Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #256

After that extremely dense previous offering I am thrilled to report that we are back on track and moving our A and B-Plots forward. We do have (I think?) the resolution to Brainiac Five’s current situation and it was not what I expected. Is it a let down or satisfying conclusion? I will let you be the judge. So what are you waiting for? Find yourself an amusement park to commandeer and let us go ride this ride!

This Is Your Life–And Death, Brainiac 5!

Brainiac Five sits in his cell, a prisoner on the island of St. Croix. Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and Superboy listen to the latest developments of Brainy’s progress, which is not much at all. He simply sits there in the dark and reads, constantly destroying the lights after they are repaired. The Doctor motions the visitors over to Matter-Eater Lad who is showing progress but his condition is a result of an organic disruption. The Doctor hesitates but Saturn Girl encourages him to continue, not only having already read his mind but also knowing the other Legionnaires have already guessed it. Brainy’s condition is a total rejection of the real world and unless some miracle occurs, he will remain insane for the rest of his natural life.

The Legionnaires leave and Superboy is disappointed because he thought after Brainy saved the lives of his fellow Legionnaires two issues ago, his condition would have improved. Saturn Girl surmises that if they find the answer to why helping his friends made his condition worse, they might just be able to help him. Saturn Girl then wonders how much Brainy knows about himself. 

At that same moment, far off in space, on a planetoid owned by Legion financier R.J. Brande, the same financier is in a tangent hammering on the fact that his current predicament of bankruptcy must be a conspiracy against him. Chameleon Boy and Shrinking Violet, members of the Espionage Squad, agree. And they recruited Mon-El and Shadow Lass to help expose the conspiracy. Brande sits on a chair and puts his hands over his head. He hopes they will be successful, because he is just too old to start over again.

As those Legionnaires try to help Brande pull himself together, we return to Earth and, specifically, to Cosmic World, the biggest, most expensive and popular theme park every created. The Legionnaires plead with its owner to allow them to make sole use of it. But he refuses to send his two million current customers home and the Legionnaires have no choice but to commandeer the entire park. Cosmic Boy pins the owner to a metal tower, and Lightning Lad swoops in and uses his electric power to light up the sky, creating a message to all its patrons that they must leave the park. In a matter of mere hours the park lies deserted, much at the behest of a furious owner. 

Back at a destroyed Legion HQ, Wildfire, Ultra Boy, Colossal Boy, Phantom Girl, Light Lass and Timber Wolf continue to sift through the rubble to try to salvage what can be salvaged. Timber Wolf grows very frustrated and is disheartened. Light Lass looks into his eyes and reminds him that the Legion is not a collection of toys and tools but an idea. They are the Legion, dedicated to a principle and not just to a bunch of stuff. 

With that snippet over, we see Brainiac Five sitting in his room, again in the dark, with nothing but the vid-monitor’s glow to keep him company. When suddenly everything goes completely black and he is in total sensory deprivation. And in the next moment the lights turn on. He looks up and sees his mother and father and himself at home on Colu. This cannot be possible. 

Simultaneously on the rim of the Grand Canyon, the owner of the park managed to escape Cosmic Boy’s magnetic bindings and the Science Police arrive. He tells them that the Legionnaires took the park from him and he demands that the Science Police help him clear them off the island. The Science Police agree, and their cruisers move in. Their first act is to drop sleeping gas on the park when Superboy flies in and destroys their craft. Before they crash to the surface, a magnetic field courtesy of Cosmic Boy stops their craft and cushions their landing. But it does not matter, because the Legionnaires attacked the Science Police and effectively declared war.

Back to Brainiac Five, he now he finds himself back in a classroom on Colu at the age of four, answering complex questions. The other children are jealous and immediately start to call him names and bully him. The world dissolves again and when it returns the kids call him a freak and punch him. It fades again and he sees his father, who tells him how disappointed he is that he fights with common school-children. He should never allow others to dominate him. The voice thunders deep into his soul, and echoes throughout his life, leaving him weak, shocked, and confused. He tenses for what will come next.

Superboy and Cosmic Boy scan Cosmic World from a rooftop and prepare for the Science Police’s next attack. Superboy knows their next attempt will be more than just sleep-glass. Sure enough, Cosmic Boy is blasted by laser beamers. Superboy engages when he sees another ship firing a green beam, which turns out to be a Kryptonite Ray. Lightning Lad monitors the situation from a screen inside a control room and tells Saturn Girl she has to hurry because they may never get a chance like this again. Saturn Girl strains her powers and can only see how complicated Brainy’s mind is. Finally she receives an image, which must be the crucial turning point in his life. She instructs Lightning Lad to adjust the programmers.

A clifftop overlooking the vast Central Sea of Colu, and Brainiac Five gazes at a scene he remembers from his adolescence. He hears a child’s voice raised in laughter nearby, and when he glances in the child’s direction, he sees her collapsed on a protruding cliff. Desperately he tries to reach her, but the distance is too great. He immediately calculates the probabilities, distances, and angles and uses a pocket laser to slice through the wood of an old tree. It collapses and falls near her, allowing Brainy to reach her. Saturn Girl knows this is the moment. The first time this happened the girl was frightened and pulled away. Brainy felt rejected and alienated. But this time, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad will make the outcome different. This time, the girl hugs Brainiac Five and he hugs her back and tells her she is safe. The little girl disappears in his arms and Brainiac thanks the Legionnaires. He is all right now.

The world disappears and Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad approach Brainy from the control room. They tell him they used a combination of the amusement park and Saturn Girl’s powers to help him relive the traumatic events of his childhood in order to help him recover from his insanity. This combination was more effective than using Princess Projectra’s powers. Brainy agrees that it seems to have worked. But what about the other Legionnaires? His question is interrupted and answered by a group of Science Police who successfully infiltrated the park.

“On their way to jail Legionnaire. And you’re going to join them!”

Next: 2 Legion Super-Adventures in one issue! Including the return of Bouncing Boy & Duo Damsel! On sale Aug 23d. 

Creative Team

We have the, somewhat odd, conclusion to our Brainiac Five arc as the Legionnaires pull him out from ‘insanity.’ The decision to use an amusement park as a plot device is peculiar. Probably the most interesting aspect that Gerry Conway brought was that he gave us some backstory to Brainiac Five. Especially as it relates to his own childhood and a piece of childhood trauma that he experienced. The questions till lingers why allowing him to save this young child would help resolve his hatred for the universe. I do wonder if they decided they needed to resolve this conflict quickly since they are going to relaunch the book two issues from now when it turns into the Legion of Super-Heroes. 

Either way, I will say I was disappointed by this resolution The buildup of expectations were definitely there so for it to resolve this way was just something that I did not expect. Because this ‘storyline’ was supposed to happen before Earthwar (from reading the tea leaves) it did not help that they had to rush it. Also, we did get some movement on the B-Plot, which seems to be taking forever since they literally have been only dedicating a panel or two to remind us that R.J. Brande is bankrupt. This is well and good but at some point we need to have some movement on this. Finally there is still no resolution to how Matter-Eater Lad can overcome the effects of the Miracle Machine so that is still one big plot thread still unresolved.

In terms of the art, Joe Staton and Dave Hunt bring their regular solid game to the book. The use of an amusement park itself and the jump to Colu was well handled by Staton. He is just solid and did what he needed to do on the book. 

All in all, a very odd conclusion to the Brainiac Five storyline that left me a bit puzzled. The art was solid enough and we do get some movement on the B-Plot. All in all even though I would have liked to see this resolved in another way (and what the other way would be I have no idea) I am sure this was just fine for other readers and would be very interesting in hearing their opinion at the time in a future Legion Outpost, which probably will occur with the series moving to The Legion of Super-Heroes. 

Legion Outpost

We still do not have an announcement of the ‘new’ series but I can only imagine at this point that DC must have revealed their intentions in fanzines and comic journals at the time. Regardless, we have three letters, that are not so interesting except for one letter from Gary A. Leach (a future comic book writer of Disney fame, not Garry Leach, the famous British artist) surmising what we also surmised:

“Obviously, Superboy & LSH #250 was intended as a soon-to-follow follow-up to #239. Wildfire was still leader…though the new leader [Lightning Lad] was very much on hand, appearing in two group shots (pg. 5, panel 7, and pg. 17, panel 1).”

Well how about that, I did miss that completely, even though I did use one of the images from page five when I covered this issue…

And then including the other image from page eighteen (not seventeen as Leach wrote)…

And sure enough Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl were there. I must work on my attention to detail…

And that is really it for this issue’s letters. Hey, it is always nice when someone else proves you right, even if it was from a letter written more than forty years ago.

The Legion Medallion of Merit

This I going to be a tough one folks. The Legion of Super-Heroes basically commandeered an amusement park, which was definitely illegal and which did not make them any friends. Meanwhile, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad did their best to help bring Brainiac Five overcome his so called ‘insanity.’ But you know what? I will give this to Brainiac Five. If he can be forgiven so quickly by the universe for almost destroying it then I can forgive him too and award him the Medallion. He had some unresolved childhood trauma that he was finally able to overcome, and despite the other kids bullying him as well as his own father telling him he was worthless, he still wanted to save that girl. And that is definitely deserving of the Legion Medallion of Merit!

Congratulations Brainiac Five! And look, you might have these other gullible Legionnaires fooled into believing you made a full-recovery but I have my eye on you. Be warned!

And that is it for this week’s installment fellow Legionnaires! Join us next week when we tackle the penultimate issue of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes! And as we wait anxiously for these last two issues and the conclusion to this project that was made as a New Year’s Resolution in 2024, just remember those fateful words that must, and I do mean must always ring forth throughout the universe…

LONG LIVE THE LEGION!