Legion of Super-Heroes #5
Artist: Ryan Sook,Scott Godlewski, and Wade Von Grawbadger
Color Artist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Review by Carl Bryan
Warning – Small spoilers follow
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?