Superboy Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #210

Welcome back fellow Legionnaires! We continue with the reign of Jim Shooter who provides us not one, but two tales in the Legion of Super-Heroes both illustrated by Mike Grell. Two tales that will likely astound and astonish, but also will set things up for a spin-off series that is months in the making. A spin-off series you say? Why of course! Want to find out more and know what I’m talking about? Then grab your Analymeter and let’s get cracking!

Soljer’s Private War

We open on Lightning Lad who has just hurled a powerful death bolt, which soundly connects on a lone figure. Phantom Girl delivers a compliment and Superboy, while brushing himself off agrees. Lightning Lad is amused and tells Superboy he should make it tougher for him next time.

PG feels a few rain drops and tells them that they should head back to Legion HQ since weather control had scheduled a shower for 10:00am. Lightning Lad hurls one last lightning bolt at Superboy and misses again. Seeing that it’s better to stop practice, they all head home.

Suddenly, the earth moves where Lighning Lad’s bolt landed, and up rises a strange man, wearing a soldier’s uniform.

We flashback to the year 2783 when the world was undergoing its sixth World War. But this war was run by computers and fought by men.

The group of soldiers huddle around their sergeant who orders them to take the city of Metropolis. When suddenly someone launches a gamma grenade, and a soldier quickly covers it with his body while being struck by a lightning bolt at the same time.

Seeing their dead comrade, the soldiers have no choice but to quickly bury him so they can continue their march and attempt to sack Metropolis. As they bury him, they manage to shout that he was a good soldier, as they place the last amount of dirt on Mike Essad’s grave.

Returning to the present, Essad utters out the word Soljer and continues his lonely walk as he comes upon a city sign marker for the city of Metropolis. He gazes at the sign and remembers his orders.

Meanwhile, our beloved trio arrive back at Legion HQ and find Brainiac 5 scrambling. He tells them they’re needed and they quickly dart back out into the city of Metropolis, finding Essad doing incredible damage. But he doesn’t appear to be holding any weapons. Brainy brings out his Analymeter and sure enough concludes that he is firing an imaginary gun.

Imaginery or not, it’s doing incredible damage and Superboy chooses to intercept, only to be blasted back by an invisible rifle.

Superboy analyzes the damage and realizes he was just blasted by an anti-matter fusion blast. But Brainy knows this is impossible because anti-matter fusion was lost when World War VI almost destroyed the Earth 200 years ago.

Lightning Lad then moves in and attempts to blast Essad with a mighty bolt of lightning, which ends up having no effect. Seeing LL fail, Phantom Girl goes into phantom mode and charges. The soldier sees her, reaches into his empty scabbard, and stabs her with an imaginary knife.

Lightning Lad wants to pursue but Brainiac 5 commands retreat. Superboy is down and he needs to attend to Phantom Girl who is in critical condition from the knife wound. They return to Legion HQ and Brainy quickly changes into his scrubs and starts conducting emergency surgery. But he can’t find what has stabbed her. He sees that she is dying but there is no indication of a wound or a weapon.

Suddenly Chameleon Boy arrives and reports that Soljer is continuing his rampage and is blasting buildings with his invisible weapons. That clinches it for Brainy who tells CB to go into a phantom form and see if he can locate the weapon. Sure enough while in phantom mode he feels the handle of a knife and carefully pulls it out.

Brainy then tells CB what he suspects. That the soldier must have been charged with some form of super-energy and when he imagines a weapon, the energy in his body actually creates it. Additionally they both realize that most of the weapons that is produced by this unknown soldier are common weapons that were used during World War VI.

Brainy continues this line of thought and concludes that this soldier must have been part of the invasion force that attacked Metropolis in 2783 and he managed to survive because of the super energy. He instructs Chameleon Boy to get the others and to go through all the history tapes of the invasion while he tries to get a first hand account on the time-scanner.

We return to the super soldier who continues his path of destruction. He finally arrives at the Presidential Palace of the United Nations, raises his imaginary gun and prepares to fire. But before he can pull the “trigger” the scene around him changes and a completely destroyed Metropolis surrounds him.

Suddenly he hears a ten-hut, turns around and finds his old sergeant looking straight at him. The sergeant asks him if he knows who he is and the soldier answers in the affirmative. The sergeant then tells him to look around. Metropolis is destroyed and his mission is complete. He’s a good soldier.

Essad snaps to attention and a tear trickles down his cheek with pride. When suddenly he falls to the ground and welcomes and receives the final gift of death.

Brainy checks his vital signs and declares him dead. Phantom Girl’s projection and Chameleon Boy’s change to his former sergeant were enough to convince him to stop.

The Legionnaires then check on Phantom Girl and Brainy tells her that the United Planets have decided to erect a memory in Essad’s memory to commemorate his act of bravery when he threw himself on the gamma grenade to save his fellow soldiers.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

The Lair of the Black Dragon

We open on Karate Kid getting mugged by a gang of martial artists. He is amused at their skill and even remarks that they could probably take down a battalion of ordinary men, but unlucky for them he’s not ordinary.

KK sets his sights on the boss and delivers a mighty Karate Kid punch…only for it to be parried.

With KK’s wrist in his hand, the boss simply says “peace friend.”

The man then introduces himself as Sadaharu and states that this was all a test in order to make sure that he truly was Val Armorr, the famed Karate Kid.

He then proceeds to tell Val that he would like his help. To kill a man.

Of course KK refuses and tells him to look up the Fatal Five if he wants that sort of action. But Sadaharu tells him that he simply wants revenge, to find the murderer of his best friend, Val’s father.

Val whirls around and quickly asks how he knew his father. Sadaharu then walks away, his henchman following with some needing help to be carried after the beating they took from Karate Kid. It’s no matter, because he will avenge his father’s death, with or without the help of Karate Kid.

As Val watches them leave, he decides to follow him, just to make sure what Sadaharu is saying is true. Hours later he approaches the Metropolis Core-Tube Terminal and follows the group taking a Tube-Car from Metropolis to Tokyo. Thanks to 30th Century technology, the vast tunnel cuts right into the Earth’s core, creating a shortcut and also allowing passengers to reach Tokyo in record time.

Not surprisingly Sadaharu spots Karate Kid and remarks that everything is going as planned.

Once they arrive, they disembark and Karate Kid finds himself in a remote, mountainous area in Japan. He watches Sadaharu and his henchmen approach a tightly sealed dome and overhears them saying that their enemy remains inside and all their attempts to break in have failed.

So that’s the score. They wanted Karate Kid to help them break into this Nullitron Dome. Val waits until nightfall and stealthily approaches the dome. He knows he will not kill anyone but he needs to figure out how to get in to see who Sadaharu is talking about.

Val checks every spot of the dome until he finds an area that looks like it was broken into before. Declaring it a weak spot, KK goes into deep concentration and then unleashes a mighty blow, puncturing a hole and gaining him entry. As he walks in, he finds none other than Sensei who greets him, the same Sensei who taught him the form of Super-Karate all those years before he joined the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Sensei knows why he is there and it is indeed true. He did kill his father and it was this Nullitron Dome that was his father’s stronghold. Sensei had taken it over and repaired it to use it as his last refuge.

Sensei then tells Karate Kid the story of his arch-enemy, the Black Dragon–Kirau Nezumi. Sensei had tracked him to this stronghold after many encounters, and faced him in a battle to the death. At the end, it was the Black Dragon who perished at the hands of Sensei, Black Dragon being Karate Kid’s father! To Sensei’s dismay after he died at his hands, it was only then that he knew he had a son. So Sensei took Val in, cared for him, raised him, and taught him martial arts so that one day he may become the hero he is today. In order to hide him from the evil Black Dragon society, he gave him his mother’s maiden name, Armorr, after Valentina Armorr who was an American.

Suddenly Sensei and Karate Kid hear a boom voice behind him. It is Sadaharu who arrives with a group of henchmen. He then points a finger at Sensei and tells Karate Kid that he was taught by Val’s father, just as Sensei had taught him. He also has inherited the Black Dragon’s organization and after finally having entered the dome, he will take out his revenge and avenge the Black Dragon’s death.

Sadaharu and his henchmen rush them both, but it’s no use. Karate Kid unleashes his raging fury and quickly takes out the henchmen and Sadaharu.

Sensei looks at the unconscious bodies on the floor and asks Karate Kid why he risked his life for the man who killed his father. To which Val Armorr replies:

The Black Dragon gave me life…but you gave me more–ideals and moral values! You made me a force for Good! That’s more important than blood! You are my true father!

The Creative Team

With a very soft opening from Jim Shooter previous issue, he comes out swinging with this one. Let’s unpack both stories.

Soljer’s Private War was not only a great chapter in the Legion of Super-Heroes, it was very layered. I can only assume that this was a bit of commentary from Shooter’s part on the Vietnam War, which had officially ended one month prior to the publication of this issue.

At least this is how I read into it. It seems that with Essad’s descent on Metropolis, using imaginary weapons that are doing real life damage, Shooter seems to be addressing PTSD and perhaps how veterans were treated when they returned home from the war. Sure I might be looking a bit too much into this, but you can definitely see these themes. This not only makes this a complex issue but it also matures the title up quite a bit.

Also Shooter was painting in a lot of the grey areas, which I always enjoy and Soljer’s Private War went beyond the ‘black and white’ nature of what super-heroes comics tended to be during this period. Case in point, it was difficult for me to ascertain if Mike Essad and his group were the ‘bad guys,’ in World War VI. Regardless, at the end of the story the LSH decide to build a monument in Essad’s honor just because he was a good soldier and did what he had to do at the time.

Last issue I commented how Mike Grell wasn’t as refined last issue, but with Soljer’s Private War this is definitely no longer the case. His figure work and rendering return to his usual mastery form. Grell’s ability to depict emotion, and realistically portray Soljer’s emotions as well as the Legionnaires shock of Phantom Girl being stabbed helped give this issue some stakes and believability of danger. His layouts are incredibly effective and he was able to control the pace throughout. It’s a very well done story and I’m already looking forward to what Jim Shooter will bring to the issues to come.

Our second story, The Lair of the Black Dragon, is also an incredibly interesting addition. There are a few things at play here. One, Karate Kid was created by Jim Shooter, so it looks like he’s taken a renewed interest in his creation by giving him an untold origin story.

This also seems to be setting us up for the Karate Kid spin-off series that will premiere in December of 1975. “Kung-Fu Mania” was starting to ramp up and Karate Kid’s popularity must have been going through the roof, so it makes sense that DC would want to capitalize on that.

And again, Jim Shooter demonstrates that he can masterfully inject reality and mature themes in his story while keeping it at a ‘comic book’ level if that makes sense. You can really tell that he cares about the character and it would have been very easy to fall into a few Asian stereotypes that were very prevalent at the time. Luckily it never goes that far and you can even garner a profound sense of respect for Japanese culture that both Shooter and Grell had at the time, which must have been very progressive in the climate of racist character depictions such as Fu Manchu and Marvel’s the Mandarin.

Even though Lair of the Black Dragon does act as a backup story, it’s actually quite important in the grand scheme of things. And it will be very interesting to see how far Shooter takes his creation during his second tenure on LSH.

Super-Talk

We don’t have a lot in Super-Talk this time around, just a quick round of rambling praise for issues 208, 207, and 208 and of course Mike Grell. Interestingly Cary Bates is not mentioned once. Despite Boltinoff mentioning that he and Jim Shooter would share writing duties (which never works out) have we seen the end of him? I guess we’ll have to find out in the issues to come.

Other notable tidbits is another request for a black Legionnaire showing that Boltinoff and Grell are still haggling behind the scenes. There’s also a mention of a coloring mistake previous issue and a few other boring tidbits. But seriously that’s it. No news on things to come (like the Karate Kid spin-off series) or threats looming in the distance.

The Legion Medallion of Merit

Despite two stories this time around I think this is an easy one. The Medallion has to go to Brainiac 5. He led the Legionnaires the whole way through this one. His instructions were delivered quickly, with confidence, and he displayed great leadership. It was also impressive how he was able to instruct Chameleon Boy so effectively so that he could solve the mystery of Phantom Girl’s wound. Not only was he able to instruct his Legionnaires’ movements but he did so with dignity and respect and knowing full well what each member was capable of.

Also instead of instructing the Legion to really go after Soljer and probably contribute to the damage Soljer was already doing, he held back and understood that sometimes a physical response is not needed. He empathized with Soljer’s situation and managed to bring him down peacefully and without further destruction.

Enjoy Brainiac 5 even though we probably presume that medallions, awards, or recognition of any kind is below a 12th level intellect. But perhaps we can convince you to take it out of the drawer from time to time to show everyone that you are capable of great leadership.

And that’s it for this week Legionnaire fandom! Let’s see how long Jim Shooter’s footing in the lore of the Legion of Super-Heroes will last as we barrel our way through this wonderful series. But before we and as we start the process of waiting for next week’s issue, I must reminder you that a journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step. And of course…

LONG LIVE THE LEGION!