Week of 28 October 2009

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

SUPERMAN #693 (12/09)
"7734"
ROLL CALL: Mon-El, Sensor Girl (maybe)
CUTE BOYS: Mon-El spends most of this issue with his teeth gritted and his brow furrowed. Ir's not flattering.

Mon-El is tormented as Major Lane's prisoner. With the Parasite, he plots an escape through the Stargate. Luthor & Brainiac attack Lane's base, and Lane decides to let Mon-El go. Two days later Bizarro shows up in Metropolis.

Jeckie might be in with the SPs on the penultimate page, but with them all in their suits, who can tell?

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SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN #2 (1/09)
"Secret Origin Book Two: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes"
ROLL CALL: Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy (voice only), Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Phantom Girl, Saturn Girl, Superboy, Triplicate Girl
CUTE BOYS: Brainy, Cos, Garth, Kal

This issue has two covers, and Lgion fanatics will want both. The standard cover features Brainy, Saturn Girl, Superboy, Lightning Lad, and Cosmic Boy in front of the Legion Clubhouse; the variant cover features Triplicate Girl's and Phantom Girl's breasts, and has Cosmic Boy, Superboy, Brainy, Lightning Lad, and a surprisingly flat-chested Saturn Girl in the background. Hey DC, how about some parity here? If we're going to see Tinya and Luornu's well-endowed boobs, why can't the boys have similarly-exaggerated packages?

Parts of this story are a revisit of scenes in the Superman & the Legion of Super-Heroes series.

Clark is doing super-feats in his super-suit, but he's keeping out of sight and still hates the costume. There's a nice discussion about Clark's underwear. Then Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl show up and take him to the 30th century. In a fight against human supremacists, Superboy coins the phrase "Long Live the Legion." Legion relations with the SPs are strained -- the Legion does not yet have official UP sanction. Superboy meets Phantom Girl and Triplicate Girl, who both flirt with him (nice echo of Luornu's eventual unrequited crush on Kal). Brainy berates the founders for bringing Kal to the future, but Garth dares him to figure out a way to involve Kal without endangering the timestream.

The founders return Kal to 20th century Smallville, where he is a changed boy: he loves the Legion, loves his super-suit, and the look on his face clearly shows that he's stopped wearing underwear.

Then a rocket shows up over Smallville, Kal catches it, and then comes the single greatest panel in the entire issue: Superboy's delighted face reflected in the rocket's metal as he hears an "ARRF!" from inside.

Meanwhile, Lex Luthor has killed his father (making it look like an accident) and he's off to Metropolis to start a life of crime.

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS: Chameleon Boy summons the Legionnaires to the anti-alien riot in downtown Smallville, but we never see him. I assume he's back at the Clubhouse on monitor duty.

We never see the Clubhouse, either.

Rokk says that the Legion chose to base the team in Smallville. This is a direct echo of the first Legion story. I don't know that his has ever been explicitly established, but the implication is that the Legion remained based in Smallville until the Fatal Five wrecked the Clubhouse and they built their new Headquarters in Metropolis. Comments, anyone?

There's a cute statue of a cartoon-style Krypto in Smallville.

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Also out this week: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES: ENEMY RISING Trade Paperback, which collects issues LSH #37 (2/08) - #44 (9/08). The cover also features Phantom Girl's boobs.

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