Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Reading the Legion: Archives Vol. 9

Even more unfathomable than the speed in which Invisible Kid wanted to bury them in deep space, is the breach of protocol in not allowing the other Legionnaires to come home from their missions so they all could mourn the dead and give them a proper Legion funeral. This is almost the only Legion funeral throughout the entire run where most Legionnaires are not there to pay their last respects.

Guys, who do you think hired Alek Korlo?

Tired of only ever being the second smartest to Querl; the second sneakiest to Reep and even distant to the Legion's almost non powered martial artist let alone the likes of Superboy.

A man with access to the most sensitive areas of UP research (see various Orwellian UP devices in Adventure) through his science and Legion connections. A man who could procure the galaxy's deadliest poison from those areas, literally, invisibly.

Yes, Lyle would use the tragic deaths of his fellows to reshape the Legion...

^ Yeah, that possibility did cross my mind.

This pretty much sums of my own thoughts on the issue. It's not as bad as I remembered and, in fact, is quite enjoyable. Of particular note is that the Legionnaires come across as real teens, with witty banter, insecurities, and showing off. Even the "Egghead" nickname, tactless though it was, seems to fit their youthful personalities.

(And the Seerons may not have understood the reference enough to be offended.)



It's interesting that Tinya is the only girl in the story to have a significant role. This setup magnifies Jo's protective feelings toward her, which are compounded by his insecurities as leader and ultimately coming through in the end. If anything, this issue provides a good showcase for Jo.

I'm not sure how Chem's boosting his own metabolism was a misfire. I thought it was a very good use of his power, and one with a dramatic limitation as he tells us: He can burn himself out very quickly.

In fact, the use of Chem in this issue touches on something I miss from Silver Age comics: working in scientific concepts to educate the reader. Chem's presence afforded the writer a great opportunity to do this; it's a shame subsequent writers weren't literate enough in chemistry, apparently, to follow through.



Yes! More Legionnaire hookups!



I think in some ways Shooter did better with the eight-page format, as he had less space to fill and could really focus on the messages he wanted to convey, and which he struggles to bring across here. The brains-are-as-important-as-brawn theme of 379 is very heavy handed and obvious (and wouldn't the Legionnaires have violated their code indirectly if the Seerons they encouraged to fight got killed while attacking the brutes?). On the other hand, one of the saving graces of the Action run is that he was able to bring such themes as drug addiction and alcoholism to the fore without having to keep track of so many characters and subplots in each issue. But we'll see if these stories hold up as well as I remember them.

Good point about the use of the Bible on the cover. It would probably be considered politically incorrect now, but it establishes immediately who the bald guy in the robe is.

What has always bothered me about the cover, though, is how Lyle's left arm just disappears behind the frame of the spaceship and matches up with what the suspended doohickey. I first saw this cover as a small, black and white version in "The Legion Handbook," and my initial impression was that Lyle had been drinking Elastic Lad's serum and for some reason had decided to stretch his arm outside the ship! Maybe he felt the need to give himself new powers, including invulnerability in space, to make up of the loss of Superboy.

Hah! I never noticed that about Lyle's arm before, HWW!

Who's first on the scene? Why, it's Lyle.
Who examines the "bodies"? Why, it's that man Lyle
Who takes along an introverted, seemingly uncertain person to accompany him and ask no questions? That Lyle's been busy.
Who suggests making quick arrangements for his teammates? Undertaker Lyle! That's who!
Who gives his colleagues a cheery wave when the return to find that the space funeral has already taken place. No-Remorse Norg, of course!

Behind the scenes:-
Lyle saw Condo spend some time with Brainy, setting off a jealousy fueled plan.
Alek Korlo spent his brief time in custody, babbling about being led by voices. Invisible voices of course. Korlo would commit suicide in his cell, which is why he's never heard form again. Was there someone there with him, covering up his tracks?


Yup, it all points to L...hey did you hear something...?

I really liked Chemical King's use of his powers for instant super boost. Interesting that Shooter revisited the concept in the creation of Gazelle during the 3boot (if we're allowed to talk about that in the same post).

I've been scanning the Legion's Action run and am looking forward to rereading that series, which I haven't done in decades. Trivia question: who is the only Legionnaire who doesn't appear in the Action run?

I dunno. Supergirl?

Would that be Lyle? He's referred to and there may be an image, but he doesn't appear.

I hope nobody minds if I get a jump on the next one.

Adventure 380: "The Legion's Space Odyssey"
I always have to separate in my mind the fact that this is the Legion's final Adventure issue from the actual story itself. It certainly doesn't read like a last issue. In fact, there is nothing extraordinary about it, except for the beginnings of the Chuck and Lu romance. As a story itself, it's fairly average outing with good qualities built upon a shaky premise.

Jim Shooter liked to work in a lot of things he was studying in school, and sometimes these subjects were integrated into Legion stories to great effect (such as the creation of Mano, whose name, of course, is Spanish for "hand"). Here, one imagines that Shooter had just studied Homer's epic The Odyssey, as there are obvious references to the literary work, and the story takes pains to provide the Legionnaires with a space journey of their own.

This setup is also reminiscent of 318's "The Mutiny of the Legionnaires," in which the Legionnaires are also stranded on alien worlds, encounter fantastic phenomena, and use their powers to survive.

But whereas the earlier story was built from a very realistic and serious premise (Sun Boy suffering from space fatigue), "Odyssey" is launched from the flimsiest of excuses. Superboy gets a dire warning from Dream Girl and spirits the Legionnaires away to a distant world. He then fakes his own death and makes his buddies go through a tortuous and dangerous trip so he could spare their lives from a pair of villains with a death ray.

Why Superboy had to go through this elaborate hoax isn't explained. Even if he couldn't tell the Legionnaires up front why he had to spirit them away from the HQ, there seems to be no reason why he couldn't have told them once they arrived on the distant world. And why go to the trouble of faking his own death? Fortunately, the Legionnaires don't seem to be too concerned about his passing--except for Lu, of course. They express their grief in the usual way: by taking time out to build an elaborate monument to their fallen hero and comrade. Then it's business as usual: Find a way to survive and get back home.

If I were a Legionnaire, I'd be pissed at Superboy once I learned the truth. But the Legionnaires were so used to playing hoaxes on one another, it probably didn't matter to them that he ran their emotions through the ringer without good cause.

In between Superboy's faked death and the reveal at the end, the odyssey itself is fairly well done, as the Legionnaires rely on each other, their powers, and scientific knowledge to build a spaceship and escape from the world on which they are marooned. Ultra Boy, like last issue, comes to the fore and is well utilized. He uses his ultra strength to hurl the Legion's ship into space and then later through a dimensional barrier. Since the Legion didn't have time to pack spacesuits, Jo is the only one who can leave the ship to fend off a meteor and then, later, to tag along on a rope while the ship passes through the dimensional barrier. (Of course, why he didn't think to do this the first time instead of sending the ship into space also remains unexplained.)

Jo's single-handed heroics eclipse the other members, but each has something to contribute to the story. Even Lu gets to hunt for food. (But isn't killing against the Legion's code? Oops!)

So, the Legion's struggle for survival and journey through space are fairly well done. I just wish they had been built upon a more solid foundation. When even the Super-Pets have to get involved to maintain the hoax, it undercuts the purpose of it all.

I keep putting off commenting on 379, so I better chime in now before the 380 talk heats up!

The main point I wanted to make was that even though 379 is a fairly disappointing as a resolution to 378, it does work pretty well as it's own, almost-but-not-completely-separate story in much the same way as Cham's adventure on Elwinda's world in 376 for me a few issues.

In fact, I almost think that Shooter set up the previous issue the way that he did so that he could follow up with another almost Superboy-free issue, just as he did with Cham's adventure. Both second-parters still feature Superboy prominently on the cover, but he is far-from prominent in the story within. So he is largely absent from both stories inside, leaving room for a Cham essentially solo story in the earlier issue and for a spotlight on a handful of Legionnaires in the story at hand.

It's painfully clear that Superboy (or at least a super-cousin as it was Kara in 374) was mandated to be a (or mostly THE) prominent star on the cover as he was technically the co-star and was logically expected to be the sales draw. But Shooter cleverly had him written out of this story and the other. And what we got was a spotlight on the Jo/Tinya relationship and nice moments for the others, particularly Condo. (Heck, Shooter, even did the right thing and left his darling Val out as well with the device!)

So if this was somehow part of young Shooter's intent in making an otherwise unsatisfying conclusion to the previous story, then it really works for me. Even if it wasn't a conscious decision, I'm glad it happened because of the little bit of character development that we may not have otherwise gotten.

It's not by any means a perfect story, even discounting its failure as a satisfying conclusion of a 2-parter, but it's a bit of a gem in its own way. After all, practically every little bit of character development we get over the adventure run is grist for the mill that later writers would use and develop further.

And one more thing...about Condo's big scene. I like it in a way because he seems very much like a teenager when he risks his life speeding up his metabolism. Teenagers are complex and often contradictory in their actions. But the selfless, reckless heroism he shows taking the risk he does feels exactly like something a teen with heroic inclinations might do. Kind of like how many feel about Ferro Lad and his sacrifice on a subliminal level, I think. I've yet to ever read Condo's death issue (though I got that Archive last year and will probably save it for when the re-read project gets there), but I'll be curious to see if his death scene in any way reflects Andrew Nolan's or if it's at all reminiscent of the spirit he shows here.

You are correct, Sir. I was surprised that so many lesser used characters got some pretty good exposure in this short run of short stories: Dream Girl, Duo Damsel, Matter Eater Lad, Chemical King, Bouncing Boy, Shrinking Violet, etc. etc.

I wonder if the others found out about his plot to kill them, and Lyle's absence was really him off getting "treatment" So many gaps behind the scenes in those Action days.

Perhaps he was off setting up another plot, only to... well, that's coming.

Adv. 380 has never been a favorite of mine. It's too reminiscent of Dream Girl's first appearance where she again predicts the death of several Legionnaires who turn out to be androids. Also, any story that includes the super pets gets an automatic demerit from me (don't ask me why I had to make figurines of them). But the most preposterous thing of all is the dinosaur with kryptonite teeth who supposedly devoured Superboy while the rest of the Legion stands around and watches. What utter hooey! First of all, how was this alien dinosaur supposed to have gotten green k teeth pray tell? And the rest of the team basically does nothing while their hero and inspiration gets chomped and swallowed before their eyes. Ridiculous! And the villains were completely forgettable. A very low note for the Legion's swansong issue.

That bothered me, too. Bouncing Boy even says, "Help him, somebody!" I wanted to scream at the page, "You're a Legionnaire! YOU HELP him!"

I hope I'm not spoiling it for you, Lardy, but, sadly, it does not.

I hate to say it, but I really didn't enjoy the premise of Adventure #380. Superboy putting his teammates through the elaborate hoax to save their skins was simply a bogus plot device. The fact that Superboy had to use the super pets to help pull it off was even more silly. While Dream Girl may have had a vision that the other Legionnaires could be killed, Superboy should have revealed the situation to Ultra Boy to devise a strategy to deal with the issue rather than devise the elaborate hoax.

I did enjoy the teamwork utilized by Ultra Boy and company to try to get home, but the rest of the story seemed rather unessasary when it could have been plotted in a more logical way. The ending, with the real villains committing suicide, left the conclusion just as unsatisfiying as the main plot. This was just a real disappointing issue all around.

Interesting Legion Outpost Letter column this issue, especially the one from Robert Reiner, asking for descendants of the Justice League turning up in the 31st century. I see Keith Giffen's current Justice League 3000 finally fulfilled that request.

Actually the letter by Clifton Waltkins predicting a new second Legion made up of the original Legionnaires children isn't really a bad idea. It's a better reboot idea than some that DC has thought up for the Legion. This would be one way of having some original Legionnaires sticking around as supporting cast, having a few of their kids grow up to be Legionnaires, and adding a lot of new characters into the mix as other Legionnaies. One of the complaints of the Retroboot Legion is that it doesn't advance the Legion's story. This kind of reboot sure would. In fact, it could have been an interesting follw-up to the end of Levitz's last run.

[quote=Leather Wolf]Interesting Legion Outpost Letter column this issue, especially the one from Robert Reiner, asking for descendants of the Justice League turning up in the 31st century. I see Keith Giffen's current Justice League 3000 finally fulfilled that request./quote]




Reader Robert Reiner is now better known as actor/director/acitivist Rob Reiner, son of Carl Reiner!

OMG, Rob Reiner was a Legion fan? That's great.

He Who Wanders and Leather Wolf pretty much covered everything I wanted to say about Adventure #380. I've been trying for 3 days to think of something else to add...but no.

Adventure 380

There's a little sigh when I know I'm going to read a re-imaginging older work. They don't often live up to the original, events shoe horned in against what you would expect from characters who are dragged around by the nose.

There's plenty of warning of what's coming. It gets plenty of mentions between cover and splash page. A warning from the Gods to stay clear?

The disappointing slide in art certainly isn't a good sign. Superboy seems to have wires coming out of his eyes, linking him to the Legion computers. I was excited by the prospect of rampaging Computo controlled Superboy robots, before I realised it was his X-Ray vision.

Fittingly, our own Cassandra starts things off by giving Superboy a warning. She doesn't give him much time before energy builds up in the HQ. Still he and Lyle gather everyone together at the same pace, so it wasn't dangerous enough to warrant super-speed.

You'd think in a building containing Brainy's lab, they would have sorted out a simple evacuation procedure. No fire warden points for the Legion as they are caught in a pretty effective panel of bursting energy.

But it's just a way of transporting them far away so that we get an Odyssey started. Nose rings all round. Years later (in the TMK run) Jo Nah would find himself stranded at the other end of the galaxy once again trying to get home. Possibly/ probably a nod to this issue.

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Sorry, I took a break to avoid the clunky effort to remove Superboy from his friends, who now believe him dead. Without Superboy, the others have to build a ship themselves from what's available on the planet. While there's plenty of hand wavium, it shows them all working together in a group.

Fortunately that dinosaur and all of it's species never reappear despite the team going off all the time to mine for resources.

Well eventually. Duo Damsel goes through some despair (which you could find in the original after all) about being useless. Bouncing Boy cheers her up. Unfortunately, he thinks his only role is comic relief which is poor.

It looks as though the Legion are in for a long ride home, after they have to stop for repairs. As Bouncing Boy rescues Do Damsel, there's a Super rescue. Luornu looks pretty intense on the rocks.

While Ultra Boy piercing a dimensional vortex looks nice, it makes little sense, and it unravels further from there. While we saw the Legionnaire bond through hardship, it turns out the Super Pets were always on hand to save them from their Homer inspired perils. It's quite a dampener on the opening chapters (perhaps the Pets are supposed to represent the Gods). The reasons for Superboy's massive ruse (including Legion robots) strains credulity. He used a stun bomb against his own friends.

In the end we even get the sudden appearance of Legion teleporters to confront the pair behind Dream Girl's prediction. They commit suicide rather than face an appearance in any sequel .

The solar ship sailing the edges of the sun was nice though...

Interestingly, Dream Girl's prediction comes true once again. But here, Superboy deliberately creates those circumstances so that the real Legionnaires can survive. Had it not been for Dream Girl's message, they would have perished.

Luronu and Chuck have some good moments, but only by having to go through repetative cycle of self doubt first. Jo comes out as the hero, his more limited (than Superboy anyway) powers adding some suspense to each peril the team faced.

It's an issue that I don't re-read often. I'm sure Shooter was pleased with the references he managed to get in there. But it didn't really stand up as a story in it's own right.

Now I want some White Triangle Toothpaste!