More financial problems! Another one-night-stand! Karate Kid has amazing body control! We look at The Legion of Super-Heroes #39 & 40

Legion of Super-Heroes #39

We've reached Evil Adventus Part 3: Downfall with writer Jim Shooter, penciller Francis Manapul, and inker Livesay.

To recap what's happened since this new creative team took over, Lightning Lad is struggling as leader, making bad choices for team assignments and facing the horrors of bureaucracy and finances.

Invisible Kid is in love with Giselle, an alien who can speed up her metabolism, who rejected Legion membership.

Aliens have been attacking all over the galaxy but, luckily for us, the Legion doesn't have a code against killing so the battles have been bloodier than we're used to.

Oh, and because Orando was destroyed by Lemnos, Projectra is no longer rich, or a princess, or has any diplomatic power. We've ignored the fact the Brainiac 5 captured Lemnos and used him in an experiment so he never faces any punishment for his crimes of genocide...

Let's begin, shall we?

Projectra has returned to her home to find out it was sold to pay off her creditors. Saturn Girl's mom, U.P. member Sydne Ardeen, is there to deliver the bad news. Projectra is just... shudder... a normal person and Sydne advises her to stop causing problems and accept these changes. We also find out that she may be impeached from the U.P. council for helping the Legion.

Hold on... aren't we just mere weeks from the Dominion War? You know, when the Legion saved the entire U.P. from complete and total collapse? And all the bad stuff was blamed on Mekt and the Wanderers? Aren't the Legion still heroes?

Shooter really did just decide to ignore whatever he didn't like from the Waid and Bedard stories, didn't he?

At Legion HQ, a dark figure is sitting in the command chair on The Bridge, the communications center. Wow... what a waste of space... It's literally just one chair in a room as big as a basketball court. With a ton of screens. Ozymandias' room is less ostentatious.

We see the Duty Roster and learn who's on the team and where they are. Funny, no Sun Boy. Or E.R.G.-1. The person marks Projectra as someone to only call in case of an emergency and then checks out Saturn Girl's status.

She's on Triton, with Timber Wolf, Star Boy, and Invisible Kid. I guess they're not on the civilian transport they talked about at the end of last issue. They've stuck around to... all I can figure out is to take crap from the S.P.s and listen to reporters criticize them.

Oh, and we get another moment of Saturn Girl taking over someone's mind to get them to behave. This time it's Timber Wolf, who's really, really wanting to kill the reporter.

Star Boy shows up with Invisible Kid, who he rescued, and all the Tritonians complain about the damage the alien attack did last issue. I have no idea how any of this is the Legion's fault, or why the S.P.s aren't taking crap for being slow on the rescue, but why start using logic in a Legion story this time?

Timber Wolf finds Giselle and thanks her for her help during the battle. As they chat about how horrible the people of Triton are, the City Manager starts complaining about the Legionnaires and how they're responsible for all the damage.

So Timber Wolf attacks him. Saturn Girl, again, takes over everyone's minds and resolves the problem. Brin's not happy that she "brain-slammed" him, but she doesn't care - she can't be subtle with him and the Legion doesn't need any more trouble.

I guess Brainy's changes to Timber Wolf turned him psychotic?

We go to New Beijing, where Element Lad, Ultra Boy, and Colossal Boy (he's still Micro Lad to me but I'm guessing that's another thing Shooter's going to ignore) are searching for an illegal animal. A Muskshrew. Yep, that's a Legion job now.

Unfortunately, they only caught one and there's another wandering around in the underbelly of the city. So Colossal Boy goes down by himself and discovers that this one's a pet named Tulip.

A fight breaks out, the bad guy gets Colossal Boy's ring off his finger (I have no idea how that's even possible) and the pet owner smacks Gim in the back of the head with a piece of metal, knocking him out.

Luckily Ultra Boy and Element Lad arrive. Jo beats down the bad guy with one punch and Jan grabs the "pet." Apparently the two got bored so they decided to come and help. Glad it was sheer luck that saved Gim's life.

To no surprise, they do not call the cops and the two attackers are not arrested, even though the Legion does have those powers.

What was the point of this? Just to make Colossal Boy look horrible? I know they're trying to show that Lightning Lad is assigning bad teams, but considering Gim almost died, you could argue that they needed the extra strength here.

We go back to Legion HQ, where Light Lass and Phantom Girl are talking about how bad Lightning Lad is as leader. Ayla thinks he should probably resign.

Karate Kid enters, talking about how drained he is but he's all healed up. Ayla offers to take advantage of him and Val simply asks her to "be gentle with me." I guess he's over Tinya at this point, which is a shame, because that was one of the best Legion stories of this run.

Back to the Bridge, where Lightning Lad has arrived and we realize the person running everything (although, actually, was just looking over the Duty Roster) wasn't Garth. Ohhhh... a mystery.

Projectra has headed to the Depot District. Looters have hit Rothchild's Warehouse and Transmatter Distribution Center and she enters, thinking about how everything there used to be hers if she wanted. The S.P.s show up, arresting everyone, but she just walks through them. It's all an illusion.

Projectra now calls the real S.P.s, telling them about the thefts, and flies away. She stops the illusion and we see that she stole a bracelet.

Maybe I'm dense (and I probably am), but why create an illusion the S.P.s are there? Why not just take the bracelet?

This issue was really just set up for what's to come and, although I really enjoy the fact that Shooter is actually letting the Legionnaires do things (it's no longer the Cosmic Boy/Brainiac 5 show), he seems to be reveling in making as many Legionnaire act badly as possible. Who am I cheering for here?

 

Legion of Super-Heroes #40

It's a new story here. Enemy Rising Part 1: Headlong into Darkness. I have no idea what ended last issue or why we're breaking these up the way we are, but I'm sure Shooter knows what he's doing... heheh...

I also want to point out the the art team of Manapul and Livesay are on their fourth issue in a row. I'm trying to remember the last time a Legion art team I liked pulled that off...

This story begins on Talok VIII, where Shadow Lass is fighting a massive green alien monster. Why bring back any longtime Legion villains when we can deal with unknown aliens? She gets smacked away as Brainiac 5 appears through a transmatter gate... and promptly vomits.

His force shield auto-activates to protect him and he watches as the monster starts mutating, adapting to defeat this new threat. Shadow Lass cloaks everything in darkness, picks up a poleaxe, and with Brainy guiding her strike, kills the monster.

Before Brainy can examine anything, the Talokians slice the remains into nothing... or blast it with energy... or something. I honestly have no idea what they're doing but the body is completely gone. We also learn that they're not using transmatter gates, but Brainy build a wormhole transporter. You can get somewhere else in the galaxy but you're going to lose your dinner.

Back to Legion HQ and Lightning Lad is just waking up. He's got 7,697 messages waiting for him. Taking a quick look around his apartment, he has a cricket bat, a soccer ball (or football for everyone not living in North America), something I think is a Winathian guitar, and some sports posters. Amazing that those sports lasted this long.

He gets up, gets dressed, and heads to the Living Room, where a bunch of other Legionnaires have gathered. Ultra Boy has Chameleon in a choke hold and is yanking on one of his antennae, so I guess he's still a complete ass.

Karate Kid and Light Lass arrive, still just friends, but Ayla tells Phantom Girl that the night was "zeta-awesome!"

Brainy and Shadow Lass come through the transporter gate and she promptly vomits.

The Triton team (Star Boy, Invisible Kid, Saturn Girl, and Timber Wolf) has also arrived. Does this mean they were able to travel from Triton to Earth in less that a day? In fact, in less than 12 hours? And if so, how badly do they need the transmatter gates?

Saturn Girl's exhausted because she's spent the entire time controlling Timber Wolf's mind so he doesn't kill her. She finally gets to stop and Brin starts busting up the walls.

Apparently the entire team learned this as well (I still have no idea when Imra is talking to one person or talking to everyone) so the different Legionnaires share their thoughts on mind control. They fight over who was right and who should be angrier and I can't help but wonder what happened to the Legion of Super-Heroes... focus on the word heroes.

Lightning Lad steps in, crackling with lightning. He gets Imra to promise not to control Brin's mind anymore and Brin promises to get therapy. And if either breaks their promises, they're out of the Legion.

Projectra shows up and checks in to see how Brin is doing. He still treats her like a princess, kissing her hand. Phantom Girl congratulates her on stopping the looters the night before and notices the new bracelet. I'm glad to see Tinya is finally getting to do something, but it seems like she's constantly on the outside of every story. Or she's just eye candy.

Because Lightning Lad created a fake quarantine to get some peace and quiet, a very real U.P. health minister has arrived to shut the HQ down. And he let everyone waiting to see the Legion in as well... because that makes sense...

Oh, and Projectra's getting sued, because why not.

With all of this going on, Brainy is able to call a meeting of what looks like the Espionage Squad, plus Karate Kid, to try to figure out what's going on with these alien attackers. He sends each of them out to get any sort of sample that he can study. Invisible Kid, of course, volunteers to go back to Triton. Glad to see one bit of characterization has remained from the earlier run - Brainy still ignores whomever's leader and does whatever he wants. Bonus point for it not being illegal or immoral.

Lightning Lad and Light Lass have a nice heart-to-heart moment where she convinces him to not resign. She was impressed with the way he's been handling things and wants him to stay. Let's just ignore than less than 24 hours ago she wanted him to resign. I guess Karate Kid cheered her up in more ways than one.

Remember in issue #36, where Triplicate Girl was knocked out and Karate Kid got injured? They head back to that mining station and discover there's nothing to bring back - no trace of the aliens at all. Also, Karate Kid is in such control of his body that he doesn't throw up.

In the Oort Cloud, Phantom Girl can't find anything either.

On Triton, Invisible Kid has completely ignored his mission and, instead, has tracked down Giselle's home. Once he discovers that she's disappeared, he is actually able to find a trace of the alien lifeforms. It's currently being shipped back to Earth on an S.P. ship.

We head to some law offices, where Projectra has learned that when the U.P. declared Orando null, it relieved numerous planets of the debts they owed. So while she is personally responsible for any contracts signed by her father (no idea how that's possible), she has no way of getting any money because Orando is no longer a legal entity. She would have to renounce her crown to get out of her legal troubles.

Like, honestly, is there anyone who wants to read about the legal problems Projectra has? Anyone? 

As she leaves the offices, Projectra is approached by tourists who want autographs and the next thing we know, she may have killed someone.

To be continued...

Once again, we have a Legion writer who seems to want to straddle the line between making a character evil and making them sympathetic. When you think back on everything that Projectra's been through and how she's being treated, I end up wanting to support her. The U.P., who've been the villains for the entire run of this book, are screwing her over badly. And she's dealing with something that no other Legionnaire can understand or deal with. But showing her turn into a villain - does anyone want that at all?

But, to be positive, there are two things that are helping me enjoy this book more than I have for the entire Threeboot. First, we're actually getting a Legion. Every team member is there and getting to do things. We're no longer watching the Cosmic Boy/Brainiac 5 show.

And second, I'm really loving this art. I know it's going to sound insane, but I actually think I'm liking Manapul's take on the characters more than Barry Kitson's. Which is something I never thought I'd write.

 

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

This is going to be a quick one. I hated this character from the first moment she showed up to the final one where she chose to stay in her own time. It made no sense to make her a Legionnaire, except for the possibility of adding a new reader or two, and the desperation of this move was painful.

Did she do anything as a Legionnaire that's memorable? Nope. The title was rapidly spiraling around the proverbial drain by the time she got added to the team and her addition took away from the book.

Also, and this has nothing to do with her being a Legionnaire, but I've never been a fan of actually naming a comic character after a creator. Name a street, a town, a landmark, that's cool. But the actual character? It just never worked for me. Which is why she's Dawnstar. Not Dawnstar Gr'ell.

 

Thoughts? Did you enjoy these issues? Do you have anything nice to say about Thunder? Have you checked out our new podcast, a spotlight on Lightning Lad? Please leave your comments on Reddit or here, on this blog!