The Legion #27 - I thought the third part of a series was supposed to be the best?

Released November 26, 2003

DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

Foundations Part Three

Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning - Writers
Chris Batista - Pencils
Chip Wallace & Andy Lanning - Inks
Sno Cone - Colors
Rob Leigh - Letters
Stephen Wacker - Editor

Synopsis

Gear rouses Kid Quantum out of a deep sleep, but as she fully awakens she finds herself in a snowstorm seeing phantoms.  She reacts and inadvertently blasts a hole in her wall.  We shift to where we left of at the Time Institute in Metropolis in issue 26 with Invisible Kid and Brainiac 5.1 under attack by dark versions of Orion and Hawkwoman. The pair of Legionnaires are able to stand toe to toe with Darkseid's servants until the boom tube arrives to take them back.  The minions retreat via the boom tube with Lyle in pursuit.  Unfortunately, the minions left a bomb in their wake. 

Shortly, a large squad of Legionnaires arrives at the wreckage of the Time Institute, with Superboy making a splashy appearance.  We cut to Trudy Trusoe's news summary of the bombing; the minions were out to wreck any temporal technology, the Last Son cultists clash with the catastrophists.  

Back on Legion World, Rokk challenges Connor's choice in putting on the Superboy costume and Ferro comes to Connor's defense. Andy confronts Rokk about his attitude towards Connor, who admits to his feeling disappointment in Connor. Brainy is trying to track Lyle and is able to determine that several anomalies began to emerge ten years prior. Also, the universe appears to be shrinking and a massive gravity distortion is at the outer edge of the galaxy. Kid Quantum has another sudden vision, and the team begins to receive a transmission from Invisible Kid.

He, and several minions, are at a disused stargate, which the minions are repurposing, stealing dark matter.  Lyle is discovered, and almost killed, but the Legion arrives just in time. The brawl ends with some broken ribs for Vi and the enemy escaping in a boom tube. Brainy kisses Lyle, and then explains that hundreds of thousands of stargates are being used to drain the universe of dark matter, thus explaining the shrinking universe. They track the terminus of the energy drain to a massive boom tube at the edge of the galaxy.

Commentary

Very mixed feelings about this issue. Great Batista art, as always. The illustration team here, Batista with Wallace and "Sno Cone" are extremely consistent and make me feel like I'm reading a Jeff Moy drawn story from the 90s.  While Coipel at his best was amazing, there was always a sense that one page's work may not be as good as the next's, where here its consistently good, as Moy's work was in Legionnaires. 

But the story.  So if we take this as just part three in an action story, its okay.  Fights happen, stuff blows up, the Legion figures stuff out and saves the day.  All serviceable.  But odd things here and there pop out that give me a serious WTF moment, three things in particular.  First is the fight at the beginning - Lyle and Brainy vs Orion and Hawkgirl.  Please explain to me how this is an even match up.  I know they have to keep it interesting for a couple pages, but why didn't they just plant the bomb and get the hell out?  My feeling is that these particular minions would wipe the floor with these two Legionnaires - or at least just have Brainy be inside his force field.  The second item is the shrinking universe mcguffin.  So hundreds of thousands of old stargates in the UP area of the Milky way is draining 27 percent of the ENTIRE KNOWN UNIVERSE?  Okay, so I think that stargate count is a little high for a service that was only in use for a couple years.  Also high?  The amount of dark matter being drained from one tiny galaxy in the entirety of the cosmos. I felt like the ever-cosmologically oriented DnA were ripping a line out of the latest science headlines and throwing it in the story without proofing it out in context. Third is the news report where Trudy says "Someone claiming to be Superboy." We've been told time and again that Superboy's a big deal in the last five weeks.  And Trudy saw him herself!  What's this "claiming?" Please stay current within your own continuity.  This is a big red flag that the creators may be starting to check out - I don't know if its Abnett, Lanning or Wacker, but all of the above are unforced errors for people writing a title for four years.

Brainy and Lyle - I had no problem with Brainy kissing Lyle, but it did seem to come out of left field. Their relationship has always worked on them being snarky rivals, so this seemed to come out of nowhere, likely because fans had for years been clamoring to determine if Lyle was gay.  

Other elements of the story, like Cos' resentment towards Connor and Jazmin's power oddities are starting to feel like they are stretching out too much.

Other random comments:

The pic of Jazmin's brother James on the nightstand is a good touch.

One of the scientists seems to be getting very friendly with Brainy inside his forcefield.

The universe is shrinking comment with Vi standing there is kind of funny.  I'm a little surprised the writers didn't make more of it.

Nice little moments of Spark with Timber Wolf and later with Violet that were nods to the prior continuity.  Unfortunately DnA appear to only be able to focus on one romance at a time.

I'm officially done with the whole "Kari learning how to cuss" trope.

Grade: C+.  Saved by the art and the nice character moments.