Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #255

We have arrived at issue #255 and what a surprising issue this is! We are literally having a blast from the past with Conway giving us a very Superboy-centric story, with a lot of it taking place in Smallville. Superboy is also back as Clark Kent in his trusty red colored pullover as he continues to find ways to keep his secret identity a secret. If you were a comic book reader in 1979 and longing for the good ole days, this issue was definitely right up your alley. 

So take a deep breath fellow Legionnaires, get into your comfy chair, and make sure your face muscles are warmed up because you will be smiling (and reading) a lot as we take on the case of…

The Super-Spectacles Swipe!

Smallville, USA, of an early summer morning when the air is crisp off the nearby wheat fields, and the sky is as blue as a baby’s eyes. And a figure darts through the sky that should startle the residents of this sleepy Midwest town but does not. For this figure is a familiar sight to these residents, because this figure is Superboy! He quickly changes into he most familiar Clark Kent garb: a red pullover, blue trousers, with a tie tucked in. He swoops into the The General Store and finds Pa Kent waiting for him. Pa warns him to be more careful when making such an appearance because he just might accidentally blow his secret identity. After all, Pa Kent is still amazed that he is able to fool anyone by just putting on a pair of glasses. 

Clark picks up a large stack of heavy boxes and reassures Pa that it is much more than simple glasses. It is also posture, weight placement, voice tone, and a whole repertoire of skills he developed over the years. He enters the main area and sees Lana watching him carrying the heavy boxes. Thinking quickly, he hits the boxes hard enough to make all its contents fall through the bottom and through the floor. Lana walks up to him and tells him he has been caught because no one could pick up these heavy boxes except for Superboy. Clark gives her the boxes and she is astounded because they are extremely light. She leaves, somewhat satisfied, and Clark breathes out a sigh of relief. He then thinks of his time with the Legion of Super-Heroes and how he does not have to worry about his secret identity when he visits his friends. Maybe there will be one day when he can take off his glasses forever. He puts the glasses on the counter when suddenly an alien appears and switches them out for another pair. And then disappears quickly again. Clark tells Pa he better get going or he will be late for school. 

In the classroom Clark can feel Lana watching him intently. All of a sudden he hears a cry with his super-hearing. He quickly follows the cry with his telescopic vision to a construction site. A man is about to be run over by a runaway steamroller. Thinking quickly, he decides to use his heat-vision to reduce the tar to a sticky sludge to slow it down. It works but in the process, and much to his surprise, he destroys his glasses. Lana rushes over to him and asks if he is okay. Clark pretends to feel sick and drops his glasses before stepping on them. He quickly excuses himself and rushes out of the classroom. 

On the roof of the school, Clark examines the glasses and knows these are not his since he replaced his meltable spectacles with Kryptonian glass that he found in the ruins of the space rocket that brought him to Earth. As he ponders the question, a guest of wind hits him forcing him to look up and observe a sphere appear out of thin air. The Time Bubble arrives and opens and out pops Cosmic Boy, Shadow Lass, Shrinking Violet and Wildfire! They quickly tell him the thirtieth century is in trouble and they need his help. Wildfire notices the melted glasses in Superboy’s hands and it looks like he has already discovered at least half of the problem. Clark changes into Superboy and Cosmic Boy tells him what transpired. Someone broke into the Superman museum. And instead of stealing a Phantom Projector or other powerful items, the intruder chose the Time-Ray Projector used by a young Lex Luthor (waaaay back in Adventure Comics #300!) Superboy gets the idea and tells them to fill him on the rest while they are all in the Time Bubble. As the gang jets toward the thirtieth century, Wildfire picks up where Cosmic Boy left off. 

“And early this morning, our time, while the authorities in Metropolis were still investigating the theft at the museum, something pretty strange was happening on the other side of the world in Tokyo. Some kind of brilliant ray flashed out of the sky. Reports are kinda sketchy and in a matter of seconds it had touched every man, woman and child in the city, indoors and out. 

“We don’t know what happened next, Superboy, but we do know that when the Science Police arrived in Tokyo to investigate the wild video and radio reports they’d received earlier that morning, they found the city deserted, with not a soul in sight!

“Naturally we were called in, and when we heard about the ray from the sky, it gave Cosmic Boy here an idea.” 

Cosmic Boy continues:

“We surmised that maybe the people of Tokyo were hit by a Phantom Zone Ray, the same sort of Ray which your father, Jor-El, used to sentence certain criminals to imprisonment back on Krypton. We then used the Phantom Zone Projector from the Superman Museum in Tokyo. We did manage to see people but they did not fully materialize.

“After doing some thinking, I concluded that perhaps they were transported to a different dimensional plane, one very similar to the Phantom Zone. The Projector made them visible but it cannot bring them back to their own reality.

“Just then, the sky seemed to open up, and thunder with a voice like the word of god erupted. It said its name was Gorgli and it was their new master. To prove its power it kidnapped everyone in Tokyo and they will die in ten hours unless the humans of Earth pay it ten thousand human laborers, which it will sell onto the far side of the galaxy as slaves. It expected their reply in one hour’s time.” 

They continue the exposition by stating the Science Police were called in and traced the origin of the broadcast. Five Patrol ships were sent to confront the Alien’s ship, but the ship was protected by some sort of light-activated force-field and the ships were all destroyed. It was a disaster and the President had no choice but to call the Legion of Super-Heroes, a group he has been on the outs with for some time. Wildfire wanted to take much glee in the moment but remained the professional. With the rest of the Legion still on R.J. Brande’s planetoid, Wildfire once again led the way and took their last remaining Legion Cruiser and hit the Alien’s ship with all they had. 

Unfortunately it was not enough, and the same light that destroyed the Science Police ships hit the Legionnaires full on. Thankfully Cosmic Boy was able to form an energy shield around everyone otherwise they would have burned up on re-entry as they crashed back to Earth. As the Science Police came to their aid, that is when they learned of the theft of the Time-Ray Projector from the Superman Museum. They investigated the museum and then discovered a coronal energy trail leading back to Smallville during Superboy’s time and that is when they thought of his special Kryptonian super glasses. Gorgli used the Time-Ray to reach Smallville, switched out his glasses with fake ones, and is using the Kryptonian glasses to create super laser weapons that have already been used.

Does Superboy agree with their assessment? He does and he blasts into space to confront Gorgli’s ship and sure enough, the ship is also invulnerable to Superboy’s attack. The ship counterattacks, sending another ray of light, hitting Superboy squarely in the back and knocking him back to Earth. As he struggles to get out, Wildfire tells him he hoped that a Kryptonian would be able to stop a Kryptonian threat. That gives Superboy an idea and Cosmic Boy has the same one. Cosmic Boy orders the others back to the Time Bubble. Once again the Time Bubble slips backwards through the time stream but does not stop at Superboy’s time, but continues onward through the years, and travels through space until it reaches Jor-El’s workshop on Krypton. The Legionnaires spot a piece of Kryptonian lenses sitting on his workshop. Shrinking Violet shrinks down to size and stealthily makes her way to the table, picks up the lens, but then is startled by baby Kal-El who starts talking to her. Baby Kal-El picks up the lens and hands it to her because she is a pretty lady. Wildfire hurries them along and they get back into the Time Bubble and travel forward through time to return to confront Gorgli.

Back in the thirtieth century, Gorgli is getting impatient and watches as a new weapon constructed by the newly returned Legionnaires is pulled up to confront him. Gorgli has now had enough, and he blasts one of his light-rays right at Superboy. Fortunately, the Legionnaires have blasted Superboy with their own light-ray, strengthening him and making him immune from Gorgli’s attack. Then Superboy and Wildfire combine their heat energy through the Legion’s secret weapon and the beam hits Gorgli’s beam. The result is Gorgli’s ship explodes and Superboy rushes in to save him before he is a victim of his own plot. Superboy grabs the lenses away from Gorgli and promises him he will find a nice place in jail after they return the people of Tokyo to their own dimension. 

Afterwards, Superboy sees Shrinking Violet sitting on the Kryptonian lense they ‘borrowed’ from Jor-El and it looks oddly familiar to him. Shrinking Violet tells him to sit down because it turns out they have been friends for longer than he thought…

Next issue: This Is Your Life and Death Brainiac 5! On Sale July 19th. Don’t Miss It! 

Creative Team

When I opened the comic and saw Superboy flying through Smallville and then changing into his tried and true red pullover and black tie, the Clark Kent uniform, I breathed out a sigh of nostalgia and comfort. This was definitely Gerry Conway pulling those nostalgic strings and I believe the last time we saw Smallville and Clark Kent was way back in S/LSH #206, quickly after Mike Grell jumped on the book.

Conway definitely played with his audience. Not only do we have a bewildered Pa Kent who cannot believe that Clark gets away with his ‘disguise’ time and time again but also Clark telling him the other things he does to keep the Clark persona away from Superboy. Also, we have the tried and true ‘we need to keep our secret from Lana and doing very funny things to keep it so’ trope. This was so prevalent in those earlier Superboy stories that the callbacks just made you smile. 

Unfortunately this was really the only enjoyment and once Superboy joins the Legionnaires in the Time Bubble the whole thing quickly falls off the rails. The trouble with the issue itself is that it is extremely dense with a lot of the pages dedicated to narrative and exposition. This, in itself, is a bit of an odd form for Conway who is known for plot pacing that is snappy and who always moves the story along. Instead, we have very awkward narrations from Wildfire and Cosmic Boy that will switch back and forth between the past and present, and because it is so dense you tend to lose the thread and where you are in the story. At one point you realize that the story is just too complicated for a seventeen-page book. In addition, the over-telling produced an issue that is not very exciting and not really full of action. We do have some confrontations and conflict with Gorgli, but because a lot of it is being told, your focus is too much on the narration. In fact, the most exciting page in issue #255 is the in-house ad promoting issue #255, pictured below. 

After the third read, it is very obvious, at least to me, that this should have been a two-parter. And it probably was at one point. Furthermore, the last issues were moving both A and B Plots forward, but here nothing moves. We have a slight mention that Lightning Lad is still on R.J. Brande’s asteroid and of course that Brainiac Five is still insane, but that is it. This is pure filler all the way and a bit of an oddity in the grand scheme of things. And also a disappointment because after so much momentum gained, we are now standing still.

As for the art, Joe Staton is inked by Vince Coletta and they both get the job done. Joe Staton is a natural for Superboy’s world in Smallville, and those elements definitely stand out. In fact, you did feel like you were reading one of those Superboy stories from so long ago. The only complaint is Gorgli’s character design because it seemed quite standard for these types of alien stories found in books like Superman at the time. It was okay. 

In conclusion, this is an odd filler issue that does not continue the momentum that we experienced from issues prior. We still need a real resolution to the Brainiac problem as well as what is going on with R.J. Brande’s money. We do know that the book will be ‘relaunching’ into the Legion of Super-Heroes but the series will continue the numbering, so perhaps the editors wanted to save some of these resolutions for that. After this we have three issues left so we will see what they have planned. But it is an odd time to have a filler issue and it was simply not needed. 

Legion Outpost

We have two letters this issue with a very long letter from Edward B. Via giving a pretty good essay on S/LSH #250. He loved and hated it at the same time but he does bring some interesting points. What is interesting for us is the question on why Jim Starlin decided to use the pen name of Steve Apollo. Well it does seem like we have an answer:

“Given the secular changes the story in #250-1 went through (going from 64 to 42 pages, etc) there are several possible reasons why the plotter/penciller might have requested anonymity, and we usually don’t press our people for reasons.” 

Because the issue went from a Legion Winter Spectacular that was going to be sixty-four pages to two issues, totaling forty-two pages, Jim Starlin was not happy and did not want his name associated with the two issues, despite the fact that they were advertising him in many of the issues prior. I do wonder if there are any pages floating out there in Jim Starlin’s drawers and boxes that were completed to finish the story. I do think the end result did its job, but perhaps some of my gripes with it, such as Brainiac’s unclear motivations, would have been addressed with the longer page count? 

Finally, I was a bit disappointed because I was sure we would have received an announcement that this series will drop Superboy in the title and continue as just the Legion of Super-Heroes, making it the first time that the Legion received their own book. Interestingly we do have an in-house ad that seems to advertise just this. If you notice there is no Superboy but just the Legion of Super-Heroes, keeping the title front. Either way, it does seem like we are probably going to get an announcement soon in future issues. 

The Legion Medallion of Merit

With a whole lot of exposition and this being a very dense book, it is quite difficult to find a Legionnaire that went above and beyond since there was relatively little action in the book. Also the Legion got their butts handed to them from Gorgli. But if I were pressed, I would probably have to give it to Superboy. This is a very Superboy-centric book, with a nice little callback to Smallville and the Superboy series before it morphed into Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes. This was a nice piece of nostalgia. Also, Superboy acted quite admirably in trying to keep his secret identity from Lana and did not resort to physical violence. And not to mention that he and Wildfire helped save the day. Without Superboy, they would not have been in this mess, but also without Superboy, they would not been out of this mess. This is a bit of a stretch but hey, it is always nice to give something to the big teen in blue. So congratulations Superboy! Wear the medallion proudly. 

And that is it for this installment of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes! Join us next week when we (hopefully) continuing to explore the predicament that our dear friend Brainiac Five is in. Hopefully when we see him, we only have to shout those words that will hopefully help him snap out of his maniacal state…

LONG LIVE THE LEGION!