Superboy and the LSH #228 (1977)
by Paul Levitz & Jim Sherman
cover by Mike Grell
The Legion currently has 24 active members, the least you can do for a “One of them is going to die” cover is to show more than five!
We begin with the President of Earth calling the Legion for help.
The reason for the emergency is that he is convinced that the Governor of Australia wants to take over the world, ending 200 years of peace.
We don’t get to hear the President’s talk with the Legionnaires; instead we cut to Superboy knocking out the Governor’s secretaries so that Light Lass and Shadow Lass can infiltrate his HQ.
I feel like we could’ve skipped this part of the plan if Chameleon Boy was there instead of meeting the President, but whatever.
What I really like is having Saturn Girl using her powers to transfer the information from the secretaries to the Legionnaires, to make sure they won’t break their cover.
That’s pretty clever!
The girls won’t be the only spies: Timber Wolf and Colossal Boy infiltrate the new Australian army, which is extremely dangerous because they have to wear these goofy uniforms.
The girls discover that the Governor is communicating with someone off-world, but they don’t know who. I don’t get why this is suspicious: it’s the 30th century, why is it weird that the Australian government regularly communicates with aliens?
Chameleon Boy has joined the espionage mission, and he’s going to carry around a device that will enable to Legion to find who is communicating with the Governor.
Unfortunately the signal is still too weak to be tracked properly. The task to amplify it falls onto, of all people, Chemical King.
Superboy tries to cheer up CK with the old “no superpower is useless” speech, but then he has to stop a meteor and… well…
This is both funny and tragic. Which is a good summary of Chemical King’s entire career.
Meanwhile the Governor figures out that someone is trying to track his communications, and soon spots the girls spying on him.
As a master of disguise, Chameleon Boy is the perfect man to get them out of the situation by turning into something utterly inconspicuous.
Unfortunately it leads to the Australian army capturing them.
Meanwhile, Chemical King has perfected the formula that SOMEHOW will lead them to the real villain. I completely forgot that CK is not from Earth but from planet Phlon.
Now that he has a target, Superboy can use his omniscience telescopic vision to find who is backing Australia’s planetary coup: the Dark Circle.
Timber Wolf and Colossal Boy try to rescue the girls, but it turns out that the Dark Circle gave the Governor some kind of ultimate weapon.
Which turns out to be a doomsday weapon that is going to destroy the entire planet!!!
And conveniently it’s behind a basically indestructible field.
Now with Kryptonite!
I never thought I would ever write these words, but… Chemical King to the rescue!
In order to defuse the device, CK absorbs so much radiation that he randomly turns black.
Which is not all that uncommon in this comic… there are plenty of coloring mistakes.
Although the Governor teleports away, Chemical King saves the planet… at the cost of his life.
To be continued… but not for Chemical King.
Poor dolt.
Historical significance: 6/10
Chemical King never really had a chance. Introduced in the transition between the Shooter and Action Comics era, with a hard to define and difficult to write superpower. He was never given anything interesting to do… his actions at the end of Superboy 211 and his death are the only memorable moments of his career. Really the only reason why anyone remembers or care for Chemical King is 1990’s masterpiece “The Unique Properties of Condo Arlik” from Secret Origins #47, which I’ll cover sometime between today and the 30th century.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
The Espionage Squad plan has an old school Jim Shooter vibe, plus the hilarious Australian uniforms are just too goofy.
Does it stand the test of time?: 6/10
I would love nothing more than saying that Chemical King goes out with a bang. This is not a bad story by any means, but it’s still a bit clunky. The multiple spy plans go nowhere, the villain is extremely generic, and the final doomsday device comes out of nowhere. And for CK’s swan song, we still basically know nothing about him!
Somewhat balanced by Levitz’s trademark ability to give everybody something cool to do, plus the honesty in how Chemical King has, and has not, been used. But it still absolutely pales in comparison to the iconic deaths of Ferro Lad and Invisible Kid.
We are legion
23 Legionnaires
6 reserve members
4 deceased members: Dynamo Boy, Ferro Lad, Invisible Kid, Chemical King
3 honorary members: Elastic Lad, Pete Ross, Rond Vidar
1 resigned member: Command Kid
1 expelled member: Nemesis Kid