Legion of Super-Heroes #39

The third issue of the Jim Shooter/Francis Manapul era takes a bit of a breather to build story and character elements. Shooter provides individual characterizations for each of the Legion members avoiding the cardboard characters present before his tenure. He is building Saturn Girl up to be quite a leader and is providing a strong female character in this book. Where Lightening Lad comes across as a bit of a goof as team leader, Saturn Girl shines on her mission. I like the direction that Shooter is taking the team. While this issue lacked the all-out action of the previous issues, I liked the character elements and story pacing. Francis Manapul continues to provide strong support with his art. Shooter's dialogue heavy script does not overshadow Manapul's great characterization, layouts, and backgrounds.

For the first time in a long while, I look forward to this monthly. If you haven't jumped on board yet, don't fear the complexities of Legion history. In each issue, Shooter provides a window into the Legion that is both accessible to new readers and remains true to old time Legion fans.

Legion of Super-Heroes #38

I'm hooked! Jim Shooter's return to "Legion of Super-Heroes" has breathed new life into the book. After such a long absence from writing these characters combined with all the restarts and reboots, I thought it would take Shooter 4-6 issues to get back up to speed. This was not the case. Shooter has hit the ground running and has captured each member's characterization. The art by Francis Manapul is the cherry on top of the Shooter sundae. Manipul produces some nice pages giving a lot of detail. This first arc is moving forward quickly and is setting up new characters, new situations, and future plot lines along the way.

This is the way to come back to a title. Take note, Shooter is in full form here.

Legion of Super-Heroes #37

Wow! "Legion of Super-Heroes" writer Jim Shooter certainly makes a splash with his return to this title. I was cautiously optimistic at seeing Shooter return to the title that kicked off his comic's career, but after reading this first issue, I think the future looks good for the LOSH. When I was picking up my pull list from my LCS last week, the owner said that he was unhappy with DC pulling Supergirl out of the title and the book. He felt that the book would loose a lot of readers because of this. I hope that isn't the case. In my opinion Supergirl was a bit of a drag on this series. I don't mind the occasional visit from current day DC but the LOSH has enough characters to stand on its own.

Penciller Francis Manipul does a fantastic job of translating Shooter's script to the page. His interpretation of the Legion members is spot on.

This is an excellent jumping on point for new readers and for old LOSH fans that left during the Supergirl reign. Jim Shooter proves once again that he is a top-notch comics writer.

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #36

"Supergirl and teh Legion of Super-Heroes" #36 picks up the action right where #35 left off. From my last review I found the search for Cosmic Boy to be quite tedious, but this issue looks to resolve that issue. Writer Tony Bedard is wrapping up his run to turn over the reigns to returning Legion writer Jim Shooter. To that end, Bedard has a lot happening in this issue. This is the first issue of Legion that I have enjoyed in a long time. While Calero's art hasn't been to my liking, I really dug it here. Both Calero and colorist Nathan Eyring's art is spot on in this issue capturing the both the darkness presented and the hope for the future. I believe Bedard has left the Legion in a good spot for Shooter to start spinning his tales.

With all of the changes in the last few issues to the core group, Tony Bedard has provide an excellent jumping on point for new readers and for Jim Shooter.