This time we’re doing something different: instead of going through each issue, I’m just going to cover the Omen storyline that runs through these four issues.
Issues 308 and 309 have a second story each, but I’ll cover those separately.
Legion of Super-Heroes #307 (1984)
by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen
Nice detail on the cover: that’s the Legionnaires being depicted on the scroll.
We begin with the Legion investigating the destruction of a planetoid, and a friend of Invisible Kid is among the victims.
Whoever is behind this is apparently SO powerful that Darkseid gets namedropped.
Whoever that is, he’s powerful enough to stop the Legion’s ship without problems. My guess is he’s powered by Kirby Krackles™.
Phantom Girl makes an attempt to save the ship. Which is a smart move: if it crashes she can just turn intangible and avoid getting hurt.
Also notice the unwarranted hostility towards Timber Wolf is STILL going.
Remember that last time Element Lad was the unexpected winner of the Legion election? Apparently it was SO surprising that he doesn’t believe it!
Which kind of makes sense, considering this is the first time the Legion elects a leader who didn’t even ask to run, but still… surely someone else besides Wildfire would think about telling him!?
(also now I’m wondering: how many Denebians DOES it take to dust a hologram?)
Dream Girl doesn’t seem to be upset about losing the election. She’s currently in a diplomatic mission with the Khunds, of all things.
In much bigger news: Saturn Girl is pregnant!
Your regular reminder that Blok is, in fact, always awesome.
We’ve already seen that being on the Khund planet means someone may show up at any moment to challenge you to the death. Say hello to Gurkak!
And then say goodbye to Gurkak!
Back to the A plot, there’s a nice bit of interaction between Phantom Girl (who is fine despite crashing the ship because intangibility) and Shadow Lass.
Sending them on separate missions from their boyfriends is a good move: they’re so much more powerful than the girls that they often end up being overshadowed.
(pun unintended for Shady)
Once the Legion is on the trail leading to the Kirby Krackles™ guy, they’re under attack.
It’s a nice scene, but seeing Giffen use that dreaded grid format for the first time triggers some serious PTSD for anyone who hated the 5 Years Later period.
Mercifully that only lasts for one page this time around.
In a nice bit of continuity, the lead takes the Legion to the planet that was taken over by the Fatal Five all the way back in issue #246!
It’s also an effective red herring because you MIGHT think the Fatal Five are involved in this, but nope, they’re not in this storyline.
Also notice that #246 was “five years ago” (as it was in real time), contradicting the recent revelation that only 2 years have passed since Dawnstar’s debut in #226.
Levitz writes some great banter between the Legionnaires, but seriously can we please stop this completely unwarranted hostility towards Timber Wolf?
Another bit I really liked: Invisible Kid explaining why anyone in the 30th century has a French accent. Somewhat counterintuitive, but it’s a matter of Ivory Coast pride… after all, colonialism is way older than Interlac.
Despite being invisible and intangible, the two Legionnaires are spotted by the mysterious being that is influencing the locals.
They’re immediately rescued by Ultra Boy and Mon-El. Told you it would’ve been better to leave them on separate missions from their girlfriends!
The diplomatic mission with the Khunds proceeds with the introduction of one of my absolute favorite alien races ever: the awkwardly named Gil’Dishpan (later renamed Gil’Dan).
This is their first real appearance, but they’ve been retroactively linked to the Brain-Globes of Rambat of Adventure Comics #293.
Seriously, I freaking love these little methane-breathing a-holes. They’re as devious as they are disgusting.
The meeting is IMMEDIATELY interrupted, however, because the Khund planet has been invaded…
…by the main plot. Meet the Prophet, who appropriately enough gets here before Omen.
Legion of Super-Heroes #308 (1984)
by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen
Kind of a busy cover, but it sure grabs your attention.
Prophet sure is a powerhouse, laying waste to the Khund planet without problems.
He freaks out when he sees the Legion.
We interrupt this superhero comic to see if Dawnstar is still tripping balls in her intergalactic spirit walking or whatever the heck she’s supposed to be doing.
Turns out Prophet used to be a priest on the same planetoid of Invisible Kid’s friend.
I wonder what his denomination was.
All the researchers at the planetoid died studying some cosmic critters that feed on stellar radiation, which made the priest insane one he came back to witness the devastation.
That’s when he was contacted and empowered by Omen, who we STILL haven’t met yet.
Hilariously, Mon-El has had enough of all this monologuing and just straight up punches Prophet!
You know, maybe namedropping Darkseid wasn’t all that crazy.
So Omen gives you tremendous cosmic powers and you decide to go around the galaxy blowing up planets because THAT is going to stop him?
Sounds legit.
Soooo… is anyone going to call for reinforcement? Because it’s not like the other Legionnaires are busy with anything.
Legion of Super-Heroes #309 (1984)
by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen
Is there going to be any Omen in this Omen storyline?
My favorite supervillain is Doctor Doom, so when I can’t stand a villain because he just won’t shup up about how awesome he is… should really tell you something!!!
With such a powerful adversary on their planet, the Khund decide to… get mad at the Legion and ask them to leave. Hey, nobody ever accused them of being smart.
We get it, he’s invincible, can we PLEASE have Prophet do anything interesting now!?!?
Turns out Prophet’s one weakness is having his eyes closed.
That is one heck of a lucky guess, Invisible Kid… how did you know it wasn’t his own power making his eyes glow!?
That takes care of Prophet, but Omen has arrived! And he’s just… a big floating head without eyes.
In the B plot, Brainiac 5 is still trying to get Computo out of the brain of Invisible Kid’s sister.
Hang in there, Brainy, it’s just a couple issues before that plot is resolved.
Legion of Super-Heroes #310 (1984)
by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen
Prophet was a dud, Omen, so I really hope you’re worthy of all this buildup.
Seriously, the main plot is so boring that I’d rather have the whole issue dedicated to the romance between Element Lad and Shvaugn Erin. At least THAT is going somewhere!
Not now, though, because Element Lad is omenblocked by the plot.
Brainiac 5 is smart enough to stay out of this storyline. He’ll get the spotlight soon enough.
Brainiac 5 does not give the tiniest fraction of a f##k.
If it sounds like I’m skipping a lot, it’s because there’s only so many ways I can keep repeating “and then the bad guy proves to be invincible by kicking everyone’s butt”.
Omen doesn’t even talk, so WTF am I supposed to do here?
Legionnaires… just leave at this point. It’s not like you’re doing anything to Omen anyway.
I get what Levitz was going for with Omen… this otherworldy being of unfathomable power that barely notices mortals. That’s fine as a concept, but there’s the problem of this entire thing being so unbearably boring at this point.
Even the Legion seems disinterested, ending up fighting with the Khunds instead.
And then it turns out the whole reason Omen came here is that the Khunds have created a Bulls##t Bomb™ that threatens to… I don’t know, WTF is going on?
Prophet, WILL YOU SHUT UP!?!?
This results in Omen gaining the ability to talk. Now if only he could absorb someone giving him the ability to say anything interesting…
The only hope is to use the Bulls##t Bomb™…
…which defeats Omen by ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And that’s how the original Invisible Kid shows up. SOMEHOW.
The cover promised “the Legionnaires will never be the same”, by which it means… now they know the Khunds can’t be trusted.
Legion significance: 4/10
The only big significance is Saturn Girl being pregnant, but it’s barely addressed. Also the Gil’Dishpan will have a big role in future stories (arguably more so in the 20th century)… but they’re barely a factor here.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Considering how out of left field he is, Omen would’ve been a very Silver Age concept if only he did anything interesting! As it is now… not much.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
You probably realized the only reason I merged all the Omen issues into a single review is that I couldn’t bear the thought of stretching this between multiple reviews.
There’s some good stuff in here… nice character interactions, good worldbuilding, and Giffen sure can draw rain… but that’s minor fluff compared to the main story.
Which is just sooooooooo boring! We wasted three issues hyping Omen but once he finally shows up he’s utterly bland! Even the plot about the Khund having hidden a massive bomb is utterly wasted in the middle of everything else.
We are legion
22 active Legionnaires
6 reserve members
1 honorary member (Rond Vidar)
41 people have been members
Bonus: the Legion Constitution gets published in its entirety throughout these issues.
It’s three pages long, so I’m just highlighting the stuff I found interesting.
Active members are defined as being on duty 24/7…
…unless they’re time-traveling Kryptonians.
Seriously, this stuff is full of exceptions for Superboy and Supergirl.
One bit I really like is the fact that gaining membership is not supposed to be the end of the hero’s training. This is the best way to use the Academy.
At this point just make all the Subs reserves!
The list of offenses that can result in expulsion is surprisingly long, but the self-defence problem of Star Boy’s trial is closed.
The Legion Constitution is surprisingly thorough, to the point of talking about possible financial conflicts of interest! Might’ve been fun to see this applied if Projectra stayed in the team as queen.
Another point that I don’t think has ever been used in a story: the line of succession for the leadership.
Also I don’t think the “Committee on Constitutional Matters” ever shows up anywhere, although the founding members ARE often given much influence.
Weird that Wildfire being in charge of new members and the Espionage Squad being around are frequent plot points, but there’s never any mentions of committees.
Giffen is such a weird artist. Every artist’s style evolves and changes over time, but Giffen has never seemed to evolve so much as just every so often suddenly leap into imitating another artist’s style. On these issues, he obviously decided, “Welp, think I’m going to try doing Ditko for a while.” The results show that, yeah, if Giffen wanted to, he could approximate Ditko. So what? It doesn’t seem like anything the story particularly called for.
Encountering an alien that is simply too alien for human comprehension is good science fiction. Star Trek has certainly used that concept often enough. Unfortunately, no matter how good the concept, the execution here was terrible. The first issue started the story strongly enough, but splitting the middle chapter over two issues did the story no favors, and the surprise “bomb of story resolution” at the end came out of nowhere.
When they said “the Legion will never be the same”, they meant Blok. Blok will never be the same. His scarring in this story will result in him being endlessly redesigned. With his appearance no longer stable, every time we meet Dryads in the future, they will have a different design.
The worst part is the beginning of Giffen’s Munoz phase, where everyone looks… squishy.
This is the first major Levitz dud in my opinion before you reach his extended dud period in the mid to late Baxter period (I find late Baxter Levitz so boring minus his final Time Trapper and Empress arc that 5YL was a huge breath of fresh air). For one I confused Omen with the Sun Emperor tease which takes a while to develop into the LSV arc of the baxter series so I was confused why Omen wasn’t on Orlando. I also think Omen should have been condensed down into 2 issues as there isn’t enough material here for a multi issue epic which just feels like its cashing in on the Great Darkness Saga with none of the hype.