. This lets us see his isolation. I'm reminded of a similar insight with Marvel's Quicksilver, where he likens his super-speed to living in a world where he is always "stuck in line" with slow-moving people - explaining his impatience. This explains Brainy's own impatience with much less intelligent people.

The issue gives more key insights into Brainy:

1) He does not attach much emotional significance to most of his life

2) Besides his birth, a key event was when the Coluans kicked Brainy out of Colu because he kept running experiments without proper clearance. Nobody else on Colu was smart enough to understand what he was doing, so to prevent him from "destroying the planet", he was "given away" to work for RJ Brande.

3) Brainy kept blowing up Brande Industries labs. Brande found him an internship at the Time Institute...

4) ... but Brainy was pulled away from there when he was drafted into the Legion. His Legion career was full of boredom and annoyance at being distracted, and jealousy at the attention Invisible Kid got from inventing the flight rings from Brainy's discarded experiment...

5) Except for Andromeda, whom he was fascinated with. He was genuinely sad at her death. but the issue implies that he didn't so much as crush on Andromeda, as he was fascinated because she physically resembled Brainy's mom (tall, blonde). Andromeda's death saddened Brainy because she reminded him of his mom.

All in all, a good story that really lets us get to know Brainiac 5. Nara Minsork isn't a shabby character either; an amoral woman who uses technology to break into Brainy's mind even though it risks shutting his mind down permanently. The Warden is also a good example of the corruption under Chu's UP - he knows hiring Minsork, a rogue telepath, is illegal; and he blackmails her into working for him. Yet, he is willing to do these because Chu is leaning on him to discover Brainy's secrets of time travel - despite time travel being outlawed by the UP! If we didn't already know Chu was bad news, this cements it for us.

Legionnaires 34
Fallen Star

Issue Information

Summary:

Picking up from the cliffhanger in L* 33, Shrinking Violet charges Starfinger. Too small to be affected by his powers, she manages to get close and beat him - though not without minor injuries. She finds, to her shock, that Starfinger is really Jan Arrah!

Back in Legion HQ, Saturn Girl telepathically probes Jan Arrah along with Cosmic Boy and Leviathan. From his memory, they see it was Winema Wazzo who captured and brainwashed him, in order to get revenge on the Legion for Apparition's death..

Cos, Gim and Lyle interrupt a UP session to show their video of Winema attacking Jan. President Chu and the other UP delegates start questioning Winema, but Chu interrupts to order Cos to freeze his video. In a scene showing Jan traveling as Starfinger, she points out a background image of a Sun-Eater! Chu brings the Legionnaires to the UP Secret Archive, and tells them about how dangerous the Sun-Eater is - that it can literally destroy stars. She also introduces the villains that Legion fans will know as the Fatal Five - besides Mano, there are Tharok, Validus, Persuader, and Empress (no Emerald!). In this reality, each was genetically engineered by their homeworlds to fight the Sun-Eater (or so Chu says). Lyle references his Earthgov past, saying the five were unoffically called the Fatal Five because of how dangerous they were.

Cos convenes the team, and the 10 remaining Legionnaires agree they are short-handed and need all the help they can get. Only Gates dissents; everyone else agrees to enlist the help of the Fatal Five.

Finally, Tharok gets a call from someone who says that the UP has dispatched the Legion to collect the Fatal Five, as planned. Tharok agrees to hold his end of the bargain - to kill the Legion.

Elsewhere...

1) We see Valor on Drak IV. A bunch of scavenging nomads have found a cache of very high-powered arms. After beating off their attack, Valor questions the nomads on where they found the arms; they say they just found them there. Valor destroys the arms and leaves the scavengers for the Science Police.

2) On the Sorcerer's World, Mysa restores Kinetix's power and sends her after the Emerald Eye.

3) Saturn Girl is called to pick up Lori Morning. The sentient that Lori petted is filing a complaint; Imra scolds him for not understanding that Lori made an honest mistake. Lori gets off with a warning.

4) Chuck Taine walks in on Violet as she changes. A stammering Chuck apologizes, while Violet is cool as a cucumber. Triad is surprised that Violet wasn't even embarrassed. Violet responds that she grew tired of resenting her teammates for just relaxing and having fun; she even chides herself for spending so much time searching for Kinetix, "like she isn't fully equipped to take care of herself!" Violet changes into a more revealing costume.

Thoughts:

I like the cover blurb (Shrinking Violent!) way better than the actual title (Fallen Star). Shrinking Violent is a nice play on words. Fallen Star does not really seem to fit, unless it refers to the brainwashed Jan? Or to the stars being devoured by the Sun-Eater? Or to Winema being caught in wrongdoing?

Speaking of, Winema's grief over Tinya's death, her previous animosity to the Legion, and her temperament all combine to make her a plausible villain.

Most of the issue's events seem to be a roller-coaster: first we have a brainwashed Jan Arrah (a powerful weapon indeed) attacking the Legion; then his memories show a Sun-Eater, which Chu immediately picks up on. Then the Legion is sent to gather the Fatal Five, and in the end someone is revealed to be pulling the strings to have the Fatal Five kill the Legion. I read these issues out of order, so I cannot say for sure if I would have been suspicious way back then... but the writers drop enough hints that I can imagine many savvy readers start questioning these events.

Valor acts a bit cocky here. After felling the nomads, he goes "Oh, come on. That was one punch." When he escapes the arriving Science Police, he tells the one conscious nomad, "Listen, I have a problem. I;m famous, see? And right now, I can't afford to be seen except by the stupid, the out-of-it...people like you." Whoa. Can't imagine Preboot Mon-El saying these things. But then again, we know this version of Lar Gand had a somewhat different reaction to his Phantom Zone imprisonment... and of course, he has his messiah status in this reality to deal with. I can understand him getting a bit of an attitude.

Leviathan is impatient and brash as usual, while Cos is much calmer and more even-tempered this issue. Lyle managed to weasel his way into confronting Chu, even if he wasn't part of Jan's mental probe. Did Cos decide to bring in him because of his experience with Earthgov?

Gates continues to be a star. With just one line, he probably brings in 90% of the humor in this issue - "I suppose if our reactionary president told you to jump into a black hole, you'd do that, too!" interestingly, Spark and Triad and Chameleon are among the ones to defend Cos, despite Spark and Triad at least having serious disagreements with him recently.

Violet's bravery against Jan isn't new - she showed the same fire versus Micro in LSH v4 66. But her demeanor outside of battle - not being fazed by Chuck walking in, wearing a more revealing costume - are completely new. Perhaps the writers had already decided to make her the Emerald Empress by this point, which would explain her sudden confidence boost. Of course, to the reader it should be a big clue that something is amiss, as she was so softspoken outside of battle before! Remember when Zoe was changing her outfits in Legionnaires 23?

As Future mentioned above, Kinetix's subplot moves along without developing her character any. In her one-page scene, she is still as eager as before to get power; and she never even thinks of the potential dangers of the Emerald Eye. She's my favorite Legionnaire, but I have to admit her subplot hasn't been doing her many favors yet.

Lori's subplot is almost as bad. Her running off is realistic, but what purpose does it serve? She got into trouble, then Imra got her out of trouble with her Imra-ness. Plenty of build up, no pay off.

As for the Fatal Five, not much has changed for Tharok, Validus or Persuader. We already know Mano is a very different character this reality. That leaves Empress:in terms of power, a big step down. No more Emerald Eye, so she is just a cruel killing machine - "she knows a thousand ways to kill a hundred different species". No evidence of any super powers. She likes to pass herself off as a political freedom fighter, so we are told. Maybe that is why she calls herself the Empress, I don't know.

This is another solid issue. Subplots don't add that much yet, but the main action is pretty gripping, if a bit fast-paced. It does move the overall story along quite a bit.

you got it signed by Jeff Moy! Lucky you, and happy for you!

lol at your comment re Zoe not getting any sense

Jan as Starfinger was a great way to show how versatile and dangerous his powers can be! and it all made sense too in the end, as to how he could do all the Liquefying and Burning and all that

also funny re the team Cos brought to the UP - his deputy Gim, and spymaster (lol) Lyle. not even Imra, who did the telepathic scans. but of course, Gim and Lyle would have pushed for going, while Imra would have been more OK to step back

and yeah, the look at Brainy's history was nice and revealing. he was already coldly arrogant from the beginning of his life, but the abandonment by his mom Brainiac 4 does humanize him a little. and him threatening to trap Nara Minsork in his brain shows just how advanced his mind is. also love that he does not really mind being imprisoned, as it lets him think free of distraction!

I do appreciate the plotting done by the team, by the way. Brainy being imprisoned leads into a spotlight issue, for example. the timing of Vi's new confidence is also spot-on as to the ongoing story. all the individual threads re Jan going to Trom and getting kidnapped, Winema's reactions to Tinya's death, etc. are also woven in and starting to converge...

Valor acts a bit cocky here. After felling the nomads, he goes "Oh, come on. That was one punch." When he escapes the arriving Science Police, he tells the one conscious nomad, "Listen, I have a problem. I;m famous, see? And right now, I can't afford to be seen except by the stupid, the out-of-it...people like you." Whoa. Can't imagine Preboot Mon-El saying these things. But then again, we know this version of Lar Gand had a somewhat different reaction to his Phantom Zone imprisonment... and of course, he has his messiah status in this reality to deal with. I can understand him getting a bit of an attitude.

As Future mentioned above, Kinetix's subplot moves along without developing her character any. In her one-page scene, she is still as eager as before to get power; and she never even thinks of the potential dangers of the Emerald Eye. She's my favorite Legionnaire, but I have to admit her subplot hasn't been doing her many favors yet.

Lori's subplot is almost as bad. Her running off is realistic, but what purpose does it serve? She got into trouble, then Imra got her out of trouble with her Imra-ness. Plenty of build up, no pay off.

The other big flag that something is off is the revelation and confrontation about Winema Wazzo. They deliver seemingly hard evidence, and nothing is done but focusing on a small background detail that sends the story off into an entirely different direction, which is confirmed when we meet Tharok at the end. But the Five are what we'd expect - we've met Mano, Persuader and Validus are exactly the same as before, and the Empress is pre-Eye - all pretty cool starting points.

LSH 77 is one of my favourite issues from this run. Nara Minsork is unique - she's dressed like a dame in a Marlowe novel (30th century style) and she's trouble - an immoral telepath. She just wants to make a living, it seems, not take over the universe. It's a refreshing take on a citizen of Titan.

That scene seemed unbelievable to me. The Legion just bursts into the meeting, accuses Winema in front of everybody, then it's all dropped with the SunEater revelation. Will we later find out that Chu knew about Jan/Starfinger and that's why she so easily dismissed the accusation?

And I totally missed Vi's green eyes - and took her new outfit as just a sign that she was gaining confidence as a Legionnaire.

Legion of Super-Heroes 78
The Gathering Doom
Issue information

Summary:

The UP Council meets outdoors. Most delegates are nervous, but President Chu faces up to the situation by describing exactly how scary the Sun-Eater is. She outlines her plans to have the Legion stop the Sun-Eater, prompting an outburst from Winema, who is promptly removed. Chu recovers smoothly, and promises that no UP star-system will be destroyed. We see panicking non-UP worlds rush to join the UP to gain protection.

The Legionnaires split into pairs to collect the Fatal Five.

Cosmic Boy and Violet head to McCauley's base to retrieve Mano. Evolvo devolves into ape form to stall the Legionnaires, but Violet promptly scares him into submission with her shrinking. McCauley, forced to comply, brings the Legionnaires to Mano. The UP makes a generous offer - help against the Sun-Eater, and get a full pardon. Mano accepts, much to McCauley's horror, as nothing will stop Mano from pursuing his vengeance. Cos shows little sympathy; McCauley was keeping Mano in a horrible cell without legal authority - with rats imported from the sewers of Paris! Even if Mano had rejected the offer, the Legionnaires would have had him transferred to a proper jail.

Saturn Girl and Spark head to Pasnic to find Validus running loose. Imra sees Validus' mind is just a "big angry head full of nothing"! Spark resists Validus' lightning but can't affect him in return. Imra manages to telepathically implant a big, scary image of herself into Validus' mind - making him faint!

Chameleon and Leviathan head to an asteroid for Venegar, built specifically to house the Empress. They find her lounging on the bodies of every single sentient there, much to their horror.

Gates and Invisible Kid find Tharok's hideout. Lyle warns Gates not to teleport ahead, despite Gates' difficulty walking; Gates does still teleport, but wisely waits by the entrance to Tharok's lair. Lyle gives a recap of Tharok's history - stupid criminal who got solvent spilled on half his body; reconstructed into a cyborg by a surgeon, whom he promptly killed; cybernetic enhancements make him extremely intelligent. To their surprise, Tharok surrenders without a fight. Interestingly, Tharok is holding what looks to be the Atomic Axe.

And on Takron-Galtos, Star Boy and Triad go on ahead to take custody of the Persuader, sans Axe. We find a new Warden, replacing the one who sicced Nara Minsork on Brainiac 5 in LSH v4 77. She mentions that the old Warden is now behind bars. Triad sees Brainy and tries to talk to him, but he ignores her - too busy thinking. Talk about lost in thought.

As the Legionnaires and Fatal Five assemble, Tharok hands the Atomic Axe to Persuader, gives a shiny dagger to Empress, frees Validus, and rallies the Fatal Five to kill the Legion. Uh-oh.

Thoughts:

The cover is an excellent homage to the Adventure Comics issue with the original Fatal Five story!

The Gathering Doom. Nice title, and a subtle foreshadowing also that maybe gathering the Fatal Five wasn't the best idea.

The writers managed to pack a lot of characterization - both for Legionnaires and for the Fatal Five - into a series of lovely little vignettes. This issue was structured extremely well, and the action was not interrupted at all by any subplots. References to matters outside of the main plot (e.g. Mano's vendetta versus McCauley) are folded into the main story.

On the Legionnaires -

Cosmic Boy continues to be calm and even-tempered, a big departure from his recent tantrums. He definitely shows his compassion here - being appalled at Mano's poor cell conditions, and also reminding the Legionnaires (especially Leviathan!) to stress communication with the Fatal Five over confrontation.

Violet also continues to be confident and clever, scaring ape-man Evolvo without throwing a punch.

Spark doesn't get to do much, but I like her snarky yet professional demeanor. She is good for a few cracks while still getting the job done.

Saturn Girl pulls the big save against Validus; to be fair, she is probably the Legion's only effective weapon against him now.

Leviathan's sense of justice comes through at how disgusted he is of the Empress.

Chameleon doesn't do much, though his Interlac has improved a bit. At least he can be understood without the need for a translator.

Invisible Kid references his spy past again; he shows much more caution this time around. Learning from past mistakes?

Gates, despite his bravado and sarcasm, showed his fear of Tharok. Again, comedy gold for the little bug!

Triad spends most of her lines yelling at Star Boy, and grumbling at Cos for giving her the "easy job" of getting the Persuader, who is already in custody at Takron-Galtos. Neither she nor Star Boy are happy about spending the issue filling up forms to get the Persuader freed.

Star Boy, for his part, seems a bit lost this issue - being yelled at by Triad for touching the controls on their spaceship, and not recognizing Brainiac 5. Ah well, he's only been here a few issues, give him a break...

The Fatal Five's facade ends as expected, and possibly sooner than expected - we didn't even see any real Sun-Eater, and they didn't even move the action off Takron-Galtos!

This issue was great for story momentum; the writers wisely chose not to include anything distracting. instead, we go full throttle into what promises to be a big battle!

Artwise, I commend the panel layouts. They are easy to read and follow. I also think Lee Moder's art has improved at this point; the Legionnaires look more fleshy and less anemic. The action scenes are also very easy to follow.

Legionnaires 35
While You Were Out...

Issue Information

Summary:

While the Legionnaires are away, Metropolis (and by extension Earth) wait for the Sun-Eater. Rond Vidar heads to Legion HQ to examine Lori Morning, under the watchful eye of Shvaughn Erin in her role as SP Officer. Lori brashly uses the Legion HQ holo-projector to tell Metropolis that she, as Future Girl, will protect them while the Legion is away - leading to concern and fear. A furious Marla Latham has to do damage control.

An intruder uses this opportunity to attack HQ with a device that scrambles communications and an army of shapeshifters.

Chuck Taine, Tenzil Kem and Marla Latham successfully fend off a trio of intruders. Rond, Shvaughn, Lori and some Athramites face another group that has a caustics bomb; they are trying to use it on the HQ power core, which would destroy Metropolis! Lori kicks the bomb away from the intruders; it eats away a large portion of the floor, sending most of them plunging to their doom. Lori saves herself and one intruder, who asks Lori to save herself. Lori refuses, and hangs on long enough for Shvaughn and Rond to save her. The Legion support staff decide to keep the intruder, and Lori names it Proty.



Thoughts:

The roll call is, as always, a nice touch. Unlike some other roll calls, the characters' expressions here fit the scene - Shvaughn and Marla register disapproval, Rond is embarrased out of his life, Tenzil is amused and Chuck is gawking at Lori's hideous fashion disaster.

I think the writers did a great job of including exposition. There was just enough to give readers background, and it was worked in organically through conversations that are character-building and that seem natural. They explained things in a minimum of words and had the characters figure things out intelligently enough. Points are lost for the repetitive dialogue on Takron-Galtos and with XS though, that's still 2.5 pages total!

Lori. Though it's not explicitly stated, the Legion is probably keeping her existence a secret from the government. Else, Chu would likely have carted her off to prevent Rond from discovering useful things from studying her.

Nice nods to the Preboot continuity (Chuck being a sharpshooter, the Space Canine patrol) that would still be appreciated by new readers as well.

It was a fun issue, and each of the seven cast members get something to do. Proty, well, it's a nice nod as well, though its inclusion does raise a lot of questions. And at least the Legion / Fatal Five battle got moved on a bit.

It was also good seeing some scenes of what is happening on Earth, what with the Sun-Eater panic. That way, this issue does not feel so much like filler, but more like "what is everyone else doing?" Interestingly, none of the support staff register even a bit of worry about the Sun-Eater itself, though they are probably just confident in the Legion.