http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspot.com/2016/09/threeboot-supergirl-and-legion-of-super.html
This issue marks the finale of the Dominator War arc and is a gripping issue where I was questioning this new Legion's ethics. Do the ends justify the means? Has Cos drifted to the dark side in the context of this war? The ending may surprise you.
It also marks the end of Mark Waid's run on the book and I am sad to see him go. Waid never seems to disappoint and he didn't here. I said it was a monumental task to please old Legion fans while bringing in new readers. The ending of this issue shows just how innovative Waid is in merging the old and the new.
As for Supergirl, there is a great moment.
There is a plan to bring a bomb to the center of the Dominion Homeworld and detonate it, destroying the Dominators once and for all. But the bomb needs to be brought there. Supergirl volunteers.
But Brainy knows that Supergirl could never willingly bring about the end of 5 billion people. Everyone knows Supergirl is better than that.
Mark Waid gets Supergirl.
To contrast, this was the issue of Supergirl on the shelves this very month. Joe Kelly had Supergirl shooting up her high school on Krypton.
Joe Kelly did not get Supergirl.
A thanks to Mark Waid for this great series!
I have never been a Legion fan, but Mark Waid certainly got the character, unlike Joe Kelly.
ReplyDeleteJeph Loeb's run was subpar but... tolerable. Joe Kelly's run... It was an utter disaster, and I can't help to think many readers who picked the book back then because they were curious about the then-new Supergirl dropped it right away. How many hypotetical fans did Kara Zor-El lose because of that rubbish?
And then Joe Kelly aimed a middle finger at all fans who hated how he had turned a classic DC hero into a whiny, self-absorbed, dumb, irresponsible jerkass.
What did Kelly do when he heard of our criticism? He didn't listen to one single of our complains. He thought that we wanted a perfect, flawless Supergirl who makes no mistakes. And then he claimed that Silver Age Kara Zor-El was a vapid, dumb, unrelatable Mary Sue, "his" Supergirl is way better, and we are stupid.
And then he turned Supergirl #18 into a long rant against the character and her fans.
Why he thought that this hateful issue would change our minds and make the criticism go is beyond me. It only proved two things: he never listened to Supergirl fans; and he has no idea of who Supergirl is.
Pre-Crisis Kara Zor-El wasn't perfect. She NEVER was. And her fans never thought she was. She had flaws. She made mistakes (lying to her cousin in Superman #307-309 comes to mind. Falling in love with creeps and jerks comes to mind). But she was a real hero. She was a gentle, innocent fifteen-year-old with a mischievous side who developed into a mature, confident woman. She wasn't perfect but she was "good".
But apparently we have to prefer a selfish, finicky, fickle asshole because she is more relatable than a nice, kind and heroic woman.
Right.
By the way, if Earth-One Supergirl had met New-Earth Supergirl back then, she would have not mocked and beaten her post-Crisis self. She would have tried to help her get over her issues. Not because she was perfect, but because she was a good, compassionate person.
Why was this so hard to understand?
Before I go for the Terminal Dirt Nap I wanna see two people writing for Supergirl, Gail Simone & Mark Waid....Gail because she'll go big with great cliffhangers, Mark because he clearly "gets Supergirl".
ReplyDeleteJF
Hello Anj. Thanks for the review of this arc. And yes, can't agree more that Mark Waid just "got" Supergirl,
ReplyDeleteunlike he-who-shall-not-be-named who was helming her solo title at the same time -- Original Anon pretty much
summed that all up very succinctly.
And I'm saddened that Waid didn't continue past this point... probably explains the "disjoint" at this point
and somewhat different characterization of and shift of focus from Supergirl. I've said before on my first
read of this arc in TPB form, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED how Supergirl was voted leader of the Legion, but how
she didn't really seem like the leader of the group in the subsequent issues. Then she was sent back to her
time for WW3 (to which she didn't really contribute much)... but on the flip side I have to look at that as
a positive as what Geoff Johns, Sterling Gates and James Igle did with her from then on... but there's always
the question of "the road not travelled" and I often wonder...
Don't know if you will continue to review this series past this arc, I hope you do, if only to satisfy my
curiousity what happens past the point Supergirl leaves the team and it goes back to being just "The Legion
of Superheroes."
Regards