These issues have so little connection to the Legion that I’m just going to skip through most of these as quickly as I can.
Valor #5 (1993)
by Robert Loren Fleming & Jeffrey Moore
Is it just me or does Mon-El look like he’s also bored with his own series?
He ends up in a space prison in a red star system, so he’s not going to have powers for a while.
Because last time Vril Dox II gave him an anti-lead serum that doesn’t protect from red suns.
Mon-El has not exactly been impressive in this series. Now that he doesn’t even have powers, he can’t even fight his own cape.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why fingerless gloves make no sense for superheroes.
Bad news: now he’s stuck in a cell made of gelatin.
Good news: the warden is hot.
If you needed evidence that Vril Dox II is scum… well first of all pick any random issue of L.E.G.I.O.N., but failing that, he had Mon-El arrested on fake charges because he can’t control him.
All the creativity in the alien design went to the warden, and keep in mind that her only alien features are her skin color and her eyes.
At least Mon-El befriends a former Green Lantern.
And then the comic does one of the weirdest narrative choices I’ve seen… while this is technically Mon-El’s series, he’s now sitting on the bench and the REAL protagonists are going to be the Blasters.
Which is the team assembled by Snapper Carr after Invasion, consisting of himself and a few humans who developed powers after Dominator experimentation.
I’m frankly indifferent towards the Blasters, and they fit the setting, but it’s unbelievable they show out of the blue and hijack the series.
They’re brought into the story because they pick up Mon-El’s distress signal, plus the green-skinned cat-lady that hangs with the Blasters think he’s hot.
And to think they were two weeks from retirement!
Valor #6 (1993)
by Robert Loren Fleming & Jeffrey Moore
cover by Howard Chaykin
Not exactly inspiring confidence here, Mon-El.
I wasn’t exaggerating, the Blasters are the real protagonists here.
The one slightly redeeming quality of this issue is that the space prison is so interested only in profit it’s almost funny.
Little known fact, green-skinned cat-ladies are considered hot by all alien species.
But obviously since this is still Mon-El’s book, the blasters are not the only ones contributing to the story.
We also have Mon-El… ’s spaceship, finding something else is imprisoned here.
Now I could talk about the individual Blasters and how they manage to free Mon-El, but does anyone actually care?
Especially when the greatest supervillain look from the 90s is right around the corner.
Meet the real bad guy of this arc… the man, the legend, the head… Doctor Bendorion.
It’s like someone looked at The Leader’s Silver Age look and thought “can we make a giant brain look even more ridiculous?”.
A necessary tangent here.
If you thought that Doctor Bendorion was too Silver Age to have been created in 1993… you’d be absolutely right, because he’s from Justice League of America #42 from 1966.
In that story, he’s just a formless shapeshifting thing…
…but a couple if issues later, he’s achieved his true form.
I will probably take a look at JLA #44 at some point. After all, Doctor Bendorion is the one responsible for one of the most memed panels ever.
Yes, this is the real dialogue.
Valor #7 (1993)
by Robert Loren Fleming & Jeffrey Moore
cover by Howard Chaykin
Oh come on, you just re-introduced the most laughably ridiculous villain of the century, and you go with generic tentacles for the cover?
Yep. They just did that.
The tentacles are there by design, by the way, because Lex Luthor is into weird stuff.
Back in the prison, the ship discovered something called The Unimaginable.
Would’ve been easier to call it The Undrawable.
You might think that The Unimaginable would be the most horrific part of the comic.
But then we see what Doctor Bendorion is capable of.
By this point Mon-El has regained his powers, and rescues the former Green Lantern.
I’m amazed Doctor Bendorion doesn’t become a big name. He looks utterly ridiculous…
…but he can also DO THIS.
Not crazy enough for you? He can also MAKE STARS EXPLODE.
Guys, I think I have an idea of what could turn this series into a masterpiece.
Valor #8 (1993)
by Robert Loren Fleming & Jeffrey Moore
cover by Howard Chaykin
Hey, finally a cover that is actually kind of good and sells the premise of “eager young space teen”.
And yet we are STILL following the Blasters!!!
Again, I could talk about the Blasters… but one of them turns into a giant mirror, so why bother?
After pages and pages of NOTHING HAPPENING, the star explodes and the prison just teleports away. Aren’t you glad we spent so much time here? Well you didn’t because I skipped everything, but trust me: this is booooooring.
There is, however, ONE good moment in this.
Mon-El has a final chance to leave they system but decides to stay behind to save the civilians, even if there’s literally only two left.
His response “it would be worth it for one” is the first time I buy him as the Superman equivalent.
Aaaand I already regret giving praise to this. First the comic irritates me by having Mon-El use such a blatantly human expression…
…and more importantly, because the central conflict is now an alien space bunny who spits.
That would be one of the two alien lifeforms left. The other is this alien girl.
I was not kidding about the space spitting bunny being the focus.
And it was all completely pointless because the girl saves herself anyway.
Valor #9 (1993)
by Mark Waid & Paris Cullins
cover by Adam Hughes
Girl, I wish Mon-El went home so I could finally stop having to look at this series.
We begin with Mon-El beating up some space pirates.
He also finds a local girl hot. Well we know he’s into blue girls, so purple girls aren’t too much of a stretch.
This planet is supposed to be under the protection of a Darkstar… the space cops founded by the Controllers (!) after the fall of the Green Lantern Corps.
The Darkstars will be around the DC Universe for a while (Donna Troy becomes one at some point). This guy in particular, Chaser Bron, has about a dozen appearances.
And the girl Mon-El likes is his daughter, as spoiled by the cover.
This story is a complete change of pace from the previous issues. Not only because Mark Waid can probably write a competent story in his sleep, but also because it’s taking its time showing Mon-El grow from a reckless teenager into a hero.
Which is WHAT THE SERIES WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT.
But it still has a Big Dumb Fight with the old Darkstar and with more space pirates, because this is still a superhero comic after all.
No wonder Chaser Bron shows up again.
Not a masterpiece by any means, but like I said Mark Waid can probably fall asleep at his keyboard and at least deliver something serviceable.
Valor #10 (1993)
by Robert Loren Fleming & Jeffrey Moore
cover by Adam Hughes
Let’s finish this batch with another cover that spoils the story.
On one hand, I’m sorry to see Mark Waid gone (don’t worry, he’ll be the regular writer from the following issue).
But on the other hand DOCTOR BENDORION IS BACK!!!
Mon-El, I’ve lost track of how many times you’ve already lost and re-gained powers in the past few issues.
The old Green Lantern he rescued has a grudge against Bendorion.
He restores the Green Lantern’s youth, where we discover she’s a woman.
Something that was a well-hidden mystery in the comic, and it would have been a surprise to see this at page 11 if only THE COVER DIDN’T SPOIL IT.
I’m telling you, DC Comics is sleeping on Bendorion. What’s even the point of doing crossovers where the bad guys are Darkseid or Sinestro if you have this perfect villain!?!?
There’s something incredible about the goofiest looking villain you’ve ever seen being the cruelest and pettiest ever.
We learn that the way Green Lantern defeated Bendorion is that she’s kind of like Negative Man.
As if THAT wasn’t bad enough, Mon-El also has to deal with Vril Dox’s serum making him BURN ALIVE.
This is ONCE AGAIN a case of Mon-El being the secondary character in his own series.
Doctor Bendorion leaves, and Mon-El passes out after he’s rescued the Green Lantern.
They will be back next issue for the beginning of the Mark Waid run.
It is, however, with great sadness that I must tell you Doctor Bendorion will not be back for it.
Technically speaking, the doctor is a completely separate being from The Unimaginable… way back in the Silver Age, the energy entity possessed the alien.
And in 2000 he’s back, seemingly forgetting the Valor series.
Kind of like most readers, really.
Lex Luthor ALSO forgot the Valor series, considering he SHOULD have been aware of that power thanks to his own ship… but at the end of the story, the power is eventually dispersed throughout the cosmos.
It’s been 25 years since his last appearance and DC Comics has not used Doctor Bendorion again despite having gone through multiple reboots.
What’s even the points of those if you can’t bring such awesomeness back!?!?
Legion significance: 0/10
I’m not even sure this is significant for Mon-El. I mean Chaser Bron is the greatest contribution of these issues to DC Comics (besides remembering Bendorion exists), and he’s barely a footnote!
Silver Age-ness: Bendorion / 10
Does it stand the test of time?
#5 to 9: 2/10
#8 to 10: 6/10
The first four issues are a snoozefest… seriously, almost nothing happens AND we mostly focus on the Blasters.
The Mark Waid issue is his usual baseline quality, although it’s a bit generic and doesn’t really fit with the rest of the series so far. Which is a point in its favor, honestly.
To my utter amazement, the last issue is definitely better than the beginning of the saga… but at the same time, it’s also squandering tons of potential.
I’m being serious here, Bendorion is genuinely creepy there and a nightmarish foe. Despite looking utterly ridiculous, which surprisingly makes the horror stand out even more.
And the Green Lantern fight with him, including the flashback, is a lot more interesting than everything Mon-El has done so far… which makes the fact that we focused on so much other boring stuff even more infuriating.
I still can’t recommend this series, but if you find issue 10 on a very cheap bargain bin you might at least have a look at the Bendorion pages.
Now I remember why I never reread Valor’s series. It was just too bland to bother with. You essentially have a young Superman, bereft of baggage, exploring space. You have every narrative possibility wide open in front of you… and you write this?
The only thing I remember about the Blasters is Snapper Carr teleporting by finger snapping. At some point, his hands were chopped off and replaced to eliminate his power.
Someone needs to tell James Gunn about Dr. Bendorian. Gunn loves absurd characters and I’m sure he would find a use for a live action Bendorian.
As for Kanjar Ru being the only imaginatively designed alien in issue 5, she’s just a feminized version of JLA villain Kanjar Ro. If Valor is going to drop Earth-isms like “Swiss cheese”, he should be calling her Kangaroo.
I know of the serum that Mon-El takes that not only cores him of his vulnerability to lead, but also makes him keep his powers under a red sun. But I’ve always found the latter part too convenient. Nevermind that Brainiac 5 doesn’t seem capable of making a serum that allows Superboy to keep his powers under a red sun, or even just cure his vulnerability to kryptonite.
The real point I’m trying to make is that I would like if red suns were a much common hazard to Superman in interstellar travels. I know that DC is a fictional universe, so not the same rules as the real universe, but the fact is that red stars are by far the most common in the universe. They are common to the point that Superboy really should be powerless in most of the planets that the Legion of Super-heroes goes to, as most of them should be red suns. It should be a major limitation to the missions Superboy can partake in. Instead, it seems that every planet is conveniently under a yellow sun.
What do you think of my thoughts?
The focus on the Blasters was apparently because they were Robert Loren Fleming’s pet project, but plans for Zero Hour forced him to drop them from the book. I thought they were way bigger, but this book is about a quarter of all of the appearances that they ever had.
You replied to the wrong comment.
It a bit less hazardouds for post-Crisis Superman since it takes him until about the year 2000 before he’s back to traveling faster than light; before that, every time he’s on an interstellar travel he’s typically on a spaceship.
But overall I agree, for some reason the red sun weakness is incredibly underplayed in Superman comics.
Maybe as an over-correction against the Kryptonite weakness, which really WAS massively overdone for decades.
But for some reason it’s WAY more common for writers to bring up the weakness to magic (and typically completely misuderstanding it, but that’s a separate story).
For Mon-El specifically, considering that we’ve learned the anti-lead serum uses Kryptonite, I can buy that it’s not safe for Kryptonians.
I’d actually suggest a middle ground: the serum protects Mon-El from red sun radiation but just temporarily.
Just like Superman’s weakness to Red sun is severely under-used, I agree that his weakness to kryptonite is over-used. If anything, I find the red sun far more interesting. First, unlike kryptonite, it doesn’t render him unable to do anything, it just means that he is brought down to human physical stats level, he does’t become sick and unable to do almost anything. Second, and most importantly, it gives a good reason for why kryptonians haven’t taken over the galaxy. If the vast majority of stars are red suns, then kryptonians stop being OP. It’s either that or we go by the pre-crisis logic that every species (every physical matter really) from a red sun becomes super-powered under a yellow one, then red suns being so common would make the kryptonians’ powers not really be special in the universe (though I find the idea of every red sun species having super powers under a yellow sun at least a bit whack, just as humans gaining powers under a blue or white sun).
Superman’s weakness to magic isn’t even a weakness per se. I agree with you that people often misunderstand it. It’s just that his super-powers are meant to be of 100% scientific origin in the context of the DC universe, so there’s no reason why his powers should protect him from magic, which by definition ignores the laws of physics. He’s no weaker against magic than any non-magical being, such as an average human.
Great idea for Mon-El’s serum, only offering temporary protection from having his powers drained by a red sun!
Memed panel or no, the excerpts from the Justice League story are more interesting than just about anything from those Valor issues.