Legion of Super-Heroes v4 087 (1996)
written by Tom Peyer & Tom McCraw
pencils by Mike Collins, Lee Moder & Paul Pelletier
cover by Alan Davis
If I had to guess the first superhero after Superman to team up with the Legion during their 20th century stay, I would never have guessed Deadman.
We begin with a fake psychic being attacked by the granddaughter of a woman he swindled.
There is a bit of a connection to the Final Night crossover as well.
The left panel is a bit confusing; she’s shooting his crystal ball.
And no, that’s not a euphemism.
The guy has no actual magic powers, but he does have a talisman he recently acquired…
…for all the good it does.
The Legion has no time to investigate: they’re going to star in the incredibly disappointing Showcase 96 #11-12. In fact, the scene with Apparition disappearing is in both books.
And speaking of Showcase, this is why I can’t find any possible point for Showcase 96 #10 to happen.
It can’t happen before this story because Apparition was still bonded to Ultra Boy, so he couldn’t just leave without her to have his crappy story.
But it also can’t be happening during this issue, because the Cosmic Boy is with the Legion team that is going to Colu and can’t interact with Ultra Boy.
It can’t be happening after this issue either for reasons we’ll see later.
Even without the Cosmic Boy angle, to set Showcase #10 during this issue would mean that after learning his girlfriend might have died a second time… Ultra Boy’s first reaction would be to go after some street punks.
Instead, the moment he leaves S.T.A.R. Labs, he meets a mysterious figure that keep jumping between bodies of civilians.
That stranger would be Deadman. If you’re unfamiliar with him, he’s a ghost with the power to possess the bodies of living people.
He typically looks slightly more alive than this, though. I’m not familiar enough with the character to know if this was his standard look in the mid-90s or if it’s just this story.
This is the storyline that gives a great significance to the jewel Apparition wears as part of her costume. Keen eyes might have noticed that her mother was also shown to wear something similar.
Deadman tends to be confined to either the magic side of the DC Universe or the street heroes; he doesn’t interact much with other heroes since… well, he’s dead.
But whenever he DOES interact with other corners of the universe, he’s always hilariously baffled.
This is an odd couple to say the least: the young optimistic teen from the future and the jaded old ghost who has seen everything. They work so well off each other that it’s a pity this is the only storyline where they interact.
Also odd: the fake psychic from the beginning has turned into THIS THING.
The connection to Apparition is that he’s wearing a separate Touchstone identical to hers.
In addition to a new look, Super Ghost has telekinesis now.
Deadman can’t do anything to him since he’s a ghost, so a possession is needed.
The first order of business is finding Ultra Boy…
…and getting down to business.
Good to know that Deadman is at least honorable enough to avoid ghost harassment.
At least the possessed was okay with it; you should’ve asked first.
No point in asking Ultra Boy if HE was okay to kiss a random girl possessed by his girlfriend, she knows him enough to know the answer.
The reason why Tiffany isn’t bothered by all this crazy stuff is that she already knows Deadman.
I remind you that the Legion is currently staying in Metropolis. Even if Superman is currently de-powered because of the events of Final Night (as we’ll see in the upcoming second team-up), surely Metropolis has enough experience to deal with Super Ghost here?
Well technically he’s not stealing Apparition’s powers, Ultra Boy, he’s demonstrating entirely new ones.
What he means is that the more power Super Ghost uses, the more he destroys Apparition’s… well I was going to say “body”, but it’s more her ghost essence.
Also, this comment makes me wonder: does Ultra Boy share the same “weakness” to magic that Superman has?
Well if she has already possessed the body of a human, it stands to reason that Apparition could possess a piece of metal that is being animated by psychic powers fueled by her essence.
It’s only logical.
Good news: Super Ghost is gone.
Bad news: this is not restoring the other ghosts.
The situation is so dire that Deadman calls upon Rama Kushna, the goddess responsible for his ghost powers.
As a goddess, Rama Kushna can take any form she wishes; she either shows herself to Deadman as an abstract face or a hot woman of various skin colors.
A rat is a new one.
Even if Deadman is a good guy, Rama Kushna’s morality is more complicated than you’d expect.
She’s perfectly fine for Apparition to die just because she’s not currently where she’s supposed to be.
I swear Deadman’s reactions to weird non-supernatural stuff will never get old.
Even Rama Kushan thinks this is more complicated than it needs to be, and the storyline hasn’t even reached its weirdest part yet!!!
But at least she’s kind enough to restore Apparition to her regular ghost form.
Not to resurrect her: the fact that her go-to guy is DEADMAN should tell you that resurrections are not her department.
They won’t have to wait too long for more weirdness, because this storyline is going to involve the L.E.G.I.O.N.
Kind of.
That’s weird because we JUST had our sort-of-L.E.G.I.O.N. crossover, but that’s going to be COMPLETELY unrelated.
Not that I complain, since that sucked.
And we close with the revelation that Tiffany, who has actual psychic abilities, has now taken the place of the original scammer.
We’ll see her again in the Reboot, but sadly without Deadman.
Legion significance: 3/10
The secret behind the connection between Apparition, Phase and the Touchstone will be a minor subplot that will take quite a while to be resolved. In a very, VERY weird way.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
And this was already pretty weird. Although if this was the actual Silver Age, Deadman would’ve been skeptical that aliens exist.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
The resolution is way too quick and Super Ghost is as generic as they come. Had they fixed those and gave the rest of the Legion a role instead of shipping them to a sub-par anthology, this could’ve been great since Deadman works surprisingly well with the Legion.
Who did it better?
You might recall that this is not the first time a jewel from Bgztl has been given significance.
All the way back in LSH #281, we learned that Phantom Girl could concentrate on her belt in order to return to her home dimension.
That’s an extremely minor part of the story and it’s not exactly the same of the Touchstone in the Reboot, but since it’s less confusing I would still call it the superior version.
That’s right: despite liking this storyline, parts of it are more confusing THAN THE REFLECTO SAGA.
We are legion
- 12 active Legionnaires
- 8 missing in action
- 1 resigned member (Andromeda)
- 1 honorary member (Superboy)
- 2 deceased members (Kid Quantum and Leviathan)
- 24 people have been members
- 4 Legion leaders (Leviathan, Cosmic Boy, Shrinking Violet, Live Wire)
- 13 members have been rejected
Interesting letters: the issue includes the reactions to LSH #80, which are overwhelmingly positive.
I don’t know what’s the worst crime: that the story has never been reprinted or that they never did make a poster of the cover.
As far as I can tell at least.
