Legion of Super-Heroes #15 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

Harmonia Li uses Star Boy's power to bring the Legion to Utopia, where the LSV is already trashing the place. Then they fight.

Review:

Where exactly did all those extra members of the LSV come from? Radiation Roy and Chameleon Chief and all those guys. Was Saturn Queen keeping them in her ear for just such an occasion? I regard that as not exactly fair play on Paul Levitz's part. (Oh, wait, now I see it; Mekt explains it on page 4. Still don't like it.)

So there's not much in this issue except fighting, but it's interesting fighting, taking place in different locations and with different groups of characters. It's exactly the kind of thing that can work really well in Legion comics, and it works well here. I suppose really I should go back and reread Sun-Killer's first appearance, so I can refresh my memory of just what the trick was that Timber Wolf and Sun Boy used to beat him. Eventually I will.

The one Utopian guy says, when faced with the prospect of his world being destroyed, that he has lived long and learned acceptance. I don't think acceptance is necessarily that wise a policy. What's so wise about allowing bad things to happen? (Obvious answer: well, Matthew, you're obviously not wise enough to understand it. I reject the obvious answer.)

We've only got one issue left to wrap this storyline (and LSHv6!) up for good. Anyone think we actually make it to Oa in that one issue, or does it all end here on Utopia? (Not that Oa would be a big loss; the only one there is Sodam Yat, and he can survive in space unaided. All he has to do is stuff the extra rings in a big sack, tie a tow rope to the giant power battery, and he's good to go.) From a dramatic point of view you'd think that the LSV would polish off Utopia and the Legion would have to make their last stand on Oa, but from a time-management angle you'd have to say that we don't want to spend any of those last twenty pages traveling from one planet to another.

Notes:
- hey, Black Mace is there! When does this story take place, compared to the Adventure story about the Academy?
- notice, on page 3, the starfield effect has faded from Thom's costume
- Gates's homeworld? Still Vyrga. Still not Vyraga
- blue space baby is even older now; I guess we have to call him the blue space guy

Art: 83 panels/20 pages = 4.2 panels/page. Two single-panel pages plus one double-page panel.

Cinar's work is fine here, and basically up to his usual standard, but I'm wondering if he isn't suffering from Francis Manapul syndrome a bit.

In Other News: Obviously a lot of interesting stuff coming up for the Legion. This fall there will be four monthly Legion series on the stands: LSHv7, Legion Lost, LSH: Secret Origin, and the LSH/Star Trek crossover miniseries from IDW. Plus there's supposed to be some kind of flight ring giveaway for October. I don't know if this compares to the LSH golden age we had a few years ago when the cartoon was on the air, but it's certainly impressive, and it's going to make a lot of work for me here, which is all to the good. Let's hope that there's some quality to go with the quantity!

Have there ever been four Legion comics going on at once before? Must have been. Late '90s, maybe?