Legion of Super-Heroes #2 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

A bunch of Legionnaires are cleaning up the debris from Titan's destruction, when a curious Saturn Queen shows up. She mind-controls Ultra Boy to beat up his teammates and go to Earth and smash Legion HQ, seemingly just out of malice. Meanwhile, Lightning Lad abandons his search for Mekt's twin to start trying to find Saturn Girl and their kids, while Saturn Girl is making progress in the time bubble. Xenophobic earthlings start a riot protesting the arrival of refugees from Titan, and Earth-Man gets his first assignment as a Legionnaire, assisting in keeping the peace. He also learns how to use his Green Lantern ring, and uses it to deactivate the safety on his flight ring.

Review:

The machine continues to operate.

This issue, the focus seems to be on the consequences of Titan's destruction, what with the refugees and the live-action game of Asteroids the Legionnaires get to play, and all. Anybody disappointed in this issue? Shouldn't be; it's about exactly what one should have expected out of a second issue by Paul Levitz. None of the plots or subplots are ready to end yet, so we have to be satisfied with the resolution of Ultra Boy's mind-control as all the closure we're going to get.

I wonder if Levitz has long-term plans for Saturn Queen, or if this was just a one-off appearance. Not enough time has passed yet for us to have perspective on just what exactly Geoff Johns did for the Legion, but I'll mention one positive contribution he made right here: he turned Saturn Queen into a dashed interesting character. I may not like her as much as I did when she was Tenzil Kem's blushing bride, but she's a pretty good supervillain now, and I would not always have said that.

I'm sure there will be much talk about the breakup of the longstanding Mon-El/Shadow Lass couple. Here's my take on it: if you need your Legion comics to satisfy your nostalgia, Paul Levitz is not the writer for you. He doesn't cater to any of that stuff. Paul Levitz doesn't want anybody to get comfortable.

Also good to see that Earth-Man's trajectory is still unclear at this stage. It looks like he can be a ... viable? ... Legionnaire, at least, if not any nicer of a guy. I mean, I still don't like the guy, or want him on the team, much, but Levitz has found the one thing to do with him that makes him interesting, and that's to not let him be what he wants to be, and as long as that's unresolved, he's worth watching. So let's string that out as long as we reasonably can.

Cinar's art is strong again this issue. Maybe not quite as good as in #1... that happened with Manapul, too. I think there's a general second-issue-letdown effect that applies to comics. I particularly liked panel 2 of page 26. Panel Count 4.5 panels/page over 30 pages, one single-panel page.

Anyway, I say it's another clean single up the middle, and I'm looking forward to next issue.

Notes:
- just what's so hard about spelling "Brainiac", anyway? I swear I see it misspelled more than just about any other Legion-related word
- more than "Vyrga", for instance. This is not the way to impress me, Sal Cipriano, Sean Ryan, and Brian Cunningham!
- somebody check me on this... is Dream Girl's mole on the correct side of her mouth?
- Saturn Queen's costume kinda reminds me of the original Saturn Girl costume from Adventure #247. I think it's the combination of her coloring with the dark colors of the costume

Membership Notes:

Tyroc is apparently a Legionnaire in good standing, as he's part of the team cleaning up debris around Titan. And Earth-Man seems to be officially a Legionnaire.