title: "Power Play"
plot/breakdowns: Keith Giffen
script: Alan Grant
penciller: Barry Kitson
inker: Mark McKenna
letterer: Gasper Saladino
colorist: Lovern Kindzierski
editor: Art Young
cover art: Kevin Maguire and Al Gordon
review by: Mike "Nostalgic Kid" Lane
Recap: After Vril Dox successfully conquered the Planet Cairn, overthrowing the drug lords that ruled it, Stealth began exhibiting increasingly bizarre behavior that culminated in her raping and murdering Dox. Lyrissa stepped up to take over the army he had united to direct it to noble goals. She also had Garryn Bek and his estranged wife clone Dox, who awoke with his memories intact to find an angry Lobo. After a long battle, Dox is able to defeat Lobo
The Computer Tyrants of Colu stand before the sun of Talok VIII in their humanoid form, using the solar energy to restore themselves to full power. They return to the planet with every expectation that the people will eventually need them and bow before them. Meanwhile Garryh Beck is leading a mission to the planet Rishta, which has never had extracharasterial contact before. He fears they could damage it culturally but Dox thought such a planet could use their help more than any advanced world. Bek has discovered a mysterious ship above the planet Rishta and his crew go to investigate. Back on Cairn, Stealth is watching Phase exercise when Dox surprises her.
At the same time, Bek has had an interesting encounter on the abandoned ship with a strange eye that longtime Legion fans may recognize.
A Khunds ship orbits Talok VIII and is surprised to find they have been targeted by the Tyrants. They try evasive maneuvers but it does not work. Because they have a nonaggression pact, they do not expect the Computer Tyrants' attack.
The Tyrants return to Talok and their chief pawn is excited to see their planet had been defended. But the Tyrants tell him that the Khunds came in peace and that he murdered them. He finally realizes the Tyrants are not the hero he believed them to be.
This is an odd issue in that it did not feel like much happened but if you step back and think about it a lot did. Some storylines were sidelined, such as Lyrissa taking over the organization. Even Dox's return does not get much attention beyond his discussion with Stealth. But she does drop a major bomb when she mentions her pregnancy. For me, that revelation overshadowed everything, including the Computer Tyrants actions. I have been a little bothered by how quickly everyone seemed to move on from Stealth's violent behavior so I am curious to revisit these issues and see how they react to this news. Dox seems perfectly comfortable around her, which is a bit creepy to see. But this is a reminder that we are dealing with aliens and the dynamics between them are not necessarily going to be what we would expect, especially for a superhero comic of this era.
We have gotten glimpses of the Tyrants making themselves at home on Lyrissa's planet but this is the most time we have spent with them since they fled Colu. It is interesting how quickly they abandoned the pretense of being a hero, at least to the one person they had been dealing with on Talok. It was also interesting to see Bek actually having to play leader for once, and the appearance of the Emerald Eye gave us a nice connection to the classic Legion comic. As we will see, it is going to have a big impact on Bek over the next few issues.
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