Legion of Super-Heroes #48 Review

Countdown:

I haven't been updating much, have I? I've got an entry of The Legionnaires ready to go as soon as I can find time to scan a couple of images, and I've been working on another couple of things, but it's true that I've largely been preoccupied with other stuff. Oh well; starting pretty soon I won't have to do reviews regularly anymore.

Five Legion comics left.

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

A delegation from Planet Surprise is on Earth, making first contact with the United Planets. The Surprisean delegates are equipped with the same data rippers that the destroyers had, and Brainiac 5 concludes that the Surpriseans are trying to digitize the universe by using the data rippers to copy it all to some kind of informational dimension, a process which removes the souls of living things, and that the Surpriseans are really just projections into this universe of their real selves in this informational dimension. The Surpriseans conclude their tour of Metropolis by assassinating the Secretary of Diplomacy of the United Planets. Meanwhile, the Legion holds tryouts for new members.

Review:

Every time we see Sun Boy, he's got a new costume. I like this one better than the last one, and Manapul does a nice job with it, but my favourite look for him is still Kitson's first design. Oh, and Levitz-era Sun Boy had a classic look.

My favourite part of this issue was the discussion about Sun Boy and Terror Firma and Orando. It's about time somebody said this stuff, and Shooter managed to tie off the loose ends in a fairly reasonable way.

The nature of the Surpriseans is an interesting idea. There was some speculation on Legion World that this informational dimension they come from was going to provide the key to restoring Dream Girl to normal life. Which, you know, that'd be nice. I guess. Would she get her personality back too?

This was one of those issues where the stuff that happened was perfectly fine, but doesn't add up to a story. The only real action was in the tryouts, and that was just some light sparring. The Legion didn't interact with the Surpriseans at all. So I guess we're looking at the last two issues to deal with all of this. And there's also all this stuff with Projectra going on.

I don't know. There's also all this stuff about Projectra being the 'one evil'. Could the destroyers and Planet Surprise be manifestations of her power in some way, reaching back through time to, uh, Shooter and Manapul's first issue? It'd make it easier to wrap things up, and there's a plausibility in having this informational stuff be what her illusions look like in a science lab. There's also some kind of thing about how a Legionnaire's going to die, and after the events of this issue, I'm betting on Timber Wolf. His devotion to Jeckie shows up in his dialogue and his vote against Sun Boy for reinstatement... and I think he's the price she's going to have to pay.

As for the tryouts. I have read numerous Legion tryout scenes, and this is another one. I believe that I don't need any more of them. Seriously. At what point is enough enough? By now it's more of a ritual than anything else.

Membership Notes:

Okay, now Sun Boy's a Legionnaire again. I think this is the third time he's rejoined the team, but presumably this one will stick. For the three issues that are left, anyway. Likewise, Gazelle: she's a Legionnaire now, but won't have long to enjoy it. After all, neither of them were present in Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #2 (for whatever that's worth). Oh, well.