Legion of Super-Heroes v3 #57

Legion of Super-Heroes v3 #57 (1989)
written by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen
cover by Steve Lighle

While the rest of the Fatal Five miss the ending of this era, Emerald Empress gets a two-parter.

We immediately discover that she was behind the Inquisitor kidnapping a few Legionnaires in the previous issues.

As if the Inquisitor wasn’t terrifying already, she’s interrogating him after cutting off his head!
Unless he’s a cyborg, I guess.

Then she murders him for failing the mission, something that I find a bit out of character.
Not the fact that she kills him of course, but the fact that she gets her hands dirty instead of giving orders to the Emerald Eye.

Meanwhile, Dawnstar has been cleared for active duty. The reasons for her needing medical attention go unsaid, but I’m pretty sure it’s because her face seems to be shrinking.

For once she’s not the only one being useless.

But don’t worry, Projectra’s plot-convenience sense is tingling: she’ll get to do her thing next issue.

Man does Giffen draw ugly faces in this period.

Invisible Kid is visiting his sister, who we haven’t seen in a while. She’ll become an important player later in the Five Years Later era.

It’s a nice little scene showcasing that Invisible Kid can be an interesting character. Which he will be later on, but he’s been utterly forgettable for the longest time.

He’s going to be significant since Emerald Empress chooses to continue her search for immortality in Africa.

Hopefully they also have a cure for the Giffen Face Shrinking Disease.

Empress, what makes you think these random students would know where to find the secret of immortality???

It’s also a bit absurd that the computers dismiss immortality as a myth, IN THE DC UNIVERSE.
I don’t care how much information about the 20th century they lost: even if SOMEHOW all information about the immortals from Earth isn’t available, we know for a fact that the 30th century knows that the Guardians of the Universe are immortal!!!

Compare to LSH #292. Which was a Levitz & Giffen story!!!

Invisible Kid is on the case, but Emerald Empress is not exactly worried.

That’s before learning who it is, granted, but he can’t even prevent the Emerald Eye from seeing him!

Invisible Kid shows he’s more effective than I gave him credit for by locking the Emerald Eye into a stasis chamber…

…and as useless as ever when he assumes that could possibly stop it.

Considering the way Volume 3 is going, I’m shocked that Invisible Kid doesn’t die here.

At least he bought some time: now she’ll have to deal with the rest of the Legion.

The Science Police is going to be as useful in this as usual, even now that GiGi Cusimano has taken over from Chief Zendak as chief of the Science Police.
Hopefully she’ll do something about the Giffen Face Shrinking Disease epidemic that seems to be spreading.

There’s some tension with Shvaughn Erin…

…but I don’t think anything ever comes from this.
Considering how Volume 4 is going to treat Shvaughn, maybe she should’ve taken the opportunity to resign.

But we have a new battle against the Emerald Empress at hand, and new costumes as well.
Lightning Lass doesn’t look TOO bad by the standards of these redesigns, but she looks WAY too much like a Science Police officer.
And to those giant shoulder things even DO anything???

I have to give credit to the Empress, I don’t think I would’ve been able to face Timber Wolf without laughing at his ridiculous new costume.

This SHOULD have taken care of Emerald Empress in the old days, but as we’ll see next issue she’s not her usual self.

I wish we visited Earth more often. These little encyclopedic extracts are always great.

The Science Police is unsurprisingly unable to do any damage whatsoever.

Will the Legion do any better?

No.

However the Empress mentions wanting to destroy the Emerald Eye, which gets Invisible Kid’s attention.

But before he can learn anything, Polar Boy is the one leading the next attack…

…only to be immediately taken hostage, with Emerald Empress threatening to kill him in the cliffhanger.

In other plots, the Doctor Strange cosplayer student of the mystic arts that we saw during the Great Darkness saga is contacted by a representative from the Sorcerer’s World about the plot that will conclude this volume.

As a reminder, this wizard is here because White Witch refused to accept the mission.
Which means we COULD have had her interacting with a character from the Great Darkness Saga, the same saga that saw her joining the Legion… but of course we couldn’t have anything interesting connected to her.

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Legion significance: 6/10
Slightly connected to the final storyline of the volume and to the future evolution of the Emerald Eye.

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Definitely not.

Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
This would’ve been halfway decent if the artwork wasn’t so incredibly distracting: everyone is either ugly or unrecognizably off-model. Most often a combination of both.
Emerald Empress has enough charisma to still be entertaining, even if the hype about her is going a bit overboard: the fact that she’s this unstoppable on her own makes her Fatal Five membership pale in comparison.
That’s not helped by the fact that most of the Legionnaires are quite unremarkable in this, with the only real exception being a good character moment for Invisible Kid.

We are legion
18 active Legionnaires
7 reserve members
6 resigned members
2 on sick leave
12 deceased members
45 people have been members

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Interesting letters: no spoilers to what’s going to happen to him, but the fact that someone thought Magnetic Kid was being primed for becoming leader is sad.
Also I have to admit, I did not catch the reason for grouping those specific Legionnaires.

Oh boy. Knowing what’s in store for the Legion makes reading those letters absolutely brutal.