Tag: Ben Oda

Welcome back to our main event and what a welcome it is. We not only have two stories but one is a definitive fan-favorite that has been talked about in the decades since this came out. To me this pretty much jets us off into epic Levitz-land and I do not know about you but I would happily give up my passport to become a full citizen.

Not only that, but when you thought that James Sherman could not flex any more than he did from issue #231, he literally said hold my beer. This is one gorgeous book. And not only THAT but we have an incredible effort by Mike Nasser who is being assisted by the legendary Bob Layton. And from these pages alone, you can see how and why Layton would propel very shortly to legendary status. Because we do have him shortly before he starts his run on Iron Man with David Michelinie, who just left the Karate Kid book.

There is a lot of story to unpack here because we continue the wonderful Giant Size Format that delivers entirely new content. So stop twirling your flight ring on your finger out of sheer nervousness, put your feet up and get ready, because Levitz and Sherman drop us right into the action, as we prepare for…

The Infinite Man Who Conquered the Legion

En route to LSH Headquarters with an experimental hyper-time drive, Superboy, Star Boy, Lightning Lad, and Brainiac Five have just been ambushed by an all-female group of Skalarian Raiders who have been making a habit of stealing hi-technology equipment from research labs around Metropolis. Lightning Lad suggests to get a group of them clear because he is nervous of using his high voltage bolts near the hyper-drive. Superboy follows his lead and grabs three of the raiders and of course apologies for the rough ride. As he puts them safely on top of the nearest building, they warn him that he will regret his acton because they need the technology the Legion are hoarding. And they will have it even if they have to wipe out half of Earth in the process.

Meanwhile, Star Boy has made the Sklarian hovercraft super-heavy and it crashes below. Lightning Lad takes advantage of the situation and wraps two more raiders in a ring of lightning. However, they both failed to miss two of the females, who pick up a force beamer and blast Lightning Lad with it. They celebrate but it is of course too soon for they lost track of the remaining Legionnaire, Brainiac Five, who uses his force field belt to block their successive blasts, allowing Superboy to sneak up behind them. 

The one called Rdeena turns and blasts Superboy head on but of course it does not have any effect. He grabs the blaster and crushes it with his bare hands. However, they still will not surrender because they desperately need the hyper-time drive and once again turn their weapons on Lightning Lad, who uses his powers to short circuit the blasters. The effect is deadly, but Superboy quickly flies in to rescue the two Skylars before the explosions of the blasters can harm them. 

And so, a few minutes later, the polished walls of Legion Headquarters reflect a safe arrival as our group return the hyper-time drive safely. Dream Girl is the first to run out and throws her arms around Star Boy, relieved to see him in one piece. She foresaw the Sklarian attack just after they left but could not prophesize the result. Wildfire joins them and does not act surprised and wonders if the two lovers will cut it out so they can allow Rond Vidar, the youngest Honorary Legionnaire, to adequately test the hyper-time drive safely in his laboratory and not in the middle of a Metropolis street. 

Superboy tells him to cool up, they deserve some time together. Colossal Boy agrees and remarks that they could all use some time off, especially since Regulus interrupted Klordny Week from last issue. Superboy and Colossal Boy bring the hyper-time drive safely to Vidar’s lab and for the next few hours, the lab hums with activity. Finally, Rond places the last connection to the device, which will link the eternal power control to the generators and act as a fail-safe to prevent overload. Superboy is impressed and asks him what is the drive actually supposed to do? Rond is happy to explain and informs them that this device is the most powerful he has ever build. It will incorporate the principles of the time cube and the new hyper-time drive in order to prove his theory that time is actually a circular flow. How about that.

Phantom Girl interrupts the physics lesson and announces Jaxon Rugarth, a professor from Metropolis University who was chosen as the volunteer for the experiment. Brainiac Five gives him a hearty greeting and Jaxon tells Brainy he was quite impressed with his paper on time as a mathematic model. Rond reminds them both that there is an experiment to run and asks Jaxon if he understands the dangers as they were explained to him? Jaxon answers in the affirmative and that he is anxious to start. He has every confidence that Rond’s device will be powerful enough to send him full circle through time, traveling into the future far enough to return to today.

Within seconds, the final adjustments are made, Professor Rugarth is strapped within the hyper-time drive, a control switch is flipped, and the small craft blinks out of existence only to return an immeasurable fraction of a second later. Rond is shocked that it is back so soon and Brainy notices a glow around the craft that keeps getting stronger. He casually remarks that there is no current scientific explanation for it. Suddenly a voice rings out from inside the craft, a deep, powerful and menacing voice:

“Fools! You think possibilities end with your puny knowledge, yet you risk others’ lives in your tests! Beware, for your knowledge was wrong, and you shall pay for your error with your lives! Time is circular, but the circle is infinite! I have seen this Earth’s birth and death a million million times, and that endless journey also saw the death and rebirth of Jaxon Rugarth…

THE INFINITE MAN!”

But rebirth is not quite the correct word. As a result of passing through time, witnessing its dawn and then its sunset, for all of eternity, Rugarth went mad, and he is angry. And as the Infinite Man, his power is unquantifiable. He puts Rond Vidar in his clutches and exclaims how he wishes he could make him suffer like he has. And to demonstrate his power to break time at well, he summons a group of Dinosaurs who charge the Legionnaires. Superboy swoops in to deflect them and Star Boy makes them heavy enough to stop their rampage. Colossal Boy, meanwhile, hits giant mode and tackles the Tyrannosaur and it still takes the combined efforts of three Legionnaires to pry Rond free of the Infinite Man’s grip. 

Superboy watches with worry as Wildfire engages and pleads with him to stop. Infinite Man agrees that his powers are not his equal and summons an ancient battle wagon, a tank, to keep the Legionnaires even more distracted as he continues his quest for revenge against Rond Vidar. But Superboy and Star Boy intervene once again. The Infinite Man sees them both and uses his powers to the full. He swats Superboy, sending him to a time unknown and does something to Star Boy to make him freeze as though time has stopped. Superboy comes quickly to his senses and finds himself in a strange world. And if any lesser mortal had been hurled through this many dimensional barriers, there would be no questions of his helplessness. But Superboy is no lesser being, and has spent countless hours exploring the many levels of the universe, an investment of time and energy that now pays off with a swift and shattering return to the action.

The Infinite Man is stunned and realizes that he needs more time to think of a course of action. He concedes this battle to the Legion of Super-Heroes but warns them that it is only temporary. For when he returns quicker than they will like, he will kill his tormentor, Rond Vidar. And he disappears.

Star Boy regains movement and Rond Vidar debriefs the group on what the Infinite Man’s powers actually are. He has the ability to not only move objects and living beings through time and space, but he also might just have the infinite power he claims. Brainy chimes in that they probably do not have much time, because he can spend a millennium devising a plan to beat them and return a minute later. Wildfire wastes no time and tells Rond that he will do everything he can to protect him. Also he is willing to bet that the Infinite Man will not appear in Rond’s past to kill him because he believes even he is not powerful enough to change history. Wildfire flies to the Mission Monitor Board and plots three courses, one of which might just lead to some answers. 

Wildfires knows that Brainy, Phantom Girl, and Dream Girl are not much use in a physical confrontation, but since there is a whole universe out there with possible answers to how to defeat the Infinite Man, maybe those three can find some worlds that just might have the answer. In the meantime, they better prepare for Infinite Man’s return. Wildfire orders Lightning Lad and Star Boy to start working on some defenses and he will alert the United Planets of their situation. 

We return briefly to look in on the Infinite Man, who uses his powers to practice and discover even more capabilities that can be used to quench his thirst for revenge. He knows he can go right back to when he left but he wants to wait long enough so that Rond can sweat and allow his own fear to overwhelm him. He reminds himself that he has suffered an eternity for Rond’s miscalculation and it is still nothing compared to what he has planned.

In the meantime, Dream Girl has arrived on her home planet Naltor and sought the High Seer who is the most powerful and has the clearest visions on what the future may hold. But it was in vain and she calls Star Boy to inform him of her poor result, knowing full well that she will not be back in time to help the others. 

We then move to Brainiac Five who, hopefully, has better luck as he seeks out advice from his home planet Colu. But despite the billion, billing bytes of Computer time they devoted to the problem, they still were not able to find a solution. In fact, they have been debating the nature of time for six centuries and always with the same result. Brainy tells them there is a simple reason for that and that is because they spend too much time debating theory, asking questions, and pondering the imponderable. They should instead try doing something instead.

Back in Legion HQ, Wildfire, Colossal Boy, Lightning Lad, and Superboy have formed a protective circle around Rond Vidar and are getting anxious from all the waiting. Lightning Lad chimes in that perhaps the Infinite Man blew himself up with his powers and will not return, but then a dangerous blast of red power hits him squarely, instantly cancelling out that notion. Colossal Boy expands to the Infinite Man’s size and delivers a punch, that he easily shakes off. Does he think his size can equal to his amount of suffering? In fact why are the Legionnaires attacking him, it is not them he wants but Rond Vidar. He then promises them that if they give Rond to him, he will let them live.

Wildfire, of course, rejects his offer and they pour on their attack. Star Boy aims his powers at the roof and drops a thousand tons of materials on his head. He thinks that will hold him for a while but the Infinite Man appears once again, unharmed, and as a present delivers a ferocious blast at Star Boy.

We leave the scene to our third Legionnaire who is hoping to have a better result than Dream Girl and Brainic Five. Phantom Girl has journied to Gendyx, world of the Timeless Ones, whose psychic selves have survived eternity, and whose invisible forms place them beyond normal human comprehension. But the Timeless Ones do not believe Phantom Girl that there is something more powerful than them and believe either to be a trick. They request her to leave at once and the universe has officially failed the Legion of Super-Heroes in finding a way to defeat time and the Infinite Man. 

And speaking of the Infinite Man, we return to the battle and see that he finally has Rond Vidar in his sights. Rond pleads with him that it was only an accident and he did agree to the experiment after all. But the Infinite Man rejects that notion and asks him can he even comprehend what it is like to endure an infinity of tortures that would make him wish for death? He will have his revenge and not even the Legion of Super-Heroes will stop him. But stop him they try and the Infinite Man grows quickly annoyed with their resilience. He then uses another form of his power and forces the Legionnaires to experience an instant of chaos with a world without time, and all at once, the Legion falls, leaving Rond Vidar alone. The Infinite Man takes his time and readies his power to take his revenge, when suddenly a belt is thrown right into Rond’s hands. The Infinite Man forgot about Brainiac Five and Brainy tells him to use the force shield to protect him from the Infinite Man’s powers. The Infinite Man scoffs at the belt and Brainy agrees that it will not hold out for long, but it will give him enough time to put into play an idea he had when he was visiting Colu. The surest way to stop anything is to simply overload it. But before he can finish he is zapped aside. But luckily Superboy and Wildfire have just regained consciousness and were able to hear Brainy’s words. 

They clear their heads and dust themselves off. There is no time to lose and they better figure out what Brainy meant. Superboy immediately goes to the hyper-time drive and smashes the fail-safe mechanism. The Infinite Man responds by sending even more invaders from the past to attack them. Lightning Lad, Superboy, Colossal Boy, and Wildfire meet each invading force. Wildfire tells Lightning Lad that together, they can focus their powers on the hyper-time drive and charge it with power that was more powerful than ever. Rond Vidar follows their lead and reminds The Infinite Man that it is up to everyone to protect themselves and because of Brainy, he knows exactly how he can do that. With the power that Lightning Lad and Wildfire charged the machine with, he can send the Infinite Man hurtling back into the circular route through time, and create a never-ending cycle that even his power cannot break. And once again, what was once Jaxon Rugarth, returns to the endless loop along with everything that he summoned to take down the Legion of Super-Heroes.

The Legionnaires are left alone in their laboratory, with only the wrecked equipment as proof that the nightmare just ended. Rond offers some hope that perhaps they can find a way to use the hyper-time drive to bring Jaxon back to their own time and save him. Brainy agrees and suggests they make it a priority, because even as they speak, the Infinite Man’s endless circling of time continues, and he grows even stronger than ever before. 

Next issue: “Wanted: the Composite Legionnaire” — a double-length thriller— on sale September 22nd! 

The Final Illusion

Saturn Girl, Chameleon Boy, and Dream Girl look distraught as they gaze at the motionless body of Princess Projectra, lying on a doctor’s table. They still cannot fathom what happened to her. At first they thought it was the shock and sadness she felt when Karate Kid went back to the twentieth century. In fact, with her illusionary powers, it is hard to determine not only the cause but also the cure. Dream Girl and Saturn Girl also admit that even their own people’s powers in telepathy and prophecy seeing cannot figure out what is wrong with her. Chameleon Boy becomes even more distraught and realizes there is no help anywhere.

And even as they have been speaking, the Princess of Orando slips deeper and deeper into her coma, and into a dream rebuilt for two. Saturn Girl decides to peek into what she is dreaming in another effort to wake her up from her state. What she sees is an endless loop of all the ‘could-have-beens’, with Karate Kid who continues to bring her joy and happiness. But these happy memories are also keeping out anything that might be strong enough to wake her up, and instead she may be trapped in these dreams, forever. 

Saturn Girl returns to the real world and reports to the others what she saw. She has moved inward and her mind can no longer distinguish reality from fantasy. The Doctor agrees and it confirms his first diagnosis. She must have experienced some form of trauma and she no longer desires to face the real world. Saturn Girl suggests to go back inside but in a more powerful way to wake her up but the Doctor disagrees. He believes it is too dangerous and he cannot possibly predict the consequences a further upset might have. Saturn Girl’s unwanted intrusion might just prove fatal. 

Dream Girl has an idea. What if they make her want to return to reality and transform the dreams she is having into very livid nightmares. Saturn Girl could do it. The Doctor does believe it is grounded in solid psychology because what Dream Girl is suggesting is to encourage Princess Projectra to cure herself. And besides, they do not have much of a choice.

Since childhood, Irma Ardeen has disciplined her mind, tamed its wild and violent recesses and now she must deny her training and reach back into the insanity that can never be completely banished from the human mind, and give the gift of madness to her beloved friend. 

We go back into the Princess’s mind and see her entire world full of love and joy with Karate Kid to be turned into a complete nightmare. The wonderful time she spent with him at Galaxyland and in the Tunnel of Terror is now turned into a park overrun by monsters and demons. Instead of forcing her to wake up, she instead believes that she is in someone else’s dream and her answer is the only one possible; to scream. But she cannot scream and she is forced to continue to watch the nightmar, as Saturn Girl twists the dream world still further, changing Galaxyland to an even more unbearable situation that is more terrifying than what it was before. But instead of waking up, Princess Projectra’s defense mechanism comes alive and she is immediately transported from the current nightmare and continues to run.

But Saturn Girl holds on and as the Princess finds herself in space, she is met with a gigantic and terrifying Universo, which the Princess automatically believes is the cause of these nightmares. Saturn Girl continues to push the image but instead of the Princess waking up, she retreats further into the depths of her mind, seeking out a subconscious realm in which to fight and continues to slip away from the world outside. 

The room around her is quiet now. Saturn Girl has been banished from her imagination and hope ended at the same instant. The Doctor studies her further and believes her condition has actually worsened. Princess Projectra is now beyond scientistic help and he suggests they revert to the oldest form of a last resort. Prayer.

But Chameleon Boy is not deterred and he suggests perhaps they did it wrong. Instead, Saturn Girl must try to use her telepathy to gently help her along her dream, in the way she wants to. Then they can try his idea.

Saturn Girl returns to the nightmare and Universo confronts the Princess once more. But now the scenario changes and Karate Kid appears and hits Universo in the face and rescues the Princess. They embrace and they kiss, and slowly Karate Kid dissolves and Princess Projectra is alone once more. And she wakes up. They did it! But Dream Girl is stunned and asks Cham how? Chameleon Boy explains:

“It was all a matter of understanding illusion Dream Girl and, with my powers, I have to. The answer wasn’t showing Projectra how frightening fantasy is, but how empty it is compared to reality. Once we did that she had to choose to return to reality.”

And much like many of the readers who reached the end of this story the doctor is confused. 

And on that note, reader, let us depart…for we have truly reached…

The End. 

Creative Team

After being promised this story for a couple of issues now, I can confidently state that it was very much worth the wait. This is our third Giant-Size edition that is still delivering all new content. I dare say that each issue in the series so far has been incredibly well done that this might just be a bit of a sweet spot for the Superboy series as a whole. In fact The Infinite Man is incredibly epic, that made it an instant classic and reminds us just how much of a master Levitz was as a writer, and how much butt James Sherman kicked as an artist. It it just another incredible entry and we are very much on a roll. 

I think what makes this issue stand out from the rest and shows us that we very much have turned a corner, is the villain. The Infinite Man is definitely not black and white and we can actually empathize with Jaxon Rugarth. Though he might have given his consent to partake in the experiment, he still went mad and this madness drove him on his quest for revenge that, one could argue, was really no fault of his own. 

Also the Legion had no choice but to stop him. It was an intriguing decision and I do wonder if Denny O’Neil had some influence here. As we know Denny made a fantastic contribution to the character Batman, that is still felt today. Batman’s rogues gallery is filled with tragic figures, who may or may not have made the conscious decision to turn to, for lack of a better word, evil. But Batman must still take them down. And this is the same with the Infinite Man. 

Even in the 30th Century they still do not understand time and especially the dangers of it. And they decided to mettle, with disastrous results. It is not only a fun, action packed story, but also a thought provoking one.

James Sherman once again shows us why he is a worthy successor to Mike Grell. Dare I say I am enjoying his work a bit more than Grell’s? BLASPHEMY! But seriously, this is one gorgeous book. And Bob Wiacek returned to assist on inks and the quality just continued to be high. Sherman really excels at depicting emotions on faces. Whether it is astonishment, sheer horror, surprise, or frustration, there are so many nice close-ups of the members, it gives it a very nice cinematic feel. Also Sherman handles the action insanely well. It is just so much fun to see Superboy charge in like a bullet and put himself in harms way. I do not know how Sherman managed to juggle all these characters but he is a magician. And we never want to know their tricks lest we stop having fun.

The second story was an interesting one, though a bit of a throw-away. We do not really understand why Princess Projectra is in a coma other than a possible trauma of losing Karate Kid to the twentieth century. However, that would just seem a bit out of character because she is not only a Princess but also a Legionnaire. Also, I did not like how the whole resolution when Saturn Girl decided to change the nightmare to allow Karate Kid to appear and save the day. That reverted her back to the damsel in distress and it very much regressed the whole purpose of the story; showing her determination and courage that would be displayed to help her wake herself up from the dream. 

Regardless, I did like how The Final Illusion had some beats that would be seen again in Alan Moore’s classic story, For The Man Who Has Everything, in Superman Annual #11. This of course was done around eight years before that story, so I cannot help but wonder if our Mr. Moore was pretty much inspired by this story.

Also I do have to give a good amount of credit to Mike Nasser who pencilled this story. He has shown immense improvement since his previous outings. I do think his facial designs of the Legionnaires are a bit too child-like and inconsistent, but he handles the females very well and is of course assisted by the legendary Bob Layton. You can really see how Layton punched up these pages and compliment Nasser’s style to make a back-story that much more enjoyable. 

Like I said above, we are on a roll and this book compliments the Giant-Size format. If you only had sixty-cents to spend at the time you really could do no better than plopping it down for this book. 

Legion Outpost

In this issue’s Legion Outpost, there is another The Legion Post Extra, which this time has extra letters. 

First, we have a letter from Beth Montelone who comments on Chemical King’s death and the fact that it was actually spoiled in the Direct Currents section. For those that do not know, Direct Currents was a section of the magazine that would give tiny updates to what was happening at DC at the time. I really never read these, but it is interesting that in Direct Currents way back in Superboy #197, Paul Levitz referred to the book as Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes and not Superboy Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes, proving that it was supposed to be with ‘and’ the whole time. And that is really the only Direct Currents I read so I cannot fact check this. 

Either way the reception of Chemical King’s death has been met with an obvious, ‘oh well.’ He was not used that much. Thus, in comparison to Invisible Kid’s death issues prior, CK’s is met with a shrug of the shoulders. Which is of course sad for Chemical King. 

Outside of this there is a bunch of praise for the world-building that Levitz is employing by introducing other places on Earth. I also like this because it reaffirms the Legion’s place in the United Planets and it really fleshes out the story and possibilities. It enriches it even. So it is nice to see that the other readers are noticing this at the time as well.

There is a nice announcement at the bottom of the page regarding Mike Grell. We know he will be providing the art for the big Treasury edition that will be happening later. But he is also coming back for another ‘regular’ issue!

“Legion fans, lookout! Iron Mike Grell has cleared time in his schedule for a very special Legion story, which we’re planning to feature in #234 or #235! The epic reveals one of the LSH’s most closely-guarded secrets, so keep your eyes peeled for it! —Denny & Paul”

 I can only imagine that this issue will probably set up the Treasury Edition and the big guarded secret is probably Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad’s engagement and then wedding. 

Now to the Legion Outpost Extra they were quite brave in publishing a letter from Bruce Woehl who complained about the quality of the coloring. They chalk up the coloring issues with moving from metal to plastic printing plates. 

Then the last letter is from Bill Maddocks who wonders why all the aliens that are used so far are quite humanoid. Is this not just restricting ourselves and making us believe that there cannot be other forms of life? Thankfully this will be employed in future issues but it is just another example of how the creative team are really thinking about the LSH and also listening to its fans. Good stuff. 

The Legion Medallion of Merit

Every issue we try to find a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes who went above and beyond the call of duty and did something momentous that is deserving of the Legion Medallion of Merit. 

We do have an interesting choice here because it is going to be quite different though within the rules. As you know the medal must always go to a Legionnaire and since Rond Vidar is an honorary member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, as confirmed by Wildfire, he qualifies. So the award goes to him.

Rond could not have predicted what would happen to Jaxon Rugarth. He even made him sign a sort of consent form before commencing with the experiment. How was Rond supposed to know that Jaxon would go crazy from experiencing the beginning and the end of time forever? He still felt bad and he always had it in his mind that he needed to fix the situation and cure Jaxon. Even if the others were more concerned with the Infinity Man destroying the world. What is more, Rond kept his cool as much as he could, despite being the one that Jaxon was after. He still managed to find a solution in the nick of time, and was able to instruct the Legionnaires accordingly in order to stop the threat. For this, Rond, you are deserving of the Medallion.

Though I do not have to tell you that every time you look at it, this Medallion will act as a reminder of the dangers that time possesses. And also a warning to not meddle with it, especially since it is obvious that time is something that we, as a species, still do no understand.

And that is it for this week’s installment of the Legion of Super-Heroes! I hope you enjoyed the two posts this week. And remember, even if you do sign a consent form, things may still go haywire. If or when they do, it is no one’s fault but your own. Unless you get a lawyer to look into it.

And as we start to think and wonder if the world would be better off without lawyers, always remember that faithful battle cry that must ring out into the galaxy as much as it can…

LONG LIVE THE LEGION!