Comics discussions, with flair…
Posts tagged Matter-Eater Lad
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?
Legion: Crash Course Part Four
Feb 28th
Four more Legionnaires up to bat.
Here we have Sun Boy, the stylized Sun pictograph, Bouncing Boy, who is the bouncing ball, Mon-El, who is the interlac version of the letters M, E, and L, as well as Matter-Eater Lad who is represented by the tooth.
Sun Boy is Dirk Morgna of Earth. The son of a solar physicist and quite the junior scientist in his own right, Dirk was trapped in a nuclear reactor by his dad’s rival, Doctor Regulus. Instead of killing Dirk, it imbued him with the ability to project light, heat, and even fire. Sun Boy is one of the Legion’s best pilots and scientists however, he does have a bit of a tendency to be a womanizer, he has not settled down with any of the Legion ladies.
Bouncing Boy is Chuck Taine of Earth. As an errand boy, Chuck was charged with delivering a serum to a laboratory, well Chuck wanted to also watch the Moopsball game. So, Chuck went to the game with the serum and of course, mixed up his serum with his refreshment. His body naturally inflated and he began to bounce like a big rubber ball. Chuck is the morale officer of the Legion, he’s always the one to keep everyone’s spirits light. He lost his powers twice during his career but gained them back, eventually left the Legion when he and Duo Damsel got married. Together he and his wife run the Legion Academy where they train the next generation of Legionnaires.
Mon-El.. Hmmm, “El” Where have you heard that before? Well, Mon-El landed in Smallville in the 20th Century and because of his abilities duplicating those of Superboy it was assumed that Mon-El was Superboy’s older brother, of the house of El. Of course, Mon-El had amnesia and had no recollection of his true origin. Superboy named Mon-El this because of Monday, the day Mon-El landed and El, for the house of El, Superboy’s last name. Mon-El was revealed to be immune to kryptonite but was poisoned by Lead instead. To save Mon-El’s life, Superboy placed Mon into the Phantom Zone where he lingered for 1,000 years. In the Legion’s time, Brainiac Five found a cure for Mon-El and he emerged from the Zone to become a full time Legionnaire.
Mon-El is actually, Lar Gand of Daxam, where under a yellow sun the Daxamites duplicate the Kryptonian powers, but suffer from severe lead poisoning if exposed that is irreversible. Mon-El takes a daily dose of serum to stave off his poisoning. Mon-El is involved with fellow Legionnaire Shadow Lass.
Matter-Eater Lad is Tenzil Kem of the planet Bismoll, where all the inhabitants have evolved to be able to eat solid matter due to the poisonous nature of all organic matter on the planet. One of the oddest names for a super-hero Tenzil is rarely in an adventure unless the writer needs them to escape from some prison that Tenzil can eat his way out of and then comment on how tasty the substance is, like “mmm, these iron bars sure are filling.” yuk yuk.
Tenzil leaves the Legion once it starts getting a bit serious to be drafted into politics on his home planet, however he comes back to perform a very important service to the Universe. He eats the “Miracle Machine”, a machine so powerful it makes your every wish come true. This has caused Tenzil to go a wee bit loopy and so the Legion checked him into the “nervous hospital” until Brainy can cure him.
Next on the list: A mysterious lad, a cross dresser, and a buxom beauty.