It's the final... something... against the Dominators and we get some strong deja vu... we look at Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #29 & 30

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #29

Two things stand out about the cover. First, the dead Dominators. I've mentioned before that I'm not sure if the Legion Code against killing still exists in this version and now I'm fairly certain it doesn't. I think it's kinda weird that Mark Waid took that off the table, especially considering how much he loves the Silver Age team.

But the bigger thing that stands out is that we have different creators. Writer Tony Bedard, penciller Kevin Sharpe, and inkers Mark McKenna and Jack Purcell are working on the book, taking over mid-storyline. You may ask why? I'm asking why. Why have the main creative team drop the book for an issue right in the middle of a the big, multi-part story? I can understand the artist needing a month, but the writer?

The answer may be this. This issue is cover dated June 2007. Do you know what other book is cover dated June 2007?

I know I'd be pissed if I saw such a horrible drawing of Karate Kid and I'm wondering if that's why Waid and Kitson weren't involved here. It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that DC was reintroducing the original Legion... kind off... essentially cutting this reboot off at the knees. Would it?

Anyway, let's begin.

The Legion has invaded the Dominator's home world after Earth fell because every computer was taken over by the AI Virus.

We begin with the Dominator's top combat technologist, the being who used the super-powered DNA to change their shock troops to fight back against Earth. Well, he said he did but we haven't seen it yet.

Why did he do it? To prevent, in his words, "the scum of the galaxy" from defeating their empire. Judging by the panel showing the Legion decimating their troops, I don't think it's going so well.

Mon-El is back on the Legion side of the Roll Call for absolutely no reason. I wonder why Supergirl isn't there as well...

The Legionnaires are ripping through the Dominators, happy their Flight Rings are working again and confused about their foes constantly repeating, "Remember the fifdee-tu!" Cosmic Boy rips down a building and, apparently, is out for blood. You can understand why but it's always weird to see the Legion actively killing other sentients.

The combat leader of the Dominion realizes that the council is looking for someone to blame, not a way to win, but before he can do anything, he's nice enough to give us a four-page recap of how they were defeated during Invasion, became peaceful, then, 12 years ago, Booster Gold showed up, stole one of their guns, and let them know that 52 worlds were allied against them.

If I've learned nothing else from reading DC Comics, it's that Booster Gold always messes things up.

This is why they planned this invasion. Wow... really?? They couldn't have done something, anything that made more sense? And, to be kinda honest, I sympathize with their fear of being attacked by someone with super powers. Here they are, just living peacefully, and this crazy person shows up and steals from them? I don't think this was the intent, but it's where this story is taking us.

The Dominator then goes and confronts Sun Boy, showing him how the Dominators are losing and how this is all done because the treaty was broken. More flashbacks follow and we see how they prepared for war and tortured humans to find out about the 52 worlds. When Mekt's team showed up, essentially invading the home world and investigating what was going on, the animosity got even worse and the Dominators realized they needed to go on the offensive.

He explains how he built the army of super-powered Dominators but then lets the prisoners go. He didn't do it to defeat the U.P. He did it so they could replace the normal Dominators - this new breed of soldiers would ensure that the Dominators would never fall again. They all possess an "x-factor" in their genes that will be carried on in their children. These children will be able to wipe out the U.P.

Back on the surface of the planet, as the battle continues, Mon-El gets weaker with every breath. The lead levels are much higher than on Earth and potentially deadly to a Daxamite.

Sun Boy and his team join the other Legionnaires... and one of them looks strangely like Wildfire. You would think I'd be happy about this, but if you're telling me he was one of the killers who was part of Terror Firma, I'd rather he was someone else.

United, they rally around Cosmic Boy and they're ready to take over the Dominator home world.

Well that was a whole bunch of filler. Not much happened, I ended up sympathizing with the Dominators a tiny bit, and I would've been pretty angry if I had bought this when it came out. Bedard did his best to keep things moving but Sharpe really struggled artistically.

 

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #30

Mark Waid and Barry Kitson (with inkers Mick Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti) are back. It's almost as if the entire creative team needed a month off to make sure they could produce an amazing finale to the storyline. Or just a finale.

Or they were just angry DC was bringing back another Legion. I have no idea and I probably shouldn't be speculating, right?

Staring at the cover, can anyone explain why Micro Lad, when he's at his regular size, looks part Neanderthal?

Our first page is a doozy - sad Legionnaires are standing around a memorial to Mon-El, or Lad Gand of Daxam. Wow - that is not what I expected to see here.

We start our story seven days earlier, with the Legion realizing they've basically won the war with the Dominators. The Legionnaires and Wanderers have decimated the Dominator's sciencities and Brainiac 5 has created tech to undo the AI virus.

Sun Boy lets them know what we learned last issue - the Dominator troopers with super-powered DNA are heading out into the galaxy and there are more than one million of them. They're going to spread and eventually conquer everything. The question now is: "How do we save the future?"

Cosmic Boy is faced with a huge decision - are they willing to exterminate the Dominators to protect the future? Mekt says no, that Rokk doesn't have any iron in his soul. Dream Boy says that they're mistaken - there's already a bomb that Brainy has been building. Cosmic Boy doesn't know what he's talking about but Dream Boy states that this is what Dream Girl told him.

Roll Call - and we have everyone. Every Legionnaire and the important Wanderers. Unlike last issue, Mon-El is back with the Wanderers. And Sun Boy is back with the Legion.

Dream Boy tells everyone that Nura has achieved a higher state of Naltorian existence. She comes to others in their dreams, which explains why Brainy has seen things coming. He joins the team through a transmatter gate and tells them he's got some inventing to do.

Okay... so if this is something that Dream Boy seems to be aware of, that Naltorians can achieve this, does that mean that everything Brainy did was a complete waste of time? And could she have achieved this is she was just taken back home? And does every Naltorian achieve it? And why are the Legionnaires not still pissed about what Brainy did?

Supergirl and Mon-El continue destroying the Dominator infrastructure, taking away their food and ecoservices. Basically, Supergirl is helping kill millions of sentient beings whose only crime is being part of a race that, to be blunt based on last issue, attacked the U.P. for a completely justified reason. Let me repeat that. Supergirl... you know... cousin of Superman... is participating in genocide...

Is this what the new 52 was all about?

Mon-El looks horrible. The lead poisoning is really affecting him and he needs help getting back to the join the rest of the teams.

Back with the Legionnaires, we learn that Cosmic Boy is planning on destroying the entire planet. Lightning Lad objects, stunned that Rokk is considering genocide. Brainy just builds the bomb, no problem, but tells everyone that it has to be hand-carried to the planet's core. It's a suicide mission.

So if Cosmic Boy's plan all along was to destroy the entire planet, why were they wasting Supergirl's and Mon-El's time (and health)? Those two return and Supergirl, with a huge grin on her face, volunteers to carry the bomb. She doesn't know what the plan is, but Brainy tells her that she can't - she's not willing to be responsible for the deaths of five billion sentient beings.

We get a page of arguments and characters completely change personalities to provide different sides. For example, Jeyra, who we've watched kill someone in cold blood, argues they can just seal off the Dominators. Not kill them.

Cosmic Boy makes the decision himself. He wants Mon-El to deliver the bomb. They argue some more but Mon-El agrees very quickly and tells everyone not to blame Cosmic Boy. Mon says that Rokk is right and this is the right thing to do.

And then he flies off with the bomb.

The Legion and the Wanderers leave through a transmatter gate.

Mon-El flies into the planet, the bomb explodes, and the Dominator home world disappears into a blip of light.

 

We return to the original scene and the Legion is holding a memorial for Mon-El. Cosmic Boy gives an incredibly terse speech. They talk about the election for the new Legion leader. Mekt and Garth decide to hang out and not talk. Kromak apologizes to Invisible Kid for not giving him a better arm. Element Lad and Triplicate Girl are definitely a couple.

And then we get the big reveal. The Dominator's planet isn't destroyed. It's been sent to the Phantom Zone. Along with Mon-El. Dream Boy presented the plan after Dream Girl explained everything to him. Phantom Girl wants Rokk to tell everyone the truth (and no, I have no idea why she's involved in this... maybe because she was the one who grabbed the Kryptonite they used for the Phantom Zone projector) but Rokk knows that they have to keep this secret - Mekt can't know where Mon-El is.

Chameleon is nice enough to give us, and Timber Wolf, a recap of everything else. Supergirl is working hard to get back to the 21st Century. The Wanderers have been pardoned for the attack on Metropolis (and I guess Jeyra was pardoned for murder). Ultra Boy and Karate Kid are leading the election but anything could happen.

Cosmic Boy stands in the HQ, alone, looking at a statue of him, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad. A glowing orb appears and the Knights Tempus, the galactic defenders of the 41st Century have arrived. Two guys and a girl have traveled back through time to tell him that it's his heroism, his deeds, that inspired the Knights to form and protect the galaxy. They ask Rokk to join them.

Wow - that's veja du...

Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl rush to find him, excited about the election results. Imra can't sense him at all - Rokk is gone. But they see that he left them his Flight Ring, hanging off the statue.

 

The phrase "This isn't my Legion of Super-Heroes" gets thrown about over and over again. With every reboot, fans of a previous version say that they don't recognize these characters anymore.

We've officially reached my breaking point on this story. Okay, Cosmic Boy, Brainiac 5, Dream Boy, and Phantom Girl all know that they didn't just commit genocide. But everyone else believes they did. And no other Legionnaire tried to stop them. As far as they know, they just watched their team kill five billion sentient beings.

This isn't my Legion of Super-Heroes.

 

Regarding the story itself, I'm rapidly reaching the opinion that the Legion might be the worst thing Mark Waid has ever written. The story made no sense, there were massive plot holes, characters appeared and disappeared, personalities changed on a dime, and I could make the argument he's done more damage to these characters than Giffen and Bierbaums did during 5YL.

I joked, when I was reviewing the Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning run, that they were aping Independence Day. The stories were exciting but nothing made sense when you actually thought about them. Waid's taken that and made it even worse.

I never, ever thought I'd write this but I'm actually looking forward to Bedard taking over from Waid.

 

Our next Legionnaire is the spotlight... Kinetix!!! 

 

 

If I asked you which Legionnaire was hated the most by creative teams, I think that Kinetix, or Zoe Saugin, would vault to the top of that list. I'm not sure why she became the Legion's punching bag. I guess with Leviathan dead, they needed someone to treat like crap.

Kinetix was the second new Legion recruit in the Reboot era, with (originally) the power to control objects at the molecular level. After touching an artifact when trying to save her mother, she was given these powers.

Unfortunately, she became obsessed with finding other objects and getting new and better powers. Her battle between becoming corrupt or remaining heroic continued through most of the McCraw/Peyer run and was one of the better long-term storylines they had going on. Her quest to find the Emerald Eye had every reader assuming she was going to turn evil and become the new Emerald Empress. Instead, they swerved us and made her the one person who could get Violet back to her heroic self.

Her powers changed multiple times over the course of the book. From the original molecular control, to magic, to being a Terrorform (ugh), Zoe changed over and over again.

A lot of what I said about XS last week is true for Kinetix. She was written like a teenage girl, with multiple costume changes, hair color changes, power changes, and momentary obsessions. Her deep friendship with Violet was one of the best-written relationships in the book and is one of the reasons I really enjoyed her on the Legion.

Which is why everything they did to her after the Mordru storyline made less and less sense. First, they essentially lobotomized her for numerous issues after she experienced a space anomaly. Yep, they took one of the most engaging characters and made her almost silent. Then, after the Legion broke up, she joined the Science Police... which made no sense when you thought about her character at all.

But the worst was turning her into a Terrorform. She became a powerful (but they never explained how powerful or, really, what her powers were) hero who, again, didn't speak much and didn't really participate in anything. Even worse, when they finally figured out how to change all the Terrorforms back into their original, human forms, she stayed as this creature.

And then they killed her in Final Crisis. As bad as that was, her final thoughts were of Leviathan and not her best friend. Just bad...

If I were to bring Kinetix back (and they should bring her back), I think I'd lean into the mystical part of her character, bring back the tail and the pointy ears, and team her up with the White Witch and Sensor/Projectra. Just think how great that three-woman team would be...

 

Our latest podcast has gone live and we spend it talking about the classic 1986 Cosmic Boy mini-series. Please check it out and let us know what you think.

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Until next week...