Recap: Cosmic Boy is missing. Timber Wolf, Atom Girl, and Shadow Lass didn't find him on Lallor, finding Wildfire instead. Sun Boy, Tenzil Kem, and Star Boy didn't find him on Winath, instead arresting Mekt Ranzz for (purportedly) running a mind control lightning cult. And now Supergirl, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad are in the Gobi Jungle, fighting Evolvo Lad, and hoping to find Cos there. But they are in a fight and it isn't an easy one.
Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #36 is the final issue of the interim creative team of writer Tony Bedard and Dennis Calero. Mark Waid and Barry Kitson left the book 6 issues ago. Since then Tony Bedard and Dennis Calero have been giving us The Search for Cosmic Boy. The plot has been three away teams searching three areas where Brainiac 5 feels Cos may be hiding. While each story has been interesting, bringing in elements of the old Legion into this new continuity, it has somehow shrunk the book. We haven't seen much of the cast of this book since this turn. And that seems to rob the book of some of its energy.
This issue actually marks the end of this creative team. It was pretty widely known at this point that Jim Shooter was coming back to the Legion with #37 and so Bedard also has the job of sweeping the deck and setting everything up for the next regime. One of those elements is Supergirl, who is removed quickly and efficiently. Was this an editorial decision? Was it Shooter's idea?
As usual, Dennis Calero's art just doesn't work for me. But, ironically, I think this is his strongest issue to date. There are some nice shots in this issue.
But for me, unofficially, this is another ending in this book. In my mind (because I haven't reread the Shooter issues yet), this book takes a big turn creatively once Shooter comes on. As a result, I think this issue slams the door on the Waid era.
On to the book.
