Picto-Review: REBELS #20

REBELS #20: Writer: Tony Bedard. Pencils: Claude St. Aubin.

Just a quick note, REBELS #18 and 19 BOTH received rare perfect scores from me. Will this issue be the trifecta? Well I already know, but you should read on to find out!


We starts things off with Vril Dox bringing his secret weapon(LOBO!)to Colu, the planet his father Brainiac was in the process of conquering.


Unfortunately, by the time Dox and Lobo arrive on Colu, Brainiac has managed to wrest control of Stargrave from Dox's son Brainiac 3 and has sent the rogue star after Lobo.


The first round goes rather poorly for the Main Man...


While Lobo is busy dealing with Stargrave, Dox and his son Brainiac 3 send holographic avatars of themselves to distract Brainiac. However, Brainiac 3's avatar winds up getting shot, tipping Brainiac off to Dox's plan.


Now aware of Dox's duplicity, I'm sure Brainiac has some nefarious scheme to enact on his offspring...


And sure enough, Brainiac busts out said nefarious scheme, as he begins to drain every bit of knowledge out of Dox and his son.


Brainiac winds up outsmarting himself though as he taps into Dox's feelings towards his father and finds his mind flooded by feelings and sensations he had no way of coping with.


Unable to concentrate, Brainiac and Stargrave beat a hasty retreat while two rookie Green Lanterns decide to attempt to bring Dox in.

What I Thought: I thoroughly enjoyed this storyline. I'm an unrepentant Vril Dox fanatic, and his evil son Lyrl(Brainiac 3)has also managed to grow on me. So it was all good... Almost. I can't say I liked the way Brainiac was “defeated”. Basically Brainiac unlocked Dox's repressed feelings towards Brainiac himself, and Brainiac was unable to deal with those emotions since he had detached himself from his own emotions so long ago. So Brainiac essentially beat himself. I would have much rather seen Dox(or better yet, Lyrl)have a more active role in Brainiac's defeat. Instead Brainiac just kind of took Stargrave(and the Colu Data-Core)and left. A hollow victory for Dox to be sure, but I guess a win is a win. So from here Dox will have to decide what to do with his renegade son, as well as what looks like a potential battle between Dox(and LEGION) and the Green Lantern Corps on the horizon. It's a good time to be a REBELS fan!

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10. So the perfect score streak ends at 2, but hey, this is STILL my favorite DC comic!