Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes v5 #25 - Introducing The Wanderers!




Released December 27, 2006
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

The Wanderers

Mark Waid - Writer
Barry Kitson - Penciller
Mick Gray - Inker
Nathan Eyring - Colorist
Mike Marts - Editor

Synopsis

Legion HQ - Dream Boy urges Garth and Vi to get the Kryptonite from the armory. He realizes, and the word is relayed from Tinya, that they are under attack. Projectra and Brin are captive by "Plant Lad", aka Ral Benem (aka Chlorophyll Kid in normal continuity), who deactivates the HQ defenses. White Witch casts a spell to compartmentalize the Legionnaires where they are in the HQ on the command of their mysterious leader.

The splash screen is changed to "The Wanderers" a huge team with the focus on Jeyra Entinn, Polar Boy, Micro Lass, Plant Lad, Inferno, Grav, Thoom and White Witch. Their purpose - to save the galaxy from a galactic malevolence, the single most fervent hope and dream of adults galaxywide.  A chance to show the Legion of Super Heroes who's boss.

Brainy has a vision of Dream Girl showing coming devastation in Metropolis that morphs into Kara yelling at him to wake up. The Legionnaires in the lab are dealing with the Witch's barriers to no avail.  Garth and Ayla have the same problems - even Theena can't communicate. But soon Ayla, Jo, Val and Thom are transported away. 

The Lab Legion considers releasing Mon-El, who being from Daxam has Lead Poisoning, and no one has found a cure since Trom wiped out Daxam centuries prior. 

Elsewhere, the Wanderers try to recruit the four transported Legionnaires. The original Wanderers team was a black ops group sent to investigate the Dominators 10 years ago. The job went south with only one survivor finding out about a Dominator plan against Earth and finding his way back, gathering recruits.  The survivor - Mekt Ranzz. 

Mon-El is released in the lab and goes berserk attacking Kara. The fight breaks the force fields holding them in place, allowing Dream Boy to get the kryptonite to Brainy in order to make the lead poisoning cure, which needs to be force-fed. Good team effort between Colossal Boy, Shady, Vi, Cham and Gim make it happen. Cos gets Mon-El to work with them just as he's transported to Mekt. 

Commentary

Wow. Really great issue here, especially if you're a long time Legion fan.  The Wanderers, Mon-El, Mekt, and a mix of old subs, Legionnaires and newbies. THIS is how you mix things up.  My main regret here is that this story didn't happen six or so issues earlier, or even in the first year. It's a nice shot in the arm given all the new intros here for this universe, and it all mostly works. Having the story focus more on these Wanderers and the unveiling of Mekt paired with the release of Mon-El kept everything moving well.  And finally we see a good bit of teamwork here instead of snarking about all the time. 

All this said, I'm still kinda rooting for the Wanderers, to be honest. The one thing that was a bit of a discordant note was the history of the team. So 8 years prior to the Legion forming, there was this other super-teen group?  Hmmm ok.  

Regardless, this marks the halfway point of the series. The art has remained consistently good when Kitson is doing his thing, which is to say most of the issues. This version of the Legion, however, has not gelled for me for reasons I stated above. Adults v Kids isn't working, and there are no real relationships that I am enjoying or characters that connect with me on any real level, except maybe Ayla. Hence I tend to take the Legion's antagonists side during the last dozen or so issues.  I was definitely not reading this regularly when it was released at this point, and its obvious why - not connecting with the characters makes reading the Legion a slog, because you never have anyone that you really enjoy seeing make an appearance.  So even if there are some great individual stores, moving from one issue to the next isn't a joy.

Other observations:

Having Cham susceptible to magic is an interesting twist.

Pairings of the isolated Legionnaires: Colossal Boy & Ultra Boy, Karate Kid & Shadow Lass (training), 2/3 of Trip (sulking), 1/3 of Trip and Element Lad, Invisible Kid & Star Boy (Library), Theena & Light Lass (???). 

It seems like there is obvious tension between Mekt, Garth and Ayla, but none of this has really been shown before. 

New Editor Alert!  Mike Marts takes over from Steve Wacker, who had been editing The Legion since 2002/3.

Grade: A

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