How to beat the crap out of Supergirl without beating up Supergirl.

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #26

February 1992

It's the weekend, so I decided to do another review for those of you taking the time to read these things.

Legion Of Super-Heroes #26 was the middle of a period where I was really into the Legion. A lot of people speak bad about the Giffen/Bierbaum period, but I really enjoyed it, as well as the friends I had at the time. At this point, Giffen was working on a ton of stuff at DC, so the art chores had been taken over by Jason Pearson, a newcomer at the time, who'd done some work at Innovation. Later, Pearson would go on to create Body Bags and work on a few other comics as well.

As always, Spoilers abound from here. That means I'll tell you exactly what happened.

SUMMARY

The Dominator controlled Android B.I.O.N. has attacked Laurel Gand, who's been covertly monitoring the situation on Dominator controlled Earth as Celeste Rockfish, another Legionnaire. Their battle is distructive and seemingly futile for Laurel, , and when it starrts to endanger civillians, she takes it outside the city.

The Dominators maintain the illusion of an independant Earth government, but the Earth President is beginning to break down. B.I.O.N. reveals to Laurel that he possesses all the powers of the Legionnaires combined, which is taking its toll on Laurel, who manages to distract B.I.O.N. long enough to run away.

The Underground Resistance, led by the Subs, are taking Dominator chambers, while their organizer, Universo, is holding the SW6 Legion, a teenage version that recently escaped the chambers in reserve.

Laurel makes her way back to Legion headquarters on the asteroid of Talus, with B.I.O.N. unknowingly in pursuit. Since B.I.O.N. has left Earth, things look bad for the Dominator occupation, and it looks like their only option is to blow up the chambers rather than lose them to the Resistance.

REVIEW:

It's been said that if you love your characters, you'll put them through hell. During the Terra Mosaic storyline, Giffen and the Bierbaums really put the Legion through the wringer, so they must've had a lot of love for them. A battle as destructive and large in scale as Laurel Gand, the equivalent of Supergirl with an android three times as powerful, was very well handled, even with the nine panel grid that was the hallmark of this period in Legion history. The story is enthralling, but a little hard to follow unless you have read some of the issues that preceeded this one. There are little jokes hidden within the story, and the diagram of the Legion headquarters is the humor highlight as we learn the details of its past as a brothel.

Pearson has panels, like the ones I've shown here, that are so well done, that they scream out for you to ignore the panels that don't work as well. Of all the artists that drew this Laurel Gand, I love his rendition of her second best. Stuart Immonen is first. 

NOTES:

This issue has never been collected. That's not unusual for the Legion, since only recently has there been interest in its past, and likely, we will not see this storyline collected, since it has fallen out of favor within the comics community. You should be able to find it very affordably in back issue bins, maybe even as cheap as fractions of a dollar. While you're at it pick up other issues of the Terra Mosaic storyline which ran, pretty much uninterrupted for about 40 issues or so.

For insight into this period, I recommend picking up the Legion Companion from Two Morrows publishing. I'd put it in the Amazon sidebar, but it's only available from outside sellers, who feel that it's worth $50.00, so just go to Two Morrows' web site to get it.

FINAL RATING: 7 (out of 10)

Pearson's artwork at this stage is not terribly detailed and the panels that he excels at are undermined by the ones that just weren't pulled off. If this were Pearson of 1997, then we'd be talking about a better book. It's so dependent on the other issues in the storyline it really shows the flaws of the monthly format that mainstream ciomics are locked into. 

Legion of Super-Heroes #305

Hey! Let's try something new! I'm going into my collection and pulling an older comic book out and giving it a good review. I've set up a blogger account to give them a little place of their own, but if you want to read everything that I write, you can go here. Also, there will be spoilers, as I will give a synopsis of the issue. That being said, here we go:

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #305
November 1983

     The initial thought to start off this new blog feature was going to be the first issue of Legion of Super-Heroes that got me hooked on the Legion, but I saw this issue sitting behind it, and I have fond memories of how it affected my twelve year-old brain. So I pull this out, pop the tape on the bag. My copy has seen some abuse and has, at some point, been bent diagonally (Hint: I need a new near-mint copy) so I don't mind reading while eating half of a leftover burger. Keep in mind that when I first read this, I had no idea who these people were for the most part. I'd only read the previous issue that had been centered on the Legion Academy and the main characters from this story showed up in one page of that story.

SYNOPSIS:

     A spaceship arrives in orbit around the planet Imsk, which a convenient caption tells us that its inhabitants have the ability to shrink and it's threatened repeatedly to secede from the United Planets. Brainiac 5, Chameleon Boy and Element Lad summon Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet (who is from Insk) to the bridge and reveal that their mission was a ruse as they ambush the pair and spray Violet with a chemical that cancels the shape-changing power of Durlans. It shouldn't affect Violet since she isn't a Durlan, but she tearfully admits that she is a Durlan, and therefore not Shrinking Violet.
     Back at Legion HQ on Earth, Wildfire is sparring, rather roughly and effectively with three other male Legionnaires, while Phantom Girl and Shady (Shadow Lass) trade catty comments about Wildfire's failed relationship with Dawnstar and team Leader Dream Girl's relationship with Star Boy, right to his face.
     We return to Imsk where Brainiac 5 is using a "psych-probe" on the sedated fake Violet reveals that she is a Durlan actress named Yera who was hired to impersonate Violet by three Imskians who claimed that Violet waswith them while she was sick. She took the job to prove that she's a real actress with talents beyond shapeshifting. Element Lad tries to apologize to Colossal Boy afterwards, saying that they felt it was necessary to keep in the dark as to not tip off Yera. Colossal Boy understands, but still pops Element Lad in the nose for making him "the last to know."
     Elsewhere, on a planet that looks medieval, a man with long flowing red hair brushes by an old man into a village which he promptly destroys with a flash of fire and heat, just as a warning of who he represents.
     On Imsk, Shrinking Violet is visiting the populace as a returning hero, and is secretly approached by an Imskian woman named Marlu who chastises Yera for coming to Imsk, and takes her to meet the others through a series of tubes that the Legionnaires and Science Police can't follow. Marlu takes Yera to Liberation Headquarters, which looks to be better organized than anyone suspected.They capture Yera and take her to the three men that hired her whio reveal that the real Shrinking Violet has been kidnapped and tortured to steal Legion and UP secrets from her brain.
     Cut to Starhaven, near the galactic core, Dawnstar takes part in a private ceremony to start her search for a soul-mate and flies off, crying over having to lose Wildfire's love.
     Back on Imsk what we thought was Yera turns out to be Chameleon Boy who breaks free of the restraints and leads the Legion to the Liberation Headquarters, where they make short work of the separatists, thanks to Colossal Boy's rage and Brainiac neutralizing the leaders, size changing powers to capture them. The Science Police mop up and take the rescued and medically critical Shrinking Violet who'll have months of recovery.
     In an epilogue, Colossal Boy confronts a recovering Yera and realizes that he fell in love with Yera, not Violet and decides to honor and continue their marriage.



REVIEW:

     The inking is really great on this, with Kurt Schaffenberger providing a different inking style that really accentuates the mood of the various scenes, especially the artificial feel of the Legion cruiser, and the moodiness of the bowels of the Liberation Headquarters. His use of Duoshading was really well-done, although at the time, when comparing against other mainstream comics of the time, probably looked a little distracting at the time.
     The story is excellent, with Paul Levitz really able to highlight Colossal Boy emotionally in a way that I can't recall any subsequent writer being able to pull off. He appears as a real person here, although the ending is a bit convenient, as he very easily accepts Yera for who she is. His writing of Shadow Lass and Phantom Girl really made me despise them as being the equivalent of the popular girls in school who are real bitchy because they can be. The fact that these two relatively weak powered heroes are dating the most powerful guys on the team just adds to that characterization.
     Keith Giffen's art style had yet to evolve into the style that came from his emulation of Jose Munoz, and his artwork is very reminiscent of Wally Wood here, but with more attention to detail, as this was the era at DC of George Perez, which permeated a lot of art at that time. It works really well here. I might even put this as the naturalistic high point of his Legion run.



NOTES:
     This issue has yet to be collected in any trade paperback. Fortunately, at this point, Legion was a very well-selling title for DC and it should be easy to find at a large convention or a shop with an extensive back-issue collection that isn't flooded with 90s glut comics. It should be available for very litle cash. Comicspriceguide.com has this listed for $3.00, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to find it in dollar bins or cheaper.

FINAL RATING: 8 (out of a possible 10)