This issue resolves way too cute. Levitz sets up a complicated, timed ending and then doesn’t deliver. The issue doesn’t even have a cliffhanger… it just has a happy, wink wink ending about Brainiac having to give Mon-El a compliment.
It’s too passive; it’s almost like a Saturday morning cartoon.
Otherwise, the issue is often a decent action issue. While some Legionnaires head to investigate the bad guy (who’s barely in the issue, since the aliens from Invasion! are here too), the others are fighting spaceships.
As usual, there are action problems from Portela. He never manages to convey the size of the battle and is much better suited for the Legionnaires investigation scenes. The close-ups are also odd this issue, with Portela’s faces looking far too amateurish and manga influenced for a mainstream sci-fi book.
It’s okay, but Levitz is definitely making some awkwardly bad choices.
God help me I have to salute you for reading twenty pages of this. For the love of Mike I could never get through a Legion comic to save my life. They are my Kyrptonite of sequential narration. Or one of them, anyway.