As always, the Revolution is excited by a new issue of Jim Shooter’s Legion of Super Heroes. Shooter has gone back to the future and taken the old style characterization along with him. Regular artist Francis Manapul is missing but I am sure that Shooter will be able to continue with a fill-in artist.
Creative Team
Writer: Jim Shooter
Pencils: Sanford Greene
Inks: Nathan Massengill
Art Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: This issue begins with one of the cliffhangers from last issue. Light Lass, Timber Wolf, and Shadow Lass have been captured by the invincible Ikilles and his gang. The Legionaires are tied to a rock with magsteel vines. Ikilles plan is to keep on knocking Timber Wolf unconcious everytime he tries to wake up. He tells his gang to blow Shadow Lass’s guts out if anything starts to get darker.
Ikilles and his girlfriend, Cazhmir, get into an arguement about Light Lass. Cazhmir thinks that Ikilles is paying too much attention to Light Lass. Ikilles begs her to be quiet in front of the gang. They get into a fight over Light Lass. One of the gang members notices that a vine has disappeared. Cazhmir strikes Ikilles and that is the final straw. Ikilles orders somebody to shoot her. Three blasts hit Cazhmir.
Ikilles announces that he was tired of Cazhmir. He decides that this is good news for Light Lass. She gets to live as his new girlfriend. His robo-surgeons will freeze part of her brain. This will remove her powers and make her easier to control. He tells her that she will love being his girl. Ikilles finds that he cannot rip her outfit off of her. He tells the gang to start celebrating but they are stopped by the appearance of Invisible Kid. Invisible Kid demands their surrender or he will beat Ikilles and then his crew.
Meanwhile, on the planet Rimbor…an army of Science Police officers are preventing a team of Legionnaires from reaching their tranmat portal. Atom Girl, Saturn Girl, Colossal Boy, Chameleon, Star Boy, and Ultra Boy are in bad shape after defeating the alien life-eradicators. The Science Police are trying to arrest former gang member Ultra Boy.
The Legionnaires are trapped in a room. Ultra Boy asks Saturn Girl if they are just going to sit around and wait to be picked off. She orders Atom Girl, Star Boy, and Ultra Boy to take out the Science Police. She will try to damage them telepathically. Atom Girl reminds Saturn Girl that she said fighting the Science Police would be declaring war. Saturn Girl says that the Science Police are the ones who started the war by attacking the Legion.
The three take flight and start attacking the Science Police ships. Ultra Boy starts with the one that attacked Chameleon. He uses his invulnerablity to get to the ship and then switches to ultra strength to trash it. One of the Science Police officers, Norima, is plunging to her death when Ultra Boy swoops in and saves her. As he flies off, she says that she loves him.
Star Boy uses his power to make the ships too heavy to fly. Atom Girl shrinks to the microscopic level, goes through the hull of the ship, grows back to normal size and takes out the officers.
Saturn Girl uses her telepathy to convince some of the officers that the fight is over.
Atom Girl is in a fight to beat the last officer on one of the ships. While they are fighting, the ship crashes. Saturn Girl rushes to the scene to find Atom Girl staggering out of the ship.
Ultra Boy is preforming recon and sees hundreds of Science Police ships approaching the city.
Colossal Boy wakes up. Saturn Girl tells him to use his flight ring to help her get Chameleon to the transmatter portal. Ultra Boy discovers that the portal was cut off at their headquarters on Earth.
Element Lad and Phantom Girl arrive at the Legion headquarters on Earth to find M’rissey, Brainiac 5 and Lightning Lad talking to Colonel Pismo of the Science Police. Pismo lists the charges against the Legion(the violations have occurred from issue 37 to date). He announces that the Attorney General has issued arrest warrants for all Legionnaires and a court order that shuts down the Legion.
M’rissey tells Pismo that he should listen before he makes any more career threatening mistakes. Pismo askes who M’rissey is. To Lightning Lad’s surprise, M’rissey says that he is the Legion’s business affairs manager. Lightning Lad starts a discussion with M’rissey when Brainiac 5 steps in and tells Lightning Lad to trust M’rissey.
Back on Velmar V…Invisible Kid is challenging Ikilles. Ikilles warns his gang to set up gunners to spray the area with gun fire if he turns invisible. Invisible Kid tells Ikilles that he is close enough. Ikilles askes the Legionnaire if he is scared. Invisble Kid says no. He wanted Ikilles in the right spot. Invisible Kid flies into the air carrying one of the magsteel vines. Each end of the vine is tied to a fallen statue. The Legion flight ring enables Invisible Kid to lift the vine high enough to make the statues swing together, crashing into Ikilles. Ikilles is knocked out.
Light Lass regains conciousness, uses her powers to free the trapped Legionnaires, and defeats the gang.
Returning to Legion HQ…M’rissey informs Pismo that the Supreme Court cancelled the agreement that made the Legion a branch of the United Planets. The Legion would repay the United Planets funding but the charges for services rendered amount to more than the money the Legion owes. The Legion will forget the money the United Planets owes them if the U. P. leaves them alone. M’rissey has also filed charges for the impeachment of the attorney general. Pismo’s communicator buzzes. It is the attorney general. Due to pictures that the Legion’s public relations firm has presented the attorney general to apologize to the Legion.
Lightning Lad questions the fact that the Legion has a public relations firm. M’rissey says that they have the best.
Rimbor…the six Legionnaires are rallying to take on the Science Police ships. The ships are suddenly gone and the transmatter portal starts working.
Velmar V…the authorities are loading Ikilles gang onto prison ships. Invisible Kid tells the others that Karate Kid and Triplicate Girl disappeared in a flash of light. He then reminds the others that they called him a wimp.
The leader of the group that Ikilles enslaved asks Invisible Kid how they can repay him. He tells them to rebuild.
Back on Earth…Brainiac 5 lets the others know that the transmatter portals are working. Lightning Lad is curious where M’rissey got the money to pay the lawyers and public relations firms. M’rissey tells him that he sold the rights to the Legion flight rings to Galacticorp. As Lightning Lad starts yelling, he is interrupted by a call. The President is asking for the Legion’s help. A planet the size of Saturn has appeared outside of Jupiter’s orbit. The gravity well is disrupting everything.
Comments
The Good: Once again, Jim Shooter’s story and characterization are the stars of the show. He fits more story in a single issue than a lot of writers put in three.
The storyline on Velmar V was set up perfectly. I did not suspect what Invisible Kid had planned when the gang member commented on the vine disappearing. The innovative use of the flight ring to defeat Ikilles was great.
The “disagreement” between Ikilles and Cazhmir was well handled. The resolution of their arguement showed what kind of person Ikilles was.
The battle between the Legion and the Science Police on Rimbor showcased each of the heroes’ powers. Shooter managed to feature each Legionnaire and show what they are capable of. Each is a formidable fighter in their own right. The hero worship of Science Police officer Norima was believable. Will she be making a future appearance? I would not be surprised. Shooter seems to have a purpose in mind for everything that happens in this comic.
M’rissey’s legal assault on the Science Police was very interesting. He was able to defeat them with his mind. No wonder Brainiac 5 had faith in him. I am curious what will happen with the sale of the rights for the flight rings.
I have to believe that the name Velmar is a reference to Marvel, one of Shooter’s former employers.
M’rissey’s name is probably inspired by Richard Morrisey. Morrisey was involved in the super fanzine-The Legion Outpost.
The Bad: I did not think Sanford Greene was a good choice for fill-in artist. Greene’s style was too cartoony for this book. Manapul’s style uses a combination of cartoony and realistic. I prefer the style of previous fill-in artist Lopresti. This style is contrary to the serious story that Shooter is trying to present. Greene would be a good artist on the right series.
Overall: Another great story that moves along the various plots that Shooter has been building. The only fault was the art did not match the story. The quality of Shooter’s writing makes this comic worth buying. Buy up the back issues and get up to speed. You will not regret it.