LSH(v8) #10

Legion of Super-Heroes #10 (December 2020)
title: (Untitled)

writer: Brian Michael Bendis
penciller: Ryan Sook
inker: Wade Von Grawbadger
colorist: Jordie Bellaire
letterer: Dave Sharpe
associate editor: Brittany Holzherr
editor: Brian Cunningham
covers: Ryan Sook (main); Darko Lafuente & German Garcia (variant)

reviewers: Jude "Sarcasm Kid" Deluca, Russell "Bilingual Boy" Burbage and Jason "Anachronistic Kid" Knol

Overall Summary: 
Superboy and Saturn Girl go out on a date to Gotham that involves trying to track down Mordru. Gold Lantern and a team goes to Oa and asks about The Great Darkness. Ultra Boy on Rimbor ends up becoming the leader of the planet. Light(ning) Lass and Brainiac 5 talk diplomacy. Chameleon Boy and a team go to New Krypton to track down Mon-El. And on Xanthu, Mordru (?) meets up with Rogol Zaar (?). 

Mission Monitor Board: 
Karate Kid does the front page introduction; Superboy, Saturn Girl, and Dr. Fate are on planet Gotham; Gold Lantern, Brainiac 5, and Blok are on Oa; Chameleon Boy, Karate Kid, Phantom Girl, Shadow Lass, Colossal Boy, Wildfire, and Mon-El are on New Krypton; Ultra Boy, Lighting Lad, Bouncing Boy, Timber Wolf,  Dawnstar, and Monster Boy on Rimbor; Light(ning) Lass is on Earth

Supporting Characters:
The Guardians of the Universe, Crav Nah, Dini City Commissioner December Sevenbergen, General Zod and his New Krypton Welcoming Committee

Opponents:
Mordru, Crav Nah, Rogol Zaar, bad writer, worse editor

Summary:
This issue's one-page close-up is of The Karate Kid, who explains that the trial of the Legion is over, Crav Nah has been arrested for conspiring against the United Planets, the Legion have split up over the galaxy in order to clean up and restore any damage from the Aquaman Trident incident. And Superboy and Saturn Girl are now "coupled." 

On Planet Gotham, Saturn Girl and Superboy are on a date when Commissioner Sevenbergen interrupts. She wants assistance in locating Mordru, who has escaped custody. They call in Dr. Fate, who locates him on the planet Xanthu. 

On planet Oa, Gold Lantern has escorted Crav Nah to the Guardians, who take possession of him as a galactic prisoner. Then Gold Lantern admits to the Guardians that he feels overwhelmed and wants reassurance that he is doing his job well. They aver their faith in him. Then Brainiac 5 asks the Guardians about The Great Darkness. When they attempt to dodge his question, Blok calls them out on their evasiveness. They reluctantly admit that they are not sure if the Legion will save the galaxy from The Great Darkness or if they are the cause of it. 

On New Krypton a team has arrived to track down Mon-El, who quit the team in a huff. They are welcomed and led to Mon-El's home by General Zod, Mon-El's great-frandfather. There they find that Mon has three daughters, and insists on quitting the Legion. When he hears that Jon Kent is still in the Legion's time, he immediately flies off.

On Earth, Light(ning) Lass talks to Brainiac 5 about her future with the Legion, and he assures her that her passion is exactly what the Legion needs. He then asks her to sit and discuss "the Gold Lantern situation" with him. 

On Rimbor, Ultra Boy is trying to get some assistance in re-forming the government after his father has been imprisoned for conspiracy. Unfortunately, because he defeats every challenger who steps forward he is named new leader of Rimbor. He is not enthusiastic about it, although Lightning Lad and Bouncing Boy think it might be a good thing. 

On Xanthu, Mordru appears and calls out to Rogol Zaar, enemy of all Krypton.  

Russell's Review: 
On the one hand, I appreciate that the team is on the move and things appear to be moving. On the other hand, upon closer investigation the parts are whirling but they aren't actually moving. The art by Ryan Sook continues to be the best part of this series, but even then there are a whole lot of pages without any backgrounds, and questionable layout choices. But let's look at the group sections individually...

We have Saturn Girl and Superboy playing a scene that I feel they've played before...him visiting her consciousness, wasn't that something we've seen before? Also, just going to throw this out there but if people on Titan don't hve physical contact to express intimate feelings.....how are there people on Titan? ;-) 

For the Guardians of the Universe sequence, on the one hand I like that their yellow identities seem to be accepted as the new normal, without any explanation. Of course, a few pages later we see them in their traditional red robes, so maybe it would have been nice to have a quick note about why they are the leaders of the Gold Lanterns. Also...."You are the Gold Lantern of THIS dimension"? (stress added by me. WTH does this statement mean? And just as an aside, I am not a fan of this design of Blok. 

On New Krypton, am I supposed to recognize any of the Welcoming Committee? I'm glad that General Zod was atleast identified. I HATE that Mon-El not only has three daughters, but that he is being presented as an immature little brat. And also, as an aside....if Chameleon Boy is only 17, how old is Mon-El supposed to be? With THREE kids!?! 

For the Rimbor sequence, please review the page printed above. Is Ultra Boy supposed to be angry, or intrigued, or what? If you aren't going to include any thought balloons, shouldn't the art be crystal clear as to what message you're trying to convey? As it is, I'm confused. 

And that is the word of the issue: confused. WHY pair Superboy with Saturn Girl? She is, literally, smarter than this. Why is Dr. Fate introduced this way? Is this making fun of heroic posturing, or embracing it? 

Why is Mordru drawn like Orion (who I thought he was, the first time I read the story)? WHO or WHAT is Rogol Zaar and why should he get a full-page intro? I Googled him and it sounds like he was a Superman/Supergirl foe. Surprise! Another tie-in to current DC time-line. Why so many references to Krypton, and Gotham, and Zod, and my goodness even a diss at Aquaman!?! 

Why are we seeing the same old members over and over again, but not learning anything about them? Could it possibly be because the staff themselves don't know what the hell they're doing? Exhibit A: a throw-away line by Cham referenced Shadow Lass coupling with Mon-El; however, last issue we learned that PHANTOM GIRL was coupling with him, and that Shady was coupling with COSMIC BOY. Where the hell is the editor!? This shite reminds me of the late '70s when I would read a Superboy/Legion issue where stupid mistakes like this were made. Then it was because the writers and editors didn't know (or care) about the mythos. It pissed me off then and it pisses me off now. 

Which leads me to my overall confusion: WHY isn't the writer or the editor treating this series as a viable, exciting FUTURE series? Why does it seem like my friends and I care more about the continuity and characterization than DC does!? Why isn't Bendis and Rook spending the time to build worlds, like Hamilton, Shooter, Levitz, Giffen, and others did before them?!? 

If Brian Michael Bendis doesn't want to write a science-fiction series set in the 31st Century then get him off this book and replace him with somebody who does. 

Jude's Review:

Coming off the bad vibes from the last issue I still can't bring myself to like or support the Saturn Girl/Superboy pairing.

I'm getting a really awkward vibe about the revelation with Mon-El being a father AND the great-grandson of General Zod, more the latter than the former. With Mon's ongoing animosity towards Superboy, I'm starting to think the real reason he doesn't like Jon is because... is Mon-El supposed to be Jon's SON?

We know Zod had at least one child in the form of Lor-Zod, who USED to be Chris Kent (Clark and Lois's adopted son in the pre-Flashpoint universe). If Lor-Zod is Mon's grandfather, does that mean Jon married or had sex with Lor's potential daughter? Like, that would technically make her Jon's niece.

And here Batman fans are the ones most willing to depict incest between the different Robins, now we gotta worry about Bendis trying to give that to the Superman fans.

Meanwhile I really don't care about whatever was going on with Gold Lantern and the elders of Oa, as it felt like that entire sequence was the characters going back and forth confirming the Great Darkness is coming while basically repeating what we knew from the last issue. How does Bendis put that much effort into making his characters take forever to say NOTHING.

I honestly let out an "UGH" when I saw what's-his-name on the last page, Rogol something. I should've expected Bendis would pull that.

Jason's Review: I appreciate that the story is trying to move somewhere, but the way the splits between people and places were handled here felt random. And I have so many questions-- why is Oa the place where Crav is taken? What the hell happened when Blok knocked him? It looked like a Phantom Zone shot from Superman: The Movie. We got a bit of Gold Lantern's history-- he was a teacher named Kala Lour. This pun on "Color" is so heavy-handed and lazy it really took me out of the book. We also found that he is "the chosen Gold Lantern" of this dimension confirming this was a position of appointment and that there are other Gold Lanterns in the Multiverse. On that note, I think it was very interesting that Brainiac 5 was studying old Green Lantern history while having his chat with Ayla, so I expect more Lantern backstory at some point in the near future.

The Saturn Girl - Jon Kent romance does nothing for me, and I can't understand why they didn't call Doctor Fate earlier. Oh wait, Jon Kent has a throwaway line, "You were on trial." Excuse me? That sounds like a plot thread that needs to be picked up sooner rather than later. The Jo Nah situation being split in the issue made it lack any emotional weight, and would've been better served as a single scene. For the record, this issue jumped planets NINE times when they could've just kept the Planet Gotham, New Krypton and Rimbor scenes as single sections rather than split by going to tell a different section of a different story. And as for Mon-El, who has quit the team, he has 3 daughters? And Zod is his great-grandfather? I'm just so utterly confused. I guess my first question is: aren't the Legionnaires teens? Was Mon-El just a regular teen boy living a life at home with 3 daughters that he had at the start of puberty, and then suddenly the Legion recruited him? Everything is just so sloppily throw out, it's frustrating.

And the Rogol Zaar ending... here's the thing-- when Grant Morrison writes all his DC stories with an internal continuity, it is beautiful and stunning. When Scott Snyder does the same, it totally works. When Bendis brings the Superman villain he created, that didn't exactly take the world by storm, and brings him as the big bad of the second arc of Legion of Super-Heroes, it smacks of ego and a lack of ideas. The entire first story arc was trash and didn't introduce us to the Legion. The two-issue Trial filler did a better job trying to shoehorn story and personality, but still felt like an empty exercise. And now we've got Rogol Zaar and Mordru, who is a villain without equal who needs zero help or allies. I love Bendis's enthusiasm for the Legion, but I hate the way he writes it.

Science Police Notes:  

• We learn that Gold Lantern's real name is Kala Lour. 
• General Zod is Mon-El's great-grand-father. 
• Mon-El's daughters are named Laraz, Conner, and Lane. 
  

Status: 
This issue has not yet been reprinted. Hold on; it will be in the next TPB.