DCU HOLIDAY SPECIAL 2010 #1 (2010/02)
"Holiday"
ROLL CALL:
Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Dawnstar, Element Lad, Gates, Invisible Kid (Jacques), Lightning Lad, Lightning Lass, Mon-El, Phantom Girl, Polar Boy, Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Sun Boy, Timber Wolf, Ultra Boy, Wildfire
CUTE BOYS: Brek, Brin, Dirk, Garth, Gim, Jacques, Jan, Jo, Rokk...and don't miss shirtless Anthro in the first story in this comic
Oh Holiday, the UP-wide day of rest and relaxation, there's no rest for the Legion. Science Police Control sends several groups of Legionnaires on emergency missions that turn out to be innocent situations. Brainiac 5 leads them to S.P. Control, which is an artificial intelligence that's been operating continuously for decades. Its false alarms were a cry for help -- help which Brainy supplies by turning off the machine and allowing it to reboot, clearing out decades of accumulated errors.
Control reboots, and says that this was the longest break it's had in centuries. now it feels refreshed enough to face another thousand years. Nevertheless, Brainy says that he will build an annual one second rest into the AI's operating protocol.
All available Legionnaires show up (courtesy of Gates) to answer the alarm of a break-in at S.P. Control. Dawnstar says that it looks like they will be spending Holiday with friends and family after all.
BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS:
Holiday: According to Element Lad, the U.P. "combined all of the cultural, ethnic, and seasonal festivals of olden days into this one day...a day where citizens could peacefully celebrate with their friends."
This is the first we've heard of Holiday. In the past, individual Legionnaires celebrated Christmas, Hanukkah, and other "cultural, ethnic, and seasonal festivals." In addition, we've seen the Legion celebrating Klordny.
"Holiday" is one of those ideas that sounds okay when you first encounter it, but gets more problematical the more you think about it. Were all the cultures, ethnicities, and religions of the 31st century happy to subsume their own holidays into Holiday? What about the Earth xenophobes...would they happily accept the U.P.'s imposition of this new Holiday? Or would they fight back?
Plus...are we to believe that everything in the U.P. shuts down for a day? That's certainly the implication: every place the Legion goes is deserted -- presumably everyone is home celebrating. But what about emergency services? Medical emergencies? Law enforcement? Power, water, food? One of the reasons that Christmas and Hanukkah work in today's world is that those who don't celebrate stay on duty in essential posts. If everybody has the same day off, who shows up for work?
Still, it was a nice story.
Control: When Chameleon Boy was in the 21st century during the Brainiac storyline, he masqueraded as a Science Police officer known as "Control." Did he bring that term back with him? And did the S.P.'s keep it for the next thousand years?
Brainy describes the Control AI as "a cloud of nano-mist particles." That's a nice term. I give Brainy an A+ for technobabble.
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R.E.B.E.L.S. 23 (2010/02)
"To Be a R.E.B.E.L. conclusion"
ROLL CALL:
Adam Strange, Amon Hakk, Captain Comet, Lobo, Lyrl Dox, Starfire, Vril Dox, Wildstar, Xylon, Astrild Stormdaughter, Smite, Starro
CUTE BOYS: Adam Strange, Captain Comet, Lyrl Dox, Vril Dox
The interminable feud between L.E.G.I.O.N. and the Green Lanterns concludes amid Psion and Citadellian mischief and attempted double-crossing by the Doxes. But really, the more interesting development is the return of Starro (along with his boy-toy Smite and his dyke friend Astrild).
If they can't bring in any real Legionnaires, I guess Starro and his posse are the next best hope for making this comic fun again. (Time out for musing on how quickly and easily the Legion would wipe the floor with Starro & company.)
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