Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century #14 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

Phantom Girl loses control of her powers and starts having visions of ghosts threatening her mother. Her mother and the Legion aren't sure whether to believe her, but eventually support her, and in the end she fights them off by herself. It turns out that the ghosts are from Trom and they just want to stop President Wazzo from signing a treaty about the development of Trom. (It was going to be stripmined by a company called Roxxas Energy, a division of LexCorp!)

Review:

The first thing that struck me about this comic was the art. It's by someone named Adam Archer and I did not care for it. First, he portrays the Legionnaires as small and waiflike and shiny, kind of like Moy only not as good. Actually his style reminds me of whoever's doing the art for the new Super Friends comic. (It may be Archer himself for all I know.) The other problem with the art is that it's much less kinetic in style than this franchise has usually had; there's an overwhelming sense that the characters are all standing on the floor which I've never seen before and don't like in this context.

I do like the cheerful colour palette featured in this issue; if Archer had a hand in that then that's something he did that I like.

Also, one of the major elements in this story is Phantom Girl's relationship with her mother, a bit of characterization that I have simply never liked.

So writer Jack Briglio must have done a heck of a job because I liked the story pretty well anyway. It had more elements in it than this title normally features, and I didn't see the whole Trom thing coming at all. And how great is it to see Phantom Girl clear the room singlehandedly?

The other Legionnaires... it kind of seems like there isn't a lot for them in this story, or it did to me anyway, but closer inspection reveals that they aren't just scenery. Superman in particular gets to show off his loyalty to his friends.

Okay. Quite decent issue, but let's get Serra or Greene or someone back in there. Sorry the review was late!

Notes:
- I'm quite taken by the idea of a family connection between Kanjar Ro and Roxxas
- "Yay me!"
- latest element of the threeboot to leak into the animated-Legion-verse: Element Lad's soul patch. Of all things
- speaking of which, have we seen that costume on Element Lad before? I don't hate it
- speaking of which, I'm glad Element Lad called Ro on his nonsense at the end of the story. What did the guy think he was going to do, anyway?

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6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The artwork was the worst this comic has produced. I hope they never see the likes of this again, it was the real let down of this issue. Still, story was good, which is a plus when the art stinks.

This story seems odd, we've seen everyone have their season 2 costumes and suddenly everyone takes a step back in time. Was this story meant to come earlier or something?

Its disappointing considering that there was a lot hope putting onto the fact this comic is suppose to continue past season 2s grand finale, yet they haven't even started with season 2. Its about time we moved on.

12:00 PM  
Blogger Matthew E said...

The last thing I'm going to worry about is Season 2 with its xtreme characters and no girls and stupid Imperiex. I hope they skip right over it and I don't mind if they're inconsistent about how they do it.

Oh well. I suspect that this series is going to coast to a halt in the next year or so and I'm determined to enjoy it while I can.

10:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Haha, I know for a fact all the fangirls care about is one thing. That is when the comic get to the point where their at the end of the season 2 bit and human Brainy's here again. Pretty shallow considering the potential for other things to come out not just that.

I don't know about being cancelled, "Teen Titans! Go!" is still... "Going"... And The JLU has had a good run. Who knows... But if the shows anything to go by, it really wouldn't suprise me at all.

8:00 PM  
Blogger Matthew E said...

Oh, there's a lot of fun stuff you can do with this Legion. More Starfinger, for one thing. Or think of the Arm-Fall-Off Boy issue coming up! It's such a great series; I hope they do keep it going for years.

9:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

On the "no girls" note they made at the start of season 2, I found that a bit stupid. Anyone who is a Legion fan has to have noticed at any one point the Legion's role call can reach up to 50% females or more depending on writers storyline. Its got about the best male to female ratio of any Supergroup around that isn't being completely forced into having that many to be politically correct.

6:36 PM  
Blogger Matthew E said...

Oh, I know. It's a tough choice to have to make: listen to your audience, or play to your strengths. I'm a believer in playing to your strengths.

7:39 AM  

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