Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #252

Welcome back fellow Legionnaires, to a new beginning for the future’s mightiest heroes! With Earthwar concluded, the Jim Starlin epic in the bag, we are now firmly nested with Gerry Conway, Joe Staton, and David Hunt. We pick up directly after the events of last issue with the fate of Brainiac Five unknown, and our beloved Legion still stunned from previous events imposed by Jim Starlin. 

Strap up, put that Legion flight ring on your favorite finger, and get ready for more excitement!

Postcript to Holocaust 

We pick up the events from last issue, but magically Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl have also arrived. Our group of Legionnaires watch Matter-Eater Lad restrained in a plastiglass cell, screaming with madness. Brainiac Five has come up with a plan to use Princess Projectra to cast an illusion into Matter-Eater Lad’s nightmare and allow Dream Girl to enter his thoughts and bring him back to sanity. It is risky but the risk is worth it to save a fellow Legionnaire. 

Princess Projectra concentrates and suddenly for Matter-Eater Lad the world disappears and where once there was a plastiglass cell, there is now a forest glade, a world soft and soothing. Eyes wide with wonder, he stares about him like a child. Then, a musical voice sings out behind him, and he turns to see Dream Girl on a majestic white horse. She tells him to take her hand and she will bring him home. He reaches out to her hand but at the moment of touch, he screams in terror. The dream world dissolves into nightmare. 

He pulls frantically at Dream Girl and pulls her down. She warns him that he is pulling them both into an exploding star and if she stays with him, she will lose her mind. She breaks away and Matter-Eater Lad drops toward the sun. He screams, and his scream shatters the dream like a piece of fragile crystal and he returns screaming in his plastiglass cell. 

Saturn Girl faints into Superboy’s arms and Superboy immediately criticizes Brainy for not trying hard enough. Brainy sneers and tells them all to get out. Two guards appear to take Brainy away. 

The Legionnaires leave the mental ward when suddenly the sky explodes and all eyes look upward to see alien raiders on flaming horses. Princess Projectra immediately recognizes them as Starburst Bandits because they once raided her home world of Orando. The Legionnaires immediately go to action. Lightning Lad welcomes the distraction because up to this point with everything that has happened, they have been taxed to the breaking point and they need a good fight. 

Lightning Lad blasts one Starburst Bandit but Saturn Girls warns him to watch out. But Lightning Lad has no time to react to his wife’s warning cry and in the next instant he is blasted in the back. By nature telepaths are not primarily physical individuals and ordinary Saturn Girl is no exception. But someone just tried to kill her husband and for once in her rigidly controlled life, Saturn Girl goes wild and throws herself at the bandits. Meanwhile, Princess Projectra quickly casts an illusion of monsters to confuse the bandits so the other Legionnaires can get into position. For a moment, victory seems but a breath away, but then capricious fate takes a hand in the shape of a frightened bucking Flamehorse whose hoof connects with the Princess’ head and the illusion fades. However, Superboy has taken advantage of the situation and quickly disrupts whatever they were stealing. He sees the containers they had in their net and examines them with his x-ray vision. He cannot believe what he sees but before he can warn the others, a Bandit blasts him with its weapon and Superboy falls into the water. 

Wildfire bursts in and blasts the bandits but he is quickly overwhelmed and is blasted in the back. Sun Boy meanwhile is having a bit more luck because he can use his powers to counter their starbursts but unfortunately there are just too many of them. Luckily, the Bandit leader gives the command of retreat because they have lost the element of surprise. By the time the Legionnaires recover, the bandits are gone and Superboy knows where they are going and the whole Solar System is in grave danger. 

We leave this scene and move to the ‘B-Plot’ with R.J. Brande receiving a visit from two United Planets Revenue Agents, who inform him that he is officially bankrupt. He shoos them out of this house and he swears that whoever is responsible for this will pay. 

With that unpleasantness out of the way, we return to Legion H.Q. where Mon-El and Shadow Lass are helping to clean up all the rubble and damage from Omega’s visit last issue. Wildfire appears in his energy form, his suit being destroyed by the Bandits and he is joined by Lightning Lad, Superboy, Sun Boy, Dream Girl, and Saturn Girl. They recount their battle and Shadow Lass has also heard of the Starburst Bandits because they raided a world in a neighboring Solar System from Talok VIII. Superboy talks about what he saw in the containers off page while Wildfire grabs his spare containment suit. 

The gang head toward a Legion Cruiser and Wildfire, in his new suit, pokes fun at Lightning Lad a little bit, hoping he will acknowledge that being a leader can be a bit tough. Forty-four minutes later, a gleaming Legion Cruiser joins the heaven’s constellations bearing the Legion of Super-Heroes. Inside, Superboy again tells what he found in the containers and what the Starburst Bandits were after. Synthetic Neutronium, which happens to be the most fantastic material known to science. And the only natural source of neutronium in the solar system is at the heart of the sun. 

Saturn Girl uses her powers to link her mind with the Bandits and she projects her thoughts into the mind of Princess Projectra. Instantly, a cloudy image forms in the center of the Cruiser’s control room, and the gathered heroes gasp in awe. There before them, is the mother ship of the Starburst Bandits, and as they watch, it extends tendrils of magnetic plasma into the surface of the sun, which wrench at the very core of the star’s nucleonic heart. While aboard the mother ship itself, the Bandits look on with cold satisfaction. 

“A chain reaction is building within this sun,” grates their leader. “But by the time it reaches critical mass, we will have what we want. And we shall be long gone!”

The last image is a thought form the leader’s mind and it stuns the Legionnaires into silence. Lightning Lad asks Superboy if he can run point, but Superboy cannot because when he was blasted earlier, he lost his powers. Their Starbursts must have contain red sun energy. Lightning Lad then commands everyone to strap in tight, he is putting them on a collision course. 

Deep within the cruiser mighty engines surge and the ship leaps forth like a blazing comet. Saturn Girl asks if there is not another way, and Lightning Lad answers no. Then Saturn Girl telepathically tells him she loves him and he loves her too, forever.

Deeper and deeper the Bandits probe, dredging up the very life-stuff of the sun. Below them, the star’s surface begins to crackle, sun-spots erupting like miles-high volcanoes. Above them, the Legion Cruiser begins its dive. Down it goes, till it seems almost to skim the inferno’s heaving surface. And then, at perhaps the last instant, it pulls out, gravity-fields straining, stabilizer’s screaming, and plunges upward at the mother ship’s unprotected belly. One second, two, and at last, impact! And a spaceship dies to save a star. 

Soon after, as vacuum-suited Legionnaires gather up the stunned Starburst bandits, Sun Boy is working to refer the solar chain-reaction with his sun powers. He struggles and realizes he has not enough power. But then he wonders if he can simply concentrate on healing the core, and that should produce a counter-reaction to prevent the sun from blowing up. He pours it on, harder than he ever has before. And slowly, the vast surging seas of angry red begin to fade across the sun’s mottled surface. Till at last, the crisis is past and the sun is at peace. His fellow Legionnaires congratulate him and Sun Boy is somewhat happy, but he does have one final question for them all.

How are they going to get home?

Next issue: A new menace—the deadly Legion of Super-Assassins! On sale last week in April. 

Creative Team

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #252 is an interesting issue in that it has to acknowledge what happened in Jim Starlin’s epic as well as continue the ramifications of Earthwar. This resulted in a bit of an awkward beginning, with Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl just suddenly reappearing. Luckily, Gerry Conway and Joe Staton were able to show a sequence of Brainy being escorted back to his cell, which told us that this was a bit after the events from Jim Starlin’s issues. Still, you could always ask the question, where the heck were Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad in the first place the last two issues? I mean Lightning Lad is team leader. But we know the answer, the Jim Starlin piece was obviously produced before the Legion elections and Earthwar itself. 

But that is enough of that. Gerry Conway is moving things forward and we can see what he is cooking. R.J. Brande is becoming a key player as he moves the B-Plot forward in Brande losing all of his money and suspecting foul play. I do like this and it will be interesting to see how this will be resolved.

The Starburst Bandits are an interesting choice but I think they too much represent the so called Resource Raiders that Levitz introduced when he first started his run. We do not really understand their motivation but it was still cool that they were attacking the sun. Conway and Staton both produced a fantastic moment with Lightning Lad in the captain’s chair who has no choice but to ram the Legion Cruiser, possibly sacrificing the whole team and he does not even hesitate. We are seeing what kind of leader Lightning Lad is and he seems to be a decisive one. 

I have always said it here but Conway is not only a master of pacing but he knows how to use his characters. I really enjoyed how he was able to combine Princess Projectra and Dream Girls powers in an attempt to help ‘cure’ Matter-Eater Lad who ate the Miracle Machine. He returns to this again, but this time with Saturn Girl and Princess Projectra, who combined their powers to help convey to the rest of the Legion what was actually happening. This was quite intuitive and I do not think their powers combined in this way before. This shows that Conway was probably a fan of the Legion at the time or at least did his homework, something that Len Wein unfortunately failed to do (more on this in the Legion Outpost section). 

I thought the ending was quite good, focusing of course on Sun Boy who needs to mitigate and resolve the damage made to the sun. I have always liked Sun Boy so it was nice to see him here. Also, leaving the ending with a nice question was a good way to send us off and create a nice chuckle.

Focusing on Joe Staton and Dave Hunt, they did an excellent job. The look of the Sunburst Pirates could have easily fallen on the ‘cheesy’ side but thankfully they were able to show a bit of constraint and still depicted them as dangerous adversaries. Also, Staton’s facial work to express emotion was also nicely done because we did get a lot of nice close-ups, especially of Lightning Lad who was resolved to stop the Pirates, no matter the cost. It does seem like these two artists are finding a rhythm with each other and I cannot wait to see more of their work together.

All in all, another solid issue from the new creative team. The B-Plot moves forward and Conway proves to the Legion fanbase that he knows who they are and how to combine their strengths to move the story forward. These guys are definitely entertaining us and I cannot wait to see what comes next. 

Legion Outpost

We have two letters in this issue’s Legion Outpost and it is commentary on issues #246 and #247. If you do not remember, these were two issues contributed by Len Wein. Both letters, one from Verde and Edward B. Via, pretty much sum up my thoughts, especially as it related to the Fatal Five story. It was obvious that Wein did not have a good grasp of the characters and also did not know their history. Quoting Verde:

“Oh, the poor Fatal Five. I remember when they amounted to something, when they were a real threat and their appearance was a real event. I also remember when they weren’t permanently grafted together as a quintet, but operated separately. It was, in fact, the Legion that brought them together. The story in this issue was a meagre fare for them indeed.”

And I agree with that. Edward Via was a bit more diplomatic (which was a but off-character for him as a letter-hack of the time) and acknowledging as well as pinpointing why it was disappointing:

“To sum up everything that was wrong with [Wein’s] script for S/LSH #247 would take more time and space than I’m willing to devote to such an undertaking, but just so Len, whose work I’ve admired for some time, won’t think I’m taking any cheap shots.”

Because I also admire Wein’s work and continue to do so as I read more of his stories. So when I saw that he was writing the Fatal Five my expectations were quite high. And perhaps that was the reason for the disappointment. 

Either way, it does look like our fingers are on the pulse of the sentiment at the time and it is admirable that DC printed letters of criticism. It shows their strength as a company that listened to feedback and continue striving to produce good content for its readership.

The Legion Medallion of Merit

We come to the end of our look at Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #242 as we choose one Legionnaire who went above and beyond the call of duty and made some real impact in the story. All the Legionnaires pretty much played a balanced role, but I do have to give this one to Sun Boy. He saved the day by thinking on his feet. He acknowledged that what he was doing was not working and had the intelligence and guts to pivot. And he ended up saving the day. Congratulations Sun Boy! I always like it when you turn on the heat and show your fellow Legionnaires what you can do. 

That is it for this week’s installment fellow Legionnaires! I do hope we see Brainy recovered soon because he is an integral part of the team. But until then, be sure to remember that wondrous call to duty…

LONG LIVE THE LEGION!