LOSH Issue 37

By: Merin
Date: Monday, January 07, 2008

Legion of Super-Heroes – Issue 37
Writer: Jim Shooter ; Penciller: Francis Manapul ; Inker: Livesay
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Roll Call: Karate Kid, Triplicate Girl, Phantom Girl, Lightning Lad, Light Lass, Star Boy, Saturn Girl, Timber Wolf, Invisible Kid, Princess Projectra

One Sentence Synopsis: Shooter's new run starts off unevenly, but holds promise.
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The Meat: So long, Mark Waid. Your run garnered mixed receptions. I myself enjoyed it, but that is now past. We see what the next team is about to do with what you built.
We start with Triplicate Girl down and Karate Kid overwhelmed on an alien world. Phantom Girl comes in just as Karate Kid finishes the last opponent. She helps bring them back to base.

Here we learn that Lightning Lad, new Legion Leader now that Supergirl has been sent back to the past, is himself in over his head. He is attempting to field multiple communications whilst haphazardly assigning Legionnaires to missions.

We jump over to one such mission on Triton at a ski resort. Saturn Girl, Star Boy, Timber Wolf and Invisible Kid are investigating a lead Brainiac 5 had about this vacation spot being the target of a soon to happen attack. The manager of the resort refuses to alert the visitors to the pending threat.

Back at the base, Lightning Lad is still absorbed in the frustrating business of the Legion being under UP jurisdiction. We learn that his use of transmatter teleportation is being questioned due to costs. Karate Kid, despite his injuries, confronts Lightning Lad about his poor choice of sending Triplicate Girl into harms way alone and his other mission selections. Karate Kid promptly collapses, to which Lightning Lad calls in Phantom Girl to take him back to the infirmary. We get a little fan service here in the form of a half-undressed Phantom Girl about to rush to the rescue again. Lightning Lad finally looks over whom he sent where and sees exactly what a mess he made of things.

The comic moves back to Triton and we get a side story about a female skier who's a genetic mutation which can produce excess heat. A group of thug-like bigots jump her and overwhelm her until Invisible Kid jumps in to the rescue.

As this is happening, the attack on Triton commences. The civilians are rushed to a shelter while the Legion moves in to stop the assailants. Saturn Girl starts a running commentary on how her crew is doing, giving descriptions of her teammates abilities and how effective or not they are in the given situation. Her group is not powerful enough to handle the threat and Lightning Lad finds he cannot send help as the UP has suspended the Legion's ability to use the transmatter teleporters.

Lightning Lad hopes that Princess Projectra, once royalty of a now destroyed planet, will have some pull at the UP but the story switches over to Projectra being informed that her position, title and status have all been revoked.

Back on Triton Invisible Kid discovers the girl he rescued earlier has been killed in the attack. Him and the rest of the team are overpowered and only Timber Wolf remains fighting at the end of the book.

Oh, and if all that weren't enough, Lightning Lad, Light Lass and Phantom Girl are greeted by the arrival of the UP's “pre-approved candidates.”
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Favorite Line: Light Lass to Lightning Lad “What, you're hoping that Supergirl will miraculously be back on active duty?”

Favorite Moment: Phantom Girl going to pick up Karate Kid in her underware.

Favorite Image: Last panel where Timber Wolf stands alone.
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Overall Grade: C+
- Coming off of Waid's tightly scripted and excellently executed run, Shooter's “in media res” story had me mildly confused as to what was going on and his depiction of the 31st century as well as the Legionnaires seemed significantly different from what Waid had built. In fact this team feels more like previous versions of the LOSH than the one it is supposed to be continuing. The artistic style is not bad, and the action sequences are definitely more intense than Kitson's sedate sequential stylings (though I vastly prefer Kitson's character designs.) While Bedard did the bridge from issue 30 until this issue where Shooter took over, those 6 issues were mostly in line with Waid's creation. This issue 37, however, feels like a departure and as of right now I'm not sure where its going. I'll stick with it for a bit yet and give Shooter a chance to develop something.