Legion of Super-Heroes #19 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

The Emerald Empress is trashing Weber's World, and Mon-El shows up to fight her, followed by two groups of Legionnaires, the ones who were with Mon-El and the ones who took off from Earth in an improvised spaceship. The Legionnaires overcome the Empress, but Mon-El is seriously injured.

The Promethean giant scratches where it itches, under Tharok's control, and Phantom Girl thinks that Polar Boy and Invisible Kid have been killed by this attack. We'll see.

Tharok's control over the Promethean giant may not be perfect, just like his control over the Persuader, whom he sends to Earth.

Ultra Boy, Chameleon Boy, and Glorith arrive on the Sorcerer's World just in time for Validus to attack.

Review:

The plot continues to advance about like in the previous issue. The story is probably equally good, then, but is hampered by the awful awful art. It's distracting. Fortunately we get Portela back next issue. Again, for this story, I'd rather have Giffen, but Portela's got to be better than this mess.

Weren't the Legionnaires supposed to be hurtling into the sun this issue? Stupid solicits.

Art:

Scott Kolins 41 panels/10 pages = 4.1 panels/page. 1 splash page. Jeff Johnson 48 panels/10 pages = 4.8 panels/page (although there was an 11-panel page with 8 little headshots).

This was an ugly damn issue. Is it because Giffen ducked out unexpectedly that we had this one-two punch of Kolins and Johnson? I already knew I wasn't going to like Kolins's art, but I hoped that the Johnson half of the book would be better. Sadly no. Both artists turned in lively performances, for sure, but the action wasn't as easy to follow as one could ask for, and the characters were rendered terribly.

Kolins's pages were bordered with white and a kind of double-outline pattern; Johnson's pages with black. Why? Shouldn't the comic book at least pretend to have some kind of artistic unity? And the changeover happens in the middle of the fight between the Empress and Mon-El! I think J.P. Arencibia said it best when he said "#notpro".

No, it's just terrible. Look at Phantom Girl's inflated abdomen on page 7 panel 1, or Dream Girl and Shadow Lass on page 19. Brutal.

One point: I can't say I'm a big fan of the new Emerald Empress's design, but I do like how the Emerald Eye is now big enough to ride on; that's kinda cool.