ADVENTURE COMICS 366 (1968)
by Jim Shooter & Curt Swan
cover by Neal Adams
Second part of the first Shadow Lass storyline. Neal Adams continues to provide great covers.
The cliffhanger saw the Legion facing the Talokian army, seemingly made of barbarians.
“Seemingly” being the important point.
Superboy managed to avoid Kryptonite last time, but one issue is all he gets.
The Legion manages to win this battle, with Shadow Lass being injured.
Meanwhile the Fatal Five are bickering against each other about who gets to be the leader.
Thalok wins on the account of “I mind control a giant f#ing monster”.
Case in point, when the Fatal Five attack we have this AWESOME splash page.
Validus, DC’s Godzilla since 1967.
By contrast, Mano annihilating a monument and Emerald Empress going on a rampage don’t quite seem as epic as that.
Their plan is to attract so much attention that the entire Science Police is too busy defending Metropolis to protect the government.
AND IT WORKS.
Also: Metropolis is apparently the capital of the United Planets. Because of course it is.
You might think “Wait, how does taking over one city mean they control the United Planets?”, and the Fatal Five have exactly the same question.
“Axe-Man” would’ve been a better codename than “Persuader”. Just saying.
Tharok is correct once again, however, because now he has access to an obvious parallel to nuclear codes every weapon in the United Planets.
And who better to give control over the third key that controls all the weapons of the United Planets than a club of teenagers?
Unfortunately for them, this time the Legion is ready for the Fatal Five .
The opposite is also true, though, thanks to some Atomic Barbed Wire ™.
Now you might be thinking, why doesn’t the Legion destroy the key?
Brainiac 5 has an answer. A smug answer, because he’s Brainiac 5.
The Legion’s HQ has an impressive show, even resisting Validus.
That’s also because of Brainiac 5.
Considering that he’s my favorite Legionnaire and Validus is my second favorite Legion villain, this is a treat for me.
As you can see, Shadow Lass is injured AGAIN. This girl just can’t catch a break!
Technically speaking she doesn’t HAVE to be here, since her mission to save Talok VIII is already over.
I guess Shooter was watching Star Trek, because this is very Spock of Brainiac 5.
Her crush on Brainiac 5 will go nowhere. Mostly because this is basically the only instance where he shows even the slightest interest in her.
The Fatal Five now decide to play dirty, threatening to destroy Metropolis if the Legion doesn’t surrender.
15 million people would make it the 12th largest city in 2021, by the way.
From what little information I could find, in 1968 the largest city in the world was Tokyo with indeed 15 million people.
For what it’s worth, apparently the entire United Planets has 300 billion citizens.
This is a surprisingly dark discussion, brief but handled very well.
And since Superboy hasn’t grown into The Worst yet, he’s the one pushing for a third solution.
And the solution is a fight to the death. Because comic books.
Did I mention that Validus is awesome?
Not that the rest are slouching. They are basically wiping the floor with the Legion.
It’s not a good codename if you have to explain why it’s relevant, Axe-Man.
Shadow Lass to the rescue!
Brainiac 5 needing the darkness to escape the robot is kind of silly, but I do appreciate Shooter remembering that Mano comes from a very dark world and still make this work.
Also, as I said last time the Shooter-Swan duo has some interesting panel structures.
Shooter also avoids another typical cliché: the new guy (in this case the new girl) saving the day single-handedly. While Shadow Lass was instrumental in saving the team, she didn’t defeat anyone.
We don’t get a round two, however, because the United Planets decide to finally show up when most of the work is already done. As usual.
And so we end with Shadow Lass officially joining the Legion and a promise to rebuild the HQ.
This is indeed the final appearance of the original Legion Clubhouse.
Well, sort of… it will be recycled as the headquarters of the Substitute Heroes.
For their newest HQ, we have to wait until next issue.
Legion significance: 7/10
Shadow Lass joins officially. Last story with the iconic “upside-down rocket” headquarters.
Silver Age-ness: 1/10
As much as I enjoyed it and it was admittedly written as smartly as possible, the Fatal Five throwing away everything in a fight to the death was pretty silly, as are a couple of the individual fights. It’s a fight to the death and Mano doesn’t even TRY to disintegrate Karate Kid!
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
The final fight means it doesn’t get the perfect score of the first part, but it’s still one of the best Legion comics of the Silver Age.
We are legion
24 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?
With Shadow Lass joining, the total number of characters who have been members is now 32.
Interesting letters: an interesting take on planetary names that is rarely used.
This is one of those issues where they printed the Statement of Ownership (it’s too small to be legible in a scan, sorry).
Adventure Comics was selling an average of 410,000 copies in the previous 12 months, which wasn’t bad at all in 1968.
From my sources, this means that the Legion was outselling the highest-selling Marvel title (Spider-Man at 373,000) but was selling roughly 50,000 copies less than Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen.