Legion of Super Heroes v5 #44 - Operational Calculus. I was told there'd be no math....

 

Released July 23, 2008
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

Enemy Rising Part 5: Operational Calculus

Jim Shooter - Writer
Sanford Greene - Penciller
Nathan Massengill - Inker
Jo Smith - Colorist
Mike Marts - Editor

Synopsis

We open with the Legionnaire team, Light Lass, Timber Wolf, Shadow Lass, assorted Peril Men Pirates, and others of the UP Youth team, still held hostage by the IKonns. IKille's woman, Cazhmir, is upset at him leering at the female hostages, especially Ayla. Cazhmir freaks out and IKilles has his men kill her. He proceeds to attempt to rape Ayla when Invisible Kid interrupts.

On Rimbor, the Legionnaire team there (Atom Girl, Saturn Girl, Colossal Boy, Chameleon, Star Boy, Ultra Boy) take refuge as they are being attacked by the Rimbor police after having successfully saved the planet from the alien invaders. They are attempting to arrest Jo for a vehicular homicide incident. After having decided not to return the attack earlier, Imra changes her mind and decides to have the team go on the offensive. Jo rips through a police craft but a female officer starts to fall to her death. Jo saves her, and she tells him she loves him.  Star Boy does his thing and Atom Girl infiltrates the flagship, taking out many officers, but eventually is knocked out. Unfortunately the flagship rams into something and starts to crash with Atom Girl inside. At the same time, Imra, Gim and Cham get pinned by debris. Gim can't size up with his legs pinned. They use their flight rings to push the debris off them.  Reinforcements arrive and the team decides to retreat home, but the transmatter portal is off. 

On Earth, Colonel Pismo is in HQ to shut down the Legion and arrest the Legionnaires. M'Rissey appears, introducing himself as the business affairs manager.  He performs a legal stunt that effectively turns the tables on the UP, making the Legion independent and flush with cash due to the services rendered to the state. The Colonel leaves with his tail between his legs and the transmatter service re-enabled. It appears that M'Rissey sold off the marketing rights of the flight rings. 

Back on Velmar, Lyle springs a trap that knocks out IKilles. Ayla, still bound, is able to push back one of her captors as Lyle unties her.  She then promptly exacts her revenge and sends the entire gang into the air. The authorities round up the gang as the Legionnaires try to figure out what happened to Karate Kid and Triplicate Girl. Lyle throws Brin's "wimp" comment from last issue back in his face.

The team on Rimbor is joined by an injured Atom Girl and readies for the attack when the transmatter portal reappears. On earth, the president appears and informs them there is a new threat in the solar system. 

Commentary

Wow. I have to say that so far, this has been the single hardest issue to get through of the threeboot, and when this reader is someone who hasn't settled well with this versions characters or background, that's saying something. The story is all over the place, with a few good moments, but mostly its a mess. What's good - Ayla and Lyle getting their own time for payback, as well as the resolution of the M'Rissey & Legion in legal jeopardy storylines. I always enjoy seeing Atom Girl in action, so that was also a welcome addition. Other than that, I found this issue extremely hard to read as a comic book in both story and art departments.

Let me start with the art.  It's not great. An interesting and dynamic Manapul cover gives way to Stanford Greene's style in the book, and it neither fits well with the content nor as a fill in for Manapul. That plus Massengil's colors just don't work.  A prime example of this is the opening page. I could only tell that the character was Ayla based on the dialogue; she was colored completely wrong, and it seemed like she had lightning designs on her costume. The art style seemed like it belonged to a lighter "animated series" type of story, so when IKilles attempts to rape Ayla, it was a very dissonant moment.  Add to this were moments where I literally did not understand clearly what was going on in the battle at Rimbor. 

As to the writing, there was just a lot of strange stuff going on.  The situation with IKilles having his girfriend murdered, then attempting to rape Ayla was uncomfortable at best. The battle on Rimbor was not well told and confusing as to what everyone was doing. And since when is Colossal Boy constrained by his powers if his legs are pinned? And when did flight rings convey Ayla's powers to everyone? And the future cussing? Please make it stop. All the Zork references made me think I was playing an Infocom game. While some overarching storyline elements were finally addressed, it wasn't done well. 

It really feels like Shooter knew his time on the series was coming to a close and he'd completely checked out.

A couple other comments:

They are reading their intel about the Legion from an actual textbook? At least there is an Espionage Squad.

I have to admit, I liked Ayla giving the Ikonns their comeuppance and Lyle doing the same to Brin and Tasmia. And isn't Brin supposed to be more resilient?  He looks really banged up here.

Again with the "OKKK". So dumb. Why???

Grade: D-.