Tag: Cary Bates

We have a very special issue this time around fellow Legionnaires! The first appearance of Tyroc! Cary Bates returns in full force and delivers both stories. Mike Grell decides to go it alone, and picks up the pencil and ink brush. And golly gee, does he make an impression with Tyroc exploding onto the scene!

Plus we have the return of our favorite newly weds, Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel!

Are you wearing your flight-rings and ready for aerial action? Then Let’s move!

The Hero Who Hated the Legion

Between the years 1957 and 2976, several thousand satellites and probes were launched into orbit above the earth. But every one of them eventually succumbs to the inescapable pull of gravity, invisibly clutching at them…like a particular satellite, whose orbit is finally disintegrating after many years in space!

Yet there is something unique about this plummeting probe. Something that will make men kill for it…seek it out no matter how high the price!

Cosmic Boy has Probe c-117 on the screen and indicates that its data-taking instruments were secretly removed the day before its launch 58 years ago. In its place? Rare gems, which happen to be the famous Zigel Jewels that were stolen, also 58 years ago.

Hundreds of people, police and criminals, have been searching for it in vain and now we know why they came up empty handed. Because they were in outer space all along, solving one of the 30th century’s unsolved mysteries.

Superboy questions Cosmic Boy’s source for this information, but Cosmic Boy assures Superboy the intel is genuine. Because it came from the death-bed confession of the last surviving gang member involved in the robbery. 

Brainiac 5 states that now the job of the Legion of Super-Heroes should be a simple one. Retrieve the jewels and return the Zigel fortune where it belongs.

But Cosmic Boy assures Brainy that it isn’t as simple as he thinks. The satellite went out of orbit three days ago and fell somewhere on Marzal. They will have a rough job ahead of them. 

The next day the Legion Cruiser heads toward Marzal and passes by a tour shuttle indicating that the island-city is a completely independent and self-sufficient community, populated entirely by a black race that wants nothing to do with the outside world.

As the cruiser prepares for landing, they notice a group of masked, jet-powered individuals blasting their way overhead. It’s the Beta gang, the most notorious gang in the galaxy, and it doesn’t take the Legionnaires long to guess why they are also on the island-city. Superboy asks the team if they are wearing their flight-rings and ready for aerial action. Receiving the affirmative, the Legionnaires leap to attack when suddenly an ear-piercing sound rings out, causing the Betas’ jet-packs to burst into flames.

The Betas plummet toward the ground and the Legionnaires swoop into action and attempt to save them from their deaths. Before they can reach them they hear another sound that rips through the air. Covering their ears they witness a series of bubbles that emit from the Betas’ ship, cushioning their fall.

Suddenly a long figure blasts his way past the Legionnaires to confront the Beta’s ship. The ship blasts him with dual mega-blasts but the mysterious being deflects them with another rip roaring scream. He regroups, then omits another scream, blasting the Betas’ ship right into outerspace.

Amazed that a voice has so much power, the Legionnaires are very impressed and ask if he ever considered to join the Legion? He ignores the question, emits another yell and transports himself away. Awestruck the Legionnaires wonder why he was so frightened of them?

Later the mysterious figure reappears on a large video screen overlooking the island-city. He greets his fellow Marzal brothers as their champion Tyroc. He tells them that there are four Legionnaire intruders who are encroaching on their city and to not offer them friendship. Since they have ignored this community for so long why should they? Where were the Legion of Super-Heroes when Marzal suffered through its energy drought? Or the terrible Ion Storm of last spring? The Legionnaires could have helped them many times but were always somewhere else. Was it the color of their skin that doesn’t make them important enough? He reminds his fellow Marzal citizens that racial prejudice died out centuries ago, but perhaps the Legion is behind the times.

As Tyroc continues, Karate Kid notices a collapsing bridge and commands Superboy to follow him. Karate Kid and Superboy work together to shield the falling debris from innocent bystanders. However, the bystanders command them to get out of Marzal and tell them they didn’t ask them to save them. 

Flabbergasted they turn their attention back to Tyroc’s message. He tells Marzal that he will soon find out why the Betas have infiltrated their city and he will take them into custody. The Legionnaires realize that they are after the same enemy.

Meanwhile, a lone Beta is eavesdropping on the Legionnaire when another Beta joins him. He tells his companion that they finally have located the missing satellite. 

We return to our Legionnaires, in particular Brainiac 5, who manages to fix his trusty gem scanner and put it into working order. Sure enough the scanner indicates that it has found something. Calling the rest of the heroes to follow him, the group follow the scanner’s glow and beeps, hoping to find the stolen treasure. 

However, it seems the Betas have found the satellite first and are attempting to open it with a crowbar when suddenly a pulsing light erupts from the satellite, scattering the Betas. In all its years in space, the satellite must have picked up some deadly radiation the jewels were bathing in all this time, effectively making them lethal when exposed to light. A Beta turns and sees the Legionnaires passing by. He quietly moves his lips, careful not to emit any sound for his comrades to hear.

Brainy is still leading the Legionnaires when Superboy stops. He commands his fellow Legionnaires to follow him and jets the other way. Sure enough they find the missing probe. Quickly Superboy tells Shadow Lass that sunlight was the catalyst that set off those deadly rays. She immediately projects a sphere of darkness over the satellite, allowing Superboy to pick it up and hurl it into the blackness of space. Toward an inhabited planet of course, where its deadly rays will harm no one.

Karate Kid walks over the dead bodies of the Betas but does find one survivor who didn’t succumb to the deadly radiation. Brainy asks Superboy how did he know where to find the probe, when he unmasks the surviving Beta. It’s Tyroc!

Superboy explains that Tyroc used his super-voice at an ultra-sonic frequency that only his super-hearing could pick up. He urges Brainy to give Tyroc medical attention.

Shortly thereafter, Tyroc regains his strength and tells the Legionnaires that he disguised himself as a Beta so the other Betas would contact him and reveal where they were. But he asks them why the Legion saved his city when all of Marzal showed them nothing but hatred and contempt?

Superboy explains that the Legion’s job is to save lives and not to make friends. When it comes to race, they are color-blind.

Shadow Lass, Karate Kid, and Brainiac 5 continue Superboy’s assertion. Blue skin, yellow skin, green skin, they’re brothers and sisters, united in the name of justice everywhere.

Tyroc stops and thinks. He realizes that he was wrong. Karate Kid asks him if he’ll reconsider what they asked him not so long ago, knowing that it is a big decision.

Tyroc smiles and clasps Karate Kid’s hand. He’ll give it a try. He’s going back to Metropolis with them to see if he can qualify to become a Legionnaire. Long Live the Legion!

1+1 = 3

Chuck and Lournu Taine, the real names for our beloved Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel respectively, are strolling through Paradise Park when, suddenly, two thugs pop out of the bushes nearby.

They taunt Chuck and make a fat joke and remind him that he was the Legionnaire who sent them and their pals to a reform planetoid for six months. 

Lournu asks Chuck if he knows these clowns and he answers to the affirmative. They are the Rampagers, a gang of young delinquents he put out of action when he was a Legionnaire. And as Chuck is reminded when he cannot avoid a swift kick in the face, he’s lost his bouncing power.

Lournu is thrown into a bush. And where one Lournu was thrown, two pop out to make quick work of the two Rampagers. She picks up an emasculated Chuck off the ground who feels a bit of a shame for needing to be saved by his wife. He thanks them both and reminisces of the time when he did have his bouncing power and was able to take care of the Rampage Gang without a sweat.

Suddenly Lournu feels faint and she decides to get a drink of water. As Chuck watches her, he notices her arm is hurt. It is the same arm she used to block one of the thug’s punches. Perhaps he wore a spiked ring that injected a knock-out drug in her. Sure enough, when she returns, she collapses and Chuck just manages to catch her before she hits the ground. He picks her up and suddenly more Ravagers return to the scene to finish them off. He quickly ducks into a Richochetball Court and has a plan. 

He rushes in with Lournu, puts her to the side and gathers up some rubber balls. The other Rampagers enter, holding a various sort of nasty weapons, from spiked balls, knives, to scary looking billy clubs. They look at their prey and then each one gives a sinister smile. They all agreed to make him suffer, just like they did all those months in the pen. They will have their revenge.

Chuck hurls a couple of rubber balls but misses much to their delight. However, the Rampagers celebrated too soon because one ricochets back and hits one thug squarely in the head, knocking him out. Chuck might have lost his bouncing powers, but he still has one skill above all. Geometry. And his expertise of trajectories make light work of the remaining goons.

One manages to miss the fun and threatens the collapsed Lournu with a deadly knife if he doesn’t throw that ball away. Suddenly another ball comes out of nowhere and it’s Duo Damsel’s other half. She delivers a swift kick to his jaw, and Chuck finishes him off with a nice shoulder tackle.

Chuck asks his dear wife how she managed to avoid the poison? Simple, when she started to feel the effects, she quickly split herself in two before her still unaffected side was contaminated.

Bouncing Boy places his arms around his two beauties and tells him how lucky he has a wife who can fight on both sides of him.

Yes dear, they reply, you’re twice as lucky!

Creative Team

This is such an incredible milestone not only in the Legion of Super-Heroes but in the history of DC Comics. DC Comics was quite late in the game of introducing super-heroes of color in comparison to Marvel and if memory services Tyroc was really their first attempt. Black Lightning would follow and more diverse characters would start to trickle out. But here we have the first. Also if you want a really strong, riveting commentary regarding characters of color and how DC Comics handled it, I cannot recommend John Ridley’s excellent The Other History of the DC Universe enough. It’s an excellent series of book that gives the DCU a different perspective, especially how DC handled its ‘minority’ characters.

But back to Tyroc. How did it go?

I think quite well. Cary Bates was the perfect choice to deliver the story and he handles it pretty well. It’s an interesting choice to have an ‘all black’ secluded island, but I suppose you did have to somewhat explain why we weren’t seeing any people of color in the series thus far. Also, it was nice that the creators did directly address the issue at hand, even though it did get off to a shaky start in the beginning. After Tyroc delivers his speech on the video screen, Shadow Lass comments that “he’s ready bitter,” with Superboy affirming, “you can say that again!”

But it does rebound quite nicely with the nice little chorus that, “when it comes to race, we’re color-blind! Blue skin, yellow skin, green skin, we’re brothers and sisters united in the name of justice everywhere.” It is a remarkable and direct moment for DC Comics, because the titles really didn’t address these issues at all, especially in comparison to Marvel Comics, who had supporting characters of color and wasn’t shy of addressing the controversy or depicting African Americans in a positive light. In fact, it really wouldn’t be until the memorable Green Lantern/Green Arrow run from Denny O’Neil and Neil Adams would the concept of race and social inequality really be addressed by DC Comics. But perhaps this issue was the spark that would eventually ignite that fire?

Mike Grell was fantastic with this issue. Tyroc’s introduction was literally him blasting through the page, definitively showing that the newest member has indeed arrived. His choice for character design does seem to favor the ‘showing some skin’ side and I do wonder if his choices for Cosmic Boy and simply removing the shirt and pants on Colossal Boy was a way to prepare us for Tyroc’s design? Either way Grell is showing some consistent choices and perhaps he just likes to see his heroes half-naked?

Either way, Tyroc’s costume does the job and his power set of having a super-powered voice makes for a good addition to the team. I will be curious on how he progresses as the newest addition in the issues to come. He still has to try out after all and I’m assuming this is coming next issue.

For the second story, 1+1=3, who doesn’t like a nice Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel story? They’ve been promising their return for a few issues now and they kept the thread of our beloved Chuck still having lost his bouncing power. And it’s quite interesting as an older reader to be able to catch a bit of the innuendo of what it means to have a wife who can split in two.

I did enjoy this issue very much and it was a nice bit of problem solving to rationalize to a reader in the 70’s why the introduction of a ‘black’ character was so important and why we hadn’t seen any at this point. I am looking forward to seeing more of Tyroc and how he will be incorporated into the Legion of Super-Heroes. 

Super-Talk

The elephant in the room of course is the absence of Jim Shooter. Now, I’ve been making a habit of quickly speculating if a particular creator’s time on this series is done when they miss an issue and I don’t want to do that anymore. But I do know we are into 1976 and Shooter is jumping to Marvel at least soonish. I also know from recollection that his return to the Legion is rather short. So I still can’t help but wonder if this is it for him or will be soon. Boltinoff doesn’t make a mention here, which is a pity. But I can imagine that many fans at the time were wondering the same thing.

For this issue’s Super-Talk we do have praise for the excellent #213, the Jaws of Fear, which, of course, is no surprise.

But we get a neat little section where they comment on all the script and art samples they receive from fans who are inspired b y Mike Grell, Cary Bates, and Jim Shooter and that every so often fans’ thoughts parallel their own. 

One example is a fellow Missourian, a Thom Miller from St. Louis, MO, who sent them an idea of a new character on the same day that Mike Grell turned in his pencilled art for Tyroc. Miller’s idea was a super-hero of color as well, called the Sound Master, who could mentally emit matter-shattering sound. How about that!

Then he mentions another example where they spent half the day with Gerry Conway trying to figure out a new character for Superman and Batman to meet in World’s Finest. They decided that the character would be a student of the secret cult, the Ninjas. And what happened? Why they received a long letter from Joel Ross and Frank Schermerkkorn, from Hallstead, PA, describing the creation of their hero, Kid Ninja! And a mention in the letter’s page is a whole lot cheaper than forking over some creator’s rights and money.

And I’ll go deeper down this little rabbit hole and see how far I can make a stretch. After all, Jim Shooter himself, while at Marvel, would end up actually paying for a fan’s idea for Spider-Man’s new costume. Which costume was this? Why the famous black costume before Venom arrived on the scene of course.

The Comic Book gods do guide us from time to time. We only have to pause, look into the tea leaves and listen. All bow to the comic gods.

Finally we get a neat little announcement that there is a Super DC Con that is taking place at New York’s Hotel Commodore on Feb. 27, 28 and 29, 1976. Why should it be important for fans of the Legion of Super-Heroes? Because they can receive a ballot at the event and vote for their favorite Legionnaire to be leader. And the winner will be considered the new leader of the galaxy’s most powerful teenagers. At the discretion of the editor’s of course. So no shenanigans! Which reminds us that we haven’t had an official election as of yet, just acting team leaders.

The Legion Medallion of Merit

With two stories we need to decide who will receive the Legion Medallion of Merit this week. Well wouldn’t you know it? The medal goes to our newcomer and, potential newest Legionnaire, Tyroc.

He held a prejudice and was quite suspicious and toward the Legion of Super-Heroes. But as Marzal’s champion he ended up putting his duty first. He was able to change his stance just in time that allowed him to not only beat the Beta’s but also secure the safety of the island-city. With his example will the people of Marzal be willing to come out of isolation? Only time will tell. But Tyroc set an example and just from looking at him, it would be hard not to follow.

Embrace the medal Tyroc for it is well deserved. As the champion of Marzal you held yourself to a higher example and decided to work together with a group you felt were your enemies at first. May this medal always symbolize the power of reconciliation and the need to lead for the good of others!

And we must be reminded of your final cry; when you accepted the Legion’s offer to try out for membership…

LONG LIVE THE LEGION!