Tag: Murray Boltinoff

The Fatal Five Who Twisted Time

Having recovered from Clark knocking her out with an apple last issue, Lana Lane strolls arm in arm with her batterer through a traveling carnival. Clark can barely enjoy himself as he keeps thinking about the UFO that has been spotted over Smallville recently. This UFO is a weird one. It’s large, green, resembling a ball and it takes X-rays of its conservative residents, who are bewildered. But not bewildered enough to cause Smallville-wide panic. Clark did try to chase it down as Superboy but it quickly disappeared.

Clark is awakened from his thoughts with Lana’s scream, as a gorilla attacks her. Thinking its a prop and part of the carnival attraction, he finds on closer inspection that it is indeed real and it had escaped from one of the nearby tents. Deciding not to knock Lana out this time, Clark instead pretends to trip, and then pinches the gorilla’s neck ever so slightly, causing it to go numb, successfully overcoming Gorpo (Yes that is its name) while also protecting his secret identity. 

Lana and Clark decide to not let Lana almost getting killed by a gorilla ruin their good time and continue their stroll through the carnival. This time Lana spots a fortune teller and decides she wants her fortune told. Clark of course doesn’t believe in this sort of hocus pocus, but just to be sure, he decides to give the crystal ball a quick look over. To his surprise he discovers it is in fact the Emerald Eye of Ekron! Feigning sickness, Clark quickly excuses himself, changes into Superboy, and rushes back in the tent to confront…The Emerald Empress! Our first member of the dreadful Fatal Five!

Seeing no need for her disguise, the Emerald Empress shows her true colors. Her crystal ball, now the Emerald Eye, zaps Superboy head on. Meanwhile a lone figure hears the commotion and also decides to reveal his true self, for he is…The Persuader! Our second of the Fatal Five!

Superboy continues to battle the Emerald Eye and it finally dons on him that the eye was that same mysterious ball hovering over Smallville. But why on Rao’s good name would it take x-rays of the city and its people? His thoughts are quickly interrupted by The Persuader’s battle cry, as he dutifully swings his Atmoic Axe, just barely missing our hero.

Not deterred The Persuader mocks Superboy because the Time-Sorter has already sealed his doom.

The Time-Sorter? Superboy grabs the axe and quickly he feels his strength draining as The Persuader laughingly tells him that he can even control the axe when it is not in his hands. Feeling his strength drain more and more, Superboy finally manages to swing the axe, at himself.

Seeing his immediate defeat, the Emerald Empress instructs The Eye to encase Superboy in a force-field, resulting in permanent suspended animation and in effect their prisoner. As they gloat about their victory, Mano suddenly appears, who is the third member of our Fatal Five. Emerald Empress quickly catches him up and tells him that the Time-Sorter has been installed and is successful, for how else could they have taken down our Teen of Steel? Now it is time for Death to the Legion!

Part 2

Part two begins with four Legionnaires arriving in Smallville in a time bubble. Element Lad, Karate Kid, Brainiac-5 and Princess Projectra have followed Emerald Empress and The Persuader to the exact same point in time and they need to warn Superboy. Hearing a commotion they realize they are too late and Superboy was somehow defeated. Our Legionnaires use their flight rings and fly to the traveling carnival, finding Lana Lane in tears. She mentions the Time-Sorter and how Superboy struck himself with the glowing axe. 

Putting together the pieces, the four time travellers confirm that Emerald Empress, Persuader and Mano have indeed arrived in the 20th century and are relieved that only three of the five are present, otherwise the task before them would be quite daunting indeed.

We propel ourselves forward to the 30th century where Mon-El and Colossal Boy are wondering how Validus and Tharok, the remaining two members of the Fatal Five could have escaped from prison.

As they continue their puzzlement and worrying something very odd starts to happen. They begin to disappear! Running through Legion HQ they realize it is affecting everyone, including the beloved Headquarters itself, as everything completely vanishes.

The two remaining members of the Fatal Five arrive on the scene and Tharok and the mindless brute Validus admire their handiwork. Indeed as Tharok exclaims their colleagues must have been successful and he is completely in awe of how effective the Time-Sorter can be. Time is a devastating weapon indeed and it is time they use it to wipe out the Legion, once and for all.

Meanwhile back in the 21st century, Brainiac-5 tries to contact Legion HQ not knowing that it disappeared. Suddenly both he and Element Lad are attacked by The Persuader. The two Legionnaires manage to dodge his axe just in time, while Princess Projectra and Karate Kid continue their search for Superboy.

Suddenly they too are attacked, but this time by the Emerald Eye. They quickly dodge the blast and the evil Emerald Empress appears within the eye and like any good Bond villain, decides to tell them of their plan. It was she who made the journey with the three members to Smallville in order to hide the Time-Sorter to allow it to efficiently release its awesome power. And like any thorough mastermind she used her Emerald Eye to take x-ray pictures of Smallville in order to find the best possible hiding spot, so it can do its work uninterrupted.

Brainiac-5 and Element Lad continue to battle the Persuader as Mano joins the fray. The two continue to goad the two Legionnaires, telling them that hope is lost and the Time-Sorter made it that the Legion no longer exists. Indeed Emerald Empress confirms as much as the Time-Sorter is actually the device that caused it to happen.

Not deterred, the Legionnaires decide on a tactical retreat and manage their escape. Together again they realize the predicament they are in and they desperately need to figure out what the Time-Sorter actually is. Otherwise the Legion will be dead, and they will be stranded in the 20th Century…forever!

Part 3

We are back in the 30th century where a furious Tharok is yelling at…Mano! Why hasn’t he joined his comrades in the 20th century as planned?

Then back in 20th century Smallville we have…Mano losing his temper because he needs to know where the Time-Sorter is as too much is at stake. Persuader tries to…umm persuade Mano that there is nothing to worry about because in twenty minutes the Time-Sorter’s effect will become permanent. Nevertheless Mano is not satisfied with the answer and strongly suggests that there should be at least someone there to guard it as too much is at stake. Agreeing, the three members of the Fatal Fatal relocate to the Time-Sorter’s hiding place…within the statue of Superboy!

Mano then touches his hand to his belt and sends Brainiac-5 a signal. Confused? Read on!

Brainiac receives the signal and breathes a sigh of relief. His secret weapon has paid off.

We move back to our villains where Emerald Empress is shocked to see that Mano’s hand is on the trash can, but it’s not denigrating as it should. Seeing that the game is up, Mano transforms into our beloved Legionnaire, Chameleon Boy! The villains immediately spring into action and as Persuader brings his Atomic Axe into position to strike, a large, enormous figure looms over them revealing Validus. Shocked that he should be there, and that this mindless brute is attacking them for no reason, they flea. But of course it was Princess Projectra using one of her illusions to throw these villains off course.

With less than one minute remaining before the changes enacted by the Time-Sorter become permanent, Chameleon Boy shouts at Karate Kid to open the monument. He obliges with an incredible blow, splitting the monument in half. But what’s this? Not only do we see the Time-Sorter but also an unconscious Superboy!

Quickly getting over the shock, and with a mere seven seconds remaining, Karate Kid rebounds and delivers yet another one of his mighty blows, destroying the Time-Sorter and restoring everything back to normal. Seeing they’ve lost, Persuader and Emerald Empress’s automatic time-bringers kick into action and propells them to a time and place that is unknown to everyone.

Brainaic-5 reveals that he had Chameleon Boy arrive earlier than them to arrive in Smallville so he could learn as much as he could about the Fatal Five’s plans.

Back in the 30th century we see Validus taking off, leaving Tharok and Mano behind. Wondering what the heck is happening, they see the Legion Headquarters start to appear around them. However they are too late, and as fortune would have it, the room that reappears is in fact the Legion Jail. Saving Colossal Boy and Mon-El the trouble of throwing them in the slammer themselves.

Thus ends another epic tale in the lore that is the Legion of Super-Heroes!

The Creative Team

Cary Bates and Dave Cockrum have brought out the big guns folks. Now we’re flexing LSH style, big time. Here we have a time travel tale with our Legionnaires split up in two periods. It’s brilliantly executed and despite our Time-Sorter being a rather obviously plot device (literally), this is a delicious romp.

Cockrum onces again shows us why he was so beloved. He handles all the characters well, five villains and a whole bunch of Legionnaires, and dances between a carnival, Smallville, and the future. We even get a good look at that Superboy statue, which ended up being the big hiding place and the reveal.

When we look at this issue nothing too game changing happens here. But Bates decides to give us a good introduction to, in my opinion, one of the greatest LSH villains, the Fatal Five. These baddies have been around for a while at this point and have plagued the Legion quite frequently. Probably my favorite tale with them before this point was their first introduction by Jim Shooter in the classic two parter in Adventure Comics #352 and #353. You can find these issues at a pretty good price and it won’t break the bank. I rather strongly recommend reading these tales as it does give a bit more context into their place in LSH lore as well as a few future references.

But back to the Fatal Five. They are a powerful team and I really enjoyed how they took out Superboy quite quickly in the beginning. With him off the table, the Legionnaires had to use cunning and teamwork to defeat them. We also see Chameleon Boy in action for the first time. He will be used quite frequently in the spy role so it’s nice to see Spy Chameleon Boy here for the first time in this series.

And again, this is why pairing Superboy with the Legion works so well. Pre-Crisis Superman and Superboy were incredibly powerful. Too powerful if you ask me. So the fact that we can see Superboy being hurt by the Atomic Axe as well as the Emerald Eye being able to do some damage, it does gives us some stakes and doubt. Besides, if our futuristic villains weren’t able to do any damage to the all-too powerful Superboy, the series and the concept would be quite boring indeed. Because in every circumstance you could just send in SB to save the day.

Letters

Not surprisingly the letters are full of positivity and celebration, especially wanting to see the new character Erg-1 again. There’s a lot of praise for Cary Bates and Dave Cockrum and you can tell that a lot of people are excited about the series. 

One interesting tidbit from a writer that I totally missed, was that in the previous issue they snuck in 344 Clinton Street as the address for the Legion headquarters, which of course was Clark Kent’s address in Pre-Crisis Superman. I’m shocked that I didn’t see that. 

Finally, they got a letter from Harry C. Broertjes, who was the Editor of the Legion Outpost and he summed it up perfectly in his opening remark:

“The Legion of Super-Heroes is entering a second renaissance, both story-wise and in terms of popularity.” 

And how true those words will become. 

The Legion Medallion of Merit

This one was a tough one to give out because there were so many characters in the issue, playing their unique role. But I have to give our Medallion of Merit to none other than Chameleon Boy. CB kept his cool and played his role well, well enough to not only trick the Fatal Five but also keep himself disguised under the watchful eye of the Emerald Eye. And let me tell you that is no easy feat. Congratulations Chameleon Boy and as you hold up your medallion high for all to see, enjoy the glory that is channeled your way and be ready for a lot of basking.

Up next, we see where that pesky of gun of Tyr’s went in “The Gun that Mastered Men.”

Long live the Legion!