Legion of Super Heroes #2-11 Review

What Happened That You Have To Know About:

The Dark Circle is on a crime spree, and the Legion are using Dream Girl's visions to their best advantage to stop them. So the Circle figure this out, and get the notion of using Dream Girl against the Legion. So the Legion figure this out, and... you get the idea.

Review:

Well, that's more like it!

Some backstory for Dream Girl, woven in to the already-existing saga of the Ranzz family. Nicely done. Also, continuing the tradition of strong characterization for Lightning Lad, who (like he always does in this show) acts like a bit of a jerk but shows by the end of the episode that he's actually not that bad of a guy. Good action sequences, as always. Sensible plot. A chance for Brainy to show off how smart he is in a way that's both realistic and something that an ordinary smart person wouldn't be capable of. One of the better episodes of this series, I'd say.

Nothing to advance the season-long arc, again. I guess the two-part finale is going to have to take care of everything.

I continue to resent the portrayal of all these Legionnaires as, as Neal Stephenson would say, stupendous badasses. Especially Timber Wolf, who is now ridiculously feral. Lightning Lad and Brainy are almost as bad. I don't care if kids are supposed to like it; this is just not what the Legion was ever supposed to be all about. It's obnoxious is what it is. Oh, and: just one female character this episode. Again.

Was there a reason for the Dark Circle to be the villains in this story other than that the writers wanted to use the Dark Circle? As far as I can tell, they could have been just any crooks with gadgets. That's not a complaint, of course, but if there's some detail that came into the story that made the Circle particularly appropriate, I missed it.

Okay. Good! Looking forward to next week!

Notes:
- I presume that Dream Girl's past alias, 'Madame Mysterious', is a nod to her brief use of the 'Miss Terious' name when she first joined the Legion for keeps
- I also presume that Star Boy's prominent role in the episode was because of his and Dreamy's longtime relationship in the comics
- So... does Computo record everyone's dreams, then? Or just Dreamy's? Really I suppose it should record them all. I don't suppose there's been a random and meaningless dream in the whole history of the superhero genre
- This episode's bone tossed by the writers to those who think that 'references to Legion continuity' = 'quality': the use of Ontiir as the name of a Dark Circle member