Two origin stories, lots of conflict, and is Cosmic Boy a good leader? We look at Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #3 & 4

 

Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #3

All right, we have a rebooted version of Triad... or Triplicate Girl... or whatever they're going to call her. If Colossal Boy can be Micro Lad, then maybe Luorno could be Singular Girl.

It's Triplicate Girl. We begin with her facing off against Phaxred, a terrorist who has discovered that since Legion Flight Rings are coded to the user, he can't steal her ring and fly off. She pulls him out a window and splits into three, saving him before he falls to his death.

Does this Legion have a strict no-killing policy? Considering they've already fought against killers on the planet Lallor, I kinda assume not so much.

I always have so many questions about Triplicate Girl's powers and this issue raises another one. One of her selves is holding up the other two, plus Phaxred, with one hand. Is she super strong now? Do her other selves not weigh anything? Just what are her powers in this new version of the Legion?

Cosmic Boy promises that Brainiac 5 will solve her ring problem - she needs three because the ring won't split into three when she does... which leads to a bunch of other questions... which body keeps the ring? How does her hand split into three and not get injured because the one thing that stays, the ring, doesn't? And as I've asked before, how does her costume split into three? Would other jewellery split into three? Is it only material based on living things (clothing from plants or animals)? My brain hurts just thinking about this.

Our roll call this issue: Ultra Boy, Sun Boy, Phantom Girl, Triplicate Girl, and Element Lad... who still has a horrible soul patch...

In the lounge, Phantom Girl is reading an old Batman comic and using Bruce Wayne's date to give Element Lad romantic advice - "...show up with vegetation." Element Lad mentions how he's not that naive - after all, she tried to convince him they had a member named Atom Girl who he's never seen. Element Lad laments having to wear any clothing as he changes his uniform into casual wear.

His date with Triplicate Girl begins... awkwardly... as they have nothing to talk about. So she talks about her home planet of Cargg. She woke up one day, no memory of the destruction that left her completely alone. But she soon discovered she could split in multiples of herself. As she said, "From three came six. Then nine. Then sixteen and so on." Okay, so she doesn't split in multiples of three... so her name makes no sense whatsoever. Man, that's either a typo or just a dumb mistake...

They fly to a deserted island and we discover that Element Lad's powers only last for about sixty seconds if what he's transformed isn't absorbed or used by something else. So when he transfers a granite rock to chlorine gas, and it floats up into the air, it'll revert to granite and fall to the ground... just the molecules, right? To protect my brain, I'm going to stop thinking about whether this makes sense or not.

Back at Legionnaires HQ, Lightning Lad is checking in, reporting on what's happening on Rimworld 19. He's with Saturn Girl... so now we know why they haven't shown up in person yet. Brainy shows him a picture of the person Dream Girl saw last issue but Garth doesn't recognize our new villain. To add to the drama, the communications suddenly stop and Brainy points out that no transmissions are coming out of the sector anymore.

Cosmic Boy and Brainiac 5 argue about what the best course of action is and Rokk orders them to monitor things. Brainy wants to send reinforcements... and ignores Rokk's instructions. So I guess Cosmic Boy isn't that good of a leader... or Brainy just doesn't follow orders... I'd lean towards the former as another, mystery Legionnaire is working with Brainy on this.

In Legion Plaza, Triplicate Girl is now hanging out with Sun Boy, playing some sort of game where they pretend to be in secret identities. They're both wearing glasses and she accuses him of being Sun Boy. Then, as the argument builds, Chameleon shows up, pretending to be Sun Boy as well.

Once Reep walks away, the pair goes for Kono Juice and Sun Boy reveals that his parents wanted him to join the Legion. Which leads to part two of Triplicate Girl's origin story. When the U.P. called, she was more intrigued with the Legion and joined up with them. Only three of them joined the team and she loved the new adventures and new people she met.

So this means there are still a ton of Luornos on Cargg? That's not something I was expecting. And Triplicate Girl makes more sense now. But, to be honest, I kinda prefer Triad.

Elsewhere, some Legionnaires are rebuilding the tower that Phaxred destroyed earlier because Cosmic Boy thinks it'll give them good P.R. Micro Lad and Light Lass are not happy they're interrupted by... I think it's the S.P.s but nothing is marked, so it could be some concerned citizen. Well, they do threaten to arrest them, so I guess it is the police. Invisible Kid just disappears when the police arrive, so he's not exactly the bravest person in the world.

And somewhere else on Earth, Triplicate Girl is in an old, gasoline-powered car with... I'm gonna assume it's Ultra Boy but, once again, there's no sign that it's him. He destroys an S.P. drone and talks about how he only wants pleasure and to not conform. He wants to be an individual. Then Ultra Boy drops this:

"I'm not complicated. This is me in summary: I like to have fun, I'm a super-hero, and it would take me about an hour to ruin you for all other men."

I hope that's meant to be as cheesy as it is.

Maybe not... they get back to Legion HQ and are making out. He's already shirtless and he wants her to use her power. She asks him why he thinks she's not.

Which is when we discover that she's been dating all three of them. At the same time.

The three men take off, running for the bar. The three Luornos talk about who had the best time and then merge to share their experiences. Merged, she sits up and stares into three mirrors.

And is interrupted by someone asking what she learned from them.

She delivers the final part of her origin story - her return to Cargg. She was treated as an outsider by every other version of her. No one would reassimilate with her. She was a stranger.

She thinks the same thing is happening to the Legion. They're all fragmented and if they don't pull together, she doesn't think there's any way the Legion will last. Each of the Legionnaire she went on dates with have different reasons to be on the team. Which, when you think about it, makes more sense than if they all the same reason. Right?

Cosmic Boy realizes that his job is much harder than he thought. He's not going to cede control to Brainy and understands that he's responsible for an entire generation. Then he says it's time for stage two.

This was an incredibly well-crafted story by both Mark Waid and Barry Kitson. We not only learned everything we needed to know about Triplicate Girl, we also got into the minds of some other members. There were some nice little touches, such as missing flight rings on two of the Luornos, that added to the reread.

Sadly, we've gotten our first issue in this run where you end up realizing that these aren't heroes and this isn't the Legion we love so much. Making Ultra Boy a jerk isn't helping. Having Brainy and the mystery Legionnaire conspire against Cosmic Boy twists a core concept of the Legion. And sending Triplicate Girl on three dates to spy on his own team makes Cosmic Boy looks like a pretty weak leader.

I'm also struggling with their ages. How old is this version of the Legion supposed to be?

Most definitely to be continued...

Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #4

A fill-in artist already. That's somewhat sooner than I was expecting. We have Leonard Kirk pencilling and Mick Gray inking this issue. Let's see how it goes.

The Morgnas have arrived at Legion HQ, bearing homemade cookies and stories of their past. Like all proud parents, they're overbearing and embarrassing Dirk. But they've done their research, pointing out that Star Boy can't eat some of the cookies because people from Xanthu can't process complex sucrose chains. Shadow Lass likes them, happy that someone over 18 doesn't hate the Legion. But she wonder how they're going to react when they find out Dirk's going to quit the Legion. This leaves him a sputtering mess. When did she become psychic?

Really? We're already losing a team member?

Before we can get answers, the Science Police have burned through the walls and are placing the Legion under arrest.

Our roll call: Cosmic Boy, Invisible Kid, Brainiac 5, Chameleon, and Colossal Boy (really? not Micro Lad? We're not respecting what people want to be called in the 31st Century?)

Calls from multiple Legionnaires come in, all of them referencing something called "Youthreg 101.73." Not even Brainy knows what that is. But Cosmic Boy does - it's a new bit of U.P. legislation - they claim the Legion Flight Rings are transmitting something that is sabotaging the Public Service. Of course, that's not how they work - Brainy made the rings to cloak them so the Public Service can't track them.

So why are they being arrested? Brainy figures it's because their newest member, Invisible Kid, is the son of the head of the Northam Science Police.

Cosmic Boy starts questioning Lyle, wondering what's going on. We learn that his father promised all of his discoveries, like his invisibility, to the S.P.s. Without Lyle's permission. So he used it on himself, destroyed his records, and angered his father even more.

Rokk then orders every Legionnaire to convene at S.P. headquarters. He's going to show Lyle what teamwork looks like. As he and Brainy move to join them, he challenges Lyle - Cosmic Boy wants him to do something smart.

As the battle rages, Lyle draws a blood sample and sneaks into S.P. HQ to confront his father. They argue back and forth, neither seeing the other's side. His father talks about how proud he is, how he knows Lyle doesn't need the Legion to leave his mark on the world and help all the S.P.s who are going to be fighting the dangers of the universe.

Lyle makes him an offer - the blood sample containing the invisibility serum for his father to leave the Legion alone. So he calls off the arrests and orders a cease-fire. That's all it took. So one single S.P. officer could, essentially, declare war on the Legion and the rest of the organization is okay with that?

Somewhere, someone named Praetor Lemnos has the blood sample and he wants it analyzed and duplicated. What they don't notice is that Lyle encoded a monitoring virus into the sample so now the Legion can see everything on the U.P. Systemworks.

Cosmic Boy lays into Lyle once again, telling him to lay low for a while. And he sends him to some place where he can be safe... to someone's home where they welcome him with open arms. I'm fairly certain they're Dirk Morgna's parents, but, of course, they do next to nothing to make this even slightly obvious. Or, once again, I'm an idiot.

What's more exciting than yet another story where Invisible Kid is the smartest, most amazing Legionnaire ever, we get a Phantom Girl back-up story. With art by Dave Gibbons.

It's her origin story. We learn of Bgztl, a different reality that exists in the same general space as Earth, but in a higher dimension. She can move between the dimensions through force of will. Does that mean that anyone with the same strength of will could do the same thing? So there's nothing special about her? Or she'd be an excellent Green Lantern?

What this means, of course, is that she appears in both dimensions at the same time, doing the same thing. So while she's fighting a villain Karate Kid was facing off against, she's also on Bgztl, looking like a crazy person. And if she's smelling flowers on Bgztl, she looks like she's miming something on Earth.

A smitten Karate Kid, the narrator of this story, talks about how he spent weeks rehearsing what he wanted to say to her. But while he's awkwardly talking about his past and his education on Earth, she's arguing with her boyfriend on Bgztl. As both guys walk away from her, both realizing that she's not who they want her to be, Tinya finds herself completely alone in a crowded nightclub.

But we know Karate Kid is still smitten.

I never thought I'd say this about a book with Dave Gibbons artwork in it, but both stories were kinda disappointing art-wise. Maybe it's the inkers. Maybe I just enjoy Kitson's work a little bit more.

I gotta be honest, I would've rather spent way more time learning about Phantom Girl's crazy life than whatever they did with Invisible Kid. Once again, Waid has taken a core Legionnaire, re-imagined the way their powers work, and pushed things into a completely new direction. I think it turns Tinya into a phantom in more than just her powers. She's very isolated from her teammates and just kinda floating through two worlds, no longer connected to either. I'm also happy I don't have to deal with any dramatic Tinya/Jo relationship issues anymore.

I'm also looking forward to the next two issues! Maybe they'll actually start dealing with the subplots they're building... like Rimworld 19... or the conspiracy against Cosmic Boy... or the upcoming war...

 

Our next Legionnaire in the spotlight... Kono!!

Finally, we get to a 5YL Legionnaire who actually joined the team in the comic book itself, not during the gap.

Kono, real name Brita An'Nan, is a Sklarian criminal with the power to shift mass - she can either increase someone's density or turn them immaterial, including herself. So she's kinda Star Boy and Phantom Girl rolled into one?

She joined the Legion after Ultra Boy recommended her - she had been working for his smuggling operation on Rimbor and proved herself incredibly valuable very often. I'm not going to psychoanalyze Jo's need to help out a young woman with the power to phase through objects, but I do think Kono existed as a Phantom Girl surrogate in this series. She was the exact opposite of Tinya, except for her powers, so I sometimes wondered if this was yet another moment for the writers to show how much they hated Phantom Girl.

For me, Kono was one of those characters where you wondered when the creative team was going stop shoving them down your throat. Judging for the fact that she barely appears in any Google searches, and she disappeared completely after she was rebooted once, I'm guessing I wasn't the only Legion fan who was happy to see her go away.

Between her rampant sexual harassment of every male Legionnaire, to her grating personality, to her causing more problems than actually helping with anything, Kono was really never a Legionnaire. She was a wrong turn for the 5YL creative team and, thankfully, they realized their mistake at some point and wrote her out of the book in issue #50.

Did she have her moments? Her friendship (if you can call it that) with Furball was tolerable. She destroyed Bion when the rest of the Legion forgot how to use their powers. That's about it. At a time when I was irritated that she was getting so much time in a Legion comic when we weren't seeing any, you know, popular characters, her appearances were more frustrating than enjoyable.

Thoughts? Any opinions on these issues or Kono? Please share on the Reddit message boards!

Until next week... Long Live the Legion!