posted
The next issue, # 206, took some time to find. I remember my mother driving me all over St. Joseph looking for it. Comic shops did not exist in our town. The few back issues I'd been able to find were available solely at used book stores. If you missed an issue when it was on sale, it was pretty much gone forever.
I had already had the unpleasant experience of missing a few key issues of AVENGERS, my favorite Marvel title. When I couldn't find the next issue of SUPERBOY, I was frantic. Fortunately, my mother demonstrated her resourcefulness by questioning the clerk at one of the 7-11s where I bought comics and learned where their distributor was located. We went to the distributor – a small office that also handled newspapers and other periodicals – where a kind woman found the issue in their back room. Though it wasn't normal for them to sell periodicals directly to customers, she must have taken pity on this woman and her frantic child. A few minutes later I walked out of the distrubutor's office with SUPERBOY # 206 clutched firmly in my hands. A nugget of gold couldn't have been more valuable to me.
The cover itself was a shocker. Superboy is lying on the ground, having just gotten his ass whooped by a giant, golden robot. However, two Legionnaires zoom up from the horizon to save him. Nothing unusual in that – save that the two Legionnaires are Invisible Kid and Ferro Lad, both supposedly dead.
In "The Legionnaires Who Haunted Superboy," the two Legionnaires merely show up in Smallville and refuse to tell Superboy how they were brought back to life. They do tell him that they want to rejoin the Legion, but only after he tests them to make sure they still have what it takes. Enter one giant robot, which uses an energy ring to paralyze Superboy. Ferro Lad and Invisible Kid save the day and, with Superboy's blessing, depart in their "commandeered" time bubble to surprise their Legion comrades. However, upon approaching Legion Headquarters, the time bubble suddenly explodes. Saturn Girl, Mon-El and Brainiac 5 appear on the scene, unsurprised. They reveal that the two resurrected Legionnaires were actually clones that self-destructed after 48 hours. But at least these clones have proven their viability, so that any Legionnaire who dies can one day be replaced by a duplicate.
This is one of those stories that I both loved and hated. I loved seeing Invisible Kid brought back, as well as Ferro Lad (whom I'd encountered in some of the reprinted stories). I hated the fact that they were so quickly yanked away again – even before the joyous reunion with their comrades. Those moments, where the Legionnaires were friends and family first, were special to me. It was what separated the Legion from other super-hero teams: This was a very large group of heroes who lived together in the same headquarters, had no secret identities, and often referred to each other as "buddy" or "chum." The Legion embodied the ideals of togetherness, openness and camaraderie.
But there are too many clandestine elements in this story. First, the cloned Invisible Kid and Ferro Lad show up, but won't tell Superboy how they came back. In the end, they die never knowing their true nature. (Even Superboy, it turns out, is in on the scheme.) And the three Legionnaires who stand over the remains of the time bubble view it dispassionately. They might as well be analyzing a lab experiment gone wrong, instead of viewing the remains of two Legionnaires who had just died -- again. This story is as far away from togetherness, openness and camaraderie as it can be.
The idea of replacing fallen Legionnaires with clones was never mentioned again. It's just as well. As time went on, the absence of Invisible Kid and Ferro Lad from the Legion was a constant reminder that some characters in comics stayed dead. Again, this was something I grew to appreciate after experiencing real loss in my life. Six years after I read this story, my grandmother would die, followed two and a half years later by my grandfather. While the loss of a comic book character can never compare to the real loss of a loved one, these stories, in some ways, helped me prepare for death in my own life. The Legion was never the same – never as complete – without Invisible Kid and Ferro Lad, but the Legion went on. So does life.
The backup story in # 206, "Welcome Home, Daughter ... Now Die,"spotlighted two lesser seen (at the time) Legionnaires, Princess Projectra and Karate Kid. "Jeckie," recovering from an illness, takes a Legion cruiser home to visit her parents, the king and queen of Orando, a medieval world. However, her homecoming is not what she expects, and only the timely arrival of Karate Kid prevents her from being devoured by a beast.
Karate Kid's role in this story is much the same as it was in "The Silent Death," back in # 201. In that story, he protected Dream Girl from a pair of muggers, then nearly died from a hidden wound. In this story, he arrives to save Projectra from her delirium (by slapping her!) and is nearly eaten himself by the hideous beast. In both stories, Karate Kid comes over as a jerk – condescending and selfish. For this reason, he was one of the few Legionnaires I actively disliked. But within three issues, that would change.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I can vaguely remember reading this issue back when I was a wee lad cutting pictures of my faves out with scissors.
I can remember the lackadasial attitude the Legionnaires had toward the clone-Ferro Lad & Invisible Kid. I remember not liking it. The clones should have been informed that their time was VERY finite.
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Mom has since passed away, Lash, but, yes, she was cool.
In fact, recounting these stories reminds me of just how much she did for me. Not many parents would take their kid all over town looking for a comic book, I'd wager. If not for Mom's indulgence, I might have given up reading comics entirely within a few years.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Moms are something special there's no doubt about that. Irreplaceable too.
I hated Superboy 206. Superboy is repeatedly shown being shocked by the appearance of the 2 dead Legionnaires and he even narrates the story as if he's unaware of the fact that they're clones. At the end it's revealed that he knew they were clones all along, so why would he be so shocked, even in his own thoughts? I was also revolted by the Legionaires' blasé attitude about the clones exploding. A cloned life is still a life and watching their 2 fallen comrades explode before their eyes should've been unbearably painful.
-------------------- Buy my new graphic novel! http://www.dodeka12.com
From: Champaign, IL | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I was curious about Superboy's reaction, too, Jim. I looked through the story for a break in which the Legion might have tipped him off to what was happening, but there is none.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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