"Enemy Rising: Busted"

Legion of Super-Heroes opens with Princess Projectra royally pissed off at some tourists who felt the need to touch her. Saturn Girl and Timber Wolf attempt to calm her down. This is the weakest scene in the book. That’s a good thing because, although the scene is weak, characterization still generates the event.

Projectra has the right to be angry. Orando her home planet is no more, and United Planets does not recognize her status. Traditionally Jeckie has been linked romantically to Karate Kid, but Shooter plays with the traditions. Instead, he has her form a friendly relationship with Timber Wolf, who still treats her as a royal. Timber Wolf talks her down. Saturn Girl needles Timber Wolf in this scene, but the impact requires the reader to have read the previous issue. That’s where I felt the scene falter. It's not fully self-explanatory.

Aaron Lopresti fills in this issue for Francis Manapul. Lopresti is more about curves than angles, which best describes, in a reduced sense, Manapul’s work. Perhaps because Lopresti doesn’t want to jar the reader or the flow of artistic continuity, he attempts to imitate Manapul’s style. You can see the endeavor in his rendering of Timber Wolf’s hair. Lopresti’s sensibilities are biased toward soft textures. Manapul has a distinctive somewhat jagged manga flourish, and Lopresti first tries to mimic those nuances. I would have preferred Lopresti simply do his own thing rather than ape another artist’s methodology.

Fortunately, Lopresti abandons imitation quickly. As a result, the Legion becomes looser and more expressive. The only sore thumb in the book is in the design of Giselle. Manapul made her appear specifically alien, but Lopresti makes her more human-looking. Manapul's Giselle as a result is more arresting.

From the incident involving Princess Projectra, Shooter turns to the main threat seen in previous issues. Because of UP red tape, Braniac cannot examine the captured creature, which is being dissected by the Science Police. This leads to an excellent quote worthy of a Legionnaire:

"Let's do what we have to do to protect the people...and florg the government."

Lightning Lad follows through with a really good stratagem that cleverly uses the powers of Legion members in conjunction with a team ethic that makes the Legion so formidable. Light Lass offers a little friction in the scene when she openly expresses her opposition to the plan. She’s proven correct, but the reader’s sympathy is squarely with Lightning Lad and his espionage team. Light Lass’ behavior also adds dimension to her character. Previously, we’ve seen Light Lass as compassionate, sexy and playful. Shooter now adds damn smart and perhaps better leadership skill to her repertoire.

The revelations and the mystery surrounding the creature intrigue, and the surreptitious attempt of the UP to supplant the Legion with a more malleable team offers some very interesting possibilities. In this way Shooter recognizes that this Legion is not the original Legion he helped shape but a different form of the archetypal team.

Shooter’s Legion pretty much worked smoothly with the UP and the Science Police. Given that a Legionnaire saves the Science Police’s CSIs these allegiances may change, but for now the Legion are in the eyes of the UP an embarrassment inexplicably lauded by sentients everywhere in the cosmos. At the same time, Shooter continues to shed the snarkiness of Mark Waid’s Legion and makes them true heroes deserving of their flight rings.

The presence of the puppet team hamstrings the mission with some excitement and wit. It also creates a different roster of substitute heroes and drops one Legionnaire into the future pokey. No doubt extricating him will engender a new subplot.

Shooter closes the book with a glimpse at a slightly kinky side to Imra Ardeen alias Saturn Girl. The exploration reinforces the different social mores of the future. The dialogue, characterization and the body language create a scene comparable to Light Lass’ and Karate Kid’s casual tryst and Phantom Girl’s neutrality with regard to her state of undress when answering Lightning Lad’s page. By comparison, this version of Imra makes previous incarnations of Saturn Girl positively Republican in terms of sexual desire.

Shooter keeps the Legion of the Super-Heroes an engrossing read without abandoning the freshness of the 'new' team. His team, however, are definite heroes with heroic goals and that’s what makes them so likeable. Shooter fully considers the implications of a future setting, and his science fiction elements work smoothly in what’s shaping up to be an absorbing mystery. Lopresti makes an able substitute for Manapul. I wouldn’t mind seeing him illustrate if Manapul ever leaves the title.

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