Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes v5 #19 - Whodunnit!?!



Released June 28, 2006
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

A 31st Century Whodunnit!

Mark Waid - Writer
Barry Kitson - Artist
Nathan Eyring - Colorist
Stephen Wacker - Editor

Synopsis

Chameleon is getting grilled by the Science Police for a murder in which he's implicated. We dig into Cham's infiltration of the SPs to investigate the prisoner who the Legion handed over in issue 16. Unfortunately, the perp was brutally murdered in his cell. 

At Legion Plaza, Supergirl talks to Theena looking for Seiss, the kid with the indigestion problems from issue 17. Theena, who can locate anyone using her symbiote, can't find him anywhere.

Back to Cham's story, in his role of Officer Daggle, he meets with Jeyra Entinn, a telepath from Titan who is a consultant investigating the situation. In her story, she says the prisoner was killed by a robot who suddenly appeared, committed the crime, then disappeared. 

They follow a lead into the Metropolis underground, where as you go deeper, there are more unwanted things - first people then deeper, Robots with AI.  They disguise themselves and see a tech handoff by a Khund in SP gear to the robots so they can recreate their ancestor - a giant robot who recognizes the pair instantly. Cham swings into action and takes out dozens of robots, but also revealing his identity to Jeyra.  

Cham grills the Khund about the teleporting murderer, but he doesn't know anything. Cham flies Jayla back to the surface and she kisses him, but Cham doesn't reciprocate. They go back to the crime scene and he investigates further coming to one conclusion - Jeyra is the killer.

She monologues and spills the entire thing while she mentally prevents Cham from changing forms. She made the prisoner kill himself by bashing his own head against the wall. She plans to kill Cham as a patsy, but he is able to shift into a replia of Jeyra herself, which catches her off guard and allows him to take her down. 

The SP's accept his story and let him go, but with some unanswered questions - Who employed Jeyra? What's really behind the robot rebellion? Does the Legion have a spy in its midst? 

At Brainy's lab, he's disappeared, along with Element Lad, Light Lass and the dormant bodies of Lemnos and Dream Girl. 

Commentary

I'm gonna straight up say that this is probably one of my favorite issues of the run so far, if not the best.  The art is super sharp, as Kitson does pencils AND inks, and Eyring seems to work really well with his stuff.  Kitson's work seems to lose a bit of an edge any time he's working with someone else inking.

The story is great - I really loved the noir retelling from Cham's story, and a lot more backstory gets revealed of Cham and the overall world, which was a nice change. The trope with the femme fatale may be somewhat overdone, but the twist with Cham not being attracted to non-changing life forms was a good twist to why he pushes Jayla away, even though she's able to nick his ring via the distracting kiss.  Cham's story is mostly narrated, and that really works with the frames on the page with the overall story, so it kept making me turn the page. 

Otherwise in the story, Theena is finally given some background.  The idea that she has a symbiotic relationship with the organism that allows her to communicate is neat, as well as how it works.  Long overdue, in my opinion. And its cute that she has a bit of a crush on Thom. But it looks like we are getting some traction with both the Seiss situation as well as Brainy's obsession with restoring Dream Girl.

A lot of good background on the 31st century Earth civilization as a part of this.  The whole Robot AI Rebellion gets more interesting with the fact that they took over centuries prior and humans basically hid out.  Does this explain the over-control of their world? Its an interesting question, as the existence of the underground with organics suggests not. If that was meant to be the case, I don't think it aged well as a concept after what we've gone through with the pandemic.  You can maybe get half the people to go along with what's best for all; the rest won't care, and it doesn't matter what age they are.


Grade A+ - Great comic book story and art working together.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Abnett & Lanning Reboot Legion - A look back

Image
  I first started this effort of reviewing the post-Legion Lost Abnett & Lanning Legion works after examining my own extreme negative reaction in an online poll about how long DnA should have been allowed to write the Legion.   I voted on it after having read all the reboot up to LSH 125 just prior. I had read the full run of DnA back in the day (not in real-time though), and just remembered checking out in the latter half of the first year's issues. One world-busting, character-morphing event after another that did not include any of the characters I loved just seemed to leave me cold. But I was vehement and voted that DnA should never have touched the book. If I'm being honest, I still would wonder what a different creative team would have done; the book needed shaking up, but I am still not convinced it needed 5 years of DnA. By the end of the journey, I started appreciating what they did a lot more, but I do think they were on the title for much too long. Abnett ...
Read more

The Legion of Super Heroes v5 #15 - Ancient Times!

Image
Released February 22, 2006 DC Comics, Color 30 Pages Ancient Times Stuart Moore - Writer Pat Olliffe - Pencils Livesay - Inker Sno Cone - Colors Stephen Wacker - Editor Synopsis More pandemonium in Legion Plaza makes a group of young recruits run into the park and tell hero stories around a lantern at night spurred on by a mysterious robed figure. The first story is from the JSA/JLA era.  Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and Alan Scott are trying to retrieve Flashes Barry Allen and Jay Garrick out of energy bubbles, but can't do it. Brainy, Bouncing Boy, Element Lad and Duo Damsel arrive. Chuck tries to bounce them out, but Element Lad is able to free them by temporarily turning them to oxygen. The kids listening to the story mock the idea of a Bouncing Boy among other things. The next story is Saturn Girl, Wildfire, Tyroc and Dawnstar negotiating with Relnic which is interrupted by Karate Kid and Captain Comet dropping in with the Secret Society of Super Villains from the 20th century. C...
Read more

Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes v5 #22 - Ultra Boy becomes Impotent Boy! (Or is it Impotence Lad?)

Image
Released September 27, 2006 DC Comics, Color 23 Pages Tony Bedard & Mark Waid - Script Barry Kitson - Layouts Adam DeKraKer - Pencils Rob Stull & Rodney Ramos - Inks Nathan Eyring - Colorist Stephen Wacker - Editor Synopsis Val is thinking back to a year prior when he was dating Shadow Lass and they broke up. Now she's coming to him to consult about her relationship with Jo, as he's feeling insecure thinking himself insecure. Val suggests Jo has a crush on Kara, but he'll look into it. In Metropolis, the kids debate the leader election as the Science Police try to disperse the crowds. A rogue Legionnaire tries to take matters into his own hands before Cos and Kara handle the situation. Kara kisses Cos on the cheek before taking the rogue back to HQ. Lyle proves to Cos that he's not in love with Kara; its some radiation interference. But its also revealed that Lyle is worshipping Kara, too and may have told Cos that to get rid of the competition. The former Terro...
Read more