Legion of Super-Heroes #3 Review

What Happened That You Have to Know About: Ultra Boy's dad, the leader of Rimbor, fights the Legion over the whole trident thing, and they bring him back to Legion HQ. Superboy brings Robin to the 31st century, but the Legion says this is a bad idea so they mindwipe him and put him back. Saturn Girl tries a neat trick to try to get information out of Mordru, but it doesn't work. And maybe the trident has been stolen again?

Review: Before I got away to the comic shop I saw a couple of people saying that this was the best issue yet of this young series. I don't know about that, but there certainly is a lot of chewy detail that makes it a good read.

In a sense this is kind of a false start of an issue: it's a lot of people trying things that don't work. Superboy recruiting Robin; the Legion reaching out to Crav, the General Nah; Saturn Girl trying the old switcheroo on Mordru.* I am not saying, "This sucks, nothing happened, what the hell." Stuff certainly did happen, and since I don't know where the story is going I can't say that we didn't make progress toward the ending. Maybe I'll look back from issue #6 and go, "Oh, I get what they were doing."

I do think that the use of Robin was a cheap trick. I have a lot of time for cheap tricks, but it's best to call them what they are. Are lots of Batman and/or Robin fans going to buy this comic because of this low-impact cameo appearance? I hope so. I guess.

We are slowly getting more details on the Legionnaires themselves. I guess this is how it's going to work. Little bit of Ultra Boy, Dawnstar, Mon-El this time around. Problem is, there are lots of Legionnaires who badly need more than a little bit of attention. Going to take forever.

The second fight scene against C,tGN didn't do much for me. Yet another fight involving the entire Legion, in which Saturn Girl tries to put the adversary to sleep. Sorry, Imra, he's got more than 4 HD; ain't gonna work. I wonder if it wouldn't be better to deal with smaller groups of Legionnaires issue-by-issue and save the big group scenes for special occasions. I mean, the whole point of having that many people around is that they don't have to stay in a big group; they can split up and tackle separate problems. Maybe lots of separate problems!

Overall I don't think I would say that this is the best issue yet. I think the way to look at it is, with every issue, we get a better sense of what's going on, not only in the story but in the series overall, and the more that gets developed, the better our experience is. So there is a cumulatively increasing effect here, but I wouldn't put #3 over #2 on that basis.

Anyway! Keep 'em coming!

Notes:
- "Dawnstar Gr'ell". No, don't do that. Yeah, I know. But don't do that
- anybody know what show it is that Superboy and Robin like?
- okay, so, the double-page spread: there *are* other people in the Metropolis area; it isn't just the Legion
- if the trident has been stolen again, it'd be nice if we, you know, saw it happen instead of being told about it
- next issue: some answers, it looks like
- Mongul! That actually works for me
- I wonder if C,tGN's colourful underlings are supposed to have, like, names and personalities and stuff, or if we'll ever see them again
- why is the Gotham police commissioner using a Frichtman tag? I thought they were supposed to be obscure tech

Art: 96 panels/22 pages = 4.4 panels/page. 2 splash pages, 1 double-page spread, 1 other instance of the art being spread over two pages.

Still splashpagier than I'd like, but beautiful. I like the different facial expressions on the cover. I wonder about Chameleon Boy's design... his new more-alien look seems less expressive than his previous portrayals. You know? And there's no reason for Chameleon Boy of all people not to be expressive.

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* Switcheru.