Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #17 – The Tenzil Kem Review

Legion of Superheroes is a big topic of discussion here at the Bunker. When I can get Rokk to stop eating the platanos for a minute, we always have something to say about them. So its no surprise I have a bit of a different take on them. Please, read Rokk’s review first. I’ll be referring to it quite a bit. Then come back here.

Creative Team
Writer: Mark Waid
Penciler: Barry Kitson
Inker: Mick Gray

Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10.
Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10.
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10.

Synopsis: See Rokk’s very, very thorough synopsis.

Comments
The Good: I like this run, since issue 1, very much, and haven’t seen a misstep from the creative team yet. I’ll address the things I like further here in a sec, but to acknowledge the elephant in the room (and the chip on Rokk’s shoulder)…

I like how they are using Supergirl. What she is doing here is a mystery. She doesn’t even know. She thinks she is still on Krypton, and its all just a very long dream. The Legion doesn’t know, and most of them, due to hormones if nothing else don’t seem to care too much. Rokk’s explanation makes sense, (the one in the comic, not our Revolutionary leader) but will turn out to be wrong. Of course, notice that Dream Girl is “dead” but Brainiac 5 is working to fix that while the new on the scene Supergirl thinks she is living a dream and is probably wearing Dream Girl’s ring. Even Shadow Lass makes a joke about calling her “Dream Girl”. And the next issue of the comic is called “Dream Boy”. All of that dreaming sounds a bit coincidental.

It’s also very, very obvious that Mark Waid knows what a problem a Supergirl or boy can be to the team. He has Light Lass and Timber Wolf make comments about it (that Rokk brought up). He uses her powers not to solve the problems of the issues, but to spark storylines and for comic relief.

I’m quite sure that Supergirl’s stay in this title will be finite. I hope Rokk is not seriously considering dropping this from his pull. There is quite a bit to work with here.

Bad: Only two things. We just spent two-issue establishing Supergirl and the Dominator threat, and it probably could have been done in one, but I’ll have to forgive a little due to the exploration of the other characters and subplots. And no letter column this month.

Oh, and one more thing. I hope this “fifffdeetuu” thing pays off. I know that Mark Waid is one of the writers of 52, and writers tend to cross-pollinate their titles if they can, but I hope he isn’t overdoing it. But I have faith in M. Waid.