SUPERBOY 219 (1976)
by Jim Shooter & Mike Grell
Jim Shooter returns once again to one of his major contributions to the Legion.
We begin with Shrinking Violet on vacation with her boyfriend, Duplicate Boy of the Heroes of Lallor (it’s been a while).
They’re on her home planet Imsk, where everybody has the power to shrink. And since he can copy her powers that means that they’re vacationing inside a “resort city” that is so small that it can stay on a table!
That’s both cool and continuing the Shooter trend of casually doing bits of worldbuilding here and there.
Then SUDDEN VALIDUS!!!
This comes absolutely out of nowhere… one second Duplicate Boy is flying around with Shrinking Violet and the next panel he’s dealing with Persuader and Validus.
That’s very jarring, since both Shooter and Grell are typically great storytellers.
Duplicate Boy is hit by Persuader’s Atomic Axe, which I remind you can cut through ANYTHING.
But instead of being cut in half, Duplicate Boy is just hurt. I guess the Comics Code just saved him.
But he’s still hurt enough to be down for the count for a while.
This upsets Colossal Boy more than any other Legionnaire, and we learn why the Fatal Five were on Imsk: to steal stuff.
Who would’ve thought that the planet where people can shrink to microscopic size is really, really good at building microchips?
Tharok has a point. What was he supposed to do, read the script!?
Mano is right: the Legion begins its investigation in a two-page spread that gives us the details of the Legion Cruiser. It’s so beautiful that it was even advertised on the cover!
To any Star Trek fans: the cutout informs us that the ship’s saucer can detach from the rest of the Legion Cruiser to operate independently, and that’s 11 years before “The Next Generation”.
The Legion spots the Fatal Five’s ship and has the chance to fire on it, but Shrinking Violet interferes because she hopes Tharok might be able to save Duplicate Boy.
Speaking of Duplicate Boy, Saturn Girl is trying to save him by telepathically forcing him to duplicate Superboy’s powers, hoping that will heal him.
Then we get to one of my absolute favorite Fatal Five moments of all time… Validus STEALING HALF A PLANET.
That was AWESOME.
And why DID the Fatal Five steal half a planet? To build themselves a new home!
Complete with their own personalized android sex slaves.
The Legion finds their new base and attacks, but they’ll have to deal with Validus first.
Which is relatively easy because Validus, while basically invincible in this period, is also a giant baby.
With the strength to rip planets apart, but still a giant baby.
We also get the chance to see a recreation of Mano’s home world!
Well… metaphorically speaking.
I don’t know, Light Lass, it doesn’t sound like a bad martial art to me. Especially since apparently you filled your shoulder bag with bricks!
Yes Superboy, I really can’t imagine any reason why Emeral Empress might want some of her android sex slaves to be women. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Unfortunately Tharok manages to escape and to bring Validus with him.
It’s at this point that we discover what the Fatal Five were actually doing with their big plan… they were just building their vacation home!
Tharok had something more important on the line: a new half-body that would’ve allowed him to keep his super-intelligence but would’ve made him look human.
And so we end with Saturn Girl informing us via telepathic message that Duplicate Boy is okay, so Colossal Boy can go back to simp for Shrinking Violet.
Historical significance: 0/10
It does contain one of my absolute favorite Validus moments, but it’s pretty unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
Silver Age-ness: 5/10
VALIDUS STOLE HALF A PLANET. That is all.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Classic superhero fun with a little twist on the motivation of the bad guys. It does suffer from the odd storytelling shortcut here and there, but nothing major really.
We are legion
23 Legionnaires
6 reserve members
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 37.