Legion of Super Heroes v5 #49 - One Evil! And one last decent issue before THE END!!!

Released December 31, 2008
DC Comics, Color
23 Pages

One Evil - Enemy Manifest Part 4

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

Synopsis

In a hidden fortress deep in the depths of ancient Metropolis, Projectra/Imperiatrix trains in hand to hand combat. She mentally triggers her trainer to attack her, and she easily dispatches him. At Legion HQ, Saturn Girl and Phantom Girl share a meal and talk about what to do about Projectra.  Timber Wolf overhears and threatens them to stay away from her. As he stalks away, Tinya suggests that they tell Lightning Lad.  Imra resists, saying that they may need Brin for the upcoming conflict. Then she whines about her own cheating. Lightning Lad and Invisible Kid confer about strategy around the invaders.  Brainy tests out his Data Ripper by scanning a sandwich that Sizzle promptly eats. Brainy plans to go to the Intruder Planet for an espionage mission.

Elsewhere in HQ, Element Lad brings his new girlfriend, Honey, to talk to Ultra Boy, who is moping on the roof about Imra. He says that he never touched her (clearly a lie). Then out of the blue he gets flowers from Norima. The Espionage Squad, of Colossal Boy, Brainy, Sizzle and Sun Boy, with Atom Girl staying behind to man the transmatter portal. They emerge into space just outside the planet. Sizzle gets them through the planet's force field and they enter the atmosphere, discovering below the clouds a metal sphere of a vessel. Sun Boy melts an entrance in and the team discovers a Destroyer assembly line. Gim starts gathering data via the ripper and Sizzle takes out some of the assembly line. They leave and Gim scans the entire world from above. 

Upon return, Brainy is read the riot act by Garth for doing this without authorization. UP President Kinthea arrives and picks up Garth. In the limo they confer about the invaders and how to stop them. Garth suggests that they preserve the minister's body. They commiserate about the loneliness of leadership and get physically closer, Kinthea taking Garth's hand. 

Back at HQ Tinya runs into Projectra, who demands Tinya read her the comic book again. She refuses as she is tired, triggering Projectra and attacking Tinya, who goes intangible and avoids the attack. Projectra then mentally triggers Tinya into a rage.  She turns tangible and attacks Projectra, who in turn claws Tinya's face off. Brin, who has been following silently, activates Tinya's emergency beacon and continues following. The Legionnaires, minus Projectra, Brin and Garth, gather at Tinya's bedside.  Later Imra sits vigil at the bedside alone when she takes a quick peek into Tinya's mind just as Projectra arrives. Projectra tells Imra of her plan of revenge against the UP.  She also sent Brin away somehow. Projectra takes over Imra's mind and changes her memory to forget they had this encounter. 

The next morning, Tinya seems to be recovering, but claims she fell.  Garth orders Imra to probe Tinya's mind, but sees the same memory. Garth and Imra confer and inevitably start talking about the Ultra Boy situation. Imra gives a non-answer about whether Jo touched her. Imra asks who Garth has been with. Kinthea calls with an urgent message - the attack has begun.

Commentary

Another decent issue.  The use of Projectra/Imperiatrix as the villain, and a cruel one at that, really powers this story along contrasted to the soap opera drek that does the exact opposite. Shooter was definitely tacking to a haughty persona that punches down on those below her (literally and figuratively) but she's closing in on Emerald Empress territory here. Her dispatching a teacher is one thing, but then brutally attacking someone who treated you as a friend then mind controlling at least two others is pretty sinister. And its unclear to me if Projectra referring to sending Brin away was from the prior issue (after which time, he's been stalking her) or if it happened after the attack on Tinya. Its unclear to me as I would have hoped that Brin would have done something a little more active after the attack on Tinya, although his actions do save her life. Either way, its not good. The one thing I'm not very comfortable about with Projectra is that she seems to be WAY overpowered. Almost to the point of being able to best the entire Legion (and that's probably where that storyline would have headed).  Its a HUGE power upgrade and I'm having a hard time reconciling the fact that she would have bested Imra.

The Projectra story is much more compelling than the Invater Planet/VGer story.  The use of an espionage squad with exactly no espionage talents was an interesting take, but I think don't think the squad should have been named as such.  No Salu, Cham or Lyle. There is some interesting content in here, although it reminded me of the Geonosis factory in Star Wars Ep 2, but I wasn't clear on what the point was of scanning the planet only to have it pointed out that it didn't work. 

So let's steer to what didn't work, and that was all the soapy crap. Ultra Mope Jo is dragging around uncharacteristically reflective about his actions with Imra when someone sends him flowers. It seems that the only reason for this scene was to point out that the kids drop romantic partners often.  I guess that makes things "realistic" from a teenage perspective, but the reality is that we as readers want to see some consistency. The scenes with Garth and Kinthea are uncomfortable at best - she definitely looks like the older retroboot Imra (which was out on the market at the time) while he is still technically underage. The conversation that they are having about the isolation of leadership is actually compelling until you think about it from that perspective.  That said, Imra has no right to be asking Garth about who he was with at that point. Speaking of Garth/Imra/Jo, this whole wishy-washy did they/didn't they is all BS. We have the reciepts of them holding each other naked, or at least down to the skivvies with Imra topless, so when we see phrases like "I didn't touch her" it makes me want to scream. Shooter is horrible at writing relationships, especially a manipulative jock predator.  At least this is basically done with. 

The art in this issue is FANTASTIC. This is the A-team in this era of the Threeboot and it really shows that they work well with each other.  All the characters are drawn, inked and colored expertly, and the action visually flows very well.  Easily the best part of the book. 

A few other stand out thoughts:

The "what big ears you have" comment from Imra to Brin was good. 

The use of Lyle in the room with Garth to provide a backstory page, then pivot to the broken relationship with Imra was actually well done from a storytelling perspective, I thought.

Salu's reaction to Sizzle being shorter was also good, But that's a quick use of a reservist.  May as well have her be full time. 

Too bad about Jan and Luornu.  Worse that we never saw that on screen, as I kind of liked that relationship.  Youd think philosophical differences would have popped up earlier, or that we would at least see the end of the relationship since we saw the beginning. 

Sorry about your feelings, Jo.  On the other hand, no.  Go f*** yourself. 

Court martial?  That's only if you're in the military Brainy.  I think you'd just get kicked out of the Legion. 

Grade: B-.  The minus is for the horrible soap we are forced to endure.