Legion of Super-Heroes #16 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About: Chameleon Boy, Lightning Lass, and Shrinking Violet are still investigating the Fatal Five, and this time they go to Takron-Galtos and discover that Validus isn't really there. Star Boy is ready for active duty. Phantom Girl is elected leader. And a complex quark relay fails, with what are probably going to be disastrous consequences.

Review:

Happy to see Phantom Girl as the new leader. I'm going to be interested to see the voting, if ever we do. There's been some online support for Tinya, both on this site and from the Legion of Substitute Podcasters, and I can't help but wonder if we actually had any effect.

The issue itself is obviously little more than a setup for what is to follow: Validus missing, Star Boy healthy, new leader, technological cataclysm initiated. Levitz was checking a lot of things off his list in preparation for Keith Giffen's arrival. (In particular, I think he made sure that each currently active Legionnaire got some screen time.)

As for what's coming... I'm a bit worried it's going to be like a lukewarm revisit of the Five Years Later era. Or the Magic Wars or something. Certainly doesn't have to be! But it's hard not to think of, especially with the attention they're paying Glorith.

So: not a very thrilling comic book if this is your first issue ever of LSH, but not a waste of time either. Next issue, of course, is when the good stuff is supposed to start; wish Levitz wasn't looking past this one to see it so much.

Oh, and I finally got Action #16, with its two Legion stories. I'll write about that later. I haven't been missing any Legion stuff from previous issues, have I?

Notes:
- where was the Legion hanging out in the first few pages, exactly? Some kind of cafe in Weisinger Plaza, I guess?
- I'm missing the subtext in the Dragonwing-related conversations on pages 3-4
- Phantom Girl is now the seventh female Legion leader, by my count, but only the third non-blonde female leader (after Shrinking Violet and Kid Quantum in the reboot)
- still curious about who's going to be the fifth member of the Fatal Five

Art: 74 panels/20 pages = 3.7 panels/page. 2 splash pages, 1 double-page spread of 5 panels, 1 double-page spread of 9 panels.

Art by Scott Kolins again, and I continue not to be fond of his style. There are things here to like, though: the double-page panel where Brainy and Harmonia are examining Glorith is pretty cool, and I like Kolins' off-model take on Chameleon Boy's looks on, for example, page 17. I wonder what Keith Giffen will bring.