L.E.G.I.O.N. '90 #20

L.E.G.I.O.N. '90 #20 (October 1990)
title: "Girl Trouble"
writer: Alan Grant
penciller: Jim Fern
inker: John Nyberg
letterer: Gasper Saladino
colorist: Lovern Kindzierski
editor: Art Young
cover art: Gary Leach and Lovern Kindzierski
review by: Mike "Nostalgic Kid" Lane

Recap: Thanks to their defeat of the pirate Dagon-Ra and the freeing of more than a thousand of his hostages, the team is greeted by a parade when they return to Cairn. Meanwhile, the Computer Tyrants of Colu have brainwashed Lyrissa Mallor"s daughter, Lydea, and she has arrived to take revenge on her mother.

Vril Dox has been alerted to a dangerous situation in their headqaaters and he rushes to find his teammates unconscious. Lobo laughs off the situation, but Vril Dox and Stealth are horrified.

While medics try to help everyone, Lobo interrupts and is the first to discover the body of the mysterious blue woman among them. Stealth is frightened to find her friends injured, and Telepath is the only one who can explain what happened.

Telepath informs them that he got a psychic flash and realized Lyrissa was in danger so Strata and Phase rushed to help.

Strata was so angered at finding Lyrissa dead that she was set on killing Lydea but Phase intervened. There was some sort of energy feedback when Phase used her powers that knocked everyone unconscious. Elsewhere, Stealth is considering how Vril has treated her since finding out she was pregnant and she has decided to leave. She visits Strata in the medical bay and tells her of her decision. At the same time, Dox has Telepath search Lydea's mind and he learns of why she was intent on killing her mother.

Dox informs Bek and Marij'n of Lyrissa's death and they decide to set out with the Emerald Eye to take revenge on the Computer Tyrants of Colu. Dox sends Lady Quark after them to make sure they do not do anything stupid, but he remains unaware of Stealth's plan.

We also take a brief visit to the planet Ogen that is being terrorized by Khunds.

Despite being told several times that Lyrissa is dead, Dox refuses to accept it. We also see that her death has bothered him far more than he has let on.

I liked the approach the creators took here of opening with the aftermath of the battle and then showing us what happened in flashback. Seeing the team unconscious certainly built suspense, and seeing Strata's anger was also a nice touch. She has always been the most caring member of the team so it was understandable that Lyrissa's apparent death would set her off. I do not have a huge amount to say about this one but the final page was refreshing in that it gave us a rare moment of Dox showing his humanity. He is not one to admit that he needs anyone's help, much less that he cares about anyone, so his desperation of saving Lyrissa was powerful. Check back next time to see if he is successful!