ADVENTURE COMICS 362 (1967)
by Jim Shooter & Pete Costanza
Pete Costanza had a very Golden Age run on Captain Marvel. Because Dr. Morlo doesn’t look enough loke a bootleg Dr. Sivana.
We continue this era’s tradition of showing what the Legionnaires are doing off-duty.
And of course Brainiac 5 and Invisible Kid are spending their spare time in the lab.
Their pre-Crisis incarnation doesn’t spend as much time together as the reboot would lead you to believe, but there are shades of their future friendship.
Dr. Sivana Dr. Morlo is also busy conducting experiments.
The Legion stop him because it’s causing environmental damage to Earth.
Which is kind of impressive since Dr. Sivana Dr. Morlo has managed to CHEMICALLY REPLICATE THE SUN.
Obviously Dr. Sivana Dr. Morlo doesn’t agree with the idea of shutting everything down, so he unleashes his servant Gorn against the Legion.
And it’s pretty challenging, able to modify its molecular structure at will.
Despite Gorn, the Legion manages to destroy Dr. Sivana Dr. Morlo’s experiment.
Except they didn’t bother to search the rest of his lab!
It also turns out that the Legion was aware of Dr. Sivana Dr. Morlo from a previously untold story.
Jim Shooter must’ve loved the idea of writing the second story of a villain that never had a first story, because this is exactly the same thing that he will do to introduce Mordru.
We have a time skip, when the Legion receives a distress call from Disneyland Orando, Pricess Projectra’s planet.
Orando is a planet still stuck in Medieval times, so Princess Projectra has to introduce the Legion to her father King Voxv as “powerful nobles of other worlds”.
The Legionnaires give a demonstration of their powers, so the King trusts them to defeat the new threat: smog!
(also, neat little gag with Karate Kid forgetting to bow)
In addition to being technologically inferior to the rest of the Galaxy, the people of Orando are also extremely superstitious.
While Superboy blows the smog away and Brainiac 5 investigates its origin, Princess Projectra has to deal with a mob that thinks the smog was caused by her leaving the planet.
We also get a little bit of history. Apparently Orando is technologically stagnant because it never had countries to compete against each other.
It’s a neat theory, but I blame the fact that “the Sign of Love” is pretty much indistinguishable from “the Sign of Death”.
Ten space bucks on Karate Kid not having heard anything until she brought up kissing.
Despite the fact that he only has 12th century scientific equipment to work with, Brainiac 5 has managed to figure out the origin of the smog: Dr. Sivana Dr. Morlo .
Once they find the secret lab, it’s on!
And the Legion of Super-Heroes… loses the fight?
Has Dr. Sivana Dr. Morlo actually destroyed the Legion?
Legion significance: 6/10
Dr. Morlo will of course be the villain of the next story, and he has one additional appearance. The real significance of this story is the world of Orando and, of course, the beginning of the relationship between Karate Kid and Princess Projectra. It will be one of the most beloved, and most tragic, relationships of the Legion.
Silver Age-ness: 5/10
Dr. Morlo is almost more Golden Age than Silver Age, but his inventions are just crazy enough to fit here.
Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
It’s a bit of a mess. Dr. Morlo is a walking cliché, and it’s really unbelievable that the Legion just lets him go after destroying his initial experiment. And Orando, despite some attempts at worldbuilding, feels pretty generic as well.
Still, the fights are well staged and there’s a consistent attempt to flesh out the characters, so overall its’ still enjoyable and easily adaptable.
We are legion
23 Legionnaires
2 reserve members: Kid Psycho, Insect Queen
2 honorary members: Elastic Lad, Rond Vidar
1 resigned member: Command Kid
1 expelled member: Nemesis Kid
2 deceased members: Dynamo Boy, Ferro Lad
How much Legion is too much?
The total number of characters who have been members is 31.
Bonus: the issue also includes a “Know your Legionnaires” feature that lists all names, powers and planets.
First ever mention of Brainiac’s planet of Colu. Also note that his 12-level intellect is defined as “twice as powerful as those of ordinary humans”. It will be defined as FAR more than that.
Princess Projectra is still listed as if that was her real name. No mention of her last name as Wind’zzor (Yes. REALLY.)
And yes, Pete Ross is listed as a honorary member. I’m still waiting for that to be acknowledged in a story before I can add him to the official list.
I did NOT know that Jeckie had a surname, let alone Wind’zzor!