Legion of Super-Heroes #8 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

Well, Mon-El's leader, for one thing.

The Legionnaires fight a bunch of the Durlan assassins, and bring in two of them, including the Zendak impersonator. The last one, though, defeats Colossal Boy and Earth-Man and kills Brande's former assistant Pheebs.

Review:

Let's look at what happened with these Durlans. Dream Girl and Shadow Lass nailed one of them; fine. Cosmic Boy, Invisible Kid, Phantom Girl, and Element Lad got another; fine. Colossal Boy and Earth-Man lost to the last one. Poor Colossal Boy; he's always the punching bag. It's too bad. I mean, I expect Earth-Man to get kicked around by his opponents; he's basically a supervillain who must let his opponents determine the terms of the fight. It's not a recipe for success. Colossal Boy, though, is a pro. He's not only a superhero; he's also had Science Police training. He should be a lot better at this. But no: his problem is that he's got the strength of a powerhouse but no corresponding invulnerability. Plus he's a big target. Still, this has happened way too often. I'm ready for a story in which Colossal Boy, you know, succeeds at something.

There were only ever four Durlans, right? And now only one of them is still at large? I guess I should have been keeping more careful track of this. Okay, yes, next issue's solicit confirms that there's only one Durlan still out there.

Okay, so, this Durlan-assassin plot is moving along nicely; shouldn't we start seeing some more seeds of plots to come?

Some interesting bits in the voting. Cosmic Boy and Dream Girl and Element Lad voting for Sun Boy, really? Earth-Man voting for that filthy Tharrite Polar Boy? What the flip is that all about? Gates voting for Earth-Man? I don't freaking think so; not in a million years. That would simply never happen. I don't say stuff like this often, but Levitz got that wrong. Brainy and Polar Boy voting for themselves; cool. Quislet voting for Gates, well, I could certainly see it. Gates is quite an intriguing candidate; is the implication that Quislet is the only one who can see that, or that only Quislet is frivolous enough to vote for him? And Violet voted for Polar Boy, too? I guess she's come around on him since the election that he won, back in LSHv3.

I wonder if the voting was intended to mimic the proportions of the votes sent in by readers.

With Mon-El not around, it looks like Brainy is going to be the interim leader, as Mon's deputy. The thing I don't get is, why does Brainy want to be leader at all? I mean, I get why he thinks he'd be better at it, but it strikes me that he's always complaining about being too busy in the first place, and I don't think that his extra duties as leader would be that interesting to him. If I'm Brainy, what I do is I delegate almost everything.

Another good issue. Shame that the Annual's going to be late (delayed due to Keith Giffen's medical problems); oh well. We do have the LSV one-shot to look forward to; wonder what the deal is with that. I hope Levitz isn't planning one of these elections for every year; once every few years would be enough for me.

Notes:
- page 8, "We're stretched thin,"--there it is again
- Earth-Man to one of the Durlans: "That's human! The species that covered a galaxy--and didn't blow ourselves up." Got to admit he scored a point there
- Now. Did that last Durlan get away, or is he disguising himself as Earth-Man now?
- Who is that statue on page 15, panel 3? Between the Karate Kids?
- Timber Wolf was the only one who voted for Cosmic Boy. If I'm Cos I'm not letting him get away with that. "Listen, you doofus, I told you I don't want to do it anymore!"
- On page 6 we've got Dr. Gym'll with four arms. That's not right, is it?
- Yes, yes; Cancellite for the diehard fans. I know

Panel Count: 128 panels/30 pages = 4.3 panels/page. 2 one-panel pages. Cinar gets some help on the art this week by someone called Daniel HDR. Not sure how that breaks down, although Earth-Man's and Colossal Boy's scuffle with the Durlan does look a bit different from the rest of it.

Membership Notes: The Legionnaires listed as voting are the same Legionnaires indicated by the Mission Monitor Board a few issues ago, so I guess that's definitive: Star Boy, XS, Night Girl, Chameleon Girl, Bouncing Boy, and Duplicate Girl are not active Legionnaires. Mon-El isn't listed among the voters, but I think he's best regarded as being on a temporary leave of absence, which, one must presume, is coming to an end now that he's been elected leader.