Legion of Super Heroes (v5) #2 - Tomorrow's Heroes Today!

Released January 26, 2005
DC Comics, Color
31 Pages

Mark Waid & Barry Kitson - Storytellers
Gray, Pascoe, Kitson - Inks
Chris Blythe - Colors
Phil Balsman - Letterer
Harvey Richards - Asst. Editor
Stephen Wacker - Editor

Synopsis

A new ambassador and his translator assistant are introduced to a group of UP officials, but Brainy and Cos are suspicious and send Karate Kid, Element Lad and Dream Girl to stop the meeting. The translator is an assassin who has poison easily transmuted by Element Lad, but also has lots of backup weapons.

Dream Girl, being able to see the guy's next moves, handily dispatches the translator. 

Brainy and Cos argue about Dream Girl; Brainy clearly doesn't respect her powers, and it drives him bonkers. He asks for goats in his lab.  The team, Brainy, Karate Kid, Dream Girl and Shadow Lass, head to Naltor where none of the Naltorian children have been able to sleep, and therefore not dream, for days.  This leads to kids being driven insane by sleep deprivation, as sleeping and dreaming to a Naltorian is as important as breathing. Brainy puts his flight ring on one kid's finger and he falls instantly asleep; the Naltorian adults are up to something via the Public Service.

Precog police confront the Legion.  They easily take down Shady and Val, being one step ahead of them. They confront Nura who monologues on how her superior... ahem... capabilities are as a distraction while Val and Shady knock the officers out. Nura needs to be asleep so that she can dream the future, so Shady clocks her out.

The truth comes out - the public service is broadcasting a signal to prevent the youths from seeing a future of galactic invasion to which they will be sacrificed.  The signal was meant to pacify and protect them by preventing the foreknowledge, but its driving the kids insane. Nura identifies one man at the center of it all in the dream, and rips out the circuitry so the kids can sleep again. 

Back at Legion HQ, Brainy and Nura discuss precognition, fate and the ability for probabilities to shift. Nura states they will be married. Brainy, convincing himself she's messing with him, arrives in his lab full of goats.

Commentary

I very much enjoyed issue 2.  It took the setup farther along and began an actual story arc with the initial premise setup in issue 1. The other brilliant thing about this issue is that it wisely focuses on a different, yet of similar size, team of Legionnaires so that we can understand their personality and powers, especially as they differ from prior versions. Of the new group, Dream Girl seems to be the most versatile of the bunch. Not only can she see the future, but she packs a mean whallop! It's very much Nura's story with her intro at the beginning and then the thread on Naltor. I find the spar of worldviews between her and Brainy quite entertaining.  

The main plot works very well, and Nura's competence, as well as her understanding of how she uses her looks, is well done.   Keeping the kids asleep so they can't see the future works well at a very sinister level, as it made a great example of the road to hell being paved with the best of intentions. Nura's vision kicks off the main plot of the upcoming story arc, as she sees an enigmatic individual leading the invading army. The Legion thus saves the day on Naltor AND sees the upcoming threat.  The sum total makes a very self contained story AND starts an ongoing plot in an engaging way.  

Kitson's art, here needing more of an assist on the inking, works really well again.  He's a big reason that this book is as good as it is.  

This is the first time we see the "new" roll call in this book, where the entire Legion in shaded but the standout members in the issue are given their tags. One of the silhouettes is the "mythical" Atom Girl.

Shady doesn't seem to be able to use her powers very effectively yet.  This is the first time that we get to see her use them, yet she's taken out by the precog police immediately.

As I noted above, I also enjoyed the "sparring" between Dream Girl and Brainy - especially the importance of her statement about them being married, as it will have multiple impacts down the line.  

The four main Legionnaires are shown to be quite heroic and interesting in their own ways in this issue, and I found that enjoyable after the dissonance of issue 1.

Also, we've still only met Cos from the founders.

Grade: A.