Reboot: The Legion #31

The Legion #31 (May 2004)
title: "Housekeeping"

storytellers: Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Keith Giffen

inker: Al Milgrom
lettering: Rob Leigh
colorist: Sno Cone

editor: Stephen Wacker

cover: Tony Harris and Tom Feister

reviewers: Siskoid & Shotgun

Mission Monitor Board:  
Apparition, Brainiac 5, Cosmic Boy, Dreamer, Gear, Invisible Kid, Kid Quantum II, Live Wire, Superboy II, Timber Wolf, Triad, Umbra

Guests: 
Ambush Bug (cameo), Chuck Taine, Cub Nah, Dr. Gym'll

Opponents: 
Nanite swarm

Recap: 
Between Ra's al Ghul, Universo, and Darkseid's servants, Legion World has seen better days. In fact, it's quite a mess...



Synopsis: 
Chuck Taine and Gear have been tasked with fixing and cleaning up Legion World while the rest of the Legion takes some R&R... and they're not happy about it! They steal something from Brainiac 5's lab to help them in their task, and something compromising as well. Hm. Hoping to goof off, they lose track of the "tool" and start looking for it, noting along the way that they station is becoming almost TOO clean.

They need a fall guy so head for Superboy's quarters. He's the only one without the tech savvy to know what's really going on, and his quarters are a real pig sty. They convince him that he brought some xeno-parasite back with him from the past and that he needs to help them find it. Eventually, they make it to Deck 43, which should be filled with plants and animals, but instead has been cleaned of everything. They are almost immediately attacked by the swarm of nanites stolen from Brainy's lab and programmed to "clean" Legion World, something it is doing dangerously well. It attacks Gear and... well, makes him feel cleaner before it escapes again.

Five minutes later on a worse-looking deck, the partially-metal Gear (he he) is suddenly thrown against the wall and slid about violently. When Superboy checks the other side of the bulkhead with x-ray vision, he catches Cosmic Boy and Kid Quantum in the throes of passion and Cos clearly unable to control his powers. The nanite swarm attacks Superboy and then turns on itself, having ingested too much "dirt", i.e. particles and germs from the 21st Century.

Later, Brainiac 5 is angry that someone's taken his experimental nanobots, but finds a note that tells him not to say anything about the incident, or else the thieves will tell the others about his holo-collection of pictures of the female Legionnaires. He screams with existential terror.

Commentary: 
Shotgun
That was super fun! I don’t know why, but it always speaks to me when we see the perspective of the less heroic members of a team. What I loved even more in this issue is Gear and Chuck’s commentary on the Legionnaire’s habit of leaving everything to be cleaned by someone else. The cleaners, the re-builders, the people caring for the ones affected by a super-crisis are just as important as the heroes who saved the day, while often leaving a humongous devastation trail behind them.

My favorite part though is 100% Gear's manipulative skills. Who or what corrupted him in order to make him so good at it?!? I realize now that I knew basically nothing about his personality so maybe he always was like this. The way he keeps bringing up Cosmic Boy as a threat, the hygiene comments… It’s almost a shame it culminated in him unveiling the whole plan while trying to dismiss Superboy’s suspicions. I guess it was still good comedy!

I want Superboy’s question mark’s shirt!!

Siskoid
Looks like Shotgun would enjoy Damage Control and Giffen's Justice League International, am I right? Well, I like the odd humorous interlude, and Keith Giffen is one of the masters of this type of story. I do find his art a little hard to grasp, especially early on before we know what's really going on - everything is revealed eventually, making sense of those willfully opaque scenes. And hey, Giffen in the mix means there's an Ambush Bug cameo, and friends, I specifically collect those (reminder: the first American comic I bought with my money was DC Comics Presents #59, with him, Superman and the Legion of Substitute-Heroes).

In a way, the story is rather jarring. Tonally, it's quite unlike anything we've seen in ages (although Shotgun and I did cover the Legion of Super-Heroes/Bugs Bunny crossover on a podcast, so for us, it's not that strange) - Cub spitting a loogie on Chuck and Gear, Cos and Kid Quantum having wild sex behind a wall (and Superboy as peeping tom), Brainy's collection of girly pics, all the jokes about Superboy's hygiene... Even the way Gear and Chuck are portrayed as disgruntled slackers is out of character for them in the Reboot. But it's still fun, and they have a point. When we see Legionnaires in this story, they're in the background or foreground, having drinks and living it up. The shenanigans are warranted.

One complain though: The cover goes out of its way to spoil everything that's gonna happen. I enjoy the Superboy with a hair net, window washer, etc., but the inset circles go a little too far.

Science Police Notes:  

• Stephen Wacker's credit is for "apologies for everything".
• In the future, there will be a show called "Khundian Idol".
• The Legion World socializing area if called the Clubhouse, after the original continuity's Legion HQ.
• Background characters in this issue include Ambush Bug (just the antennae) and a creature that could be a Protean.
• Superboy rather surprisingly references the hero Gunfire when he sees Gear's abilities at work.
• Brainiac 5 uses the exclamation "Son of a Reboot". Is he talking about himself?