Welcome back to our regular feature and I do hope you enjoyed the ad interim that was the first part of a two-part crossover in Justice League of America! We actually will not go into the second part next week because Karate Kid will be after this, which was released a cool two days before JLA 148. So you will have to wait!

But first thing’s first!

Gerry Conway is back, taking over duties for Paul Levitz. Conway would actually end up taking the Justice League of America series over from Steve Englehart after the LSH/JSA crossover and would have a legendary run on his own. But since we are talking about the Legion, what better way to celebrate Conway’s return than bringing on board the second member of the art team from the Karate Kid book, Ric Estrada! If you remember back when Conway wrapped up the Stargrave storyline in issue #227 he brought on Joe Staton, so it is only fitting that Ric Estrada be given a shot and give poor James Sherman a break after that incredibly hard flex from last issue. And what a shot it is because once again we have a Giant sized issue and all with one new story. I do not know about you but I am loving this new format and I do hope it is here to stay at least for a little while.

But speaking of giant size, we have a lot of issue to cover so it is time to get crackin’!

The Disease That Wouldn’t Die 

Aboard the most spectacular luxury space liner of the 30th Century, The Glory of Ganymede, a party is in progress, a party that Superboy enjoys being a part of but has no idea what it is all about. Lightning Lad informs him that they are celebrating Klordny Week and Saturn Girl tells him to shut up and dance. 

Laughing, Superboy turns to Shrinking Violet and asks her to tell him what this is all about. She refuses and tells him he will just have to suffer. Meanwhile, they are both interrupted by a large, overweight passenger who recognizes Vi for being an Imskian. He charges over to her and declares, for everyone to hear, that Imskians are traitors to the United Planets. Superboy and Vi cannot believe what they just headd and the overweight moron continues his finger pointing. It is the Imskians who are trying to leave the United Planets because they want to extend their own private space zone with an additional two-light-years extension from current Imsk space. Shrinking Violet gets in his face but quickly backs off and walks away. Superboy is about to give him a talking to of his own when suddenly he is interrupted by explosions. Something is attacking the ship.

Lightning Lad races to determine the source and sure enough, it is Space Pirates! And as the Pirate Ship attacks, its commander orders them to take everything they can and to leave no survivors.

Saturn Girl senses that the Pirates are about to board the ship and Superboy and Lighting Lad spring into action. Saturn Girl tries to get Shrinking Violet to join them, when she notices she is staring down the fat moron who insulted her moments before. She points at him and tells him he is lucky it is not up to her to save him and joins Saturn Girl to intercept the Pirates.

Outside, the Space Pirates are cutting through the bulk head when a lightning bolt erupts from the inside. They gasp in their space helmets and realize their rotten luck. Because they are about to face the Legion of Super-Heroes! And to reemphasize their predicament, Superbly flashes by and slams into them. In the silence of space, a battle ensues but goes unheard, which is probably for the best because the battle is both swift and brutal.

Inside, Lightning Lad takes account for the damage that he caused in stopping the Pirates. He realized that there were delicate life-support machinery in the wall and if it is not fixed soon, the ship is doomed. He then asks Shrinking Violet if she is up for shrinking down and going through the circuitry in order to repair anything she can find with her Legion Emergency Kit? She does not hesitate, much to the admiration of Saturn Girl who wonders if she would be up to such a gargantuan task.

Shrinking Violet moves quickly and repairs what she can. However, with the task well in hand she cannot help but think about the political situation that is befalling her world. They need to protect their mining rights and because Imsk depends on the asteroids for trade they need to have a wider space-sector. She is obviously torn between siding with the United Planets and her own people since she understands their predicament.

Meanwhile Superboy joins Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad with a couple of souvenirs taken from the battle; two Space Pirates! Saturn Girl quickly probes their minds and is able to determine that they both were told when and where to attack by some unknown person. This person not only gave them the information but also some money, which means that someone wants this particular liner attacked. Lightning Lad suggests that it could be a way to cause a diversion for something else. Saturn Girl agrees and that it could also probably be an attempt to conceal something. But what? And where?

If Saturn Girl could see the far side of Saturn she would know for, at that precise moment, a spacecraft hovers into view, unseen by the crew of the besieged space liner, as it darts rom concealment behind the planet’s rings, and dives through the void toward Earth.

A mysterious figure points at a helmeted brute and asks if he is ready for his mission. The brute agrees and adds that he is very much looking forward to seeking out Rene Brande, benefactor of the Legion. It is his pleasure to mete out justice because Brande must pay for his crimes. The mysterious figure agrees and compliments the brute of learning his lesson well. He then blasts him with some sort of transporter beam and wishes him luck on his mission, because he will serve the purpose as part of the overall plan to humiliate the Legion of Super-Heroes and blackmail the entire solar system. At the speed of light, the transporter beam, carrying the dematerialized shape of the brute, arrives at its destination on the outskirts of Metropolis. The shape solidifies and the brute is ready.

At that moment aboard a United Planets Space Platform outside the Orbit of Pluto, Cosmic Boy and Colossal Boy are also enjoying the Klordny Festival and are in mid-toast with Colossal Boy’s cousin, Rogir. He is happy that he was able to join them during the festival. Cosmic Boy asks what they do for fun as Patrollers of the U.P. Space Patrol when suddenly the proximity alarm goes off. Everyone ceases the festivities and rushes into position. They quickly realize that some mysterious force is approaching the platform and they watch in awe as a cloud of glittering space spores swarm toward their position.

Stunned silence follows, as all aboard the station gape at their various display screens, portholes, and observation windows. All are unable to move, all staring in paralyzed horror at the swirling fog sweeping closer and closer, finally covering the station, and passing through the solid titanium walls as easily as sunlight moves through glass. For one agonizing instant, every man and woman in the station writhes under the touch of the glittering fog and then, inexplicably, the fog is gone.

The crew and the two Legionnaires are bewildered at what just happened. But quickly they start to feel very different. Colossal Boy announces that his head is throbbing and his bones feel very hot. He then asks Cosmic Boy if he notices anything different about the control room. Cosmic Boy answers yes, that the walls seem to be getting bigger. Colossal Boy realizes with horror that it is not the case. They are actually getting smaller! He quickly sends a transmission to Lightning Lad using his own call signal. Thankfully Lightning Lad answers and Colossal Boy fills him in. He then tells him that they are reducing in size at an exponential rate and pretty soon they will be microscopic. They need help and they need it bad. 

Lightning Lad quickly fills in the rest of the team and Saturn Girl cannot believe that an entire United Planets Space Platform is shrinking. It is unbelievable. Suddenly the heckler from before returns to announce that it is not unbelievable but it is obviously an Imskian trick since Imskians also shrink down to size. He points his finger and blames Shrinking Violet. He is not, however, able to continue his rant because he is immediately picked up by Superboy who tells him that it is enough, and easily tosses him aside.

It does not take long to make the necessary arrangements and so, less than five minutes after Colossal Boy’s call for help, a commandeered Pirate vessel rips Pluto-ward, bearing four grim Legionnaires on a desperate mission of mercy.

Meanwhile, on Earth, another mission proceeds according to plan, as Shadow Lass moves unobserved through he Legion clubhouse defenses. But she is not totally unobserved because she senses an intruder that quickly darts into a darkened room in order to hide. She enters the dark room and quickly sees him, because everyone on Talok VIII can see in the dark. She notices that he is cowering and appears to be scared. She quickly changes tactics and tries to ask nicely what he is doing here, when he responds with a swift punch. But Shadow Lass cannot only see in the dark but she is also a master of Talok VIII’s brand of martial arts, and quickly recovers and counter attacks, throwing him to the ground. With him down she quickly calls for back up and Brainiac Five, Timber Wolf, and Mon-El arrive on the scene as support. 

The brute snarls at them and demands them to tell him where Brande is. They of course refuse to comply so the brute launches into an attack right at Timber Wolf. Mon-El hits him with a dose of heat vision but it does not have any effect. However, Timber Wolf is enraged and shouts that he does not need help, because his strength is greater than a human’s and he fights alone. Timber Wolf kicks him off and the brute makes a run for it down a corridor. However, the brute hides right behind a nondescript doorway and watches his pursuers run by. He then makes his way further around Legion Headquarters and finds Chameleon Boy who does not notice him. He uses that to his advantage and hits him in the back of the head, knocking him out. He is pleased with himself because he is in the File room, and he can use these files to find the current whereabouts of Brande. 

Soon after, the alarm goes off and the Legionnaires rush to the File room, but arrive too late. The brute got what he came for and quickly disappears. The Legionnaires look at the empty space of where their query was just seconds before and know they have no choice. They have to go to Brande’s Private Planetoid and try to stop him from being kidnapped…or murdered. 

Part Two: A Short Way to Die

Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Superboy, and Shrinking Violet arrive on the United Planets Platform orbiting Pluto to find Cosmic Boy and Colossal Boy in complete panic, because they are now only two feet tall. What is worse is that the scientists calculated that if they do not stop the shrinking soon, they will simply cease to exist. Cosmic Boy then recounts how the glittering cloud passed through the station and must have left behind some sort of energy residue. Colossal Boy asks Shrinking Violet for help but she is still on guard from the accusations made against the Imskians and overreacts before Saturn Girl tells her he is just asking for assistance. She calms down but sadly affirms that she does not have any ideas.

Meanwhile a message comes in from the United Planets’ Command with orders. They request that the Legionnaires make their way to the Planet Imsk in order to learn the source of the shrinking fog and find its antidote. And if the Imskians resist they are authorized to use maximum force. The message ends and everyone is shocked and cannot help but stare at Shrinking Violet. She runs away in tears and the Legionnaires still do not know what to say. 

We depart this scene and move to the outer rings of the giant planet Saturn, as a familiar, glittering fog drifts onward through the solar system, passing over and through the Saturnian moon of Titan, home to the Legionnaire known as Saturn Girl. Like some fiendish aurora borealis, the glowing cloud descends, touching buildings, men, women, and children, affecting all before passing on. Titan is a world of telepathy and in one mental voice, they scream.

The collective scream is so powerful it reaches Saturn Girl who falls to the floor. She tells the Legionnaires it is the same cloud and it must be passing through the entire solar system. Lightning Lad asks Superboy for a plan and he says they have no choice; they have to go to Imsk. Shrinking Violet asserts that she is coming along and that no one will stop her. The Legionnaires agree. 

Meanwhile, in the orbit of Mercury, not far from the star called the Sun, a Legion Cruiser cleaves the ether as Brainiac Five acknowledges Superboy’s update and wishes him luck. They need to reach Brande’s private planetoid before the assassin does. Mon-El wishes he would have told Superboy that the assassin just so happens to be immune from all their powers but Brainy says not to worry, they will figure it out. But as soon as they land, their cruiser is blasted with laser torpedoes and the gang just manages to get out in time. 

Mon-El gives the assassin a name, the Immune, and uses his telescopic vision to find his location. He spots him and charges after his position but Brainy pleads for him to stop because it will not be of any use and only tire him out. The Immune quickly shoots at Mon-El but he escapes the blasts and then delivers a mighty punch, destroying the gun and knocking the Immune down. But Mon-El does not let up and he continues to pummel him with one ferocious blow after another. Once the smoke clears the Immune lies on the ground, unharmed, as he stands up and faces Mon-El. Mon-El is flabbergasted how could his punches have no effect? The Immune then goes into full monologue mode, telling us his powers and his backstory:

“I am an Immune, Legionnaire! My body resists physical harm of all kinds, instantly adapting itself to injury or disease, making me impossible to kill. Like most creatures, I possess a system of antibodies which repair the damage to my physical form. Yet unlike most creatures, my antibodies are cosmically charged. They repair my body instantly, protecting me from death forever.”

Brainiac Five then asks how a mutation could change a life form that drastically. And The Immune is happy to give the answer:

“I was destroyed Brainiac Five, destroyed by a group of military industrialists led by your precious Rene Brande. I was destroyed, I, and a world of three billion people.

“We were a world at war with our neighbors, we of the planet Xorma, and the insanity of war led us to buy newer and deadly weapons, weapons sold by your benefactor and his colleagues. One such weapon was the Spore Bomb, a biological warfare weapon of terrible power. As one of my world’s foremost scientists, I opposed the testing of the bomb but was ignored. And the testing occurred on schedule though not as planned. You see, the Spore Bomb was still experimental and its inventors were using our planet’s people as guinea pigs. The Spore Fog should not have escaped the test area, but it did, sweeping first across the observation platforms, infecting everyone in its path.

“And then swarming across the worlds, spreading disease and death. Within ten kormats (wenty-three earth hours) , it was over; every man, woman and infant on Xorma had dwindled to nothingness. All of them dead.”

But The Immune survived because his antibodies altered and were able to protect him from injuries. But now he has come for vengeance against Brande. Despite the story the Legionnaires rush in to protect Brande because they cannot allow him to kill, for whatever reason.

Meanwhile over the planet Imsk, the Legionnaires arrive and are ambushed by a ship from Imsk that hits it with laser beams. But Shrinking Violet tells Superboy that is not an Imsk craft, but the battle boat of Doctor Regulus! Regulus, the Legion’s old enemy who can control the power of Suns, quickly turns everything into red sun energy. Superboy passes out along with his fellow Legionnaires. When they regain consciousness, they are in individual restraints designed to nullify their powers. Shrinking Violet cannot believe that Regulus could be behind all of this. To her horror she also sees an unconscious Sun Boy, whom Regulus captured first because he believed Sun Boy was a real threat to him.

Meanwhile on the Brande Planetoid, the Legionnaires are still struggling with The Immune when Brainy suddenly has an idea. The Immune could prove to have a fatal weakness and if only Brainy can get the help of a special Legionnaire, he might be able to pull it off.

We transport back to Regulus’ ship who is steering his craft Earthward and recounting the facts for us that Brande is actually innocent and that he tricked The Immune so he could help him take out the Legion. There is also a cure for the Spore fog, a vaccine that can only be created with The Immune’s blood. His inner monologuing is interrupted by Sun Boy who has regained consciousness thanks to Saturn Girl. Regulus cannot believe it because Saturn Girl is unconscious in her own makeshift restraints. Sun Boy does not care and he blasts Regulus with a well place bolt of sun energy, knocking him down to the ground. He continues his attack until Regulus is down for good. Lightning Lad then asks if he could also help them out of their own restraints.

With the heroes released, ‘Shrinking Violet’ takes off her disguise and is actually Saturn Girl. And ‘Saturn Girl’ takes off her disguise and is Shrinking Violet! By switching places they were able to still use their powers since the restraints were designed for each specific Legionnaire. But despite the victory, Shrinking Violet is still perturbed with how her planet and her people have been treated and storms off.

Back on Rande’s planetoid Brainy squares off against the Immune who tells him that they finally won and figured it out. Because if he has not noticed, The Immune is shrinking. But how is it that he is getting smaller, he is immune to everything. The Immune commands his body to fight it and to protect himself. And the body obeys and The Immune somehow knocks himself to the ground. Timber Wolf asks what happened and Brainy informs him that he simply short-circuited himself because his mind became a threat to his body and it took measures to protect it.

Indeed, it was not The Immune who was getting smaller, but Brainy getting bigger. And with one swift motion Brainy takes of his mask to reveal that he was Colossal Boy the entire time! And Colossal Boy collapses since fighting the shrinking disease has made him very weak and fragile. 

But that is okay because Brainy uses The Immune’s blood to craft an antidote, distributing it to the entire solar system, curing everyone. The End.

But wait, there is more! While everyone is celebrating their recently achieved victory there is one lone Legionnaire who is not. Shrinking Violet sulks and Colossal Boy asks her why. She replies that everyone looks at her and her own planet, and believed they were all traitors. She now doubts the people she chose as friends and because of that, she has a lot of thinking to do. And she has to do it…alone.

Next: The awesome attack of the Infinite Man! Plus: Princess Projectra—victim of the final illusion! One sale the fourth week in August. 

Creative Team

Gerry Conway jumps into the series once again as Paul Levitz helps Marin Pasko with over LSH/JLA crossover. What is interesting is that Conway has picked up the second artist of the two artist team, Ric Estrada, from the Karate Kid book. I do not know if this was intentional but it does act as an interesting bookend for since we are covering both series

Happily, they continue giving us an amazing thirty plus pages of original Legionnaire content, really making that Giant-Size format a wonderful treat for LSH fans. Though I do wonder if this was an already completed issue because we were promised the Infinity Man story from last issue and it gets tagged at the end here again. Was there some sort of scheduling conflict or delay from the art team when it came to the change in format? I am not sure. But I am still not complaining.

Gerry Conway does what Gerry Conway does best and that is pacing. He drops us into an interesting little event and then all hell breaks loose. Each character is used quite well, and we even have an interesting conflict with Shrinking Violet being singled out by some citizens and then from the rest of the team at the end. Also I enjoy getting a deeper insight into the Legion’s role within the United Planets’ political structure. So when they get the call to go to Imsk, the conflict becomes even greater.

Additionally, Conway makes master use of splitting the team up, which allows each group of super-heroes to depict and use their strengths and weaknesses as they speed across the galaxy trying to bring out a resolution to their individual missions. Whether it is the mysterious fog or the saving of Brande, this allows Conway to use each character in a satisfactory way in specific moments and it is well executed. 

That only complaint I have is that Conway does sure cram a lot of plot in this story and I think there were just way too many strings dangling throughout the story. If you look at the resolution, and how I recapped it, the whole thing definitely ends abruptly, with everything becoming resolved at a very fast pace. I do think Conway could have removed a few plot elements entirely. This does not ruin the issue by any means but even with the thirty plus pages, I was just surprised that Conway could not have eased us into the resolution. 

Now for the art. If you have been following along with the Karate Kid book, in particular in the Karate Comments section, you would know that Ric Estrada’s cartoony style has been somewhat divisive. Some really like it and others do not. I am firmly in the ‘like it’ camp and I think his style matches perfectly with a team like the LSH. His work really compliments the need to give each Legionnaire his own look, and I always liked Estrada’s designs for the main villain of a particular issue (for the most part). Here it was really nice to see The Immune and how he had a really distinct look. The visor over his eyes really gave it a cold feeling and at one point you really felt like our Legionnaires were in real danger. The art was never placed too much on the cartoony side and there was a good enough balance that also allowed the battles and the space-opera-theatrics to come through. I do not know if I would like him to be the main artist on the main book, but I did enjoy what he did here and I do continue to enjoy what he is doing on the Karate Kid book. 

Whether or not this was an intended filler issue to let Levitz do his own thing and give James Sherman a break after that huge flex he did in the previous issue, is a mute point. Gerry Conway, Ric Estrada, and Jack Abel give us a very well done Legion story in thirty plus pages and it is an extremely special time to be a part of this fandom. And I cannot wait for more. 

Legion Outpost

This is a pretty standard letter’s page in this issue’s Legion Outpost.

The most interesting letter probably is a tag team effort from Robert Heying and Raymond Magyar who do a good analysis of the book and point out some inconsistencies. They call the Stargrave saga a ‘mess’ and that they obviously did not conclude it how Shooter would have. We also deduced this. But they make an interesting point about the big reveal when Stargrave tells Brainiac Five that he is his father and then Levitz picks that up to state that he will kill Stargrave thereby forcing him to get kicked out of the legion. To quote these two letter hacks:

“A good solo story with one mistake—the comment by Element Lad about murder has no justification since both Brainy and Wildfire have destroyed androids or robots, or which Stargrave/Brainiac is one…no mention is made of the murder charge, especially when Superboy and Wildfire casually knock Stargrave into Colu’s sun (after all, that could conceivable “kill” him). The very fact that this happened was puzzling.”

So a good point and I think as we continue to look at the Stargrave saga and really think about it, there were a ton of inconsistencies. But hey, Levitz was new to the series and admitted to one mistake before and Gerry Conway was basically the third writer to touch the ongoing storyline. A lot worse has done in the world of comics than this, and I still like the saga because they were trying to inject some stakes and world building into the book. And you cannot fault them for that. 

We conclude with the Bottom of the page department where they announce that they received 120 votes in the first month for the Legion Leader and it is a dead heat between two Legionnaires and they are still tallying the votes. Exciting stuff!

We have another Legion Outpost Extra where they finish the Who’s Who like profiles of the important characters and groups and they promise more things to come. 

The Legion Medallion of Merit

The Legion Medallion of Merit represents a moment in the issue when a Legionnaire has gone above and beyond the call of duty in some manner or form. I think it would be easy to give it to Shrinking Violet since she had to put up with a lot of flack this issue. As an American living abroad, people feel like I represent everything that my country does and they let me know how they feel about it from time to time. It is just one of the things that many Expats, from all countries, have to deal with. So I do understand where she was coming from and how she felt.

However, I keep thinking about that one moment over and over again, and how this Legionnaire played an instrumental role and acted bravely in a crisis, especially when he was right in the middle of it. And that is Colossal Boy.

Colossal Boy saw what was happening and he immediately called his Legionnaires into action for help. What is more, he exerted himself to the full, probably more than he has ever done in his life in order to play a part in an overall plan to trick The Immune into thinking he was shrinking. And who knows how Colossal Boy would have come out at the end of it.. So thank goodness it all worked out but if it was not for him, The Immune would have done some serious damage, all on a false pretense.

Congratulations Colossal Boy! Even in the face of shrinking down into nothing did you act bravely and still proved to everyone around you why you are deserving to be a member of the most powerful group of super-heroes in the thirtieth century. Wear the Medallion proudly and we can only hope that, should the situation arise, all your fellow Legionnaires would act as bravely as you. 

And that is it for this week’s installment friends! I hope you enjoyed the first part of the Justice League of America crossover, because the final part will happen in two weeks since Karate Kid ended up coming out a mere two days before the JLA finale.

In the meantime, pease remember when you find yourself celebrating Klordny Week and you find your glass full of an alcoholic beverage, before taking that first step, be sure to look your friends in the eye, raise your glass, and allow the true calling of the universe to ring out for all to hear…

LONG LIVE THE LEGION!