Thursday, May 25, 2006

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #18 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

First, the Science Police, including a disguised Chameleon, is called out to fight a mech uprising in the undercity. A band of Legionnaires shows up to lend a hand, and they successfully restore order. Hard to know what details are important--the 'xenodust' that the robots were feeding to the giant robot, Cosmic Boy throwing his weight around with the SP team leader--but it looks like this robot-rebellion thing is not just a throwaway.

Brainiac 5 has the Imskians rebuilding Lemnos's brain for some Dream Girl-related project. He had Timber Wolf bring him some rare thing that's supposed to help him out with this. He's definitely trying to bring Dream Girl back to life, and he has a plan for how it's going to work. Unfortunately, the Naltorians are ticked off that her corpse hasn't been returned for burial, and this leads the rest of the Legion to confront Brainy about just what he's up to.

Other little items: Saturn Girl tries to help Supergirl remember what she's doing in the future; some people in the streets are waving signs around calling the Legion 'sellouts' for signing on with the United Planets; Star Boy shows some concern for how Projectra's coping.

Review:

The art is not all that great (Adam deKraker fills in for Barry Kitson); it's kind of outliney and twisty. The story reads well, but once you think about it, you realize that there's not a lot happening. The robot business just doesn't seem like big news, and there's no progress on the Supergirl front. That leaves the Brainy/Nura story as the main attraction, and I'm not sure it's an A-plot type of story. I don't demand an earth-shaking epic in every issue, but this issue seemed kind of in-between to me.

One point I'd like to see explored a bit more is the 31st century's attitude toward the proper treatment of the dead. When the Naltorians told the Legion that they hadn't received Dream Girl's body, the Legionnaires were visibly shocked and appalled. They also reacted strongly when Ultra Boy confirmed that Supergirl was wearing Dream Girl's flight ring. Is there some kind of taboo about corpses in the future? I mean, even more than we have?

Rating: LLL

Membership Changes: Dream Boy presents himself for membership this issue. I'll assume for now that this is official.

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