Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #249

We arrive at issue #249, an issue consisting of two stories. I do believe they did reference the fact that we would receive a two issue story every other issue. The comic is still at seventeen pages and when they did the two story formats with such a low page count, everything seemed a little rushed. But as we do have the conclusion to the previous issue, that is not the case here.

Joe Staton continues to flex with some really nice inks by Jack Abel and then he inks himself on the second story provided by Paul Kupperberg! We also have a nice announcement of what issue #250 will be, and in an interesting way you already know it because they announced it albeit as a Winter Special Issue.

But that is enough for the lead-in. Put on those Legionnaire flight rings and prepare for aerial flight action!

Capital Crimes of the Chemical Conqueror

Brainiac Five suggests Sun Boy use his powers but for some reason the monster is now immune. Not a hundred paces away in the medic center Mon-El hears the battle but is still worried about Shadow Lass. He is about to help them when Shadow Lass stirs and he rushes to her side. Brainy told him that if she can survive in the next few hours, she will survive. There is no way he will leave her now and they will have to help themselves.

Back to the battle, Sun Boy has passed out and Brainy knows it is up to him. He pushes the button on his force field belt and instantly the invisible shield expands until it fills the room and crushes the creature. He goes to Sun Boy’s side and quickly ascertains that he is uninjured but in a coma. And with the same symptoms as Shadow Lass. Interesting.

And simultaneously in central Metropolis, five other Legionaries are answering an emergency summons from their benefactor R.J. Brande. Superboy scans his penthouse but he cannot see through it since it is made of lead. This is not a problem for Phantom Girl who switches to phantom form and rushes inside. She comes back out saying what she found is horrible. Superboy decides to act and smashes through the side of the building.

The Legionnaires move inside and are met with a scene that looks exactly like a sewer. Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Phantom Girl instantly recognize it but how did all this manage to get inside a room that is two hundred stories high? Slowly the sewage monster raises its head, and Lightning Lad spins and blasts it. The effect is devastating and everything that was sewer-like is now gone. Also there is nothing left to question. Superboy looks at Lightning Lad and states he is the leader now, what should they do? Instinctively Lightning Lad looks to his wife for advice; she was the second Legion Leader after all. But Saturn Girl is silent and at length, Lightning Lad purses his lips as though tasting something sour, and nods knowing at last that in times of crisis, every leader must stand alone. He tells them since this is the same stuff they saw from the sewers before, that is probably where they took Brande and they should go there. They move out.

Back in Brainiac Five’s lab at Legion HQ, he is surprised that he did not notice it before but both Sun Boy and Shadow Lass are suffering from a chemical shock to their system. They will survive but now Brainy has the information he needs to draw a conclusion and also to identify who their enemy is. Not to mention how to defeat him. Luckily he developed that chemical de-synthesizer that will do the trick. He walks down the corridor and sees Mon-El still at Shadow Lass’ side. He informs him that he will join the others and he should come but Mon-El refuses. Brainiac Five reminds him that no member can refuse their duty without penalty and they will revisit this at a later time. The words are snarled in an uncharacteristic anger but Mon-El pays them no heed.

The Legionnaires, in the meantime, have arrived in the sewers and fly through its unit corridors to find the hideous monster. And they find it fast. Lightning Lad, Phantom Girl, and Cosmic Boy immediately engage the monster with their powers, while Saturn Girl detects two human minds and a third that is inhuman. She slowly rounds the corner and confronts the person that has been behind this the whole time. Mantis Morlo, the Chemical Conqueror with his mindless Chemoid! Morlo tells Saturn Girl that his abilities have grown since he was defeated (back in Adventure Comics #363) and he commands Chemoid to destroy her.

However, a force field is quickly thrown and Brainy has arrived. He tells them he has already figured everything out and he points his chemical de-synthesizer at Chemoid and blasts it, shattering Chamois component to tiny molecules. He then does the same to all the other slime creatures in the sewer, not to mention Morlo himself. Morlo’s cry, like his return, is brief, and he is drowned in a loud sizzling that echoes from one end of the sewer to the other. And when both cry and sizzling are done, the Chemical Conqueror is conquered and the sewer is as clean as an infant’s heart.

They thank Brainy for helping them because if he did not come along they might have been in trouble. Brainy responds with a matter of fact of is this not what he always does? Then he excuses himself because he has important work to do in his lab. And the others are so shocked, none of them can say anything at all.

Next issue–the story you’ve been waiting for! Revealed at last, the Legion’s hidden enemy, in an epic story by Paul Levitz and Jim Starlin, entitled –This is the Day the Universe Dies!

The Arctoraan Jewel Case

Arriving and meeting Commander Hagbard, he asks for information on the case. Hagbard introduces him to Ambassador Dor Jeryl of Arctoraan who relates her story. She used to be a smuggler before becoming an Ambassador and somehow the blackmailer found out about her past, and threatened to expose it unless she gave up the very rare Arctoraan gem in her possession. But instead, she decided to contact the Science Police. Hagbard cuts in and relays that since then, they also made some very discreet inquiries and found out that many other diplomats are being blackmailed in the exact same way. But before the Commander can continue, the lights go out.

The lights go back on and the Ambassador had to lean on Chameleon Boy because she is unused to to the darkness, which Chameleon Boyd does not mind. Ignoring the obviously flirting, Hagbard also conveys that ever since the blackmail, things also have been disappearing at their headquarters. Valuable equipment such as computers, satellite-relays, translators, pretty much anything not bolted down. They finally caught the person in the act and it turned out to be Giy Delor, a Technical Officer in the department but he used his knowledge of HQ and quickly evaded his pursuers. The Science Police finally figured out if you put together all the components that Delor stole, he would be able to create a Super-Spy Monitor. This would have the capabilities to reach out to any governmental and private computer in the sector of the galaxy and would render the idea of privacy inoperative.

Chameleon Boy understands the gravity of the situation and points out that such a device would require a lot of energy, hence the blackouts. Haggard agrees but their monitors show no taps on their energy supply cable, which runs from the mainland on the ocean floor and covered every inch of the way with sensors to detect tampering. Chameleon Boy would, nevertheless, like to have a better look at the cable, and excuses himself, paying attention to do so with a bit more effort with the Ambassador.

Moments later, at the lowest level of Science Police Headquarters, Chameleon Boy departs in the ocean and quickly turns himself in to a Carp. He has three hundred kilometers of cable to check and he better do it fast. He continues his search but after a long while he still has not found anything and everything looks intact. However, he is suddenly hit by microwaves and he changes into the Newtonian Nibbybug, which is able to withstand micro-waves on its world so he should be immune to this onslaught of radiation. He tracks its source and sees that the micro-wave receptor but it is not on any Science Police blueprints so it must not belong here. In effect, Chameleon Boy has discovered the hideout.

He studies the receptor and sees that it is invulnerable from attack from above, so he better go below it. The razor-sharp claws of the Nibbybug are designed for digging through the soft sands on an ocean’s floor and it take Chameleon Boy but moments to break through into a buried cavern. He sees dozens of cables buried and they are probably connected to receptors all over Earth. But as he moves forward, suddenly he begins to choke and realizes there must be some sort of poison that has been released in the water. The toxic fumes rise lazily through the clear water, enveloping Chameleon Boy until he can no longer retain his insect form. Changing back to his normal self, he frantically continues to swim until he finds the top of the water and also air.

Moments later, he manages to wave to a Science Police craft who rescues him and takes him back to Commander Haggard and Ambassador Dor Jeryl. He conveys to them both that he is stumped. The stasis field around the hide-out keeps Giy Delor safe from a Science Police strike-force and everything is too well booby trapped to sneak in. His conclusion is they have no choice but to pay the ransom.

The Ambassador places the gem in a case and is instructed to teleport the gem to specific co-ordinates. Giy Delor is cautious, and has the object teleported across the globe, zig-zagging through random spots before finally coming to rest inside his hideout. The alarms go off and Delor sneers knowing he is trying to be tricked. He slams open the case, takes out the gem, and places his blaster right up against it. He tells Chameleon Boy nice try but his monitor is attuned to Chameleon Boy’s alien body structure and that is how he knows he disguised himself as the gem. But Delor is grabbed from behind because Chameleon Boy actually disguised himself as the jewel case! He quickly turns himself into a clam, and shuts himself around Delor’s hand that was holding the blast. Chameleon Boy holds Delor there until the Science Police arrive.

Later, Chameleon Boy personally hands over the gem back to the Ambassador. She is overjoyed but wishes there was a better way to thank him. Chameleon Boy tells her not to worry, if they put their heads together tonight, they will come up with something fantastic.

Creative Team

Once again we have two stories to put under the microscopic. As our readers know, I am always concerned with two stories, especially with a seventeen page-count but I will say they handled it pretty well here.

First up is the continuation and resolution from last issue, as well as Gerry Conway’s second contribution after jumping back onto the series. Conway is using his Legionnaires well, and I especially liked the interaction between Mon-El and Brainiac Five as it came to Shadow Lass. Brainiac Five believes he has everything figured out, but he still does not understand why someone would forgo their duty to watch over another being. This makes it quite interesting because you do wonder what the ramifications could be for Mon-El ‘shunning’ his duty when needed. Additionally, the defining moment of this story was the moment Lightning Lad realized that he is now the Legion Leader and with that he needs to make the decision. His instinct was to immediately defer to his wife, Saturn Girl, but she just starred, waiting for his decision. This was the moment that Lightning Lad became the leader and called his Legionnaires to action. My only complaint was the introduction of the classic villain, who lasted I believe like two-three panels. The mystery set up in the first part of the story previous issue ended up being a bit of a let down. There seemed to be a need to wrap things up quickly, and I felt that this moment just did not have the impact it deserved. It definitely was a case of raising expectations with the payoff just not delivering.

While not groundbreaking for the series as a whole, I felt like this nice two-parter helped move things along because it not only deals with the after effects of Earthwar, reintroduces an old villain, but also solidifies Lightning Lad as the Team Leader. Gerry Conway did what he needed to do and it is a very solid issue despite a couple of flaws here and there.

The real hero of the story is of course Joe Staton who is inked very aptly by Jack Abel. Together they continued that dark, moody, scenery from last issue, especially when they had to go to the sewers. And the character design of that sewage monster was well done. Staton just handles all the Legionnaires very well, and with Abel’s rendering it helps create that balance between the cartoony and the more realistic approach.

The second story, The Arctoraan Jewel Case, is interesting in that it focuses on a single Legionnaire, which I do think helped cram in a second story in a seventeen-page book. Also, focusing on Chameleon Boy, is always a wise choice because you can do a lot with the character, especially considering they are treating him like the second smartest member of the team and he, of course, is the head of the so-called Espionage Squad. Paul Kupperberg handles this one and he does a pretty good job of cramming enough exposition and allowing for a bit of characterization, such as Chameleon Boy flirting with the Ambassador, that ties it off nicely at the end. This did not really do much in the overall Lore of the Legion but acted as more of a day in the life of a member.

What makes the story double interesting is that Joe Staton inks himself on this. Ever since he was coupled with Ric Estrada on Karate Kid and seeing that he has had a few inkers already on the main book, you do wonder just how cartoony his style naturally is. I still think he hit that balance, not to mention his style helps him with these wonderful designs for the two animals that Chameleon Boy had to change into. Again, even if this is pure filler, it was still a good story with some pretty solid art, so no real complaints here.

All in all, a pretty standard issue in the grand scheme of things. If I had to place one copy in the hands of someone who I would like to ‘sell’ the Legion to, I would not necessarily choose this one. It did what it needed to do, and it looks like they’re just keeping us busy until we have the long awaited followup from Jim Starlin, which hits next issue.

Legion Outpost

There is not anything too interesting in this issue’s Legion Outpost. At least on the level of last issue where the bombshell was dropped that they did intend to kill off a Legionnaire. Instead, we receive a lot of praise for Earthwar, which the creators admit was received with the almost universally positive reaction.

In addition, there is also the usual complaints about Staton’s art, something we are not unaccustomed to from the Karate Kid series because it can be decisive. For me, I do enjoy it when it finds that balance, and Staton did a wonderful job on both stories. The editors do address it and state they like the new art team of Staton and David Hunt because it is a near-perfect combination. They both know how to accurately depict each Legionnaire, and probably can also meet their deadlines. It seems that is what makes you successful, in the eyes of editorial, on a team book. Making people look the way they should, while also hitting your deadlines. Which hey, is not a surprise at all.

The Legion Medallion of Merit

With this outing we once again have two stories, with the second story being a solo Chameleon Boy story. But come on folks! There is only one guy we should give this to, and that is Lightning Lad! For anyone who was promoted to a managerial or team lead function, there is always that moment of realization where before you could simply state that is not your problem, but now, it actually is. And that moment came right here for Lightning Lad. Everyone looked to him for guidance as team leader, and he made the right call and rallied the troops. This was effectively his first mission and even though Brainiac Five pulled their butts out of the fire, albeit in a very cold way, the team still came through.

Congratulations Lightning Lad, and may this Medallion always be a reminder of your first mission as Team Leader!

And that is it for this week’s installments fellow Legionnaires! Join us next week when we tackle that much awaited Jim Starlin follow up as he reveals who exactly is behind the events from issue #239. But before that happens, always remember that when a very attractive ambassador catches your attention, you just have to whisper in her or his ear…

LONG LIVE THE LEGION!