SUPERBOY 211 (1975)
“The Ultimate Revenge” by Jim Shooter & Mike Grell
“The Legion’s Lost Home” by Cary Bates & Mike Grell
It’s about time Element Lad got something to do.
We’ll be reintroduced to villain Roxxas in a moment; first we follow him find refuge in Haven.
Haven is a neat concept: a hollow asteroid which is basically invisible, and serves as a refuge for hunted criminals.
Roxxas has escaped from Takron-Galtos, the prison planet that is supposedly inescapable.
The greatest prison in the universe, ladies and gentlemen.
Also, despite Haven being a good concept for supervillains who want to hide… the Legion finds it immediately.
Yeah, uhm, maybe they should reconsider Haven a little bit.
Chemical King is being kind of useful this time! Take note of his use of powers here, it’s going to be important later.
Only one of the prisoners manages to escape: Roxxas, because Element Lad freaks out when he sees him.
That’s because, if you don’t remember Adventure Comics #307, Roxxas is the space pirate who exterminated Element Lad’s race.
The retelling of Element Lad’s origin covers one of the glaring plot holes of the original: how the heck did a few space pirates manage to wipe out an entire race of people (four million according to this story) with transmutation powers?
BY CARPET BOMBING THE PLACE FROM ORBIT.
Also note that he used “photon torpedoes”, so they’re not even trying to cover up the Star Trek inspiration anymore.
However this retelling doesn’t exactly cancel the origin story: in that one we only see a few of Roxxas’ men gun down some civilians. That still happened, but it’s far more believable now.
I don’t know why, but Superboy’s dialogue in this panel is very funny to me.
Superboy is the one who figures out that maybe, just maybe, it’s not a good idea to let Element Lad loose in this situation.
And he’s right: Element Lad has gone back to his planet Trom, where he figured Roxxas is hiding, because he wants revenge.
Your regular reminder that, when written properly, Element Lad is stupidly overpowered.
The Legion arrives just when Element Lad is about to execute Roxxas.
The Legion code, however, doesn’t allow them to kill in cold blood.
But Element Lad is determined to kill, so he resigns and shoots down Roxxas thanks to the intervention of, of all people, Chemical King.
Superboy doesn’t exactly appreciate Chemical King’s intervention.
Element Lad, on the other hand, is the one taking it the worst.
But don’t worry because:
Everybody is relieved by the fact that Element Lad didn’t actually kill Roxxas… except Roxxas.
Considering this is a superhero universe, I’m not ruling out that Roxxas really is being haunted by four million ghosts.
I really hope my theory about the four million ghosts haunting him continuously is true, because f##k Roxxas.
Moving on to something less heavy: whatever happened to the original Legion HQ?
And since the second story is by Cary Bates… there’s a minor continuity error.
See Shadow Lass lamenting that she’s going to miss “our old clubhouse”? Well, the original HQ was abandoned at the end of Adventure Comics #366, which is the same story where Shadow Lass joins the team! At that point she had been in that building exactly ONCE.
Come on Bates, you have Jim Shooter RIGHT THERE, couldn’t you just ask him what he wrote!?
Then again, Mike Grell is drawing Shadow Lass with her modern costume, so this time he’s not off the hook either.
We then move to the present (well it’s still the 30th century, but you know what I mean), to the junkyard where the the original HQ is kept… together with the starship Enterprise.
And no I’m not kidding!
Shadow Lass and Cosmic Boy are here because apparently the Legion forgot to recover a very powerful weapon from the HQ.
As per my previous point, Shadow Lass is nostalgic about a place she has visited once.
Believe it or not but it’s going to make even LESS sense later.
Once the Science Police lets them inside, we find you that they’re not looking for a weapon.
That’s when they’re caught by, of all people, STONE BOY in a new costume.
That’s right: the Substitute Heroes have joined the “new costume” craze! And of course, being the Subs, their costumes are pretty terrible.
Although Chlorophyll Kid has gone through a heck of a diet!
Turns out “Shadow Lass” and “Cosmic Boy” are actually thieves in disguise.
All of this is to set up the fact that the Subs are the new owners of the original HQ.
That’s neat.
But remember when I said that “Shadow Lass” being nostalgic for the place would make even less sense? When she was talking to “Cosmic Boy” they were alone, so you can’t even say she was acting to fool the Science Police!!!
Historical significance
First story: 4/10
Roxxas will return much, much later. I think it was a mistake: both because I really didn’t care for how he was written, and because this one had the perfect finale for him. But really the greatest impact is on Element Lad: this is the first story that really goes into the effect of the destruction of his planet, something that will become essential to the character.
Second story: 6/10
The Subs inherit the original HQ. That’s going to last for a really long time! The new costumes, on the other hand, will be discarded quickly. The only new costume to be remembered is Night Girl’s, who doesn’t even appear on this issue… you’ll see her next issue.
Silver Age-ness
First story: 0/10
It even retcons some of the most Silver Age parts of the original story.
Second story: 4/10
We have the typically incompetent Science Police and some lame robbers, but the real meat is the idea that the HQ is just thrown into garbage like nothing.
Does it stand the test of time?
First story: 10/10
This is a great one. You really sympathize with Element Lad, even if you’re against heroes killing. And it has a kickass finale. It even has Chemical King doing SOMETHING. Don’t get used to it… this is one of the two, maaaaybe three things he’s remembered for.
Second story: 0/10
Continuity errors aside… this was pretty boring. Come on, you have the Subs in a junkyard with the original HQ, at least do something silly with the concept!
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.
Interesting letters: this being the 70s, I really shouldn’t be surprised to see people lauding famed psychic illusionist hoax exploiter Uri Geller.
70s comics loooved Uri Geller. He even showed up in Daredevil once!
Speaking of controversial figures: Tom Bierbaum “rants” about the Legion using some of his suggestions.
Let’s be EXTREMELY generous and call Tom’s future stories on the Legion “divisive”.
I’ll just say that I consider his work to include some of the very worst comics I have ever read in my life, so I prefer not knowing what they used.