LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #16 (2011/10)
"Endings"
ROLL CALL:
Brainiac 5, Colossal Boy, Dawnstar, Dream Girl, Earth-Man (died), Element Lad, Gates, Invisible Kid (Jacques), Lightning Lass, Mon-El, Phantom Girl, Polar Boy, Quislet, Shadow Lass, Star Boy, Sun oy, Tellus, Timber Wolf, Tyroc, Wildfire, Dyogene, Harmonia Li, Sodam Yat, Blue Entity, Saturn Queen, Zymyr
CUTE BOYS: Brainy, Brek, Brin, Dirk, Gim, Jacques, Jan, Jo, Mon, Troy (note to Thom: ditch the beard and take off the mask, and we'll talk)
Well, this is it. LSH v.6 didn't last very long, did it? (Longer than v.1, anyway...)
The cataclysmic final battle takes place on the planet of wisdom. Saturn Queen attempts to take over Earth-Man's mind and use him to defeat the others. But he's assisted by Sodm Yat, Dyogene, armonia Li, and the other Legionnaires -- incuding Mon-El and his power ring. Together, they all give Earth-Man enough power to resist Saturn Queen's control and defeat the Blue Entity. However, Earth-Man dies in the effort, a hero in the end.
Shadow Lass takes his body and flies away, flinging back a snarky comment at Mon-El and whispering to the corpse, "Now they know who you really were.
Mon-El resigns from the Green Lantern Corps and gives Dyogene the ring back. Dyogene settles into the dirt, remarking that he will help heal the world of wisdom, and perhaps a new Mogo will in time arise. He salutes the Legion as "Proud successors to the Corps."
Harmonia Li tells Brainy that she is going to come back with them, and apply for Legion membership -- she hints that she has suitable super-powers.
ANNOUNCING A WINNER: In this issue the Blue Entity announces its identity: "I am the curse of the Oans, before they even dared call themselves Guardians...evil loosed on the universe by Krona's crime. Long ago, and reborn when Titan fell and mortals dared to look upon the unknowable. I am the serpent of Eden, the worm who devours Yggdrasil, and the end of all things..."
Reader pblfsda caught the Krona connection before anyone else, and so is the winner of Legion Archives #1. Email me your mailing address at don at meerkatmeade dot com, and I'll mail it out to you. Good work!
BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS:
Dyogene is "Little more than a clump of Oan soil, held together by tears and dreams"; it is hinted that he may also be the embryonic form of an intelligent planet like Mogo. Whether or not the people of the wisdom planet will have any vote, is unclear.
The Legion stands together. It's one of the most common threads in Legion stories, and the trick of tying all the Legionnaires together in one gestalt is one Levitz has pulled again and again, from Earthwar to the Great Darkness and beyond. Other creators have done the same.
Mon-El, Shadow Lass, and Earth-Man: Wel, apparently I was wrong about Shady just feigning her romantic interest in Earth-Man. I still don't understand it. I'm beginning to wrap my head around the Cosmic Boy/Night Girl split, but I think there's more to be told about why Shady and Mon broke up. I hope this "new beginning" won't prevent that story from being told.
Harmonia Li: She hints that she has powers that might qualify her to be a Legionnaire. Huh? The power to summon ultimate evil to destroy the universe? The power to make mysterious, oracular pronouncements? What will her code name be, Enigmatic Lady? Hubris Lass? Arrogant Girl?
CHRONICLER'S ERROR?:
Dream Girl saw a vision of herself saying that Thom's power saved the day. Uh-huh. Sure. Things don't seem to be going very well for Nura. I'm still convinced that something's going on with her. I thought she was a Durlan spy, but I guess I was wrong on that -- but the defining feature of Nura's power is that all her predictions come true. This one sure didn't. What are you up to, Mr. Levitz?
The Bue Entity said that it was reborn when "Titan fell and mortals dared gaze upon the unknowable." Except...Harmonia Li isn't exactly a mortal, is she? In fact, she is an immortal. Do you suppose that she could have told the Blue Entity that she wasn't a mortal, and the Entity would have said, "Oh...never mind" and gone away?
(Okay, there were other scientists with her on Titan, and they probably gazed too.)
NEXT UP: A few Legionless weeks, and then we'll see just what damage this new reboot of the DC Universe does to the Legion. I don't have a good feeling about this. Prove me wrong, DC....
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2 comments:
Good review, Get-a-Life Boy. I also wondered about this idea that Thom is the one who will save the day, as mentioned by Harmonia Li. However, it's never apparent that Thom did a whole heckuva lot except power up Earth-man along with Nura and Harmonia and eventually the other Legionnaires.
In fact, the whole arc would have been improved by shortening the random battle scenes in the last issue (#15, which includes the interesting, puzzling, and ultimately pointless Sun-Killer battle) and providing a bit more explanation.
Somehow, I think the abruptness of the New Universe onslaught screwed up Mr Levitz's timing.
I've been very forgiving in this LSV arc that Levitz had his story ruined by the shorter page count and the 2.99 pricing. I'm hoping he plotted the LSV arc when he was counting on 50 per cent more pages per issue.
So, fingers crossed, he will deliver some stunning new stories in the next volume of the Legion!
Oh and yeah, I still didn't get Shady's attraction for E-Man. Nor did I believe his turnaround from bigot in the Earth-Man and the Justice League arc to hero willing to give up his life. Oh well. It's done and over and we should look forwards rather than back!
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