ACTION COMICS 379 (1969)
by E. Nelson Bridwell & Win Mortimer
Hey Legionnaires, Shooter is taking a month off, this is a Bridwell story. How do you feel about it?
Yeah that’s about right.
The Legionnaires receive a message warning them that one of their own is an impostor, but the computer explodes before it can reveal anything specific.
Before they can even think about it they are warned that a villain named Sunburst is stealing a vault, so they investigate.
Dream Girl provides spoilers.
When the Legion tries to fight Sunburst, though, it’s… not pretty.
Sunburst even incapacitates Mon-El, but Shadow Lass goes to the rescue in this admittedly cool panel.
AND IT WORKS.
Mission’s over, right? Well… not quite.
According to Dream Girl, the impostor is Mon-El since Sunburst was able to injure him.
According to Shadow Lass, the impostor is Dream Girl because her spoiler didn’t come true.
Lightning Lad and Element Lad, on the other hand, accuse each other on the basis of “Hey we’re not as incompetent as we were in the Hamilton era!”.
That’s a nice mystery. But since this is a 8 page story, Mon-El IMMEDIATELY jumps to the end!!!
Turns out Mon-El got injured because of his incompetence…
…and Sunburst had a device that messed with Lightning Lad and Element Lad’s powers because this is not a very good story.
(why would an electric feedback work on LIGHTNING LAD!?!?)
And Dream Girl’s prediction was still correct because we really need to finish this one quickly.
Yep. That was definitely a Bridwell story.
Legion significance: 0/10
To the surprise of no one, Sunburst never shows up again.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
Again: how do you shock Lightning Lad!? Mon-El also forgetting to take his own serum is just unforgivable. I’ll only give a pass to the idea that the serum protects him from both lead and red sun radiation; while it’s typically only a protection against lead, it hasn’t been clearly established yet.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
This was really, really bad. The short length really hurts the story, making if if feel extremely rushed, but even last issue Shooter was still able to do something more with just one additional page.
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.
Interesting letters: the votes are in, the next Legion leader will be Karate Kid.
Also I take the answer to this one as an admission of the fact that some Legionnaires have pretty bad real names.
