Legion of Super Heroes v5 #40 - Enemy Rising!

Released March 26, 2008
DC Comics, Color
22 Pages

Enemy Rising Part 1: Headlong Into Darkness

Jim Shooter - Writer
Francis Manapul - Penciller
Livesay - Inker
Jo Smith - Colorist
Mike Marts - Editor

Synopsis

Shadow Lass fights one of the mysterious creatures from the situation on Triton on her homeworld of Talok VIII. It takes her out, but Brainiac 5 teleports in and promptly vomits. The creature tries to zap him with a beam mounted in its chest, but Brainy is protected by his force field, which the creature tries to analyze. Brainy helps Tasmia kill the creature. It disappears.

Back at HQ, everyone seems to be gathering in the common area. Brainy and Tasmia return using Brainy's proto-tech, and promptly hurl on the floor. Saturn Girl's Triton team also returns. Saturn Girl has been mentally reining in Timber Wolf to prevent him from hurting her or anyone else, and it is wearing on both of them.

The rest of the team overhears this and an argument breaks out over whether Imra did the right thing, or if Timber Wolf should even be on the team. The argument heats up when Garth steps in - as leader he needs to do something and lets Brin decide.  Even though he wants to literally kill Imra, he'll settle for a guarantee she'll keep to herself.  Imra agrees and apologizes, but Garth makes Brin agree to control himself better. Projectra arrives just before the health inspector, who barges in because Garth had put up a quarantine sign to keep away visitors. Projectra gets served notice that she is being sued. 

Later, Brainy comes up with a plan for people to find components of the alien attackers so that he can determine what they are. Lyle jumps at the chance to return to Triton.

Ayla talks to Garth in the training room, and says she's proud of the way he's been leading.

Lu and Val go to the Scattered Disk region to search for any remains. Likewise, Tinya in at the Oort cloud.  Neither group finds anything. On Triton, Lyle goes to find Gizelle's parents to help her.  Turns out she was in jail, but had her sentence commuted and left on her own. He also finds out there was one alien that did not destruct and its on the way to Earth. 

In Metropolis, Projectra meets with her lawyers. She's in a bad situation financially and legally. Leaving the office, she is approached by fans seeking an autograph who touch her. At HQ, Garth, Lyle and Brainy try to think of a way to get access to the alien body. Imra is getting into her medi-tank when a message comes in requesting her help - Projectra may have killed someone! 

Commentary

Another solid outing from Shooter and Manapaul here.  I'm kind of amazed at how many things Shooter has going on here.  Lots of issues here that were not yet resolved in 39 are mostly dealt with.  Garth seems to be getting his feet under him, once he can get a decent night's sleep. Manapaul was excellent here - his sequence with Shady and Brainy was really cool to read.  Its an interesting choice to have Brainy come up with a new transportation method, but it makes the person sick. It was kind of funny but also kind of gross seeing Brainy hurl. Still its neat to see that he has to refine the tech he comes up with. 

To me, the centerpiece for this issue is the debate about Imra. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm never a fan of when Imra controls her teammates. I'm glad Shooter addresses this here, and the argument rings true. We'll see where this goes, as every time she vows not to, she does. Her punishment should have been more, but like Brin said, being his girlfriend, Garth would likely just make a slap on the wrist.

They definitely seem to be going somewhere with Projectra; I very much want to see where they take that cliffhanger. 

A few other notes:

It really feels like Ayla has some serious commitment issues - that would be an interesting thing to explore.

Neat to see Jan and Luornu still together. Why are Cham's antennae up? That's only supposed to happen when he detects something new.  I'm sure its a newbie mistake on Shooter or Manapaul's part. But Ultra Boy is still being an ass.

I like how Ayla and Tinya are buds here.  It seems to work.

It's also good to see Ayla feeling proud of her brother.  

Neat bit about Gizelle's dad being saved by Garth. Lyle sure seemed to get over his Supergirl crush fast, didn't he?

Grade: B+.  Really good issue, pretty well paced, but there is almost too much going on here.