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Mild Mannered Reviews - Supergirl Comics

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #26

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #26

Scheduled to arrive in stores: January 24, 2007

Cover date: March 2007

Writer: Mark Waid
Penciller: Barry Kitson
Inker: Mick Gray

Reviewed by: Jeffrey Bridges

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Supergirl finds the building where Mekt transported some of the Legion members to and she and the remaining Legion members bust in to confront him. Mekt reveals that he was the one who led the Legion to Mon-El, because he believed the rumors about his existence were true and he needs his help. Supergirl and the Legion members are shown a vision of another robot uprising under Megatokyo, all hard at work on building a "Machine God" at the behest of the Dominators.

Light Lass explains to the Wanderers just what Mekt actually has planned, which isn't some heroic attempt to save earth, but it's a suicide mission. Turns out that on Winath, the Ranzz family's homeworld, nearly everyone is born as twins (like Light Lass and Lightning Lad) and become bonded with each other. Mekt, however, was a single birth and as such has always felt alone. Due to his condition he has a death wish, and it was Light Lass and Lightning Lad that were supposed to look after him that caused them to stowaway on his ship that crashed on an alien planet where they all acquired their powers. Everybody got that? Good.

Supergirl, Mon-El, Brainiac 5 and Ultra Boy head underground to find the robots, and quickly dispose of them and think they've been misled about a giant "Machine God". Until they discover that the ground they're standing on is merely a tiny portion of the actual Machine God who rises to the surface, dwarfing even the largest of skyscrapers with its head and shoulders alone.

They try to disable it and find it curiously devoid of armaments and defenses until it suddenly explodes all on its own, sending a huge cloud of red mist into the air. The Legion members wonder if it's a chemical weapon or radioactive vapor, but Brainy sees the cloud and instantly declares that it's much worse and that they've already lost the battle as the cloud is shown already covering at least half of the earth.

It should also be noted that during the scene traveling to under Megatokyo, Mon-El mentions that a thousand years ago it was indeed Superman who placed him into the phantom zone in order to save his life, so that he wouldn't die from his affliction. Mon-El also reveals that he already knows Supergirl as they will meet once she returns to the 21st century. Kara seems thrilled that she will finally make it back there, and Mon-El ads that she does, but "...not until after..."

When Kara presses further, he simply tells her to "never mind" and then they've arrived at Megatokyo and the conversation has to be dropped.

5Story - 5: We get the cool origin of Lightning Lad and Light Lass, and their brother Mekt. A robot battle. A GIANT (and that word does it no justice) robot. Character conflict and depth. And a tie-in with Supergirl to how Mon-El got into the phantom zone and a tantalizing cliffhanger of things to come, both with the Dominators and with Supergirl's eventual return to her own time.

Honestly, I don't think I could ask for more from an issue of this book.

5Art - 5: How does it keep getting better? I don't know. Magic pills? That's my guess. Toss one out the window and see if a beanstalk grows.

The flight with Mon-El and Supergirl through earth's core was great (and the coloring here was outstanding). And the Machine God rising into Megatokyo may well be the single best splash page I've seen in a comic book in years.

If you're not reading this book, I'd like you to take a walk to the bathroom. Look in the mirror. And ask yourself "WHY NOT?!"

Seriously.

4Cover Art - 4: Y'know, when I first saw this cover I thought it was fantastic. The pose, the action, the scale... just beauteous.

Reading the comic changed my mind on that, fair or not.

There are a ton of Legion members on the cover that don't appear in the book. This usually bothers me to a degree, but not here. It doesn't bring this image down at all, as far as I'm concerned.

The giant robot, who I can only surmise is supposed to be the Machine God (as there wasn't a single other robot larger than humanoid size in the book), looks entirely different than it does on the book interior and is even the wrong color. And STILL, I say to you, I would not knock a point off for that, so phenomenal is this image.

So why isn't it a 5? It's got everything that makes a cover great, right?

It's because the size of the Machine God on the cover is MINISCULE compared to the size of the Machine God in the book interior. And the sheer scale of the Machine God on the interior on that bewitching interior splash page was SO impressive that the entirely different-looking, wrong colored giant robot on the cover seems tame in comparison. If I hadn't read the book, this cover would be a 5.

Reading the book... well I'm sorry, but that splash page ruined me.

An awesome cover, though. Truly.


Mild Mannered Reviews

2007

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

January 2007

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