Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes v5 #33 - Lord of Lightning Part 2

Released August 22, 2007
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

The Quest for Cosmic Boy: Lord of Lightning Part 2 of 2

Tony Bedard - Writer
Dennis Calero - Artist
Nathan Eyring - Colorist
Mike Marts - Editor

Synopsis

On Earth, Brainiac 5 is frustrated with coddling the search teams on Earth and Lallor, but has lost contact with the team on Winath - Mekt, Thom and Dirk - due to an electrical storm. On Winath, the Ranzz parents and a hooded figure (the town mayor, all apparently brainwashed) try to zap the team with lightning powers they shouldn't have. Thom weighs them down to take them out, but the mayor zaps him.  Mekt and Dirk retreat. Tenzil eats his way out of the grain silo he was trapped in. 

The Wanderers bother Brainy about Mekt's status as they are concerned they can't track him and Vrax thinks the whole point is to make Mekt look bad (not that that's hard). On Winath, the culty townsfolk take Star Boy away. Mekt realizes that bioelectrical capabilities could be faked via nanotech, which is the specialty of the Coluans. 

The two kids who earlier trapped Tenzil are dragging Thom down a passage but are confronted by Tenzil. Tenzil knocks out one kid, Thom wakes up and uses a tranq on the other. Mekt and Dirk search for Tenzil but are confronted by Mekt's parents and other townsfolk who again try to get him back into the Validus cult.  Mekt fries his father, but doesn't kill him. Thom and Tenzil discover a power transmitter via the latter's scanning glasses. Tenz bites off the lock and Thom destroys the device, which deactivates the townsfolk's powers and wakes them up.

Dirk tries to restrain Mekt after hurting his father, but Mekt just blames Brainy. Tenzil discovers the infecting nanites ARE Coluan, but are from Vrax Gozzl of the Wanderers. Mekt points at Tenzil, threatening him (as he did in part 1), but Tenzil just bites Mekt's finger off and spits it out. Tenzil charges Mekt with murder and attempted murder. 

Star Boy and Sun Boy return to Legion HQ. Thom returns the flight ring Mekt had been using and Dirk elects to stay with the Legion, provided his team can also join. The Wanderers, upon hearing of Mekt's arrest, all vanished. Brainy had bugged Vrax's computers from the start, so knew there was incriminating stuff there. The idea to destroy the Dominiators world was Mekt's but implanted into Rokk by Jeyra, so this clears Rokk of crimes.  Tenzil says his team expects the Wanderers to become a Legion of Super Villains. 

Meanwhile, the Lallor team seems to have encountered Wildfire...

Commentary

Pretty good read here, but with a bit of a reach in the rushed ending that doesn't quite stick as its told, not shown. It's all telegraphed from this title, but the whole thing on Winath was apparently a setup by Mekt to do - something?  He seems really in the dark about these citizens having lighting powers despite them being developed by his team's Coluan.  This book's saving grace, however, is Tenzil. His earlier introduction was a little rough, but here he comes across as the Tenzil that we've known and loved over the years. He basically saves the day here and is given his devil-may-care attitude that is so entertaining. I'm just glad he spat out Mekt's finger, which was a nice bookend to the Mekt/Tenzil confrontation in the prior issue.

But the lack of clarity around the reason why things were happening on Winath, compounded with using that as a way to shove the Wanderers out the door, set this book back. If Mekt and the Wanderers were behind all this, how long was this going on?  Why were the cult after Mekt if he was the one behind it all?  And I liked the Wanderers, partly because they seemed to get along really well with the actual Legion, for the most part. This just seemed like a cheap excuse to get them out of the way.  

Art is Calero - its OK, but its a bit too inconsistent for my taste.

Other notes:

I assume that Supergirls team is fighting Evolvo, based on who we saw in the prelude issues and that we see a wilder person on the screen here. Really neat to see a familiar face in Wildfire & I'm left to wonder where Bedard's taking this.  

I guess Tenzil ate open the door to the grain silo as well?  It would have been funnier if his burp had popped the door open.

Interesting note of how the Winathians 'like' lightning storms. And nice detection of Invisible kid by Brainy.

Why are the Wanderers worried about Mekt being set up to fail on the search for Rokk?? In retrospect, I'm guessing they didn't want to be caught. 

Really disappointed in the Wanderers decision. I liked that team infinitely better than Terror Firma, yet that terrorist team gets to stay with the Legion while they set up the Wanderers to be the LSV?  Boo.

Grade: B-.  The only reason this is not a C level book is because of Tenzil.