Tag: Legion of Substitute Heroes

Welcome back fellow applicants to the Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes blog! We’re still in the “Starring” era but Jim Shooter is well on his way in writing his name in stone alongside Cary Bates as being one of the greatest contributors to the Tales of the LSH. But who are we kidding? His name was already there! So I guess you have to sign it again Jim.

And speaking of Bates, he returns and gives us a trip down memory lane in the second story of this issue.

But what are we waiting for? To the try-outs!

The Ultimate Revenge

A long starship travels through the dark depths of space. It zooms along a chunk space debris when all of a sudden, a door opens out of nothing. It is The Haven and Roxxas has found his destination.

He enters and is greeted by Gorra, The Havenmaster. Gora shows Roxxas around and tells him how The Haven works and that it would be quite impossible to find under any circumstances. He will surely be able to find refuge here. At the high price he paid of course.

Gorra becomes a bit too nosey and asks where his previous hiding spot was. Roxxas whirls around to tell him its none of his business but it was a place no-one would ever think of looking. He just couldn’t take hiding out there anymore. But then how did he manage to escape from Takron-Galtos, the prison planet?

Roxxas tells the tale that he had a ship hidden in the hills that he could use during his escape. But before he can tell Gorra more, he notices something odd happening at the wall in front of him. It begins to expand and grow bigger and bigger until it crumbles away, allowing the Legion of Super-Heroes to charge in, led by Star Boy!

Light Lass and Chemical King join in on the fun and make quick work at those defending the station. Suddenly our three Legionnaires are pinned down by rapid gunfire. Chemical King knows he must be careful lest he accidentally kills anyone in The Haven, despite how evil they may be. Luckily, Element Lad comes in fierce and turns the floor into gas, relieving his fellow Legionnaires of the suppressing fire.

Element Lad notices a lone figure making his escape and he gives chase. As he nears the retreating foe, he is shocked once he recognizes him. It is of course Roxxas and his hesitation causes Roxxas to successfully escape.

His comrades rejoin him and Element Lad stares out longingly into the dark depths of space, lamenting the fact that he had failed. But why is he so down? This was just one man and the Science Police are gathering up the rest of the criminals.

Leaving this unanswered, we arrive back at Legion HQ and Sun Boy is happy to see them all return. He announces that as of now, the four of them are on leave. As Star Boy starts making plans to visit his parents, he asks Element Lad what he’s going to do.

Element Lad replies that his parents and all the others on his home planet, Trom, are dead. He then tells the grueling tale of how Roxxas and his fellow space pirates took the whole planet hostage and ordered them to use their power of transmutation to create rare and precious elements for them.

They refused and instead prepared to defend themselves from the space pirates. But it was no use. Roxxas rained down Photon Torpedoes on the valley and they couldn’t stop these energy weapons since their powers only affect matter.

His people retreated in the valley but Roxxas and his space pirates pursued and gunned them down in cold blood. Element Lad managed to find a spaceship and was the only one who escaped, making him the last survivor of Trom.

He later joined the Legion of Super-Heroes and managed to capture Roxxas and put him away for good. Or so he thought.

Returning to the present he tells Star Boy that he has to leave, that his cruiser is warming up on the flight deck.

Meanwhile Superboy returns from the past and Sun Boy fills him in on what happened, showing him that the escaped criminal is Roxxas. They both look at the recently departed cruiser and see Element Lad did not indicate a destination. He must be going after Roxxas alone and they can’t allow him to do that. Light Lass, Chemical King, and Star Boy call off their leave and join Superboy and Star Boy on a cruiser and take off in hot pursuit.

Meanwhile the Science Police calls Element Lad and tells him they interrogated Gorra, the Havenmaster just as he requested, but they couldn’t get much out of him. Only that Roxxas’ previous hideout was the last place anyone would look.

Back on the cruiser, our beloved Legionnaires manage to track Element Lad to Trom, and Superboy confirms the fact with his telescopic vision. Sun Boy puts in the coordinates and tells his companions that they’ll arrive in about three point six Earth hours. But will it be too late?

Element Lad in the meantime disembarks from his cruiser. With this death-ray gun raised he yells at the dead Trom sky for Roxxas. Roxxas remains hidden until he notices that it is Element Lad, the last survivor of Trom. He then reveals himself.

Element Lad quickly turns around and turns every piece of metal on Roxxas into nitrogen gas, eliminating any potential threat. Roxxas drops to his knees, waiting for the final blow. Elemental Lad coolly tells him how he never should have escaped from prison, because he never forgot what he did to his parents. When suddenly he’s interrupted by Superboy who pleas for him to stop. But Element Lad tells them to not interfere. Roxxas has surrendered, and he’s now his to do as he wishes.

Light Lass continues her plea and tells him to let Roxxas go so they can bring him to justice and turn him over to the law. To which Elemental Lad replies, “I am the law!”

It is up to him to bring Roxxas to justice, as the lone survivor of Trom. Star Boy makes another attempt. He tells his friend how he once killed a man in self-defense and Brainiac 5 showed him that there was another way. He was even expelled from the Legion for a time. Light Lass then tries to reminds Element Lad that a Legionnaire never kills.

But it’s no use. Elemental Lad points the gun squarely at Roxxas and declares to his comrades that he resigns. He presses the trigger and Superboy attempts to go into action and stop him at super-speed, but is blocked by Chemical King who also says that Roxxas deserves to die.

With no one stopping him, Element Lad pulls the trigger and shoots Roxxas squarely in the face.

Roxxas’ body lies before him and Element Lad has a solemn look on his face. Light Lass asks if it made him feel better and Star Boy wonders if it was worth it. Not answering, Element Lad drops the gun and turns away in anguish. He was a fool and out of his mind.

Chemical King picks up the gun and tells his Legionnaires to look, the gun is harmless. CK used his reaction power to deteriorate the quasi-battery in the death-ray gun, giving it just enough energy to throw out a beam of ordinary light. Then he slowed Roxxas’ metabolism so he would appear dead.

He walks over to Elemental Lad, who tries to apologize for losing control. But CK will have none of it. He knew that once he pulled the trigger he would realize how wrong it was.

Their relief is interrupted by Roxxas who pleads with them all to kill him. He doesn’t want to be back on Trom because everywhere he goes on the planet, he can only see the ghosts of the dead that he murdered. He wants his life to end.

The Legionnaires watch Roxxas with a stern resolve. And Element Lad must speak for them all when he says, “Letting him live…is the ultimate revenge.”

The Legion’s Lost Home

An untold story of the Legion clubhouse.

Brainiac 5, Cosmic Boy, Superboy, and Shadow Lass watch as their own Legion clubhouse, the one that was in the form of a rocket ship, is being hoisted up into the air.

Unfortunately it could not withstand the attack from the Fatal Five, who left it in a total wreck. They’ll have to proceed with construction of the new Legion HQ immediately.

Time passes and perhaps the Legionnaires forgot all about this day. But what happened to the old clubhouse? We scan a junkyard littered with space debri until we find it, undisturbed and completely discarded.

The stillness is interrupted by a cry of relief from Cosmic Boy and Shadow Lass who finally found it.

As they land they are greeted by a guard from the city who is assigned to keep all unauthorized personnel away from the graveyard. After the pleasantries are exchanged the guard asks them that they must be here for a reason. Indeed, they both suspect that there might be a deadly weapon still locked away in their old clubhouse that must be recovered.

The guard understands and grants them passage. Cosmic Boy and Shadow Lass fly to the entrance of their clubhouse with nostalgic feelings, and enter.


The lights suddenly turn on and the two pass through corridors and pass the old jail cells. Shadow Lass asks Cosmic Boy if he knows where he’s going, to which he replies of course. He has spent enough time around these Legion Security Chambers to know the layout in his sleep. They arrive at their destination and with glee Cosmic Boy announces that he has found it.

He reaches down and picks up what is the only flawless pyram jewel in the solar system. And it’s exactly where he had stashed it.

The glow of the gem seduces them when their thoughts are interrupted by a loud “long time now see!” They whirl around to find someone they don’t recognize. “Cosmic Boy” tells him he’s seen all the Legionnaires and he’s not one of them. CB kneels down and shoots his ray gun at the stranger, who quickly turns to stone. Shadow Lass can’t believe her eyes but CB tells her to shut up and don’t panic because they need to make their getaway.

They fly out of the cubhouse and are quickly entangled by living vines, courtesy of Chlorophyll Kid, a member of the Legion of Substitute Heroes!

Cosmic Boy just manages to raise his gun and sets it from stun, to kill. As he’s about to pull the trigger Fire Lad zooms in and blasts a mighty breath of heat, forcing CB to drop the weapon.

Chlorophyll Kid congratulations Fire Lad on spotting these two imposters and takes off the mask of “Shadow Lass” while Fire Lad umasks “Cosmic Boy.” The imposters still do not know who Chlorophyll Kid and Fire Lad are, whilst Stone Boy makes an appearance and says to not forget about him.

They knew they were phony because both Cosmic Boy and Shadow Lass would have recognized any member of the Legion of Substitute Heroes.

As the thieves are turned over to the guard, the guard gives him their thanks but tells them that he also has never heard of a team that was made up of rejected applicants. But it doesn’t matter, because the deed they showed him is genuine enough. It looks like the Legionnaires gave their old clubhouse to them and they can take it away.

I don’t know about you, but it looks like the old Legion clubhouse will be put to good use.

Creative Team

Coming off of Soljer’s War, Jim Shooter delivered yet another layered, multi-faceted tale that challenged the emotions and motivations of the Legionnaires. Here we are not only dealing with subjects such as revenge, the death penalty, and what it means to be a Legionnaire. But we are also seeing the motivations of these characters that creates a sense of realism. You can tell Shooter cares about the Legion and his contributions so far are impactful as we move forward.

Mike Grell continues to shine of course. His ability to display emotion, in this case raw rage, was incredibly effective. Also his design of Roxxas is well done as it could have fallen to the more campy and childish style from the earlier days of the Legion in Adventure and Action Comics. Additionally, Grell can handle multiple scene changes and create environments that appear to be unique and part of the same world. Again, it is no wonder that he is such a fan favorite and that he would go on to have an amazing career.

Cary Bates also delivered a fun story. If we were wound up with emotions and worry, Bates was able to give us a sort of reprieve with a trip down memory lane. It’s always fun to see the ole clubhouse and also it was neat to see what actually happened to it. I always read too much into these things, but I couldn’t help but see a lot of similarities to ourselves as we grow up. What was once an important clubhouse was then easily discarded as the Legionnaires continued to mature and needed something ‘worthy’ of their age. But perhaps we should never forget where we come from and what we found so important at the time. Just like an old comic book or perhaps an old toy, it’s still a part of who we are.

All in all, #211 was a solid issue and I think this time both of the stories really worked because they were from different writers. With Shooter we got that mature, conflicted story and with Bates a fun tale in the lore of the Legion. And of course Mike Grell kicks both stories in the pants with his wonderful art and style.

I’m really enjoying the Shooter resurgence and I am curious on where he will take us in issues to come. Though I’m also a bit scared because it looks like he’ll be testing us as fans of the Legion of Super-Heroes and not knowing who may or may not make it out alive or be able to stay on the team.

Super-Talk

There’s not a lot in this issue’s Super-Talk. Just a lot of praise for a variety of previous issues, and for Cary Bates who wasn’t even mentioned last issue. Sadly there is no news on what future stories may entail or where the series is going.

But at the expense of writing something just to write something here I will include something that I at least found interesting.

Masao Kono from Hawaii talks about Uri Geller, who was a psychic from Israel that apparently displayed real life magnetic powers a la Cosmic Boy. Also apparently he was examined by the Stanford Research Institute who confirmed his powers were genuine.

The editor responds that they (I’m assuming DC Comics) saw this too and were very impressed.

This is amusing because this not only actually happened but Geller made a fortune on appearances and on making people believe that his powers were genuine. Unfortunately for the Stanford Research Institute and DC Comics he was a fraud and Geller was eventually debunked by James Randi. I remember seeing this on TV on some special as a child and you can find a bunch of stuff on YouTube, but I found this video and included it below. Mainly because Randi mentions Stanford Research Institute by name and how academic careers were ruined. Sadly he never mentions Murray Boltinoff. I guess he isn’t much of a comic book fan.

But regardless, a nice piece of history within the context at the time and something to chat about during this week’s Super-Talk.

The Legion Medallion of Merit

I think this one’s easy. The Legion Medallion of Merit has to go to Chemical King.

While many of the Legionnaires were shocked by Element Lad’s rage and constantly referred to the Legion code of thou shall not kill, Chemical King took a moment to take in his surroundings and put himself in Element Lad’s shoes. He saw the absolute devastation of Trom at the hands of Roxxas and space pirate cronies. And though he couldn’t directly relate to Element Lad’s pain, he tried to at least understand it. Chemical King kept his cool and gave Element Lad the opportunity to act out his need for vengeance without the consequences. It was a clever and empathetic move on his part and he ended up saving a Legionnaire and possible others as well. Because who knows how EL would channel his guilt and shame in having killed another sentient being.

Congratulations Chemical King and may you remember your grace and understanding of Element Lad’s rage while you remind your fellow Legionnaires that life sometimes isn’t as black and white as we would like it. Sometimes we just have to walk in someone else’s shoes for a while to really understand what they’re going through.

And that’s it folks! I would ask that none of you go out into the world declaring yourself to have super-powers lest the next time you open your door you may just find James Randi on the other side of it. And as always…

LONG LIVE THE LEGION!