Superboy and the LSH #245 (1978)
by Paul Levitz & Joe Staton
cover by Al Milgrom
Mordru hasn’t had a really good story since his first appearance of Adventure Comics #369. Now that he has the finale of Earthwar to help him, will the dark sorcerer stick to landing?
Defeating Mordru has never been about sheer strength, sure, but the fact that there are only four Legionnaires opposing him is increasing the stakes.
The Legion’s ace in the hole is Saturn Girl, whose telepathy allows Superboy and Karate Kid to break the otherwise impenetrable force field.
At least Mordru is willing to admit his mistakes. Not too many villains get that!
Allowing himself to be blinded by Lightning Lad’s electricity is unforgivable, though.
Saturn Girl is already the MVP of this encounter, and the one who codifies Mordru’s most important weakness: losing his powers whenever he’s buried.
Little known fact, the Legion has a secret hideout for emergencies. Or at least that’s the cover story, I bet that’s actually where Sun Boy takes his dates.
We learn why Mordru is still alive: he was summoned by the Dark Circle, who hoped they would be able to control him.
Also he’s not operating at the height of his powers at the moment.
Apparently the entire plan behind Earthwar was still a Dark Circle plan: it was simply hijacked by Mordru.
Superboy has a point: the Legion has never really defeated Mordru in a straight up fight.
The fact that Mordru isn’t at full power yet might explain why he hasn’t been able to find the missing Legionnaires, since in his first storyline he could presumably read the minds of the entire planet. That story didn’t have Saturn Girl, though, as she’s able to protect the minds of her teammates.
Well, most of them anyway!
Karate Kid has to restore his dignity somehow. It takes a reference to Karate Kid #12, but he’s able to restrain Superboy long enough for him to calm down.
There’s a real sense that the Legion is out of options at this point.
They decide to try everything in a last desperate attack, but Mordru is waiting for them.
I don’t care that Superboy will eventually grow into The Worst because…
…sometimes…
…just sometimes…
…he can be FREAKING AWESOME!!!
And the Legion is definitely not going to let Superboy keep all the glory!!!
The entire Legion is keeping Mordru back! He’s not at full power, sure, but that is one hell of an impressive feat!!!
Still… it’s Mordru, and the Legion won’t keep this up forever. Even Saturn Girl linking everyone’s mind to come up with a solution doesn’t help.
Mordru is about to kill the Legion but Element Lad, of all people, has a solution!
The solution to defeat Mordru? BURY HIM INTO A PLANETOID.
We quickly move to the epilogue, which begins with the ALL the active members of the Legion gathering for an “unanimous” vote… except Tyroc is nowhere to be seen.
Poor dolt.
The vote was to amend the Legion Constitution to allow married members to still stay in the team.
I think everyone, both in-universe and in the fandom, always thought it was a stupid law that should never have been part of the rules.
While this technically allows Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy to return to active membership, they refuse. Probably for the best, as their powers are difficult to work with from a narrative standpoint.
But don’t worry, we’ll see them frequently enough once they start working as teachers at Legion Academy.
And so we end Earthwar with a two-page spread where the Galaxy is informed about the end of hostilities.
And the Dominators sign a 1,000 treaty that will keep Earth safe.
Those who have read a superhero comic in their life are rolling their eyes.
Those who have read the 5 Years Later period of the Legion are weeping.
Legion significance: 7/10
One of the quintessential Mordru stories; he won’t return until the Gerry Conway run, in 1981.
It’s also the moment when the Legion Constitution is amended to allow married couples, but it’s not like that rule was particularly important.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
The absurdly overpowered shenanigans of Superboy and Element Lad.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
A bit of a letdown as a finale to Earthwar, since despite some lip service Mordru doesn’t really have that much to do with the rest of the storyline. Benching most of the Legion until the end doesn’t do a good service to the story.
As a finale to a Mordru fight, it’s definitely an improvement over the previous ones: this time it’s 100% a Legion victory. Sure, Saturn Girl and Element Lad are definitely the MVPs, but Superboy has one hell of a scene and Brainiac 5 was also instrumental.
We are legion
Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad return to active duty.
23 Legionnaires
6 reserve members
Except for the fact that . . .
The idea that [Mordru] loses his powers when surrounded by earth
. . . is incorrect.
Earth, or ground, or dirt, has nothing to do with it. As explicitly shown in his début in Adventure Comics # 369 (Jun., 1968), Mordru lost his mystic might when confined in a vacuum. In the Legion’s first encounter with the sinister sorcerer, he was defeated when Superboy and Mon-El trapped him in an airless steel block.
In this climax to the Earthwar, the battle with Mordru should have lasted only the minute or so it took for Element Lad to transmute the “free hydrogen atoms” into a steel—or better yet, inertron—vault around him.
O.K., that’s done—what’s next?
That was the thing that knocked me out of the story. Once the entire Legion was freed, I could think of at least three ways to defeat Mordru, based on his actual weakness. But Paul Levitz’ script insisted on this nonsense about burying the villain underground.
Unfortunately, Levitz was one of the fan-turned-pro second-generation comics writers who didn’t bother to research their details because they thought they remembered them. That’s why continuity errors like this were rife across many of DC’s titles in the ’70’s, and why I quickly soured on the Bronze Age.