SUPERBOY 220 (1976)
“The Super Soldiers of the Slave-Makers” by Jim Shooter & Mike Grell
“Dream Girl’s Living Nightmare” by Cary Bates & Mike Grell
The Legion is picking up steam: from this issue the title begins its monthly schedule.
Next issue will be the last before the series is officially retitled “Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes”, which is my excuse to define this era.
We begin with the Legion arriving on planet Murdagor. If the name of the planet sounds horrible, consider that they employ slave labor on a massive scale, so… yeah, the name fits.
Wildfire’s comment made me chuckle. He’s finally growing into his classic personality.
As you can probably tell, the locals are not very fond of the Legion’s interference.
Turns out that the distress call was sent without the consent of the local leader. Because why would it?
The reason why the Murdagorians don’t rebel is because an enemy race, the Tharrg, are basically keeping the entire planet hostage.
This may LOOK like a job for Superboy, but if you think about it the idea of sending Phantom Girl is much smarter.
It sounds like a rather simple decision, but the Legion is divided on two fronts.
Ultra Boy doesn’t want to disarm the bomb because, if Phantom Girl fails, it would bean killing two billion people.
Wildfire has the additional motivation of being a jackass.
Except Phantom Girl is like “screw this, I’m leaving to be a hero”.
In a surprising but VERY welcome move, the rest of the Legion doesn’t just sit and wait!
They figure that if Phantom Girl succeeds and disarms the bomb, the Tharrg aren’t going to be okay with it… and so the Legion launches a preemptive strike on their world!
It’s a pretty easy fight, since this team includes several Legion powerhouses.
Although as it often happens the most impressive one is Element Lad.
The Legion gets an audience with he Warlord of Tharrg, who has a camera monitoring the bomb… without bothering to look at it.
But don’t worry: Phantom Girl has got this!
Whoops.
Ultra Boy is taking this exactly the way you’d imagine.
Except he was just a little quick on the trigger… Phantom Girl is just fine and Murdagor is safe.
I still think they should rename the planet, though.
Moving to the second story… am I the only one getting a déjà vu?
Well at least this time Dream Girl isn’t having a premonition about a Legionnaire getting killed… it’s about the prime minister of a nearby planet being assassinated.
Really being helpful there, Dream Girl.
That’s the problem we run into whenever the plot is based on her dreams: the only reason she’s a Legionnaire is that her dreams ALWAYS come true… but in order to have a plot, something about them MUST be wrong every time.
Chameleon Boy’s plan is to take the place of the Prime Minister, but to avoid being killed he’s going to wear Brainiac 5’s force field belt.
Which would’ve been a great plan IF THEY TOLD THE PRIME MINISTER.
So of course, Dream Girl’s vision becomes true.
However it turns out that this isn’t the real prime minister either (???), but a tyrant wearing the same uniform (???) so it’s good that he was killed. WTF?!?!
So, uhm… sometimes I joke about a story being completely unnecessary, but… the Legion was LITERALLY COMPLETELY USELESS this time!!!
Historical significance: 0/10
I don’t think the Tharrg show up again. Which is a shame because they have a cool “evil aliens” design; they remind me of Marvel’s Badoon.
The second story is particularly egregious: this is the first time the story becomes irrelevant BEFORE IT ENDS.
Silver Age-ness
First story: 1/10
At best the planet-destroying bomb, but even then it’s pushing it.
Second story: 8//10
Entirely on the sheer idiocy of that final twist.
Does it stand the test of time?
First story: 10/10
Is it a masterpiece? No, it’s a very average Legion story. But you can basically replace the members with any other incarnation and this can be completely reprinted as is.
Second story: 0/10
There are so many ways you can work Dream Girl’s power into a story. The idea of having Chameleon Boy impersonate the prime minister and using Brainiac 5’s belt was great… why did they have to ruin it with a plot twist that makes everything meaningless!?
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.