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?