(See the previous threads on Archives #9
Archives #8, Archives #7, Archives #6, Archives #5, Archives #4, Archives #3, Archives #2 and Archives #1 and feel free to add in your two cents on those stories. It's NEVER too late! )


For the next few months, we'll be reading and discussing the stories re-printed in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Volume 10. Archives 10 has this cover:



We start out with four George Tuska-drawn stories which IMO are okay at best. But then, just when it looks the Legion has been condemned to an eternal hell of back-up feature mediocrity and bad fan-designed costumes, along comes Dave Cockrum to save the galaxy!! Born in the early 1940s, Cockrum was old enough for his influences to date back to the Golden Age (particularly Mac Raboy's Captain Marvel Jr.) Perhaps that's one of the reasons why his style was so much better than a lot of other fan-artists made good. Whatever the reasons, he was an energetic storyteller, a solid draftsman, a brilliant designer, and, most importantly, a science-fiction fan! In other words, perfect for the Legion! The question is, will Cary Bates' stories hold up as good as Cockrum's art? Let's find out ASAP, shall we?

The goal here is to read and review approximately at least one story a week. If it's a 2-parter or it takes up the entire issue, then it counts as one story. Cool?

As an added treat, this volume has a wonderful intro by Cockrum himself, Gods rest his soul, which I plan to quote from where appropriate.

For those of you who own the floppies or are following in Showcase, the stories reprinted within are, in order:

Superboy #172, 173, 176, 183, 184, 188, 190, 191, 193, 195, 197-202.

Got it? Good!

So...AVENGERS ASSEMBLE! Oops, sorry, force of habit.

As appetizers, we get a beautiful Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson cover for Adventure Comics #403, a giant all-Legion issue reprinting Silver Age classics. So far, so good, but then we get "Fashion From Fans", showcasing some truly horrible fan-designed costumes. Ross Andru & Mike Esposito must have been alternately weeping in shame and laughing their asses off at what they were being paid to draw. There's also a diagram of the Legion Headquarters, which is okay, but nothing special.

Superboy #172

By far the best of the four pre-Cockrum stories in this volume, "Brotherly Hate" firmly establishes Mekt Ranzz/Lightning Lord as a villain to be reckoned with, complete with the hauntingly iconic image of his hair turning completely white. Other positives include a good use of Timber Wolf, and a nicely economical recap of the Legion's origin to bring new readers up to speed.

That said, I think there's two big problems with this story:

1) It's way too ambitious for a 7-page backup, and while writer E. Nelson Bridwell does the best he can, his plot and script ultimately come off as rather simplistic and sketchy.

2) George Tuska draws the story in a clunky, ham-fisted pseudo-Marvel style (at the time, he was doing more work for Marvel than DC). It would take Dave Cockrum's arrival for the Legion art to properly combine Marvel dynamics with DC elegance.

Still, compared to a lot of the pre-Cockrum stories that bookend it, "Brotherly Hate" is not that bad.

The fan designed uniforms in the "Fashion From Fans" showcase are simply hideous. What were they thinking? They scream 1970's disco era not 30th Century fashion. The worst part is that some of these fan designed fashions actually make it into actual upcoming Legion stories! I'm so glad they were only a blip in Legion history and not the uniforms worn for the next decade.

Having grown up with Levitz' Legion with Lightning Lord as an established member of the Legion of Super Villains, it was fascinating to read this story as the intro to Lightning Lord's villainy. The hesitation of Garth and Ayla to take on their brother is one subplot introduced that will be utilized for years to come.

You are right, there is a lot of story crammed into eight pages, which ultimately makes the conclusion feel rushed. Nice use of Timber Wolf in this issue.

Superboy 172
Nothing fancier than a bank robbery to start off this tale. We get a potted origin of the Lightning siblings and also one of the Legion’s origins (well, it is their first story in this book, and it wasn’t that long ago that the origin was revealed to readers). This plot picks up on the reason why Lightning Lad joined the Legion.

I’m not sure why the Legion would ever need Dawnstar when you can just trace rocket exhaust pretty much anywhere. A rather clunky way of propelling the plot forward.

And there is Lightning Lord. Handily waiting for a fight, removed from any scenery worth drawing too. The Legion prevent each other fighting Mekt about as much as actual conflict with the villain. Timberwolf never gets to land a blow as he’s stopped by the other Ranzz siblings.

Mekt is taken down by the old conductivity solution to any character with Lightning powers.

The only things of note are that this is the issue where Mekt’s hair turns white and the quote from Bridwell that closes the story.

Other that those, it’s a basic plot that’s resolved without any escalation, mystery or suspense.

Elsewhere…
Who knew the origins of Predator were based on a Superboy comic? Hunters in the jungle vanish without trace, themselves hunted by a powerful being from another world.

That’s not all. We also get another of the stories that would make most of the later Elseworlds stories pale by comparison. A combination of animal experimentation by Krypton’s scientists and Tarzan provides an alternate civilisation for Superboy to face.

I read 172 two nights ago and actually enjoyed it. I agree with Fanfie that it's probably the best of the pre-Cockrum stories.

I liked the idea of Mekt waiting for them. It shows his arrogance. I also admired the panel of his standing alone on the rocky surface. Tuska wouldn't be my first choice for Legion artist, but that shot was as close to breathtaking as we're likely to get. Also, Tuska had a very good sense of drama, and this story contains more action than any in the so-called Action run.

But, yes, it's silly of Garth to blast the bolder out of Brin's hand just so he can get a shot at Mekt himself. The whole "He's my brother, he's my responsibility" angle was cliched even then.

Ayla serves no purpose in this story other than to be the female victim. I'm missing her intent to blow herself up from Action 378. At least then she demonstrated guts (even if she wouldn't have had them for long).

Brin doesn't do much either, but the showdown between Garth and Mekt is quite exciting. I don't mind Garth using the "super-conductor" method of defeating Mekt as it works into the story another scientific concept, reminding us that comics used to be edjamacational.

Nice to see the Interplanetary Bank guard beasts from back in Adv. 350.

Another nice touch is that Superboy narrates the story. This provides a three-fold advantage: 1) It ties the Legion series more closely to Superboy's book, 2) it provides a narrative reason for Superboy to recap LL's and the Legion's origins (e.g., he's telling this to readers/listeners as if he's telling a story to new friends), and 3) it reveals that Superboy hasn't severed all ties with the Legion--he's still a reservist and is keeping up on what his pals are doing.

SUPERBOY 173

In my opinion, this Bates/Tuska snorefest is exactly the kind of story that got the Legion downgraded to backup-feature hell. I think it's a grade-school level science puzzle with nothing to make it appeal to adult readers. Superboy must figure out which of two Cosmic Boys is the real thing and which is a mystical construct spawned by Mordru. The closest thing it has in my eyes to a redeeming quality is that Tuska's art is less hysterical than in the Lightning Lord story and he draws a decent Mordru. Otherwise, it's forgettable fare.

"Trust Me or Kill Me" isn't one of the Legion's highlights, but I found myself enjoying the story more than I remembered.

It is indeed based on a very simple premise--Superboy must figure out which Cos is the real one before the rest of the Legion returns and blunders into Mordru's trap. A time element ratchets up the tension, and Superboy's resolution--while based on "grade school science"--holds true to our understanding of the characters.

My initial dislike of this story when I first read it years ago was based on the fact that it featured only one Legionnaire, apart from Superboy. From a pure story-telling perspective, however, that focus turns out to be a strength. It provides the two Cos's with a reasonable excuse to recap their first meeting with Superboy and to show us a glimpse of Cos's home life. As such, a lot of exposition is worked into the story in a natural way.

Interesting Bits Dept.:

Cos (both of them) demonstrate anger management issues when the impostor appears. This is oddly consistent with his later treatment of Lydda and Ayla. In other words, it's wasn't just women Cos liked to slap around, it was, well, himself!

Saturn Girl, if the Mission Monitor Board is to be believed, has returned to her old costume. Either that, or someone has gotten lax in updating the board.

I love the idea that the entire Legion would run off to get a vaccine leaving just one member to hold down the fort. What was Cos supposed to do if aliens invaded earth, a distant planet requested their assistance, and the UP once again asked the Legion to undermine the legitimate government of another world? There's only so much one Braalian--or even two--can do.

Why Superboy didn't simply warn the Legion away before he figured out the puzzle is unexplained. Perhaps there's a reason why he took off so quickly. Does he think Nura is still miffed at him for putting her name into the resignation hat back in Action 387?

Tuska's art is indeed better this time, and, in places, reminded me of Grell.

But that's exactly my problem with a lot of these backups, I think they're so bitty, lacking the grandeur and scope of the Legion at its best.



And he richly deserved it, the neanderthal scumbag. (Yeah, I know I said I understood him better after writing a story that focused on him, but that doesn't mean I don't still dislike him.)

If we were ever in a scenario where we had two Fanfies and one was an imposter, we could just have them both write a fanfic and the one who wrote Cos in a good light would be the fake.

No argument there.

For the sake of diversity in stories, though, I don't mind a "smaller" tale from time to time. I liken the Legion to a typical police force: sometimes, you have to deal with murderers and hostage situations; other times, you get pick pockets who are too stupid to avoid capture. "Smaller" stories give us a sense of the Legion's day-to-day operations, I think, when the Fatal Five were busy and Mordru was in a toying mood (as here).

These sorts of stories work better as back-up features in a regular Legion comic, however, than in a steady dose. Unfortunately, at the time this was all the space the Legion creators were given, so I'm willing to cut them some slack.

Stalgie, LOL

He Who, good point well taken.

I agree, this kind of story is why the Legion was stuck in back-up status.

Superboy solved the mystery of the real Cosmic Boy by a clever gimmick, but the ending was really uneventful. I don't understand why Superboy had to rush off before the rest of the Legion returned. His excuse that he needed to protect Smallville as a full time job is such a lame excuse. This issue is just disappointing.

I think these two points interesting to compare side-by-side.


Sociology is also a science. Argument could be presented that his "cliché" would accurately represent culture. Expecting people to take care of their own and be responsible for their own is a fairly common thought.


I think a one-liner in the story mentioning that LL's responsibility was not as "brother" but as "law enforcer" would have added to the dynamic. Then the cliché would have been on the character's shoulders instead of the writer's.

This was the occasional visit to the relatives as opposed to the big holiday event. Not in itself unpalatable but not the sort of thing you would take a new friend to in order to build a relationship.

I think your point well taken. It seemed written as to not take the shine off the main feature as opposed to as a grandly written short story.

Superboy 173

Anyone want to speculate on what the VSR in VSR virus stands for?
Mordru appears like an evil Genie, creating a fake Cosmic Boy to supposedly destroy the Legion. Somehow. I mean, the returning Legion will see that there are two Cosmic Boy’s so it’s not as though there’s an impostor sneaking in. We get some background on Cosmic Boy as he’s the only character other than Superboy.

Here Magnoball is like ping pong. As for the Teen of Steel, we’re frequently reminded that he’s no longer in the team, but misses it. A standard comic book fake out reveals the real Cosmic Boy. Superboy doesn’t even hang around to meet the others. He can’t miss the team that much.

I don’t mind Tuska’s art. But there’s not much of a story here. It’s straightforward page filler. The last two issues have definitely seen a downward slide in quality.

Elsewhere we have a bit of fun with Prof Lang bringing back yet another ancient antiquity (suspiciously looted from another country) that goes disastrously wrong. But Super-Clark has the powers of the gods and it’s good to see something other than Shazam or takes on the normal super-power set.

You have a point. I guess my problem with the scene was how it was depicted, with Garth blasting a boulder out of Brin's hands. Under a more nuanced writer, Garth might have worried momentarily about Brin hurting his brother--familial feelings overriding logic. But, as shown, Garth simply wants to be the one to take down Mekt for no other reason than, "He' my brother, my responsibility."

There were many other possibilities, though. Garth could have been paralyzed by indecision until both Ayla and Brin had been defeated. Garth could have been prompted by his own feelings of sibling jealousy. (What? A hero whose motives aren't pure? Who'da thunk it?) The outcome would have been the same. It would have just been handled in a more believable way.

Interesting. I was thinking the story quality had improved from the last several Action issues. Bates was finding his way around the Legion's universe with this story, and "Brotherly Hate," by Bridwell, developed the long-standing plot thread of Garth and Ayla having a villainous brother. That story added some of the emotion that was absent from Mekt's previous appearances, but which we knew had to be there.

Neither story is quite what we hope to see of the Legion on a regular basis, though.

NOTE: The Legion does not appear in SUPERBOY 174-175

SUPERBOY 176

Although this story is cut from similar cloth as the previous one -- a juvenile, simplistic science-puzzle (Invisible Kid must figure out how to stop a thief who's copying his invisibility powers) with adequate George Tuska art -- I find this one much more satisfying. That it stars the under-used Invisible Kid and Chemical King certainly has something to do with it, but I think its main advantage is that the writer is E. Nelson Bridwell instead of Cary Bates. Bridwell was generally good at writing short and sweet stories -- his late 70s/early 80s Shazam run in Adventure Comics, drawn by Don Newton, is my favorite version of Shazam other than the definitive Golden Age one -- and I consider this one to be smart, tight, and well-crafted. Unfortunately, this would be Bridwell's last Legion story. I don't know the exact reason for this, but I suspect that Bridwell did not get along with Murray Boltinoff, who had recently replaced Mort Weisinger as Legion editor. Whatever the reason, Cary Bates would, for better and for worse, become the sole Legion writer until Jim Shooter's return.

Bates had his moments story wise and some of his character developments became part of lore. I seem to recall a note in a comic about him leaving to do a movie script or something? So he must of had some skill but I generally found his plots forced.

I really like the premise of the story because it goes to the heart of super hero self-worth. There were ton's of Braalians and Titans.., something IK didn't have to deal with until this. And unlike most of the other heroes that got their powers by birth, accident or evil doer, didn't he invent his own serum? That had to be unnerving that someone had reinvented or stolen his invention.

"Invisible Invader" has its pluses. I, too, liked the premise of somebody copying Invisible Kid's serum. This gave him a very personal reason for stopping the crook--his pride and reputation were at stake.

It also created some personal conflict for Lyle as whatever means he could devise to stop the thief could also be used to stop him.

Yet the solution is obvious--why genius Lyle didn't think of it at once is unexplained--and the drama overplayed. At one point, Lyle is hunched over and sweating because he can't come up with a solution! One would think the world was at stake instead of whatever the thief wanted to steal. Perhaps Lyle took his pride and reputation very seriously.

I did enjoy the unusual combo of Lyle, Chem, and Mon (with Jo and Rokk thrown in as background eye candy). Subsequent writers would reveal that Lyle and Chem had a close personal friendship, and it would appear that this friendship began here (though a later Secret Origins retcon suggested it began much earlier). A pity death would soon end this friendship.

Tuska's art is a mixed bag. The faces are quite ugly, but the layouts and action keep the story moving. His noirish art does suit the mood of the story. I loved the creepy image of Lyle being half invisible.

Odd and Interesting Tidbits Dept.:

Is Mon turning out to be a dickhead as a leader? His body language and dialogue ("So he got away, eh, Chem?" [emphasis on the last word]) suggest he holds CK personally responsible for failing to capture the crook. Later, he stares stone-faced at Lyle. Maybe that's why Lyle is sweating.

It's interesting that Chem doesn't know Lyle's origin. One would think it would be SOP for all new recruits to be briefed on each Legionnaire's powers and origin, but apparently the Legionnaires didn't even talk much to each other. A later story (Superboy 211) will reveal that Thom doesn't know about Jan's tragic past.

"Invisible Invader" is better than most of the other recent yarns, but it still feels like a case that shouldn't have given these three Legionnaires much of a challenge.

I always thought it was a shame that the Invisible Invader didn't get reused as a regular villain.

It is rather eerie in hindsight that both of the stars of this story were destined to die within the next few years.



There was potential there, for sure.

Catching up...

Superboy #172

After a brief, but at the time must have felt a devastating absence, the LSH returns in Superboy's series. "Brotherly Hate", or as it might also be called "How Lightning Lord got white hair!" is a straightforward tale that is pleasant enough but doesn't really have much to say. While featuring all three Ranzz's plus Timberwolf, there isn't much going on.

However, as a possible introduction to a new home it allows Bridwell to catch up possible new readers on the Legion via Superboy's opening narration and a retelling of their origin (which he originally wrote). And in classic Bridwell fashion, being the man who fills the gaps of continuity, he helps push melt down the path from the LOSV Academy story to his eventual status in the adult Legion. All of this gives the story a certain charm that it really doesn't earn on its own.

The art is not that great, with Tuska failing to show what he can do (as opposed to his excellent work on Iron Man). Thus, the Archive opens with a story that isn't bad by any means but still makes me yearn for what's to come when Dave arrives on the scene.

Thanks for noting that Bridwell wrote the Legion's origin story, Cobie. I had forgotten about that.

SUPERBOY 183

This is the last of the pre-Cockrum back-ups, and thank the Gods for that. The word that comes to my mind regarding this story is "painful". The pain of seeing beloved (and not so beloved) Legionnaires in those horrible fan-designed costumes from earlier in the Archive; the pain of George Tuska's mediocre pencils made even worse by the inking of Vinnie Colletta, the laziest inker of his generation; and the pain of having to cringe one's way through Cary Bates' silly story about two utterly boring and loathsome cosmic entities involving the Legionnaires in their latest petty spat. This is as close to rock-bottom as the pre-Gerry Conway Legion ever got, IMO, and there's was nowhere to go but up. Enter Dave Cockrum...in just one week! So mark the date (06/23/15) on your calendars! Good times are just around the corner!

Cassel: Do you remember how you got involved with Legion of Superheroes.

Tuska: They gave me a script.

Cassel: Did you like doing Legion?

Tuska: I didn't.... they look like young kids, not strong or anything.



The Art of George Tuska

I don't care for nothing about costumes, kind of a nice nod to the fans to let them play artist so all is good in that department but was this some recycled Star Trek episode? This was like some generic off the shelf story that didn't really have much to do with Legion. S'all right I suppose.

I completely agree with Fanfie's assessment. This story seems to exist for no other reason than to display the fan-designed costumes. Said costumes reaffirm my notion that fans' hearts are in the right place but their expertise in costume design often is not.

The most interesting thing about this story is its title. I encountered "The War of the Wraith-Mates" in the old Legion Handbook and for years was curious what it meant. The title has a Star Trek feel to it, as does the plot. But you can't judge a good story by its title.

I'm really struggling to find something positive to say about it. Mon-El gets some good action scenes, even though he picks on a creature that was just defending its turf . . . and that's about it.

Interestingly, when the Legionnaires are introduced, the boys get to do something action-oriented while the girls just sit there, look pretty, and recover from the shock of their spaceship being attacked. This scene adds fuel to the fire of the perception that comics are mainly for boys.

The story isn't even well-told. Bates--using a device he used repeatedly in the Flash and JLA--interrupts the narrative to tell the readers something is amiss! 'Cause, you know, readers are too stoopid to figure it out for themselves. Then there is the long anti-climactic sequence when the wraith-mates explain to the Legionnaires who they are and what they had to do to survive. Hey, Cary! One of the basic rules of story-telling: Show, don't tell.

It's also getting annoying that the writer has to stop and explain who the Legionnaires are and what they do every issue--a drawback of the team appearing so infrequently, I suppose.

Superboy #173

In this second George Tuska story, I can see Fanfie's point more than ever on how the art looks incredibly similar to what Marvel was doing in the transition era from the Silver Age to the 70's. This is interesting when you consider this story is basically a straight up traditional Superman / Superboy type story that tries to fool the readers and then provides an ingenious solution at the end. Its almost the perfect combo of the "traditional" approaches of both companies and shows how by the start of the 70's, such distinctions were fading away as both companies learned from one another and evolved.

This story features my boy Cos, and I think he comes across well here. Starting off all alone, I can see where the anxiety and anger would come from. Bates tries to follow Bridwell's lead and incorporates a lot of nods to past continuity here such as Cos and Superboy's first meeting and Pol Krinn, who had only appeared once before. Unfortunately someone gets it wrong by showing Legionnaires like Tenzil and Chuck present for Superboy's induction (and the fault clearly lies with Boltinoff, the editor, who probably didn't care).

I find the usage of Mordru here really interesting. We would see him again very soon in a similar "brief, one-off" way. After his initial epic story he was the Legion's BIG BAD, yet space just wasn't available to show that.

All in all, I didn't mind this story. Not a lot to say but pleasant enough.

----------------------

Superboy #176

As a Tuska fan on Iron Man, I have to say I don't mind the art on these stories too much. He's nowhere near good as Cockrum, and not even as good as himself on Iron Man, but they're still pretty run and energetic. I like stylistic choices he makes like making the sci-cop on page 2 so muscular and leading man-ish.

I echo some statements earlier in the thread about a lost opportunity to use the Invisible Invader again. Not every villain needs to be all powerful and not every villain needs to be in a group of a dozen other villains; he was gimmicky enough to reappear in smaller stories.

For the most part, I thought this was another nice little story. We get to see both Chemical King and Invisible Kid get some screen time. We also get to see the Legionnaires working overtime to come up with a solution, and through hard work, teamwork and intelligence, figure it out. Bridwell has 7 pages to do this story, and he nails it!

We also get more of the mix of "traditional DC ingenious twist solution" meets "Silver Age Marvel all action all the time artwork" approach.

Lastly, I think it's important to note that there is a very large gap between this story, Superboy #176 in July 1971 and the next LSH appearance, Superboy #183 in March 1972. That's 7 months--longer than the gap between the Action backups and the Superboy backups! If ever there was a lowest point for the LSH it was here: only three seven page stories in about 18 months or so. It would be easy for fandom to move on. By the time the next story debuts in mid 1972, comics and youth culture continued to change rapidly.

It would be easy for me to agree and be very wrong because I was at that personal age of great change in any era, 13-14. But I don't think you or I are wrong.


A lot WAS happening between those publishing date. I might make an exercise or looking up some newspaper and magazine articles from the time to see if perception matches reality.

It was a time when the fashions and thought sets were merging quickly from the progressive mid and late 60s college students to the everyday high school student, tv programming and magazines. Buzz cuts were becoming rare, at least in the cities. Cloths were more than black, brown and white and people were interacting a bit more across racial lines. Culturally, hetero was still hetero and anything else generally still consider wrong or worse.


Cockrum's work jumped Legion ahead a good decade, from early 60s to a present time.

Good point. Actually, the gap would be from about May of 1971 through January of 1972, due to the deliberate post-dating practice of the publishers.

So what of significance happened during the spring, summer and fall of 1971?

Well, in TV, All In The Family, after a relatively slow start as a Tuesday night show from January through April, returns in a new time slot (Saturdays at 8PM) in September, and by the end of the season has become the most-watched and most talked about television show since, well, since television was invented.

In music, former Beatles Paul McCartney and George Harrison each get their first #1 hits as solo artists. Also, James Taylor and Carole King lead a pack of singer/songwriters that help Adult Contemporary replace Top 40 as the most listened to radio format in the US. Jim Morrison is found dead in his bathtub in Paris in July. Led Zeppelin IV is released in November. By the end of the year, Stairway To Heaven is the most-played song on FM radio.

Films like Dirty Harry, the French Connection and Shaft popularize a darker, grittier type of protagonist than had commonly been seen on the silver screen up to that point.

In the real world Daniel Ellsberg leaks the Pentagon Papers, documents that showed that the American people had been lied to concerning the Vietnam war pretty much from the beginning of that conflict, to the New York Times, which publishes them in several installments starting in June of 1971. That same month President Richard Nixon declares a war on drugs. In July, a race riot erupts in Camden, NJ, following the death of a Puerto Rican motorist at the hands of police. In September a four-day long prison riot breaks out in Attica prison in upstate New York, resulting in 42 deaths, including 10 hostages. In October, Greenpeace is founded. In November, a man calling himself D.B. Cooper hijacks an airliner and leaves by parachute with $200,000 in ransom money. He is never found.

All in all, I'd say the entire world was changing pretty fast that year.

Superboy 176
Our world used to be a utopia. Everyone got on really well and there was no greed or destruction. In our future, some idiot invented commercial time travel and a bored humanity came bounding back in time to mess things up for everyone. That’s the repercussions of the first panel.

It’s good to see the time cube technology progress. In keeping with the idea of going to the past, they collect paper currency in a bucket.

A thug like villain appears, but outwits everyone present using the cube itself to escape. It seems to be more of a spacetime cube, than a time cube able to go anywhere and anywhen. We get some insight into Chemical Kid and particularly Invisible Kid this issue. Like Karate Kid explaining years later that he worked at his power every day, Lyle shows us the various hurdles he had to overcome to work towards his power. We see he has total control over his invisibility.

The setup is a good one. To succeed Lyle will have to show everyone just how to defeat himself. We see how he avoids various ways to detect something that’s invisible. This is a good way of showing just how effective he is in an age of futuristic technology.

The end is a bit of a rush, and not just because it’s set at a grand prix. Of all the places the villain could strike, the Legion happen to pick the right one. Sure, there’s bait there, but it’s a bit too easy. The villain is defeated when his invisibility fails to work. We learn that it’s down to Chemical Kid controlling the reaction of Lyle’s serum in the villain’s body.

So, Lyle’s secret is safe. Does the villain tell everyone else how it’s done? Do we see lots of invisible crimes? No we don’t. Perhaps an invisible hand helped to keep him quiet.
I wonder just how much the bold on the word “pal,” the eye contact and the handshake between Lyle and Condo sparked relationship thoughts.

Of course, it could all have been solved by using the time cube to go back before the original heist and stop the crook. It’s just one of the problems introducing such powerful technology.

Elsewhere
Superboy alternates between selfish obsession over his secret ID, to caring for his “kid sister”. The alien probe is pretty creepy and Superboy is unable to stop a car plunging off a cliff.

He Who, I thought that was an exceptionally incisive review, and I give you credit for trying to find something positive to say about the story. Sadly, some stories just prove to be feckless.

Cobie, good call pointing the finger at Boltinoff for the continuity error. And, unfortunately, his influence would just get worse and worse after Cockrum left.

And thanks to rest of you guys for pointing out the context in which the hiatus took place. No wonder audiences wanted escapism! Even Boltinoff, as clueless as he was, must have realized that even this unwanted stepchild of an IP he was stuck with needed an infusion of youthful energy from Cockrum.

Hermit, great overview of the culture of the era!

Fanfie, escapism is exactly the right term. As so much of pop culture went more gritty and realistic, something like the Cockrum LSH must have been as refreshing as homegrown Mary Jane .

The Legion: our drug of choice!

Superboy #186

The Legion returns after its hiatus and now it's bumped to 11 pages! But in this "last one before Dave" story, I can't help but focus on a lot to dislike:

- those awful costumes. Shady's skimpy top notwithstanding, these costumes are pretty horrific.

- the opening "females are weaker than males line". Out the gate with a groan!

- Colleta making Tuska look like Kirby in places. Tuska's style is his own, good or bad. This isn't it.

- the Legionnaires, despite physically being there, are missing for most the story. I've been patient thus far having so few since I know it's the backup era, but this pushes it.

- Shady being called "Shadow". Thankfully that didn't stick.

- the vege-demon being a total plot device as both a threat and then happily surviving in its new prison.

That being said, if there is one good thing, some of Tuska's panels, particularly with Shady, are quite beautiful. In those random moments he and Colleta make her stunningly beautiful while dynamic and dramatic. But a few gorgeous panels don't make a great story, I know.

All in all, probably the worst in awhile. Bring on Dave!

(Yay! All caught up for the good stuff!)

Thanks, Cobie.

Just five days to go...

Superboy 183

The first panel starts of well enough. We get weird space wraiths looking to devour/possess our heroes for nefarious purposes/ just to stay alive at the expense of others.
But it’s downhill from there, with a momentary glimmer of them breaking out of the Legion cruiser squabbling.

The new “action suits” are pretty poor. Karate Kid’s is heavily insulated, strangely including his hands which aren’t protected. While they may also be heavily insulated, there’s so little of Jeckie and Shady;s suits that it won’t make much difference.

Despite an increased number of pages, there’s not a lot more to say. The action takes place around a plant monster I thought was one of Jeckie’s illusions. It’s there as a device to shake the Legion out of their possession. But not before Mon gets in a good cry.

Karate Kid is reduced to Razor Hand Roy and the cast stand around explaining why a hokey plot worked out the way it did.

Elsewhere:
A pretty good Gravity Girl story featuring Lana Lang. It’s the usual snoop on Clark to see if he has a secret ID. But then Lana gets powers,, and turnabout is fair play. Superboy finds a convenient way of making sure he’s the only superhero in Smallville at the end. Gravity Girl is the Legion precursor to Gravity Boy. You can see how versatile Lana’s powers are, compared to the way Ayla and Thom are shown at this time.

In the leading story, we get another version of Clark as Tarzan. “The hairless ones have strange customs…MMM…but pleasant ones!” he says after a snog with the first woman he’s ever seen. In DC’s Young Love this month we get to see the scene from the point of view of Kenaru, the female ape that Clark would be standing up that Saturday.

SUPERBOY #184

According to Dave Cockrum (whose Volume 10 introduction I've decided to paraphrase bits of rather than quote directly from), we have his mentor Murphy Anderson to thank. It was Anderson who helped Cockrum get a foot in the door at DC Comics, and it was Anderson who vouched for Cockrum to Boltinoff. Anderson also inked Cockrum's first three Legion stories; clearly some of Curt Swan's influence had rubbed off on Anderson by this time, because some of the faces here are more Swan than Cockrum -- not a bad thing at all. But the futuristic architecture and technology, the palpable energy and enthusiasm...that was all Cockrum. Where Tuska gave us lazy close-ups, stock poses, and cliche facial expressions, Cockrum gave us vast panoramas, dynamic body language, and beautifully rendered faces.

As for Bates' story? Well, for starters, even Gentleman Dave politely dismissed it as silly (though he was thoughtful enough to add, "Sorry, Cary.") It is nice to see a spotlight on the rarely used Matter-Eater Lad, and if you can forgive the way that his powerful digestive system somehow fails to digest the telepathic transmitter that Tenzil's misguided brother snuck into Tenzil's food, or the way that Tenzil is able to eat a death-ray instead of getting his head vaporized...uh...well, then, congratulations, you're definitely the forgiving kind. I'm normally not so lenient. But in the context that Boltinoff was apparently rubber-stamping these weak scripts without a care, and that Cockrum wasn't yet a fan-favorite who could have some positive influence on the direction of the feature, it's not that bad.

And it sure is pretty to look at.

I appreciate the background on Cockrum and Anderson, Fanfie. Those of us who are reading from the original issues miss out on the text features in the Archives.

"One Legionnaire Must Go" certainly is nice to look at. It's probably the best looking Legion story since Swan. Mortimer, as we've discussed, was a fine artist, as was Tuska, on other series, but neither belonged on the Legion. In his first issue, Cockrum, along with Anderson, creates an expansive 30th century that feels like an inviting place: rich, varied, and, yes, full of energy.

This story also marks the first appearance of the Cockrum-designed Legion cruiser, which borrows a lot from Star Trek but is nevertheless exciting to look at.

The story is hopelessly juvenile and feels like it belongs in the early Adventure run. After returning from a vacation, M-E Lad is accused of having traitorous thoughts by Saturn Girl (whose telepathy picks up his thoughts even though she's vowed not to pry into other Legionnaires' minds). Ultra Boy, who takes over as leader again, turns on M-E Lad without any other evidence and places him in a cell with Magnozite bars--an alloy so poisonous even Bismollians can't eat it.

Tenz spots a flaw in the bars and escapes back to his native Bismoll--somehow thinking that's the last place the Legionnaires would look-- only to find his own brother, Renkil, has framed him. After a nasty confrontation in which Tenz is seriously injured, Renkil repents and summons the Legionnaires to save his brother.

Showing he's the forgiving kind, Tenz not only refuses to press charges against Renkil but recommends him to the Legion as his temporary replacement while he gets the thought transmitter removed from his stomach.

And the Legion, showing some common sense, has both Tenz and Renk committed, and here we learn that the true cause of Tenz's later insanity was not eating the Miracle Machine, but that he was always delusional.

Well, not really . . . I made that last part up, but that's what should have happened.

It's tempting to go through the flaws of this story, but there's no real point. It's also tempting to blame Bates or Boltinoff for not giving a whit; however, as bad as these stories are, they may have been intentionally dumbed down to attract a very young audience. In the lettercol of 176, Boltinoff discusses the move from Action to Superboy:



So that may explain why we've gone from stories featuring drug abuse and domestic squabbles to tales of sibling rivalry and Legionnaires turning on one another. Perhaps such stories were deemed more suitable for a young audience.

Thanks for that lettercol quote, He Who. It's especially interesting in light of the cheap shock tactics that Boltinoff, Bates, and Shooter would adopt immediately after Cockrum's departure (killing off Invisible Kid, having Cosmic Boy strike Light Lass, etc). It's as if Infantino and the other DC executives were constantly second-guessing what they thought the readers wanted, to no one's benefit.

Yeah, it does seem they were figuring out things as they went along. In 176, Boltinoff discusses the possibility of a Legion comic and admits he has no idea what the future holds. When they eventually got around to a Legion comic, instead of featuring the wonderful Cockrum art, they reprinted stories from the Adventure run, which, even in 1973, seemed dated. (Though this was how I discovered the Legion, so I can't complain.)

I must differ about Invisible Kid's death being a shock tactic, though. It was indeed shocking, but, combined with the wedding of Chuck and Luornu a mere three issues earlier and the sexy Legion costumes, it seemed like DC was trying to reverse the juvenile trend the series was on and let the Legionnaires grow up some.

Writing out Chuck, Lu, and Lyle might also have been a misguided attempt to clean house, but these were daring moves that were bound to upset some fans. No Legionnaire had permanently been written out since Ferro Lad, and fans are notoriously resistant to such changes (although upset fans = media buzz = more sales). The fact that DC was willing to take such risks shows, I like to believe, that they had some faith in the series.

Cos slapping Ayla is Shooter being Shooter, alas.

"Cos slapping Ayla is Shooter being Shooter, alas."


Someone drew it. Someone approved it. Just looking through the last few posts, there is a lot of blaming of the uppers and excusing the writers/artists as following direction. How does a just out of college Shooter get different treatment?


Comics in general, so much different than some fledgling author writing something and shopping it to publishers. Comic books seem much more top-down, shaped by the publisher and if you want the gig, tow the line.


If someone thought Cos slapping Ayla was going to sell a book, then by Boltinoff, Cos was going to slap Ayla. Or it could have just been a situation, how do we show the stress Cos is being put under by the situation and by Ayla's insensitivity?


So, could it have been a marketing move? Could it have been a realistic portrayal of the effects of stress? I suppose Shooter might be accused of misogynistic intent when he could have had Light Lass blasted and Lighting Lad barely escaping to face Cos' wrath. Certainly would have been more politically correct than "hitting a girl" but it wouldn't have had close the same emotional effect IMO. It would have just been some guy hitting another guy, happens everyday.

You make some good points, BB, but I also think you've confused or conflated a few things.

For one, in quoting my post, you seem to be asserting that I'm one of ones who has "blamed the uppers" and "[excused] the writer/artists," but I don't think I've done that. I don't think any of my posts can be interpreted as implying that Shooter got special treatment more than other creators. If I have implied that, can you show me where? I may need to clarify my post.

I also don't think I've ever accused Shooter of being misogynist, though others have. I don't know the man, so I'm not going to cast aspersions on his character. However, some of his depictions of women (such as Ms. Marvel in Avengers 200) seem odd and merit scrutiny. When I said Shooter was being Shooter, that's what I was referring to.

Where I agree with you, though, is that Cos slapping Ayla, by itself, may be open to several interpretations. You mention the stress he was under. While I don't think stress should excuse his actions, it does highlight the fact that the story was published at a time when women's lib was in full force. Women demanded to be treated as equal to any man and, so, in that context perhaps it was intended to be no different than Cos slapping one of the male Legionnaires. It still seems dodgy to me, but perhaps that was the intent.

I also agree that that slap is an emotional high point of the story and certainly the most memorable aspect of it, judging by our discussions. Whether or not that's good is another thing.

I don't know the ins and outs of DC editorial control--who approved what, what say artists had in the script, etc.--but I think it's fair to say that Shooter, or any writer, did have a certain amount of influence over how his scripts turned out, and, at any rate, it's his name on the title page. For better or worse, he gets the credit/blame.

I’ll look “conflated” up later.





I referred to the previous conversation (posts) in general so as to not target any one poster, however since you brought it up…





Only my first paragraph referred to the quote, where you singled him out. You did in your previous post cast a wider net of blame then just the writer, when that writer wasn’t Shooter so I think my question was fair game. The rest of my post referred to “Comics in general.” The only reference I made to Shooter and misogynistic opinions was my supposition that he could be accused of it because of his choice in victim. I didn’t refer to your opinion on Shooter, which was only “Shooter bring Shooter,” I thought in reference to Fanfic’s “cheap shock tactics” comment, which was the only context I had.


But now you add this:





That honestly, sounds like an “aspersion.” Might be merited. Since I don’t know the situation, I can’t comment. But it’s an easy accusation to make if unchallenged.


There’s wider conversation that seems to be commencing that “isms” are the new bully words, used to put people on the defensive with little merit. I think maybe it’s worth challenging people who use them without accompanied examples and even challenging the context of the examples so that those words do not lose their value. It’s not to put off people who feel they have a justified case but perhaps we all could benefit an exchange of opinions from the less involved to balance our outrages. Too many people have fought too long to give those words value for them to be cheapened by opportunists, not at ALL putting anyone here into that category. I just saw an opportunity with this sort of connected conversation to bring up the point as it's been on my mind of late.

Superboy 184

Glimpses of exotic, futuristic locales start off this Legion adventure. Things seem to have turned around for Tenzil’s family after their problems being on Earth. I can only imagine that what Jo’s father was smoking in his pipe was just one of the many vices that dragged Rimbor downwards.

More technological advancements are evident in the Legion HQ, from multiple monitors to irradiating your foes so you can peek inside their craft. But it’s variation on an old favourite that involved in the first scene after Imra discovers that one of the three Legionnaires on base is a traitor. Strapped to the encephalo-detector, no one can lie. Sounds great. Unless you’re trying to overthrow a tyranny. More fun from the United Planets.

Imra, Tenz and Jo looked happy to be in each other’s company when we first saw them together. A snarling Tenz, kicking Jo’s gun away as he accuses Imra of lying shows you just how dark the story turns in a couple of pages.

Tenzil makes his escape, but it’s only when he’s on his way to Bismoll that we learn he really doies think he’s innocent. The story could have had Tenz on the run, trying to clear his name. But it’s a short tale. So, having established that Tenz feels he’s innocent, it’s only a few panels later that we find out who’s framing him. His own brother. The Kem family fortunes haven’t changed much after all.

Renkil Kem’s plan is born out of emotion. He clearly hasn’t thought it through. Having confessed to his brother, it hasn’t occurred to him that he’d have to ensure Tenzil’s silence. While that could be a plot hole, Renkil’s rash action, and instant regret in knocking his brother out, reinforces his emotional state.

A shame faced Renkil, awaits his punishment. But he actually gets what he had wanted all along, if only for a while as his brother’s replacement.

I don’t recall seeing Renkil as Tenzil’s replacement later on. But he’s always on my Legion membership list. Tenzil also later suggested the Legion look at Calorie Queen as a replacement for him too. Tenz is always looking out for others.

The Anderson/ Cockrum art works quite nicely here. Lots of nice backgrounds, and Tenzil descending form the cruiser is a good panel. Bates gives a few twists and turns into the limited space available. The necessary pace also helps move the reader along. And from looking too closely. Overall it’s a solid improvement.

I’m not much of a fan of Imra’s bikini though. I’m left wondering what the Legion had a pot of glowing purple paint lying around for, if Imra didn’t create it for the bluff?

LOL

That reminds me of something I forgot to mention in my review: Given the opulence surrounding the Nahs, is it possible Jo is just a poser who's been lying about being a street kid? He wouldn't be the first. Let's see the continuity buffs disprove THAT!

Or that his dad is the poser, taking the family to pipe smoking opulence from their origins in the gutters of Rimbor. A rise made possible through crime!

Associating more with the people he grew up with, Jo relates to that side of Rimbor more and more as he gains independence in the Legion and adopts their values.

Jo's acting comes from a childhood watching the shifting personalities of his parents, particularly his father. It doesn't keep him out of trouble though.

Jo's and Marla's matching costumes with the work tools show that Jo joined the Legion from a prison rehabilitation scheme set up by Brande. Ostracised shape changing aliens, throwbacks from the 20th century, outcast telepaths, impoverished planets and bounty hunters. Brande knew that heroism could come from anywhere.

Aha.

Nicely done, Thoth.

Superboy #184

There isn’t much for me to add that Fanfie and HWW didn’t cover in the first two reviews of this issue. They summed it up pretty succinctly: very exciting, dynamic artwork arriving on the scene that immediately catches the eye, while the story itself is pretty juvenile and one of the more forgettable Legion stories we’ve had thus far in its history. While I like Tenzil and any story featuring him as a lead character usually makes me even just a little happy, there isn’t much to praise about this one.

That art though. Dave arrives on the scene and you feel his presence immediately. The figures, the technology, the sheer vibrancy. And also the layouts and excitement that is on the page. It would only get better and better, but this is already a terrific start.

I also love all the “inside” knowledge being posted here. Like Fanfie, I enjoyed immensely Dave’s own words at the start of the Archive, and I’m also fascinated by Boltionoff’s statements on the letter’s page. I really enjoy hearing that Murphy Anderson played such a critical role in getting Cockrum noticed and published. I’ve always enjoyed Anderson’s art and reputation a lot, and as I was saying in Teed’s “12” thread in Gym’lls, only just recently was I surprised to hear from my Dad how much he loved Anderson’s Hawkman covers and art during the Silver Age. I had never known Hawkman was one of his favorites (and as a “Marvel first” kid in the 60’s, it’s always surprising to hear what non-Marvels stood out to him). Looking at those old covers you can see why. He also did a ton of superb Strange Adventures covers as well.

I also note there is nothing to say that guy with Jo was his Dad. For all we know that’s his parole officer or old drug dealer mentor who softened over time.

Anderson also drew one of the most iconic DC superhero covers of all time: the first JLA/JSA team-up.



LOL

Very true, Cobie, very true.

Silverale daddy?

SUPERBOY 188

Random MST3K reference:

"Because of those CRYSTALS!"

There really isn't a lot to say about the second Cockrum/Bates collaboration, because the pros and cons are basically the same: the art is great, but the story isn't much. Chameleon Boy accidentally looks at some evil crystals cooked up by Mordru which have to power to instill hatred of Superboy. Cham torments Superboy with little pieces of Kryptonite until Superboy uses super-suction to get them off his chest (but wouldn't that hurt Superboy even more??) and then spits them far away with super-breath. Superboy cures Cham by burying him alive for 60 seconds, cause, y'know, Mordru. Oh, and a few other Legionnaires appear, but they're required by the plot to act stupid. Thank the Gods that the next story is a reasonable improvement. Until then...

Yeah, there's a lot of stupidity going on "Curse of the Blood Crystals." It seems irresponsible for Superboy to just throw the crystals into space when he knows by now that any number of villains or aliens could find it. It's stupid of LL and Brainy to just leave "Cham" back in the 20th century without checking on him further. And it's mighty convenient that burying Cham alive for a minute undoes the magic.

Still, I do think this story is a step up from most recent ones. It shows Bates' knack for plotting and playing tricky with the reader. He makes good use of Cham, who impersonates first Ultra Boy and then Superboy, without revealing what has happened until the story demands it. Earlier writers would have revealed the impersonations at the onset, ruining the tension. (I'm thinking of Lu being shown splitting into three just before Computo disintegrates one of her.)

Even though LL, Brainy, and UB serve the needs of the plot, they were well utilized, except in the instance above. A story as short as this demands a tight plot and "supporting characters" who are there only to further the needs of the story. (There is also a cameo from Phantom Girl, who apparently is wearing civvies or perhaps a fan-designed costume.)

It was also nice to see the time cube again. It was used in Mordru's introduction back in Adv. 369.

I also like it that the story begins in media res, at the end of an otherwise unexplained battle between Superboy and Mordru. Bates will return to this story-telling device with Timber Wolf's supposed death in 197. It was an effective way of hinting at "untold" stories and rounding out the Legion's world by suggesting they were involved in other cases we're not shown. This device also stoked the imaginations of fans and their yearnings for more.

The art is still an improvement over what we have been getting, but it's rough in a few places. The close-up of Ultra Boy on p. 5, for example, looks like he's straining to think (perhaps he hasn't recovered from the konk on the head). Other close-ups, such as Superboy on p. 7 and Cham on p. 8, look forced.

However, there are a few gorgeous shots, such as the space scenes, the landing pad on p. 4, and Superboy, LL, and Brainy flying past the clock on p. 7. Cockrum seems to have the action scenes down pat but was still working on faces.

"Curse" won't win any awards for Best Legion Story of the Year, but it does show that Bates and Cockrum understood the Legion's world and had plenty of blocks to build upon.

I think you've certainly provided some food for thought, He Who.

But what about Superboy putting Kryptonite in his mouth? I found that even more ridiculous than Tenzil "eating" a death-ray in the previous story.

Good point mentioning the Cockrum/Bates Timber Wolf story in 197, and Bates' use of the in media res device in both stories. That device provides plenty of potential material for fanfic writers like myself.

Yes, the "sucking kryptonite" bit was dumb, too. If Supes could do that all along, then he has no excuse for succumbing to green k, ever, unless someone throws a green k boulder at him.

There's a wonderful scene in an early 1970s Superman story where all kryptonite is rendered inert and Superman gleefully eats a piece of kryptonite.

Shame it didn't last...

As you’ve both pointed out, and as we probably all expected, #188 continues the trend of phenomenal art mixed with a story that is chalk-full of writing problems.

The good: the art is just amazing. We see some deep space exploration, some really nifty usage of Cham’s powers, and see Dave draw Superboy in a way that evokes just raw power.

Bates’ writing can be lumped under “the bad”, but I do have to agree with HWW that this is a slight step in the right direction. The Blood Crystals aren't a terrible idea in and of themselves but here they are executed poorly. Meanwhile, Cham is used to good effect in places by being clever and using his powers well. None of these things make a good story but they are signs that things are improving.

One thing that always stuck out at me is the random Mordru appearance at the beginning. We never had this issue (and still don’t) so I didn’t see it until I bought the Archive a few years back and found myself really shocked by it. Bates was clearly trying to dig deep into the Legion’s rogues gallery (see the Fatal Five next issue), but this brief, random appearance does more harm to Mordru than good. Mordru is simply above a story like this IMO. And we already have a major untold Mordru story with his first battle with the Legion!

Another oddball thing is that by now the LSH Leader Elections have gotten totally screwed up. Ever since Jo’s last stint as leader at the tail end of Adventure, there has been a slew of possible leaders and deputy leaders, and here they mention the position rotating every month. Forgetting for a second that such a thing NEVER WORKS in reality, the leadership confusion creates a sense that there is confusion going on in both the Legion and in editorial, which doesn’t lend itself to a feeling of world-building. I don’t think I ever understood who was leader during these issues until I joined Legion World in 2003 and Lightning Lad had a nice little thread in Encyclopedia Galactica to explain it.

It's a short run of what I call, "loyalty reads."

Stories aside, it's a bit surprising how much of Bate's work became lore later used. There were some interesting bits. I haven't decided if the stories are not interesting or just not executed well.

Without re-reading it, I seem to remember liking the implication that there's a whole series of untold Mordru vs. Superboy stories set in twentieth century Smallville, presumably after Mordru escapes having been buried in Smallville in the Adventure two-parter.

Superboy 188

I preferred Mordru as the scourge of another galaxy. A being so terrible the Legion were right to be fearful of him. Every time he pops up to be easily imprisoned lessens him.

Here, he’s used as the villain behind the macguffin. Blood red crystals introduced in the 20th century so they can appear for the Legion 1000 years later. It’s a device that would be used later by Morrison in DC 1 million.

The art started off as fair in the 20th century segment, improves as the legion research satellite part goes on. But it really clicks with Jo’s return to Legion HQ. The backgrounds and technology are still my favourite part.

Reep, who couldn’t get on Legion leave presumably, had to knock out Jo to go visit the 20th century. I didn’t mind him pulling the second impersonation. That’s a logical extension of the first, and we get a sort of evil looking Superboy to tip us off (although we don’t know how Reep knows about the crystals background). The Chameleon Boy sarcophagus lid is a bit more baffling.

The same logic applies throughout. Cham’s impersonations worked once, so why not twice? Superboy picks up on Cham’s elephant trick which worked once. He also picks up on a solution to Cham’s problem from it working once on the villain behind the crystals in the first place.

So, it’s tidily done, even if very convenient in places. In terms of characterisation it’s a bit of a reminder of earlier Legion tales. A good example of this is Brainy’s stark announcement that Cham may have to be expelled from the group. We get other moments such as Cham declaring he’d like to explore once day and Tinya being sent to nurse Jo on the satellite.

I agree. In Adv. 369-370, Mordru was a terrifying menace--so terrifying that the Legion's two mightiest members had to flee into the past to escape him.

Here he goes back in time and uses the blood crystals for no other reason than to turn Superboy into an outcast. While this theme fits into the more juvenile approach of the stories, it certainly makes Mordru seem petty and a pushover since Superboy defeats him single-handedly.



I imagine this bit was necessitated by the idea that the stakes had to be raised. Brainy points out that as "acting leader" he may have to expel Chameleon Boy, which makes us care just a little bit about this guy with the pointy ears and antennae who, through no fault of his own, has become the bad guy.

(Of course, the Legionnaires once again turn on each other at the drop of a hat. Who would want to belong to such a club?)

It also occurs to me that since the Legion was appearing so infrequently in those days, rotating leaders may not have been confusing to readers. If anything, it gives a sense that some time has passed since their last appearance.

In The Legion Sourcebook, Levitz addressed this confusion by stating that the Legion experimented with six-month leadership terms for a couple of years, which accounts for UB, Val, Mon-El, and UB again during the late Adventure, Action, and Superboy runs. Only when Mon was elected again in 190 was the term restored to a full year.

SUPERBOY 190

Just as the Legion is holding leader elections, the two candidates, Saturn Girl and Mon-El, are whisked away to a barren planetoid by Validus and Tharok. The latter has trained the former to kill whoever is the Legion leader, so as to weaken the team enough for a final defeat. The Legionnaires turn the tables on the villains in a way which once again requires Tharok's super-intellect to lapse, but even so, this is the first Cockrum/Bates collaboration that I find halfway satisfying. Cockrum finally gets to stretch his abilities at staging action, and he's very good at it indeed. Anderson's inks had been a bit overdone last time around, to the detriment of the close-ups. Here, the faces are much better, especially the recovering Saturn Girl and the overstressed Mon-El, both on Page 8. Compared to the stories to come a few issues from now, this is strictly meat-and-potatoes fare rather than fine dining, but it's still a step ahead.

"Murder the Leader" is my favorite of the pre-197 Superboy offerings. Of course, it is mainly a Mon-El solo story--Saturn Girl doesn't do much except get blasted and play dead. Other Legionnaires appear but are not even named. If I had picked up this issue as my first exposure to the Legion, I would have thought all the others were just throwaway characters who spend their time arguing with each other.

Still, it is a complete story with a satisfying ending. Sure, Tharok is very gullible, but given how stupid real criminals sometimes are, I can buy Tharok's ego being a blind spot in his intellect. The damage done by Validus's blast will be featured in two forthcoming stories (198 and 203), creating a nice bit of continuity.

I also like Mon-El's character arc. Some fans have objected to the lack of self-confidence he displays at the beginning of the story, but it feels real to me. Just because Mon is the mightiest member and has been leader before doesn't mean he wouldn't be plagued by self-doubts. And I reject the notion that such loss of confidence was all the product of Eltro's personality being infused into Mon's own back in Action 384. It's refreshing to see a hero express the real doubts anyone would have.

Anyway, Mon regains his confidence by outwitting Tharok. This works for me as a wonderful transforming moment for Mon.

The faces are indeed much better this time--more nuanced and natural. Some standout shots for me are Mon on page 2, panel 4 (you can see it pains him to admit his lack of self-confidence); Imra on page 4, panel 2; the two images Fanfie mentions on page 8; and Imra's gleeful smile in the last panel of the story.

The action scenes are fluid and exciting, as well.

The only thing I don't like about the art (other than Shady being depicted as Caucasian) is Tharok's right eye being drawn as a black orb. To me, he's even more scary when we see how human his right side is.

I thought she was holding back so that Mon-El could regain his confidence? Besides, she managed to override Tharok's training and make Validus tone down his blast.



Where does this happen? Is there a miscoloring in the original issue? I only have the Archives reprint. If you're referring to the way Cockrum draws her face, I think she looks about as exotic and ambiguous as he could manage, given that she only has two panels and neither is a close up.

True: Imra does do a couple of really subtle things here.

Yes, in the original issue, Shady has white skin--except, inexplicably, her legs and, in one panel, her hands.

This story could be rewritten today so much better. I like the premise of Mon-el doubting himself and finding his confidence. It's also interesting that Mon appeals to Tharok's lust for power and Tharok falls for it. In this tale, that happens too quickly, but it's a trope that's been used to good effect in other stories which allow more time for the con to develop.

On reflection, some of the things I found illogical could indeed be the result of Mon-el's confidence problem. Why does he assume that Imra sacrificed herself? Maybe she was just trying to get out of the way and wasn't quick enough. Couldn't his super-hearing detect her breathing and heartbeat? Would he really be stopped by energy spheres? If I think of these in terms of him panicking, they make more sense. The whole Eltro Gand thing, I agree, was unnecessary to explain his lack of confidence; if one needs an external source, 1000 years in the Zone would be enough to undermine someone's equanimity.

As we learned later, Validus "roaming harmlessly" is still a menace - unpredictable, dangerous. He would later kill Invisible Kid.

I notice that both Shady and Karate Kid adopt the classic Roman orator pose, hand in the air. Legion Debate Team?

Another example of Murray Boltinoff's conscientious attention to continuity details.

Validus was being controlled by a component of Tharok's brain when he killed Invisible Kid. A roaming Validus may still be a menace, but not (apparently) homicidal.

FC, I think you make a good point -- "Murder the Leader" could have been a better story if it had had more pages, like if it had been a whole issue instead of a backup.

Hermit, LOL

"Murder the Leader" is the first Legion story I can remember reading (Kind of. I couldn't really read more than a few words at that time.) I loved the Cockrum/Anderson art!

Superboy #190

A few things stand out immediately in this story.

Design wise, there is a really terrific layout on the opening splash. From the gold plated "a new tale of the LSH" to the narration caps thumbs pointing to the next to the "follow" crossed out with "murder" above it. This showcases Cockrum's dynamic approach to comics, already establishing him as wholly unique this early in his career.

In fact, at the risk that this is going to get repetitive as we review this archive, all I can say is: Stunning art. Dynamic action, glamorous Imra, handsome leading man, fearsome villains. The panels with the spheres on page 7 are just popping with that added element. Stunning. Simply stunning.

At first story is fairly routine...but that's okay. If it stayed on track it would have been a sufficient starting point for Dave's art in limited space. But the end is too silver-agey with the trickery that supposed-genius Tharok easily falls for, and it doesn't fit this era.

Of note, as HWW mentioned pages earlier, is the LSH Leadership stabilized here. I especially love seeing Gim supporting Imra--it just feels right.

Mon's doubting himself is something I usually don't like. Yet it's not to unrealistic. Doesn't everyone have doubts, including Superman and even Batman? The key is he turns it around quickly and takes care of the problem. As we've talked about, this story will be one of many in which Mon plays this role which will give him an odd longterm characterization that I don't love. Yet taken on its own, I don't see any problem with the concept.

Agreed 100%, Cobie. And it pays dividends way down the line during the Levitz/LaRocque Universo Project arc, where Imra turns to Gim's mother for help.

Superboy 190

Covered legs are in this month, showing that even weather controlled Metropolis gets cold snaps. I think it’s an improvement on Dreamy’s usual bathing suit. Imra is made from sterner stuff and is determined to wear that pink bikini. She’s also determined to become leader and she’s positively glaring at Mon-El for daring to challenger her for the role.

Shadow Lass is wearing white make up this issue. I had thought it was just that statue from Adventure with the payoff in Legion #300. The colouring goes askew in page two, as she’s now in green. It’s a nice look and an indication of what it would look like if the Emerald Empress ever joined (or a different look for Vi or Rain Girl joining briefly between issues).

The future is democratic! But only if you access to the weird technology that the team insist on inventing every time there’s an election. It’s register bracelets this time. I’m a little unnerved at the two candidates sitting back to back on electric chairs.

Mon-El is planning on declining whether he wins or not. There’s a strong hint regarding his mental frailty that will be used for years to come.

Both candidates are teleported away. I’m thinking it’s Prof Sayar’s warp transport from an earlier issue. They land on a planetoid right out of Aliens. But it’s just an excuse for an arena contest against two of the fatal five. In my fan-brain, Tharok has pinched the warp transport tech.

Tharok has rarely looked creepier. His human eye is completely black. That human/ robot split isn’t 50%. His gun looks powerful and his robotic limbs deliberately non-human.

It’s always a little odd to see Lyle in re-reads. He was long gone by the time I started reading the Legion. He’s in the first couple of pages here, and it’s as if he’s already haunting the pages. The reason I mention this is that it’s particularly chilling to see the way in which Validus grasps Mon-El later in the issue. “And I also forgot how quick he is! A fatal mistake for me!” This is from the mightiest Legionnaire.

Tharok’s plan to kill any leader of the Legion is simple. They are still powerful enough that the threat has real meaning. It would be used decades later by Mark Millar in the Authority. Having sent one dictator to his death, they threatened the same fate to any other that didn’t treat their people fairly.

Mon-El goes through the ringer, and panic almost overwhelms him. It’s a very human take on him. Or it’s Eltro Gand as would later be revealed by TMK. Seeing him using all of his powers to get free is an excellent panel (as was Imra’s pose earlier). It shows just how unstoppable he can be.

But Mon-El is no Validus. Tharok should realise that Validus would win and see through Mon-Els rather obvious gambit. But he falls for it, effectively says “Koraht”, and has Validus turn on him.

Tharok’s twisted metal half is another excellent touch. As I wonder why the Legion just let The Incredible Sulk of Validus just wander off, I note that both Val and Tharok have the same feet. Who is influencing whom?

In summary, it’s a pretty simple story. But it’s one that resonates more because of what would happen later; the fate of Lyle; Mon-El’s issues despite being so powerful and Imra in mental contact with Validus.

Although easily tricked, both Fatal Five members looked scary enough to continue to be a big threat. There was also a nice thrill to think of Tharok leading the Legion. Just what would that look like? A nice reminder of that spate of villain infiltration issues back in Adventure and Universo trying for membership.

There are a number of nice art flourishes. “The End” in the Legion L to the innovative split speech bubble on the first page. It’s Cockrum’s work that makes the story stand on its own.

Given how fast technology changes today, this is oddly prophetic.



That did seem a little strange, as did their hostile expressions toward each other. I can only assume the Legion was modeling ancient political campaigns of the first millennium for a class history project. (They were still teenagers and in school, after all.)




Interesting observation.

For me, Lyle's appearances are a reminder that he was once a major, long-term Legionnaire. His absences left a hole in the team, as any death would.

But you're right: It's an eerie piece of foreshadowing that Validus grabs Mon in the same manner that he later grabbed--and killed--Lyle.

I'm just bitter because of the walking money I sent into the Legion Communicator Barrette crowdfunder. It said it was from Naltor. I didn't realise it was Dream Boy behind it rather than Nura. Bah!

SUPERBOY 191

In his introduction to the Archive, Cockrum notes that this is the first of his Legion stories where he did his own inks, Anderson having become too tied up with work of his own. Cockrum adds that because he was constantly second-guessing his own inking, the amount of white-out that he used on this one single short story became an in-joke among Legion fandom.

And although the second-guessing shows in the inconsistency of the linework, I still believe this to be not only the first fully satisfying Cockrum/Bates collaboration, but also the best Legion story since the late-period Adventure era. Unlike "Murder the Leader" or Bridwell's "Brotherly Hate", this story actually benefits from the lower page count, with solid structure and tight pacing and good use of a small cast, my girl Shadow Lass getting one of her few moments of glory during the Bronze Age.

It's all the more impressive to me because neither the protagonist, Sun Boy, nor the antagonist, Dr. Zaxton Regulus, are favorites of mine. However, most of Sun Boy's worst behavior was during the Levitz and TMK eras, many years from this story, and in addition, I'm coming to like Dirk better the more I write him in the Every-Boot stories. But as for Regulus, despite his cool science-fictiony moniker and his wonderful orange-popsicle-colored armor (slightly tweaked here by Cockrum to such good effect that it would become the definitive version of the armor) he's never ascended to the heights of a real love-to-hate villain to me (not long ago, Legion World's own Harbinger cleared it all up for me when she pointed out quite rightly that Regulus' obsessive blame towards and hatred of Sun Boy is more than a bit creepy.) In the end, though, I think "Attack of the Sun-Scavenger" is good enough to be more than just another Dirk vs. Regulus story.

The artwork does shine (pun not intended), Cockrum's insecurities notwithstanding. This is an action story, and there are a number of stand-out shots of the characters fighting each other. I, too, like Regulus's redesigned costume ("orange-popsicle-colored," heh).

The story is competent but not very memorable. Whereas "Murder the Leader" had a definite character arc and showed that Mon had changed by the end of the story, nothing like that happens for Dirk. He remains the same throughout, and we don't learn much about him--except that he collects sculpture, a hobby I don't recall ever being mentioned again.

There's nothing wrong with a by-the-books action story. But it would be nice to feel that the events depicted in the story were worthwhile: the world has been saved, the hero has learned something about himself, etc. It can be a subtle change, not necessarily an earth-shaking one. But there should be something different at the end of the story. Nothing like that happens here. A villain is defeated, but that's routine.

However, the story does have considerable strengths. It recaps Dirk's origin for new readers. (Curiously, Zarl Hendricks has been edited out of this version.) It also shows the Legion acting more as a team than the previous story did, with Shady, Garth, and Cos all getting some action in.

And, of course, there's the gorgeous Cockrum art, which develops the futuristic look of the Legion's world with an alien sculpture that truly does look alien and impressive shots of the new Legion cruiser. There are also subtle touches such as Bouncing Boy holding his belly after (we presume) consuming a huge feast and Timber Wolf's hair and eyebrows, which hint at his impending feral transformation.

Good point about the lack of a character arc, He Who. That honestly had never occurred to me before, I guess because on every read including this one, I was so taken with the story's considerable surface pleasures.

Superboy 191

Sun Boy is 11?! No, he’s 17-18 and we’ve just had a pointless glimpse of future lingo. We get Necro crystals instead of funeral wreaths later.

When Shady tells him “Wait’ll you see the present we have for you!” Dirk is thinking it’ll be a blonde in a cake. Instead, he gets Regulus in a sculpture. What a disappointment. I’m surprised that every time Dirk invited someone up to see his sculptures, he was actually telling the truth.

The dialogue creaks like heat stress on the Legion’s birthday table during their encounter with the doctor. The battle ends in a rather clichéd way too. This cliché would later be personified in Devlin O’Ryan.

The story shifts with Regulus dying as a result of his attack. Dirk pulls his old order barking routine to ensure that he alone carries out the doctor’s last wishes. Cosmic Boy says he understands, and makes a mental note to contact Dirk’s therapist as soon as he’s gone.

It’s just as well that Regulus’ plan is so obvious. Had he actually have been dead, Shady (called Shadow here) and Garth would have burnt to a crisp in the Arion star. A star it turns out was created by Regulus. That sounds like he has tremendous genius, until you realise he probably swiped it from RJ.

Regulus’ reason for being near the star and for attacking the Legion is pretty flimsy. It’s one step up from a random attack for the sake of it.

Why try to get back to the star under his own power, when you can encase yourself in a sculture and wait until Sun Boy’s birthday?

The art saves the story again. The use of Shadow Lass’ powers and the battle at the star are particularly memorable.

We get another look at the Sun Boy/ Regulus conflict. I can’t recall if there was supposed to be another assistant with Dirk that distracted Regulus, or if it was a 5YG addition. Despite his complete lack of attention to health and safety regulation, I always felt some sympathy with him. He’s clearly under a lot of pressure, and it’s the distraction at a critical stage that causes the accident. Regulus didn’t intend for it to happen, but it ruined him. I’ve always imagined Dirk (with or without friend) ignoring a warning sign outside the lab as they enter with their equipment. Perhaps with better man management Dirk’s father could have avoided Regulus getting into that position. But perhaps that lack is a Morgna family trait.

Although he becomes a fall back stock villain who has little success, he does provide the book with a villain who has a personal grudge against one member. There’s Lightning Lord, but Dirk and Regulus have no family ties, and the hatred is less complicated.

The second assistant, Zarl Hendricks, is shown in the original origin story in Adventure 348. Zarl was killed in the blast, which made Regulus responsible for much more than an experiment gone wrong.

I like your idea that Dirk and Zarl had barged into a place where they shouldn't have been. This would mean Regulus was a scapegoat for Morgna's shoddy management and safety protocols. All the more reason to hate Dirk.

I think it's a combination of both parties, which adds some extra complexity to both origins.

Regulus was always on the brink of proving himself, only to always be let down by his own personality. Since regulus also means a petty sovereign, a lot of his personality is in his name. Putting a man like that into any company where he’s not the boss, would be an endless source of malicious thoughts for him. Anything, no matter how minor, not going his way would be a slight. The more he tries to prove himself as the best, the more those personality flaws would become evident. That leads to short cuts. He’s too self-absorbed to worry about the health and safety of others. Especially at the moment of yet another possible triumph, where he will show everyone that he’s a genius.

It's not that Dirk isn't smart, it's just that he's there more because of his father than his own merits or personality would dictate. Perhaps he's a little careless, but he's young. No doubt he tries to do the best thing, but there's also little doubt his ego is stroked by being the boss' kid. Perhaps that results in the occasional lapse. Like walking in on an experiment.

The result is one death and the destruction of a lab. There's no doubt Morgna senior would try to protect his son regardless. Perhaps this is valid, in that Regulus should have taken more precautions. But there's always going to be some cloud over Dirk for his part in it and for his family’s influence over the company where it happened. An example of how much influence could be seen in Morgna senior's 5YG depiction.

Regulus feels that his career has been ruined. Once again he feels that he’s had glory snatched from him. While he’ll always have had some excuse, this time he has something a little more tangible. He blames Dirk. A kid who will walk into taking over a company. A kid who’s confidence seems to make everything come so easily to him. Everything Regulus always strives for but never seems to get. Dirk is a very convenient way for Regulus to displace all those years of never getting his own way by blaming Dirk for ruining that last, great experiment.

Regulus never got past that. A guy who could create artificial suns (or at least pinch Brande's work and use it) never realised how free he should have become as a super villain. He was free of having to slave for people he couldn't stand. He could have left all those shackles behind him, and embraced any number of avenues of villainy. But he couldn’t get past the pettiness in his name and always returned for vengeance.

It's not as though Dirk worked out as a great leader. There was the mutiny where he showed the influences of both Regulus and his father. The pettiness of his nemesis and the entitlement that he took from Morgna snr. There was his time as 5yg leader. He seemed to show a lack of inspirational fire that didn’t help keep the group together and a lack of skills to get the team off Earth or to defeat their opponents. That lack of fire could be found in someone who perhaps received an easy path from a parent, and found things difficult to deal with when they didn’t come easily. Perhaps Dirk didn’t quite outgrow Regulus’ judgement of him or outrun that cloud following the accident.

I love your thoughts, thoth. You've nailed Regulus and Dirk.

Very nice of you to say so HWW. Thanks.

Superboy #191

This story is another step in right direction as Cary Bates gives Dave something more to work with. It still isn’t anything brilliant though, with the gorgeous art once again holding up a fairly weak story. But it’s getting there inch by inch.

Cockrum is on fire here: his action is awesome, his figures are bold and exciting. Dr. Regulus never looked this good before or after, and the page layouts are well thought out. Page 6, with some panels not having borders and page 7, depicting a cosmic setting of sun and stars, are glorious.

The plot is again a straight forward action story utilizing a classic LSH villain. But once again it relies on a "twist" you'd commonly see in a jerry Siegel Superboy story from the late 50's that just doesn't ring true, and makes the characters look like idiots. As I’ve said before, I liked those kind of twists a decade earlier. By now the art and atheistic has changed and Bates needs to change with it. It's not a bad story, and he's getting better, but there's no doubt Dave is making these stories special.

Agreed 100%.



I think he looked at least equally as good when Greg LaRocque drew him in Baxter Legion #15.

Now that you've posted it, I have to definitely agree. I also think there is more than a little Cockrum influence in LaRocque's art there, and I like it. I could read a LaRocque story all day long and its too bad he doesn't have any ongoing comics these days.

Also, I have to say I love all the commentary on this story and the insight to Dirk and Regulus. Dirk was never among my favorites though he was the star of my favorite LSH story (Mutiny of the Legionnaires); that all kind of changed in recent times when we did a reread of the Adventure Era. I really just love his depiction there, and that is really enhanced by the tragedy of Mutiny. His role in the Legion is forever changed after that, as his screen time is decreased--it's almost inferred that he always had confidence problems after that and never was willing to rise to the level of being a leader among his peers again.

This could easily tie into his womanizing ways in Levitz's era as many womanizers I've known over the years clearly have major confidence and self-esteem issues they are trying to over-compensate for. This could be how Dirk's problems psychologically presented themselves.

While I'm a big fan of TMK, I would really have loved to see Dirk overcome these issues in the longterm. Where he would set aside his juvenile need for sexual conquest and instead apply that drive to being a great leader of the Legion again, coming full circle as a better, stronger Legionnaire.

(And I've always thought he could do it with the help of a great friend like Salu, who I've also always felt was secretly one of his best friends since they joined around the same time).

Sun Boy is a fascinating character in Legion lore and its a shame that after 1989 he has continually gotten shorted.

I love the commentary on Dirk and Regulus, too. It's fascinating to see different interpretations of these characters.

You know, my perceptions of Sun Boy were very different from some others'. I grew up on the Bates/Cockrum and Grell periods, and Sun Boy was just the guy who could radiate heat and light. There was no hint of womanizing or any other defect in his character. I think that's why I liked him so much: He had an awesome power and an awesome costume, and not much personality. (As a kid, I was less interested in such things. ) The one time he revealed any personality trait was in Superboy 208, when he confessed that he felt uncomfortable being left in charge while Mon-El was away. I felt uncomfortable being a leader, too, so I identified with him all the more.

Yet Sun Boy was clearly prominent--a star of the Legion, so to speak. In the Legion Handbook, several of the covers depicted therein feature him prominently. His origin story is repeated verbatim from his dialogue in Adv. 348. Clearly, Sun Boy was special.

By the time his womanizing behavior had started to develop, he was already firmly entrenched into my pantheon of favorite Legionnaires. Comics being what they were at the time--sanitized depictions of human behavior--I saw his actions as more playful than anything else, like an eternal adolescent who simply hadn't grown up. It's fascinating to see how this perception of Dirk fits into thoth's analysis above.

5YL certainly took a much darker look at Dirk's behavior and the ramifications thereof, but it all made sense. By then, I'd watched enough real friends and relatives go down dark paths not to accept it, as heartbreaking as it was. I think this is one of the strengths of the Legion: Though many different writers were involved over the decades, there was enough integrity in the characters that some writers (like TMK) were able to connect the dots and take things in an unexpected but thoroughly logical direction.

They also gave us plenty of dots to connect ourselves.

These comments opened my view of this story. I never liked the Regulus stories (apart from the idea of radioactive gold) but have a new perspective on them based on the above comments.

It's hard to sort out my original feelings about Sun Boy after all these years of stories giving him a dark side, but there's some yearning that he could have remained the golden boy of the Baxter era, capable, a womanizer but not a cad, unspoiled by a wealthy upbringing, a strong scientist and maturing into a balanced man.

SUPERBOY 193

Cockrum considered this story to be his artistic turning point. As he explained it, in between Superboy 191 and 193, he had gotten a job from Marvel inking a few issues of Avengers, two of which were pencilled by John Buscema. According to Cockrum, Buscema's pencils inspired his own layouts and choreography to new heights. I've always loved that anecdote, because Big John Buscema is my favorite comic book artist of all time. It's also worth noting that Cockrum's signature inking style established itself here, with its bold, smooth lines. And, finally, of course, this is the first story where Cockrum began giving the Legionnaires new looks; here, the lucky recipients of makeovers are Chameleon Boy, Shrinking Violet, Karate Kid, and Duo Damsel. Contrary to what some people believe, Cockrum did not try to give Matter-Eater Lad a new costume, because he liked the old one -- what happened was that the colorist mistakenly made it red instead of green.

By now, I'm sure you've noticed I haven't said much about the story. That's because, unlike the art, I think the script is a step back. It appears to me like Bates and Boltinoff couldn't quite decide whether to write down to their intended audience of kids, or to respect the kids' intelligence the way that the best stories of the Weisinger era had done. So we get what I consider a rather half-assed anti-war story, with the rulers of two sides of a planet reduced to acting like brawling schoolboys (having said that, the story would sadly seem to predict the immature public behavior of heads of state and politicians in the early 21st Century.) As for spotlighted Legionnaire Duo Damsel, I think she looks lovely thanks to Cockrum, but comes off pretty badly overall, first walking into a trap set by one of the kings, and then failing to stop a remote control detonator from hitting the ground (but rest assured that no bombs go off, thanks to Chameleon Boy's competence and speediness.)

Dodgy scripts or not, by this time the Legion feature's popularity was on the rise thanks to Cockrum, who was at this point on the verge of starting to contribute much more than just the art, and things would get much better starting with the next story. Hint:

Good review, Fanfie. I think you're on target with the art's strengths and the story's weaknesses.

Bates had a knack for coming up with clever but sound-alike titles: "The Curse of the Blood Crystals," "The War of the Wraith-Mates," and, here, "The War Between the Nights and the Days." These titles suggest 1950s sci fi movies, and I can't help wondering if that's where he drew his inspiration from, and if that's why some of these stories seem so retro. I also can't help wondering if he (or Boltinoff) came up with the story title first and then wrote the story around it. If so, that would explain why there isn't much to offer here, except another gimmick.

The gimmick this time is Duo Damsel's new costume. Unlike the previous costume changes, this one actually serves the needs of the plot, albeit in a flimsy manner. Being able to split into an orange and a purple costume allows her passage into each of the warring kingdoms. Apparently, the kings are so gullible that they will allow any strange looking alien who happens to wear the right color to approach them and not even check her for weapons.

I don't mind the heavy-handed antiwar rhetoric, though. I liken this story to "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" from the original Star Trek series. "Battlefield" was so obvious in its antiwar sentiment--the two warring aliens are black on one side of their faces and white on the other, but on opposite sides--yet it left an enormous impression on ten-year-old me. It showed the utter stupidity that hatred can cause, and how the differences we use as excuses for war (racial, religious, political, etc.) can look small and petty to outsiders. It also showed that once society starts down that path of hatred and aggression, it is hard to stop before it leads to total destruction.

In that context, I can enjoy the child-like simplicity of "The War Between the Nights and the Days." The horrific moment when King Lillt and King Jonn realize the latter's kingdom may very well have been destroyed seems genuine. I can buy it that these two child-like kings never expected their war to go that far. (In this respect, the story reminds me of another classic ST episode, "A Taste of Armageddon.") The tale ends on a hopeful, if naive, note of restored humanity. If only real political leaders could change their minds so quickly.

I hadn't thought about it before, but you're right: Lu doesn't come off well in this story. Luckily she had a male Legionnaire along to save the day.

Thank you for the kind words, He Who. Thanks, too, for providing the context in which even a rather hokey allegory can work for a child as long as it's sincere. It appears that the Star Trek reruns of the early-mid 70s left as vivid an impression on you as the Transformers and GoBots cartoons of the mid-80s left on me. Have you ever considered doing a Star Trek retro review thread in the Anywhere Machine?

Oh, and regarding that last quip about Luornu needing a male Legionnaire to save the day, I can laugh heartily about it. The 70s were one weird, contradictory time for gender roles.

A Star Trek retro review has a certain appeal. I'd have to watch the episodes again and then find time to write the reviews.

Maybe you could postpone it until the Legion Re-Read reaches the Gerry Conway era.

Just a reminder that, even though I'll be reviewing SUPERBOY 195 tomorrow night, it's never too late to chime in with your thoughts on SUPERBOY 193.

I think the whole orange/purple thing was a huge mistake. Lu is one of those characters who is most effective if the bad guys don't know what her abilities are, especially on an espionage mission (see Adventure 359-360).

Agreed completely. It was cool for one story, but past the one-time gimmick, it didn't really work.

Yes, I feel the same way. Edmond Hamilton was so right when he said that she was difficult to write.

Like the quote on the LW front page says

In the Reboot there was a time when Triad had to snoop around the Winathian government's records wing during a party honoring Spark. Spark was in costume. Out of necessity, Lu was not. One body stayed at the party while te other two snooped. She still got caught, but not because anyone recognized her as Triad.

Triad was awesome compared to Preboot Lu.

Except for the hair. I never liked Triad's hair.

Yep, the postboot writers really knew how to write Triad and make her an interesting character and effective Legionnaire.

I agree that the gimmick value of Lu's split costume would compromise her effectiveness as a spy. However, the point will soon be moot.

He Who, when you say we don't have much longer, do you mean because she and Chuck get married and leave the team a few issues from now?

EDIT: Oh. Never mind. I just saw the edit you made to your post, which answers my question.

Yeah, my first stab at that sentence was not very direct.

No worries.

I'm not feeling so good right now. I hope you all don't mind if we talk about 193 for another day or two, until I feel up to writing and posting my review of 195.

No worries. Get well soon, Fanfie.

Thank you, He Who.

SUPERBOY 195

Wildfire -- love him or hate him (I love him), his first appearance, which may or may not have originally been planned as his last, is like a goodie bag of all the best things about the Legion of Super-Heroes. Here, Wildfire is certainly confident, but not in the over-the-top way his detractors point at in some of his lesser appearances. Besides, it's clear even from the beginning that the bravado is there to mask a sensitive soul with an inferiority complex. Cockrum does his best art yet, and as a bonus introduces more new costumes -- Colossal Boy with the headgear (my favorite look for him) and Phantom Girl with the pigtails and bell-bottoms. Bates is also at his best, giving his script tight construction, solid structure, and not an ounce of padding. At heart, the story is a disarmingly simple parable about self-sacrifice and the true nature of heroism. Ironically, the creators would soon no longer have to worry about making the tales short and sweet, because with the next issue, the Legion takes over the main feature, and one issue after that, they get their first full-length tale in eons. Good times.

Done in by a John Deere.

Was he originally intended to be a one-off or was this story written with more in mind? Anyone know?

I suppose we could check with the Legion Companion to see if Drake was intended to truly be a "One-Shot Hero," but it seems unlikely that this was so. For one, he is endowed with a dynamic and eye-catching costume that is too good to throw away. Second, he exhibits more personality than any of the Legionnaires have in some time.

Even if his return was pre-planned, "The One-Shot Hero" is indeed a very good story, arguably the best of the Bates/Cockrum backups. The singular focus is on Drake, a new hero who has overcome a terrible tragedy and decided to make the best of his new anti-matter body and powers by applying for the Legion. He is bold and sure of himself. Even so, he knows when he can't win; he doesn't beg the Legion to give him another chance.

Instead, he makes his own chance by stowing away on the Legion's cruiser. (How he managed to get past their security systems is best left to the imagination.) He then does everything a hero should do: He arrives just in the nick of time to save Colossal Boy, expends all of his energy in a powerful blast and (apparently) dies. The final wordless panel, showing his empty containment suit at the feet of the Legionnaires is one of the most powerful images in Legion history.

So, 195 is a wonderful Drake Burroughs/ERG-1 story.

As a Legion story, though, it's kind of meh. Once again, our heroes are reduced to supporting roles and easily defeated so Drake can shine. Sure, we can blame it on the restrictions of the nine-page format, but one would hope that these seasoned heroes would show us why they are seasoned heroes. They don't even battle the Fatal Five, after all, just a mindless, crop-eating machine abandoned by its captured creators.

(Here, again, Bates and Cockrum seem to have borrowed from Star Trek, as the Devourer has a lot it common with the Doomsday Machine from the ST episode of the same name.)

Bates, displaying his notorious lack of attention/interest in continuity, seems to have confused Chemical King's ability with Element Lad's. Mon-El, meawhile, shows how mean-spirited he can be as leader ("We can't accept that excuse!"). And whoever colored this story should have been sent to remedial Legion coloring school. Jeckie and Garth get the worst of it, but Mon's collar, Bouncing Boy's chest panels, and Condo's hair are also miscolored.

"The One-Shot Legionnaire" is a good story for what it is. Yet it has me wanting the Legionnaires to be more and do more. Fortunately, as we do these re-reads, we don't have much longer to wait.

Good points well-taken, He Who. Once again, as with the Sun Boy vs. Dr. Regulus story, I allowed the story's considerable surface charms blind me to its all-too-clear-in-hindsight flaws.

As I've said before, I love Drake, he's my favorite male Legionnaire, but I love him in the sense that if I were a guy, I'd be just like him (I feel similarly about the pre-Grell Ollie Queen). So for a story to present him in as best a light as possible is irresistible to me.

And it's funny you should mention the Devourer and its roots in Star Trek's Doomsday Machine, because it just so happens that there was a very similar machine in the Transformers episode "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 3". Whether it was inspired by the Legion or by Star Trek, I don't know for sure, but its design seemed to me to owe more to Cockrum's visualization.

I found a clip on YouTube with a brief glimpse of the machine:

To beat my favorite dead horse, the Legion animated television series used both Triplicate Girl and Bouncing Boy to great effect: their powers were visually interesting, and surprisingly impressive in combat. The same is true of Phantom Girl in her battle scenes.

Of course, it it did not hurt that the TV Legionnaires for some reason all apparently had Bugs-Bunny-class invulnerability.

As far as Wildfire goes, I do not believe at the inception his tragic romance with Dawnstar was even a glimmer in the writer's eye, which was, in my opinion, the defining component of his character.

And I liked Drake's original swiss-army-knife powers, although I understand why they were immediately revised upon his 'return-from-the-dead'. Look at how gimpy Asorbancy* Boy / Earth-Man** appeared trying to work with the team after he became a Legionnaire. (After appearing nigh-omnipotent solo.)

*The original Kirt Niedrigh could not even spell 'absorbency' properly.
** Niedrigh, by the way, is a German / Hungarian word meaning 'low', as in 'of low birth'.

Man I have a hard time staying on-topic.

In one of my personal Legion timelines, they had a happy ending...of sorts. Quislet never had to return to his home dimension, so Drake was able to permanently form himself a functioning body AND regulate his temperature. Drake and Dawny married and Dawny gave birth to twin daughters, Dorian and Daliah, who shared both their parents' powers and were near-omnipotent when they joined hands. Tragically, Dawny lost one of her wings in battle against Empress Tasmia of Talok VIII, who in this timeline had never joined the Legion, but it was replaced by a mechanical wing.

I wish they'd done more with Wildfire's feelings about being just energy apart from his relationship with Dawnstar. There were glimpses of introspection, but a lot of his character was given to bluster and outspokenness.

Phantom Girl in this story is very supportive of him, yet I don't recall that they developed a particular friendship later, which could have been interesting.

Wildfire is a true hero in this story and sacrifices himself. Was he certain at the time that he would be able to reassemble his energy and get back to a containment suit? In any event, he was taking a gamble. Of course, the reader only knew that he was dead/dissipated.

That he was able to enter another's body and control it is a power I don't think we ever saw again. That would have been a solution to the Dawny problem, if he had taken over Jhodan - a real soap opera could have followed.

I did check The Legion Companion, as HWW suggested, but Cockrum didn't say anything about the longer-term plan for ERG-1/Wildfire. He did say he didn't know they were going to name the character ERG-1 after his Starfire was rejected, and he was very upset with that name.

FC, I agree that Wildfire could have used some more moments of introspection, but at least we did get to see another side of him as the active Legionnaire most supportive of the Legion Academy students. In LSH v.2 #283, an issue which spotlighted him, Wildfire shared painful details about his origin with Nightwind, Lamprey, and Crystal Kid, and afterwards he thought to himself that as much as he might sass the other Legionnaires, he's grateful to have their companionship, or he'd have gone crazy a long time ago. Then, captions on the last page reveal that Lightning Lad overheard Wildfire's story and that the other Legionnaires already knew most of it through research. Wildfire also reveals to the reader that his greatest fear is that the other Legionnaires simply feel sorry for him, but the captions and Wildfire's banter with Lightning Lad show that there's mutual respect underneath.

When all was said and done, I think they landed on the best name.

I agree that "Wildfire" is the best name for the character. It conveys so much more than just his power. "Starfire" was a misnomer since his power didn't come from a star.

That said, I have a fondness for "ERG-1." An acronym sounds like something an engineer would think up. However, it probably should have been spelled E.R.G.-1 to make it clear that it was an acronym and not an indication that the speaker was in some sort of physical discomfort.

SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #197

The longest Legion installment in eons is also the best in eons. He Who already noted earlier in the thread about how we begin in the middle of the story, with intriguing flashbacks to offstage events involving the disastrous mission that Superboy and Timber Wolf went on which resulted in Brin's apparent death. Timber Wolf is revealed to be alive and well...or not so well. In a brilliant montage panel on Page 6, Cockrum illustrates the agony and confusion of being a brainwashed sleeper agent. The true villain turns out to be Tyr, a mohawked, crimson-fleshed, gun-handed creation of Cockrum's, one of several villains he designed and submitted for use in the Legion, and the only one who made the final cut. By this time, Cockrum was getting more involved in the plots and the scripts, to everyone's benefit. Not that he and Bates and Boltinoff always saw eye to eye -- Cockrum had a proto-Perez fondness for squeezing as many characters into a page as he could, while Bates was gun-shy about using more than four at a time; Boltinoff, surprisingly conservative for the editor of the wild original Doom Patrol run, tended to side with Bates on this issue. It would have been interesting to see how this dynamic would have produced in the long run, but sadly there's only a few more Cockrum issues to go. Let's enjoy them while we can.

Tyr/War World: What started out seemingly a run-of-the-mill bad guy took quite a surprising turn and led to one of my favorite Legion "first contact" stories.

One of the things that impressed me about the story writing was this obviously very physically dominating being, used subtlety and misdirection in his first attack, the brainwashing of Timberwolf.




Was it an acronym? I was under the assumption that it was referring to the erg measure of energy.

Superboy 193

It starts off well with futuristic Cockrum art. Interestingly the satellite is called “SOS” rather than “Spy”. There’s a feeling of an Espionage mission about most of the nicely done opening pages, including Brainy’s briefing and the threat of war on Pasnic. It’s capped by the new uniforms. Vi’s has an elaborate design and I’m reminded of George Perez’s pride at being able to design this sort of thing. Karate Kid’s collar looks to be a liability considering his skills.

I chuckled about the gravitational balance of the solar system. The Nights and Days seem to be something out of a 1930’s Amazing Stories mag. Stuck in their ways as sure as they are stuck in tidal locking. But the execution gets a little better.

There are two things I’ll remember from this story. Firstly, that Luornu’s costume was designed for this mission (perhaps indicating that the colours are reserved only for royalty by the two oppressive sides of the struggle) but never changed in colours beyond it.

Secondly, that King Jonn, later seen as benevolent was on the verge of condemning an inhabited solar system to death. Not because of ideological differences, but because he didn’t get along with the other monarch. He even has a remote detonator to ensure genocide. What. An. Idiot.

A nice move was to quickly introduce a wider, but not regularly seen, group of Legionnaires and then reduce that group to just the two for the mission.

But the story hinges on pretty much everything working out exactly as Brainy planned. Lu’s part worked (with Brainy having given her hypnotic devices - presumably on loan from the SP) allowing Cham’s part to work which in turn prevented catastrophe. It’s all a bit too convenient and simple and I struggled to get past the limited dualism of Pasnic.

Glad you've started catching up, Thoth. Good to see you back in this thread.



I daresay Cockrum was one of the most innovative costume designers that superhero comics have ever been blessed with, and that Perez, despite a handful of strong designs, never quite equalled him.

Nice to be back I started #193 last week, but got a couple of pages in and was feeling a bit >meh< (generally really).

I should say that I think I picked these issues up almost last out of all of the Legion. I've probably read some of these once before. I didn't recall this one much at all. I don't think I find Bates' writing as strong as some of the others on the Legion.

Not to compare Perez & Cockrum, but I think the Perez quote was around Scarlet Witch from that Avengers run you like so much Fickles. His point being that a number of artists prefer simpler, less fussy, designs.

Artists with the level of imagination and dedication of Cockrum are few and far between. Actually the Legion seems to find a few of them.

Glad to learn you're feeling better.



I think part of it was that he was still young and finding his feet at the time. Another part of it was that Boltinoff was too conservative an editor (and according to Cockrum, Boltinoff got more conservative in relation to the Legion's growing success, as if the editor was afraid that taking more chances might somehow jinx the book.) Bates went on to write some fine stuff in the 80s (I particularly like his 50-issue run on Captain Atom, although that was a heavily collaborative effort, which might have helped.)

It stood for Energy Release Generator, though perhaps Bates intended it to have a double meaning.

For me, it's only about 40 years old but according to wiki, "erg" had been a unit measure of energy for about 150 years so I'm pretty sure it was an intentional word play. Still prefer "Wildfire" though.


Interestingly "erg" was derived from the ancient Greek for "work" (energy per unit time) while "Tyr" was a one-handed Norse God. Those comic book guys were all over the ancient form of wiki called "dictionary."

197 . . .

This was only the fourth Legion story I ever read, and the first of the Bates/Cockrum era. My original copy is all tattered and torn, a fragile relic from that bygone summer of 1973. I remember that it had been some time since I'd seen the last issue of the Legion's old reprint series, so, when I walked into a 7-11 and saw this cover on the magazine stand, I came as close to bliss as an almost ten-year-old can get.

So, does the story hold up after all these years? Yes, yes, and no.

Yes . . . because it demonstrates that Bates was a master plotter. He gets us into the story immediately by bridging the gap between Superboy's world and the Legion's. New readers were treated to a familiar sight of Lana and Clark hanging out on a hill and, then--in a moment of teenage wonder and angst--she demands he kiss her. Just in the nick of time, Clark's silent Legion alarm goes off, and he dumps her--or, rather, dumps apples on her head to knock her out. (Very uncharitable and dangerous in terms of possible brain damage.) Then it's off to the 30th century, where Superboy finds the "crisis" he was called to help with is actually a cause for celebration.

Timber Wolf's "return" makes a wonderful introduction to his new feral appearance and costume, as well as an introduction to the Legion itself. The half-page spread of the Legionnaires coming out of hiding is one of my favorite shots of the team ever--made even more so by the fact that not all of the Legionnaires are present. (Some must have been on missions.) It's a wonderful image that creates that feeling of family and celebration so many of us love about the Legion.

Yes . . . because of the number of excellent scenes and story telling techniques, as Fanfie points out above. Things happen very quickly: The president arrives, Brin tries to kill him, Mon and Superboy subdue Brin . . . and all of this is just in Part 1. None of it feels rushed. In fact, there is a palpable sense of danger and concern for what has just happened. Brin tried to kill the president. Even as a nine-year-old, I knew his actions should have enormous repercussions for him. I felt for Brin, who was clearly not in control of his actions, and for Mon and Kal, who couldn't understand why their buddy had become a homicidal maniac.

And I've always loved the manner in which Superboy and Mon save the president: by stretching Superboy's cape into a wide circle around the whirling Timber Wolf and prez. It's one of those imaginative solutions that just works in a comic book.

The tone of Part 2 is noticeably different from Part 1. The danger apparently over, Brainy is lulled into pronouncing everything fine and even Superboy takes off. Our action story then becomes a spy drama as the still brainwashed Brin ("The Zuunian Candidate," perhaps?) seeks to destroy the Legion with only Saturn Girl standing in the way.

Most of this is very well done (though it's mighty convenient that a ricocheted shot returns Brin to his senses), and the story ends with an unexpected and highly suspenseful cliffhanger. All well and good so far.

No . . . although the plot is top notch, the script is kind of meh. Legionnaires appear and disappear as the plot demands, and there is no character development. In fact, most of the dialogue is interchangeable. Imra's confrontation with Tyr, for example, is nothing more than a lengthy exposition which tells us little we don't already know.

I also found myself wishing that the cover scene--in which several Legionnaires gang up on Brin--had appeared in the story. I understand why only Superboy and Mon-El went after Brin--it's a much tighter and controlled action scene--but for a team that calls itself a "legion," it would be nice to see more of the members actually involved in the story instead of serving as background fodder.

"Timber Wolf: Dead Hero, Live Executioner" is good for what it is. But, after doing our reviews of the latter-day Adventure and Action runs, I found myself longing for the nuanced characterization of Shooter. Even as a nine-year-old, I felt the ending was lacking something, even though I couldn't wait for the next issue.

Excellent review, He Who. I always love it when a poster shares his or her own reminisces of the circumstances surrounding that particular comic being discussed. And I think it's awesome that you still have your original copy, tattered or otherwise.

I didn't mention the apples because I felt it was just one of countless examples of Superdickery.

I agree that we should have seen at least several members of the Legion attack Brin en masse. That they did not probably relates to what Cockrum said about Bates not liking to use large groups of Legionnaires.

I love learning about the personalities of the creators and how they influenced the final product. I can certainly see how Bates and Cockrum's different sensibilities clashed.

Yeah, and we'll see an even more ridiculous example of Bates' reticence when we get to # 200.

Superboy 195

He’s determined, stubborn and borders on being plain rude. That’s Mon El telling Drake he’s not Legion material. Those Adventure traits still show through in the established Legionnaires.

I was never a huge fan of Wildfire’s personality. In the issues when I started reading the Legion, he was over confident, rude, caught in a repetitive scene loop with Dawny and was often reduced to an energy blob in fights to get him out of the way.
But when he’s done well, his personality is a refreshing counter point to the others. He’ll become a challenge to the way most of the Legionnaires conduct themselves. He can be every bit as rude as Mon El shows here. But while the Adventure members border on the brutal to applicants, it’s Wildfire who works most closely with them later on.

I had seen Wildfire’s origin a couple of times through flashbacks etc. before I got to read this issue. His personality can be seen from his stance in the first page. Overconfident jock? Or perhaps overcompensating for being a bag of energy? There’s some depth and doubt there right from the start.

Drake’s very much a Marvel hero. Great powers, but with matching physical/ mental scars to go with them. It’s the portrayal of a man who willingly faces death having only just escaped it’s certainty to gain his powers.

Cockrum’s art reflects this all nicely. We see everyone’s powers in a new uniform. We see Drake’s Marvel angst at not being able to reveal his unique power. This is later paid off with the “I must use…The Power!” line. Mon El whirling round from possible resentment at Drake’s power levels to Chuck’s mission announcement is also a good panel. Eltro is settling into Lar’s psyche nicely.

I prefer Drake to another character with some Marvel pedigree, Timberwolf. Bates operates on a slightly more mature level. Drake doesn’t go down the sulky adolescent outsider who can’t be loved, yet strangely is, route. Tinya backs Drake’s application, but manages not to pine over him for the rest of the run, as Ayla did Brin. We do get the new kid trying to prove himself to be good enough to get on the team trope though.

Note that Drake’s introduction is cut away from to show a vital appearance of a variation on EDE’s cap. But that’s not the only fashion show in town. Is that Tinya and Gim in new togs? Tinya’s look certainly lasted as did variations on Gim’s. Overstayed their time in Tinya’s case really, but a positive change for a lot of years.

At the announcement of a terrible eating machine on Manna-5, I flip back to the start to see if Tenzil was at Drake’s try out. He…wasn’t!

Poor Condo. Splaaccking away at the machine when he should have been using his power to disrupt that giant reaction that we can all see so clearly.

The Legionnaires are pushed aside by the Devourer (not Tenzil) all too easily to make Wildfire look good. Gim fares particularly poorly. While Condo’s powers are often inconsistent, it’s a bit hard to believe everyone builds machines to stop people from Phantom Girl’s planet. They’ll all be using Kryptonite in absolutely everything next…oh.
Cockrum’s rendering of Drake’s rumpled costume was the inspiration of so many similar scenes in the future.

Looking at Tinya’s tears, I wonder if there were any plans to make Drake a rival to Jo for her affections. They do share some similarities.

You do wonder how much of a one shot hero Erg actually was. The memorial that they intend to build for him would be an important part of a future appearance.

The backups have often provided us with a look at a handful of members. Since Wildfire was a member when I started reading, seeing him get so much spotlight here didn’t seem odd. So it’s a pretty decent issue. The foe isn’t the greatest, but serves its purpose in getting Wildfire to sacrifice himself.

It’s something Drake would end up doing again in the future providing a character circle, if not an arc. In the 5YG he would sacrifice himself to prevent our sun destabilising. I think it involved our friend from recent re-reads Doctor Regulus.

So TMK get some points for picking that out. Of course, Drake’s strength of personality meant that he really needed to be moved out of the way for the run to work. While beset with personal issues, he doesn’t have the flaws that allowed the team to slip from the grasp of the likes of Dirk and Brek. Nor does he have the valid distractions that took Imra, Querl and Reep away. In a back handed way, it shows what an important character Drake would become for the team. Not bad for a “One-Shot Hero!”

That run worked?? News to me.

All joking aside, there's some thoughts I've had recently on that run, and, no, they're not entirely negative. I'll share them in another thread to keep this one on topic.

By "for the run to work" I was really referring to them dismantling the team.

He became too much of a mainstay to just fade into the background. His outlook was too strong avoid a confrontation. So, they needed a solution and I guess touring the galaxy with Dawny in a Quislet-shown Erg-Bod wasn't on the cards. Perhaps that was out because they had come up with Bounty by that point.

Mon really does come as a jerk in these stories, and, even though he's always been my favorite Legionnaire, I'm fine with that. It's refreshing to learn something new about these characters.




Wonderful breakdown of Drake's attributes. I was never a fan of his, either, partly because of his abrasive personality, but also because there was a large amount of wish fulfillment in my choices for favorites. Who wants to be a bag of energy?

But he did contribute much to the Legion by challenging, and in some cases upsetting, the status quo. You're absolutely right that he was a Marvel hero, saddled with a sense of tragedy--something no other Legionnaire had before his time.



Nah. Tinya is just weepy. She also sheds tears for Lyle in 203.

I do like the fact that she is sympathetic towards Drake and becomes friends with Lyle because of their similar powers. She's just a nice person who is comfortable around boys in a platonic sense--one of those "hidden" traits I'm picking up on.



In 197, there is a bit of dialogue in which the Legionnaires express their fear that Timber Wolf had died like Ferro Lad and ERG-1. This is an odd reference since ERG wasn't a Legionnaire (though it would later be said that he was made an honorary Legionnaire posthumously). The only reason to mention him here, so far as I can see, is to keep his name in the reader's mind. This suggests that his return was planned all along.

Or just a nod to a person that they'd just fought along side, who had died saving one of their own. That bit of dialogue never occurred to me as "odd" but rather a nice bit of continuity without necessarily any implication.


From what is said about how these books are written and put together, I think they might have had a lot of flexibility. It could have been planned from the beginning to bring him back or as a one and done but when fan response came in overwhelmingly positive, they might have had plenty of time to readjust and come up with a reason and means to bring him back. I wouldn't think it the first time they've written in response to fan wishes.


Yeah, the personality was grating but the look, dynamic!


Is there anything from the writers themselves on the topic?

Re: #197, the apples always bugged me. It's spring in Smallville, and the apples are ripe. Maybe Smallville got moved to New Zealand in a previous Superboy story. Such a small point, but that's what sticks in the mind. I still like the President in bell bottoms, though.

HWW underlines how the tone of the story changes with Part 2, which I think makes it a more satisfying story. The mystery of Timber Wolf's return in Part 1 is not just accepted; the Legionnaires are suspicious and trying to find out what's really going on.

The constant surveillance of all rooms in HQ is sort of creepy. There's a lot of surveillance in the Legion stories that I never gave much thought to at the time, but in the light of the present day, lends a different tone to their 30th century.

Lately, I've become interested in Saturn Girl, how independent and tough she has been portrayed throughout Legion history. In this story, she's knocked out; when she returns to consciousness, but still flat on the ground, she manages to give Tyr an angry look and just talk right back to him. (However, the text says "she can only look dazedly" - she looks pretty focused to me.) Also, she's the one who remembers that the self-destruct detonator is still on.

I wonder if this mind control that TW underwent could be linked to his later Lotus addiction.

I'd forgotten the details about Drake's demise. Tom B. has written that he didn't really like Wildfire's brash personality. Moving him out of the story altogether was one way to deal with that, but as you point out, it was an interesting closing of the circle.

Your comments do make me consider if, in a different universe, Wildfire could have kept a Legion together had he lived.

I very much believe he could have.

It's the vagaries of the Pocket Universe.



Yeah, that was kind of creepy. It would have made more sense if they had simply said they were monitoring Brin for any changes in his behavior, but that's not how it comes across. Voyeurism, apparently, is a legitimate security policy in the 30th century.



Imra does acquit herself quite well in this story.

I think Drake would struggle to deal with an Earthgov that operates to turn the public and legislation against the Legion.

However, I also think he would have probably been fairly proactive about his suspicions and forced a confrontation far more than the Legion actually did.

Perhaps he would have assumed the leadership role and used the Espionage squad. But had he not sacrificed himself perhaps Earthgov would have some up with another way of removing him from the team. Definitely one for a "What if the Legion had found evidence of the Dominators at the start of the 5YG" tale.

I suspect that's one reason he needed to be taken off the table in order for the 5YG plot to work.

^True dat.

Superboy 197

I was a little surprised at this being the next cover. I’ve had this one for a long time. It must be one of the earliest back issues I got. I must admit, I don’t remember much about it.

LW Ad: “Awkward date? Annoying Companion? Try Concussion! New from Krinn Fragrances.”

The Lang/Kent relationship looks to have advanced rather suddenly. Tune in for next month’s teenage pregnancy issue where Lana says “How could I know my Bio Ring would give us 1000 drone Kryptonian spawn!”

Speaking of concussion, the back story on Brin left me feeling like I’d missed an issue. A pretty bad issue, mind you, with a giant space bird and pointless explosion. But still.

Recalling Mon-El’s attitude last issue, he looks particularly evil and paranoid here. There’s a viewing room that can monitor every room in the HQ, including personal quarters? Yikes! Eltro seems to be taking advantage of it. I wonder who he was looking at before he switched to Brin as Superboy walked in? Note the classical sculpture (borrowed from Dirk’s collection) of a deep thinker in Brin’s room. Someone with a sense of humour?

Cockrum goes Cosmic on page 6, as Brin is overcome by mental commands. For longer time readers, this is clearly not the work of a villain but just another flash of Lotus Fruit withdrawal.
Cockrum’s art on the mind control panels is really well done.

I do remember groaning at the use of super capes to solve the situation. There’s a lost cover showing Jimmy Olsen rejected as Elastic Lad because he duplicates the powers of Superboy Cape Kid which is elected in his place. Looking back, at least Bates didn’t flinch from having Mon-El and Superboy tackle the problem. We’re spared a protracted fight scene. And the story moves on at a good pace.

Although it’s a short battle it, and the cover, are good reminders of Brin’s strength. He’s often shown as being agile or the books focus on his feral traits. But he’s immensely strong too. Cockrum brings all of Brin’s abilities to life visually this issue. It’s quite a contrast from the loner issues and the lovelorn Ayla putting up with him.

All of the art in this issue is a treat. The size of Tyr (whose French moustache is also rumoured to be sentient and detachable); the technology in the HQ and the action that leaps off the panel like a Timberwolf jumping at a self-destruct panel.

Timberwolf gets to redeem himself by defeating Tyr in another satisfyingly short contest. However, it’s at the expense of Imra. She’s smart enough to have suspected something was amiss. But instead of alert other Legionnaires to their problem she provides the reader with exposition.

Tyr’s plot is a bit of a stretch. Find Astral Vulture; Train it to menace shipping in a certain area; Hope that Legionnaires will visit; Hope that one of them isn’t invulnerable; Miraculously capture them more effectively than Superboy can rescue them; Double brainwash them and send them back home; Have intimate knowledge of Brainy’s treatment to ensure that only single brainwashing can be removed.

Superboy doesn’t seem to have grasped time travel. He doesn’t have to go back to a groggy Lana Lang. He can go back to whenever he likes.

For a second consecutive issue we get a look at a Marvelesque character in the Legion.

“Our pal’s become a savage mad-man with a killer instinct says Mon-El of Timberwolf in September 1973. Just over a year later, a certain pointy clawed psycho would make his first appearance at Marvel.

Brin’s mental state has always been an issue. From the days where he believed he was an android through his Lotus Fruit addiction to the Zuunium radiation changing both his mind and body. For all his power, he’s never comfortable in himself in the way he probably thinks that Superboy or Mon-El are. Both his time as an android and his feral characteristics mark him out as a loner in a group bound by common goals and companionship. I think these differences reinforce the sometimes awkward relationships he has with some of the other members, not least Ayla.

While Cockrum rightly gets plaudits for shaping the look of this future, Bates is also bringing in some fresh ideas to the characters to boost the book’s popularity.

A very good observation, Thoth. That's probably why I found Brin's bromance with Blok so moving -- here was somebody he could actually connect with, albeit with layers of distance and bantering, but still...



At this point, Cockrum was contributing a lot to the scripts, so the lines get hazy as to who came up with the good stuff. Judging by the decline Bates went into shortly after Cockrum's departure, my guess would be that most of the good stuff was Cockrum's.

Superboy 198

The cover shows Superboy falling victim to the Persuader’s atomic axe. The villain’s mental control over the weapon makes it look as though Superboy is about to kill himself. Getting others to do the work is probably why the Persuader looks a little paunchy on the cover.

The splash panel continues to give Validus sized hints about the villains, killing Superboy in one timeline and removing the Legion HQ in another. This could be that by killing the boy of steel in the 20th century there would be no inspiration to base the Legion on in the future. Let’s see how many notes Levitz and Byrne were taking on this issue when they wrote themselves into a similar corner years later.

Lana continues to do all the work to try and get Clark to make a move. This time it’s to try and hold hands on the scary rides. The Swamp Thing and Man Thing guarding the ride is a nice touch.

There’s a gorilla diversion, possibly due to DC still hoping that the appearance of one will shift some issues. Then it’s onto the real plot. The Fatal Five have infiltrated the carnival. The emerald eye has been seen over Smallville and it’s not long before Clark unmasks the fortune teller as the Emerald Empress. There’s a nice human touch about seeing the Persuader go to the aid of his colleague. Once again, the Five are more than your standard villain team. They work well together, are all threats in their own right and clearly have a plan.

The plan involves something called a Time-Sorter, presumably going for the result we saw in the splash panel. For a change, the implications of the cover really do come true. Superboy hits himself in the head with the Persuader’s axe. We see an energy outline of this to protect the readers sensibilities. Can’t have little Timmy the Reader trying to borrow Dad’s axe to try out the panels here. With Superboy defeated, three of the five swear an oath and tell the reader that their next target is the Legion.

I groaned a little at the thought of the Five working in a carnival. But actually, it works just fine with the pacing leaving us with some worries for the Legion’s future if their most powerful member is beaten. Has the Empress removed him from the timestream by capturing him here?

At the start of part two the Legion, aware of the Five’s plans to travel to Smallville, arrive in the aftermath of the battle. They talk to an upset Lana Lang. It would seem that there’ won’t be any Insect Queen appearance, which is a shame.

It’s good to note that the Legion have different cultural values. Take Jan for instance. He’s wearing his new outfit, that was supposed to be for Colossal Boy. We’ll learn more about the spiritual nature of Trom more under Levitz. But we get a glimpse here that he has a different view on matter, energy and life. Superboy may be dead, but he doesn’t let any anxiety get in the way of getting himself some candy floss.

Back to in the future, Mon-El just has time to sort out some continuity regarding the gap since the Five’s last appearance before the HQ and everyone in it disappear. A gloating, and half melted form last time, Tharok gloats as their time based plan.

Looking at the way the Five utilise time travel to destroy the Legion, you wonder what the true motives of the Time Trapper are. He could easily have removed the Legion from history at many points, but has chosen not to do so. It’s those sorts of motives that lead to theories such as the Legion being the Trapper’s creation or that the Trapper is either Rokk or Rond.

In Smallville the Legion encounter the Five who look to kill of the last of the organisation that has thwarted their plans so often. For a couple of pages, it looks bleak for the heroes. Brianiac is about to fall to the Atomic Axe, Mano looks to disintegrate Element Lad and Jeckie and Val are no match for the Emerald Eye. But sadly, the villains can’t stop telling everyone their plans in a massive fit of comic book gloating. The Legionnaires manage to escape. Val manages to shatter the Emerald Eye along the way. It may have been only for a moment, but it shows the power of both combatants. He also failed to see his own comic series during the time bubble travels as he says the 20th century wasn’t his specialty.

They look down from a hill outside Smallville. Jan tells them that “our Legion is dead…and we’re stranded here forever.” Considering his last attempt, I imagine he states this matter of factly. His head is bowed at the thought of no more candy floss in the future. The stranded Legionnaires, cut off in time from an immense threat reminds me of the classic first appearance of Mordru. The stakes are clearly very high in this adventure.

Two things do cross my mind. If The Legion no longer exist due to the removal of their inspiration, why to the foundations of their building still exist. Also, why are the four Legionnaires still there at all. They never joined a team that never was.

The only other character I can think of with costume studs other than Element Lad is Libra. Considering Jan’s coolness here, I can begin to imagine a time traveling Element Lad/ Libra/ Progenitor adventure.

With things so bleak, part three quickly establishes some hope. Mano appears in the future, having been delayed. But if he’s there, then who’s the Mano back in Smallville? Readers of the roll call will know. But by the time the Persuader and Empress find out their Time Sorter has been discovered. There’s some good use of the Legionnaires powers, as well as the terror a Validus sighting brings, in destroying the device. Cockrum’s art brings the countdown to life. Karate Kid’s previous use of his power against the eye turns out to have been to establish how he gets to the device and end the threat. In another nice touch, a different two of the Five escape this time.

Once again, the Fatal Five were not beaten in battle. Their plan may have failed but they still retain a threat. Although Mano being late to turn up is only one of the steps that will take him down a few rungs beneath the others.

We learn that Brainy had sent Cham ahead to find out the Five’s plans. Since the others arrived to try to save their friend you wonder why they arrived later. Perhaps that explains Brainy’s reluctance to provide details right back at the start. But there’s no explanation as to why Brainy knew that Mano had been delayed.

It’s great to see the story stretch out to book length. The three parts worked nicely. Cockrum’s art let the story shine. Looking back, the futuristic technology, his ability to capture everyone’s movements well, and the flourishes such as the countdown are all there. But I was following the story more than I was diverted from it by the art, which is a good thing. The colouring in my issue isn’t very good and age doesn’t seem to have helped it any.

On characters, I’ve mentioned Jan above. Brainy assessed the threat, the impending danger to both Superboy and the team, and arranged a time travelling plan accordingly. The Five’s plan was no push over and he showed the level of his practical intelligence in the field. Intelligence is much like science skills in comics. They can be applied across every field interchangeably. So, you can see why Brainy inevitably became so indispensable.

Val and Jeckie got some nice panels, both in action and in reaffirming their love when it looked as though the group would be abandoned. Karate Kid’s own title was only a few years away, and this is one relationship that will develop.

Uh...Thoth, we weren't supposed to get to 198 until Tuesday.

There's a timeline on these? I had no idea. Mind you, I had no idea about Wednesday being comic day for years either.

Just pretend it's not there until then. That gives you a whole day to work on fake surprised expressions for when you see it for the "first" time.

LOL Right.

Until then...

SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 198

This is, to my mind, the high point of the Cockrum/Bates run. With a whole issue's worth of space, we get a more expansive plot, and we get to see three-fifths of the Fatal Five really strut their stuff, especially my beloved Emerald Empress. It's nice to see Chameleon Boy's power used so cleverly, and to see Brainiac 5 being one step ahead of the villains. The story's not flawless -- I'm still not sure what the point of the funhouse scene was, and the ending, with the holding cell materializing around the villains, is just silly -- but overall, it's a sterling example of top-level creative craftsmanship.

LOL That's as good an explanation as any.



Very well said.



Another good observation.



LOL Yeah, there's a whole thread about that somewhere in the forums.

It's beautiful to look at.
The story, best said, along the lines of the Batman TV series, which was fine and fun. Roll-eyes are watch where you stand when time reverts to normal but again, just good fun.

Can't wait to read Thoth's thoughts on this issue.

None at the moment. But if I get any, I'll pop back in the time bubble and post them last Sunday for you.

198 is the high point of the Bates/Cockrum era for me, as well. It's a masterfully done story that makes good use of the Legionnaires it features and establishes the Fatal Five as serious threats.

I remember picking this issue up at a local drug store called Shanin's. I loved the cover with its left-side border showing the Legionnaires' faces. (The Doom Patrol and a few other DC comics from that era used the same design.) Inside, I was disappointed that the story didn't follow from the Tyr cliff-hanger of last issue, but I quickly overcame that disappointment.

The series is still "Superboy starring ..." so it's fitting that Part 1 takes place in Superboy's time and features his relationship with Lana. There's the usual "How can I save Lana without revealing who I am?" scenario, but it doesn't take very long. Then the tone shifts as Clark realizes the Gypsy fortune teller is really the Emerald Empress.

I think the story does a great job of showing that both the heroes and villains are formidable. Superboy confronts the Empress, the Persuader joins the fray, and Superboy gets the upper hand . . . for a moment. It is horrifying when Superboy realizes he cannot control the atomic axe or keep from striking himself. Even with his image "yellowed" out, it is still a horrific image.

Pretty much everything works in this story, including the mystery over the time sorter, the violent confrontation between Jan/Brainy and Persuader/"Mano," Cham's infiltration, and the countdown (though the latter repeats the same story-telling device used in 197). Some of the villains escape at the end, and some don't. It was not a predictable or contrived story but one which flowed organically out of the characters and the situation they found themselves in.

There are a few missteps, of course. My main beef is the exposition, which is especially heavy during the Mon-El/Colossal Boy scene. As I've grown older, few things irritate me more than characters telling each other things they should already know. On the other hand, the exposition is handled much better later in the story when it is divided between Empress and the Persuader and "Mano" gloating as they attack the Legionnaires. These scenes illustrate the importance of keeping things moving.

There are also the usual problems associated with time travel stories, but Cockrum makes the best of it. Yes, it makes no sense that the foundations of Legion HQ would remain intact, but those are powerful visuals! I'm also not bothered by Tharok and Mano standing in the jail when the HQ rematerialized--what wonderful irony! (I do wonder, though, who slapped the hand-thingy on Mano to prevent him from disintegrating his way out of there.)

All in all, this is very tightly plotted and well controlled tale that allows some room for the characters to express themselves. It tells a satisfying story that honors the capabilities of both the Legionnaires and their enemies with the stakes being very high indeed.

Cheers, He Who.



Agreed 100%.



Exactly.



And again, agreed 100%.

One of the things that left me scratching my head upon re-reading the story was Brainy's line about questioning witnesses. No doubt that's how he and Jan confirmed that the Fatal Five were involved, but if I lived in 1950s middle America and some green-skinned guy were questioning me, I doubt I'd be very cooperative. I'd be thinking back to Orson Welle's "War of the Worlds" broadcast and wondering if it was a hoax, after all.

I'm alright with standing my moral high ground in the face of authority but I draw a line at aliens. That green skin might be exactly why I'd cooperate, presuming I hadn't already fainted.

Middle of a pretty good arc of stories, anyone read these when they originally came out?

I did.

Like them more, less, about the same, just as much but differently?

Brainy just put some antennae on and pretended he was a Martian. The main thing is to make sure he tells the locals he's an anti-commie Martian.

At least it's something the locals could relate to. Convincing them he was the descendant of a super villain who was also an alien from the future would be too much.

Or he could just get the seemingly cold Candy Floss Kid to threaten the information from them...

To be fair, this is Smallville, where the people are no strangers to random alien visitation.

Imagine a Smallville resident going into a big city like Metropolis or Astro City. What a let down that must be.

"Y'call that an alien invasion from dimension X? Why, back in '53 we..."

The exchange over Brainy's alienness reminded me of one of the reasons why people's reactions to him wouldn't matter--at least to readers. In the next panel (Panel 2 of Page 10), the four Legionnaires and Lana are standing around in a circle while other people look on. One boy points at them and seems to be touching his head in a mocking way or whispering to the girl next to him.

I think it's very powerful image. It shows that the Legionnaires are truly special, even a thousand years out of time, and they don't much care what random passersby think of them. There's a wonderful sense that they are dealing with something much more important to them than the opinions of random strangers (which, of course, they are). You either belong in their circle (as Lana does) or you don't. As a nine-year-old, I wanted to belong.

The Legion conveys authority in these panels. Never mind the logic of who they are and why they would be questioning witnesses. (One can only imagine what passersby made of Jan's long hair and Jeckie's revealing costume.) These scenes simply work on an emotional level, particularly if you're nine.

I'd never really thought about it, but I wonder if it is common knowledge in Smallville that Superboy travels to the future and adventures with the Legion? Apparently by the time he's an adult his Legion membership has an exhibit devoted to it in the Superman museum, and the Legionnaires do make infrequent but periodic visits to Smallville. So they might simply recognize Brainy as one of the Legionnaires and not find it at all odd that he is there.

You can probably get away with a lot at a carnival, strange costumes, green makeup, superhero fights.

If the story were being written today, the Smallville residents' reaction to the Legionnaires might be addressed in some detail. That sort of thing, not to mention the presence of Superboy himself, would have to change your perspective on life and the future of Earth. It's funny how people just accepted aliens and the assorted mayhem that accompanied them - must be that solid, stoic heart of America at work.

I always enjoyed this story for its character details, Jan eating the cotton candy and sniping at Val and Jeckie, the time devices (the bridger, sorter and trans-time radio) never seen again, and the diversion of the two Manos.

Good point, FC. I'm sure their disappearance could easily tie into the whole Time Trapper/Pocket Universe thing, but I've never been a fan of that, so I'll settle for the more mundane explanation that the writer and editor were too stodgy to bring them back.

Were there Legion visits in the Smallville tv show? How'd the handle it there, with family I mean. They know these were teens from the future?

There were three instances of Legionnaires visiting in the Smallville TV show (the founders, Cos a second time, and then Brainy). In each instance, the Legionnaires were secluded from others or in Brainy's case, froze time. The founders wandered the most freely in the past but they tried (more or less) to blend in and no one seemed to notice them despite their vivid colored leather outfits. Lana and Chloe were the only ones who knew who they were aside from Clark, and by then they weren't really fazed by super-people.

This is sort of a side issue, but thinking about all those great Cockrum redesigns, why were some looks changed and other costumes kept the same? I don't think Brainy or Mon-el's look changed until the reboot.

According to Cockrum, he had to sneak a lot of the new costumes past Murray Boltinoff, the editor he worked under at the time, who would publicly discourage him from changing Legionnaires' costumes, yet privately let Cockrum get away with the costume changes most of the time.

SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 199

A double shot of Legion stories here. Unfortunately, neither one is that good, a real letdown after the steady improvements over the course of the last three issues.

The first one, following up on a loose end from 197, does get points for anticipating Levitz's 80s masterpiece, the Universo project, by having the least powerful Legionnaires be the ones to save the day through cleverness and teamwork. But Tyr's sentient mechanical gun is an underwhelming villain, and it detracts from Tyr's credibility as a once-promising new villain. Kudos to Cockrum, though, for keeping things exciting thanks to the high-octane intensity of his artwork, possibly the most dynamic he ever got on the Legion, which is saying a lot.

The second one focuses on Bouncing Boy, a character I like very much, but his always-problematic powers are not well-used IMO, and having him triumph thanks to a super-sneeze is just silly. On the other hand, I have no problem with the Hunter's much-mocked look (exposed chest, facial hair, and pigtails). What is says to me is that whatever his other failings as a sentient, he's very secure in his masculinity to go around looking like that.

This predates the Eye really having the Empress, not the other way around. If that was cool, then this even more-so for the originality




The "gun" is AMAZING! Its a complete gotcha. It's not the man, it's the gun. Okay, the gun doesn't look as cool as the Eye and Tyr doesn't look as cool as the Empress but it does predate that story. Tyr is visually cool but otherwise, just another body. What is there to do with that that hasn't been done a million other times? I think it was a great twisty-turn.

I'd have followed up with a story that showed all guns were iconic images of this "race" of beings and.... okay, that would probably come off really dumb but I'd do it anyhow.


The second story, another "The Most Dangerous Game" knock-off is a story to show anyone can be a hero. That always felt good to read amongst the SUPERheroes and I didn't find it any sillier in execution than 198 so a fun read all around.

It's always good to read this sort of comment from you HWW, as you connect with the Legionnaires in a way I don't. Really good spot about everyone in that panel with the circle. I don't recall too many civilians in further panels. It's as if they just fade away as the super reality of the Legion and the Fatal Five take precedence. Well, or Cockrum just didn't want the clutter, but I like the first one.



That strange, slightly scary step into the unknown that's appeared in a setting once familiar. Is the carnival a reference to Lana & Clark's advancing relationship in these issues? Anyone care to comment on Gorilla symbolism. I'd ask Olsen, but I think he's still on his honeymoon with one.

Thanks, thoth.

199:

The sequel to the Tyr story is indeed a letdown, but only slightly. I feel there is much to laud in the story, including the fact that the gun-hand is so incredibly dangerous that it's easy to underestimate, as Kal certainly did.

The first page establishes it as a credible threat--something that is out there, somewhere, waiting to act. It traps the Legionnaires in their headquarters with a single beam from orbit. Later, when Superboy shows up bearing the gun-hand on his own wrist, it's a terrifying moment, one in which all of the Legionnaires' hopes have been dashed.

The letdowns involve the plot being too easily resolved, and the rather pat lesson that even the "weakest" Legionnaires have something to contribute. It's nice that Jeckie learns this lesson (meaning someone has changed as a result of the story), but it comes across as heavy-handed, much more so than in the second story which builds on the same theme.

The art is good but awkward in places. Brainy's expression on Page 5 made me wonder if he'd just eaten a piece of sour candy. Dream Girl's hourglass figure two pages later is a bit too much like an hourglass, with a super-thin waist. One wonders how she stays upright.

For that matter, Nura and Thom contribute little to the story. Nura does pick up (inadvertently) on Tyr's escape attempt, and Thom appears to fly up to catch the villain--though whether he succeeds is not shown. (Perhaps Thom missed.) Both could be dropped from the story without affecting it much; their new costumes, however, are sure nice to look at.

I've written before of my admiration for "The Impossible Target." I think it's a wonderful story and probably one of the best Legion backups ever. Chuck's situation is truly dire: He is on his own, hunted by a deranged killer, and his only defense is his somewhat silly power (the reason Orion Jr. targeted him in the first place). But Chuck has one other weapon: his wits.

He dives into that icy pond on purpose because he hopes it will give him a cold. He is counting on this extreme long shot to give him an advantage in the anti-gravity chamber--and it works! The single panel of him ricocheting off the cavern walls and landing on top of Orion is brilliantly executed. And Orion's reaction --"I-I can't believe it!"-- says it all!

"The Impossible Target," more than any other single story, demonstrates the value of believing in oneself, no matter what one's gifts or talents may be. The fact that Chuck maintains a sense of humor throughout adds another dimension by showing he doesn't have to take himself or his situation too seriously.

Julie Schwarz (I think) said something about sales rising every time there was a gorilla on the cover. It was a popular trope and maybe Lana was intended to be a new Fay Wray. (I wonder if there was ever a case of a carnival/zoo gorilla escaping and chasing a pretty young woman which inspired that.) Of course, it could have been Chameleon Boy arriving early and just having some fun.

Jimmy marrying a gorilla might cause an outcry in certain circles today, i.e. the people who say that gay marriage will lead to people marrying their dogs. Maybe people could enjoy silliness more back then.

Bouncing Boy does come off admirably in this story - as well in many others. His power is silly (I agree with FFL that the sneeze is pretty foolish) but he's seldom (if ever?) treated like a joke as Tenzil Kem is.

I wrote a short essay for the Klordny APA on Chuck titled "Citizen Taine" which addressed how he's the everyman hero. He does succeed on his wits rather than brute strength, he's ever optimistic and he gets the girl through true love and devotion - a quiet character worthy of our respect.

Sounds like an interesting essay, FC. Care to reprint it on LW?

As we've been doing these re-reads of the Superboy run, it strikes me that Chuck is the only Legionnaire who comes across as a distinct personality so far--and in a single story, at that. (Well, Drake does, too, but he's not a Legionnaire yet.) It could be because Bates was more comfortable writing solo heroes than teams--hence his decade-plus run on The Flash. Or it could be because of Chuck's everyman quality, which makes him easier to develop in a story such as this.

FC, I second He Who's suggestion of reprinting your essay on LW.

And I think He Who raises an interesting point -- at some point (in my opinion it was in the later issues of the Adventure Era) the Legionnaires became blank slates at the mercy of the writers' whims. Take my favorite member, Shadow Lass -- in her first appearance in the second Fatal Five story, she's strong and capable, while in the first Mordru story she's a bubblehead who accidentally releases the most dangerous sentient in the universe. I'm still convinced that this had a negative effect on fans' perceptions of her, which resulted in her becoming one of the most unfairly neglected Legionnaires. Chuck and Drake were arguably the only ones whose personality arrived fully formed, and even then Drake would occassionally be mis-characterized by Jim Shooter (who is on record as disliking Drake) and Gerry Conway. It wasn't until Levitz's second run that the Legionnaires personalities were set in stone -- for better and for worse.

Here's what I wrote back in 2010, when Levitz had started writing the Legion again. I'm posting it as I wrote it, but see I erroneously thought a powerless Chuck met Adam Orion - must have been thinking of some other story.

Citizen Taine


Bouncing Boy/Chuck Taine has been on my mind lately. We only saw him, with Lu, briefly, but we know he's alive, well and working with the Academy. No doubt a lot of Legion fans were pleased with that, since he seems to have a particular fan base, without him necessarily being anyone's favourite character.


His name crops up in the oddest places when people write or podcast about the future, or superheroes; they may have only a vague knowledge of The Legion, but they remember Bouncing Boy. It was just such a number of mentions in the past few weeks that got me thinking about Bouncing Boy.


As a youngster, I was never that concerned with Bouncing Boy and did think his power was pretty lame. It was in revisiting the original stories as an adult that I came to appreciate him. Also, the character had a definite appeal as the guy who kept Legion World running in the DnA era.


I've read a number of comments, by guys, that Chuck got the fantasy bride - two girls in his bed. I've never discussed this with other women, but from my own female perspective, Lu got the fantasy husband: not to do with the sex, but with his great devotion to her. He thinks he's the luckiest guy in the galaxy to have a wife like her, and what woman wouldn't want to be thought of in that way?


Chuck is more than Everyman, he's the best in Everyman. What's not to like about Chuck Taine? He's friendly, adaptable, loyal, courageous; he's got a good marriage and a good, challenging job. He's never had a nervous breakdown or a temper tantrum, never betrayed the Legion, never grandstanded. He's a normal guy who holds his own with the superheroes. He's practical, resourceful, positive; lacking self-pity and always concerned for others. He was ready to die to save Saturn Girl from Computo. He was able to stop in the midst of a Khund attack to calm Mysa down and get her to work her magic.


In the reboot, Chuck was a young architect and eventually became the "building manager" for Legion World. One indication of readers' appreciation of Chuck Taine was the bad reaction to Keith Giffen's issue in which Chuck and Gear bumble around Legion World as futuristic Laurel and Hardy, avoiding work and messing things up. People didn't like a slacker Chuck Taine; they wanted him to be the hero who beat the odds using his common sense.


Bouncing Boy wasn't relegated to the Substitute Heroes, or outright rejected, because he proved himself. He mastered the power he had and showed how it could be used. Even when he lost his power, he could hold his own against Adam (son of Orion) the Hunter.


It was only in reading the online Hero History for Bouncing Boy that I learned that his full name in the reboot was Charles Foster Taine, a take on Orson Welles' Citizen Charles Foster Kane. An interesting touch, but the similarity began and ended with the name, as far as I'm concerned.


Some people have questioned whether the concept of Bouncing Boy was to make fat kids feel good about themselves. Perhaps that was the original intention, but I think the end result was to make all of us, with no superpowers, think about how we could stand with the Legion, if the opportunity arose.


It's been said that Paul Levitz enjoys writing about the Legion Academy. It will be interesting to see if he gives Chuck Taine a prominent role.

Do you think this abuse (for lack of a better word) of characterization was targeted or mismanagement? Unique to Legion or an industry generalization at that time?


I don't recall any of the ADV Legionnaires with strongly and consistently written personalities. They seemed mostly defined by skill set and costume. That is what gave them some consistency.

So thinking on this and trying to recall my observations reading as a kid and rereading as an adult and I'd say as far as Legion, these personalities in my head were based upon an impressions made either by reading message boards or an issue or two that stood out somewhen over the five decades but rarely from ADV.

For the most part, I don't recall the Legionnaires as a whole as having consistently written personalities. Most of it I just made up in my head. Maybe the same for most comics.

The exceptions I recall, Archie and Fantastic Four.


Archie. I could always expect Archie to act and react one way and Jughead and Betty and so on to be consistently written. If someone asked me to describe how Archie behaved, I could give them an answer. Same for the Fantastic Four. Lightning Lad? Not a chance. I might say he's "heroic" because he died and had a fake arm and he shoots lightning. That's not really personality characterization. I wouldn't have any opinion on how he would react if for example, he saw a baby or a kid or whether he was conservative or liberal minded, a happy person or a sad...

Superboy 199

On the cover, Superboy looks suitably terrified at being forced to kill his comrades. Cockrum certainly manages to capture Superboy’s expressions well when he’s faced with cover calamity.
It’s Cockrum’s art that carries this issue.

The opening page deserves special mention again. There’s a lot to capture the readers’ attention. The panels explaining the weapons the Legion have faced, ominously giving the reader an idea of what they are about to encounter; The lovely Earth backdrop, complete with orbiting gun; various captions and sweeping titles to get the reader to spend time taking it all in.

(On the weapons, the Solar Stunner brings up thoughts of assassinations in the training camps of Titan’s telepaths, while the Retro rifle doesn’t vaporise a square mile. It sends it into another Legion ‘Bootverse. At the time Brainy is showing it here, it would transport victims to the Universe where the Legion’s parents were the group’s founders, as per an early issue.)

Cockrum’s shattered panel showing Superboy encountering the hand really stands out.

As is the one showing Tyr creeping along the air duct. I’m reminded of Byrne’s Wolverine in the Hellfire Club sewer that is considered a classic. The technology, the physicality of Tyr (although not utilised much) and the always well rendered, gun hand are also excellent. Another nice panel shows Tyr’s delight at recapturing the gun, only for that expression to carry forward to being on Cham’s face.

Jeckie is possibly at her best drawn in this issue, particularly her hair.

The story itself has an intriguing premise, but has some standard early throw backs to help it along.

We get a traditional excuse for there being 5 Legionnaires in the HQ, although it’s a nice touch that the gun hand waits for Superboy’s departure. It’s not stupid. Today, those Legionnaires with weapons would be released as toy variants.

Did the Legion need Superboy to imprison Tyr? Superboy still hasn’t got the hang of Time Travel, as he feels he’s overdue again, despite being able to pop back to whenever he likes.
Dreamy’s powers are used in a very practical way, pretty much alerting the Legion to Tyr’s escape. This is a link from the days when using her powers caused her to faint to the combat precognition she would later show.

While Dreamy becomes more useful, Jeckie uncharacteristically falls apart. She’s been randomly selected to be this issue’s “character who cracks under pressure.” It’s another throwback that teaches the reader about the power of teamwork to overcome odds.

The dialogue isn’t the best this issue, with it becoming as stock as parts of the plot. Some of this is due to some exposition, but explaining the art seems pointless when Cockrum is involved.

While it’s a far cry from her later Sensor Girl days, I’m reminded of her defeated by the Red Mists in the TMK run, her fears having overwhelmed her. Jeckie does get to play a key part on the gun’s defeat though, to redeem herself. The image of Superboy exceeding the deadly actions of the cover worked even more with pages of ads following it. I fairly raced on to find out what happened. Sorry ads, I shall never know what you offered.

The idea of the gun hand attaining independent sentience is interesting, particularly its determination to upgrade its host. But by the time I first read a Tyr issue, the gun hand was back being his silent partner again. An ongoing struggle between Tyr and his technology would have been interesting.

As with the first appearance of Tyr, there’s a dangling plot point left at the end of this issue Then, it centred on when the gun hand would strike. Now, it’s when will the full Krypoinite laced wardrobe and sewing machine appear. That glove can’t be the only item can it?

On the back up, the resources required to control a group of asteroids to trap Chuck strains credibility. Much like Dr Regulus overly elaborate plot a few issues back.

Likewise, the ability to shrink spacecraft (Imskian tech, perhaps) to gravity nullifying chambers. The chamber is needed because Bates has to have it for the payoff to work. The only kill an Orion ever gets to make is over kill on his set up.

On seeing an icy pool, Chuck deliberately jumps in. He hopes that he will catch a cold. Sniffles that will infect him at just the right rate, to allow him to sneeze at just the right moment to allow an escape. You know, rather than just fake a sneeze, or blow out. Also, don’t we have flight rings by now? Did they hand them in? Is Chuck on leave/reserve status?

Everything is well drawn, from the telepathically controlled shuttle, through the castle to the stoic Chuck as he faces down Orion. But not even an anti-gravity chamber to suspend my disbelief at the plot.

The repetitive belittling of Chuck's apparent ability is generally offset by his bravery in previous appearances.

As opposed to Jeckie earlier this issue, Chuck doesn't have self doubt. That's all from Orion. Chuck is comfortable being a Legionnaire. He knows his own capabilities, has a healthy perspective on things, and is confident of his skill in facing Orion. As the Legionnaire who is physically distinct form many of the others, I wonder how much of a confidence boost this one was for the readers.

Well said, FC. I think you nailed Chuck's personality and his invaluable contribution to the Legion.

Even though the next issue we will review is in effect his swan song as a Legionnaire, he keeps bouncing back (heh), showing the qualities which made him so appealing in the first place.

I think wherever I read that, also went on to make the point that they really had no clue as to what sold and what didn't.




Baffling on so many levels. Best not show them the Olsen/ Krypto "I was a Teenage Super Pet" affair issue then

According to the Legion Wiki, it's Nick Cardy who draws Superboy's face on cover.

Cardy was good at drawing super-heroes flipping out in uncontrollable situations, re: Mon-El on LSH v.1 # 1.



The Solar Stunner is very obviously a Klingon disrupter--one of numerous Star Trek Easter eggs during Cockrum's tenure. I groaned when I saw this panel again.



Both stand-out panels for me, as well.



Not only hasn't he gotten the hang of time travel, but both he and the Legionnaires have forgotten that he wasn't involved in Tyr's capture in the first place.

Bates didn't even like to keep track of his own continuity, it seems.




Good point about faking a sneeze. However, when I fake a sneeze (not that I do so very often), it doesn't have the force of a real one.

I also wondered why he didn't use his flight ring during the jungle scenes.

Thanks for that HWW. I had forgotten about DC getting others to tweak covers. I'm not familiar enough with Trek to groan at the references. I did however research & experiment with a fake sneeze before I posted.

I picked up on Superboy not being there last time, but typed it the wrong way on my review. It's odd when there was clearly going to be a follow up in the not so distant future. It's hard to imagine the editor telling Bates to put more Superboy into the sequel, as he's so central to it.

Maybe your fake sneezes are more powerful than mine.

Great to see so many posts. I'll read and comment on them tomorrow.

I don't know that I've ever read anything other than Legion by Cary Bates? Has anyone? How does the writing compare? In his bio, he describes himself as an "Adventure writer."

I can see that. Bates introduced a lot of new places and characters to Legion that stuck, became canon and used by future writers. For the story pacing and plot devices that sometimes clunk, Bates introduced a lot to be proud of. In some ways, I think he was more imaginative that Levitz, even if not demonstrating Levitz' ability to build a bigger picture and add a sense of legitimate mystery.

A Levitz, Bates, Cockrum (for the sci-fi) team might have been interesting. Interesting mix of ages and personalities for sure.

Bates wrote The Flash for well over a decade up to and including its cancellation in 1985. He also wrote several JLA stories.

I would have to re-read those issues in order to compare them to his Legion writing, but I have fond memories of his Flash run. I think he truly connected with the character and was able to use his knack for plotting and gimmicks to good effect with the Rogues Gallery.

I agree that Bates contributed much of lasting impact to the Legion and should not be overlooked. Each time I read these stories I'm impressed with how tight and economical his plots are, and how he was able to develop a complete story in just a few pages. It must be said that Bates' conception (of perhaps Boltinoff's) of his audience was that they were very young; hence, Chuck's sneeze and other ideas that might seem silly to us today.

Amen to that, sister.




Having been out of the comics loop until a several months after that issue was published, I was not aware of the negative response to it. Since it was a Giffen story, it inevitably gladdens my heart that it was badly received.

And yet Sun Boy said that as Sneeze Lad, I couldn't get in. Worse, I thought I was in with another chance. As Mucus Miss (long story/Olsen crossover) I tried again. But it was all just a ruse to expose the Murrans. Bah!

Perhaps they confused you with Infectious Lass.

But...but...Infectious Lass causes diseases in others while my ecto-mucus has made me a hero (and occasional heroine thanks to Olsen) in dozens of ... well small skirmishes... across, if not worlds, then reasonably populated villages! I can't believe their research is so poor.

It makes me so... >achoo!< Ah, control is a bit of an issue. Here, let me get some industrial strength hankies to wipe the worst of that off of you.

Oh, no! I-I'm turning ... green!

Well, get yourself right. We've a wedding to go to.

Hm. Maybe that explains why people keep addressing me as J'Onn.

Mainly that Flash run before Crisis. It had its daft moments, but stands out for the plot developing from previous actions, rather than having random villains show up each month. It went on too long, but that was in part due to Bates being told that the end was nigh.

I also read the relaunch of Captain Atom. It faded after a year or so, but it's miles better than the DCNu version.

New Guardians never really got off the starting blocks. Millennium generally was poor compared to Crisis & Legends.



Bit of a digression ...Lightning Lad had pretty much gone by the time I was reading the Legion. The founders leaving were more a passing of the torch at the time, more than there being an obvious gap created by their absence. So, not much personality there outside him being a family man.

The first issues I read when he was involved outside of battle, had him having a breakdown and declaring himself unfit for leadership to anyone who would listen.

I had read a number of Adventure stories by the time TMK started. There, they tried to tie his calm, family man outlook with his breakdowns (Proty/ Garth internal conflicts) and a more adventurous past appropriately in Adventure. Except, Garth didn't really stand out that way in Adventure. They were all like that. Super earnest. Super serious. Super rushing into space peril.

Yet, that's the personality that's been tweaked further with various incarnations of Livewire.

That's a really good look at Chuck, Cramer. I'm not sure I've read the Giffen issue, but I can see why people weren't keen on it. Although, and I'm playing devil's advocate, it does have a certain echo to his origin, it completely misses the other side.

Chuck was goofing off his work, when he went into watch the Robot Gladiators. But even there, you could tell that it was just too big a temptation, rather than it being something he did all the time. He was trusted with the task after all.

The others did treat him as a bit of a joke in his origin. But the other side was that Chuck proved them wrong, with all those traits that he would come to be recognised for. Determination, perseverance, resourcefulness and that ability to bring out the best in others. I'd also argue he picked up more in his time in the lab than Sun Boy did at his dad's firm. Conductivity (301), trajectory (often) & force (199). His practical applications of all this make him a pretty clever chap.



No, no. You'll be your normal colour underneath all this...oh, you are turning green now that I mentioned what you were underneath...

Well I'm back again after a hectic few weeks of work craziness. I'll try to catch up on both my reading & reviews and also this thread over the next few days.

Superboy #193

This story was definitely the best story so far in this volume IMO, as Bates writing steps up a level to try to meet Dave's glorious artwork. And it is glorious from start to finish, with very dynamic action and equally dynamic intrigue. The new costumes on Val, Cham, Vi, and Luornu are fantastic, of course. All of them being, IMO, much better than the originals and in my mind the classic looks for these characters (with perhaps Cham's purple and yellow version being better).

More than anything this story is great because I love the focus on Luornu, who truly gets to shine here. I can't help but think though that the story would be better served if it was a metaphor for the two parts of Luornu having to make peace with each other. In hindsight this is a lost opportunity to provide the personal element to a potentially great allegory.

The ending is surely not as tidy as it seems but the LSH can only do so much in these scenarios of galactic politics and war. What really sticks out to me is that King John was used a lot by TMK, which is how I usually think of him. There, he comes off pretty well as a decent character but here, kind of a real prick.

The cast of 2 Legionnaires was well utilized here and a story this small benefits from it.

Superboy #195

This introduction of Wildfire is a classic DC story, and perhaps most classic of the whole era of LSH. And with good reason too: not only does it introduce a dynamic new character but it's beautiful to behold and is very well written from start to finish. Very much in the Superman mold of the last decade but with Dave's art giving it a modern feel.

I personally love Wildfire. He's long been one of my favorite Legionnaires and I would go one step further and say he's my favorite Legionnaire outright. The reasoning is extensive and fairly obvious--being the same as many Wildfire fans. In addition to that, I think Wildfire was desperately needed for a new era of the LSH. Along with the new costumes and changing roster, he gave an injection of something new and exciting going on. It was his look, definitely his attitude, and something all around explosive about him (literally and figuratively) that give the series a new jolt.

As I can't help but keep saying, the art is amazing. It's the last panel in particular, with the deflated costume, that stands out. By itself ifs straight up cover worthy. Gorgeous and heartbreaking.

We get more new costumes and they space-rawk. Dave gives a tweak to Gim by giving him headgear and it's a huge move forward for the character's look. Now he looks handsome and heroic, rather than just another one of the guys.

I also like the group of Legionnaires used. We get a rare Condo appearance. Tinya also comes off well. While no one Legionnaire does all that much, none are used poorly. Bates is definitely getting better at both using the Legion and the space he's being provided.

Welcome back, Cobie.

You seem to like this story more than the rest of us did. I didn't think Luornu came off well at all, falling right into a trap set by one of the rulers, and then failing to stop the detonator from going off. If it wasn't for Chameleon Boy, they'd all be space-dust.

But, yeah, those new costumes and Cockrum's art overall are great.

Now here, I am 100% in agreement with you, Cobie.

These two reviews sum up Superboy #197 well, both its high points and flaws. The main takeaway for me is this was just a helluva fun story to read! It was exciting and felt fresh and fun. For the first story where the Legion shares the headline and gets more than a backup, it's more than worthy to reintroduce readers as to why the franchise is so strong. There's certainly a lot of room for improvement, and thad wouldn't take long to get.

Thanks, Cobie.

Yeah, Cockrum and Bates were firing on all cylinders around 197-198.

It's good to be back!

With Luornu being trapped, I don't mind it because I think the literary technique Bates employs there is well used: the King who appears friendly snares her with a trap while the King who appears threatening ends up being more diplomatic. It's simple and straight-forward but it makes the middle part of the story stand out.

I liked the implication that this was a very dangerous mission that is asking a whole hell of a lot from the two Legionnaires and Luornu appears undaunted by it. She's a veteran and she knows she's more than capable. (Admittingly, that's my own interpretation).

Meanwhile, cheers to our agreement on Wildfire!

Cheers, Cobie!

SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 200

I have mixed feelings about this anniversary issue.

On one hand, it's a feast for the eyes, with the main course being that beautiful wedding scene splash (which occupied one horizontal page in the original comic, but in the Archive takes up two whole pages -- wonderful!) Plus, Preboot Luornu has never looked prettier or been more likable than the she is here. And it's always a pleasure to see Chuck get a substantial amount of panels.

On the other hand, it's something of a cop-out on Bates' part that the rescue party consists of only FOUR Legionnaires (and four of the biggest panel-hogs to boot: Superboy, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, and Brainiac 5), when there's a whole mob of people that could take on Starfinger. Cockrum himself points this out in his introduction to the Archive, though far more politely than I. Also, Luornu ends up very much the damsel in distress, and Chuck gets to do nothing to help rescue her.

Superboy #200

Another comic book wedding, another dastardly villain plot. No wonder Titans #50 was such a relief (although they blew it later with Kory and Grayson). People are supposed to splash out at weddings, but we get the same scene for both splash and cover. A third time too as the event actually happens inside. At least the villain has the courtesy to wait until the couple are wed. I don’t care if he has a harrowing backstory, an impolite villain has little empathy.

But why a wedding? In the Legionverse we’ve already had plenty of huge hints that such an act means it’s the end of active membership. It looks like the creative team just felt that a changing of the guard was needed. In were Wildfire and out were the ones with slightly less obvious powers. Both Lu and Chuck had “I’m the weakest Legionnaire” subplots to overcome.

But it’s not terribly done. The loss of powers is decently handled with sadness as well as hope for the couple. Brainy is involved throughout, in a nice show of his nicer personality. He shows real sadness in consoling Chuck while he also reassures Lu over her future. In fact, Brainy even had to remind Chuck when his beloved’s shuttle was getting in. Dox certainly looks out for them.

He loses a lot of points later for his “Bouncing Boy’s forgotten he’s a civilian now” line. His angry determination to get Luornu back suggests he’s more than just looking out for her. It's not a reaction I'd expect from Brainy. It's not a reaction I'd expect from Chuck either, so it's an odd bit of characterisation.


It’s interesting that the first super save Lu sees after hearing about Chuck’s powerlessness is from Superboy, who she pined after for ages. Here, her love is only for Chuck and she’s more concerned about the Eaglox birds (noted as being the only two of their kind, just like or starring couple) and her duty than Superboy.

A natural time limit for power loss has been toyed with in a few titles. People like Chuck, who drank their powers could be expected to have those powers wear off. Well, if you are following the same logic that prevents their origins killing them outright anyway. But the Justice League told us that glands were responsible for powers at one point.

Cockrum captures the splendour of a bright future superbly. The graceful parks are matched by the spires of the sparkling buildings. Of course, all this wonder comes with a price. It’s not long before someone is wheeling out an Orwellian mind tampering device. This time it’s Brainy trying to get to the bottom of why Luornu can’t split.

Lu’s reason for not knowing where her other half is not only a bit weak, but makes her look a bit flaky. Which is a shame. I like a more together (pun intended) version of Lu as opposed to an indiscreet one whose multiple personalities cheated on Chuck in the TMK run. Perhaps they looked at this issue, and saw that one personality was quite willing to shut out the actions/ fate of the other. Much like her Lelith side from earlier.

As the Legion depart for the wedding on Mars, we find out who the villain is. It’s a disembodied blob of energy. The villain can only be… Wildfire! Um… wait. What happened to Starfinger last time?

It’s a nice touch having another couple stay behind in Mon and Shady, but it’s a shame they couldn’t get into that to lovely Cockrum wedding page. There are lots of couples looking on, no doubt wondering if they will be next. Getting hitched was a big Legion preoccupation. No wonder they needed Marla around.

Although not looking a couple at this early stage, Ayla and Salu are side by side. Both looking at their dates and wondering what was missing.

There’s also a John Carter crossover and the confirmation of J’Onn J’Onzz has survived 1000 years. I also like to think that Lyle is talking about some odd physics effects with Quantum Queen ahead of his final issue. I read in the Legion Companion that it was the inability of DC to return the art for that page that caused Cockrum to quit.

Starfinger’s plan touches that over-elaborate boundary we’ve seen in recent issues. Here it’s: Wait for Duo Damsel Mission: Wait for her to separate; release poisonous gas cloud; get her to enter it; summon teleporting space dragon; kidnap one version; count on the other blocking out the memory of it etc.
Rather than just kidnap anyone from Luronu’s home planet, Starfinger risks confrontation with the Legion. There’s a moment that I thought the new Starfinger was going to turn on the old one in a case of Clone Wars. But it’s only Supes in disguise.

We get confirmation that the Legion is powering up in the last few panels. Mon El and Shady (two powerful characters shown as such here) looking to re-enlist Superboy while Subplot Lad floats nearby. But characters like Lu and Chuck show there’s much more to a superhero title than simply power. Big battles come and go, but love, friendship and courage are timeless.

A downside is that we don’t see Chuck and Lu reunited. Once he’s a “civilian” that’s it for Chuck in this issue. Written out of his own farewell issue, and not involved in the rescue. We also don’t get to see the couple leave the club they have been a part of for so long.

I think this was a fairly late purchase for me. Probably due to it being a bit more expensive as a 200th issue. I had certainly seen the wedding page years before I got the actual issue.

An actual criticism of TMK, from someone other than myself. Now my day is complete!

Sorry Fickles. It's just conjecture about where their interpretation might have originated. I may not be fond of that portrayal of the character but, if it's a logical extension of the character as seen here and as Lelith, I can't really criticise their choice. Don't worry, there's always tomorrow or the day after. It's gonna happen someday as someone, somewhere said.

Someone, somewhere, oh, yeah...

I thought I remembered who but now... it's never seemed so far away

I won't lose faith.

What an excellent idea! It could even have been a sequel to "Half a Legionnaire" in the Action run so that Lu's coming to terms with herself could come full circle. I wish Bates had thought of this.

Superboy and the LSH #198

Still catching up, I was delighted today to get to #198 which was utterly fantastic. A full length story at last, this was clearly the best Legion story in ages, and on par with the best of the Silver Age. I've always liked this story but reading it as we have--in order from Adv #247 to the present--I never realized how thirsty I've been for a great Legion story, which this issue provides.

As I gear up to go back and read the comments on this thread I'm sure a lot of the details and nuance will be discussed. But for me it comes down to a story where: the art is superb and dynamic; the narrative structure and pacing is perfect in three parts; the characters all shine (heroes and villains both) and the threat is original and well executed, then well resolved. You can't ask for more than that!

Bates usage of a limited number of Legionnaires works better here than in any of his other stories, and he manages them to excellent effect. Cham has one of his most brilliant reveals, while the sequences with Superboy and the Legionnaires in the future do a great job establishing the scope of the LSH.

The Fatal 5 also come off very well here. Cockrum's style combined with their already unique looks makes for a great story to look at.

All in all, this was a terrific issue. Even the dialogue was tight, and individual panels where a wonder to behold.

Clearly, by S&LSH #198, the Legion was "back".

Particularly with Luornu's wedding approaching, it would have been a great moment to bring closure to this period of her life before the next begins.

Very well said, Cobie.

#200

I also have mixed feelings about this one for the same reasons both Fanfie and thoth articulated: It's wonderfully drawn, and imaginatively renders the 30th century. The plot is fast-paced but expansive, allowing us to become emotionally involved with the characters. Chuck and Lu both come off as likeable and sympathetic.

Yet the plot also relies too much on convenience and surprise. There's no logical reason for Superboy to zip back to earth, steal a Starfinger costume, and return to pull off his deception. There's also no reason for him to appear before the Legionnaires as Starfinger, except to give Cos something to do and provide a nice reveal (though not as effective as Cham's reveal two issues earlier).

More convenience: The emergency Lu deals with just happens to require her to split in two--which she cannot do--to save the birds. Superboy arrives at just the right moment to save the birds. (Bad things only happened when he came to visit. Hmm.) And, of course Starfinger's entire scheme would be much easier to pull off if he had simply kidnapped--or hired--a random Carggite.

(In fact, one of my few forays into fanfic sprung from the idea that he had experimented on someone from Cargg before Lu. It's still available here.)

Still, these conveniences are minor annoyances for the most part. The story builds to a tense decision: the Legionnaires must turn the bridal Lu over to Starfinger or both Lu's will die. As in any hostage situation, the Legion is utterly powerless.

Yet they prevail--or, rather, Superboy does. It's still his mag, and he seems to assert himself by pulling off the big rescue with minimal involvement from his teammates. Why do we need 50-odd heroes in a wedding party to stomp on ol' Starfinger when Superboy can do it himself, showing how clever and fast he is?

I much preferred the resolutions of the last two issues, which were brought about because the Legionnaires acted like a team.

The biggest disappointment for me is that Chuck gets to do absolutely squat. He even drops out of the story entirely after being built up to be our "hero" at the beginning. The Chuck of Chapters One and Two is decisive and positive. He turns the worst day of his life into the best. But then he becomes a panicky, irrational groom who has to be put down with Brainy's equivalent of the Vulcan nerve pinch. Chuck doesn't even rate a cameo of being reunited with his bride.

The message: If you're non-powered, you're a non-entity. Thoth is right: The Legion is about more than powers; it's about friendship, holding up under pressure, and using one's wits. These elements are casually discarded so Superboy can look good.

Ironically, Superboy's grandstanding backfires as the villain gets away, much like the Persuader and Emerald Empress did two issues ago. This time, Dr. Lars is unconscious, so his escape makes the Legion look especially weak.

(Speaking of Vulcans, did everyone catch the Page 5 walk-on, which shows Martians aren't the only long-lived species?)

I did, however, enjoy the Wildfire subplot. This rare Marvel-type cliffhanger makes one want to come back next issue. (When I first read this issue, I couldn't wait for 201; I started to write and draw my own version!) Drake's dialogue is brilliantly ambiguous; you can't tell if he's a villain or something else. Yet reading these scenes in the context of 195 makes them all the more rich.

Amen to all of the above, He Who.

And I will read your story later today and comment accordingly.

and the cover sucked.


Still, glad I got the issue. The things that matter in the long run are there. Well, except for the whole art controversy. That puts a bad taste in the mouth.

Still catching up, but I have to say I'm loving the commentary on #198 a few pages back, most of which is entirely positive. I'm curious as to how many people always held this issue in such high esteem? I admit I didnt. I liked it since I first read it when I was collecting back issues and reading them all out of order, but it wasn't until this reread that I've truly appreciated it.

Moments like that for me make these rereads totally worth it.

I'll raise my hand as one who has always held 198 in high esteem. A number of panels, such as Jan and Brainy jumping out of the way of the Persuader's axe became instant favorites.

In fact, I included that panel, among others, in my tribute to Cockrum on my blog.

Cobie, part of the appeal of 198 for me is that Sarya comes off like a total badass on the level of the best Fatal Five stories. Also, Bates turned in one of his tighest, most plausible (by comic book standards), and most suspenseful scripts. And Cockrum seems to be having a ball drawing the story.

Like Cobie, I would have read these out of order when I first got them. Quite a lot of time would pass before I filled in some of the gaps of this era. I'd get batches of Adventure or later issues. So, I would be able to read those in some sort of context usually.

However, Cockrum issues were generally picked up in ones and twos. This issued of this decade were generally much cheaper to get. Adventure would come in protective backing boards with crisp issues. '70s issues would often only have little baggies.

I must have read most of them in more of a sequence at some point later, but this thread is probably getting me to take a closer look than usual.

If I'm honest my heart sank a little when I opened 198. I had a feeling the whole book would be some hokey fight against the five at the carnival. The gorilla didn't help. It was a pleasant feeling to see that being just part of a now book length tale. That extra length really helped, not to mention more Cockrum art. So, I've clearly not done enough re reads to remember every plot

Reading things out of order will also have affected my general impression of Cockrum. Having started reading the Legion later, I was used to seeing exotic backdrops, detailed futuristic technology and a visually varied cast. Not to mention progressive panel composition and the ability to juggle a large cast with distinctive flair.

In other words, a lot of the things introduced by Cockrum were almost standard for the Legion by the time I got there. So I wouldn't have appreciated how innovative so many things in his work were for quite some time. Standing on the shoulders of giants. I'll probably have a similar feeling for the Sherman issues too.

If anything, I'd look back and see some of the things that were more of their time with the Cockrum issues. Not to mention the writing that the art was tied into compared with later and earlier periods.

He Who, I posted my comments in your story's Bits thread. Just wanted to make sure you didn't miss them.

Thanks, Fanfie.

Superboy & LSH #199

Tyr returns to fulfill the foreshadowing from #197, as the creators present a sequel that is quite different than one might expect. Rather than a rematch with Tyr himself we get an offbeat story where the gun-hand is the antagonist and the Legionnaires defend a siege against their headquarters. I can see how at first blush that's quite jarring. Yet, I have to say I think the story is actually pretty good! Even though it's different than what is expected, it tells a very tight sci-fi tale with some interesting twists and turns.

I think Bates, and probably Cockrum too, were still finding their footing with full length stories and this abbreviated "feature length story" (re: 2/3 of an issue) was more in their comfort zone. And for me, it works.

It's too bad that Tyr is not followed up on again and again over the years as he could have easily become a mainstay premiere villain for the LSH. He certainly had the look. But alas, the Legion was never a franchise that kept up their villains well (a few exceptions notwithstanding). I do like in this story that he is not the driving threat, and instead plays a supporting role. It's a totally different involvement than the first time we saw him.

A critical part of this story is the "we're the weakest members" bit, and unfortunately that's not my favorite--so much so that it's almost groan worthy by this point. But a lot of they is because like many of us I've read hundreds if not thousands of Legion stories by now and it's a theme they've used a lot over 50+ years. For newcomers, it's a theme that might be refreshing and encouraging, as it's clearly an important part of Legion folklore. So I can forgive them for using it again.

I like Superboy's inclusion here because it's a well thought out bait & switch. Using Superboy in Legion stories on a regular basis is tricky business and this is a great example on how to mix it up.

Likewise, I like the usage of Cham and Jeckie's "what you thought you saw was wrong" twist. Bates has done this more than once already so there is a sense that he's going back to the well too many times. But as Walt Simonson once said about Hogun the Grim: "he can be a bit one note...but it's a good note".

Lastly, a complaint I do have is of the 5 Legionnaires, Star Boy stands around basically doing nothing. It'd be better if he has a minor role that was unique to him. On the plus side, this story introduces his new costume, which is one of the best of the era, and really IMO is a standout costume one. When I think of the LSH in the 70's, I always include in my mind Star Boy in this costume (and when I think of the 80's, it's the same plus a beard). It's totally Cockrum and its fresh and exciting to not only the LSH but comics in general in the early to mid 70's.

But this story followed the superlative full-length Fatal Five story.

I see Cobie's point about shorter stories being in Bates and/or Cockrum's comfort zone. One of the reasons I followed my novel with a novella is because it's easier to develop and less time consuming than writing a full-length work.

"The Fatal Five Who Twisted Time" may have been the only full-length story they had to offer. "The Legionnaire Bride of Starfinger" is full-length but stumbles in the third chapter. Significantly, these are the only two full-length stories the team attempted.

Yes, but what I'm inferring is just because they got it right once doesn't mean they were ready to do that every month. They may not have realized how good it was or were simply too overwhelmed by it before doing another one.

HWW is right in what I mean. I think clearly at this point both Bates and Cockrum were much more comfortable doing shorter length stories at this point. I think their immediately jumping back to shorter stories with #199 is pretty telling and backs that up.

In fact, over in Flash, Bates would often have a GL or other feture backing up the main story so that he was doing a Feature Length story (2/3 of the issue), and in the issues where he didn't, he often did what Broome & Infantino did in the Silver Age and gave two half issue stories. Meanwhile, Cockrum never was fully comfortable doing monthly full length stories, which is obvious with his only doing X-Men on a bi-monthly basis the first time around. In fact, for almost all of his career, besides his second run on X-Men, Cockrum was never able to commit to a monthly full-length schedule. (Not that there is anything wrong that--no one remembers output or timeliness, they only remember how brilliant it was, which in Dave's case, it usually was quite).

^

PS - it's amazing to think that in 1974 DC Comics was still not fully committed to the full length story phenomena. Most of their line in the entire first half of the 1970's were anthology titles in some way. Meanwhile, over at Marvel, most of their line had long since committed to full-length stories, even the titles like Marvel Premiere & the like, where the lead was rotated out every few issues.

I think this was one of the reasons Marvel's sales were surpassing DC's, as they were committed to showcasing their characters. I also think it was partially driven by Marvel still being an artist-driven company at this time, where artists had the clout to push to get the full amount of pages an issue offered, whereas DC was still an editorial-driven company where editors controlled titles they divied up to writers & artists.

HWW's review does a great job summing this issue up for me, as it explains why I liked this story so much and why I think it's important: it's a exemplary story of how a Legionnaire is so much more than his powers or teammates, and that heroism is about bravery, cleverness and grit. Bouncing Boy, so silly by his nature, which was very much apparent by the early 70's in less positive ways than the early 60's, is the perfect character to show this in the best way possible.

The story is plotted perfectly for 8 pages and every panel looks lush and beautiful. Chuck is capable and heroic, and he's also incredibly likable. It's a great send off before he leaves the team next issue.

I also really enjoyed all the commentary in this thread that followed on Chuck, both in this story and in general. I particularly love FC's essay and I agree wholeheartedly with it! I want Chuck to succeed, and I want him to have his teammates respect. I don't like seeing him played for laughs or be treated like a second class Legionnaire. He's never been my favorite Legionnaire but over the [strike]years[/strike] decades I've become very protective of him. In a lot of ways he encompasses the themes you often see in Spider-Man stories, except his overweight appearance and silly powers make it much more crude (and therefore, IMO, more real).

This is probably the greatest of all Bouncing Boy stories, and one of the better solo Legionnaire stories.

One final note: never trust a man with pigtails. Or a man bun. Or a head band.

Not even Lyle?

Interesting reflections on the long vs short story. I always appreciated the short, solo (or 2-3 character) stories for the insight they gave to individual characters, but a diet of short stories wouldn't have been enough. The ideal of course would be the full-length with the solo back-up/interlude, but those days are gone - except in Legion fanfic.

Regarding #200, I don't think I ever really noticed how Brainy pushed Chuck aside with the civilian comment. His advice to Lu about it being enough to be a devoted wife always raised my hackles, although it's a product of the time and the Comic Code. I like to think today's Lu would have slugged him....

It was never stated, but perhaps Brainy's concern for Luornu is some attempt to make up for Computo killing her first self. This story also provides an explanation for why she seemed so unaffected by her death in that Adventure story - so horrible that she blanked it out.

And space-passports! Thank the comic gods they got rid of that - imagine if the Legion had to clear customs every time they left the planet. (Although there was that scene with Garth & Imra in the Levitz era going through screening and she detected a smuggler - I don't recall the details off hand.)

I agree with that. It carries right the way through to post Trapper when Brainy gives Lu his force belt when he leaves the Legion.

Speaking of Orion Jr., does it creep anyone else out that the son was wearing an eyepatch just like the father did? Maybe it was just for effect, but what are the chances of them both missing an eye? Makes you wonder just how far Orion's dedication to his father went.

Oh, God, shades of Deathstroke's daughter...



No, no, that particular DCU is no more, must not think about it!

As did many of the Legionnaires, the Hunters had their 20th century ancestors too. I'd say Ralphie married up.

Forty generations of one-eyes wonders. The mind boggles!

Little known fact: the leg lamp was played by a Durlan.

^

Superboy and the LSH #200

S&LSH #200 is an iconic issue, and really a big tent pole moment in LSH history. Like most anniversary issues in comic history though, this one is a mixed bag with as much has as good if not a little more.

That being said, it's still fun to read it, if for not other reason than the gorgeous artwork. It's the iconic splash page that I can't help but get mesmerized by for the 100th time, which is one of great images in Legion history. I remember the first time I saw it was when we hunted this issue down during my teenage years. I was really shocked when I turned the page and saw the double splash. It was just that good. A few years later when I received the Archive I'm reading now, to fill in the gaps of various Superboy backups we just couldn't find original issues for, I was stunned again when I saw the double splash on better quality paper with more vibrant and lush color.

Meanwhile the story itself leaves a lot to be desired. The first part actually held up better than I remembered and did a good job setting things up, even though so much of the logic for Chuck and Luornu leaning the Legion feels forced and editorial driven. But it's the third act where the story really shits the bed. From the decision to send 4 Legionnaires to the statue of Starfinger to Superboy's annoying last minute save, there's just a whole lot to dislike. The lack of a sequence where the entire roster kicks the living shit out of Starfinger is the one I can't help but keep coming back to, and Bates is never more naked in his discomfort for a large roster than right here.

This story begins the trend of the next year to start revamping the roster as we see the exit of Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy. Whether good or bad, it definitely marks the LSH entering new era, and combined with the new costumes, it feels fresh and exciting. Not only would Wildfire's addition be part of that "fresh" feel, but it's clear that at the time, the return of Superboy to the active roster was a big moment. It certainly was needed to keep the momentum going for the Legion's ascent to DC stardom once more. By my count--and someone tell me if I'm wrong--the Legion are still counting Supergirl as a member here. With Superboy off the roster, they refer to 25 active Legionnaires at one point. IIRC, we never see Supergirl officially leave the team, correct? Her transition to inactive member just kind of happens with the loss of Chuck, Luornu, Tenzil and Lyle?

There are a few nice bits in the story that longterm readers can read into and theorize: Brainy & Luornu's friendship and his feeling protective of her; Shady happily not attending the wedding since she and Luornu had issues (and fave LW theory of mine); Colossal Boy hooking up with the Wanderer who looks like Vi at the wedding as depicted in the splash. Okay, maybe that last one I just made up.

This story is definitely the weakest since the LSH became co-stars but one can't help but feel excited overall for the Legion in this era right now.

Ooh, I never thought of that, but now that you mention it, that makes perfect sense, especially since Tasmia is the Legionnaires I most aspire to be like, and I have a ton of issues with Preboot Luornu!

The Tasmia-Lu friction does make a lot of sense. Was there a story in which they actually worked together after the Mordru tale?

I wonder if this story would have had more resonance if Chuck had, against all odds, rescued his bride himself (with a little help from his friends) - perhaps this wasn't editorially feasible since he'd just had a solo story.

I peeked back. Initially, it looks innocuous enough. Someone has to stay back for monitor duty. Neither Shady or Mon El want to go to the wedding by themselves. they get to spend some quality time together. Shady tells Lu "May you always be happy, dear!"

So that seems fine. But that was pre Cobie.

Now Shady's comment drips with forced, surface deep friendship. Note that Mon El calls Bouncing Boy "Chuck". Not Shady. For her it's "dear." Lu's reply further embeds this. She can't bring herself to even use their names, referring to them as "Shadow Lass" and "Mon-El." Shady is at least trying for a sort of hug. But Lu can't bear it and has turned away.

As soon as the couple have gone, Shady returns to more important things. Namely her own marriage to Mon El. There was me thinking it was just the latest in a line of moments such as Tinya/ Jo and Imra/Garth dreaming of a future. But this is Shady ticking off the "precedent set" box. The two are seen talking as Wildfire hovers overhead. It's sets the couple apart in the same way as Mon-El's dream of exploring and Shady's role of champion. These are probably the most mature couple in the Legion.



Funny, I always thought he was looking down towards Salu and Intellectually Challenged Lad Duplicate Boy.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Brek is as close to fan worshipping Superboy as possible.



Out in the real world...
Bank Clerk: Right Miss...uh... Lady. We're almost done. I just need your name in triplicate here, here and here.
M'Lady of Fanfic: Triplicate?! Triplicate?! >Talokian lunge across desk followed by choke hold.<

LOL

Actually, she officially resigns in Superboy 204's "Brainiac 5's Secret Weakness."

I think it's fascinating to see what each of us reads into the relationships of the characters, but I think that says more about us than about the characters or what the writer intended.

I like thoth's idea that Shady and Mon are the most mature Legion couple, but maybe I'm reading that into it as well. But at least there is some support in the story itself: Mon, as leader, had to stay behind on monitor duty (which was very leader-like of him; he could have called in the Subs and forced them to miss the wedding!). Shady chooses to spend time with her beloved.

But since we're reading things into these scenes, I always imagined Jo was perturbed because Tinya was part of the wedding party and he had to stand there by his lonesome, arms folded and forcing a smile.

Ah! I must totally be blanking on this scene as I don't remember it at all! I guess we'll see it soon enough.

SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #201

How do I love the lead story in this issue? Let me count the ways.

1. The return of my favorite male Legionnaire, Wildfire -- back and here to stay for the next decade-and-a-half.

2. Cockrum's art, especially when Wildfire fries the Molecule Master robot to pieces.

3. Infectious Lass' first appearance.

4. Shadow Lass, my favorite female Legionnaire, upgrades her headband to a tiara and starts to grow her hair out.

5. Because the timing and the story beats are both so sharp, I can be more forgiving than usual for the holes in Bate's plot -- the most bothersome being, how come Wildfire's costume display case has a force field around it, but not the freaking Miracle Machine??

"The Betrayer from Beyond" is a genuine crowd-pleaser, no two ways about it.

The backup story strikes a sour note at the beginning, with Dream Girl as the damsel having to be rescued by Karate Kid, which in my opinion it never quite recovers from. The message that every Legionnaires power counts feels to me like a backhanded compliment to Dream Girl, who wouldn't become the Nura we all know and love until the early-mid 80s.

The dialogue is such that the intent went beyond 10-year-old me when I first read the story. She says she isn't sure she even wants to be Supergirl anymore (shades of '70s Captain America) and can't devote time to being a part-time Legionnaire until she gets her 20th century life sorted out. But she promises to return at some point.

I didn't realize this was her way of resigning until I read her bio in the Legion Handbook, more than a year later.

Superboy 201

My lasting memory of this issue was how cool Molecule Master looked. Sure, there’s a dark secret there, but that’s a look that deserved a place on the team. Besides, Brin would have really had someone he could relate to. I still see a connection from Molecule Master’s power to that of Energy Boy from the try out issue drawn by Steve Lightle.

The audition has all the hall marks of the old Adventure issues. We see how important it is to Drura, Pete and Molly. We see things not going quite as planned and we also get the short, sharp note of rejection. But the pacing is different as Bates cuts between the above and the return of a certain energy blob to HQ, and its attempts to be revealed. He even manages a nice way of getting in a recap of Wildfire’s first appearance.

Both plots would merge as the threat is revealed, showing a bit more of Bates’ craft. Although it’s not quite clear why Wildfire thinks he can control people’s minds just because he’s made from energy.

Cockrum’s art draws the reader in really quickly. The applicants have distinct looks and Drura would become a bit of a favourite. Tenzil can be seen wise cracking as Star Boy is carried out on a futuristic stretcher. It’s a nice touch that there are three empty seats for the next applicant as Star Boy is tended to. I wonder if the Green Room was really Chlorophyll Kid making yet another failed attempt to get in.

Wildfire’s handy ability to read the (brilliantly drawn) android brain of Molecule Master certainly moves the plot along, and is a bit too convenient. Cockrum’s art offsets this to a degree as we’re distracted by the obvious pain on the Legionnaire’s faces as they fall. The content smile on Molecule Master’s face as Shady collapses is particularly chilling.

The Miracle Macguffin provides further convenience. It attracts the villain (and a loose end in its creator) as well as a way for probable Legion fatalities to be restored. It’s something of a throwback plot. But there’s that distraction in Cockrum’s art as Wildfire and Molecule Master battle for the lives of the Legion and the future of mankind! The Machine would appear again, but you can see why it, and the huge range of Wildfire abilities, would be reined in.

In summary it’s a pretty tight story, helped along by a couple of things that are plotnipotent. The art is excellent and the visuals alone show that this is a Legion that has moved with the (future) times.

The back up provides another standard Legion subplot. This time, it’s Dream Girl who doesn’t feel worthy enough to be on the team. Has anyone done a list of Legionnaire’s with this subplot?

She’s offset by Karate Kid, who tackles crooks and looks very self-assured this issue. I’d not be surprised if Karate Kid also had those self-doubts at some point, as he doesn’t have the super powers that many of the others do. But this is very much Shooter’s Karate Kid. He comes out of this story very well, his injuries providing another insight into his abilities. His calm confidence defines him well, and you can see how he inspires the others.

With Chuck & Lu both having had similar self doubts, you wonder if Nura was another character that they were thinking of dropping. Perhaps Cockrum’s extensive use of her nightgown persuaded them otherwise.

Years later, at the start of the Baxter run, Nura would beat lumps out of crooks in a belated follow up to her reaction here. I think this back up has to be at least partly responsible for the idea that Karate Kid trained a number of his colleagues, resulting in their greater combat abilities as the years went by.

Alan Moore would have another take on this scene with Nite Owl and Spectre in Watchmen.

Reading this issue, I felt Nura over reacted. The whole point of Karate Kid is that he should be the most reactive in a combat situation. Everyone looks like a slouch in comparison.

Glad you noted that. It was, in my opinion, the story's second worst contrivance, narrowly beaten by the lack of a force field around the Miracle Machine.



It had never occurred to me that she might have been on the chopping block. Thank the Gods it didn't happen.



Good observations. So Val had his uses after all. Just kidding, Val fans.

Superboy & the LSH

Well, what can I say? Fanfie laid it all out pretty nicely! I effing love Wildfire and therefore this issue is like drinking my favorite Pinot noir. I soaked up every panel with the feeling of utter joy.

Wildfire gets his first real starring role here where we get some inkling of his personality and in a way, knowing how he'll soon be depicted on a regular basis, we get a cool look at the "real" Drake Burroughs. With no one watching and totally overwhelmed by fears and anxieties, we see Drake totally vulnerable in a way we usually never will, and therefore totally heroic. His triumphant return at the end of the issue is cheer-worthy and I love it!

This is probably the only miracle machine appearance I truly love, and I enjoy the sheer brashness Wildfire has to just go ahead and use it...3 times!

Cockrum is just rocking and rolling here too, and his layouts and panel designs are explosive. His character designs are second to none and that's shown here. All four new characters (counting Wildfire again) look totally unique and new.

There's just a lot to love here. Superboy as a Legionnaire again! This is surprisingly not stated outright (yet) but it is an exciting turn and is another step in showing the LSH is back. More exciting, we get Infectious Lass, and she looks amazing. We get Porcupine Pete, who may be silly but has a weird, unique look and has probably the coolest codename in the history of comics. And we get the Molecular Master, another great nod to the Adult Legion timeline, especially if you're a fan who immediately realizes this bastard will one day destroy poor Reflecto in a duel.

This is actually the first LSH tryout in like 8 years besides the first Wildfire story. It has Superboy going full dickhead judge. It's also probably the best tryout story of them all.

Great issue, coloring mistakes notwithstanding, and it leaves me excited for the stories to come as the Legion continues to change.

(I'll review the back-up separately later this week as I like to do them by story, regardless of size).

201:

"The Betrayer from Beyond" is indeed a very good story--tight, well-paced and suspenseful. It features a hero we can relate to, one who has a difficult to challenge to meet and who comes through with flying colors. As a bonus, it introduces us to Drura and Pete, and, yes, Molecular Master's costume and power were so unique that it's a shame he was just a throwaway character. Even the throwaway characters and the settings (such as the Green Room) show Cockrum's commitment to originality and detail.

My main gripe about this story is the same as for 195: It's basically a Wildfire story (or ERG-1, as he hadn't adopted the Wildfire name yet). Although more Legionnaires appear this time, and several have substantial roles, they are basically walk-ons. Cos's appearance, in particular, reminded me of various shots of the Enterprise crew in the original Star Trek: just there to give the illusion of a full crew.

In fact, when I first read this story, I was excited to see the role call on Page 1, listing seven Legionnaires plus Superboy. My excitement turned to disappointment because none of them really do anything. Chem and Colossal Boy appear mainly in flashback to 195, though, just for good measure, both rate cameos in the main story.

But, taken on its own merits, "The Betrayer from Beyond" is one of the better stories from this run, plot conveniences notwithstanding.

"The Silent Death" is also a fairly good yarn, even though it once again relies on the premise of a female Legionnaire doubting her worth. It's a shame none of the boys ever had doubts.

To compensate for that, however, we have Val acting overconfident and even cocky. He is so convinced he's not going to be the one to die that he brushes aside Nura's prophecy. Whereas some see his behavior in the monitor room as a mark of calm self-assurance, I always read it that he was being arrogant and slightly insensitive toward Nura. In that context, his comeuppance was well deserved.

I did admire how the sneakiness of his injury was worked into the story, and LL and PG were used to good effect to heighten the drama.

Thank you, Cobie. Cheers.



Amen to all of that. What is a shame is that after all the fanfare, he'd spend the next two years as a second-or-third-stringer until Levitz Mark I restored him to his rightful place.

Yeah, face time could have been more balanced among the cast. We were having a discussion not long ago about how few full-length Legion stories there were around this time -- I think this one might have merited a full issue.

Superboy #201 Part 2

You guys did a good job hitting on the positives and negatives of the Dream Girl / Karate Kid backup, including its negatives, so I'll hit on some of the minutiae.

Before I do though, I'll say I agree that another story about a female Legionnaire having doubts about her role on the team was not needed. Especially my girl Nura! That being said, this was a nicely paced and plotted out story--Bates clearly has his rhythm down for short stories.

First, the art is stunning and this includes perhaps the single sexiest series of depictions of Nura ever in comics. Wow! Really: WOW. Second, let's make note of the infamous "Thom in Nura's bed panel". Love it. The Legionnaires are screwing each other's brains out and dammit, we want to know about it! Third, we haven't mentioned this yet, or at least I don't think, but Cockrum is now experimenting with the "Asian Karate Kid" look. It's actually something I've never felt strongly about either way.

But more than all that, the reason I like this story is it sets up the idea of Val and Nura being good friends, and Val being her mentor in physical fighting. Later in the series, it's mentioned that she's one of the Legion's best fighters, which implies she's probably Val's greatest students. I think that's great! Even more, it's rare in the preboot to see a great friendship between a male and female Legionnaire without any sexual tension or problems. It's refreshing to see one, and see it so casually (even if this friendship is somewhat read between the lines over the years).

Some other nice touches in this issue:

--The tryout chamber and chairs remain studded with Porcupine Pete's quills throughout Molecular Master's tryout.

--The Legionnaires sitting around that table are not all shown in one panel, but a near-complete list, from left to right, appears to be Timber Wolf, Chemical King, Karate Kid, Matter-Eater Lad, Saturn Girl, Chameleon Boy, Shadow Lass, Star Boy, Superboy, Phantom Girl, Invisible Kid, Ultra Boy, vacant seat?, Shrinking Violet. What impresses me is that this arrangement is maintained in subsequent panels, even though they are shown from different angles. Not many artists would put in this much attention to detail.

--The Ferro Lad statue in the memorial room goes unexplained, which is a nice touch for long-time fans.

--For all the talk of Thom in Nura's bed, no one seems to have noticed another unusual co-mingling in the back-up story: Phantom Girl "enters" Lightning Lad's body. No wonder he had such a huge smile on his face.

However, not all the details are perfect: Colossal Boy's costume is predominately red in the flashback to 195; in the original story, it was predominately blue. A minor change--and one done no doubt for consistency--but it stands out.

I was wondering why Nura didn't wake up Thom. Perhaps he was suffering from Drura's try out? But I didn't notice him. Looking at the panel, it looks more like Proty.

Thom's head is underneath the pillow.

Little-known fact: Nura snored.

"Shreekkk! A Legionnaire is Dying!!"
"Someone is being...smothered!!"

Legion #201 - "Peril of the Pillow Predator!"

We assume it was Thom in Nura's bed, but that looks like a bald orange head to me...

I hadn't thought about it before, but Shady's new look with tiara, longer hair and cut-away costume make her more elegant and mature. The original by comparison looks like Gidget joins the Legion.

As others have stated, it's a great appearance for Wildfire, illustrating his ingenuity and persistence.

It will be a long time before we find out who sent Molecule Master. (I had to look it up, figuring there had to be some clue in a later story which I'd forgotten. The result was disappointing.)

Re-reading this story, I conclude that Infectious Lass was unjustly rejected and should have appealed the decision. Superboy claimed that she could make all the Legionnaires sick, but her only mistake was to overdose the one person she was aiming for - and even that, as she pointed out, was a temporary illness. A little practice and she could have developed more control. At the least, she should have been directed to the Legion Academy, which admittedly didn't play the same role as it would under Levitz.

Cripes, it hadn't occurred to me that Nura might have been on an editorial hit list! What a loss that would have been.

I was reminded of Kitty Pryde & Colossus in an X-Men issue where they battled the Hellfire Club and Nimrod. That would have been my first read of that tactic. It seemed original when I read it there, but they were just avid Legion readers (no surprise considering the Cockrum influence)



I always thought that her lack of control wasn't just on the intensity when targeting someone. Instead, it was the chance of random, uncontrolled illnesses when she was going about her duties or in combat.

So, she could accidently take out her own side as well as others; There would be an increase in the number of colds in the clubhouse; Smallville is wiped out in the past by weird future virus causing a paradox.

Besides, she's pretty powerful as seen in the 5YG.

Darkseid: The galaxy will be mine to shape in my image! Mine to >cough< control and >wheeze< I haven't felt this bad since Granny Goodness' Curry Night >bleahrgh!<
- The alternate Great Darkness Saga

Well, Sally Field did go on to become the Flying Nun.



Porcupine Pete also looks like he could have been an effective Legionnaire with a little practice, but I gathered that the Legionnaires were looking for applicants who had already demonstrated mastery of their powers before joining. It wasn't truly the Legion's role to teach them how to use their powers.

Just to drive home how unsuitable Drura was to be a Legionnaire, she is rejected a second time in 218. As she leaves the audition, another reject, Quake Kid, tries to put the moves on her. She is receptive, but he instantly comes down with stomach cramps because Drura forgot to turn off her power!

Infectious Lass: The 30th century upgrade to a cold shower.

Dartalon from the updated Wanderers is an example of what Porcupine Pete could have been.

In a fanfic I wrote where one of her ancestors shows her three alternate scenarios of how her life could have gone, one scenario takes place shortly after she'd joined the Legion -- and when she sees herself in the mirror with her original hairdo and costume, she's all like, "What could I have been thinking?"

Not tonight, dear - you have a headache....

I'd forgotten the scene in #218. Maybe her subconscious took over since she really didn't want to go out with him.

It's too bad that she became a joke even by Subs standards - until 5YL, but somebody had to play the part. She could have been an effective Espionage Squad member - just send her in (ahead of everybody else, of course) to disable the bad guys, guards, whoever the Legion was fighting. She'd have been the perfect solo Legionnaire.




Well, we can forgive her for being a young girl from the sticks. You can't keep 'em down on Talok VIII once they've seen Metropolis.

LOL Very true.

Hey, guys! It's your old pal, 'er...Pal!...back from the Legion Re-read abyss! I've used the past couple of days to read the entire Volume 10, so I could participate before this thread reaches its conclusion---and hopefully, to put me in prime position to participate regularly in the Vol. 11 thread and onward!

Here's a few scattered general thoughts on Vol. 10 as a whole:

Re: Cockrum--Wow! If I'd been participating in this thread as I should have, I would have DEMANDED that the parenthetical subtitle of this thread be edited from "DAVE COCKRUM" to "DAVE EFFING COCKRUM!!!!"

I mean, if you own this Archive, take a moment to turn the page from the last Bates/Tuska story to the first Cockrum-pencilled story! It's like (pardon the Legion pun from later in the same Archive) night and day! I mean, is it me, or did anyone else develop an insta-crush on Tenzil's mom in Dave's first splash? SCHWIIING! Matter-eater MILF, much?

Seriously, the level of detail in each and every page and the drop-dead BEAUTIFUL women (er, I guess the guys are okay, too? ) immediately distinguish Dave from the Tuska blahs and bring the Legion firmly into the Bronze Age stylistically. I mentioned particularly in Vol. 8's thread that Curt Swan was making some strides in that area before his departure, but the incredible talent of Dave brought the Legion completely out after Tuska had kept them stagnant for a while in between.

And what an immense talent Cockrum was! I'm embarrassed to say that I never really appreciated his talent for its genius until the recent X-Men re-read project that Cobie, Fickles and I tackled together last year. That and seeing some of his other great work on some Avengers issues during my subsequent huge avengers reading project really set me straight on that account. Revisiting his big break again on the Legion just hammered it home by showing how he was already full of talent before the X-Men work shocked the world.

Now, if only the stories were up to Dave's art. Many of these stories are good, and none of them terribly bad per se, but it's hard not to get mad at Cary for reigning in the cast constantly. I honestly don't know if Cary ever wrote a BIG Legion story during his time (I'll find out with you guys for the first time in upcoming Vols.), but it's a shame he wasn't inspired to write something bigger for a collaborator like Dave during their brief time together.

I knew Dave was responsible for many of the '70s costume changes, but I had mistakenly attributed some of them to his successor Mike Grell, particularly Violet and Element Lad. I honestly can't say there's a one among his designs that I don't at least like a lot!

Knowing some of his later proclivities, it surprises me in hindsight that none of our Legionnaires ended up with a sash! Given what he did with such characters as Phoenix, Ms. Marvel and Corsair, it's a bit of a surprise. Methinks he simply developed a fondness for them later. You can definitely see some of his later X-Men design since in his designs for Cham and Gim, though.

And in his short time with the Legion, Dave still managed to add some lasting creations like Tyr, Drura, Pete and, of course, Drake, easily one of my all-time favorite Legionnaires.

Such a great, great talent and one that rightfully earned an important place in Legion annals as one of its most influential and important artists, even with such a comparatively small body of work on the strip.

DAVE EFFING COCKRUM!!!!

And a GREAT BIG EFFING "WELCOME BACK" to you, Lardy!!

Seriously, it's so good to see you back here as we prepare to wrap up Volume 10 this week and then jump aboard the rollercoaster ride that is Volume 11 next week.

I agree that most of Bates' stories are rather bitty, but I think a lot of the blame for that needs to go to editor Murray Boltinoff, who always had the final say and who, in Cockrum's words, got increasingly conservative as the Legion became more successful, almost as though he was (erroneously) convinced that to take more creative chances would somehow undo the success that he, Bates, and Cockrum had worked so hard for.

I also think it's good to remember that Cockrum found himself on the other side of the coin during the last year of his second run on Uncanny X-Men -- the Brood Saga took so many issues to finish that Cockrum didn't even see it through to the end! (Incidentally, I wonder if anyone sees parallels between DnA's "Legion of the Damned" and "The Brood Saga" like I do?)

I saw the title edit, btw--however, you left out the 4 exclamation points!

And before I completely move on from Tenz's family, it was interesting to note that they bore little resemblance to the one depicted in Vol. 9's "The Hapless Hero", physically or otherwise. The parents look quite a bit different, now live in Bismoll instead of leaching off Tenz near Legion HQ on Earth and have apparently moved up in social status in addition to the reveal of a previously-unseen second son.

I think this was clearly a (minor) continuity oversight. It's a bit surprising, though, because overall the stories in this volume show rather excellent continuity with the older stories, including many callbacks and nods. Given that, I might have expected a throwaway line acknowledging how far the Kem family has come since pop gave up gambling. (Who knows? Maybe Renkil was in foster care at the time because social services intervened?)

It's slightly disappointing to me because that Action backup was easily my favorite among that batch. But it's nice to see Tenzil get another rare spotlight irregardless.

(I haven't read this entire thread, though I intend to, so forgiveness if this was well-trodden territory.)

Regarding the most recent issue reviewed, 201, I thought I'd chime in a bit:


"The Betrayer from Beyond"

You've really got to love Dave's design for Drura, a complex design for a character who could have just been a one-off. The fact that she wasn't speaks both to Dave's memorable design and the comic potential that other writers find appealing.

Molecular Master is indeed also an interesting design, one I can't help but feel that Dave may have revisited later in another character. Maybe he didn't. The mask reminds me vaguely of Defenders character Devil-Slayer, but a search shows me that was a Rich Buckler creation. I'm intrigued, though, to learn from Huey that the loose plot-thread of who sent Molecular Master will be addressed, though disappointed to hear it won't be terribly interesting. It seemed like one of those things that would just be left out there.

I have to both agree with Cobie that this was one instance in which the Miracle Machine was used very effectively as a villain objective and as a way to resolve Drake's problem and with Fickles that it should have been better protected. You could easily argue that any villain out there could and should have been after the MM on a monthly basis. I'm not sure when Tenz will eat it, but I hope it appears some time soon, so we don't have to keep suspending disbelief that it shouldn't be involved somehow in each and every plot!

I also like that Drake's return began as a subplot in the previous issue and as a mystery at that. It makes me wonder how many readers realized it was him from the beginning. It's a shame to hear that Drake doesn't appear a lot for a while, but at least we know he'll certainly get his due, unlike some.


"The Silent death"

I really like this story because, well, SEXY NURA! I mean, I love that Dave was able to get away with basically having her wander around in a sexy negligee all issue! This, on top of Thom's lump/head-top cameo really helps to bring the book out of the Silver Age in a subtle but not TOO subtle way!

Nura's power really lends itself well to short one-offs like this one, giving us a quick mystery to resolve. Yeah, I'd rather it was not framed in the context of Nura doubting her Legionnaire cred, but we know she earns it in a big way later on. Plus, Chuck had the same sort of story (ironically) right before he loses his power, marries Lu and quits, so it's not just the girls. At least Nura sticks around so that we may adore her later on.

Cobie saw what I did, that Dave drew Val with vaguely asian features. I've never been in love with that idea with the pre-boot version of the character. later 'boots are fair game, but since Val was introed as caucasian, I feel that's how he should stay. For the most part, he did, but there are exceptions.

.....mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....sexy Nura......

I don't know if it's been mentioned here, but Cobie's comment about experiencing these stories in vibrant color reminds me that Volume 10 is actually the one which DC made exchangeable because it was said to have "washed out" colors. I ordered this one online from Mile High Comics at the time and received it as a new release. When I heard the news, I looked through it and figured it looked good enough to me and wasn't worth the effort it would take to replace it.

Looking through it compared to others, I'd say the colors looked slightly duller but still look fine. It makes me wonder how many copies were exchanged and how many people here who own one have the original or the corrected version. I also wonder if there exists some photos that compare, say, the same page from each version to illustrate the differences.

It's something I often think of when looking at this volume, and I wonder if anyone has any thoughts or experiences to share regarding the whole affair.

Since I don't think anyone else mentioned this, it's worth noting that the name "Molecule Master" is actually a call back to the Adult Legion story, where he is listed as being responsible for the death of Reflecto, another character that Dave was apparently wanting to introduce to the series.

I totally mentioned it!

But it's worth mentioning again!

Credit Where Due Dept.: It was Cramey who said that, not me.

But I agree that it was disappointing. The worst part for me is that the Big Reveal came several years after the original story was published, long enough to fall into the Why Bother? category.

Some mysteries should remain mysteries.

So...putting two and two together, does that mean the reveal takes place during the eventual Reflecto story?!?! I admit that I've never read said story (it hasn't exactly come highly recommended, after all), so this is a total guess based on the above posts!

I also want to welcome back Lardy to the Archive Rereads! Great to have you back. It's almost like sexy Nura was at the Archive as a special thank you for you.

Also, if Fanfie doesn't mind, I'm going to go ahead and post a quick review of the Gim / Vi story now, since I like to read and review these by story, not issue. I'll go the main story in a day or two (probably after a review or two has been posted on it). My posting this week will be very spotty as I'll be traveling.

The Archive has this story before the Wildfire / Devilfish story. Is the actual issue itself also in this order? I suppose I can check myself but that sounds like a lot of work.

Superboy and the LSH #202 Part 1

We get another back up (front up?) by Cockrum and Bates that has familiar positives and negatives. And again for the most part, the positives our weight those negatives.

Thus far in Legion history, both Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet are two of the most underused Legionnaires and its a treat to see them both utilized. This pairing surely inspires ideas of their bait & switch romance during Levitz's run (in addition to how their powers naturally associate them together).

It's also beautifully rendered by Cockrum. Gim looks incredibly heroic and leading man-ish. Vi looks like a knockout and a capable and equally heroic Legionnaire. The last panel in particular is great with a giant Gim holding a mini Vi.

The plot structure is somewhat familiar with the opening sequence ultimately providing the resolution to the mystery. But it's well plotted and Bates' comfort zone lets him confidently tell a good story. The parasitic rock sequence is particularly well done and a good mid-story problem to keep the Legionnaires on their toes while the mystery lingers.

There are two panels where once more, a female Legionnaire doubts her place on the team because of her powers. This trend has quickly become quite annoying. But it's quick and I can ignore it.

All in all, as the Cockrum / Bates partnership nears its end, it's gotten quite good!

I'm trying to remember, as either you're correct or not far off. I thought this was revealed before that and then followed up in Reflecto but it seems like the kind of dangling plot thread that Roy Thomas fantasized about resolving.

I just want to put in my 2¢ on Dream Girl.

IMHO, if there was a useless power, it is Naltorans.

Example: Dream Girl has a vision that tomorrow, the LSHQ will run out of coffee. What can you do about it? Even if you run to the store that evening, in the morning the Fatal Five will attack, and steal all your supply, or Coffee-Drinker-Lad will show up for tryouts, or something will happen to make you run out of coffee. Dream Girl’s visions are never wrong, only sometimes misinterpreted. There is nothing anyone can do to change the future she predicts.

Now, if she foresaw various possible futures, and how to get there, that might be something. But as it is, it only gives the writer the chance to write the headline (again) A LEGIONNAIRE WILL DIE!

There is a small opportunity to make some money on taking bets about the future. But in most cases, it is the sort of “The-Jack-of-Spades-will-pop-up-out-of-the-deck-and-spit-cider-in-your-ear” variety, which only a sucker would take.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLgXqiaHMM0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSjtN7lFthE

I confess to having been drawn to an issue with that on the cover. But it was all just future fashions. Turns out I'd misread "A Legionnaire Will Dye!"




But what if the Time Trapper appears? Each world in his hourglass represents a world that will be destroyed as it falls from the top to the bottom of the glass.

But then someone remembers Nura's dream about there being no coffee left. A quick Wildfire, Brainy, Element Lad plan replaces the grains of sand with coffee! Ta da! Nura's future comes to pass, but the galaxy is saved. Unfortunately they can't celebrate over coffee, but those Legionnaires are tough. They can have tea instead.



Nura's precognitive combat works in an odd way. She's sees a future where she's punched. But she counters it, avoiding the punch and delivering a thump of her own.

Cobie, you know I'm your friend and I try to be accommodating to you and the other Legion Worlders, but I would appreciate it if next time, you PMed to let me know ahead of time. I've come to believe that without a firm schedule, and without one person clearly leading the discussion, there is a danger that the re-read will become disorganized and random, and possibly stall again as it has in the past.

I will post my reviews of both stories after dinner.

SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #202

This wasn't supposed to be Cockrum's last issue, but the issue of getting back his original artwork, specifically the wedding splash, drove him away from DC and into Marvel exclusively for the rest of the 70s.

Sad to say, it's not his best issue, art-or-story-wise. You know we're in trouble when the shorter story, which would normally be the backup, is the LEAD!

Yet again, a female Legionnaire doubts her worth -- this time it's Shrinking Violet's turn. That said, I do think it's pretty cool that she's the one who figures out the problem and solves it, with Colossal Boy ending up being the one in distress. Vi had several nice moments of asserting herself like this during the 70s, and I'd have liked it if later creators hadn't changed her so drastically and ham-fistedly in the 80s, because I don't think it was necessary. I also like that Gim gives the never-say-die speech; if my Proto-Retroboot fanfics had continued, I had plans for Gim's positive attitude to save the team from disbanding.

Pencils in the Vi/Gim story are by Cockrum, but inks are by his designated successor, Mike Grell, and while I like Grell a lot, their styles definitely clash here -- Grell's finer, more illustrative line fails to blend smoothly with Cockrum's bold stylizations.

The second, longer story introduces the cult character Devil-Fish, who has a typically striking Cockrum design. And the design is about the best thing the story has to offer. The opening scene of Wildfire being sworn in as a member seems tacked on like an afterthought, and the plot comes off to me as muddled -- so humans try to do the right thing by the environment for once, building a station that converts pollutants in the ocean into clean energy, only to find out that there was a weird-looking aquatic creature who depended on the pollution for sustenance? What kind of message is that?? Add to that the surprisingly underwhelming look that Cockrum comes up with for the villainous aliens (so lame they don't even get a name), all blow-dried 'dos and domino-mask eyes and ridiculous facial hair, and I have to wonder why Cockrum considered this to be his finest artistic hour on the Legion.

Still, when all is said and done, Cockrum was indisputably one of the best things that happened to the Legion, and I think we all owe him our gratitude for saving it from oblivion.

Checklist: Tuesday; Fickles has posted; Cobie told off >tee hee<

All checked! Time to paste a review!

Superboy 202

This tele-review of a visi-comic has been cos-motored to your attention. I suppose I’ve read worse. But nothing sounds less futuristic than something that’s trying too hard to be futuristic. I suppose it’s Bates’ way of trying to keep up with Cockrum’s effortlessly sci-fi art.

Another story, another crisis of confidence. This time it’s Violet, who bemoans her supposed lack of powers when the controls of the spacecraft she’s in with Gim die.

Another hallmark of Bates appears in the over-elaborate scheme. The Legionnaires are fighting some raiders. Instead of trying to kill the Legionnaires, one of them just happens to have a power draining bullet that he hopes will stop the Legion at some distant point in the future, rather than help his own side in the present.

Gim is “exiled” on a space rock. He tries to pretend it took a lot of convincing for Vi to abandon him, but it was three panels Gim. Sorry man. The rock just happens to be alive for no other plot purpose than to give Gim something to do. Still, there are a couple of nice panels where he realises he can’t use his powers in space, and when he uses them to burst out of his transit back on board.

Violet finds the reason behind the ship’s power loss and the pair return to Earth. There are a couple of classic panels for Vi as she stands in Gim’s hand.

At half a dozen pages, it does its job. We get to focus on a couple of the cast, without learning a great deal about them.
The main feature opens with some of the team swearing in Wildfire. It seems an odd grouping now. Bikini-Imra and Timberwolf capturing that ‘70s feel along with Tenzil, Shady and Brainy. Wildfire writing his name in energy is a quick signal to the readers on his personality. The scene is there just to conclude the Erg-1 story and to provide an intro for the main mission. With the varying pages lengths, there’s certainly a number of ways in which Bates is able to fit in a story.

Outside of Aquaman, there aren’t too many aquatic DC comics. So it’s an interesting environment and our introduction to it is a great panel of 4 seemingly drowned Legionnaires. Seeing the breathing masks on those that need them is a relief and doesn’t lessen the impact too much.

The plot reminds me of a couple of old Doctor Who stories from around the same time. They also involved foam and offshore platforms. Element Lad gets a chance to shine only to find out that the foam contains “unknown elements.” He gets to make up for it later. Light Lass is making up the numbers really, and doesn’t get to add anything to the plot.

Despite the lovely future, it would seem that the oceans have lots of pollution. So not everything worked out well. It’s the lightest of “relevant” touches from the Legion.

A third party appearing at the rig handily draws the Legion and the Devil Fish together as allies.

It’s interesting to see how the two invulnerable Legionnaires deal with the threat to the rig. Superboy looks to question the Devil Fish, while Mon-El takes a more direct, militaristic approach. Mon is still thinking though, and uses the telepathic plugs to find a solution. One that doesn’t trample over the Devil Fish’s life.

I had often thought that the Devil Fish was a fairly hokey character. But the combination of Cockrum’s great art and the teasers to possible future appearances make me wonder if the Devil Fish wasn’t supposed to have a longer future in the book. I’m certainly seeing a link between him and Tellus. I imagine that this story added to the call for less human looking Legionnaires.

The rest of the art is also impressive, with the rig and the ocean scenes providing a nice contrast. From the wet look Legionnaires to Superboy’s use of infrared, it’s very good visually. The story is a step up from the 6 pager, reminding us that not everything is as it first seems and that different ways of living can be accommodated through communication (although telepathic earplugs help)

I'd never thought of that before, but I think you make a valid point. I do wish the story had been better-written, though. And like I said in my review, I personally don't think this was one of Cockrum's better artistic showings.

That rule is totally news to me! But I'm happy to play along as I think that makes a lot of sense.



Feh!

(I was gonna say "piss off" but can't remember if that's a loving, playful jab or a serious "now we must become enemies" one. )

Superboy & the LSH #202

Dave Cockrum's last issue leaves me with mixed emotions as on the one hand it's stunning beyond belief and on the other I'm just plain sad that he moves on from here. I can take comfort in the fact that Grell is coming and I just recently reread his amazing All-New, All-Different X-Men with Fanfie and Lardy. Still, it's hard not to just reflect on what he did for the Legion. We've basically spent the whole thread talking about it, so there's no need to go on and on, but to sum it up: he saved the franchise we all know and love.

This issue is no exception to his greatness. The splash page with the 4 Legionnaires knocked out in the water is especially breathtaking and one of his best.

The story is fairly standard but that doesn't stop it from being good. Bates has really stepped up towards the end of Dave's run and he continues to showcase his good plotting skills here.

I like Devilfish a lot, as Dave's design is terrific, and the concept of his food supply is interesting. His bubble powers are too for that matter. I know in the Legion Companion there was a ton of speculation as to whether Devilfish would have returned sooner rather than later had Dave stayed, and perhaps even joined the LSH. I know I wouldn't have minded at all and wish we'd seen him again. But alas, we'll never know!

One complaint is I wish we had more Wildfire. He gets one of the best codename in comics up to that point and then poof, he's not seen again. Such was the Legion of this era I suppose.

And so the 10th Archive comes to an end! And what a damn good one it was.

Many thanks for respecting the unwritten rule, Cobie.

You and Thoth both seem to like the Devil-Fish story a lot more than I did, but that's what makes the world go 'round.

And I do agree 100% that this was a damn good Archive.

Finally, to others who may still want to chime in on the stories in this volume even after we regulars have moved on to later volumes, remember that it's never too late.

One thing that struck me with the Gim-Violet story was not so much her self-doubt (an over-used story, as others have said), but her unwillingness to abandon Gim despite him urging her to leave. After recently finishing a series of time-travel books called The Chronicles of St. Mary's, one of the oft-repeated lines was "We're St. Mary's, we don't leave our people behind". It was the concept of a solid team, that someone always has your back, that was so appealing - and I got that sense from this story, the "We're the Legion" feeling.

I had the same feeling, I just couldn't quite find the words to express it. Thanks, FC, for doing just that.

"What kind of message is that?" It's a Darwinian message. If only they'd left Love Canal alone, who knows we'd have gotten a real Devil Fish.

LOVE this story. Writing? Eh I suppose. I fell for it so I'm going to say "good." But the story clearly, one of my faves.

Hey wait, when was this story written? Was it inspired by the Love Canal?

202/Devil Fish:

I can't help thinking that much of the Devil Fish story was inspired by "The Devil in the Dark" episode of the original Star Trek. In that story, too, we've got a monster causing havoc. Kirk wants to kill it (as Mon wanted to attack the Devil Fish) while Spock advocates a more rational approach (as Superboy does). Ultimately, Spock and Kirk's positions coalesce into Mon-El, who at last does communicate with the aquatic creature after rendering him harmless, so Mon risks nothing.

I do appreciate the attempt to include science fiction concepts, even though they seem rather shaky at this remove: A sea station that purifies the ocean by feeding off toxic pollutants . . . not a bad idea. I find it harder to accept that Devil Fish purifies the ocean all by his lonesome.

Others have commented on the pluses and strengths of this story. I agree with most of those comments. However, as a kid reading this for the first time, I was drawn into a number of images, such as the Legionnaires encased in the bubble prison and Superboy's use of infrared vision. Those images alone helped stir my imagination, as did the mystery over the saboteur.

A couple of things did annoy me, however:

When Brainy says it would require an "addendum" to the Legion's charter for Wildfire to change his name, I wondered why. Frankly, it just sounds like an "intellectual" thing for him to say that has no bearing on the story whatsoever.

Also, by the time the Wildfire scene is over, everyone seems to have drifted away but Brainy and Imra. Welcome to the team, Drake; now we can ignore you (as the writers certainly would from this point forward).

202/Lost

By no means an exceptional story, though it does have several pluses, such as the rare focus on Gim and Vi, and Vi getting to save the day.

Ultimately, the ending leaves me flat: Not a word of thanks from Gim to Vi for saving his life, just "Earth, here we come!" The characters learn nothing and do not grow, and we learn nothing about them.

"Lost: A Million Miles from Home!"

Not a bad little story, though the raiders' plot to get back at the Legionnaires is very complex and a little too specific. But it's nice to see Vi and Gim together and see some slight shades of what later appeared to be their romantic pairing in the Levitz/Giffen era.

But what I really liked was how Dave drew Salu's hair and how both it and the costume seemed to put her past timidity to bed. The longer hair was quite a change from how she'd always in the past and later after her sens-tank captivity had a consistently shorter haircut from most of the females. Particularly after her Silver Age depiction, the longer hair makes her look sexy, confident and more grown-up. Other than her quick outburst about her and Gim's powers being useless in this particular crisis, Dave just illustrates a new Vi who's ready for the Bronze Age.

It's not just the length of her hair. Dave draws it fairly big as well. I don't know what the terminology is, but it's almost a bouffant and is very well crafted than just a big blob covering her head. Clearly, dave has some talent depicting different hairstyles, and this one is a great choice for a more mature Vi. (When she eventually goes to the shortest cut yet, I think that change also works well to show how she's even tougher moving forward.)



"The Wrath of the Devil-Fish"

I'm in the camp that feels that this was a pretty good story. It has its faults, that have already been mentioned, but I think the vintage-Cockrum design of Devil-Fish and how the story reverses our expectations with him not turning out to be bad. I particularly love the two silent panels of Mon-El sharing the telepathic plug. That serious "let's hear your side" look from Mon really sells the moment. Bravo to Cockrum for that!

It is a little disappointing that Devil-Fish didn't join the Legion or at least have the possibility mentioned. The Legion was blessed to have Cockrum at all, but you can't help but think that he would have enriched the lore and look of the book even greater if he'd stayed even a little bit longer. I guess we'll have to just take what he did with the X-Men as a consolation prize instead and imagine what Nightcrawler and Storm might have been like as Legionnaires!


BONUS: Though there wasn't a lot of insightful info in the "Lore of the Legion" for us Legion lifers, it's interesting to me that a regular part of the entries was the status of the Legionnaires' parents (even though this was neglected in some). I suppose that was inserted for the benefit of the younger readers the editors expected to be picking up this incarnation, but it was otherwise fairly useless as Legionnaire parents are rarely mentioned or featured.

Oddly, enough Colossal Boy's entry is one of the ones with that info left out. His folks had already played a role in the LSV School story--and of course his mom Marte would later be the most prominent Legion parent as a future Earth President.

The power of Cockrum's art right there. I've read the Legion Companion. So, I must have read any speculation on Devil Fish. But I would have rolled my eyes based on a hokey picture taken out of context somewhere. Seeing the effort Cockrum put into the character has changed my view of it. I'm not saying he should join the Legion or anything, but the art makes it a more entertaining comic than I thought it was going to be.




I thought they must have been really stuck for a line to give Brainy. Someone should reply "Oh, is there a rule that says we can't change the name?" To which Brainy replies ">choke< No! I just can't express myself!" leading to lots of hugs and him not going nuts later in the run.

Just gave this to my daughter for her birthday. We'll see how she likes it.

Woo-hoo! What a dad!

^ seconded!

Thirded.

Only thing my Dad ever gave me was a bottle of cheap booze, when I was three. Ma was pissed (so the story has been related).

LegionWorld kidlets drawing LSH covers and getting books from the Masters. The legacy lives!

You should customize a label to put on it that says "by DAVE EFFING COCKRUM!!!!"

And if she asks what "Effing" means, just tell her it's his middle name.

What a great gift! Let us know what she thinks of it.



Until she wants to name a dog that...

Good name for a poodle. Very French.

Finished this one with my daugther. Getting to the point that I'm not sure if shes still understanding it all, stories getting more complicated, story twists often being kind of "huh?" like Karate Kid nearly dying because of an of panel injury he does not notice... my daugther suspected the funny pear to be poisoned, by the way, so many poison stories in the last two archives ...

I never was a fan of Cary Bates writing and I once again see why. Too few members being portrayed in the stories, the plot often slightly dumb or totally pointless. Reminds me of the Legion stories of the 21st century, in a way. If not for the wedding and the Erg-1 multiparter, nothing relevant was being done in so many stories - and stuff like the return of Superboy to the active roster was hardly ever mentioned. Timber Wolf dissappearance was retconned into continuity, confusing for younger readers then and now.

The artwork and the new costumes still are really great, Cockrum definitely had a very good feeling for the characters. When Grell came on board, the art became kind of stiffer, less dynamic.

What I remember from when I was a kid was that I was kind of annoyed when a Legion story didn't live up to my high expectations, spoiled by big stories like the Damn Tabloid. Bates stories often had this kind of underwhelming feeling. Compared to what Shooter did on his Adventure run, Bates stories do not stand the test of time as good, though I do like the first Wildfire stuff.

Thanks for chiming in, CK.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, Cockrum and Bates generally had a civil, even friendly relationship, but they did clash on the matter of How Many Legionnaires In One Story. Cockrum's attitude was "the more, the merrier," Bates's seemed to me...well, that he found it intimidating to have more than four or five members in one story. And, unfortunately, Bates's attitude was more in line with that of then-Legion editor Murray Boltinoff, who, as Cockrum described it in his introduction to this volume, got more conservative and less willing to take creative risks as the feature grew more popular. So I think it's really more his fault that Bates's, because he always had the last word.

That said, I do still very much like a few of the Bates stories in this volume. You already mentioned Wildfire's appearances. I also think the Fatal Five one is quite good, and the Timber Wolf/Tyr one, and to a lesser extent the Sun Boy/Regulus one.

Hey, Gang. Long time no see. I'm way behind here but I thought I'd toss this in as my contribution to this thread.

SWAK

BUMP

In the recent Legion Hall of Fame poll over in the Spaceopoly forum, I came to realize through the subsequent discussions just how important I think Dave Effing Cockrum is to the Legion.

Think about it -- no Cockrum would mean we'd have kept getting crummy, bitty, gimmicky stories and mediocre-at-best artwork. I believe that, without Cockrum, the Legion might have been cancelled within a few more installments. And considering the chaos that DC seemed to be in during the first half of the 70s, there was a very real chance that the Legion wouldn't be seen again until at least the late 80s! And even then, it would've probably gotten some kind of sordid, sensationalistic Proto-Vertigo treatment that would make Five Years Later look tame by comparison. Then, once that had run its course, back to obscurity, until the next lame revival, and the next, and the next.

So, on this Thanksgiving Day, I want to express my thanks for the presence of the late, great Dave Cockrum on the Legion. Thank you, Dave, wherever you are now.



...and what might have been --

I was thinking much the same thing after your nomination. It was his art that brought the Legion out of obscurity. Cary bates stories were part of it too but without Cockrum's art there probably would have been no sustained revival and everything that has come since then building on that period.

Maybe she can tell us herself now!