Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes v5 #34 - WILDFIRE!

Released September 26, 2007
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

The Quest for Cosmic Boy: E.R.G.Onomics

Tony Bedard - Writer
Dennis Calero - Penciller
Robin Riggs - Inker
Nathan Eyring - Colorist
Mike Marts - Editor

(Credits are assumed, as the digital version had them omitted.)

Synopsis

Wildfire as an assassin!  Say it aint so! Wildfire tries to kill the Lallorian President while Atom Girl wants to flirt with Wildfire. 

We then spin back three hours as Atom Girl, Shadow Lass and Timber Wolf fight off Lallorian troops while the real assassins plot to unleash ERG-1. Brin and Vi capture a Lallorian soldier and the civil war has moved from Adults v Kids to Pro v Anti UP. They leverage Tasmia's status to transform this into a diplomatic visit. 

In a dark room, Randall talks to Drake, who is suspended in his ERG tank. Randall transfers Drake into his suit and gives him the floorplans to the president's office. The Legion arrives at the Presidential office; Brin and Tasmia talk to the president about their mission, while Atom Girl communicates with Brainiac 5 on Earth. Their team is about to be attacked. 

ERG-1 initiates his assault. The three Legionnaires confront him and we hear the story about Drake's original audition the first year of the Legion. He went on a mission, his suit was disrupted, he exploded and was assumed dead, since Brainiac 5 was not yet a Legionnaire to detect otherwise. Brin breaks Drake's faceplate, which reforms without his energy being released. 

Atom Girl asks Brainy for help as they try to take down Drake unsuccessfully.  Brin is hit with a direct blast, and comes out looking like Wolverine.

Commentary

Pretty good issue here and a fun read.  A lot of good setup.  I find that Wildfire is almost welcome in any Legion story - some of the 70s portrayals I found a bit over the top, but most after have some element that I really enjoy, so its good to see this old friend here, especially as his Threeboot origin hewes closely to the Silver Age.  The fact that he's a villain in this story is a neat twist that I'm eager to see how gets resolved. 

I'm not sure what to think about Lallor - the last we were here, the adults were massacring the children. Not sure I'd be on great diplomatic relations with these folks. But it seems that the Lallor government is pro-UP where the rebels (Drake, Randall and their crew) are definitely against. In the "Not your daddy's (or even your older sibling's) Legion" department, Vi is shown as a badass (which is fine) but also Boy Crazy. Make that REALLY Boy Crazy. A little bit of an odd shift from either of the prior versions. But it does help call out that there is no representation for non-straight folks on this team, as was on the Reboot. But I *really* loved the action scenes with Vi jumping and twirling around with her guns in the art. I'm really curious to see where they are going with this powered up Wolverine, I mean Timber Wolf.  

Calero's art was pretty good here.  Still his standard overly emotive stuff, and Brin's underbite in the last page looked horrible, but it was pretty good overall. I especially enjoyed his city scapes.  

Interesting note - Drake's "audition" suit is basically the DnA Wildfire costume, where the "present time" suit is essentially the pre-DnA ERG-1 costume. But the homage to the original Wildfire debut was pretty cool here. Neat that you can also see Drake's face in the helmet! 

Grade: B+