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Posts tagged Dawnstar
Legion: A New Legionnaire Comes Forth
Apr 7th
When last we left our heroes they were in various death traps that had been concocted by their old foe C.O.M.P.U.T.O. so let us continue to see if the Legion can survive the rest of the book…
Page 15. C.O.M.P.U.T.O. is gloating to Brainiac Five by showing him and Jacques Foccart the fates that the other Legionnaires are succumbing to in their own headquarters. Jacques believes that their enemy is bluffing but Brainiac Five informs Jacques that C.O.M.P.U.T.O. cannot bluff and in fact is fairly close to suffocating the two of them as well as the unconscious Dream Girl and paralyzed Mon-El. Meanwhile, Danielle Foccart who is possessed by the vile computer foe is grinning maliciously.
Page 16. A comical moment as Blok has landed on the floor underneath the pool he attempted to dive into and fell directly through it. As Timber Wolf preps his dive he is strangled and lifted off the ground by a pair of roman rings while a gymnastics horse is propelled into Blok. The Science Police have located the vacationing Wildfire and Dawnstar to alert them to the problem. The Legion cliche of an interrupted vacation lives on.
Page 17. A moment of exposition is delivered by Marte Allon who is not only Colossal Boy’s mother but also the President of EarthGov. As President Allon is dealing with all sorts of security issues related to the situation at Legion Headquarters a 30th Century member of the Green Lantern Corps contacts President Allon to inform them that the Guardians of the Universe have dispatched a Green Lantern to assist with the situation. President Allon tells the Green Lantern that respectfully that Earth does not need their help and to have their comrade turn around. The Green Lantern envoy tells President Allon that he will deliver the word to the Guardians and signs off the communication. When questioned, President Allon says there is a very good reason why Green Lanterns are not allowed on Earth. A story the editor tells us will be told in the future.
Page 18. Danielle Foccart is showing definite signs of biological distress at the invasion of C.O.M.P.U.T.O. Brainiac Five deduces that Danielle is the key to solving the problem but he needs to figure out how to solve this situation and quick. The mysterious dark one on the planet far away has sensed a power rising in the universe that must be absorbed.
Page 19. Light Lass is assisting Phantom Girl and Ultra Boy moving Ultra Boy’s belongings from storage after he was missing for a time. Phantom Girl is attacked by a vacuum that sucks the air out of her lungs before she can switch to her phantom form, as Ultra Boy and Light Lass react, Ultra Boy’s room explodes. The mysterious dark one sends a servant off to acquire the power. Presumably the power is C.O.M.P.U.T.O.
Page 20. In Central Park, Chameleon Boy is reading the headlines that are calling him a traitor. While Chameleon Boy enjoys his last few moments of freedom Science Police ships arrive. The dark servant arrives at Earth and encounters the Polymer Screen.
Page 21-22 Gives us a sweet blueprint of the Legion Headquarters under the pretext of Officer Shvaughn Erin looking up the schematics to try to find a way around C.O.M.P.U.T.O.
Page 23. On this page Brainy begins to fight back. He palms two telepathic plugs from his belt and then feigns a faint and asks Foccart for help. C.O.M.P.U.T.O. mocks him and when Foccart gets there Brainy speaks through the telepathic plug that he NOT react to the telepathic communication.
Page 24. The cruiser containing Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet is zooming towards the Polymer Screen as Wildfire and Dawnstar intercept it. Wildfire blasts the cruiser and Colossal Boy falls out having not got a new flight ring since his time on the ice asteroid. Wildfire happens to find Violet falling in the debris as well and he catches her in his hand. The Dark Servant continues to make its way to the screen surrounding Earth.
Page 25. Element Lad is exhausted trying to get through the barrier to the Medical Center and he nearly collapses in the heat. Shadow Lass shows her temper at the new leader giving up so easily. Shady suggests if they can’t go through the barrier that they go around it. Element Lad agrees with her and apologizes for giving up. They start traveling from floor to floor away from the barrier.
Page 26. Lightning Lad bursts in on a game of Dungeons and Dragons gone horribly wrong as Sun Boy and Star Boy are about to be sacrificed to some evil magician named Mordru… Lightning Lad blasts the machine and the three of them leave the game room. While in Earth orbit the cruiser has traveled outside the screen and crushed the dark servant.
Page 27. Brainiac Five is informing Jacques Foccart of his plan to defeat C.O.M.P.U.T.O. Brainy informs him that Jacques needs to drink the invisibility serum that Lyle Norg created to duplicate the original Invisible Kid’s powers in him. Brainy believes this would give them the element of surprise with C.O.M.P.U.T.O., however there is a chance that this action will kill Danielle and there is a chance that he could be allergic to the serum and will die. Jacques is left to ponder his circumstances. Dawnstar and Wildfire show up and try to get through the force field.
Page 28. Blok and Timber Wolf have managed to destroy the gym equipment attacking them but when they try to leave the door is electrified. Timber Wolf takes this as Lightning Lad still displeased about his slight indiscretion with Saturn Girl on the ice asteroid. Jacques continues to weigh his options.
Page 29. Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and Star Boy have broken into Timber Wolf’s quarters and have laid Cosmic Boy and Sun Boy out on the couches. There is a flash of lightning which takes out Saturn Girl and Star Boy and leaves Lightning Lad fighting a duplicate of himself but wearing his original costume. Jacques deduces there is no other way as his sister is going to die with C.O.M.P.U.T.O. in her regardless of if he tries to stop the monster or not.
Page 30-31. C.O.M.P.U.T.O. is toying with the Legionnaires in the Medical Center and shows Mon-El the Phantom Zone projector to make him sweat even more. Jacques says a prayer to his mother and then goes to the console containing the serum. C.O.M.P.U.T.O. being overly concerned with Brainiac Five’s movements considers Jacques less than nothing at this point. Jacques gains the serum and drinks it and vanishes. C.O.M.P.U.T.O. is livid.
Page 32. The unconscious forms of Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl float out of Ultra Boy’s headquarters and Light Lass remains inside pinned by wreckage and unable to move due to her injuries. Light Lass wonders still about what happened between Timber Wolf and Saturn Girl on the ice asteroid and thinks she couldn’t die without knowing, and the room blows up again.
Page 33. At the basement level of the headquarters Element Lad, Shadow Lass, and Shvaughn Erin are finding it impossible to get through the gunk that C.O.M.P.U.T.O. has put in the headquarters. Shadow Lass notes that this gunk is all around the safe that is where the Legion houses Mon-El’s anti-lead poisoning serum.
Page 34. C.O.M.P.U.T.O. sends all the debris in the room after Brainiac Five who is deflecting it all with this force shield belt. Meanwhile Jacques skulks around invisibly.
Page 35. The rest of Brainy’s plan becomes clear as he contacts Mon-El via telepathic plug and instructs him to open a container with his heat vision. At this point, Brainy’s shield goes down and Brainiac Five is pummeled by debris.
Page 36. C.O.M.P.U.T.O. uses radar waves in an attempt to locate Jacques. C.O.M.P.U.T.O. notes Mon-El’s heat vision worked and exclaims that it was impossible! Where Mon-El’s heat vision struck out pops a disc and C.O.M.P.U.T.O. quickly deduces it is Jacques. Jacques is vexed when the disc also does not become invisible.
Page 37. C.O.M.P.U.T.O. is threatening to burn out Jacques’ sister which he is really going to do anyway if Jacques doesn’t stop. Jacques gets above and behind his sister and pounces on her bed and applies the hypo disc which sedates his sister and ends the C.O.M.P.U.T.O. threat.
Page 38. The recovery begins. Lightning Lad is discovering he fought an atomizer with a distorter disc attached. Blok and Timber Wolf are wary of the door when it opens of its own accord. Element Lad, Shady, and Shvaughn are now on the roof trying to break in. The threats have ended in the headquarters. Jacques looks at his sister with remorse about how this is not how he wanted this to go at all.
Page 39. Brainy confirms that Danielle is in stasis as her eyes continue to glow red and she smiles. A Legion meeting commences and Brainy confesses to allowing the return of C.O.M.P.U.T.O. Brainy offers his resignation from the Legion due to his lack of judgment and he asks that the Legion admit Jacques as the new Invisible Kid.
Page 40. Wildfire balks at both of these suggestions saying that Brainy made a mistake and how do they know this Jacques guy is Legion material. Mon-El seconds Brainy’s nomination of Jacques at which point Blok thirds the nomination. Element Lad as acting leader rejects Brainy’s resignation and then opens the question of Jacques’ membership to a vote by the membership.
Page 41. Brainy goes and asks Jacques to join them in the meeting which is for Legionnaires only. Jacques does not think of himself as worthy to be a Legionnaire. Brainy says that no matter Jacques’ decision, Brainy will not stop looking for a cure for Danielle. Jacques says “I shall be proud to do battle at your side.” And a new Invisible Kid joins the Legion.
I did mention he was from the Ivory Coast right? Exit Tyroc the angry token, Enter Jacques the smooth talker.
Next Time: We return to the 20th Century for some good old fashioned Team Ups!!!
Legion: When Technology Goes Bad
Apr 5th
In our bright and shiny 30th Century the Legion of Super-Heroes is taking a well deserved story break from the activity of the last few issues.. at least that is how this story starts off.
This story is a dense one issue ride with an old Legion foe and a new Legionnaire making their first appearance, so let’s dive in!!!
A simple cover that tells a tale doesn’t it? The Legion is in trouble all because of a little girl? Wait. That can’t be right.. but it is.
Page 1: We get what is affectionately known as the “Roll Call” Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Mon-El, Element Lad, Cosmic Boy, Light Lass, Dream Girl, Duo Damsel, Phantom Girl, Chameleon Boy, Shadow Lass, Colossal Boy, Timber Wolf, Wildfire, Brainiac Five, Dawnstar, Ultra Boy, Star Boy, Blok, Shrinking Violet, Sun Boy, Bouncing Boy, “Several Guests” and ?.
We are introduced to Science Police Officer Shvaughn Erin who is the liaison officer between the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Science Police
Page 2: Shvaughn references “Earthwar” and her boss Chief Zendak in internal monologue and approaches the LSH headquarters only to be captured by an automatic unwelcoming mat. Luckily for Shvaughn, Dawnstar and Wildfire are leaving the headquarters and Wildfire blasts the device setting Shvaughn free. Wildfire and Dawny abruptly leave once informing Shvaughn that their acting leader is inside. Shvaughn is beginning to doubt her new assignment.
Page 3: Shvaughn enters and is greeted by Element Lad who promptly apologizes for the security devices that are installed but that Brainiac Five has not yet worked out “all the bugs.” Element Lad gives Shvaughn the tour of the headquarters including all the upgrades that have been put in. (Comic book translation: all the new tech the writer and new artist are putting into the headquarters). A new statue appears in the Hall of Heroes, Reflecto and as Element Lad says.. it is a long story. Involving that adult Legion cover.. remember?
Ferro Lad, then Chemical King, now Reflecto.. can Shadow Woman be far behind?
Page 4. Shvaughn and Element Lad look into the new Medical Center watching Brainy, Dream Girl, and Mon-El work on a little girl who has some sort of electrical impulse brain disorder. The girl is Danielle Foccart and with her is her older brother Jacques Foccart. Jacques is notable right now for two things: first he is of African descent making him the third real ethnic character..after Half-Asian, Half Caucasion Karate Kid and the now off in another dimension Tyroc. The second being that Jacques and Danielle are from the Ivory Coast and he is a Francophile, and his dialogue is frequently full of French phrases and his accent.
Page 5. Dreamy asks if Brainy is ready to begin and Brainy has a thought that he swore never to use that particular circuitry he just asked Dream Girl to activate especially with what happened last time. A power surge spikes into Danielle’s brain, the universal “red alert” symbol goes off and Dream Girl has just enough time to scream before her console blows up, then Brainy activates his flight ring to leave his as it blows. Jacques is quick to point out to Mon-El that his sister is awake and her eyes are red.
Page 6. Cosmic Boy is in his quarters admiring his new costume, one of the last of the “disco Legion costumes” to be replaced by artist Keith Giffen when suddenly all the metal in the room becomes attracted to Cosmic Boy. Cosmic Boy finds he cannot repel the metal despite using his powers and the walls are beginning to buckle in on him, threatening to crush him.
Page 7. In Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad’s quarters, the AutoChef has gone crazy and blown up their quarters pinning Saturn Girl, as Lightning Lad comes in to save her the Atomizer attacks Lightning Lad. Saturn Girl makes the comment that “it was like it was waiting for him.” Outside the Legion’s automatic force field surrounding their headquarters has gone up.
Page 8. In the Game Room, Sun Boy and Star Boy are playing Dungeons and Dragons using a computerized version of characters when all of a sudden a power surge hits and the character holograms come to life and attack the Legionnaires.
Page 9. Element Lad and Shvaughn have been separated from the Legionnaires in the Medical Center by a barrier that Element Lad cannot transmute away. Shvaughn has informed the Science Police to isolate Legion HQ from the outside world as much as possible. Brainy is trying to figure out what occurred and after seeing Dream Girl is okay, Jacques pleads with Mon-El to help his sister. Danielle opens her mouth and says that she is not his sister.. she is C.O.M.P.U.T.O.
Cue the flashback…Brainiac Five created C.O.M.P.U.T.O. way back when in this classic tale from Adventure Comics.
Now, if you were Triplicate Girl.. and made Duo Damsel by this foe don’t you think this would be a little bit troubling for you?
Page 10. Chief Zendak orders all technology lines cut from Legion HQ. He is aware of C.O.M.P.U.T.O. and what it is capable of, meanwhile an evacuation of Metropolis is taking place.
Page 11. I’m not even going to summarize this one.. because here it is..the private quarters of married and retired Legionnaires Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel.
Sometimes a writer has to work in some background with characters who should already know things for the benefit of the reader. It makes complete sense that Bouncing Boy would want to help the Legion and that Duo Damsel would need to sit this one out due to the trauma of facing the villain the first time. This section is more for the writer to establish the new status quo of Duo Damsel vs. C.O.M.P.U.T.O, as in the original story, Duo Damsel just saunters up to the Legion and says basically, he only got one of me, I’m good for another round. The thought of one-third of her dying was never addressed in those simplistic comic book days. Which makes no sense. Now, they are finally addressing it here and I say, bravo.
Page 12, We get Element Lad and Shvaughn Erin discussing the barrier some more as Shadow Lass comes barreling in wondering why she can’t get out of the headquarters and why the computer sent a declaration of war to EarthGov. As they have this discussion, C.O.M.P.U.T.O announces that it has switched off the life support systems inside the building. In 1969, we get a panel of a flying Superboy who is shuddering for some stranger reason.
Page 13, brings us the new Legion couple of Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet, readying a cruiser for a vacation to celebrate their new love and to get their minds off the ice asteroid they were stranded on for the past few issues. Of course, C.O.M.P.U.T.O takes over the cruiser and it blasts out of the headquarters at amazing G-Force pinning Colossal Boy and presumably knocking Violet unconscious, or even worse.
Page 14, brings us the now freed Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl looking rather beat up from their ordeal in their quarters when Cosmic Boy’s quarters burst open and Cosmic Boy collapses in a heap on the floor. At the same time, a blast of solar fire comes through the wall the other way. Lightning Lad leaves Saturn Girl with Cosmic Boy and he goes off to help Sun Boy. At the end of this page we get one panel introducing.. A NEW SUPER TEAM!!!
Next time: The Legion of Substitute Heroes!!! and the Annual will be “To Be Continued” for the time being.
Darkness Impending
Mar 7th
And here we are three more stories into the Legion and the seeds being sown for one of their most successful tales ever.
In #287, Chameleon Boy leads an Espionage Squad mission to the home planet of the Khunds, Khundia. There, Cham, Timber Wolf, and Shrinking Violet go under cover and wind up in the gladiator games. On Khundia, like in so many sci-fi tropes, the strong lead and the weak serve. The Legionnaires get involved in a battle with a Khund named Kharlak who is a cyborg Khund made for fighting in the games.
Back on Earth, Lightning Lad is furious that Chameleon Boy has left and taken Legionnaires with them. Light Lass however confides in her sister-in-law, Saturn Girl about her fears regarding what may happen to Timber Wolf in this mission. Saturn Girl agrees to go after Chameleon Boy’s team.
The three Legionnaires on Khundia are holding their own for the most part, but even they cannot stop a planet. The Legionnaires decide on retreat and manage to get picked up by Saturn Girl and Colossal Boy in a cruiser, however, before the Legionnaires can escape the Khundish ships, the cruiser is destroyed by the Khunds.
In the back up issue, Legionnaires Mon-El and Shadow Lass have been called back from a vacation in order to investigate a planet that has a habit of destroying the United Planet probes that have been sent to it. Upon arriving, the Legionnaires observe the planet is cold and every item left from an apparently advanced civilization seems armed to the teeth. And it is. The machines attack the Legionnaires, with Mon-El serving mostly as the shield until he is injured into unconsciousness. Shadow Lass uses her powers to cast a darkness bubble around them both, and the machines draw back in fear. Not knowing why the machines reacted that way the Legionnaires take the opportunity to high tail it to Orando to answer that distress beacon left by Karate Kid in our last issue. As they leave, a mysterious figure rises off a stone altar and laughs.
In #288, we are back on Orando as Princess Projectra and Karate Kid are being held prisoner by the usurper to the throne of Orando, Pharoxx. The Legionnaires are brought out in preparation to be burned at the stake. Mon-El and Shadow Lass join Ultra Boy and Dream Girl on the planet’s surface and the four additional Legionnaires are attacked and added to the burning spider. The Orandans leave the men unconscious but keep the women tied up and alive. It is revealed that Pharoxx’s rise has also been due to the machinations of the royal witch Hagga.
Meanwhile, on an icy asteroid, Saturn Girl, Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Shrinking Violet, and Timber Wolf guess about their odds of survival in some of the most remote territory in the United Planets. With supplies limited and no communication equipment functioning, the Legionnaires can only wait to be rescued.
Back on Orando, the fact that the medieval populace considers women powerless comes in very handy as Dream Girl professes her witchcraft and uses her flight ring to slip free of her bonds and rise into the sky. All the Orandans begin to cower in fear as Dream Girl promises to blot out the sun. Of course, Dream Girl can’t do that, but Shadow Lass can. Shady exudes darkness from her eyes and uses it to cover the immediate area to make it eternal night. With the Orandans confused, Dream Girl frees the other Legionnaires who make quick work of the Pharoxx supporters and once Pharoxx is knocked unconscious, the people give honor to Projectra by shouting. “All hail Queen Projectra!”
With Projectra now Queen of Orando and Karate Kid her consort, both move from active to reservists status with the Legion, reducing the Legion’s active membership down from 23 to 21.
In #289, Lightning Lad begins to succumb to an electrical fever brought on by stress of leadership and now the possible loss of his wife. The remaining Legionnaires split up to find the five missing Legionnaires. As we see that EarthGov is in the midst of erecting a Polymer Screen around Earth to help control incoming and outgoing space travel, including invasions.
Meanwhile on Ice Asteroid, supplies are dwindling. Chameleon Boy is all but shunned for his failed mission. Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet begin a relationship as Cham witnesses both of them kiss. Saturn Girl and Timber Wolf commiserate on their lost loved ones and they bond, so much so that they overstep each other’s boundaries a bit, so that when Dawnstar and Light Lass find the Legionnairees, Light Lass’ heart is broken. While not an action comic for the most part, this comic moves the characters in all sorts of directions with regards to romantic entanglements.
The back up story features Element Lad and Brainiac Five as Brainy attempts to cure Matter-Eater Lad of his insanity. A quick and easy story to start which now puts into play Matter-Eater Lad’s cure as a slight subplot to the Legion ongoing.
Meanwhile throughout all of these issues.. we see the mysterious dark figure on that deadly planet, get stronger.
Next Time: We go back to the JLA. Introducing 3 new super teams, time travel, and the first Crisis?
The Pathway to Darkness
Mar 5th
Here we are finally actually talking about some Legion stories!
We’re going to start with Legion of Super-Heroes #284 which is two issues prior to when I started collecting, but I might as well include it as this is the beginning of what Legion fans call “The Levitz Era.” Paul Levitz that is. Paul was a lifelong writer, comic guy who started working at DC Comics back when he was in high school. Paul had written the Legion prior to this run, but this is the definitive run of his writing in my opinion, and the definitive run of the Legion of Super-Heroes, so lets hop on in!
In issue #284,we witness Bouncing Boy staring at the bronzed statues of dead Legionnaires Chemical King, Ferro Lad, and Invisible Kid stating to himself that he’s getting himself out of the game. His wife, Duo Damsel shows up to get him and they bounce off to a Legion meeting where they announce their resignations.
The Legion is called to stop some organ-leggers, a 30th century take on the Tijuana kidney theft urban tales of today, but with more of a pirate bent. Timber Wolf and Light Lass are already at the hospital called Medicus One where the pirates are stealing all sorts of organs and the two Legionnaires manage to cause the pirates a bit of trouble, but not before one of them leaves behind a mysterious canister.
Back on Earth, Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel are doing their last tour of duty at the Mission Monitor Board and Karate Kid calls in to inform the Legion that he is on Orando with Princess Projectra and they are taking care of some business with her father King Voxv and will be out of touch for a bit.
Several other Legionnaires manage to help clean up the damage and capture the raiders, meanwhile Lightning Lad, who is acting leader of the Legion at this time, wonders what two members were doing on Medicus One in the first place. Timber Wolf was getting a bit of facial reconstruction surgery to look a little more human and a little less, Wolverine. After going through all his identity crises a return to humanity was going to prove to be a good thing, but Wolf likes his privacy so the rest of the Legion leave without saying a word. We are also treated to a brief cameo of the Legion’s future physician, Dr. Gym’ll.
When the Wolf comes out of surgery looking like a hunk-a-hunk-a burning love, he manages to once again say the wrong thing and a rebuffed Light Lass winds up storming out of the room. Light Lass is wondering what she’s doing with such a complete…. BOOM! No time to finish that thought, the capsule has burst open and out crawls this hideous mixture of body parts fused together calling itself Organus. Before Light Lass can react, Organus hypnotizes the heroine and attaches its tongue to her head… Altogether now. EWWWWWW!!!! Timber Wolf comes to the rescue of his lady love, however, to no avail.
Back home at Legion HQ, other Legionnaires are called back to Medicus to deal with this more dire situation. Element Lad is the deputy leader so he decides to take over this mission and he takes a crew to the medical satellite. Element Lad, Cosmic Boy, Brainiac Five, Sun Boy, and Blok enter the hospital and one by one, they each have their abilities absorbed by Organus, who seems to have gotten larger. Light Lass, who has recovered from the leeching that Organus gave her, tells Blok that he is the only one who can beat Organus. Cue the “Fastball Special” maneuver! Light Lass sends Blok speeding into Organus by lightening his weight and when Organus feeds on Blok, the feedback renders Organus inert. Apparently Organus doesn’t like rock based life forms.
At the end of the issue the Legion meeting finally commences with an announcement that Superboy is going to stay in his own time for a little while now but will be back every now and then and that Tyroc is considered honorably discharged since his disappearance. At the end of the story the active membership includes:
Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Phantom Girl, Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Brainiac Five, Superboy, Ultra Boy, Star Boy, Shrinking Violet, Sun Boy, Mon-El, Element Lad, Light Lass, Dream Girl, Karate Kid, Princess Projectra, Shadow Lass, Timber Wolf, Wildfire, Dawnstar, and Blok. A total of 23 active Legionnaires which keeps the Legion under their 25 member limit, for tax purposes. More like for writer and artist headache purposes. heh.
In issue #285, five Legionnaires find themselves on Nullport, the space drydock of the United Planets. Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Shrinking Violet, Star Boy, and Colossal Boy are there to pick up a new space cruiser for the Legion, because they go through them like a gay boy goes through boyfriends. Well, something happens to the cruiser and Violet suspects sabotage.
Back on Orando, Karate Kid and Princess Projectra are watching Jeckie’s dad be greeted by the gentry and nobility. When Projectra and KK approach the King to discuss the issue of a blessing for a union between a princess and a commoner he accuses the youths of impatience and then… keels over.
Back on Nullport, the Legionnaires discover that Violet’s suspicions are right and that the Khunds, a warlike conquering race are poised to destroy Nullport and all of its inhabitants. Including the part horse, part octopus, part humanoid, all used space cruiser salesman H’hranth.
The Legion forms a plan and while the boys attack the Khunds… Fastball Special alert as Mon-El throws Colossal Boy through a Khund battle cruiser. Shrinking Violet gets some space coordinates from Brainiac Five, Shadow Lass uses her power to blanket Nullport in the blackest shadows she can create, and Star Boy adds his power to Nullport to give it an artificial gravity so Nullport won’t fall apart as Mon-El takes Nullport to a new home deeper in protected United Planets space.
Grateful as he is H’hranth gives the Legion five Mark-494 cruisers for his gratitude.
Meanwhile on Orando, King Voxv is pronounced as dead. Long Live the Queen.
A quick backup story features Dream Girl, who has been called back to her home planet of Naltor to discover why all the Naltorians have lost their powers. Dreamy uses her powers of deduction, many people forget while looking at her beauty that she is one of the smartest Legionnaires in the roster. Dreamy figures the problem out in five pages, but what this story really gives us is the first Keith Giffen Legion art. And thus begins the Levitz/Giffen run of Legion of Super-Heroes!
In #286, old Legion foe Dr. Zaxton Regulus attempts to ruin a party weekend being held by the Legion’s benefactor, Mr. Rene Jacques Brande. Mr. Brande would be the man that the original Legionnaires saved in their origin story, turns out R.J. had more money than anyone and he funded the Legion in its formative years until the United Planets took over. It was also recently revealed that R.J. is a Durlan shapeshifter stuck in his R.J. Brande form and is the father of the Legion’s Chameleon Boy. This revelation has led to some awkwardness and so Chameleon Boy takes off for Earth to get away from dear old dad.
Cue the bad guy causing R.J.’s artificial sun manufacturing plant to meltdown. The Legionnaires begin to fight his and all are knocked out but Phantom Girl who in her immaterial form is able to avoid harm. She runs through Dr. Regulus and into the reactor to stop the pending explosion. Meanwhile, Sun Boy, has recovered from the initial attack and is ready to give Dr. Regulus a beat down.
Back on Earth, Legionnaires are discussing what to do about the Khunds given the Nullport incident. Chameleon Boy interrupts them to say that he is going to conduct a mission to Khundia as leader of the Legion Espionage Squad. He takes Shrinking Violet and Timber Wolf with him and they leave for enemy territory. Meanwhile a tape delayed message from Karate Kid starts playing on the screen.
Regulus manages gets away when he tells Sun Boy about the reactor problem. Sun Boy obviously chooses to save the galaxy from the explosion versus taking in Regulus. The rest of the Legion recovers and Dawnstar, Lightning Lad and Colossal Boy take off after Regulus while Saturn Girl forges a telepathic bond between Superboy and R.J. Brande so that Superboy will know how to shut down the reactor.
Reactor shut down. Dr. Regulus captured. And a very pissed Lightning Lad when he discovers that Chameleon Boy left the picnic. Overreaction much? Oh yes.
The back up story here features Projectra and Karate Kid back on Orando as the planet mourns its King. Now with the royal line in question and no official approval to marry a commoner, Projectra is free to do what she will do, until… her impending ascension to the throne is challenged by her villainous cousin Pharoxx. But on Orando, Trial by Combat is perfectly within Pharoxx’ rights so the battle is arranged. Pharoxx charges Projectra and Projectra’s illusions are useless. Pharoxx knocks Projectra out and then reveals to Karate Kid that he wore a helmet which provided him immunity to Projectra’s illusions.
Karate Kid charges Pharoxx with a sword and while they swordplay for a little bit, Pharoxx reveals a surprise by shooting KK with a magical bolt of energy. With the two Legionnaires unconscious, Pharoxx sentences them both to death.
Next time: Three Legionnaires in too deep, Six Legionnaires burned at the stake, and Five Legionnaires marooned in space.
Legion Crash Course Part Eight
Mar 4th
And it’s the last part of our intro to the Legion of Super-Heroes!!! So let’s jump in!!!
(I learned from Stan Lee, that one can never use too few exclamation points!)
So these symbols represent Wildfire, the star with wings; Tyroc, not really sure what his symbol means or how to describe it; Dawnstar, the twinkling star, and Blok, the building block.
Wildfire was originally introduced as ERG-1 whose real name is Drake Burroughs of Earth. ERG-1 has a multitude of powers when he shows up at Legion HQ for a tryout, unfortunately they all duplicate the other Legionnaire’s powers. He has one superpower that is unique, but he can’t demonstrate it for the Legionnaires, as a result, ERG-1 is rejected for membership. However he tags along on a mission to prove his worth and uses his “one shot” power to destroy a machine about to kill Colossal Boy. The Legionnaires only find his costume, completely empty. ERG-1 was apparently nothing but a containment suit filled with living energy.
A year passes. The energy that is Drake Burroughs makes its way to Earth a year later to find the suit that the Legion took. In his energy form Drake is apparently undetectable to the Legionnaires but he could not get to his suit as it was behind an energy shield. Drake also finds out that a new Legion applicant is planning to destroy the Legion and Drake is the only one who can stop him. Drake uses the Miracle Machine to wish himself to his suit, puts it on, and ends the threat. Drake rechristens himself Wildfire and joins the Legion.
Now, SHUT YO MOUTH!!!
Tyroc is Troy Stewart of the island Marzal, on the planet Earth. Marzal is an island populated by slaves gathered from Africa during the rum trade years who rebelled from their captors and found this island which is sometimes out of phase with Earth.
So, what happens when a bunch of 17th-19th century slaves live apart from the rest of the planet? Well, we get the stereotype of “the angry young black hero”. It’s a tried and true and SAFE place for creators to go at this point in comics history. Other black characters introduced at this time were mostly this stereotype which mirrored the films of the day, from Shaft, Supafly, etc.., Hollywood had cashed in on the blaxploitation movement and DC and Marvel had a quandry. While movies geared towards African Americans would no doubt garner some viewers, would comics? And in fact in multiple interviews the creators of the day had to wonder would their comics be returned from the less liberal areas of the country (i.e. the South).
Now, Tyroc is not alone in this, even the Titans’ Victor Stone/Cyborg suffered from some of this “angry young man” stereotype, however Tyroc is the hardest to reconcile because of the racial inequality in the Legion’s story thus far. Most of the Legionnaires are white, and even those that are not, are of races not included on Earth. Karate Kid squeaks by for being half Asian, and he has been drawn less and more Asian depending on the artist over the years. So the solution for the angry black man and the absence of black people in the 30th Century was that they were ALL on this island… Really? *thud*
So the solution? Turn racism around. Make the black character the racist one. Yeah. I am sure it sounded like a good idea at the time to the folks in power and maybe this is the only way a black character could get into the Legion at the time.
More about the whole different races in comics thing a bit later, but as a white, Southern male being raised in the 70s-80s I can say that yes, it was still an issue and still is, however the issue is not exclusively limited to Caucasians, nor to the South, yet the burden of the Civil War, slavery, lynchings, and segregation live on.
Tyroc’s powers were that he had sonic abilities that basically allowed him to do whatever the writer needed him to do at the time, he also has a snapping outfit reminiscent of Peter Pan in a way, evoking the Neverland quality of his home. Eventually it is discovered that Tyroc’s usage of his powers is lessening the time that his island can stay in phase with Earth, and Tyroc resigns from the Legion and the character disappears for a good long time. Other writers would find good things to do with Tyroc, but it will take a while.
Dawnstar’s codename is also her real name. Dawny is a member of a race called the Amerinds.. get it? (AMERican INDians). She’s a mutant amongst her people so add some wings on her, superspeed, able to survive in space without any protective gear, and the ability to track anyone through space and that outfit. It reminds me of someone.. oh wait..
Now that we have that out of the way. Dawnstar is rather aloof to her fellow Legionnaires. She’s all business as she started out as a bounty hunter, a great fit for her power set. She was discovered by one of the Legion’s benefactors and persuaded to enroll at the Legion Academy. Wildfire brought her into the Legion for her skills and her more obvious features. Drake carries an obvious torch for Dawny and their love is a tragic one, always there and burning, but never consummated.
Dawnstar is a fan favorite in part due to her design, the Legion of male fans are well, drooling at the pic above, but Dawny is more than a pin-up girl, she’s a Legionnaire. And like all Legionnaire women, she’s pretty damn tough.
Blok first appeared as a villain alongside the League of Super-Assassins. One of five children of the planet Dryad who was saved by the Legion when their planet exploded. The five youths resented the Legion for not doing more to save their world, a hatred that was fueled by an evil clone of Tharok called The Dark Man.
Blok broke free of his brainwashing and revealed he was a member of a sentient rock race located on Dryad. Humans colonized the world as the native Dryads revealed their presence. Blok tends to be horribly naive and is one of Timber Wolf’s best friends. That being said, Blok is a fiercely loyal Legionnaire and given his abilities is the best natural defense that the Legion has around.
Blok’s body is so dense that it takes three Legion flight rings to lift him off the ground. He has super-strength of course and is able to telepathically communicate with silicon based life forms. He is the latest and newest Legionnaire when we begin our Legion stories.
Well there we go, all the Legionnaires accounted for. When next we meet, we’ll be catching up with what they are doing.