Written by Cary Bates with art by Dave Cockrum. Superboy #195 hit stands on March 20, 1973 and was edited by Murray Boltinoff.
The One-Shot Hero!
A new candidate for the Legion of Super-Heroes, Erg-1, stands before Mon-El, Phantom Girl, Chemical King, Shrinking Violet, Princess Projectra, Chameleon Boy, and Colossal Boy.
Every potential Legionnaire must go through a test and prove their powers and the same goes for Erg-1. He quickly tells his backstory, how his real name is Drake Burroughs and he was an Astro-Engineer. Trying to work on a new propulsion system, an accident occurred completely engulfing Drake in flames. However, instead of dying he was transformed into pulsating, anti-energy. Wanting to save their beloved colleague, his co-workers quickly constructed a new suit that would allow Drake to harness and contain the anti-energy that he had now become.
With his origin-story established, Drake starts to demonstrate his powers; the sight and hearing of Superboy, his ability to control any elements like Chemical King, how he can expand his energy and grow to the size of Colossal Boy, or become small like Shrinking Violet. Going further Drake shows that he can become non-solid like Phantom Girl and can fly without a flight-ring.
Nevertheless, one of the main criteria to become a member is to demonstrate a power that is actually unique and does not copy that of a different member. Thus Drake’s membership into the Legion is rejected.
With one last plea, Drake mentions that he has one power that none of them can match but refuses to show it for unknown reasons.
In the meantime Bouncing Boy rushes in alerting the team of an S.O.S. from the Planetary Federation. A machine named the Devourer is consuming all the crops of Manna-5, an agricultural planet. Concerned that if left untouched, the machine will effectively cause a famine of cosmic proportions, which gives enough motivation for the Legion to intervene.
Mon-El assembles groups of three and each member attempts to take down the machine, using their specific powers but fails.
Luckily Erg-1, our Drake, snuck on board the spaceship and seeing the Legionnaires fail in their mission, goes into action. Knowing that each Legionnaire was not able to stop the machine using their powerful abilities, Drake decides to use the one power that he dared not mention before. He emits a blast of an unimaginable, destructive force that completely destroys the machine, presumably destroying himself in the process thereby sacrificing himself for the entire universe.
The members of the Legion of Super-Heroes grieve for Drake and decide to build a monument in his honor, acting forever as a reminder in how he sacrificed his life in the line of duty…like a loyal Legionnaire!
The Creative Team
Cary Bates was a wise choice to launch this new series. Whether it’s a full length book or a back story with limited number of pages, he understands plot and he can juggle different characters and deliver what you need. Here he delivers a solid Legion of Super-Heroes story that gives us enticing elements that would hook both new and loyal readers to follow the new series.
One strategy that Bates employs is that he ensures that each member says the other member’s name so the reader can quickly catch up and understand who everyone is, which is quite handy for new readers. This trope will be used often and is very welcome. In addition Bates splits them off and allows each member to demonstrate their unique power, providing an additional introduction to new readers as well as tying into the plot very nicely. He also employs some touching moments such as Phantom Girl taking a liking to Drake, who even encourages him to show off his abilities while also shutting down the other members who want to reject his application immediately.
My biggest complaint is that of the villain, which is a machine. Together the Legion are incredibly powerful and I do find it hard to believe that none of them would be able to stop a machine in its tracks. However I do understand the need to have something battle against the Legion in order to show off their powers. But the fact that none of the Legionnaires could take it down is a bit unbelievable for me.
However, the biggest treat here is that we have the first appearance of a new character who will make an everlasting impact on the Legion in issues to come. How will this happen? Well you will have to follow this blog to find out!
Dave Cockrum is a treasure and a legend and you can see why here. He’s not only able to handle multiple people on a team but his rendering and figure work is beautiful. Even though this is a backstory, Cockrum takes us through multiple scenes, including a strange planet that just shows you how talented of a draftsman he was. We will have a lot to say about Dave Cockrum as we progress with the series, including a few juicy elements that will resonate through the entire universe of comic book fandom.
Interestingly we do not get a solid look of Erg-1 other than action shots and a butt shot on the opening page. This does pop up in other issues as well with new additions. I don’t know if this was intentional to make it quick and keep the mystery going? But I would have liked to see a bit more from Erg-1.
The LSH Universe
And where are we in the grand scheme of things? The Legion of Super-Heroes left its legendary run of stories in Adventure Comics and I believe reappeared in Action Comics as a backstory for a while, before settling as a backstory on Superboy. What probably happened was that when LSH appeared in an issue of Superboy, sales increased significantly and when they were not present, sales dropped. So why not combine the two and make it its own book?
For me, and in hindsight of course as this book came out before I was born, it was a genius move. My main issue with Superboy, especially in his solo series, was always that his voice was not that much different from that of Superman’s. The only difference was his age and the supporting cast around him. In addition, the creative team would continue to place importance on hiding his secret identity, which for me sort of reemphasized the blandness of the book. Because instead of trying to hide his secret identity from his work friends, he was hiding it from his classmates.
When we had him with the Legion it became another story. Though he remains the (probably) the most powerful member of the team, he still has poweful figures to match up against and it allows you to get a more adult insight into the way he thinks. In a weird way, jetting him off into the 30th century made him a bit more human on the page.
Intriguingly, when we arrive in the letters section of this issue, there is an editor’s note saying how Cary Bates might be unavailable because he’s working on the new James Bond film (more on that in the bonus content below). And then there’s this simple, throw-away line:
“…[Cary will] wing back home to resume his writing chores on Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, among others.”
Wait what?
If that did not get you confused at the time, there’s a response to a letter written by a Dynamic Critic (yes that’s their name):
“I’m hereby requesting that for one issue (maybe even two), you show Superboy traveling to the 30th Century to visit his Legion buddies. This would be a great idea for the upcoming 200th issue.”
To which the editor replies:
“But we’re doing better than that! As we’ve announced on this page—and for those of you who may have missed the stunning news—Dave Cockrum is working on a full-length Legion of Super-Heroes mag, written by Cary Bates…”
As we’ve announced on this page? You mean the throw-away line in the Editor’s Note? The news must have been mentioned elsewhere but from my quick and dirty research I could not find anything and as this is 1973 it must have appeared elsewhere perhaps in a Comics Journal for instance or an in-house ad at the time. If anyone can dig anything up that could further expand on this, I would be very interested in this, so please send this my way!
Nevertheless we have an official launch mentioned, an introduction of a new character that will prove to be an integral part of the Legion of Super-Heroes and we’re pretty much off to the races. Also the creative team is one of the best so I can just imagine there must have been a lot of excitement and anticipation for this series.
The Legion Medallion of Merit
I am still working on the wording of the award I want to give out to character(s) who do something momentous in each issue. As I said in the previous post I’m basically stealing this idea from the Bwah-ha-ha podcast and other podcasts on the Fire and Water Network who do this sort of thing. It’s a neat little idea that gives some consistency to the posts as well as gives us the opportunity to highlight something each issue. I’m not totally happy with the name so I’m sure it will continuously change.
But for this round I do have to give the Legion Medallion of Merit to Phantom Girl. She not only encouraged Erg-1 to demonstrate his powers, but chastised her fellow Legionnaires for trying to write him off so quickly. That took guts. Plus on the final page she had a lot more tears and showed more remorse and emotion for this loss than the other cold hearted Legionnaires. And for this she deserves the award.
Enjoy Phantom Girl and may you bask in the congratulations and pride of your fellow Legionnaires as you hold this award high for all to see.
Next up, Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #197 in “Timber Wolf, Dead Hero, Live Executioner!”
Wait, starring?!
And finally as always…
Long live the legion!
Bonus Content
As mentioned above from the Editor’s note, Cary Bates was supposed to be absent as he had a treatment for a James Bond novel that would be made into a film. He did appear on Millar Time, an interview series on YouTube from the writer Mark Millar. It’s a really great interview and he does talk about this period as well as his treatment for Superman V. It’s a great watch/listen.