Legion of Super Heroes v5 #38 - Evil Adventus Part 2!



Released January 23, 2008
DC Comics, Color
22 Pages

Evil Adventus Part 2: Cataclysm

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

Synopsis

The mysterious snowboarder wakes up from hibernation on Triton while the Legion squad of Saturn Girl, Star Boy and Timber Wolf fights on, with Invisible Kid MIA. Imra grabs a blaster and blasts a bunch of aliens while the other two are joined by the newcomer, named Giselle, easily taking care of business. They seemingly defeat the aliens, who then start to adapt into sturdier opponents. 

At HQ, Lightning Lad, Light Lass and Phantom Girl try to raise the team on Triton. Ayla tells Garth he needs to be tactful in his new political position. The UP comes by with some new, politically connected, recruits. Garth & co try them out and none of them seem to have any useful powers. Garth loses his temper in dismissing them and also angers the UP. He then meets latecomer M'Rissey

The fight on Triton does not go well, and Giselle is a free agent out for her own interests. Saturn Girl manages to enable some SP officers to make a last stand when reinforcements arrive. She offers Giselle Legion membership, but is turned down while Star Boy revives Lyle.

At HQ, Ayla and Tinya convince Garth to get some sleep, but he stays behind and breaks down while his sister silently watches. 

Commentary

Some neat stuff here. The art is a direct continuation from the prior issue so that is a good thing and some of that visual language does not need to be re-interpreted and the action moves pretty well. 

Story wise, I feel like this is more setup, but I'm willing to keep it going. We don't understand more about the creatures, but the team meets a potential new ally in Giselle and Garth certainly seems to be over his head in a big way. Giselle being her own agent was kind of predictable, but I wonder if this will pay off down the road. I also appreciated the baddies "leveling up" dynamically and also wonder if this is something that will be dealt with later. The fight on Triton seemed to move pretty well, and I appreciated Imra just grabbing a blaster to provide a level of offense. But ultimately, the Triton plot seemed like a paint by numbers intro story.

The better meat was in the HQ stuff with Garth. I appreciated Ayla and Tinya giving Garth a helping hand. Also, the "tryouts" were fun - political connections don't get you anywhere with Garth Ranzz.  Some of the candidates were intriguing, though - Virus called to mind Vi's "Legion on the Run" name, as well as Infectious Lass' powers. Voice reminded me visually of Canary from Gail Simone's end of The Legion, but I had to laugh at Garth being manipulated, with Ayla quickly ushering them out as Voice went on about traits that she was able to use for manipulation. Spy calls out fellow nominee Sludge in his ogling of Ayla. Garth really needs to listen to his sister more often, especially given his stressful crying at the end.

The oddity to me is this M'Rissey character. He has a name that sounds like an artist that I loathe, so that's not a good thing, but I'm wondering what his deal is. He's obviously been singled out.  

Grade - B+. More of the same from last issue and waiting to see where this goes.


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