Week of 28 January 2009

(SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers. Don't read it before you've read the comics.)

FINAL CRISIS #7 (3/09)
"New Heaven, New Earth"
ROLL CALL (Retro/Lightning Saga Legion): Starman/Star Boy

So Final Crisis is finally over. Good. Now maybe someone will explain to me what happened....

Besides a few cameos of Thom, there is a Miracle Machine that Superman builds from odd bits of string and bailing wire, based on a quick glimpse of the one he saw a thousand years in the future. Guess it's a good thing he has x-ray vision, total recall, and infinite manual dexterity.

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JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #23 (3/09)
"Between a Rock and a Hard Place Part One: The Power of Shazam"
ROLL CALL (Rretro/Lightning Saga Legion): Starman/Star Boy

Thom's story is dispatched in one panel and an editorial note: "For more on Starman's 'secret mission,' see Final Crisis: Legon of Three Worlds." I'd love to.

Just as an aside, let's give a cheer for the return of editorial notes to the DC Universe. (I guess they came back as a result of Final Crisis. Maybe that's what Final Crisis was all about.) Long time ago, comics were filled with the editorial voice. In narrative boxes, the editorial voice oriented readers in time and space ("Later that day, in Metorpolis") or gave us footnotes ("As seen in the memorable Adventure #247"). Nowadays, those text rectangles are usually the voices of characters...but here, the editorial footnote reappears. Welcome back, editorial footnote!

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LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #50 (3/09)
"Hack the Infinity Net: Enemy Manifest Conclusion"
ROLL CALL (Teenage Revolution Legion): Atom Girl, Brainiac 5, Chameleon, Colossal Boy, Dream Girl, Element Lad, Gazelle, Invisible Kid, Light Lass, Lightning Lad, Phantom Girl, Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Star Boy, Ultra Boy, Wildfire

This is the last issue of this incarnation of the Legion, and what a pity. The whole storyline has obviously been rushed to conclusion, and suffers from it. Ah, well, can't be helped, I suppose.

I hope we get to see more of the Teenage Revolution Legion. There's a lot there to like, and more than a few loose ends. What will become of Projectra? Are Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl back together? And what will the President think of that? Why is Invisible Kid suddenly twelve years old? Will we ever see Dream Boy again? Who and/or what is M'Rissey?

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS: So Dreamy and the others are back, as clones. Doesn't Brainy know the problem with Legion clones: that after a little while they explode?

Is it me, or do the enemy and their cities visually recall the Seerons from way, way back?

So besides conversation, what were Atom Girl, Gazelle, and Saturn Girl on this mission for? Did any of them use their powers?

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SUPERMAN #684 (3/09)
"The Mind of Rudy Jones"
ROLL CALL (Gods-Know-What Legion): Mon-El

The Parasite, newly removed from the Phantom Zone, attacks Mon-El and absorbs some of his power...including, apparently, his ability to use contractions in speech. Mon does get in a good zinger: when Supes says "I'll talk to you soon," Mon replies, "Do not worry. It is not like I am going anywhere." Snap!

Let's see, it's been...what?...fifteen years Mon-El's been in the Phantom Zone waiting for Supes to get around to curing him. Fifteen years down, only a thousand more to go. Sheesh, Kal-El can build a Miracle Machine from scratch and save the Multiverse with it...but when it comes to getting an old friend out of the Phantom Zone, it's "I'll talk to you soon."

I would not be blame Mon-El if he decides to spend most of the next century floating invisibly behind Superman, holding up his fingers as rabbit ears behind the Man of Steel's head.

There, I said it.

Mon-El will be on the cover of ACTION #874 in two weeks, for "part one of a two-part story that takes Superman back to the Phantom Zone!"

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