Supergirl and The Legion of Super Heroes v5 #16 - Supergirl is here! Can she save the team from themselves?

Released March 22, 2006
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

Mark Waid - Writer
Barry Kitson - Penciller
Mick Gray - Inker
Nathan Eyring - Colorist
Stephen Wacker - Editor

Synopsis

Klar is in his apartment and complains to his wife about the ruckus being made outside by the Legionnaires. He bundles up and angrily confronts them as they casually toss about a SP officer. They mock him as he threatens to call more police and they throw their new status in Klar's face while Shady extorts Klar's goggles from him. It also turns out that the officer they were toying with is a terrorist plant. Klar angrily gets his fellow tenants to come outside and in person.  The Legionnaires further goad the adults and fly away with the terrorist, a young boy looking on at the Legionnaires with admiration.

Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad confer with Imra's mother about in incoming object headed for Earth with the Super logo visible. 

Ultra Boy and Cham dump the terrorist with the Science Police as Ultra Boy gloats about it.  Cham seems a bit more pensive about it. 

At Legion Plaza, construction of the new HQ continues as Cosmic Boy announces his intent to hold a leader election to Colossal Boy. 

Later in space, nine Legionnaires meet to intercept the incoming object. They start to tear it apart, before one large chunk hit's Gim's ring causing his space-defense to malfunction and he plummets to earth with some larger debris. It hurtles towards the plaza until Supergirl dramatically destroys the rest of the debris.

Kara is instantly recognized by the crowd and the Legionnaires. Some of the crowd are skeptical, so Kara grabs Rokk and they fly to a tall building's peak where she says that this entire thing is her dream.

Commentary

Let me get the good stuff out of the way first - Kitson, Gray & Eyring are amazing in this issue and provide some great art. 

Now to the issue itself.  First off, now that the title has changed with the addition of Supergirl, issue 16 is effectively an issue #1, therefore we are treated to an intro to the Legion's world and a few of its members by way of this side story with Klar.  Waid is very clever in making the Legionnaires out like they are stepping over their bounds by seemingly messing with a SP officer now that they have authority.  Of course, the joke's on us when we come to find out that the officer is really a terrorist. The Legionnaires then goad the adults into personal interaction, which is part of their mission in the disruption of society.  

I'll say straight up that this opening scene torpedoes what is otherwise a good story. So the mission of the Legion is to act like assholes to adults for the sole purpose of shaking things up? Sorry, that just doesn't hold water. It's made worse by Tasmia shaking down Klar for his goggles. This is the behavior of thugs, not heroes. Ultra Boy reinforces this when he shows up with the perp at the SP station. I'm trying to remember specifics, but I do remember being an active comic-store goer at this time, as I was stoked for the Shrinking Violet reveal from a few issues prior.  I'm almost 100% sure that I stopped after this issue or a few issues after.  I DEFINITELY started to care less about this book at that time and eagerly welcomed the Justice Society Lightning Legion when they appeared.  The snarky teens that are almost adults battling against the adults not that much older than them is not working and is getting EXTREMELY old.

The rest of this issue works decently enough. The enigmatic object racing to Earth and the battle to eliminate it was well told with everyone there having a role to play, as was the Supergirl reveal. But the "its all a dream" take?  We'll see how this plays out.

Another item that was kind of interesting to me here was the flight ring situation.  So instead of the traditional transsuit, the ring - in addition to taking you off the grid, enabling flight and providing a costume - also protects you in space  That seems REAL risky and adds yet another function to a ring, which we see become a problem for Gim.

It should be noted that Ultra Boy, Light Lass and Shadow Lass in the intro scene for this story were also among the first Legionnaires to be seen in the first issue. 

Grade - C. Great art and a decent main story is sunk by characters I'm caring less and less about.