Supergirl & LOSH Issue 29

By: Merin
Date: Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes – Issue 29
Writer: Tony Bedard ; Penciler: Kevin Sharpe ; Inker: Mark McKenna & Jack Purcell
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Roll Call: Chameleon, Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Star Boy, Light Lass, Ultra Boy (NOTE – no more Character Watch – just gonna use the Roll Call)

One Sentence Synopsis: As the Legion and Wanderers rampage across the Dominator's homeworld, we get the tale of the Dominator who, as the top Combat Technologist, has engineered the “salvation” of his race.
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The Meat: This story is a narrative told by a Dominator, the one who created the super-Dominator line to fight back against the Legion. In his words he describes the Dominator race, their history in brief, and how his worldview was changed by a heretical (on his world) teacher who had the audacity to suggest that the Dominators were not perfect and needed to acknowledge their weaknesses to be able to survive and thrive.

The super-Dominators are being beaten left, right and center by the Legion and Wanderers. Cosmic Boy has pulled out all the stops and is having them destroy buildings and infrastructure in order to save Earth. The Dominators keep crying out “Remember the Fifdee-Tu” which puzzles the Legionnaires.

As the Dominator continues his tale, we learn that an alliance formed long ago to deal with Earth's propensity to breed super-beings. The super-heroes of Earth beat back the alliance and the Dominators became insular and looked only to their empire and no further for centuries. When the UP formed they signed a treaty of non-aggression. But then Booster Gold appears and steals a new weapon they were developing, and the Dominators (unable to understand Booster Gold's language) only get the word “52” from the fleeing Earth hero. Thinking this means some kind of alliance against the Dominators, the empire starts to retaliate quietly against the UP. They raid worlds, cut off communications with the rest of the UP, and then torture the people to learn about “the Fifdee-Tu.” This is the time they develop the AI virus that has Earth defenseless as well.

The big reveal (SPOILER WARNING) is that the Combat Technologist does not see the humans as their enemy but the Dominators' own hubris. This forward thinking futurist (much in the crazy way that Tony Stark thinks he is) saw ultimate destruction of his culture and therefore sought to stop the ultimate destruction by a little creative destruction – forcing a war with the UP, creating the super-soldier Dominators to be the future of the race, and making sure the Legion obliterates (in his opinion) their diseased and flawed society. The super-Dominators turn on him, killing him, but his prisoners are freed and eventually team back up with the Legion to continue the good fight.

I like the story from the Dominator's point of view. I like how it shows how alien and wrong this kind of “saving the future” thinking really is. It rings to me like a subtle jab at Civil War and Iron Man and all Tony Stark did. The neat tie-in to 52 worked very well for me. For these reasons, I liked it.

But beyond that – this was a bad issue. Different writer and artistic team, a combo that certainly didn't work for me in this particular issue, doesn't match up to Waid and Kitson. This is another issue where Supergirl is background despite her being the title character. The action scenes were all so very “here, there's fighting going on, just to let you know.” No punch, no pizazz, no real fun.
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Favorite Line: “Remember the Fifdee-Tu!”

Favorite Moment: When the Dominator Combat Technologist releases the Wanderers he has captive and reveals his true intentions. After he is dying, he thinks how he knew that if his race was flawed and needed to be replaced by the super-Dominators that he himself had to die too. Here is where he's NOT Tony Stark – he had the courage of his convictions and realized that he was part of the problem, too, instead of acting as if he was above the problem and could solve it all if only he was in charge of everything.

Favorite Image: Cosmic Boy and Mekt Ranzz fighting back to back. One of the few decent combat poses / panels in the whole book.
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Overall Grade: C+
- I liked the story, the tie-ins to 52, and the thinly-veiled jabs at Civil War and Tony Stark. I disliked the pacing, the sequential art, the actual drawings, the lack of characterization for any Legionnaires, and the poor depiction of any action that could have been exciting. The series continues to wind down for me – it got a boost with the addition of Supergirl, but that's wearing out especially as she's basically background now. I get the feeling Waid is leaving the book soon, and with the JLA/JSA storyline happening I wonder if we are about to see YET ANOTHER Legion reboot.