Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes v5 #29 - Extinction Event!

Released April 25, 2007
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

Extinction Event!

Tony Bedard - Writer
Kevin Sharpe - Penciller
Mark McKenna & Jack Purcell - Inkers
Nathan Eyring - Colorist
Mike Marts - Editor

Synopsis

This issue focuses quite a bit on the lead Dominator scientist that is responsible for the new Dominator super soldiers. Via narration, we get interesting insight into the Dominator culture of superiority and how this scientist wanted to protect the Dominion from unforeseen weakness.

Cut to the Legion/Wanderer force on the Dominion homeworld cleaning up the Dominators, who keep chanting "remember the 52." Lightning Lad asks why they keep saying it, and I'm right there with you, bud. But luckily the scientist's narration gives us the skinny. 1000 years prior, the Dominion's plans to overrun earth were foiled by the Justice League. Over the years, the Dominion isolated and even signed a non-agression treaty with the humans. Then Booster Gold shows up from the past, grabs some tech, and vanishes saying he has 52 worlds to save. The Dominion, thinking this is Earth of the 31st century, decides to build up forces to invade Earth. 

Our scientist goes to interrogate Sun Boy and the remainder of Terror Firma but also give more backstory. The Dominion started to expand interrogating humans in the hinterworlds about this "52" prompting the original response of the Wanderers that Mekt was a part of in the past. The Dominator response, years in the making, was to create supersolders using meta-DNA, effectively making a Dominator Legion. 

The scientist summons one of these new soldiers and lets Sun Boy and his crew go.  The soldier throws the scientist into some glass, killing him. They fight their way outside to connect with Rokk & Mekt's crew, leaving off on the cliffhanger to the final battle, even as Mon-El starts to succumb to the lead poisoning.

Commentary

Issue 29 was interesting for a couple reasons. It wasn't quite as good as the rest of the arc, for a couple reasons we'll get into, but it moved quickly and served the purpose of explaining the motivations for the antagonists and how it ties into "52".  It's the first issue in a while, almost a year, where Mark Waid is not given writing credit for the main story, and is the penultimate issue of his run.  Tony Bedard, who has been involved in this book as a co-plotter at times, is the main writer and he does a very good job of telling most of the story through Dominator eyes, but at the end of the day, it's mostly a backstory issue. Kevin Sharpe is the guest penciller, who does okay due to the colors & inks, but comes across as very inconsistent. The Dominators are drawn very well, but some of the heroes, especially in the last couple pages of group shots, aren't well done.

A couple things that are of note in the book - 

Obviously the fact that Mon-El is getting sick again is interesting. In the reboot, when Mon was vaccinated, it was a one time deal, but this version is much more akin to the original Silver Age Mon-El who had to repeatedly dose. 

The timeframe of the Dominators starting their campaign 12 years prior and the Wanderers secret mission clicked together very well. 

With three teams coming together here, I'm curious to see how this all works out.

Grade: B-. The issue serves a purpose but doesn't advance the plot much, IMO. You could probably omit the issue from the entire run and you'd not miss anything.