v8 Issue 7From Wildfire's introduction, there seems to be more of a past to a lot of the applicants to the Legion. We're seeing them on their first day or so, as Superboy arrives. Prior to that, Drake has not been cherry picked. He's applied, has been rejected and subsequently proven himself to be Legionnaire quality.
It's a bit of a wasted page, as the 6 prior issues have consisted of skirmish with some grunts called the Horraz, with Jo's dad, and use a Aqua-Macguffin to restore oceans around Earth (which sounds more exciting typing it, than the payoff was in reading it unfortunately). Nothing you couldn't build into a panel or two of dialogue, if required.
I thought Rokk got thrown under a Mayavale Space Train a bit. He's no real need to apologise. But he sees a bigger picture of galactic understanding, and diplomatically tries to accept any blame if the Legion were at fault for any misunderstanding. He's dismissed by the personality flipping Brande. Yet, when Jon does it, Brande is cooing away at his every word.
The Legion were happy enough to follow Rokk into the UP chamber to do this. Brainy's more direct approach didn't work out either. Yet, Rokk's the one who's told that it's fine for Brainy to act alone, that he's wrong to have any concept of thought privacy, that there should be another election (how long after the initial election is this one?) 5 minutes after the full team has gathered. He's then voted down in favour of a guy who has issues with the way the Legion "declared war" on the villain. That's not to mention Brainiac 5, who a number of the team think is really in charge anyway.
It's a shame he left, without being able to get his point across. Perhaps this version has to take a few knocks before he's seen as leader material by the others. Having flown away, he's in the perfect position to save-the-day against Jo's dad. He has Shadow Lass and Garth on his side at least. A couple more friends would have added a fuller split in the team dynamic.
A confrontation with the UP Chamber and an election is about all there is story wise this issue. A last page appearance by a possible villain may provide a bit more action next time round. As the entire Legion seems as though it has to be within five feet of each other, or they explode like a Terrifics/ Suicide Squad crossover, I don't give the new villains much of a chance. The team could do with a challenge though, and there are (fatal) five of them.
There are lots of fun character moments, and cultural friction. Mon's reaction to Supes being nominated; foodstuffs and voting protocols. Imra's telepathy allows the reader to get a deeper character infodump, and through her conversation, we get to know more about Brainy's approach too. We learn little morsels of several of the cast and more on Garth and Ayla's family. The group scenes allow for lots of snipes, but when they go anywhere, it's a bit mob handed.
The art continued to be very good, not dropping off too much from Sook. It's another issue that would be more enjoyable in the trade than a stand alone.
The Gold Lantern variant cover was going for ?40 ($52.32)! I laughed, but then started wondering if the shop knew about the amazing origin Gold Lantern is supposed to have. I can't wait to hear about it!