Tag: Mike Grell

We return to our distraught Legion of Super-Heroes as they mourn the shocking death of Chemical King. But this sorrow quickly turns to rage, as Wildfire selects a group to hunt down the treacherous Deregon and his puppeteers, the Dark Circle. Their aim? To avenge the death of their comrade! But that is not all! By the end we also get the first hint of what is to come regarding our favorite couple Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad that will eventually lead to a gorgeous oversized Treasury Edition.

Plus! We have a big announcement in Super-Talk and a few revelations and admissions on a dropped plot. This is one extraordinary, action packed issue, so I will keep the word count to a minimum in this introduction. Put on your flight ring and get ready for aerial action!

Hunt for a Hero-Killer

Shanghalla. The cemetery world. Here are buried the mightiest champions of a galaxy, including fallen Legionnaires Ferro Lad and Invisible Kid. Now Chemical King has joined them in eternity and his comrades have come to mourn.

And as they mourn their minds wander to a tragedy. A tragedy that started in Australia, as regional governor Deregon planned to lead his people to war against the rest of the Earth. When the Legion went to investigate, they discovered that Deregon was an agent of the Dark Circle and after capturing three Legionnaires, including Light Lass, the love of Timber Wolf, who quickly launched an attack in an effort to rescue her. However, Dregegon was protected by the deadly energy of a cosmic force sphere and even Superboy could barely manage to rescue Timber Wolf from the hellish radiation that it emitted. 

Each Legionnaire pitted their strength against the sphere and all failed except for one. Chemical King used all his strength to implode the force sphere, causing him to lose his life in the process. And the reward for his ultimate sacrifice? World War VII was averted. For now.

Saturn Girl breaks the silence and instructs Timber Wolf to follow Wildfire who is selecting a team to go after Deregon and avenge their comrade. Wildfire explains that in order for it be fair, he will select five for the mission, using the computer that will use Brownian motion molecules and make the choice completely random, ensuring fairness. Sure enough he starts the machine and it selects five; Superboy, Mon-El, Timber Wolf, Dawnstar, and of course Wildfire. Saturn Girl smells a rat and says so, but Wildfire brushes it off and instructs the rest to board a Cruiser that will head to Earth. The rest will hunt down Deregon and make him pay for killing Chemical King.

Moments later the Legion Cruiser rips through space escorted by Superboy and Mon-El. All three plunge into a space warp and when all emerge, they face the homeworld of the Dark Circle. Superboy commands Timber Wolf to take control of the cruiser and he and Mon-El will take care of the so-called welcoming committee. They quickly scan the ships and determine that they are not manned and are simply drones. This allows the duo to not hold back. However, more join the fray and more Legionnaires leap into action. Wildfire staves off the space soldiers from the battle wagons with free floating energy fields, while Dawnstar guides the Legion Cruiser through the increasingly complex pattern of debris and hostile vessels. A blast beam is suddenly hurled toward the Legion Cruiser but Mon-El intercepts it with his body. They arrive at the Dark Circle citadel and Wildfire gives the order to head in and look for Deregon. Oh and to try to stay alive on the way down.

Meanwhile, aboard the other Legion Ship Cosmic Boy is wondering if they should have stayed and that Wildfire had no right to limit the mission to only five members. Saturn Girl agrees and casually mentions that he also used his energy powers to influence the supposedly random choice. But they will deal with that when he gets back.

We return to our five Legionnaires as the Dark Circle turn up the pressure. They respond in hordes of adversaries and it seems that the whole planet is attacking the Legionnaires. A laser cannon takes aim at the Legion Cruiser and fires, and Superboy is not able to deflect it in time and the Cruiser is destroyed. He quickly takes out the laser cannon and Wildfire orders the five to head for the Central Command Building where Deregon must be hiding. 

Meanwhile the other Legionnaires have returned to Earth and are enjoying a little off time at Galaxyland in Smallville. Cosmic Boy has asked Night Girl to join them and as they double date with Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl’s communicator goes off. It is Light Lass who tells Saturn Girl that she just got off the phone with President Kandru asking why they are allowing the Science Police to bring Deregon to justice, since it is confirmed that he is on Earth. Then what are the others doing way out by the Dark Circle? There is no time and Saturn Girl goes into deep concentration method, using her powers to activate her subconscious in order to determine what it has been trying to tell her this entire time. And the answer is simple. Deregon is nearby.

Thus, on a far-distant world, five Legionnaires struggle against a robot army, hunting a man who is not there. Drone after drone the Dark Circle continues its defense and Dawnstar senses a living presence within the Central Command Building. She points to the door and knows that there is someone on the other side of it. Timber Wolf and Wildfire charge while Mon-El and Superboy suddenly vanish.

The remaining Legionnaires blast through the doors and are met with a lone member of the Dark Circle. The Legionnaires demand to know where Deregon is hiding and the lone figure responds in kind by restraining our heroes with Grabber Cables. Wildfire blasts them free and the dark hooded figure continues to taunt them, and admit though they have invaded their world, they simply do not care about Deregon’s whereabouts. But Timber Wolf is already enraged and he better tell them where Deregon is or he will rip his throat out. But the Dark Circle is tricky and responds with a force field that will keep Timber Wolf away. But instead of bouncing off the forcefield, Timber Wolf and the others vanish, just like Superboy and Wildfire. 

Meanwhile, Lightning Lad is questioning Mvar, a member of the Science Police, on why he did not notify the Legion that Deregon was on Earth when he knew that they would be looking for him. Especially since Deregon killed Chemical King. Mvar apologizes but thought they had closed the book on it. Saturn Girl is furious. Even Night Girl, a member of the Legion of Substitute Heroes, knows that she would be forced to revert this mission back to the Legion to allow them to avenge their fallen friend. Simply put, the Legion itself needs to bring Chemical King’s killer to justice and no-one else.

With that, Saturn Girl sends her telepathic powers fanning out over the area—probing—searching for a telltale thought. Finding it, she and her companions fly off to follow the clue, leading them to the Tunnel of Fear. She has picked up Deregon’s fears and it leads beyond a wall that she points to. Lightning Lad does not need any explanation and hits the wall with a ferocious bolt of lightning, exposing a large, hidden door of steel. Cosmic Boy tends to it with a touch of his magnetic force and the massive door tumbles down. 

Saturn Girl’s suspicions are true for Deregon lies in bed surrounded by metal, monster robots. He is surprised that they managed to find his special retreat, because this was hidden even from the Dark Circle. He activates the monster robots to distract the Legionnaires while he makes his mistake. Lightning Lad blasts the robots apart and Cosmic Boy joins him while Saturn Girl chases after Deregon. 

Right now vengeance is a vindication for an ideal, the concept of justice, and proof that a hero did not die in vain. For the scarlet-clad huntress who has been with the Legion since its founding, it is something more. She has seen three of her comrades die in battle, and something deep within her soul cries nevermore. She chases Deregon all the way to a dead end and his blaster has run out of energy. Now he can only turn and fight, and fight he does, taking Saturn Girl off guard, knocking her to the ground. And again Deregon runs, desperately seeking an escape. But a ferocious amount of energy leaps from Lightning Lad’s fingers, brightening the murky sky. The vibrations cause the fence Deregon stands on to shatter. It is within this last second that he realizes that there is no escape from the destiny he created for himself. And he plummets in a pool of chemical waste.

Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and Cosmic Boy look at the fallen villain, surprised that the blast started him, causing him to fall in the drainage ditch below. Indeed, his own fear caught him and if he had not been scared, Saturn Girl would not have been able to find him.

And far away on Shanghalla, a hero who faced his death without fear goes peacefully into the darkness at last. 

We are then treated to two epilogues.

The first details what exactly happened to the Legionnaires that disappeared. They were transported back by the experimental warp transport that was presented to the LSH back in Action Comics #387, at the pleasure of Light Lass. She learned that the others had captured Deregon so she found a way to bring them back.

The second epilogue shows Deregon being taken away by the Science Police as an agitated Cosmic Boy looks on, arguing that if there was a time to go against the Legion Code it was now.

Saturn Girl turns to Lightning Lad and mentions that there are a few things in the Legion Constitution she would like to change if she were writing it today. Lightning Lad agrees, and one day they will…

But more on that in future issues.

And speaking of future issues:

Meet the creature who conned the Legion—and then watch out for frantic fun on—The Day Bouncing Boy Bounced Back! All in Superboy/Legion #230—on sale May 19th!

Creative Team

We have yet another strong issue in just a short amount of time in the epic run of Paul Levitz. Levitz and Denny O’Neil give us the second Legionnaire death of the new series, with Invisible Kid being the first way back in #203. But there is a crucial difference; we actually see the Legionnaires mourn. When Invisible Kid died, there was no time for reflection or really any ramifications of any kind other than a bit of a ‘too soon’ moment when the ghosts of Ferro Lad and Invisible Kid visit Superboy in Smallville. But not this time, and not on Levitz’s and O’Neil’s watch. The first pages are dedicated to the impact of Chemical King and how his death affected the entire Legion, while setting up the rage, forcing the Legionnaires to immediately move into action.

In fact, Levitz does employ a tiny bait and switch when Wildfire, as leader, takes control and uses his power to influence the results at the behest of Saturn Girl. But by the end of it, as the dust settles, and as you turn the pages, it dawns on you that the remaining Legionnaires who are in pursuit of Deregon are actually the founding members. And who are more deserving of bringing Chemical King’s killer to justice than they? When that realization hit, it sent chills down my spine. This a crucial moment, a moment that we, as readers, deserved to see. And it was executed brilliantly.

Additionally, was it not great to see Mon-El again? When he appeared I realized we have not seen him in a very long time, at least not in action. His last appearance was #225 but really we have not really seen him do anything since #220, when the Legion, mainly Phantom Girl, took down Thargg and freed the planet Murgador. I believe the reason for this is that the writers always felt that Mon-El and Superboy together on a mission made it a bit too easy because the two are the most-powerful members. What Levitz does here is basically answer that question. Do you want to see what happens when the five most powerful Legionnaires go off on a mission by themselves? Well here it is. And after they physically take down drone after drone after drone, you start to realize that their mission is futile and they are quickly taken off the board by Light Lass. It was a neat little thought experiment brought to life.

And speaking of characters, Cosmic Boy and Night Girl were together again and CB was not acting like a complete jerk as Jim Shooter depicted him. It does seems that Levitz decided to reel that back, whether intentionally or unintentionally. But it was nice to see here.

James Sherman and Jack Abel did a great job on this issue. The issue was packed full of action with those five Legionnaires going after Deregon and the Dark Circle and destroying the planet. The members were just destroying drone after drone, and Superboy and Mon-El smashing through walls and assisting the Legion Cruiser was very satisfying. For me it really played out like a movie and I could see the movement and the tactics they were employing. Sherman has a good concept of geographical space and the way he makes his figures move from one location to another gives you a sense that the scene is real. 

And while on one side we have the action ramped up to eleven, on the other the three Legionnaires chase Deregon through Smallville, and the action quickly turns into suspense. That beautiful image of Lightning Lad striking the sky with his thunder bolts that ended up putting Deregon off guard and causing him to fall was definitely one of the highlights. Sherman can not only handled the diverse amount of Legionnaires but also his layouts and pacing shows that he can ratchet up the pace when needed, and then quiet it down within a second. 

Also, I could not help but smile when I saw they were in Smallville and going through the Tunnel of Fear. If I could talk to Levitz I would ask him if this was a call back to issue #198, when we saw the Fatal Five for the first time in the series relaunch? The two looked very similar. But then again, it shows that Levitz, Sherman, and the gang are not afraid to make callbacks to previous issues and this really produces a solid world-building experience. 

All in all, this issue managed to deliver the pay-off and ramifications of Chemical King’s death. To me it is obvious that there is a direction and each issue is but a chapter in an overall story. This not only helps with character development but also with giving us stakes and not knowing what will happen next. These are real places with real people, and there are real consequences. And not to keep tooting the same horn, but again, a lot of this has to do with the fact that we are getting one story an issue and not cramming in two. As we will see in Super-Talk below the format of the book will change slightly again, but I do hope there will be enough room to keep the strength of a ‘full-length’ novel going because it is far superior than having two.

Nevertheless, we are literally standing just slightly past the threshold of Levitz’s run, and so far what we have seen is incredible.

Super-Talk

We start out this issue’s super-talk with a super-announcement!

“Mark June, 1977 on your calendars in red, Legion fans, because it’s the beginning of a BIG change in your reading habits!

“On June 21st, this mag becomes Superboy & The Legion of Super-Heroes (at last!) and doubles as a monthly 49-page GIANT magazine—just like JUSTICE LEAGUE. Some issues will feature double-length novels, others two stories of the LSH, but every issue will feature at least 30 pages of all-new Legion excitement!

“Then, on June 28th, Superboy flies solo again! The Boy of Steel will be starring in his own bi-monthly feature (set in the 20th Century) in Adventure Comics. And the Legion will be on hand in the first story to commemorate his return to action, of course.”

So there you have it. For those reading along the title had already changed back in issue #222. But I suppose this makes it official official. What does that even mean? I would guess it has a lot to do with the subscription service, and as Murray Boltinoff pointed out when the book had recently launched, it was due to United States Postal Service Policy allowing a current book/magazine, etc be granted a certain type of rate. Which makes sense. I suppose when you take out a subscription you take it out expecting a certain title. And when the company decided to change that book it sort of ‘violates’ why you bought the subscription in the first place. Putting my legal pad aside, Boltinoff did mention it would take the lawyers a long time, so I guess this would make it around three years or so. But there you have it, two issues from now it will be official, official, official. 

Also what is mention-worthy is Superboy going back to Adventure Comics. This would be around the time that Paul Levitz was writing the Aquaman portion of the book, and the famous (or infamous depending on your point of view) moment when he had Black Manta kill off Andy, the cute little Aquababy. The amount of blood dripping from his typewriter around this time must have been extraordinary and not to mention the angry mail he probably received from rabid-fans. 

Apart from the announcement we do have some interesting tidbits. The letters are commenting on Jim Shooter’s final issue, #224, and reminds us that there was one little plot device that kind of fell to the way-side after Shooter left.

Jeff Albrecht who was writing from Valparaiso University at the time, praised the book and mentioned the classic villain Mordru, who you remember was intended to give Stargrave a run for his money and that was the reason for the whole alliance between the Legion and Stargrave. Well that little plot point was dropped and they admit it here in the reply.

“Ahem…as you no doubt noticed, the battle with Mordru didn’t show up in #225 as expected. We apologize, but the circumstances were beyond our control, for while Jim was finishing #224 (which had been partially plotted with Murray), Paul was already scripting #225. As a result, it took us a bit longer to get the Stargrave conclusion into print, and Mordru ended up out of it altogether.

“But as you said, you really can’t keep a good villain down, and Mordru will be back—in Justice League, when the JLA and JSA meet the Legion this summer.”

This would end up being Justice League of America #147, which we will of course cover right here as part of the ad interim series. 

Finally, they remind the readers that they are still accepting ballots for the next election for Legion leader and also that Superboy and Karate Kid are ineligible! So there!

The Legion Medallion of Merit

With a very emotionally charged issue that had to grapple with the death of Chemical King, it surprisingly was not that hard to award the Medallion to a member who went above and beyond the call of duty. The Medallion goes to one of the founding members, Saturn Girl. She showed great restraint when she knew that Wildfire was up to some shenanigans and accepted the decision. However, her powers must have been working the whole time, because going back to Earth ended up being the correct choice since Deregon was there after all. 

She sensed his fear and went into pursuit alone while Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy were fending off the giant, metal monster robots. This took great courage and she kept Deregon off balance and frankly, scared for his life. It was not for Saturn Girl, the blast from Lightning Lad that ended up forcing Deregon off balance might not have happened.

Though this Medallion may prove to be bittersweet and may forever remind you of your fallen comrade, Chemical King, wear it with pride Saturn Girl. Always trust your instincts and never be afraid to speak your mind.

And that is it for this week fellow Legion fans! As we wait for next week’s installment, may you spend your time in reflection and bliss, and remind yourselves that there is always room to speak up and to act courageously when the time arises. And of course that evil, in any form, does not prevail. And should an evil-doer cross your path, be sure to respond with the cry that strikes fear into all malicious entities throughout the cosmos…

LONG LIVE THE LEGION!!!