Adventures of Superman #478

Adventures of Superman #478 (1991)
by Dan Jurgens

We return to the Superman books, where after a lot of time travel he runs into the Legion again.

And I am IMMEDIATELY lost because the story begins in the 30th century with Dev-Em fighting Laural Gand.

In addition to the fact that he looks COMPLETELY different from the original Dev-Em, now he’s a Daxamite instead of a Kryptonian and he’s an evil bastard instead of a reluctant hero.

Dev-Em was not exactly a big name or anything… kind of surprising, being one of the only three Kryptonians from the 20th century around in the 30th century… but this change is just as baffling as the Roxxas one.
My first two exposures to Dev-Em were his cameo in the Great Darkness Saga, and seeing his profile “Who’s Who In The DC Universe”… and I didn’t even realize they were the same, because HOW COULD I?

Because of “Who’s Who” I already knew about this retcon going into this, but I was still blindsided by this coming out of nowhere.
So I double and triple checked and… yes, this is the very first appearance of the Daxamite version of Dev-Em. Despite the fact that he STILL comes from the 20th century, where Mon-El is currently living… we don’t even get a proper story for his introduction!
This era demands that readers have encyclopedic knowledge of the Legion to get most references, but at the same time the more you know about the Legion the less sense this era makes.

But back to the story: if you were reading just the Superman books, you could be excused for thinking this is a continuation of a plot from the Legion book.
Again, see what I mean that following the Legion makes this era make LESS sense?

The Punisher Cosmic Boy tries to get Lightning Lad to help, which he refuses because Saturn Girl is extremely close to giving birth… and she STILL insists on being a hero.
Because Saturn Girl is the freaking best.

Honestly, while so far I haven’t been terribly impressed by Cosmic Boy (who once again I must stress looks like the Punisher now), Lightning Lad HAS taken his place as the most disappointing founder.
Also, a lettering mistake: only the word “was” is supposed to be within quotes.

This this is part of the Superman time travel story, this is when he shows up in the Legion’s time.
Only to be mistaken for Superboy by Laurel.

We will see soon that this issue TRIES to fix the Pocket Universe mess.
As I have mentioned in the past, this is kind of necessary for Superman. Because at this point in his career, the Pocket Universe has had MASSIVE influence on his books… the post-Crisis Supergirl originates from there, it’s the reason why Superman went into voluntary exile for a while, which in turn introduced the Eradicator… and to make a long story short, basically everything that happens to Superman until around the year 2000 is connected to the Pocket Universe one way or the other.
So while it would have been easier to just remove the whole Superboy business from continuity… you just can’t, not without starting over.

Laurel Gant is the Supergirl equivalent for this era, but it should be noted that this is the only time she meets Superman.

She gives him a little tour of the 30th century Moon. So we get a bit of interesting worldbuilding.

Superman then meets the Legion. He recognizes Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad from their previous encounter in this same storyline.
Also: we already knew Laurel is very tall, but I didn’t expect her to be taller than Superman.

I kind of wonder if he does recognize Shrinking Violet at all, since she’s nearly unrecognizable from the 70s version he met in the above storyline.
Then again this is Superman.

Speaking of remembering the Pocket Universe, Superman brings up the Time Trapper as a suspect for his time jumps. Which prompts Saturn Girl to give him a history lesson.
And to confuse me even more, because she says that Glorith lost her Time Trapper powers… except the last time we saw her she was just sent into the End Of Time. How did that cause her to lose her time manipulation powers? How would Saturn Girl even know?

So here is where we stand when it comes to the Pocket Universe shenanigans.
Everything that happened from Superman’s perspective is the same: the Pocket Universe did exist and it did have a Superboy, who later died.
We are adding the fact that the Pocket Universe doesn’t exist anymore, presumably due to the death of the Time Trapper.
What is STILL confusing is what the Legion was even doing in the Pocket Universe, considering Saturn Girl mentions that the Legionnaire went to the 20th century looking for him.

Don’t worry, Superman, you’re about a year from meeting a new version of Superboy that starts as a bit annoying before becoming a great character.
And about ten years from meeting a new version of an older version of Superboy that starts as incredibly annoying before becoming one of the worst characters ever.

Laurel then explains to Superman who Dev-Em is, or why he’s in the 30th century.
This looks like a reference to a previous story, but I must stress once again that THIS NEVER HAPPENED and is now being introduced as a backstory.

I have to give a shout-out to the website www.cosmicteams.com, whose chronology of the 5YL has proved to be ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to this part of the retrospective: I can’t even count the amount of times when I had NO IDEA OF WHAT’S GOING ON and had to rely on their recaps.
I bring them up, in addition to give them my infinite thanks for their stellar work, because they have a frankly hilarious comment on this moment:

This story implies that Dev-Em (who bears no resemblance to his original incarnation) has only recently arrived from the 20th century. While Dev-Em’s actions can be attributed to his psychological breakdown, the Legion seems curiously unfamiliar with him, which appears to be the result of an editorial miscommunication regarding his history in the current timeline.

Nevermind the Legion, how could ANYONE recognize Dev-Em?

After breaking some of the domes, Dev-Em decides for basically no reason to explore the underground lunar caves.

Where he finds some Dominators.

Good thing Superman showed up in the 30th century, so at least SOMEONE tries to be a superhero around here.

By reading the mind of one of the Dominators, Saturn Girl learns that there’s a splinter group of them that has spent the last 20 years BOOBY-TRAPPING THE MOON to ensure they could blow it up to threaten Earth.

It should be noted that, since this has being going on for the previous 20 years, it includes the 15 years before the gap. That means that throughout MOST of the history of the Legion, they missed the fact that SOMEONE WAS BOOBY-TRAPPING THE FREAKING MOON.
And if that wasn’t enough… the entire system is now in the hands of a maniac that we have introduced literally 13 pages ago and who found the secret base TWO PAGES AGO.

I swear this must be the most incompetent the Legion has ever been.

Laurel Kent, despite at this time being a Legion veteran with 10 or more year of experience, is completely lost when she has to fight a guy with her exact powers.
(also, she might have trouble sneaking up on him because her butt is the size of his torso)

It takes Superman to show up in order to deal with Dev-Em…

…or not, because I guess incompetence is contagious now.
Even Timber Wolf trying to get involved in the plot doesn’t work!

It takes Shrinking Violet to knock him out… in a way that doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense, because usually whenever someone tries to do something like this to Superman it doesn’t work.

Finally Saturn Girl saves the day, becauseof course she does.

Sooo… story over, right? Well, there’s a catch: Dev-Em was “supposed” to succeed.
So Linear Man, who has been monitoring Superman throughout the storyline, decides to interfere.

Linear Man is the worst time cop ever conceived in any fictional universe ever.

Linear Man’s method of time travel is so dumb that it requires the presence of explosions, which is why in order to get Superman back to HIS time he continuously manipulated him into being near explosions. See why I say he’s the worst?

Even Superman calls out why this is DUMB BEYOND WORDS for a superhero universe.
This doesn’t entirely come out nowhere… after Crisis DC Comics was REALLY trying to reduce the number of people who could easily time travel… so yes, it IS considerably more difficult than it was before Crisis. But even then it was INCREDIBLY inconsistent!!!

So, because in Linear Man’s time the Moon was “supposed to” be destroyed today…

…HE BLOWS UP THE MOON.

And that happens just ONE PAGE before this comic is over!
We only see the aftermath from Superman’s perspective, as he’s sent back in time.

And so we end this fun time-traveling saga with Superman learning that the Moon will be destroyed a thousand years in the future, killing millions of people.

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Superman significance: 0/10
The storyline as a whole is slightly significant for Superman’s relationship with Lois, but this issue in particular feels disconnected despite being the finale.

Legion significance: 10/10
This will have major repercussions, with the Dominator plans being exposed and the fact that THE MOON WAS JUST BLOWN UP!!!

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
THE MOON WAS JUST BLOWN UP!!!

Depression scale: 20,000,000/10
The heroes of the future are incompetent and can’t stop one superpowered maniac even when the greatest hero in history shows up. In fact, they have been so incompetent they didn’t even notice the Moon was being turned into a gigantic bomb in the previous 15 years.
Also history says that 20 million people have to die immediately and a lot more soon thereafter because a random superpowered maniac is sent into the future, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
If you were reading just the Superman books, you’d probably think this was just a continuation of a Legion plot and probably assume they’re going to somehow fix the Moon in their book.
If you’re reading the Legion, this comes absolutely out of nowhere.
As a Superman story it’s not that bad, it’s a run-of-the-mill issue with a disappointing finale, but as a Legion story… let me count the ways why I think this doesn’t work.
Dev-Em is not a character. He shows up with the tiniest of explanations, has no motivation besides “is evil”, and stumbles into the bomb because the plot says so.
He has no real connection to the Legionnaires, except having the same name of a completely different character. That’s about it.
Blowing up the Moon has no real emotional impact because A) it happens VERY abruptly B) it’s just one page before the end C) we barely see the people living there.
I am VERY disappointed that the Linear Man plot ends in such a whimper. I have to hope that the original ending of this 7-part storyline was something different that was changed by editorial mandate, because if it was always his plan… what the heck, Jurgens!?
However, I’m giving Dan Jurgens the benefit of the doubt on the rest: I can’t imagine that introducing Dev-Em and blowing up the Moon like this was HIS idea.
Considering the impact that the destruction of the Moon will have on the Legion books… and consider the other cataclysmic events that will follow… this, including the complete redesign of Dev-Em, is 100% the idea of Keith Giffen & Co.
Ah, yes, for any reader who doesn’t know what’s coming up later in this era… this is not the story with the biggest cataclysm, the largest number of casualties OR the most depressing issue.

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Interesting letters: I looked at future issues to see the reaction from the readers about this issue. Where the previous chapters had a positive reaction from Legion fans, this one not so much.
Of particular note is a letter from #482 that brings up several weak spots.

Not only I completely agree with Kevin, but his letter also had me thinking: since Dev-Em has not yet been captured by Mon-El in Superman’s time… shouldn’t Superman make it a point to figure out where Dev-Em is? Not an easy task of course, but shouldn’t SUPERMAN at least try!?

Another letter (which I’m cutting for length) wonders if Superman should have tried to have a message to the 30th century, given the 1000 year head-start.

That’s another good point! Once again: it probably wouldn’t work, but WOULDN’T SUPERMAN TRY ANYWAY?