SUPERBOY 210 (1975)
by Jim Shooter & Mike Grell
This time we have TWO stories by Jim Shooter.
We begin with the Legion enjoying a sparring session, which involves Lightning Lad shooting Superboy. A little world building about the weather in the future.
Once the Legionnaires leave the area, this guy rises from the ground.
And who is this guy, exactly? A soldier from World War VI.
The soldier was presumed dead after saving his comrades from a “gamma grenade”, but he rises from the grave two hundred years later (which is the Legion’s present) and with serious memory loss.
All he remembers is that he had orders to attack Metropolis, so he does.
And his invisible weapons are pretty powerful.
It may not look like much… in fact it doesn’t look like anything since it’s invisible… but it shoots “anti-energy”, which is the same thing Wildfire is made of.
“Soljer” may be a stupid name, but he’s awesome enough to STAB A GHOST.
The Legion falls back to deal with the injured members, and Brainiac 5 discovers that Phantom Girl isn’t even bleeding.
Only Chameleon Boy can save her… by turning intangible.
Yeah… he won’t keep that power for long. Which is perfectly understandable: Chamelon Boy is already versatile enough with his shapeshifting, and while it only makes sense that he can turn mimic invisibility (which might have been a factor in killing off Invisible Kid) having him being able to get intangible is really pushing it.
Who does he think he is, Martian Manhunter?
Anyway, Brainiac 5 deduces that Soljer isn’t actually using any weapons: he’s creating them out of thin air because his body is supercharged with energy.
Sure that Soljer is from World War VI, Brainiac 5 checks the time-scanner while he has the rest of the team look at the history takes.
Kind of redundant if you have a time-scanner, if you ask me… maybe Brainiac 5 wanted some privacy to work alone?
It would be a Brainiac 5 thing.
While they do this, Soljer destroys Metropolis!
That’s enough for his superior officer to show up and declare that Soljer (or rather Private Essad, his real name) has completed his mission.
Obviously the superior officer is Chameleon Boy, and the destruction of Metropolis was actually an illusion from Princess Projectra.
It’s not often that you can have a happy ending with the villain of the story getting a monument, but there you go.
Considering he’s the writer of the death of Ferro Lad, Jimmy Shooter REALLY likes stories about the ultimate sacrifice, doesn’t he?
I bet a major factor of Jim Shooter coming back to comics was the chance to finally write the origin of Karate Kid, because you can tell from Adventure Comics #367 that Shooter had this one ready.
I’ll address the elephant in the room: yes, all Japanese people in this comic are colored in the 70s style… which means they look like aliens.
As you can see, Karate Kid is investigating the death of his father (who he’s never met).
I always love it whenever we get to see 30th century fashion because IT’S INSANE.
In his investigation, Karate Kid tracks down a hideout in Japan which is protected by a shield of Nullitron (patent pending), which he smashes by figuring out its weak spot.
It’s not given much emphasis pre-Crisis, but the Reboot version of the character will have this ability as a super-power in everything but name.
Turns out that the man who killed Karate Kid’s father was Sensei, a.k.a. the guy who raised K.K.
Turns out Sensei was actually a super-hero in his youth, and his nemesis was the Black Dragon (who actually looks a little like minor Spider-Man villain Tarantula).
Sensei eventually killed Black Dragon, who turns out to be Karate Kid’s father!
Which might actually mean something to the reader if we had ever heard of this guy before this story.
Also turns out Karate Kid’s mother is not Japanese!
So, uhm… why exactly is this a surprise, Karate Kid?
Have you looked in a mirror lately? Or did you actually think you were 100% Asian?
I mean he IS drawn with some Asian features sometimes, even a bit in this comic… but it’s really hard to take seriously if all Japanese people are literally colored yellow!
(well, they look more like orange to me, but you get the point)
But wait! Turns out the organization led by Black Dragon is still around and lead by Sadaharu!
Which might actually mean something to the reader if we had ever heard of this guy before this story.
He’s not even that interesting of a fight… it’s just Karate Kid versus six martial artists, and I’m pretty sure none of those guys wrestles Superboy regularly.
And so we end with Karate Kid declaring that Sensei is actually his father in the only way that matters.
Which might actually mean something to the reader if we had ever spent more than three panels with this guy before this story.
Historical significance
First story: 0/10
This is the first time the future World Wars are mentioned, and we’ll get World War VII, but even that isn’t significant enough for a 1/10.
Second story: 0/10
Despite being Karate Kid’s origin story, this has absolutely no impact on future stories! Sensei does have a few minor appearances here and there, but this is by far his most significant story.
Silver Age-ness
First story: 4/10
There’s an explanation in-story, but invisible anti-energy weapons are a little bit Silver Age. Chameleon Boy randomly having intangibility, even more so.
Second story: 8/10
This is the first time the coloring is 100% responsible for the score. What the heck, 1970s!? If the Japanese characters were colored like humans, this would’ve been a 0/10.
Does it stand the test of time?
First story: 9/10
This is an excellent story that can be placed basically anywhere (Chameleon Boy’s powers notwithstanding). The only reason it doesn’t get a 10/10 is that you can see the ending coming 200 years away, but since it’s still written well I don’t care all that much.
Second story: 0/10
It’s not just the coloring. Even if you fix that, the story is extremely simplistic and we have absolutely zero emotional connection to it because we don’t know any of these people! Jim Shooter was 13 when he created Karate Kid; I don’t know when he came up with the origin story, but it does feel like something a 13 year old would come up with.
We are legion
23 Legionnaires
5 reserve members: Kid Psycho, Insect Queen, Duo Damsel, Bouncing Boy, Supergirl
3 honorary members: Elastic Lad, Pete Ross, Rond Vidar
1 resigned member: Command Kid
1 expelled member: Nemesis Kid
3 deceased members: Dynamo Boy, Ferro Lad, Invisible Kid
How much Legion is too much?
The total number of characters who have been members is 36.
The letters page is a bit of a mess lately: instead of printing letters they only give some extremely brief answers.
The Star Trek inspiration wasn’t lost on people.
