The Legion #23 - Not Good. Gooog.

Released August 27, 2003
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

Dream Crime Part Five

Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning - Writers
Chris Batista - Pencils
Mark Farmer - Inks
Jason Wright - Colors
Comicraft - Letters
Stephen Wacker - Editor

Synopsis

The final chapter of Dream Crime begins exactly where we left off.  The summary page catches us up from the events of the last issue where Universo is in control of the Legion and soon the universe.  The image features a seated Universo backed by Ferro, Shikari, Karate Kid and Sensor who is wrapping her arms around Universo from behind. 

In the story, Universo stands with Saturn Girl and Dreamer strapped into chairs tapping their thoughts, the rest of the entranced Legion standing around with the four newcomers lying on the floor at their feet.  Universo reaches out to Sensor only to find that she's an illusion and has in fact freed Imra and Nura!  Universo forces the Legionnaires to find them.    

Elsewhere, Sensor binds the thought blockers on Nura and Imra and urges them to snap out of it. Apparently they amplify Sensor's abilities, and she is fighting against Universo's abilities with difficulty. Sensor explains Universo's plan of weaponizing Titanet, and Imra fills in the how - Universo fills each mind with a dream reality to keep the victim passive, and the reality of not having Garth slams into her. The trio gets to the Titanet control panel to shut it down, and Nura ges a flash that the tower must stay active.  She and Sensor start to fight over turning off Titanet.  Imra sides with Nura, but its a moot point as Universo arrives with his Legion.

Back on Legion World, Cub's stasis sphere begins to fail and as soon as that happens Universo's mind touches that of the baby, which seems to control Universo and he and the Legion all repeat Cub's actions.  Jeka, Nura and Imra were apparently not touched enough by Universo to get controlled by him nor Cub, but Cub's touch of innocence is able to allow them to attempt to restrain Universo. Universo regains his composure and he and Imra face off with Universo appearing to overpower everyone and everything.

Except its all an illusion in Universo's head.  Imra and Nura were able to get Universo into an inhibitor after all thanks to Imra's mental projections making him think he was winning the battle.  Imra saves the day. 

Denouement - Back at Legion World, Nura and Thom celebrate after Nura being made an official Legionnaire.  Nura still has forebodings about Darkseid.  Jo and Tinya rush to the Medbay to find a much older Cub.  On Titan, we learn the UP president will not shut down Titanet. Imra realizes that she was so angry about the lie of Garth being alive, she used that anger against Universo, who has now been transported to Steeple. The naturally powered crystals of Steeple will protect the monks from any potential mental affects of Universo, who himself is in a daydream created by Imra where he works at RJ's diner serving the Legion.

Commentary

For the most part, I really liked the momentum and characterization in this issue.  As always in this run, the art was great.  The Legion has found a really reliable art combo with Batista/Farmer.  Seeing a whole storyline with these artists makes me wonder if part of my reticence with DnA's Legion work has been partly due to Lanning's inks.  All the inking he did with Coipel, and even some of his fill ins, was rather heavy which definitely added to the heavier mood of the book.  This felt much brighter and more optimistic somehow, maybe because we were mostly on Titan and not some other thrice-paved-over world. What I liked most about this was the triple punch of Sensor, Dreamer and Saturn Girl getting things done against Universo.  Sensor's efforts to free the other two, Nura's insistence on keeping Titanet on, and Saturn Girl's showdown worked, as did the conflict between the three.  I really like it when there's active disagreement in the team when it plays out well like this - Sensor's distrust of Nura is great, although I did not get the sense that I knew where Imra's trust came from given they had recently talked about the Thom headstone dream.  

I will be honest that the wheels kind of came off for me with the Cub development.  As soon as this part of the story happened, I was left wondering if there were no small children anywhere on Titan, assuming that he had to control everyone on Titan in order to take over Titanet.  Did everyone else on Legion World and Titan also say "Gooog?" It was the McGuffin to enable Imra to save the day, but it completely took me out of the story, as did the magic crystals of Steeple, which just so happen to have the power to cancel Universo.  That was a nice coincidence!  

Heroes with small children in action/scifi comics books and TV shows almost never work out well.  Writers can't figure out what to do with the child or the parent without one affecting the other, so inevitably they get aged up somehow, and this is no exception.  The problem always is, however, that the writers then are in a situation where they have an older child whom they can't figure out what to do with.  I know a lot of folks love the Tinya/Jo/Cub melodrama of the reboot, but I'd surgically excise it if I could.

Nura becoming an official Legionnaire was a great touch.  I think DnA's efforts to transform Nura was one of the single best things they did during their tenure.  She's the one character they built up rather than tore down and rebuilt. 

Imra using her anger to get her through Universo's control and setting him into his own dream prison was a nice touch, but given everything else they've done to Imra, it seems to be a troubling harbinger to me. 

Other comments:

"Ol' Pink eyes?"  Yeah this Sensor is effectively NOT Jeka Wynzorr. But she gets some great lines.  "I don't think of you and reliable in the same sentence" - yowch! 

Cub Wazzo-Nah?  OK, then. So Tinya's keeping the name that Brin gave him. If I were Jo, I might be a little pissed.

Batista draws an amazing Imra Ardeen.

The splash page on 14 is really cool with some nice cameos like the Gorn from Star Trek.

Overall Grade: B-  Because Gooog.