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Mild Mannered Reviews - Legion of Super Heroes in the 31st Century

Legion of Super Heroes in the 31st Century #13

Legion of Super Heroes in the 31st Century #13

Scheduled to arrive in stores: April 16, 2008

Cover date: June 2008

"Back in Metropolis"

Writer: J. Torres
Penciller: Alex Serra
Inker: Alex Serra

Reviewed by: Adam Dechanel

Click to enlarge


Someone is watching Superman on the fateful night Lois interviews him, recording his every move. Superman has to race off to save people from a burning building using his freeze breath to extinguish the fire. Lois isn't giving up and races to quiz Superman some more for her interview. How'd he learn about his powers?

A daydreaming Superman wakes in the 31st Century during an early training session with Sun Boy, Brainiac 5, Lightning Lad, Bouncing Boy and Element Lad. The teens are trying to make Clark learn how to perfect his freeze breath while battling his team mates.

Suddenly Clark is back to Metropolis and one his first days at the Daily Planet. Lois and Clark are vying for Perry's praise, but both fall slightly short.

Lois isn't quite Pulitzer yet, her Superman article is deemed lazy and Clark still needs to prove himself as a hard hitting reporter. Perry sighs as news of a big story comes in. Lois' cousin Chloe Sullivan can't make it in time so Lois & Clark beg for the chance to cover Lex Luthor.

The two warring reporters discuss Superman and Lois' reveals Superman mentioned 'friends'. Could there be more superheroes like him somewhere? Perhaps from another dimension or the future? Clark laughs it off, but Lois points out it's no more ridiculous than a man fighting crime as a bat.

Again they are unaware of the outside force watching their every move, so the reporters rush to the press conference where a young Lex Luthor reveals his Lex-o-Skeleton 3000 a multipurpose armor capable of great deeds. The amazing armor is working perfectly demonstrating its feats of power when an outside force hacks into its mainframe turning it on the innocent crowd.

Lex watches in horror as the suit starts firing indiscriminately and Superman arrives to intervene. Superman growls at Lex to stop his attack and Lex yells it isn't his doing, promptly attacking the Man of Steel.

We jump back to the 31st century where Clark and Brainiac 5 discuss Lex Luthor. Superman questions Lex's legacy and his own. Brainiac 5 compromises his own calculations of time ripples and tells Clark to keep an eye on Lex.

We're back in modern day and Superman pins Lex to the ground, super-speedily shredding the armor like tissue paper.

Lex is quite displeased that Superman has ruined his billion dollar suit and made him look incompetent in front of the world press, vowing to find out more about this strange new visitor.

The strange viewer and instigator of the Lex-o-skeleton 3000 malfunction reveals himself to be Brainiac 1.0 watching from a hidden sanctum recording 'The Son of Krypton'

Not The End...

4Story - 4: Though the jumps back and forth were a little random, this story tugged so much on the pleasure centers of my brain I'm willing to forgive them and enjoy a fantastic issue. I can't wait to see how Brainiac will feature in future issues as this was leading into a very strong story line, spanning Clark's first year with the Legion and his first days at the Daily Planet. I hope this book stays around and that the creative team brings us more like this issue!

4Art - 4: Not sure about the design for Perry White, or young Superman not looking... like Superman in the present? But aside from this nit pick, Alex Serra continues to deliver astounding artwork and this issue was just breathtaking. I sound like a broken record but this is one brilliant book!

3Cover Art - 3: A bit of a busy cover this month in comparison to the sparsely detailed cover last time round, the iconic image of Clark changing into costume from a phone booth seems crushed to force in the core Legion members. Would have preferred it perhaps to have been Lois, Lex and Clark featured on the cover as they were more relevant...

Mild Mannered Reviews

2008

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

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