Superboy and the LSH #242 (1978)
“Startarget: Earth” by Paul Levitz & Jim Sherman
“My Brother’s Keeper” by Paul Kupperberg (writer), Paul Levitz (plot) & Arvell Jones (pencils)
cover by Jim Sherman
“Earthwar” continues. You can definitely tell from the cove that it’s going to be a crowded story.
Wildfire is so angry at the United Planets doing nothing to prepare for war that he punches the story’s title.
Up to this point Wildfire’s rough personality has been used to highlight he’s a terrible leader, but this time he does have a point.
Dawnstar has his back, for once, while Ultra Boy is understandably critical.
But the Legion doesn’t have much time for infighting, because Earth is now under attack.
It’s a full-on attack by the Khunds. It’s pretty rough, but at least we get a sweet splash page out of it.
The Khund fleet is so massive that both the United Planets and the Legion are overwhelmed. Interesting to see an acknowledgment that some of their powers are more suited for space battles than others.
But don’t worry: Brainiac 5 calls for a meeting, so he must have a plan.
Basically, we’re f##ked.
But Element Lad, who is currently the Legion’s deputy leader, is of another idea.
Meanwhile Weber’s World, the artificial planet serving as the diplomatic headquarters of the United Planets introduced last issue, travels between galaxies (!!!) to start the mediation with the Dominators.
It’s easy to get confused since this is a dense storyline and I’m rushing a bit through the main plot, but the United Planets are currently at war with the Khunds, NOT the Dominators.
While half of the Legion protects Weber’s World, the other half is sent on a diplomatic mission to the Khund capital. Which gets a pretty awesome design!
The Khund are basically the DC version of the Klingons from Star Trek, so it’s no surprise that making them understand the concept of a diplomatic mission takes some effort.
The Legion tracks Warlord Garlak, who you might remember from aaaaaaall the way back Adventure Comics #346 (a.k.a. Shooter’s first story).
Element Lad does not f##k around!!!
Superboy hears some kind of hypersonic signal is being sent to Garlak, so Element Lad uses some Telepathic Plug to stop any sort of mind control they suspect is happening.
Once he’s cut off from mind control the warlord is not a threat anymore: he’s not even able to stand, but apparently the Khunds are too bloodthirsty to care.
Despite appearances, the Dark Circle is not behind the war. Well, they ARE, but there’s someone behind THEM that has yet to show up.
The plots of the two sub-teams converge, because Superboy tracks the origin of the mind control signal to Weber’s World.
And that’s how we’re going to end this chapter of Earthwar.
Next we have another Kupperberg story, unfortunately.
We’re going to follow four of the Legion girls; should be interesting considering these four have quite distinct personalities at this point, but I don’t exactly trust Kupperberg.
I do like the fact that Dream Girl is incapable of not attracting attention to herself. It’s kind of funny that she’s almost the most conservatively dressed one.
The 30th century idea of a fancy restaurant is one that flies from city to city.
Superheroes are contractually obligated to be put in danger whenever they meet out of costume in a public place, so a bunch of criminals attack the restaurant to get an action scene going.
I do like the fact that, while the other Legionnaires are using their powers, Shadow Lass just starts kicking ass without using hers.
At first it seems like the girls surrender to save the other hostages… but it turns out it’s only an illusion by Projectra. That’s pretty clever!
Despite the… less than stellar artwork, the ladies really get a chance to shine.
The plot is actually pretty complex (I’m skipping over A LOT), with an investigation that gets multiple phases. It’s fine, but I found it a bit difficult to follow.
I hate it when comic books have to resort to arrows to tell you which panel goes after which other one. That’s just bad storytelling.
Legion significance
First story: 9/10
We don’t really learn all that much compared to the first one, but overall Earthwar is quite significant.
Second story: 0/10
For completists only, really.
Silver Age-ness
First story: 6/10
The galaxy-hopping artificial planet and the trans-galactic mind control.
Second story: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time?
First story: 9/10
A great story, although not exactly at the same level of the previous Earthwar chapter. Obviously there’s more to Brainiac 5’s position than it seems, but in hindsight it seems weird for him to just give up without the story addressing it. At least Element Lad is on fire this time!!!
Second story: 5/10
MUCH better than the previous one, but it really needed more space to breathe… even at 14 pages, it feels cramped. And the artwork really does it no favors.
It’s also a lost opportunity to have the personality of the girls bounce off each other… you have the bombastic Dream Girl, the royal Projectra, the tough-as-nails Shadow Lass and the more reserved Light Lass… but you might as well replace them with any generic hero and little would change.
Not really a bad story, but a disappointing one that would really need some upgrades.
We are legion
21 Legionnaires
8 reserve members