I was one of the unfortunate souls who faced the decision, "Do I pay $10 for the variant cover issue or do I wait until the one non-mentally impaired chimp who works for Diamond comes back from vacation and gets the regular issue shipped?" There was little debate: A month is long enough to wait for a new issue; a month and a week, simply intolerable! Plus the Adam Hughes cover is very nice!
The story:
The main story features Brainy, Cos, Saturn Girl and Light Lass taking Supergirl to Rokyn (home of now-enlarged Kandor) to disabuse her of the notion "it's all just a dream". 
Whilst there, Brainy has a pre-cog moment, and they encounter members of the re-imagined Legion of Super-Villains. The bad guys include Jeyra Entinn ("Saturn Queen", first seen in SLSH #19), a male who may be "Crystal Kid", a female who could be "Lamprey" (or perhaps a powered-up "Calorie Queen") and a male who I think is "Lazon", first seen in the League of Super-Assassins storyline. And we get a final splash-page appearance of Mon-El!
Cutaway moments include Element Lad and Triplicate Girl(s) doing a "robot rebellion" recon in the lower Metropolis. These scenes feature two Luornus finding Chlorophyll Kid, who's being set-up as a Legion "plant" by a mysterious shadowed figure (Tarik, the not-so Mute?) and one Luornu sharing a tender embrace with Element Lad. (I'm shamelessly stealing the Chlorophyll Kid "plant" thing from Matthew's review at Legion Abstract!)
The other side story shows Shadow Lass and Atom Girl on Talok VIII, with Shady and her now brother, Grev, slugging it out, a glimpse of Talokian culture & Shady's role as planetary protector and Vi suggesting Shady run for Legion leader.
My thoughts:
- Although I was pleased with Adam DeKraker's fill-ins, it was a real treat to have Barry Kitson back (love that man's art).
- The introduction of Rokyn puts yet another nail in the coffin of Byrne's 1986 Superman reboot. All we need now is Beppo, the Super-Monkey! Seriously, I'm glad Rokyn's been established as highly isolationist; it's not a great idea to have too many super-powered Kryptonians running around.
- Briany states explicitly, "Even in this day and age, we haven't yet perfected temporal travel." I guess that means we won't see time-hopping Legion tales any time soon, which suits me just fine. But it definitely implies folks in the 31st century are working on it.
- The whole "we've gotta shanghai Kara to Krypton so she won't hurt anybody" thing left me grimacing a little. Sure she might go a little wonky if & when she gets over this "it's a dream" fantasy, but "Hello?", Brainy's got a big honking Green K chunk potent enough to put her on her *ss after a few seconds. Seems like enough to take care of a freaked out Supergirl if necessary.
- There are two instances where Brainy anticipates future events: one is arguably pre-cog, the other, unequivocally. What this means in terms of a future for Dream Girl, I don't know. (Matthew has an interesting take on this.)
- The Element Lad/Triplicate Girl embrace was cute, and maybe if Luornu's got a boyfriend, she'll have less time to be Cos's narc. (Though as we saw in #3, she could still snoop around for Cos and get jiggy with Jan all at the same time!) Let's just hope years from now in an effort to force a square peg into a round hole, Luornu's "secret origin" isn't updated to reveal she's really a guy who's so internally homophobic that he took a drug to turn into a girl so she could have sex with boys!
- The thought of Shady being leader is interesting given her head-strong, "punch first", hedonistic nature. Shady was never leader in the classic Legion, and I don't think she was in the post-Zero Hero one either.
- Please let it be "Mon-El"! Not "Lar Gand", not "Valor", but Mon-frakking El! Come on this is New Earth; while we're retconning things, is it too much to ask to have a young Clark Kent encounter Mon, think he's his brother and put him in the Zone!?! The cover of ACTION COMICS ANNUAL #10 has really got me hoping this wish is going to come true.
Overall:
- Another solid issue from WnK. The story should please both the "not enough action" crowd and "let's wrap-up the Supergirl arc" folks. I can't wait for the next issue!
7 Comments:
The Element Lad/Triplicate Girl embrace was cute, and maybe if Luornu's got a boyfriend, she'll have less time to be Cos' narc.
On Luornu's behalf (is that actually her name in this version? Why would she have a name?) I plead not guilty for her on the charge of being a narc or a spy. The only basis there is for the accusation is issue #3, and she didn't betray any confidences or violate anybody's privacy in that issue; she just told Cosmic Boy what she thought was up with the rest of the team. What's wrong with that?
In terms of Trip's name, you're right; I don't think it's been established whether she has one or not. (I'll still think of her as "Luornu", for the same reason I'll always think of Salu as "Vi", even though she's "Atom Girl".)
As for TG being a "narc" and your "not guilty" plea: While I didn't mean to harshly judge her by my snarky comment, I'd have cite her & Sun Boy's exchange from issue #7 as evidence that at least everybody thinks she Cos's narc:
TG:"...you're considering leaving and you haven't told him?"
SB:"But I did tell him."
TG:"When?"
SB:"When I told you. How long before you took that little tidbit to him? Five minutes? An hour? Come on. We all know that Triplicate Girl is...are...Cos's eyes and ears around this place."
I do agree with you, what she told Cos at the end of #3 did NOT violate anyone confidence; however, having Sun Boy (Mr."Scary Smart") say she's Cos's spy makes me think there may be some validity to that perception.
I meant to add before I hit "Publish": Thanks for raising that point. Keep me on my toes, Matthew!
Yeah, but Sun Boy was saying that based on, as far as we know, nothing but #3, which he (being personally involved) may not be looking at objectively.
You're probably right about that. My "gut feeling" when I first read the exchange was his statement was more on the objective side, given SB was Cos's "field leader" (de facto deputy leader) and would think about such things beyond the scope of his personal involvement.
Thanks again for your comments. I really enjoy doing the Legion "point/counterpoint" thing!!
The Hughes cover was only $6.95 at my place. But what a gorgeous cover!
The original is for sale on eBay, by the way. Only $3,551.00 at this moment.
Micheal: Good grief! I'll go put my bid in right now!! Geez, I'm a big Legion fan, but I have to draw the line somewhere!
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