Timber Wolf, Dead Hero, Live Executioner

Clark and Lana are resting under a tree. Clark receives a signal from his Emergency Legionnaire Signaler and needs to exit. Seeing an apple hanging ominously over Lana’s head, and thinking of Isaac Newton, he uses his heat vision to make it drop, hitting her and knocking her out…all for the sake of keeping his identity a secret.

Hoping he isn’t arrested by the cops, Superboy rushes forward in time, to the year 2973 and finds Timber Wolf, whose real name is Brin Londo, alive and well.

Timber Wolf then recounts the tragic day 6 months prior, when Brin and Superboy were tracking an Astral Vulture on Asteroid X52, which exploded suddenly presumably killing Timber Wolf. Not knowing how he could have survived, it’s quickly forgotten as the Legionnairs are fortunately to have him back alive.

In the meantime we see a lone spacecraft hurting through space, exclaiming that everything is going to plan and the Legion’s downfall has begun. Is this somehow tied to Timber Wolf’s survival?

Back in the Legion Fortress, the Legionnaires are monitoring Timber Wolf in case something is not right. Mon-El has suspicions and says as much to Superboy. 

The next day, the President of Earth arrives escorted by Lightning Lad and Superboy who is visiting the Legion Headquarters. As part of his visit, he awards Timber Wolf a Star medal congratulating him on a job well done in the line of duty. 

As he pats Timber Wolf on the shoulder, Tiber Wolf’s mind splits and despite the willpower he summons forth, he still cannot fight the urge to kill the President. 

He grabs the President and takes off, and is quickly pursued by Superboy and Mon-El. They give chase through the futuristic city of Metropolis until Timber Wolf stops with the scared President in hand. Timber Wolf starts to spin the President around, gaining momentum and spinning faster until he releases him. Fortunately Superboy and Mon-El had devised of a plan, and with Superboy’s outstretched cap, presumably to the limit, they manage to safely catch the President while Mon-El catches Timber Wolf in his own cape. 

Afterwards, they bring an unconscious Timber Wolf to Brainiac 5, who examines him for further signs of brainwashing.

Finding nothing and declaring him cured, Timber Wolf wakes. He suddenly remembers what happened after Asteroid X52 exploded. Believing that he was facing certain death, before the explosion reached him, he is yanked to another dimensions. He recounts seeing a large life form hovering over him, who tells him that he only saved Timber Wolf to serve his purpose…and nothing else.

That night Timber Wolf gets out of his bed and is shadowed by Saturn Girl who senses that something is wrong. In the meantime the ominous spaceship lands on the Legion Landing Deck, and we learn that Timber Wolf is about to turn off the defense system, in order to allow whomever is on that ship free access to Legion Headquarters. 

We return to Saturn Girl who is still wisely tailing Timber Wolf. She watches him switch on the secret self-destruct detonator, and decides to act. As she moves toward Timber Wolf, the menacing figure from the spaceship appears and shoos her with a devastating energy-bolt. Saturn Gurl deflects the beam, but right to Timber Wolf, who is hit squarely in his Wolf head.

The menacing figure announces that his name is Tyr, and tells her of his intent to completely destroy the Legion with Timber Wolf as his trusty accomplice. Indeed, it was Tyr who subjected Timber Wolf to the brain washing, and Saturn Girl quickly figures out that the assassination attempt on the President was simply a decoy. The real mission was imbedded in Timber Wolf’s subconscious all along, so well hidden that not even Brainiac 5 could find it. His real mission, was to activate the hidden self-destruct box and blow the Legion to smithereens. 

As the clock ticks down Tyr continues to brag about how he will annihilate the Legionaires until he is tackled from behind by… TIMBER WOLF!  Yes dear reader, the beam that Saturn Girl deflected hit him squarely in the face, but it also jarred his memory and returned him to his normal Timber Wolf-self. And now it is Timber Wolf’s turn to put the pain on Tyr. Quickly disposing of this red alien foe with a mohawk, Timber Wolf rushes to the device and stops the self-destruct sequence just in time.

As our heroes congratulate each other with Tyr lying unconscious, the gun on Tyr’s hand suddenly disengages and takes off in flight, going into orbit, waiting for its next chance to strike and take out its revenge on the beloved Legion of Super-Heroes!

The Creative Team

We have another solid outing from Cary Bates and Dave Cockrum. Bates weaves a mystery that takes multiple members of the Legion to solve. We see the use of each Legionnaire as Mon-El and Superboy are there for the muscle who manage to not only save the President but capture Timber Wolf. Saturn Girl is the brains who silently suspects that not all is right with our Legionnaire and makes the wise decision to monitor Timber Wolf’s movements. The introduction of a new villain is quite exciting, and the fact that his gun takes off in space means that we probably have not seen the last of ole Tyr.

Dave Cockrum is still in good form. We have silent moments but also action packed ones. He was such a great artist who can tackle a lot of different characters at once and can deliver the fight scenes very effectively. Tyr is a very interesting design and the fact that we have yet another new character shows that we are on the cusp of a glorious time for the Legion.

And now for the complaints.

I mainly have three.

The challenge that I will have with this re-read is that I did not read the whole series in order. So when I read this story I really thought that I must have missed the Asteroid X25 storyline. I mean Timber Wolf getting killed is something you would remember.

But it turns out, it never happened, at least in a comic book. That’s right. Everyone is literally learning this for the first time. I was able to nail this down due to the incredible Legion of Super Bloggers, who confirms this. Also the author points to the fact that the death of Timber Wolf could be why Erg-1 was auditioning in the first place. Either way, the fact that the story does not exist definitely led to some confusion.

The second complaint is with Tyr. Much like Erg-1 in the previous story, our look at Tyr is a bunch of action shots. Also Tyr did have the danger of becoming the alien-of-the-month trope that was common in this era. But the fact that his weapon disengages and launches itself into orbit made for a very nice twist and a little tease that there are more things to come. 

Moreover I didn’t really feel that Tyr’s motivation was strong enough. Yes he wants to destroy the Legion but why? What did they do to him? It must have been something really bad if he was able to yank Timber Wolf to another dimension. Also if he was able to do that, why did he need to go through these elaborate methods to destroy the Legion headquarters? His ability to move between dimensions makes him quite powerful indeed so surely there were other methods?

My final complaint is Brainy not being able to detect the hidden brainwashing in Timber Wolf’s subconscious. I am sorry, but Brainiac-5 is a 12th-level intellect. There is no way he wouldn’t be able to find it. 

Yes this is all being quite petty and I did enjoy the issue do not get me wrong. And I do know we are just simply getting a whole lot of set-up and introductions for new readers as we get going so I do hope these negative remarks do not put you off.

But yes I do have a fourth complaint, which you can find in the awards section at the end. Those of you who have read the issue probably know what is coming.

Context

And we’re off folks! The first Superboy title with the Legion of Super-Heroes in its title..but instead of being the Superboy and The Legion of Super-Heroes…it’s Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes. What’s the difference? A very good question.

What we have here is basically Superboy and the Legion swapping places. Whereas the Legion was the backup story in the Superboy book, the stand-alone Superboy story is now the backup in this book, which is still much on par of the Superboy stories at the time. 

Now what’s interesting here is that if you look at the Behind the Scenes at the DC Comic World written by Paul Levitz (future superstar LSH writer who will create a legacy of his own), he makes a reference to this book in his update, which appeared in the DC titles at the time (emphasis my own):

“Legion of Super-Heroes fans will be glad to hear that Superboy’s magazine is now “Superboy And The Legion of Super-Heroes”in response to the great job that Cary Bates and Dave Cockrum have been doing on the strip and the fantastic fan mail that they get.”

So apparently it was supposed to be AND all along but it’s still Starring and will be Starring for a while. Maybe this is a case of the right hand not knowing what the left was doing. 

Either way what is significant for me here is that this issue serves as further proof that we are in store for a resurrection of the Legion in all its glory, including adding something incredible and new to the LSH lore. Last issue we had an introduction to a potential new Legionnaire and this issue we have an introduction and first appearance of a potential new classic villain. Things are getting good and it’s starting to heat up. 

Letters

As expected we have a comment on the new title and a bit more insight into the reason for the change. Much like what Levitz asserts, it does seem that the title received a lot of fan mail when the Legion appeared. But I’m also pretty sure that sales dramatically increased as well. They also go through a bit of previews of what we have in store, including a visit from the Fatal Five and to expect more appearances from classic characters. They then showcase some letters praising the Legion and giving reason for it being turned into this title, just in case you needed more convincing.

But there is one little fun, amazing nugget in the list of names who also were in the affirmative camp. And that is of Keith Giffen from Mobile, Alabama. How fitting that the creator who would be closely associated with the Legion in the years to come that would create a legacy of his own with the series, would be mentioned by name in the title that relaunched the Legion of Super-Heroes to the public.

The Legion Medallion of Merit

For this round I’m going to give out two awards.

The first of course is the Legion Medallion of Merit. This must be given to one of the founding members Saturn Girl. Saturn Girl never took her eye off the ball and she did it in silence. She must have been relieved that Timber Wolf was back but also wise enough to keep an eye on him. She sensed trouble and she protected him until she got hit in the back by Tyr. 

I was about to give it to Timber Wolf for his sheer will and determination to turn some lemons into lemonade. Despite being tossed around like a puppet, he still had the energy and willpower to take Tyr down and that is also commendable. But this would not have happened and the Legion headquarters would surely have self-destructed, if it wasn’t for Saturn Girl’s quick thinking.

Now the other award I’m going to give out is actually an award of shame. Terrible, loathing shame. And you guessed it, it goes right to Superboy.

Superboy inflicted physical harm to Lana Lang by using his heat vision to force the apple to fall from the tree, knocking her out. If she was knocked out by an apple, she probably also had a concussion or is about to be on the verge of brain-damage. I can appreciate a little nod to science like anyone else, but when you do physical harm to your friend for a petty reason like keeping your secret identity a secret, you deserve a little time in whatever prison exists in the 30th century.

Next on Superboy Starring The Legion of Super-Heroes, “The Fatal Five Who Twister Time,” A new book-length blockbuster!