Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century #10

Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century #10 (March 2008)
title: House Arrest
writer: Matthew K. Manning
penciller: Alex Serra
inker: Jeff Albrecht
letterer: Sal Cipriano
colorist: Heroic Age
editor: Jeanine Shaefer
cover art: Matt Stewart

Mission Monitor Board: Bouncing Boy, Brainiac 5, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl.

Villains: The Fatal Five (Emerald Empress, Mano, Persuader, Tharok, and Validus)



Synopsis: Some of the Legionnaires are off to a concert and Saturn Girl has agreed to stay behind on monitor duty. Lightning Lad is bummed and decides to stay to keep her company. Suddenly the doors at the headquarters slam shut and a message comes in from Tharok saying that he has taken control of their Computo program. He has cut off her communication and the Emerald Eye is attempting to block her telepathy.

Validus, Mano, and the Persuader arrive at the monitor station but cannot find Saturn Girl. She is able to use her powers to keep them from seeing her just long enough to get to an elevator. Tharok tries using Computo to stop her but is interrupted by a blast from Lightning Lad.

Lightning Lad makes the mistake of hiding in the training room and Tharok uses the opportunity to create a holographic army to stop him. Elsewhere, Saturn Girl is trying to elude Validus, Mano, and the Persuader. Just as they are about confront her, Lightning Lad bursts through the wall. The holograms are unable to follow him outside the training room and the wreckage cuts them off from the Fatal Five. The pair find a small locker to hide in.

They decide to head to the main power core to shut it down. Tharok figures out what they are up to, and sends Validus, Mano, and the Persuader to meet them. Lightning Lad is able to hold them off long enough for Saturn Girl to shut down the core.

Turning the power off while Tharok is plugged into the system also forces him to turn off. Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl proceed to slowly take down the rest of the Fatal Five one by one. Saturn Girl puts Validus to sleep and then turns her attention to Mano.

After Lightning Lad zaps Persuader, they find Emerald Empress. When she sees what they have done to her teammates, she uses the Emerald Eye to whisk them all away.

Imra asks Garth why he stayed behind and he stumbles a bit explaining that he did not want her to be alone. The two are having a nice moment that unfortunately gets interrupted by the arrival of Bouncing Boy and Brainiac 5.

Commentary:
This had a much lighter tone than last issue and was quite enjoyable. It was nice to see two of the original Legionnaires get showcased although the Fatal Five seemed to go down a bit too quickly at the end of the story. It's hard to see them as much of a threat to the team as a whole if just two Legionnaires are able to so easily stop them once Tharok is taken off the table. Still, the set-up of having Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad trapped with the Fatal Five in their headquarters was a good one, and the hints of budding romance between the two were cute.

One small nitpick I had with the art was how young Serra drew Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl to look in this issue. Their appearance was not that different from usual but enough to make me wonder at first if this story was intended to take place in the early days of the team. There was otherwise no suggestion of that in the story and the art was still very solid, so it is a minor complaint. I hesitate to even call it a complaint.

That nitpick aside, the issue was a fun little one-and-done story of the animated version of the Legion!