Thursday, April 21, 2011

Legion of Super-Heroes #12 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

Mekt and Atta are trying to recruit muscle on Rimbor, and some Legionnaires show up to fight them. The Legionnaires mostly win, but Mekt and Atta get away.

Timber Wolf is still hunting Sun-Killer. Mon-El and Dyogene happen upon the rubble of the Rock of Eternity.

Brainy leaves Starman's treatment (Star Boy's treatment?), and Harmonia Li, behind as he leads a squad of Legionnaires to Colu to see why it's been cut off from the rest of the galaxy. They run into Saturn Queen and company, and there's another fight. Saturn Queen, Questor, and Zymyr duck out early, though, having found what they were looking for, and leave the rest of their guys (including Mekt and Atta, who show up at the end) to keep the Legion busy.

Review:

I have the idea that the reduced number of pages is cramping Levitz's style. We got one page each of checking in on Timber Wolf and Mon-El, and to what end? Just to remind us that they're there?

The plot here reminds me of the Great Darkness Saga. Supervillains teleporting around all over the place, chasing targets of ancient significance. The Legion pursues them and manages to contain them but not defeat them or ruin their plans (which remain mysterious). The villains are hostile to the Legion but not really interested in killing them. What would cinch it? I guess it depends on what happens in the climactic ending. (Which doesn't look like it's coming soon.)

Don't know what else to say about it. It's the middle of everything. The only real development is that Saturn Queen finds where the second world to destroy is, the world of wisdom. Wonder if it's someplace we already know about.

Notes:
- so, did Brainy manage to summon Tellus and Gates? And, what, send them after Zymyr and the other two? It's possible; Earth-Man had telepathy at the moment and might have transmitted their destination
- we get another minor supervillain in Stegus, a big dinosaur guy. I hope Saturn Queen wasn't counting on the extra personnel, though; they had no luck in recruiting on Rimbor
- so we got a glimpse of the other Star Boys as Brainy released Thom's multiversal energy, fine, but who was the one with the red mask?
- Colossal Boy gets roughed up again. Should we start keeping track of this?
- When did Mon-El meet Captain Marvel? CoIE?
- Another new supporting character: Science Police officer Adin

Art: 92 panels/20 pages = 4.6 panels/page. One single-panel page.

Cinar turns in his usual fine job. I find myself wondering about his panel arrangements. It's not like he's in a rut or anything (he had a sequence of seven pages, each with exactly five panels, none of them the same) but the panels are often stacked or layered in ways that I don't know why they're like that. I mean, I could be making it more complicated than it has to be; he could just think it looks cool.

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