"Attack of the Geen Lantern Corps"
Writer: J. Torres
Artists: Alex Serra, Heroic Age(c)
Publisher: DC
In short, perfect. Number six of The Legion Of Super Heroes In The 31st Century exemplifies everything I want to read in a Legion comic book.
The roster is distinguishable. The Legion's dialogue does not blend together. Each member has a unique personality. The characters support each other. There's no juvenile in-fighting. All the Legionnaires behave altruistically. They act together as a team, and Braniac Five becomes instrumental in the young Superman's education. Lightning Lad doesn't act like a sphincter. He acts decisively. He informs the Legion about the danger rather than assume the hotdog persona that grated on me in previous issues.
The danger to which Lighting Lad refers is the Green lantern Corps--who are not acting like their usual heroic selves. They appear to be in some kind of trance, and J. Torres is setting up clues that when pieced together form the solution to a superb interstellar mystery. What has taken over the Green Lantern Corps? How was it done? The why is simple to deduce.
Torres and Serra make these Lanterns memorable and distinctive. Jordana Gardner--a descendent of Guy Gardner and Hal Jordan--makes an impressive entrance into the Legion's universe, and I like the design of her. She fits with the lank model of the animated series. She also sports a trademark hairstyle and wears an attractive uniform in the green, black and white colors of the Corps.
Brainiac Five covers the history of the Lanterns, and I'm impressed that Katma Tui and Jade share the imagery equally with Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Kilowog and Kyle Rayner. G'nort also makes an amusing appearance in Brainiac Five's history lesson, but I think Torres is pushing it a little by placing him in the menace category. If you look closely at the future Corps, you can see the blood of the past Lanterns aboil in the myriad species. This is especially easy to see in Serra's spectacular splash page where the Lanterns convey their power.
While normally fights between super-heroes do not have any purpose except to serve purported fanboy desires. The battle between the Legion and the Corps carries a rationale. The Legion are reluctant to fight the Lanterns, but when they do, prepare for some kick-ass. Serra shows how dangerous the non-powered Triplicate Girl can be. When you combine her experience in the martial arts and Flight Ring use, she's a match for four Lanterns. She simply ducks their beams and moves faster than they can think. Superman gets his due as the Lanterns attempt to overpower him, but the Legion find themselves swamped by the emerald plasma of the Lanterns.
Reinforcements arrive in the form of very familiar Legionnaires earning themselves another brilliant Serra splash page. The kick ass appears to follow the square-cube law. When you square the number of heroes with respect to the number of antagonists, the kick ass grows exponentially by a power of three. With the Legion securely handing the Lantern Corps their collective green derrieres, Saturn Girl finally gets close enough to one of them to dope out what's been going on. This believe it or not does not end the kick ass. The revelation merely redirects the kick ass from the Lanterns to the true guilty party.
The Legion and the Lanterns clean up the mess, and J. Torres devotes the remaining pages to reestablishing the bond between Legionnaires and Green Lanterns. Dare I say it? This issue of The Legion Of Super Heroes In The 31st Century kicks ass.
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