Legion of Super-Heroes #5
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Ryan Sook,Scott Godlewski, and Wade Von Grawbadger
Color Artist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Review by Carl Bryan
Warning – Small spoilers follow
Eisner Award-winning writer, Bendis, re-teams with master artist Ryan Sook (Action Comics) to contribute to the Legion’s origin.
If you’ve been keeping up with the Bendis/Sook name-tag game, you know that this is used both as a device for the characters to dispense with social graces and know immediately how they can work with their respective super-hero teammates. In this issue, the information bar has been replaced with a logo, which the reader is to assume that familiarity may breed a bit of a short cut?
If Jacques Foccart is the Invisible Kid/Gentleman, will his “floating ID” disappear with him when he disappears, or will it continue to float around? Someone get out a digital sharpie for him as it appears that is an issue for the kid/gentleman.
“Qrot Talkers”
Well… we know they’re teens or in their twenties, and we have to assume with all the different heroes, that profanity would pop into the conversation. Emotional swearing without all the baggage that accompanies the censorship or labeling a story PG-13. Holy Qrot! What a great idea!
Who’s Pulling the Strings?
Cosmic Boy, as the elected leader, insists everyone stand down, and while Jon Kent is needed in this timeline, Brainiac has all the intel! Egos aside, Bendis has painted a team that apparently knows their place and what has to be accomplished in order to achieve the harmony they wish to have with the United Planets.
No teenage angst or ego trips… just a mutual admiration of each other’s strengths and powers to serve a greater good. Cool concept! Except when you’re invisible and people are talking qrot about you!
Point of View Orientation is in Session
Jon Kent’s orientation to the Legion provides a better “fill in the blank” moment to shed some light on President R.J. Brande’s original intentions for the League… ahem… Legion.
Imra/Saturn Girl, Garth and Cosmic Boy’s conversations, both verbally and in the cloud of telepathic thoughts, provides a starting point that both the reader and Jon Kent can hang their hat on in terms of an origin story. Oh, and their recruitment conversations…. whew!
My Mom is the Prez!
President R. J. Brande is Reep Daggle’s mother. Brainiac knows this, but the timing and framing that Bendis and Sook use in Brainiac’s conversation with Daggle is both humorous and gives the reader a bit of a break on Brainiac’s literal conversation tones.
Not Another Soliloquy
Bendis provides Brainiac as his mouthpiece in this one as the original three approach Brainiac about joining the Legion. Multiverses, one “true” Superman, “We will know when we know”…. I think he wrote himself into a corner and hit a publishing deadline. Brainiac’s character is better than that. In fact, I had to read these pages a few times to discover… what?
Conclusion
President Brande has a great idea about forming a Legion based on history. The JLA and the Teen Titans seem to be Brande’s inspiration and her speech before government leaders seems straight out of Episode 2 or 3 of Star Wars. I appreciate the origin story, but don’t want pull too hard on some of the strings. I’m not sure which timeline these Legion members are prepping Superman/Superboy for, and what the heck is going on with Aquaman’s Trident?
Images Courtesy of DC Entertainment
