5 + 2 = 7: 52 Week 26 in 7 panels

Bitty Broken Booster

Much Missed Martian


Waxing Wise Waverider

Mad Machination Misogyny

Slur Slinging Sivana
Raw Reptilian Romance

TPCM Note: Panel placement edited to improve display at 800x600.

Judge & Jury: SLSH #23

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 31^st 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!

ERROR! MS Excel can't calculate. Circular reference

Matthew at Legion Abstract wrote an excellent analysis of the WnK Legion's Invisible Kid. I posted a lengthy comment in response to one aspect he raised about the nature of Lyle's behavior.

Because I put more thought into that 1 comment than I have on any single post on TPCM to date, I'm posting my comment here as well. (Hey, I'm lazy; this is an easy way to generate another post!!)

I'm not posting the text of Mattew's article because a) I haven't asked his permission and b) it would make this one hell of a long post. This post is comprehensible without having read Matthew's, but you really should read his. (So pop over to his site and READ IT DAMMIT!)

Re: The nature of Lyle’s behavior. I think looking at it as a reaction to “child abuse” and in response to “father” issues is close to the mark but a bit too specific. Instead, I would suggest his behavior is a general result of his feelings of social impotence and under-appreciation and are passive-aggressive in nature. (DISCLAIMER: I’m not a behavioral expert so bear with me).

It’s pretty well-established, outside of Brainiac 5, Lyle is the most intelligent Legionnaire (Even though Triplicate Girl called Sun Boy “scary smart”, I don’t think she meant so in terms of sheer intellect). Lyle’s father exploited his intelligence to get an invisibility serum for the SP. Brainy recruited him, not solely for his power (maybe not even primarily), but his intellect. The opening page of LSH #7 supports this suggestion on Brainy’s true thoughts: a) Brainy has Lyle in his lab assisting. Brainy isn’t going to let anybody near his systems who won’t be of real help. b) Brainy calls Lyle a “gathering of carbon”. Brainy reserves his most biting comments for those with abilities he genuinely respects (see reactions to Light Lass, Star Boy and Dream Girl).

How is Lyle treated despite his intelligence? As he puts it in LSH #4, “See what sucks about accomplishment is that sometimes parents focus on it and not you. Doesn’t matter how unique or bright or colorful you try to be – you’re only as good as you’re last grading period.” His treatment by the other Legionnaires has been similarly dismissive: Ultra Boy’s “So my dog could find you” (LSH #1) in regard to his self-endowed powers; Light Lass’s “Well, I think he’s cute.” comment, complete with hair ruffling that makes Lyle seem like the team’s new puppy; and Cosmic Boy’s “Shut up. And pay attention as I demonstrate to you what teamwork is.” after discovering Lyle’s concealment of his dad being a SP chief.

Lyle’s reactions follow a classic passive-aggressive pattern. Some of the panels you feature support this: Lyle faces people and situations in which he’s relatively powerless. He “provokes” [sic] in many instances not overtly and in a way that elicits a strong negative response. This behavioral pattern allows Lyle the luxury of trying to assert himself, while maintaining his self-perception of being an under-appreciated victim. Furthermore, you may be correct in your assessment that “his power matches the desire of an abused child to hide, to disappear, to not be there anymore” [sic], but I view Lyle’s power as more a metaphor of his own feelings of social impotence and lack of recognition by those around him. Lyle feels “invisible”, especially to those from whom he craves recognition the most.

Lyle is being portrayed as the “low man on the totem pole” in the series. I use that phrase specifically because of its slang meaning and ironic true meaning. The slang meaning: Lyle’s at the bottom of the Legion’s social order. People regard him as a “kid” even in a group of kids; he’s not trusted because of his powers and his deceptions; and even after he’s the one who figures out the key to stopping the Lemnos invasion, the only person who gives him real credit (or at least verbally expresses it to him) is another relatively socially-isolated member, Shrinking Violet. The phrase’s ironic meaning: in Native American cultures, the totem’s lowest figure is one of the more important (being created by the chief artisan). Lyle is one the more important members of the team; the stories so far make this quite clear. And I completely agree with you that we’re seeing him mature in his interactions with people. Waid is giving us an excellent (albeit gradual) tour of Lyle’s development as a strong team member.

There you have it gentle readers, the first TPCM post that was actually serious!! (With the exception of one lame joke; see Editor's Note.)

Editor's Note: The post title is a joke on the error you get in MS Excel when you create a formula that includes a reference to the cell containing the formula. Since this post has a link to Matthew's post, which has a comment containing a link back to this site, it's a circular reference. (Can you tell I work in Excel too much? And yes, jokes you feel the need to explain really can't be that funny!)