Legion of Super Heroes v5 #37 - Shooter's Return!

Released December 26, 2007
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

Evil Adventus Part 1: Conflict

Jim Shooter - Writer
Francis Manapul - Penciller
Livesay - Inker
Nathan Eyring - Colorist
Mike Marts - Editor

Synopsis

The first page is striking - in both art and situation. Trip's situation and the faceoff of Val and the monster is definitely attention grabbing.  He punched through the creature completely while his arm is broken. Trip is out of commission being overpowered - Val think she should never have been sent. Garth seems distracted when Tinya calls him.  At HQ he's quite overwhelmed with Leader duties, even as his sister helps him. 

Imra, Thom, Brin (looking normal) and Lyle are on Triton to help stave off an impending attack, but no one does anything. Imra calls her mother.

At HQ, Garth is still dealing with random requests when Val smashes Garth's robotic concierge. Val is upset about the situation he and Trip were in, then promptly collapses.  Garth calls a mostly naked Tinya to take Val to the infirmary. He looks at the roster and realizes he's made some mistakes. 

The city manager on Triton sounds the alarm as Lyle is captivated by a striking young snowboarder with special powers, who is jumped by rivals. Invisible Kid takes them out while she is knocked out, then takes care of the mugging victim and gives her a flower. 

Elsewhere, the city manager goes to shelter as dozens of the same creatures attack the Triton city. Brin and Thom go on the offensive while Imra narrates a log, which distracts her and is almost attacked before Lyle pulls her to safety. The creatures appear to be drawn to life.

Back at HQ, Garth, Ayla and Tinya are stymied because they can't afford a transmatter portal to help the team on Triton. They opt to try to use Projectra's influence. She and Imra's mother are meeting with the UP Secretary of State. Because Orando no longer exists, it is removed from the UP rolls and Projectra has no status. She leaves in a huff, and assaults the guards assigned to remove her with illusions. 

On Triton, a battered and bruised Lyle is looking to hide to get a breather and finds the body of the snowboarder from before, apparently dead. He takes a moment to be sad about it, but one of the creatures closes in on him and attacks.  On Earth, Garth finally reaches Projectra, but its too late. The Triton team is on their own and Garth starts to beat himself up as seven new candidates enter HQ. 

On Triton, Brin stands alone against the creatures.

Commentary

So here we are with the much-anticipated Threeboot Shooter run! I must confess to be extremely curious here, given its reputation, and I only thumbed through some of these in the past, so I don't know really what to expect. So I'm looking forward to reading the next 13 issues! 

This is definitely a creative break - the writing and art styles are very different right off the bat. Manapul & co's art really seems to click with the Legion, as the Legionnaires look right (and are distinct), there's a lot of interesting looking aliens and the backdrops are dynamic. The tone of the writing is also very much changed from both Waid and Bedard in both good and not so good ways. In the "good" column, the story seems to flow a little easier and the discussions seem to focus on the topics at hand versus these broader themes like "adults v kids" that I found distracting, which I think has the effect of tuning the motivations for the characters to things that are more personal vs abstract. Shooter also doesn't mind focusing his story on just 1/4 of the team, and it works since we already know there are a lot of Legionnaires; he doesn't feel the need to throw everyone together here.

But to the story itself, it was a good initial setup issue into this new arc. Mysterious creatures invading the solar system attacking life forms, but to what end? The real story to me in this issue is Garth's difficulty in taking on the leadership mantle. And we get the bonus thread with Projectra being stateless.  Overwhelmed leaders are typically a good Legion trope, especially when its someone like Lightning Lad, where we saw that a bit in the Reboot, but is definitely more reflective of his time as leader in the v2 era. It all worked really well - for the most part. There were a few bad choices made that definitely knocked the grade down.

The whole "Oh-kay-kay-kay" thing that was used twice. Stop it. Having some modification of current speak to be future speak does nothing other than take me out of the story. Also the whole inclusion of what is audibly "KKK" is not a good choice, IMO.

The blatant cheesecake shot of Tinya in her underwear. This is similar to the panel of Ayla changing from DnA's The Legion - it's there for simple titillation & does not do anything for the story. If this is going to be the new normal I guess that's ok, but it comes out of left field. 

The "Mission Log" narration - seems kind of useless and it gets them in trouble.  I've always assumed the Legion issues are "passive log captures" of the events via the flight rings, so you shouldn't need to audibly do that - in fact it should be something that can be done telepathically. But whatever.  It totally took me out of the story. 

But even with those oddities, it was an interesting read for me. A few other notes:

I'm appreciating how the motifs have carried over creative teams - like HQ's shape and it still being under reconstruction, Projectra still dealing with her planet's fate, Imra's & Lyle's parents, etc.

Another interesting aspect - everything in this story happens in Earth's solar system instead of all over interstellar space, as has been all of the series prior.

In a rare mistake, Manapul & team messed up a bit, as Imra is drawn (and colored) to look like Ayla in the top panel of page 7 (digital).

I'm glad Imra's mother is still alive - I wasn't sure if she was lost in the Dominator invasion of Earth!

I think this may be the first duty roster shot we see in the threeboot, and it shows the Legionnaire along with the planetary system they are in. 

Grade - Solid B.  I'm interested enough to read more!