Friday, September 21, 2018

Retroboot Legion of Super-Heroes #9

Legion of Super-Heroes #9 showcases both the flaws and the strengths of this particular run.

The strengths should be well known to LSH fans. We have Paul Levitz leaning into Legion history. We have a hint at a long time foe behind the Durlan uprising. We have some nice character moments showing us how certain Legionnaires view the world. That is all great.

We also have the gas pedal on the Durlan conspiracy story-line, pushing through pretty rapidly with almost no pages spent on other simmering plotlines. What about Harmonia Li? Earth Man and Shadow Lass? Vi and Ayla? (Their story was in the annual; something I need to review, I know.)  What about the Ranzz family? Usually a page or two is devoted to peeking in on others. I didn't realize just how much I missed those diversions until it happened here.

And while the Durlan conspiracy is a good plot I just think it would have worked better as a slow burn. Have the readers wonder who has been replaced; build up tension in the team. Wouldn't Vi, who had been replaced by a Durlan, be particularly upset by this?

The art is by Yildiray Cinar and he does a fine job of it. I just feel he lacks some imagination in what Durlans would shapeshift into. We get Earth animals and dragons. That's about it.

We're at  the halfway point of this volume and I think the best is behind us.

On to the book.

With the Durlans secretly invading the UP, Chameleon Boy and Brainiac 5 head to Durla itself to investigate. You would think that RJ Brande's son landing at RJ Brande spaceport would get the royal treatment.

But that doesn't happen.

The Durlans are shocked that Reep would show up in this humanoid form rather than the natural Durlan phenotype.

I love Cham's response. He comes not as a Durlan primarily, but as a Legionnaire. And he has become accustomed to that.

That is great characterization. It shows how the Legion is family and being a Legionnaire is an identity.

Cham takes on the form of a dragon and demands answer as the 'eggson' of RJ Brande. That at least gets their attention.

But is Brainiac 5, at his prickly best, who puts an explanation point onto the proceedings.

Durla better have answers about the assassins infiltrating the UP. Because if not, the UP fleet will raze the surface.

That isn't exactly a warm, outstretched hand. And given Brainy's past, I suppose this threat carries some weight. That's good characterization.

Meanwhile, on Earth, things get strange.

Timber Wolf and Tyroc are on sight of the UP Council and are bemoaning how difficult it is to defend against Durlans. They could be anyone of the people there. They could be an errant insect. Moreover, Wolf can't detect the specific scent anymore. And Tyroc continues to expand the uses for his sonics trying to find some frequency that Durlans will react to.

Neither is successful when an even bigger surprise happens. The dead R.J. Brande arrives.

Now after hearing for several issues how Durlans can be anywhere, even I was doubtful this was the real Brande.

Back on Durla, Cham is led into the inner sanctum of the Durlan government while Brainy has to stew outside.

We get this wonderful inner monologue which really showcases Querl's thought process. I also like how there are these bar graphs at the bottom. It is like the emotional words in the text boxes show one side of him and the calculation below show the 12th level intellect processing.

In the end, the last panel, showing him small, shows how frustrated he is.

Inside the court, Reep recalls how he had been there with RJ years ago. That is a decent call back ... way back ... to Legion of Super-Heroes #301!

The Durlans still aren't too happy with Cham. And, at least these Durlans, don't seem to be happy with Brande either. They seem upset that Brande took their tech to make money with the 'warm bloods'. So they can't be behind the cult worshiping Brande and killing in his name.

Hmmm ...

Someone came to them ... not a Durlan, but close to one ... and advised them about Brande's lone plan. It is this person who incited the cult and the conspiracy.

It has to be Chameleon King, the 'hey I look like a Durlan but don't have antennae' member of the LSV.

But for what purpose?

And maybe I'm wrong.

Off Earth, new Science Police Chief Cusimano is hoping Dawnstar will heal enough to help find Chief Zendak who she hopes is still alive.

Dawnstar is far from being ready to function. So Tellus decides to use his telepathy to enter her mind and see if she had any clues.

I love this because it gives us a rare look into how Dawnstar sees the cosmos. Stars and constellations, arrows and angles ... it is a lot to process.

That is pretty cool

Unfortunately, the Zendak trail is dead cold. Probably because he's dead.

As for Brande, within three panels his speech pattern gives him away as one of the Durlans.

In a common combat move, he turns into a dragon.

This is a nice fight sequence ending with Tyroc blasting him but good.

I will say I am happy that Tyroc has found a home here. Pretty soon he'll be headlining Legion Lost!

And it seems my Chameleon King guess might be wrong.

Brainiac has figured it out.

It is RJ Brande's sister, Cham's aunt, who must be behind the secret war.

So, not a bad issue but not a great one. This whole Durlan thing is moving so fast that it seems almost wasted. Have this Brande be accepted at first, or miss early detection. Have some fear and trust issues percolate. This could be a Legion version of John Carpenter's The Thing!

Perhaps Levitz was told that his long-form style from the 80s wouldn't work anymore?

Overall grade: C


  1. Loved loved LOVED Tellus' look inside of Dawnstar's mind. That spread was fantastic. And callbacks to older stories are always great.

  2. I have to agree on the shot of Dawnstar's mind, but I really think having Tellus there distracted from the beauty of the shot. It always bugs me when he is drawn as a humanoid with a tail.

  3. Thanks for comments! Glad that shot grabbed other people too!

    I'll have to slide the Annual review in soon.

  4. It's sort of a shame that the only female Legionnaire to appear in this story was Dawnstar and she was in a coma. Despite that, Levitz did an overall good job with the cast. The line about Cham going to Durla without his powers was good nod to the original story. I think there should be footnotes, however, referencing the issue it came from. I don't know when that fell out out favor but for a title like LSH it could work. The story of Brande and Cham going to Durla is not germane to the this story but maybe someone would enjoy going back and reading it. I think it would have been nice to have a panel introducing Durla too and mentioning the 6 Minute War. We always had those blurbs in the past and I think it would give new readers enough of a background. I it was Encyclopedia something or other, right?

    Moving on, Tyroc and Timber Wolf make an excellent pair. Levitz used Tyroc well in this issue, showing that his powers have far greater utility than the minor miracles it could do in the past.

    Brainy wasn't handled too well to my liking and his thinking dialog was very mundane. I think I would have liked to have seen a better representation of his text boxes with the primary thought pattern and then all of these other thoughts at the same time. And instead of "think" I feel his keyword should have been "focus." With a 12th level intellect, he would be thinking all the time. And I do give him props for the worm-hole tech being like a subspace relay from Star Trek.

    I think this issues actually deserves a higher grade. I find it to be pretty solid actually. The reality is with the second series going at the same time, the sub plots got moved there while everything else focuses on different aspects of the Durlan storyline.