ADVENTURE COMICS 379 (1969)
by Jim Shooter & Win Mortimer
cover by Carmine Infantino & Neal Adams
Last time on the Legion of Super-Heroes: Superboy is dead!
Turns out that the alien who stopped time after the Legionnaires were poisoned had absolutely nothing to do with their death. And they’re not TECHNICALLY dead yet: they will die as soon has he restarts time.
Once the other Legionnaires show up, this guy explains that he’s part of an extradimensional race called the Seerons.
And he offers to cure the poisoned Legionnaires if the rest of the team helps him.
The one responsible for the poisoning is also stuck in time, but we don’t learn anything about him yet.
The dimension of the Seerons is suitably weird, if a bit generic.
Their problem is that while they have incredible mental panels, they rely on automation so much that their bodies are basically useless.
And they’re being invaded by mindless brutes immune to their psychic powers, so that’s why they need the Legion.
Presumably their time-stopping power doesn’t work in their dimension, otherwise it’d be a pretty easy fight for them.
These nameless invaders have a pretty forgettable design, but they’re really powerful.
Ultra Boy has been the team’s leader for several issues at this point, but this is the first time that Shooter does anything with it.
We get the first mention of Interlac, the universal language of the 30th century!
So far the Legionnaires have been implied to speak English, and we typically see English signs or letters everywhere. It’ll be a slow process, but eventually the artwork will show exclusively Interlac letters and the Legionnaires will explicitly talk in Interlac (translated into English only for our sake).
Unfortunately some of the Legionnaires arrive at HQ too late to learn about the whole plan, and once they find their dead teammates they bury them in outer space.
Couldn’t Ultra Boy and the others leave a note!?!?
Back on the other dimension, after the Legion has a brief unsuccessful fight with the brutes they decide to build a fortress.
Chemical King continues to have unclear and uninteresting uses for his power.
Phantom Girl calls out Ultra Boy for putting her safety above the mission’s success.
Chamelon Boy is starting to use what will become his classic fighting style: changing into a crazy alien monster with a weird name.
Look I’m sorry to continually criticize Chemical King, but he really can’t find a consistent way to use his powers. If he can do THIS, why doesn’t he do it all the time!?
The brutes prove to be too much for these Legionnaires, so Ultra Boy adopts a different strategy: draft the 10,000 Seerons.
AND IT WORKS.
Oh come on! This could’ve worked if these were normal aliens, but the brutes have been shown to shrug off blows from Ultra Boy! You mean to tell me that these guys are strong enough to deal with someone as strong as Superboy, but a few thousand civilians are too much!?
Everything is resolved, except…
Did somebody say “miracle”?
At least they say that even the Miracle Machine couldn’t resurrect them if they were REALLY dead, but what happened to the idea that the machine was so dangerous that it could destroy the universe if not used properly? If it’s THIS easy to use it, why not use it all the time!?!?
This leaves only one mystery to resolve: who poisoned the Legion? It has to be one of their greatest enemies to get THAT close to victory!
Interesting that Shooter consistently name drops the Time Trapper when citing the Legion’s greatest enemies but won’t actually use him in this run.
No, the real villain was… some guy we’ve never heard of.
*groan*
Legion significance: 1/10
First ever mention of Interlac, but since it’s not actually used it has very little significance.
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
It was a relatively low score until they bring out the Miracle Machine to basically reset the status quo.
Does it stand the test of time? 2/10
There’s the bare minimum of characterization on Ultra Boy, and the basic idea could’ve worked if the brutes had to fight less powerful Legionnaires. Unfortunately the ending isn’t very good, full of contrivances and more than one contradiction, plus it makes last issue feel far less special.
We are legion
26 Legionnaires
2 reserve members: Kid Psycho, Insect Queen
3 honorary members: Elastic Lad, Pete Ross, 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 35.