Posted - December 2, 2012 | Updated : August 27, 2015

Legion of Super-Heroes 3

Shadow War begins with the sky full of Dominator ships and showcases Phantom Girl's inherent "invincibility" :

I'm also very impressed by the intricate design Francis Portelo renders as we go inside a Dominator ship. The panel below exudes menace, technological ability and, most importantly, a well thought out adversary for our tale.

The Dominators looming over the United Planets' watchworld of Panoples is a move tantamount to invasion, so the Legion is fully justified in going up against the Dominator ships - which were the first to fire against the Panoples ground station anyway. Once again Phantom Girl phases through the ships and uses her power and Brainiac 5's technical training to systematically take down ships. I'm very quick to dismiss Phantom Girl as beautiful but not very powerful, specially with her hiding out against Renegade in the previous issue, but she is simply smart and mature - she knows what her power can do and what it can't and acts accordingly.

I don't know whether Levitz and Portela mean to do it, but sometimes I'm looking at a Legionnaire and I can't place their race. Most of them all used to be white but take a look at Cosmic Boy and Shrinking Violet in this panel.

I can't place them, and this isn't the only panel that is like that. Refreshing, really, it's the 31st century on a multi-planetary government, race should be a thing of the past and with the ambiguous races Portela is portraying that seems to be the case. I'm all for it.

Dominator ships aside, both Mon-El and Ultra Boy continue to have problems with Renegade. Thankfully, Mon-El is only the first wave; the others arrive and what a beautiful single-page pinup Portela gives us here :

With Legion forces piling up, the Dominator ships move back to their space sector confident that they will be able to handle any pursuers. We leave the issue with the Panoples base damaged but several Dominator ships have been destroyed and Renegade held captive.