Borag Thungg Earthlets and welcome to another week of thrill-power, delivered to you by the almighty Tharg! My art and story droids have been running non-stop including the just assembled Bob Wiacek, whom I could welcome to the assembly line but then that would be showing favoritism. And such favoritism just might encourage others to revolt. But don’t fret! I don’t foresee a riot anytime soon for I’ve been kind enough to give these droids some extra oil as a summer bonus to keep those airco units cool so as not to disrupt the intricate machinery that only my advanced mind could produce. After all, only such high-level technology could supply you high octane thrills week-end and week-out, that may or may not remind you why we have the NHS. 

This week’s Judge Dre—

Whoa whoa whoa! What is going on here? 

Who dare speak to the almighty Tharg? 

Chris Osman and this isn’t 2000AD. This is the Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes blog!

The what? There is only one comic that is the Galaxy’s Greatest and that is—

Ah I get it. You are Tharg, the Betelguesian that would end up taking the world by storm. You must be stuck in some space-time continuum thingy. Probably because one of the villains in this story is also named Thargg, albeit as you can see, spelled with an extra ‘G’ (and sometimes with an extra ‘R’). 

Right. Let me check my computer inputs….it appears you are correct, my destination is actually an island known as the United Kingdom. 

That’s actually a series of countries on multiple islands, and the main island is called Great Britain. It’s a common mistake.

Thank you. I will now disassemble and disintegrate my cultural sensitivity droid for this oversight. Cheers and cheerio!

The Super Soldiers of the Slave-Maker

A stark, brilliant blu-white sun rises over Gondra, the Capital City of planet Murgador. Once, long ago, each day brought more progress and prosperity to this world. Now, dawn brings only a change of shifts in the mines.

Once the people of this world were free and the mines gave them wealth. Now they are slaves and the mines give them only sorrow. Schools and playgrounds are empty now, for even the children must work. There is no joy here but there is hope!

And hope is in the guise of a Legionnaire spacecraft, making a careful landing. The locals are excited and exclaim they must reach the Legionnaires first. 

Meanwhile the Legion Cruiser has landed and our beloved team of Legion of Super-Heroes makes their way down the landing stairs. Suddenly a brick whops Wildfire right on the head, and our heroes find themselves suddenly confronted by an angry mob, shouting Legion Go Home!

Ultra Boy instructs Phantom Girl to get behind him but she reassures him she will be okay. And to make her point, as one of the rioters swings his weapon called a Tronga, it goes through her since she quickly changed to Phantom Form. But luckily Ultra Boy has not and delivers a quick uppercut knocking the rioter to the ground.

Mon-El tells Ultra Boy to go in front with Superboy and shield the others. He then instructs Lightning Lad to deliver a powerful thunderclap to stop the rioters in their tracks. He obliges giving everyone some room to breathe. Mon-El approaches an elderly female who must be their leader. She introduces herself as Dinda, and demands that they leave immediately. Mon-El reminds her that it was she who requested their help but she tells him he is wrong. It was Pollor, who is now in custody. Pollor, who is also in the crowd, shouts that they should rather be dead than slaves of the warlord Tharrg. 

She whirls on Pollor and exclaims that she also would like to be free. She agonizes over watching children toil away in the mines for a despot. But they have no choice! And she points at Pollor again and tells him that just by calling this group of super-heroes to their planet, they may already be doomed. And she once again begs for them to leave. Mon-El again refuses. Dinda senses that the heroes will not leave until she tells them the situation they are all in. In Dinda’s words:

“The largest planet that orbits our sun is Tharrg, inhabited by an evil, warlike race. They are our masters. In the hollow core of our world, they placed a bomb powerful enough to destroy Murgador and wipe out our two billion people. If we do not obey them, they will detonate the explosive.

“The bomb cannot be disarmed. Seismic sensors are set in the rock around the core to detect anyone tunneling toward it and trigger it before it can be reached.”

Phantom Girl steps forward and offers her services. She can easily disarm the bomb in phantom form. But what if she fails? The risk is too great. They simply cannot chance it. Superboy asks Mon-El for guidance, as the acting leader on the mission. He instructs everyone to reconvene on Cruiser and talk it through.

Later the team is putting forth their pros and cons. Phantom Girl is still insistent on intervening but Ultra Boy does not want her to be put into danger. Wildfire wants to leave because that is obviously what the majority on the planet wants. But Mon-El reminds them that they are the Legion and it is their duty to help the oppressed. They need to help them whether they like it or not.

Even if it is to endanger two billion lives? Can they risk everything for their own ideals?

But the debate is over and Phantom Girl made the decision for them. Because she quickly phases through the ground and goes after the bomb. Mon-El commands them to get ready for take-off.

Meanwhile outside, Dinda and Pollor watch the Legion leave and Pollor chastises Dinda for it. But she says they all lose because she just saw Phantom Girl plunge into the ground. She is not going to be successful in disarming the bomb and there is only one thing she can do now and that is to save themselves.

Shortly thereafter, the Legion Cruiser makes its way above Thargg, the slave world. Mon instructs Lightning Lad to put the cruiser into auto-pilot and a wide orbit. They will attack first and hopefully keep everyone busy enough to buy Phantom Girl some much needed time. With their flight rings on, they rush out of the Cruiser and descend on the planet. 

On the surface they observe that the planet is one big military installation. Thargg must be using the wealth he extorts from Murgador to finance a force and to purchase and build highly advanced weapons to keep the entire sector at his mercy. They see the big citadel ahead and they are suddenly blasted by a series of missiles. Wildfire moves onto a brigade below and hits them with his energy beams. One large tank points its gun squarely on Wildfire’s back, ready to fire, when the entire tank is converted into nitrogen, courtesy of Element Lad. 

Ultra Boy grabs another tank and swings it out of action. The entire Legion of Super-Heroes band together as a team and slowly make their way to the citadel. But unexpectedly the command of cease fire is given. Have they won? No, they are just requested to be escorted to the throne room to meet Thargg himself. 

As they arrive and confront Thargg on his throne, they can’t help but notice the bomb displayed on the monitor screen behind him. Thargg chastises the Legionnaires for finding out his plans for conquest but warns them that if they do not cease any attempt to overthrow him, Murgador will perish. The Legionnaires then notice Phantom Girl slowly making her way to the bomb and they quickly realize they must create a distraction so Thargg does not notice her. 

Suddenly a messenger rushes in with news from Dinda, but before he can deliver it and the warning about Phantom Girl, Superboy slaps him unconscious. Thargg is impressed and believes that he has the Legionnaires under his control with the threat of the bomb.

Meanwhile Phantom Girl reaches her hand inside the bomb with hopes to find the mechanism to disarm it when the alarm goes off. She quickly finds the wires and tries to pull them out.

The Alarm is now blurring in the throne room alerting Thargg of the attempt to disarm it. Mon-El shouts at Supeboy to attack him, and Superboy shoots off to stop Thargg from pressing the button on the remote control. But he is just too slow and Thargg presses it with a mighty click and the monitor screen displaying Phantom Girl and the bomb shuts off.

Not even Phantom Girl can survive the world-shattering blast. The release of such overwhelming hyper-energy creates deadly shock waves even on non-solid astral planes. And Ultra Boy is emotionally shattered and attacks Thargg out of cold revenge. It takes the might of both Superboy and Mon-El to restrain him. Superboy starts to console Ultra Boy when his belt alarm suddenly goes off, having received a flight ring emergency signal. He blasts off into the sky and later returns with Phantom Girl, safe and sound!

The Legionnaires are relieved that Murgador didn’t explode and Superboy explains that the monitor was on the same circuit as the bomb. So when the bomb was disarmed the monitor went out. 

Back on Murgador Mon-El informs Dinda that the Legion disarmed Thargg’s military threat once and for all. Murgador is safe. Dinda thanks the Legionnaires and gives them her humble apologies for doubting them and for almost making their attempt to free their society fail. 

With their mission completed, the Legionnaires once again board the mighty Legion Cruiser and depart, off into the sunset, leaving a free Murgador behind.

Safe and sound. 

Dream Girl’s Living Nightmare 

Legion Cruiser LX-811 is en route to Earth from a mission in another galaxy with three Legionnaires aboard–Chameleon Boy, Brainiac 5 and Dream Girl–navigating through the black void of limitless, starry space.

When suddenly, a sleeping Dream Girl cries out to stop the Cruiser at once! Chameleon Boy hits the space brakes. Dream Girls tells them both to look at their visi-screen because they are almost in orbit around the planet Demros-II. Brainiac 5 confirms but how could she know that if she was asleep?

Brainy says the point is mute because if Dream Girl dreamt it, it will happen and there is nothing they can do about it. Chameleon Boy disagrees and they have to at least try.

They pull up a profile of the Primor and the computer confirms that his humanitarian deeds are known throughout the galaxy. Chameleon Boy challenges Brainy and questions whether or not they should just sit back and let a great man like this die. No chance. He asks Brainy for his force-field belt and then he assumes the form of the Primor. 

Brainy warns him that he is taking a great risk, and that he is testing fate. But since CB is insistent, no one decides to stop him.

Soon, in a 30th century studio on Demros-II, the television crew is ready to begin filming the Primor’s speech. Nearby Chameleon Boy struggles to get past the Primor’s guard. He finally understands the dream and begs them to let him go. He watches in horror as the video crew point the camera, with three circles acting as its lenses, on the Primor. The crewman confirms that he has the Primor in focus, and he can begin his end.

Chameleon Boy manages to break away but it is too late. The Primor has been shot. But as Chameleon Boy checks on the Primor and takes a closer look, he notices it is not the Primor at all.

No, confirms the real Primor who walks on the scene. It was a ruthless dictator who proclaimed himself the new Primor after locking him away. But luckily some loyal citizens freed him, and one of them sent that despot to his just reward. He then asks who he is?

Chameleon Boy changes to his original self and gives his name. He impersonated the Primor to save his life, but destiny already chose its victim.

As he takes off into the air, en route to his Legion Cruiser, Chameleon Boy reflects on the events. Perhaps Brainy was right. There are some forces in the universe not even a Legionnaire should tamper with. 

Creative Team

Jim Shooter demonstrates once again that he is skilled at writing a team book. It is on full display here because we not only see the Legion working together but each member has their own distinct voice. Shooter’s story and script is not shy in having a member go against the grain and do what they feel is needed. With this one he uses Shrinking Violet to demonstrate it and she comes out with it being very capable. My main complaint with Shooter in the past is that he does not write the female characters very well, but here he shows that Violet, regardless of being a female, is just as capable and ends up saving the day.

The only complaint? It wraps up very quickly, using the last page to settle all of the remaining plot threads. But this is no fault of Shooter’s, it is simply the fault of the page count. 

What I am finding particular interesting so far, is you can see a lot of the seeds that are planted and the base that is developed that will propel Shooter to be one of the greatest writers on the Avengers book at Marvel in just a short couple of years.

Mike Grell is still on top form and he is assisted quite capably by Bob Wiacek. In fact you would think it was Mike Grell himself that did the inks so it looks like Wiacek got out of his way. Grell’s strength has always been movement and Shooter puts in so much movement in his story that Grell really shines here. I just love his depiction of Superboy. The way he quickly jets off and flies puts a sense of realism in the work. It’s always remarkable how he did this especially since he didn’t have a lot to go on. Superman the Movie is still two years from the publication of this issue.

Also he just handles the whole group well, putting them all together in realistic poses and motion. By far the best was the depiction of Element Lad, conversing with the rest of the group with a hot beverage in his hand. Element Lad’s look of relaxation, trying to cool off and reassess the situation is simple but incredibly effective. In short, Mike Grell makes his characters act. Every single one of them.

Cary Bates returns on the back end, giving us a nice, Bates-esque story. The plot devices are there and everything is wrapped up in the end. As the editors keep mentioning the backstory is meant for us to focus on a single or small group of Legionnaires so we can get more insight into their character. With Dream Girl’s Living Nightmare, the focus seems to be placed on Chameleon Boy since we do get an insight into his thoughts. While I thought the story was okay, I do wish we could have gotten more insight into Dream Girl. I always see DG as one of the more powerful members of the team, with her foresight giving her the capability of really helping the Legion out of a jam. So when the story starts out with her premonition I was quite looking forward to the rest until she quickly took the back seat. Then it’s up to Chameleon Boy to rally the troops with the ending showing us, or perhaps not showing us, what we should do with Dream Girl’s vision. 

Mike Grell is once again assisted by Wiacek and does a capable job. There is not a lot of movement much like in Shooter’s story, but he gets the job done. I love Mike Grell, but I think if the book is deciding on the two story format, having a second artist do the backstory, or even a different artist every month, would allow Mike Grell to breathe and also give us varied interpretations of the characters. But hey, hindsight is also 20/20. 

Either way, we have a very strong issue and Jim Shooter continues to shine and show us why he was the best in the business in writing a team book. And I can’t wait to see what else he has in store for the fans of the Legion of Super-Heroes. 

Super-Talk

Announcement of the Century!!!

Hold on to your hats! Buckle your seat belts and deactivate your flight rings! Here’s the most fantastic news any LEGION-lover could possibly hope for:

Beginning with THIS ISSUE, SUPERBOY starring the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES will be published monthly!!!

And who do you thank for this momentous decision? Thank yourselves! It’s because of your loyal support at the nation’s newsstands that the “powers-that-be” re-scheduled this mag on a monthly basis.

So be back in 30 days for the next issue. We’ll be waiting for you!

Wowzers! What an announcement! And great news! I still remember way back in issue #197 when we were bi-monthly. Boltinoff gave the call that if the title proved popular enough it might…just might mind you make it to a monthly. But sure enough, we went to eight issues a year and here we are. Twelve issues in a calendar year. Hot dog!

And that pretty much sums up this issue’s of Super-Talk nicely, as the rest of the letters are pretty standard that do not really reveal too much. The only interesting tidbit I guess was from Tony Gervasio who figured out the phony name of Laurel, Elna, was actually an anagram for Lane. But the editor denies this and says they can’t answer it, and adds they’re probably reading too much into the story.

Really? To me it was a no-brainer and Elna is easily an anagram for Lane. Plus I looked at it as a nice little call-back to the Silver Age when the writers employed this little anagram as a plot device to any mysterious character that happened to show up in that issue. But hey, what can you do?

The Legion Medallion of Merit

Every issue we award a character the Legion Medallion of Merit that commemorates some form of action they undertook on their part to not only save the team but to once again prove why the Legion of Super-Heroes are the greatest team in the 30th Century, if not of all time.

Come on folks, this one is a no-brainer. With two stories you think it would be difficult but it’s really not. Phantom Girl easily picks this one up. When everyone was debating on whether or not they should intervene, PG remembered that she belonged to the mightiest group of super-heroes in the 30th century and that at no point should anyone, especially children, be slaves. 

So she goes off to the bomb on her own and disarms it. Did she have help? Of course! She wouldn’t be part of a team if she didn’t. But if it wasn’t for her bravery, the team would be en route back to 30th Century Metropolis wondering if they made the right decision, not to mention giving Thargg the chance to gobble up more territory and potentially becoming a larger threat later.

Well deserved Phantom Girl! When your other team members hesitated, you took the lead. You disarmed a bomb and freed a whole planet in the process. May you wear this medal with pride that will hopefully forever remind the rest of your team that the Legion exists for a reason.

And that’s it fellow Legionnaires! Sad? Cool up! We have a lot more in store next week and as always…

LONG LIVE THE LEGION!