The Legion #36 - Snap out of it! (Sorry, Gail)

Released July 28, 2004
DC Comics, Color
22 Pages

For No Better Reason Part Two - Personality Conflict

Gail Simone - Writer
Dan Jurgens - Layouts
Andy Smith - Finishes
Sno Cone - Colors
Rob Leigh - Letters
Stephen Wacker - Editor

Synopsis

We pick up twelve minutes after the Spike, and Trudy's narration gets us up to speed on things.  Winema is bleeding out and Tinya is desperately trying to get her to phase. Violet is sprawled out across the plaza and nothing technological is working. People are beginning to panic.  Timber Wolf and Ultra Boy make an initial determination to help the people in the crowd until Tinya convinces Jo to take care of Winema. Brin takes care of the crowd's needs.  Umbra tells us the tech on Brainy's face is a personality inhibitor that's turned off, and Cham has broken something that has rendered his arm useless.  

Brainy starts to lose it due to his cyberdeck failing, so Umbra slaps him into focus and puts him in a darkfield to organize his thoughts. Tinya takes charge and puts Trudy to work after zinging her about her tabloid journalism. Brainy starts to figure out what to do.

On Oasis One, people start to revive.  Persuader almost kills his daughter, but he reconsiders and they look for a way out. They find Karate Kid and four guards facing off against the rest of the prisoners.  

In Devil's lair, she makes Dreamer, who is leaning on Canary, pick the next Legionnaire to fall by throwing the syringe used to keep her drugged. 

Legion World - Wildfire, Chuck and Gear strategize.  They can't send down any Legionnaires that are power sources, like Garth, as the phenomenon is rendering anything with power inert. They send in the recruits, including Nightwind and Dr. Gym'll to parachute in.

At the hospital, Jo pleads to have someone help the president, but most surgery is done cybernetically, so nothing can be done. Winema says goodbye and seems to finally accept Jo.  

Oasis One starts to lose stability.  Pinter decides he's going to take over, and the fight starts. The Persuader steps in and stops all the shenanigans. 

Back at the plaza, Tinya and Brin start to figure out who can help out from the crowd.  Brin leaves to track down a scream. Violet recovers. The able bodied start helping and the cadets parachute in from a portal high in the sky.  Trudy organizes the helpers.  

The meta criminals try to stabilize Oasis One. Persuader doesn't want Lialla to talk to Val.  The prison nosedives into the water.

Archer shoots Gym'll and Timber Wolf tracks down the scream to Devil's apartment, and he's greeted by being impaled with Devil's trident.

Commentary

This was a good, solid second episode in the storyline.  The plot did a great job of moving things forward, having some of the characters, mainly the Legion, regain their footing from the events in the last issue, but then give them a different set of problems.  The narration continues through Trudy's voice, but slightly less so as the action takes place across several locales, and we mainly only hear Trudy when the events happen around her.  Still, with all the internal dialogue, it would have been nice to hear something from Trudy after Tinya (rightfully) throws her tabloid trash back at Trudy. The events on the prison barge are handled well, but from the overall story we still don't really know what's going on with regards to Devil's motivations.   Another pretty solid art delivery as well, although the men's faces look a little off somehow.  Its not that big of a deal. I will say that in just a few pages, Gail Simone has made me feel more positive about Tinya, Jo and Winema that I have in the entire decade of this team's existence. They are finally all being treated like adults instead of the badly drawn out soap opera it had been for so long.  Overall though, good pickup from the last issue and great cliffhanger at the end.

Winema's blood is on Tinya's shoulder, not her dress. But the better imagery is Winema's blood on the Legion ring.  We see the blood on Tinya's dress later.

Brainiac 5 looks sinister in this drawing on the title page.  I'm honestly not a fan of the Crazy Brainy trope since its been done so much before.

Having Brin and Jo having a confab here is kind of a nice change.  Tinya's persuasion to have Jo help her mother was well done.

We get a quick "Streetcar" and "Moonstruck" moment with Brainy crying "STELLAAAAA" and then Umbra smacking him and telling him to snap out of it. :)

Brainy's mind didn't have any controls on it before, but the thought of the Anomaly opening up Brainy's mind further therefore requiring some kind of tech to keep things in line is an interesting thought.  Its literally the most interesting idea to come out of the Levitz Anomaly.

In Val's flight scene, I'm hearing bowling pins get knocked over as he KOs multiple inmates.

Tinya staring up at Vi like she's never seen Vi large before is kind of weird. But I'm glad Vi's not hurt.  Vi and Tinya are drawn in particularly fetching fashion.

I actually enjoyed the Persuader's portrayal here.

Man Arrow's cold shooting at a doctor like that.

That final panel - Ouch!

Overall Grade - A-  I kept on wanting to go back and check stuff out in this issue in the good way!