Superboy Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #202

This is our first 100-Page Spectacular in the new series! And boy, if you were a Legion fan at the time, you were one lucky kid with the number of LSH stories packed within these two covers. There are reprints that we will list when we get to the Super-Talk section and of course we will only be focusing on the new-stuff. We have two stories and a special fact-file on the Legion titled the Lore of the Legion, which gives us a Who’s Who-like look at the individual members, which is very helpful, and will help new readers in grasping the characters and returning fans a nice refresher.

But first up…

Lost: A Million Miles From Home

CB dons a space suit to check if there is any damage outside the ship. As he leaves, to Violet’s surprise, the power goes back on. But once CB returns to the ship the power goes off again. Shocked Violet tells CB that the reason the ship is without power must be him.

They quickly run more tests and diagnostics that still show no explanation. Coming to the dark conclusion that CB’s presence must indeed be the problem, they both don space suits and CB instructs Violet via their telepathic plugs, to return to HQ without him. For he has no choice but to exile himself.

Violet pleads for him to reconsider and that the million-mile trip there and back again will be a very long time indeed. But CB, being the good guy that he is, insists, and the sooner she sets off the better. He’ll wait for her on this space rock. Alone.

Shortly after Violet and the spaceship leaves, CB feels something clutching at his boot. It’s the rock and he twirls around to find even more rock tentacles wrapping around him, clutching him, until it completely engulfs him. CB knows if he enlarges himself, his spacesuit will burst and he will die in airless space. He is powerless. And alone.

While the space rock is having CB for dinner, we return to Shrinking Violet who has a feeling that something must have happened back on Alpha-4 that caused CB to affect the ship in such a way. Sure enough after reviewing the visi-tape on closer inspection, she finds a sniper that shot CB with something causing him to grab his neck. Their return trip to space was sabotaged! She quickly heads back to CB but can’t find him anywhere.

Suddenly she hears a faint voice inside her mind, telling her to take the floating rock into the ship. Violet immediately realizes that CB must be inside! She quickly tgrabs the space rock, throws it in the ship, secures the airlock, and out bursts CB. Violent shrinks down to microscopic size and sure enough she finds the power-absorbing bullet and removes it. She explains to CB what it is and that if they get rid of it their ship will be okay to take them home again. CB exhales a breath of great relief. He won’t be stranded alone and he will live to fight another day.

The Wrath of the Devil-Fish

The second story has us return for the continuation of the previous issue, as we see Erg-1 standing before his Legionnaires. Having presumably filled them on what happened last issue and how he saved them all a second time around, they decided to give him full Legion membership, making him the newest member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. To commemorate this Erg decides to take on a new name…Wildfire!

Brainiac-5, being the Debbie-downer that he is, remarks that it would require an addendum to their legion charter. But nonetheless it can be done. Thank goodness.

Brainy also apologies to Wildfire that not everyone could make it to his swearing in ceremony. Saturn Girl agrees and mentions that Superboy, Mon-El, Light Lass and Element Lad are all off on a mission together, investigating an alarm that went off in their automated sea-station in the Pacific.

But Brainy tells them not to worry, he’s sure they have the task on hand.

Then we see four limp and lifeless bodies of those four Legionnaires floating in the sea. So no Brainy, everything is not alright. Something terrible must have happened…But what?

To answer that question we go back in time, and see the four Legionnaires standing in front of the sea-station. They observe that it is very quiet and there doesn’t seem to be any trouble. But regardless the alarm did sound and there must be an intruder on board. In fact, Mon-El mentions that the reason for it being so quiet is that the station is fully automated and run by computers thankfully causing massive unemployment in the 30th century. It’s these same computers that power the base and allows it to draw its energy from the pollutants in the ocean. Superboy remarks that this is ingenious, especially since the Pacific has become even more polluted than during his time in the 20th century, unemployment rates be damned.

Suddenly another alarm sounds, shutting the station down. Mon-El calls the Legionnaires to the power deck to search and hunt down the saboteur. Racing in the station, they make their way to the main pollutant converter and find it completely covered in bubbles.

Mon-El asks Element Lad to inspect them. Attempting to analyze the composition of bubbles, EL is literally zapped! Quickly regaining his composure, Light Lass confirms that should the bubbles burst open, they can be quite deadly.

But that’s not all EL found out, he was also able to determine that the bubbles were composed of strange, unknown elements, meaning the saboteur is surely inhuman. And sure enough, as the Legionnaires look down at the floor, they notice large, gigantic footprints making their way into other parts of the station. Something is definitely afoot.

Determined, the Legionnaires start to follow them when suddenly the lights go out. Engulfed in darkness, they realize the emergency generator must have finally given out, proving once and for all that machines cannot replace a dependable workforce. Nevertheless, the entire station is lifeless, and the beautiful sea life is doomed because the area will quickly become poisonous again.

Not deterred, Superboy turns on his infra-red vision in the dark, and is still able to track the footsteps. Only the saboteur can tell them how to activate the station again.

The four trace the footprints until the end of the deck. As they look out over the ravenous ocean they conclude that their quarry must be some sort of water being. Mon-El asks Element Lad and Light Lass if they brought their oxy breathers. Answering in the affirmative, the group places their telepathic plugs in their ears and jump into the ocean.

It doesn’t take long until they notice a dark, omnious figure ahead of them. They continue their swim and are met with a being that is half-man and half-fish! A Devil-Fish!

The mysterious being hits them with a ferocious blast of bubbles, and the Legionnaires immediately pass out. The being knows they are there because it has disabled their base but it must finish what it started and destroy the base completely.

Slowly Superboy and Mon-El regain consciousness. They agree that the bubbles are draining their strength and Mon-El was able to quickly analyze the monster before they were attacked. Sure enough it is a being that is part man with a cold-blooded chemistry of a fish. Mon-El calls it a Devil-Fish! Just like me!

We watch as the Devil-Fish climbs the station. It is confused because it was able to read their thoughts and understand that these Legionnaires are good. So why did they build the station to kill it? Confused it continues its ascent when it comes to a window and finds a group of mysterious aliens consulting with one another. Being able to read their minds, Devil-Fish understands their diaboloical plan to completely destroy the Pollutant converter and place the blame solely on the Legion of Super-Heroes.

We’re back to our Legionnaires and finally Light Lass awakens. SB and Mon-EL explain the situation and finally, Element Lad explodes the bubbles around himself, whilst turning them to oxygen. He does the same for the others, allowing their powers to be restored. They decide to split up and look for Devil-Fish.

Devil-Fish is back in the water and finds Mon-El alone. DF is relieved because it has to warn Mon-El about the threat above. However, before DF can say anything, Mon-EL attacks and binds it with seaweed. Preparing itself for the final blow, DF opens its eyes and see’s Mon-El’s telepathic plug dangling before them.

Meanwhile the other Legionnaires continue their search when suddenly they receive a telepathic command from Mon-El telling them to return to the sea-station at once. Mon-El and Devil-Fish are already at the base and Mon throws DF right into the fray. DF uses its immense strength to knock one alien away, while Mon-El blasts another group with his super-breath.

Another alien regroups and grabs a very dangerous looking rifle. Pointing its Dissolving Beam at the station, the alien tells Mon-El he has to choose. Either capture or stop them from destroying that hydro-cruiser full of people in the distance. It doesn’t matter because it fires the weapon, right into the invulnerable Superboy who happened to be at the right place at the right time.

Element Lad turns the weapons into water, and Light Lass turns her zero gravity effect on them, forcing them to float weightlessly in the air. Mon-El grabs them and throws them into their own spaceship. Together, SB and Mon-El to a quick twirly-twirl and throw the ship into far space, never to be seen again.

Mon-El then recalls to his fellow Legionnaires that by using his telepathic plug he was able to communicate with Devil-Fish. He learned that DF had good intentions and that DF actually feeds from the pollutants in the Pacific Ocean, cleaning it himself. When the station was turned out it completely wiped out his food supply and had to take action. They all agree that they need to tune the station to find another source of power.

But how did Devil-Fish come to be? And, importantly, will they ever see their new found ally again?

Creative Team

Cary Bates did here what Cary Bates does best. So I want to focus on the artists for this section.

But before I do that let’s just get this out of the way. In the Lost: Million Miles From Home Story, all they had to do was have Colossal Boy suit up, go outside the spaceship, which would allow the energy to the ship be restored. Then Shrinking Violet could radio from help and start her own investigation with CB just relaxing in zero gravity. I know you were all thinking it too.

But back to the artists.

The Lost story is quite significant because we have future artist Mike Grell on inks and thus makes his first appearance on the Legion. And it’s not only a strong one but a raffirmation that the style of this book will be more mature. We’re gone from the previous era and we’re firmly in the deep sci-fi one.

Which brings me to the second story, The Wrath of the Devil-Fish. For me, this is Dave Cockrum’s greatest flex. Which means his art here is amazing even more so than it usually is. His choices in depicting characters gives the book a tremendous epic feel. I’m going to include some page snaps and I apologize in advance for the quality. I always hesitate to do it this way because nothing can beat a good graded copy, a trade edition, or a digital version. But I just have my own copy so I have to deal with what I have.

With the Lore of the Legion we get a convenient look at each character, which I like to read from time to time. I especially always read Light Lass’ bio because I always get confused exactly what happened with her powers. They did change so it was a nice reminder of course. I think what I like about this book so far is that everyone takes the time and care to introduce you to these characters and gives you the chance to get to know them. Whether it’s in biographies like these, past stories, or quick spotlights, they do is systematically and they create a community while doing so.

The previous launch of LSH was a big failure, in my mind, because they didn’t take the time to do just this. And that was a waste. But this is out of place for what we are doing here but it still makes me a bit sad if not a tiny bit angry (as angry as one can get on something like comic books). If you put these characters in the right hands you can get so much quality like what you saw from these two stories. I really hope DC will figure it out eventually because they’re leaving so much money on the table and not tapping into this rich world. Okay Chris, STOP IT!

Super-Talk

We get some really interesting stuff in the letters page this time around, as well as some foreshadowing.

First up we get the editor’s note from Boltinoff who basically explains their intention to repeat the 100 page super-spectacular every third issue. Now just glancing at my stack of yet to be analyzed issues, I do see a few big issues in there but not a whole lot. So I’m wondering how long that will last.

What’s fun this time around is that we get a good in-depth look at who attended Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel’s wedding and some complaints with Starfinger in general.

Apparently the previous incarnation of Starfinger was simply Lightning Lad with amnesia. This took place in Adventure Comics #300…Which is dead wrong because 300 is the issue when Saturn Girl finds a cure for Mon-El’s lead poisoning and they manage to bring him out of the Phantom Zone to kick some butt. But it’s temporary. It’s a fun issue if you can find it. So I’m confused on why they would misquote an issue, which might prove that even DC had a short term memory. But back to the issue at hand.

According to our letter hack, Mary Ann Revetti:

“[T]he original Starfinger was Lightning Lad with amnesia and his artificial arm was re-wired to give off a multitude of various beams. The doctor had no super-abilities [.]

Now how the heck did I miss that one? Well others caught it too and Cary Bates had a reply. His reply? He simply explained that in the meantime the Doctor took over his identity because he wanted to have a surprise element about Starfinger. Sorry Mr. Bates, but I don’t buy it. If the editor even forgot when Starfinger first appeared then I think you forgot too.

The other most notable mentions were Martian Manhunter, which was explained as being his great-great-great grandson or something or the other.

Supergirl also makes an appearance and as fans of our pre-Crisis Superman would know, he wasn’t aware of Supergirl’s existence and thus had people puzzled and wondering if Superboy and Supergirl could be on the team at the same time, why would he have forgotten her when he became an adult? Well, the editor reminds us that in some of the earlier stories this was explained, and SB simply gets influenced by post-hypnotic suggestions to forget about her every time he journey’s back to his own time. Sure sure.

And definitely one little discovery that put a huge smile on my face was none other than future Legion, Superman and superstar artist Dan Jurgens from Ortonville, Minnesota, who wrote in saying he saw Spock in Cockrum’s Bouncing Boy wedding. Man I love comics.

And for the rest you just get a lot of praise for issue 200, which is no surprise because it was a great issue.

Bye bye Cockrum?

But now to the doom and gloom and the foreshadowing I mentioned above. Super-Talk ends with a little comment Boltinoff inserted right at the end in order to, I presume, set the table for what was coming. If you are a comic book fan and are pretty familiar with how editors typically deal with as well as mitigate change, then you know that a little throwaway and a sort of ‘by the way,’ isn’t usually good, especially when making comments about the creative team.

Pat McAlester from San Francisco made this comment: “In view of the growing popularity of LSH, I must ask a question which, I hope, isn’t embarrassing. What would happen if you lost Cary or Dave, who,” (editor then references another letter from Mike Rhodes of Three Rivers, Michigan) “have helped to restore the feature to its former heights of glory?”

Whoa boy! If only they knew why Mr. Boltinoff probably included this letter because our beloved Cockrum was not getting his Bouncing Boy Wedding splash page art back (I say why in the special features section of issue 200). Boltinoff basically replied that yes, the creative teams are important, but what’s more important is the legacy of the characters, and if handled correctly this book will survive [emphasis mine.]

So let’s read some tea leaves shall we?

One, we have Mike Grell on inks on one of the stories. I do know Mike Grell will end up taking over the book. When? I don’t know because I’m not reading ahead but I must assume it’s soon.

Two, we have a big big flex by Dave Cockrum, who produced his greatest work ever (in my opinion of course) on the Legion. This was one mad flex and since we know what the future holds, it was probably a, “let’s show your fans what they are going to miss, this will show you” sort of flex.

And three, we have this little comment by Boltinoff, which is definitely there to manage expectations.

In conclusion? The writing’s on the wall folks. Cockrum is leaving and he’s leaving soon. And since this is a bi-monthly book and with that mighty flex, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is his last book, or if he’s pushed to the side next issue in a quick backstory. Either way, we can read between the lines and it’s not too hard considering we know the drama happening behind the scenes.

The Legion Medallion of Merit

Sorry Shrinking Violet and Colossal Boy. You both are automatically disqualified because we found a better way to your little predicament, and I’m not even a third level intellect. So shame on you both! I deserve the ring not you!

So it has to come from the Wrath of the Devil-Fish. And wouldn’t you know? I’m giving it to Mon-El. Mon-El could’ve punched Devil-Fish right to outer space but before doing so he decided to try to talk to him first. He pointed at his telepathic earplug and had the conversation that we all should have before doing anything rash (or at least sit on an angry email for at least 24 hours before sending it…pro tip btw). He found another way and not only did he do the right thing, but he also made an ally who helped him solve the problem. That is a great Legionnaire approach.

So welcome back Mon-El to where the action is and do wear your Medallion proudly, and be sure to show it off to Superboy every chance you get while telling him that hey, you never knocked out your best friend with a falling apple.

And that’s it for this week folks. Next week will we see Dave Cockrum again? Only time will tell. And don’t forget…

Long Live the Legion!