The Legion #14 - Review!

Released December 14, 2002
DC Comics, Color
22 Pages

Flesh is Weak

Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning - Writers
Oliver Coipel - Pencils
Andy Lanning - Inks
Jason Wright - Colors
Mike McAvennie and Stephen Wacker - Editors

Synopsis

We pick up at the end of last issue's attack on Legion World by Robotica, specifically the attack on the Titanet node.  Saturn Girl appears to be the sole survivor of the adepts and appears to be toast when Timber Wolf comes out of nowhere and shreds the Robotican attackers. They do a quick intro of each other. Imra is pessimistic about their odds.

Suddenly, a breach appears in the Earth's shield, apparently courtesy of Kinetix, and the Legion jumps through a threshold.  Kinetix is matrixed-into the Robotican construct and somehow Shvaughn was able to convince her to not go full Robotica.  The Legionnaires begin to plan an infiltration when they are discovered and the fight begins. Cos and Jazmin handily take out the Roboticans.   

Sharn and Lyle advance the party further and find Brainiac 5 and Computo separated by a force field.  Brainy pleads with the Legionnaires that allowing Computo to evolve is the only way to resolve the conflict.  Sharn reflexively counters with the premise that allowing machines to evolve will enable them to annihilate life.  Kid Quantum gives Brainy the go-ahead.  Computo starts to get cold feet, spurring Sharn to action. She charges the force field only to be taken down by an Invisible Kid.  

Computo enters the Hypertaxis field only to taunt Brainy as he begins to transform, saying that now that machine kind is evolving he WILL destroy organic life after all.  But Brainy has something up his sleeve - when Computo evolves, he believes Computo will evolve beyond vengeance and develop morals, which indeed happens and Robotica disarms.  Sharn revives and charges at Brainiac 5 specifically, stabbing him in the stomach and then Computo, who appears to dissolve Sharn.  

In the denouement the next day, Robotica withdraws and apparently repairs all the damage done before settling on Pluto/Warworld as their new home.  The UP recognizes sentient robots as, well, sentient.  Jazmin ruminates about whether destruction of the machines prior to the evolution was killing.  Computo and Nux vanished.  

Leaving Brainy to recover, Jaz meets Tinya looking over cub.  Tinya lets them know the doctors are researching to slow down cub's growth.  Tinya and Jo finally reunite.  

In the epilogue, at the Omega point at the end of the universe, a glowing figure crashes to the ground with an ominous shadow watching.

Commentary

This issue definitely pulls out of the nosedive of issue 13 by getting back to the linear story at hand and wrapping us up pretty effectively.  However, I've noticed that DnA tend to suffer from a couple bad habits in this run of The Legion - They rely way too much on Deux ex machinae (in this case the Deus ex Kinetix) to advance the story (I thought it would have been much more interesting if the Coluans had been the ones to figure a way through), and they tell way too much of what happens in the denouement.  Maybe the latter is more a problem with storytelling 22-page stories over several issues.  But the issue overall was a mix that balanced more in the positive side of the equation.  Brainy was very well presented during this story, as appropriate and Kid Quantum did a great job in leading the team.  But we are left with a lot of questions at the end - what happened to Computo?  If computo evolved, did all his machines evolve as well?  What about other machines created by others in the UP?  Those aspects of the whole thing didn't resolve the story to the degree I wanted.  That's fine - life tends to not provide the answers we would like to have, but if I'm on Earth with a Roomba, I'd like to know if that's considered sentient or not.  Maybe I've read too much sci-fi here, but I think they overstretched a bit at the end with their SF.  Anyway, overall I liked it, but there were some nagging weird bits about the ending.  

Also, I'm assuming the big bad at the end is Darkseid (Omega point...).

It should be noted that this is Coipel's last issue as a Legion penciler. I found his work in this issue specifically to be uneven - choppy at the beginning of the story, but really solid at the end.  Nice little sign off at the end with Coipel and Lanning with the drawing of Jo and Tinya.  Not sure what he's done after and how well he does with other inkers, as Lanning is the only one that I know of.  As I've said elsewhere, he needs to be incredibly grateful for Mike McAvennie and Andy Lanning for essentially allowing him to learn to draw comics on the Legion of Super Heroes.  As a fan, I don't know if I appreciate that from DC as a publisher, though.

Speaking of McAvennie, this is THE LAST issue with him as any kind of editor. Good riddance and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Other comments:

Bad coloring on Triad - neutral's eye colors are the same, when they should be different.  Tom McCraw leaves and the whole place goes to hell.  :)  Also - after 2+ Years we FINALLY kinda have a Chuck/Lu moment???  Sheesh!!!  This is the kind of thing that has been bugging me about this run.  14 issues in and we FINALLY see SOMETHING of the relationships pre-DnA, but it ain't what it should be. 

Has Sensor ever used "Grife"?  She doesn't seem like that kind of character, but its good to FINALLY see her doing something. 

Ayla's attitude is frankly annoying.  You don't get pissy like that in the middle of action.

An interesting observation on my reading this digitally - I had started with the guided view, but I found that I had to switch to page view in order to follow the action and dialogue better. 

The choice given about Computo's evolution wasn't that hard - Robotica was making kibbles out of the Earth, so its not like evolution would change much.  

I'm assuming we'll be addressing the Terrorforms next issue?  Seems like a huge plot point that's unaddressed. 

Overall - B.  Good issue to resolve the storyline with some curious gaps and choices.