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Posts tagged Colossal Boy
Changing of the Guard
0Once the Legion regrouped if you will, Paul Levitz had decided that it was time to shake up the group’s membership some, and that meant the exit of a few key Legion players.
The three founders of the Legion, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and Cosmic Boy cast their vote for Legion leader, and then resign from the Legion to discuss with Element Lad (who is reelected as Legion Leader with Brainiac 5 as his new Deputy Leader) what their new roles will be in the group. Coinciding with this event is the fact that the case that brought together these three teens officially comes to a close as the would be assassins of R.J. Brande were due to be released from prison at the same time.
Cementing their new role as “Legion Advisors” the three remain on call when needed, but the vacuum left behind, must be filled and so Element Lad asks Wildfire to organize a mass tryout for Legion membership.
Meanwhile, we find out about Comet Queen who is a student at the Legion Academy. Turns out she has the hots for Bouncing Boy and wanted to be a Legionnaire so badly she had heard about Star Boy’s origin (flying through a comet), well Comet Queen or Grava of the Extal Colony, decides to jump right into the tail of a comet and it changes her forever into a quirky heroine with orange skin, fantastic agility as a flier, and a laser like plume of hair that leaves a trail behind her. Bouncing Boy manages to convince her to come to the Legion Academy (it wasn’t difficult).
The Legion then finds itself up against some organleggers (again? wow!) and this time the ring leader is a Bgtzlian who appears to be Phantom Lad, a man who challenged Phantom Girl for her spot in the Legion a long time ago. As the Organleggers manage to elude the Legion including Dawnstar’s tracking powers, Brainy deduces what is going on with these pirates and enlists Phantom Girl to board the ship and stop it, which she manages rather easily. Once again showing us it isn’t all about the powers you have, but about how you use them and that goes for brains and intangibility, powers that aren’t as showy as lightning or fire.
Timber Wolf gets to shine as he travels to the insanely barbaric world of Lythyl to fulfill Karate Kid’s will by planting a seed on the toughest rocks on Lythyl. Wolf and the Kid’s mentor the Sensei come to Lythyl and are instantly thrown into this society of the weak are ruled by the strong. As Timber Wolf and Sensei fight their way up the chain of command to the top dogs, the Three Judges of Lythyl: Gorax, Steggus, and Myg and it is Myg that decides to take the two newcomers and test their skills to be on Lythyl.
Timber Wolf and Sensei sense an opportunity here and they knock Myg unconscious and decide to take him off Lythyl to see if they can redeem him from this barbaric world since he is so young. As Wolf completes the mission, the Legion has gotten word of his secret mission and while Timber Wolf could not ask for help from anyone except Sensei to complete the mission, he can get help in the form of a rescue executed by Mon-El, White Witch, and Invisible Kid.
With the Legion of Super-Heroes vs. Legion of Super-Villains war finally wrapped up, its time for the try outs for new members.
The Top Row: The Skreasks, Dev-Em, Sensor Girl, & Comet Queen
The Middle Row: Tiger Girl, Mentalla, Energy Boy, Quislet’s Ship & Quislet Construct
The Bottom Row: Tellus, Polar Boy, Magnetic Kid, & Power Boy.
Five new members? Wow! That’s a lot of new blood for the Legion, so lets look at this logically. Recent gaps in the membership include an energy wielder, a telepath, a magnetic, an illusionist, and a martial artist: (Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Projectra, and Karate Kid).
We know from what has already occurred that Lightning Lass has taken her brother’s place, so ignore the energy wielder as a position needing to be filled.
It should go without saying that Magnetic Kid, who is Pol Krinn, Cosmic Boy’s little brother will be taking Cosmic Boy’s position in the Legion.
That leaves four more positions to replace.. okay.. well with a telepath gone, Saturn Girl’s abilities were invaluable in many cases to the Legion, so replacing her comes down to two potential candidates. Tellus, a Hykraian who has telepathic and telekinetic powers, but is a fish like being and breathes a methane like atmosphere and Mentalla, a telepath from Titan, who is able to mentally control other individuals. The Legion chooses Tellus who has undergone Legion Academy training, while Mentalla is fresh from Titan with no real Legion training to her credit.
So two positions filled and one more reject is added to the pile, and this one will come back in a few.
When Energy Boy begins his tryout, he is interrupted by Polar Boy of the now former Legion of Substitute Heroes, he requests that he be allowed to compete for Legion membership as his control over his ice powers have increased greatly over the years.
Polar Boy makes the cut. Energy Boy does not.
Power Boy is also rejected for not having too much of a distinctive power.
We do not even see the Skreaks or Tiger Girl audition, add them to the reject list.
So that leaves two positions left and we have Comet Queen who joined Brainiac Five, Magnetic Kid, Tellus, and Mon-El on a training mission only to discover Dev-Em attempting to stop an Ontiir clone from sinking the coastline. Ontirr takes the Legion applicants out and it is through the appearance of a strange ship holding a creature known as Quislet.
Ontiir vs. Quislet
Quislet pops out of the ship and pops into Ontiir’s laser chair and animates the chair and uses it to take out Ontiir. Right after, the chair disintegrates and Quislet is then forced back into his ship.
The Legion is summarily impressed and admits Quislet, but rejects Comet Queen and Dev-Em rejects the Legion to stay in the Interstellar Spy Corps.
That leaves Sensor Girl.
Who is Sensor Girl and what are her powers will be a mystery solved later, but lets leave it at this.. Saturn Girl personally urges the Legionnaires to admit her stating “trust me Legionnaires, Sensor Girl has the best of reasons to join the Legion.”
Magnetic Kid, Tellus, Quislet, Polar Boy, and Sensor Girl all inducted into the Legion of Super-Heroes
And that is all for the Legion for a little bit folks. We have one stop to make back in Titansland and then we move on to one of the most major series of stories in the DC Universe ever written.
Next Up: Titans Time! Lilith! Azrael! Kole!
Lingering In Limbo
0After the Legion defeats the Legion of Super-Villains they find themselves adrift in a bubble in a sea of limbo.
Together Ultra Boy, Phantom Girl, Element Lad, Shrinking Violet, and Chameleon Boy make their way to a strange planet full of industrial machinery making something.. though they are not certain what at first. The only concern our five heroes have is does this planet have the technology to send them home again?
The only thing that was certain is that the planet’s machinery wanted the Legionnaires dead and they began to attack the Legion in wave after wave. Phantom Girl managed to escape the machines long enough to discover that this planet is where the alien race The Controllers, or at least one of their race, have their ultimate weapon created, the Sun Eater. This planet is in full production and is building a new Sun Eater now.
Back home in the Legion’s real universe, Lightning Lass has rejoined the Legion and is welcomed with open arms from all but one, the frustrated Timber Wolf. Lightning Lass makes it crystal clear that she is here for the Legion, not for him, and that their new relationship must be professional in nature from here on out.
The Legion is not unaware of the Sun Eater’s destructive capability since the first Sun Eater was responsible for the creation of the Fatal Five and the untimely death of Ferro Lad. The Legion’s decision, destroy the factory, regardless of whether or not they can make it home or not.
As the Legionnaires make their plans the Controller returns and speaks to his lackey who is in control of the factory world. The Lackey sees the Legion there on his screens and has to deal with them and it turns out the lackey is not without his own defenses. It takes a surprise Controller (a disguised Chameleon Boy) to catch the guy by surprise to knock him out long enough for the Legion to carry out their plan.
The plan involves the room of portals where the Controller and his lackey come and go freely from world to world and one of those worlds have an Earth on the top of it, so is that not convenient? The Legion sends the little guy through the portal that the Controller went through, Element Lad changes the building into fissionable material and changes a rock into a nasty bit of payload to set off a chain reaction as the Legion makes their exit from the death factory world, Ultra Boy sends the rock into the building setting off a chain reaction that destroys the world.
The Legion finally reunites in the Baxter run and everyone is brought up to date with Karate Kid’s death, Lightning Lass’ rejoining of the Legion, the lost Legionnaires rejoin the Legion, the romance of Shvaughn Erin and Element Lad heats up quite a few notches, while Shrinking Violet has some long overdue words with Yera Allon…
Violet lays down the law for us all here, stating that she is forgetting, but not forgiving any time soon what Yera did when she impersonated her in the Legion and if Yera ever impersonates her again. well there will be hell to pay.
An alert comes through and Element Lad has to interrupt his reunion with Shvaughn to handle the alert. He, Invisible Kid, Violet, Lightning Lass, and Chameleon Boy go to investigate some organ pirates, a very popular crime in the 30th century, and discover the organs being smuggled off world by Sklarians, a matriarchal society of women who are a more amoral version of the Amazons.
It takes some work from the Legion Espionage Squad, but they manage to get the goods on the gals and they get to go to jail for a good long time.
Over in the last story in the Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes, which will soon enter reprints of the stories in the Baxter run, we see three of the mightiest Legionnaires assisting Dev-Em who seems to be beside himself… well beside his clones at least.
As the Legionnaires encounter the Dark Circle again, we discover that the evil Circle has stolen Dev-Em’s DNA causing a slew of Kryptonian clones to run amuck in the 30th Century, something that cannot be allowed. As the Legion discovers the cause of the problem, the White Witch offers the simplest of solutions and casts a spell causing Dev-Em to reabsorb all his DNA. Apparently, this was a little … painful for Dev-Em, but considering Dev-Em’s usually abrasive attitude towards the Legion, it was satisfying for me to see him squeal like a pig.
Once Dev-Em is all sealed back up inside himself, it is fairly easy for the Legion to mop up the rest of the Dark Circle and move on with life, which is a good thing, because with the end of Tales, comes the end of an era of the Legion…
The Legion serves well protecting three candidates for President of EarthGov from Khund assassins, even if Invisible Kid did subconsciously teleport himself and the Khund assassin into the vacuum of space, killing the assassin. Mojai Desai takes over for Marte Allon who has retired from politics and is enjoying teaching university again.
Will Desai’s administration be good to the Legion? We will just have to wait and sleep on it.
Next Up: The Legion’s Changing of the Guard.
Three Tales of the Legion…
0While the Legion was dealing with the Legion of Super-Villains, other events were going on in their Tales book, which if you will remember was going on at the same time.
Tales was a great place to focus on those characters that did not get a lot of attention in the main fight of the LSH vs. LSV so here we have a little tale that hangs on Cosmic Boy with the Substitute Heroes. Cosmic Boy is attempting to wrap up the Firebomber incident that killed his mom and while they find their man, the villain is a wiley one and he manages to trap them off in space leaving it up to Legion Academy students to save them. See? Even a veteran Legionnaire like Cosmic Boy can run into trouble and need a little help from his friends.
Meanwhile the mystery of the two Invisible Kids comes to the fore front. At the end of the Prophet and Omen story, a being claiming to be Lyle Norg appears out of a space warp and now Jacques Foccart decides it is time for them to explore how Lyle came back from the dead. Of course, it is a trap. Lyle is not Lyle at all, but rather the Dream Demon that had trapped Wildfire before and to make matters worse as Jacques tries to leave the dimension, he summons Wildfire to him in the Dream Dimension to fight off the Dream Demon.
Wildfire and Invisible Kid come out of it okay however and all is well with the Dream Demon hopefully put down for good. As Mon-El and Shadow Lass are finishing up cleaning up the LSV stragglers in our dimension, a strange summons comes through and it appears that Shady’s cousin, Grev, Shadow Kid, is getting married to the leader of the rival tribe of mountain barbarians named Lady Memory.
Of course, he is not doing this without a little bit of duress, as you can see. Shady and Mon-El should be able to handle this right? Wrong. Lady Memory’s powers include being able to take all those memories of ones past and flood your brain with it, with Mon-El, that is 1,000 years of trapped in the Phantom Zone memories so Mon-El goes loco.
Mon-El gets a little help from some friends to get back under control and when Lady Memory attempts to take out Shadow Lass using the same trick, Shady clocks her one in the head. Memories after all, are only memories.
Next Up: The Magpie Strikes the LSH HQ, Brainiac 5 and Dawnstar go searching for the missing Legionnaires, and the Legion vs. the Dark Circle.
A Legionnaire Falls
0On the planet Orando, the Legion of Super-Villains has made its new headquarters, easily taking over the medieval world and downing the cruiser of Queen Projectra and Karate Kid upon their return to their homeworld. The so far silent leader of the Legion of Super-Villain twists the Legion flight ring and says something rather cryptic.
“Then let me twist their alarm signal, as I once did as a Legionnaire—and let them come running to their doom.” – Unknown Leader of the LSV…
The Legion fresh from their detour keeping Mordru under wraps leaves the Sorcerer’s World of Xerox and follows the signal only to land in the midst of one of Zymyr’s teleportation warps, only Dawnstar is swift enough to evade the trap as it sucks Ultra Boy, Mon-El, Wildfire, and the Legion Cruiser containing Shadow Lass, Phantom Girl, Timber Wolf, Chameleon Boy, and White Witch.
On Earth, Element Lad rallies the remaining Legionnaires on Earth to the rescue leaving Cosmic Boy on duty on Earth and Invisible Kid II who is mysteriously missing at this point along with his back from the dead counterpart Lyle Norg.
In the dungeons of the Castle Royal of Orando, Light Lass awakens to see Karate Kid and Projectra imprisoned in machines. Light Lass is feeling rather helpless, but when her brother Lightning Lord comes in for one last attempt at conversion, she refuses.
Lightning Lord: ”… Change your mind, Join us. Survive.”
Light Lass: ”No.”
Lightning Lord: ”You are a fool, Ayla, to believe I can protect you much longer. I am Lord of the Lightning, but not master here. DO you not want to live?”
Light Lass: ”No.”
Lightning Lord: ”Please, sister—Let Esper Lass Into your mind–Let her fix you, so you no longer are deluded. Aid us willingly and you too may make the passage to the new universe that waits for us, a universe we shall rule.”
Light Lass: ”No.”
Lightning Lord: ”I am your brother damn you. Obey me and live.”
Light Lass: ”No.”
Things do not look good for our heroine, now do they?
Outside the Royal Castle we see that Dream Girl, Star Boy, and Shrinking Violet’s cruiser has crashed as well, no doubt through another teleportation warp that Zymyr used. Dream Girl awakens first and recognizes the castle itself from her prophecy in which a Legionnaire dies. Dream Girl is ambushed by Hunter and Silver Slasher and we are left to wonder about the three Legionnaires fate as the scene shifts.
In space near Orando, the remaining Legionnaires are fighting for their lives against most of the LSV and appear to be losing while reinforcements arrive via Element Lad, Dawnstar, Brainiac 5, Blok, Sun Boy, and Colossal Boy.
Back on Orando, we see what the supervillains are referring to with regards to this great passage they are taking. The fusion powersphere has been assembled around Orando and the fusion powerspheres have been placed in it in order to transport the planet itself to another dimension where the Legion of Super-Heroes does not exist. One in which the villains will be able to conquer and rule.
We also see who the leader of the Legion of Super-Villains is, the Legion Traitor known as Nemesis Kid.
Taking a page back from an older Legion story introducing Karate Kid, Princess Projectra, Ferro Lad, and Nemesis Kid, the story inducted all four of them into the Legion but it was fairly obvious early on that one of them was a traitor. Nemesis Kid spent the story working for the Khunds while simultaneously framing Karate Kid for his crimes. The Legion turned on Karate Kid, but in the end Nemesis Kid gave himself away and was teleported away by the Khunds. This group of new inductees shall forever be tied together by bonds of betrayal and blood.
The next time the Legion encountered Nemesis Kid, he was a member of the Legion of Super-Villains training academy that had blackmailed Colossal Boy into turning traitor.
Now, Nemesis Kid had ruthlessly wrested control of the Legion of Super-Villains and demanded vengeance of each of the new members, each must kill a Legionnaire. Nemesis Kid’s ability is to adapt any power to make himself immune to the power of another person. His goal, the death of Karate Kid.
Once it appears the tide has shifted and the Legion of Super-Villains is losing the battle, Nemesis Kid calls his plan into action and teleports Orando away and any Legionnaires who happen to be in the wake with them.
On Medicus One, we visit the new parents of Graym Ranzz, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl on the holocomm(phone) with Cosmic Boy discussing the new plans they may have with the Legion.
Back in space near Orando, we discover that the Legion of Super-Villains succeeded in kidnapping Element Lad, Phantom Girl, Ultra Boy, Shrinking Violet, and Chameleon Boy. Putting Dream Girl back in charge as Acting Deputy Leader with Star Boy back in his role as temporary Deputy Leader.
The storm rages on Orando in its limbo dimension as the Legion of Super-Villains debate their next move. We see here the eventual beginning of the breakdown in most villain organizations, control and passion. While Tyr wants to go after the Legionnaires in the other dimension some of the other villains are content to be happy with the eight Legionnaires that they have hostage now.
Nemesis Kid decides to give Tyr his chance and lets him take those who want in a cruiser to go attack the Legionnaires from the safety of the limbo dimension. As the Legion waits, in another instance now Wildfire has disappeared (do not worry however, his disappearance has nothing to do with the Legion of Super-Villains, but instead of where Invisible Kid II happens to be).
On Orando, Light Lass wakes up from what was believed to be a fatal attack from her brother. She is aching and hurting but yells out and manages to blast off her power dampeners to which she believes is just dumb luck at this point. Upon leaving her cell she sees that the other Legionnaires have been captured and are in the same machines as Karate Kid and Projectra. Light Lass says to Karate Kid that her powers are really useless and that she is going to go get some help.
Karate Kid halfway believes her then he realizes that the machine is sapping his strength or will. Karate Kid being a master of finding a flaw finds a way to break out of the machine and soon frees the others.
Karate Kid: ”Your powers— the others– All Inborn or accidents. I BUILT MINE, every day of my life. No Machine… unhhhh.. can take them…. AWAY!”
Light Lass has stowed away on the ship that Tyr, Hunter, Silver Slasher, Terrus, and Titania have taken in order to hunt down the remaining Legionnaires. Realizing she has one shot at this she spots an open circuit board and rips a few wires out causing a backlash in the bridge that electrocutes Hunter, Tyr, and Silver Slasher.
Leaving Terrus and Titania conscious, Light Lass now faces the two remaining villains.. or perhaps I should correct that…as it appears that Lightning Lass is back. The bolts that Lightning Lord sent through Ayla Ranzz changed her powers back from nullifying gravity into electrical powers. The villains who were prepared for “gravity lightning girl” were unprepared for the electrical barrage Lightning Lass unleashed and she takes the cruiser back to Orando to help the Legionnaires to fight the remaining villains.
Checking in on Earth, Dream Girl sees that Cosmic Boy has called in help from the Legion of Substitute Heroes and the Legion Academy to assist in the Legion’s time of need to help protect Earth in the place of the main team, still in space looking for their lost comrades.
The seven Legionnaires having escaped from their prison attempt to find a way to stop the supervillains’ plans. Element Lad theorizes the fusion powerspheres are possibly the weak point but before they can all fly off to that point, Karate Kid releases himself from Chameleon Boy’s grip in order to confront the traitor Nemesis Kid. The Legionnaires are confronted by a team of villains and are soon struggling to stay conscious, Projectra flies off to find Karate Kid.
Karate Kid and Nemesis Kid are locked in mortal combat, as Karate Kid lies unconscious, Projectra attempts to intervene only to have Nemesis Kid adapt immunity to her illusions and to begin striking her repeatedly in the face. Karate Kid then rises again to defend his wife.
Projectra watches as Karate Kid sacrifices himself.
Karate Kid, more than likely already suffering from fatal internal injuries from the beating he took at Nemesis Kid’s hands flies into a fusion power sphere in order to stop the Legion of Super-Villains from completing its task and moving to another dimension fully.
Next Time: One Legionnaire dead. Six Legionnaires helpless. One returning to help save them all. Its time for An Eye For An Eye.
Curses Fulfilled…
0As we open part two of the Legion of Super-Heroes vs. the Legion of Super-Villains, we see that Light Lass has been placed as a prisoner in a dungeon of some sorts with power dampeners on her arms. Her older brother Lightning Lord comes to pay her a little visit in hopes of recruiting her to the cause of the LSV. It appears that Lightning Lord has gone completely insane as he now says that storms are speaking to him. Light Lass refuses the offer, but Lightning Lord swears that he will obey him or die.
Some of the members of the Legion of Super-Villains starting upper-left corner and moving clockwise: (Spider Girl, Ol-Vir, Micro Lad, Cosmic King, Mist Master, Lazon, Sun Emperor, Radiation Roy, Terrus, Lightning Lord, Silver Slasher, and Terrus).
On M-17W, Lazon, Titania, and Magno Lad are stealing fusion powerspheres for a project that the LSV has planned when they are interrupted by Wildfire and Dawnstar. While the heroes get the villains on the run for a little bit, they are then overpowered when Dawnstar is attacked by Lazon and Wildfire’s suit is compromised when he is distracted.
The Legion gathers its intel and comes to the conclusion that there is indeed a new LSV that has been formed and they set about attempting to figure out what their main goal is for the time being.
Back on M-17W, Mon-El arrives in time to save Dawnstar from falling into the planet’s surface. Titania is able to distract Ultra Boy and Mon-El long enough for the villains to get away with their spoils before any more Legionnaires show up. With Dawnstar’s wounds tended to and a new suit for Wildfire they intend to track the villains down.
On Medicus One, a very pregnant Saturn Girl is set to give birth to her child, while she, Lightning Lad, and Cosmic Boy discuss the current situation regarding the LSV and more importantly long term plans for the Legion itself.
At the LSV’s hq we see a full meeting room of Super-Villains, Cosmic King, Spider Girl, Ol-Vir, Terrus, Radiation Roy, Esper Lass, Lightning Lord, Neutrax, Chameleon Chief, Sun Emperor, Silver Slasher, Mist Master, and Ron-Karr. The placement of Lightning Lord as the Jesus Christ in the image of the Last Supper tribute would seem to imply he is the leader of this LSV, but that would be a mistaken assumption.
Back on Earth, the Legion is scattered searching for the villains when an alert comes in that the LSV is attacking the polymer screen that surrounds the Earth. With only Element Lad to respond, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl assist him, despite all protests Saturn Girl insists, but she is at a severe disadvantage as her labor begins while she is in the sights of the villain Tyr. When Lightning Lad sees this Sun Emperor begins to take advantage of the situation as Zymyr warps the villains away before their vengeance can be taken.
Wildfire, Dawnstar, Mon-El, Ultra Boy, Shadow Lass, Timber Wolf, and Chameleon Boy are following the trail to find the villains only to have Terrus set off an asteroid belt trap to attack them. As the Legionnaires fight back Terrus wonders if he will be the first to kill a Legionnaire.
As Karate Kid and Queen Projectra arrive at Orando after their honeymoon, we discover that this is where the LSV has been headquartered, in the royal castle. The cruiser they are in is taken down with ease and a villain takes Karate Kid’s Legion flight ring and twists the alarm to send the Legion coming to their doom.
But, before that can happen there is the matter of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl’s impending childbirth happening on Medicus One.
While pursuing a lead to Avalon, where Mordru is imprisoned, the White Witch, Colossal Boy, Phantom Girl, and Cosmic Boy they discover that Mordru has been unearthed. It turns out a cabal of wizards unrelated to the LSV have taken the mage and are attempting to reanimate him with using some residual magic left over from the time of the Great Darkness. In doing so, they magically kidnap Shadow Kid and Shadow Lass, causing Dawnstar to attempt to track where Shadow Lass and her cousin are being held in stasis for the focus to reproduce darkness throughout the universe.
This happens simultaneously with Saturn Girl’s body giving child birth. The two Legion teams come upon the hideout of the mages and defeat them, keep Mordru from waking up, and save the Shadow cousins from further harm. On Medicus One, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad welcome a baby boy that they name Graym.
Off on a dark planet, a babe in swaddling clothes appears, Graym’s twin… the baby is approached by Darkseid, who says that he shall change the child and twist its appearance so no one will know him and send him back in time to meet his parents before they even thought to have him. Darkseid names the child Validus. Thus Darkseid’s curse is fulfilled.
Next Up: Its Legion vs. Legion as a Legionnaire dies!!!
The Villains Are Coming…
0As the Legion began its Baxter run, the regular Legion run became Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes while the new title became the first Legion of Super-Heroes #1 ever.
The problem with reviewing these issues is that in continuity they came out concurrently, meaning the events happening in LSH #1 were happening roughly at the same time as the events in Tales of the LSH #314… hence the dilemma of how to simplify this for the novice reader. So, lets finish up some old business in Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes before tackling the major arc of Legion of Super-Heroes #1-5.
As we open the Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes we discover Sun Boy, Brainiac Five, and Supergirl on hand as witnesses for the Trial of Ontirr, the traitorous Science Police officer who collaborated with the Emerald Empress back in LSH #302-303. It turns out that Ontirr is a member of the villainous Dark Circle, the group of shadowy anarchists threatening to undermine the United Planets.
While the Legion is busy putting Ontirr and a whole bunch of Dark Circle clones in their places… (and pay attention because that is going to come back to haunt us in a bit…) We get the White Witch’s origin story in a back-up piece starring the White Witch and Blok.
Brainy and Supergirl share a few sweet moments here at the end and that’s good because this marks her last Legion of Super-Heroes appearance… (don’t worry, we’ll get to that story sooner than you think.).
Meanwhile, over in Legion of Super-Heroes #1, lets remind us of the subplots going on before going forward, because for the most part “Tales” is a great parking spot for some of the cast for some individual character stories and a great Dawnstar/Brainiac Five story, for the most part, LSH#1 on is where the meat and potatoes of the story is at this point.
- Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl are expecting their first child.
- Colossal Boy fell in love with and married Yera, who was replacing Shrinking Violet.
- Star Boy was glad that Dream Girl lost the leader election to Element Lad.
- Shrinking Violet had been replaced by Yera Allon, Violet was rescued and sent into rehab.
- Light Lass broke her relationship off with Timber Wolf and left the Legion.
- Dream Girl had a premonition that a Legionnaire would die.
- Queen Projectra and her consort Karate Kid got married.
- Dawnstar left on a grand quest to find herself, only to find Wildfire again and their relationship rekindled.
As the story opens we see a very arcane stone carving featuring all the Legionnaire’s symbols and blood oaths being taken by a group of villains swearing to kill a Legionnaire each, starting with Lightning Lord vowing he will kill his brother Lightning Lad.
On Ventura, Dream Girl and Star Boy are enjoying a vacation even though Dream Girl recently had a vision foretelling the death of a Legionnaire. The casino they are in is being robbed by Micro Lad, the same Imskian terrorist that held Shrinking Violet hostage for a while. Being Legionnaires, there is no such thing as a vacation, so Dream Girl and Star Boy go in hot pursuit forcing Micro Lad to shrink away to avoid them.
On Daxam, a group of Legionnaires are helping repair the damage done by Darkseid when they are interrupted by a communique to inform them that Takron-Galtos appears to be under attack by a renegade Daxamite. Mon-El grabs Shadow Lass and takes off leaving the others to follow in the cruiser.
Back on Ventura, Micro Lad is trapped by the Legionnaires who have called in the newly recovered Shrinking Violet in her first active duty case since the Nullport incident. When Violet confronts her former captor, Micro Lad thinks he has found his easy way out. (Never underestimate a pissed off heroine, folks) Needless to say, she kicks Micro Lad’s ass all over that room only to have him disappear on her in a space warp.
On Winath, we find the now retired Light Lass enjoying farm life. As she is taking a bin of harvest off to the storage barn she is ambushed by a Legion Reject named Radiation Roy and taken hostage, presumably under Lightning Lord’s orders.
On Takron-Galtos, the Legionnaires arrive to find the maddened Daxamite child Ol-Vir who has broken free and is wreaking havoc screaming about the coming of the darkness. Mon-El takes personal offense to this and its on.
Back on Earth Colossal Boy discovers that his mother has resigned the position of President of Earth as he and Yera are moving into their new home. The Private Detective that Timber Wolf hired to find Light Lass writes his last report to Timber Wolf.
Back at Takron-Galtos, Ol-Vir and other inmates of Takron-Galtos are beamed up into the same type of warp that summoned Micro Lad and the mention of “The Legion of Super-Villains” occurs.
Next Up: Darkseid’s Curse Fulfilled!!!
Ka-Boom! Time to Redecorate!
0In the 30th Century.. while everyone else is dealing with the Omen and Prophet story, the Legion left Brainiac Five on Earth who is very close to discovering a cure for Invisible Kid II’s baby sister who turned into a host for the villainous C.O.M.P.U.T.O.
Well, it did not go without a few hitches….
2984? Yes, back then the Legion was always automatically 1,000 years ahead of where we stood now.
As you can tell from the cover, the Legion Headquarters goes Ka-Boom! In it’s place not only do we get a cured Danielle Foccart and a new sleek metallic headquarters, but the villain C.O.M.P.U.T.O. becomes the Legion’s new Major Domo, much to the horrified shock of Duo Damsel and her husband Bouncing Boy.
All in all, the Legion HQ is rebuilt into a sleek new metallic construct that can actually fly (though it hardly ever did) and Danielle Foccart is on the road to recovery.
And because all good geeks love maps of headquarters…
Neato huh? I find it amusing that only the invulnerable members “live” near Brainy’s Multi-Lab for safety reasons… Very nice touch.
Then its up to the Legion to stop a conspiracy within the Science Police, which they succeed of course.
And the Legion of Super-Heroes, in this format, ends.. I know, sad is it not?
But wait, there is a light on the horizon!!!!
You see both Legion and New Teen Titans were amongst DC’s biggest sellers in the 80s, so it was decided that they would be printed in a special format called the “Baxter Format.” Once this was done both Legion of Super-Heroes and The New Teen Titans were renumbered back to #1 with the starting issues. To complicate matters, comic book stores in the direct market would be the only ones to carry these comics. No longer could you find them on the racks at your local gas station or mom and pop store, but for a year, DC printed regular newsprint versions of Legion and Titans with new stories in them.
For one year you had stories in both Legion of Super-Heroes and Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes going on at the same time. While for Titans, you had Tales of the New Teen Titans happening prior to the Baxter run of the New Teen Titans even though they were being printed at the same time.
Confused? Don’t be. That’s why I am here.
Next up: Tales of the New Teen Titans!
Prophets, Omens, and Filler.
0The Legion’s stories continue in a four part story featuring two very esoteric characters called Omen and Prophet. The story is my least favorite of the Legion stories that I have read in the original Levitz run, but it does have some interesting art pieces and some twists and turns that pay off later.
As the Legion deals with Prophet foretelling the coming of his Master, Omen, a few other Legionnaires deal with personal matters as we see Colossal Boy taking his new Durlan wife Yera home to meet mom and dad in a revisit of “Guess Who is Coming to Dinner?” Gim reveals to his dad and mom, mom being the President of Earth, that his wife is actually Yera, a Durlan actress.
On their honeymoon, Queen Projectra and Karate Kid are on a honeymoon planet, only to find that Projectra’s cousin Pharoxx is there making trouble for the couple. Karate Kid (King?) and Queen Projectra make short work of the usurping cousin, but before they can do anything with him, he disappears in a space warp. A plot hole to be continued later.
The ending of the Prophet and Omen story brings us another sub plot to be solved later.. Lyle Norg, the original Invisible Kid, appears in a warp and appears to be alive and well.
The most amusing part of this four parter is the fact that Element Lad is told by several people he was elected leader, but he doesn’t believe it form anyone until he gets yelled at by Chief Zendak of the Science Police. He was a write-in vote after all and had been runner-up four times prior, so I understand his wish not to be the brunt of a cruel hazing from his Legion teammates.
This is what I call seeding the future, the Legion is due to “end” soon and branch into two titles, one called Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes and the other being printed on a better quality of paper called Baxter paper, and that book being called Legion of Super-Heroes, which actually is their first #1 issue ever after starting way back in Adventure #247, prior to the creation of the Justice League of America. The Legion went from a long stint in Adventure, to Action, to sharing Superboy and the book eventually became to be called Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, and then finally became Legion of Super-Heroes in #259 as Superboy left the regular Legion cast.
While the Prophet and Omen story did nothing for me personally (see how much you found out about those two while we’ve been talking?) the seeds planted are about to bear some deadly fruit.
Next Up: More Legion as Brainiac Five blows up the headquarters again, this time with a little help from C.O.M.P.U.T.O. and the regular LSH title comes to a close.
Shrinking Violets and Star Boys
1The Legion is debating adding some new members to their ranks with the departure of Projectra and Karate Kid and where else to look but to the Legion Academy, the training ground of many of the members of the Legion.
At this writing the Legion Academy’s student body consists of Shadow Kid, Power Boy, Crystal Kid, Nightwind, Lamprey, Laurel Kent, Comet Queen, Urk, and Magnetic Kid. Since both Shadow Kid and Magnetic Kid duplicate current Legionnaires powers (Shadow Lass and Cosmic Boy) both are ineligible for promotion, the others however are eager for the chance to move up to the big leagues.
Joining the Academy, Invisible Kid II and White Witch appear for a few lessons in how to be a Legionnaire since they were both elected to membership on the fly. Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel stress the need for teamwork which is key in an organization like the Legion. Acknowledging their powers are not the strongest, but they are each pieces of the whole and everyone’s powers, when used properly can be an asset to the Legion. The students soon get a test as a few animals break out of the Metropolis Zoo. The students manage to subdue the creatures, but the egos tend to get in the way of good clean teamwork.
The lady academy members seem to be especially cliquish here on whether or not Wildfire is a great Legionnaire or a bag of hot air. Lamprey and Nightwind worship Wildfire as he told his origin story to them and they know what he has been through, the more brash Laurel Kent and newbie Comet Queen however view him as arrogant and a pain in the ass. It is up to the White Witch and Invisible Kid to teach the students a lesson in humility as White Witch shows each of the students a sad scene outside. Dawnstar is leaving the Legion to go on her Great Tour of the Galaxy as is her people’s custom. At the end of this Grand Tour, she will find her mate. Wildfire begs her not to go, but as Dawnstar cannot see a future with Wildfire due to the inability to be close physically, she leaves. Wildfire purposely explodes his suit in frustration.
The active members meet to confer regarding promoting any of the Academy Members, based on the data they have at their fingertips, it is decided that none of the Legion Academy members are ready for the duty of being a Legionnaire. As we see statues of the previously fallen Legionnaires, Star Boy makes a poignant observation.
“Better no new Legionnaire.. than another dead one.” – Star Boy
In the next issue we discover where Chameleon Boy, Element Lad, and Brainiac Five have gone as they managed to get Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet on a cruiser due to Imsk needing Violet right away.
As you can tell, this does not go well for Shrinking Violet at all… lets peek in and see what happened, shall we?
In orbit above Imsk, Shrinking Violet’s home planet, the Legion try to confine Colossal Boy and then spray “Violet” with a gas called Cancellite, created by Supergirl. Cancellite cancels the powers of Durlans temporarily. After being sprayed, the real Violet would be able to demonstrate her ability to grow or shrink… “Violet” is unable to do so…
Talk about your interracial marriages eh? You did get that while in the Himalayas Colossal Boy and “Violet” secretly married, right? Well, they did. Colossal Boy, the good Jewish boy of the Legion is now married to a Durlan who betrayed one of his teammates, but unintentionally.
Yera is a Durlan actress and was tired of being accused that her only talent was her shape changing. She longed to prove herself as a true actress and when the Imskian Underground contacted her she jumped at the chance to assume the role, having been told that Shrinking Violet was on vacation. Yera vowed not to betray the Legion or their secrets, but swore than she would become Shrinking Violet even amongst those who know her best.
When Shrinking Violet returns to Imsk, the Underground finds her and they kidnap her back to their headquarters.
The real Violet, missing since she got back from the Nullport mission, had been trapped in a Sens-Tank all this time, her knowledge of UP military and Legion secrets being sapped from her over a period of months.
You could almost argue this was a fate worse than death.
The Legion does not take this well to say the least, and Chameleon Boy then reveals that he was the Yera that the Underground captured. The rebels laugh him off saying that the cell he is in is impervious to Durlans escaping…well remember this folks, not all Durlans are created the same.
Cham easily breaks the bag and thanks to the radioactive material that Brainy sprayed Cham with the other Legionnaires were able to burst in and demolish the rebels and rescue Shrinking Violet. While the real Violet is taken into Dr. Gym’ll’s care, Colossal Boy is left to deal with his wife. After Yera says that she understands if Colossal Boy wants to divorce her, he says no, he fell in love with Yera and they are married. Then the horrible thought hits him.. .what does he tell his mom?
We get a revisit of Star Boy’s origin as he and Wildfire discuss the results of the Legion election. Star Boy hoping that Dream Girl is not elected leader again as he has missed having Nura to himself again, Wildfire dashes that saying that Dreamy has done a great job as leader and as the Legionnaires watch the votes come in in a neck to neck race to the end.
Star Boy constantly laments that he is the unluckiest Legionnaire, being the 13th member inducted to the Legion, having had his original Superboy level powers taken away to just the ability to make things super-heavy, being expelled from the Legion for killing an ex-boyfriend of Dream Girl, Kenz Nuhor, being forced to join the Substitute Heroes, having to rejoin the Legion under false pretenses as Sir Prize, and now being relegated to a fourth banana Deputy Leader under Dream Girl as the first two Legionnaires declined the job.
Wildfire counters that his life sucks even more as his life long love Dawnstar has recently flown out of his life, perhaps forever.
As the two pessimists commiserate, the Legion election results roll in.
Element Lad is voted in as Leader, finally as a write-in vote due to his work in finding and rescuing Shrinking Violet, Dream Girl is his deputy leader.
Next Up: Omen and Prophet! Honeymoons! Family Dinners! and a Resurrection! More Legion up next!
afao;f;ehe
Family Troubles
0In the future, the Legion of Super-Heroes is in a resting period for most of the team as we see Chameleon Boy and his father R.J. Brande return to the highly toxic and xenophobic tribal world of their origin, Durla.
The team also gets a few new costumes as showcased here on this cover, a tribute to an older Legion cover from its Silver Age origins in Adventure Comics. When the father/son pair arrive on Durla, immediately they are set upon by their fellow tribal Durlans for leaving Durla. The Durlans appear as a race in large purple robes with tentacles come from the hood, presumably these tentacles transform into the antennae we see Cham wear. R.J. Brande, Cham’s father, is also powerless at this time and has been stuck in his form of an older humanoid male since the origin of the Legion when the founders stopped the assassination attempt on his life.
R.J. had arranged for Reep/Chameleon Boy to join the Legion in its early days as a way of helping Durlan relations with the rest of the United Planets, but Durla itself remains a reluctant world. A toxic atmosphere laced with radiation and pollution, the counsel of Durla imprisons Chameleon Boy and R.J. Brande and drops them into one of the largest cess pools on the planet, forcing them to claw their way back to freedom.
Chameleon Boy manages to regain his powers through a very bizarre alien ritual, as is fitting a Durlan, and the two leave (escape) from their homeworld again, strangers in a strange land indeed.
While we leave the father/son fun behind, we find we have a brother/brother heart-to-heart as the evil Lightning Lord comes looking for his little sister Ayla, who if you will remember is Light Lass and who left the Legion not too long ago. Lightning Lord attacks the Legion in an effort to find Ayla, his motives remain a mystery for the time being, however it is soon revealed that Light Lass was to be captured for the burgeoning Legion of Super-Villains and Lightning Lord intended to protect his little sister from the other villains’ evil designs.
At the end of the story, Lightning Lad reveals that he does not know where Ayla is and he only hopes that she is happy, which she is, while off panel, but we will get to that revelation later.
With Supergirl still in the future (hey, check the Superman III ad!!!! Finally a Superman movie without Lex Luthor.. just Richard Pryor.. fine.. moving on).. she Brainiac Five, Colossal Boy, Sun Boy, and Shrinking Violet find themselves on the artificially created Weber’s World which has been usurped by The Emerald Empress, formerly of the Fatal Five and her collaborator, the Dark Circle’s Science Police mole, Ontirr.
Additionally, the sub plot of the Legion imposter moves forward as evidence piles up that perhaps there is someone masquerading as a Legionnaire, which leaves the questions, who is it and where is the original Legionnaire? But enough time to worry about that in a few issues, because first we have a wedding to attend.
Welcome all, to the wedding of Queen Projectra and her consort Karate Kid. They wed in relative peace and quiet, as the drama in this issue is brought on by the fact that when Superboy pops through the time stream he sends a cruiser full of Legionnaires back in time to fight the Olympian Gods. Dream Girl’s precognition reveals that the Olympian Gods in question are actually Durlans masquerading as Gods on Earth and she forsees the cataclysm they bring to Durla in the Six-Minute War, a veiled reference to what a nuclear war and aftermath might look like.
The Legionnaires manage to get forward in the future, however they miss the royal wedding event of the United Planets! Oh well, better luck next time.
Next up: The Legion Academy! The Missing Legionnaire Revealed! Focus on Star Boy!