Legion of Super-Heroes #39

By Jim Shooter (writer), Francis Manapul (pencils), Livesay (inks), Jo Smith (colors)

The Legion is reeling after barely winning the battle on Triton last issue. The win has come at a high cost. The team is completely fragmented with problems galore piling up. Even the most mundane of chores has become hazardous for the team. And from the looks of it, things are about to become much worse before they get better.

For one, the press is having a field day with the Legion on Triton, blaming the property damage on the team’s “incompetence”. Projectra is a princess without a homeworld. Her anguish has done little to improve her image as she’s gone into severe debt, losing everything she owns. Even a small rat infestation goes awry for Colossal Boy has he gets owned by a bunch of biker thugs. On top of all this, someone’s infiltrated the Legion’s headquarters and is closely monitoring this chain of events.

With all the bad stuff going on, it was kind of hard to enjoy this issue. Sure, there are a few moments like Projectra scaring some looters away and Ultra Boy landing some big punches, but much like the team, this issue feels a little disjointed. I think the team is just in too many places at once and because of this, we’re not getting as much as we should. Hopefully, next issue’s story will be more centralized.

My biggest beef with this issue is the constant displaying of headquarter’s computer screen. It’s in way too many pages. After the second time I had had enough and just skipped over it whenever it showed up. Francis Manapul’s art is excellent, once again, and he does the best he can with the script he’s given. Just stop making him draw computer screens! Enough’s enough!  (Grade: C)

– J. Montes