R.E.B.E.L.S. #28 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Claude St. Aubin (penciller), Robert Campanella (inker), Rich & Tanya Horie (colorists)

The Story: You’re not the boss of us anymore, Starro!  We’re taking back our streets!

The Review: It’s been a strange, not-so-long journey for DC’s non-Green Lantern-related space opera.  Having started with a fairly high-stakes mission rebelling against the rule of Starro the Conqueror, how fitting it is that we finish with—a mission rebelling against the rule of Starro the Conqueror.

Unfortunately, there’s little interest to be had in reading L.E.G.I.O.N.’s (way to make even the title for this series pointless) final adventure, as the conclusion is pretty much foregone. Last issue Lyrl had already conceived a foolproof way to free the Rannians from the grip of Starro, so there’s not much left to see on that point.  Last issue also saw Lobo and Smite’s duel cut short by their mutual love of bars, so we can’t even look forward to that possibly entertaining brawl.

Speaking of which, as amusing a gag as Lobo and Smite’s newfound bond, you can’t dismiss the fact that it comes out of nowhere and for no reason.  Well, no reason except to have Smite provide the non-essential members of L.E.G.I.O.N. a convenient way to get back to the planet.  And also so Bedard can execute a silly, conclusive wrap-up to Starro the Conqueror’s uneven career as a villain, indicating you were never supposed to take any of this story arc seriously.

Pretty much the only moment of tension in this issue is Starro’s last act of defiance, threatening to have all the Starro-controlled citizens do away with themselves.  And yet there’s a bizarre gap of logic in all this: all the Rannians bring knives to their throat.  Where and how they find such instant, universal access to knives (especially Adam Strange’s little daughter), we don’t know.  It’s pretty clear this is the only method Bedard can think of to threaten their lives without having the risk of their actually harming themselves too soon.

R.E.B.E.L.S. #27 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Claude St. Aubin (penciller), Scott Hana (inker), Rich & Tanya Horie (colorists)

The Story: Prepare to be sucker-punched—and by sucker-punch I mean getting a telepathic starfish in your face.

The Review: A big cast can be a handful to write, but their usefulness to fiction is invaluable.  The more well-developed characters you have, the more opportunities you have to mix and match them up to see what kind of reactions you can get out of them in various situations.  If you give them a chance, they can practically build their own stories for you.

So it’s not a shocker that when Bedard gets more of the R.E.B.E.L.S. involved in the plot, the issue instantly feels more active and invested.  The back-and-forth chatter among them has an energy and dynamic that’s largely absent when it’s just Vril Dox condescending to whoever manages to get his attention that moment.  It’s also plain refreshing to see the team acting like—well, a team.

Even so, they still get comparatively little to do, what with half of them beaming back to Rann to counter the Starro invasion, and the other half going off to find Brainiac (a mission which proves virtually worthless as the first team winds up accomplishing both).  Really, it’s Vril’s son and lady-friend who get the most page-time, with Lyrl devising a method to free the Starro-infected, and Blackfire facing off against the Conqueror himself.

Lryl’s use of Tribulus to disinfect the Rannians from the possessing starfish is quite ingenious, although the science behind it doesn’t get explained very well.  It also seems a bit too easy, as the invasion barely feels like it’s started (mostly because Bedard’s focus in past issues has been on Starro the Conqueror and his Lobo clones).  On top of that, the whole plot has been executed predictably; Starro stories rarely go any other way, after all.