[Spoilers] Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #19

[Jack]

"Looksky! Birdplane!"

Quite possibly the greatest line of a comic book ever.

I thought this issue was fantastic. The best in a while. And not just because of that line.

The main story is a murder mystery starring Chameleon. The issue starts with him being interrogated by the SP and accused of murder. He talks his way out of the situation calmly by explaining how he came to be in the cell. His story takes us from SP headquarters to the underground culture of the robot rebellion, exploring along the way the theme of acceptance, contrasting Durlans, Titanians and artificial intelligences. Essentially, the difference between Cham and the villain is expressed by the fact that Cham truly believes that he can one day be accepted.

The two subplots are Supergirl talking to an empath and being unable to find Seiss, the crazy kid from an earlier issue and then Timber Wolf, Lightning Lad, Supergirl and Cos discovering that Brainy has disappeared, taking Dream Girl and Lemnos with him (and possibly Element Lad and Light Lass, too).

This issue had everything! A compelling mystery, oodles of shapeshifting action, great little doses of science fiction, a sub-society of robots who were actually portrayed in an interesting and unique manner! It advanced the plot, had great characterisation for Chameleon, some very pretty art (even if Kitson's faces all look alike).. even a robotic cult building their god in the form of a giant Robot Man! Which, in itself, was a wonderful microcosm of the Legion setting - an oppressed under-class taking their heroes from the golden age of the 21st century.

There were so many great ideas in the book that I honestly wouldn't be surprised to learn Morrison ghost wrote it.

[titanfan]

For me, it was by far the worst issue of the entire run.

A "Who Cares?" Murder Mystery that was FREAKIN OBVIOUS from the first time they introduced the eventual murderer. I can't believe they spent time on the Chameleon Boy has a secret identity sub-plot on this.

Not enough plot advancement of the other plots--too much time spent on stuff that will probably never be followed up on. This issue screamed "FILL-IN" to me--or at least something that was written on the fly.

This is the first time a Legion comic actually bored me. I felt the book was starting to pick up steam post OYL, but this was a huge step back to me. Words cannot express my total dissappointment with this issue.

[kertap]

I thought it was excellent. Do you know the way people say I'm going to drop it unless it improves, well this had the required improvement.

The murder mystery was fantastic. It had a real noir feel to it. Chameleon should consider becoming a writer/story teller as he did a real good job narrating.

Although i didn't give the whole who killed the guy thing much thought I didn't think it was that obvious. And i thought the way chameleon handled the situation at the end was genious.

[titanfan]

Although i didn't give the whole who killed the guy thing much thought I didn't think it was that obvious.

There were *two* suspects the entire time--one of which was Chameleon....

[Jack]

I thought it was excellent. Do you know the way people say I'm going to drop it unless it improves, well this had the required improvement.

The murder mystery was fantastic. It had a real noir feel to it. Chameleon should consider becoming a writer/story teller as he did a real good job narrating.

Although i didn't give the whole who killed the guy thing much thought I didn't think it was that obvious. And i thought the way chameleon handled the situation at the end was genious.
I thought it was obvious and thought the issue was fantastic. So the two are not mutually exclusive by any means.

[Killer Frost]

What about the murderous teleporting robot? He was the red-herring suspect all along. The real mystery lies not so much in who killed the fake Science Police officer, but what's happening in the underbelly of the United Planets, where the mechs are fomenting their plan to become the dominant species again.

I agree wholeheartedly with Jack. This was a superb issue in every respect, characterization, storytelling and artwork. With the triple-edged threat posed by vicious sentient mechs from the U.P.'s dark ages, the mysterious recruiters (kidnappers?) of Seiss, and Brainy's insane plan for Dream Girl's corpse (and quite possibly an SP spy in the Legion ranks), the tension is so thick you can cut it with a knife. This is Waid at his best, laying multiple plot grenades that threaten to explode any minute.

But I fear poor Theena's crush on Starboy will come to nothing because, let's face it, who'd want to kiss a girl with a fugly psionic symbiote hanging on her back? Jerya's kiss didn't go over too well with Cham either. It's not that he doesn't like girls, he just doesn't dig gender. ;)

Kitson's Supergirl is so translucently beautiful I want to [insert affectionate but not non-sordid action here) her.

[Rokk]

I thought that this issue was average. Not bad, but not great. I thought that the murder mystery was obvious. And I thought this issue just read a little on the boring side.

However, there were positives. I liked the use of Robotman. I also liked that we didn't get much Supergirl in this issue. And, of course, I thought that Barry Kitson did a great job with the art.

Overall, I still haven't been very impressed with this entire OYL storyline.

[Michael P]

The mystery wasn't much of one (I literally said to myself, "the telepath was in the room with the victim? She did it," while reading), but I enjoyed the character study of Cham.

And gosh, Waid writes a neat Supergirl.

[Erwin Heinek]

People seem to have missed the most important negative aspect of the book. Now that there are no extra pages at the end, the intro page robs the reader of one story/art page. :mad:

PS: I'm only semi-serious.

[Sir Tim Drake]

The scene with Theena struck a chord with me somehow. After all the migrating I've done over the past few years, I like the idea of all my friends being constantly close to me... but there is an obvious tradeoff between always having company, and never having any solitude. I hope we see more of her.

[astronato]

I have to say that this was my least favorite issue of the new series.

I like having Supergirl on the team but they haven't really delved deeply into her story or how she relates with the others. I dunno, this was an ok story about Chameleon Boy but not up to the standard set by previous issues.

The old outlawed technology/AI forming it's own society in the shadows could be good though. I am getting tired of the snotty teens with super powers vs angry old folks thing.

[Zero Hunter]

Only complaint I have about this issue is that I still hate the new look they gave Chameleon Boy. His look is one the worst of any Legion member past or current. I would almost prefer the hooded tentecle head Durlan look to the goofy one he has now.

[HynerianChef]

I thought this was a superb issue from start to finish. It had everything.