Extra Credit: Legion of Super-Heroes #38

Welcome to our first "Extra Credit" article. With these articles our aim is to provide supplemental reviews to things that maybe we couldn't get to on the podcast or to follow up on past reviews. This time I am following up on our "Required Reading" review of Legion of Superheroes #37, which we covered in Episode 1, with my review of the next issue in the story arch.

Written by Jim Shooter; Art and cover by Francis Manapul and John Livesay. From DC Comics, released on January 23, 2008 with a $2.99 cover price.

This issue is titled Evil Adventus, Part 2: Cataclysm.

We find Saturn Girl, Timber Wolf and Star Boy still on their mission on the moon of Triton and in big trouble from the alien attackers. Invisible Kid is still missing, but a surprise assist comes from an unexpected person. Meanwhile, Lightning Lad is still having a tough time as the new Legion Team Leader. A government representative is trying to push some new recruits on the team and they aren't exactly the best possible candidates.

Francis Manapul is still in top form with this issue. Beautiful linework nicely accented by the inking of Livesay and the coloring by Nathan Eyring. There really is a lot of eye-catching detail on every panel on every page. The story is just fun and exciting and boy do they pack a lot of story in these issues so far. You got a ton of dialogue in this issue and the previous one, so you definitely get more bang for your buck. I love how Shooter continues to use his bag of tricks from comics of old with the nice captions on each Legion character describing who they are and what their powers are. And it is wonderful that the Legion characters finally look and sound like teenagers again!

If this creative team can keep up this level of comics craftsmanship, this will prove to be a very popular Legion run. I am really looking forward to continuing the stories that Shooter and company want to tell.

I think this book is suitable for ages 10 and up. There are some scenes of violence, but nothing too graphic. It's quite clear that some of the characters are in deep peril. But things seems to turn out alright for our heroes.

I give this book a B+ rating.