Superboy and the LSH #247 (1979)
“Savage Sanctuary” by Len Wein & Joe Staton
“Celebration!” by Paul Levits & Joe Staton
cover by Joe Staton & Dick Giordano
247 is a special number for the Legion, mostly as a reference to their first appearance.
Like in this case, that’s the reason for the “247th anniversary”.
After a recap of last issue, which ended with Superboy leaving his fallen comrades to ask for help… he figures nobody is going to answer in time and goes back.
Well that was a complete waste of a cliffhanger.
The Fatal Five currently keep Element Lad and Colossal Boy hostage. Emerald Empress wants to kill them, but surprisingly enough so does Validus… which is a bit weird for him: going on a rampage is one thing, but this kind of thinking is typically too much for his limited mental capacity.
This is an exceedingly rare occasion of people finding a good amount of Kryptonite in a place different than Earth. I guess the entire universe if full of the stuff!
The premise of the story is that Superboy is going to fight the Fatal Five alone.
He takes out Emerald Empress with the most extreme pool trick ever…
Well that was just embarrassing.
But surely VALIDUS is still going to be a challenge, right? The dude used to fight Superboy AND Mon-El AND Ultra Boy at the same time!
Also apparently he’s turned into the Hulk.
At least Superboy doesn’t beat Validus on his own: Element Lad has escaped, and he saves him by defending him against both Validus and the Empress (whose Emerald Eye has already returned).
This might be when the Fatal Five hit rock bottom.
I agree with the locals.
If living in an industrial civilization means being subjected to this story, I can understand the locals for wanting to go back to an agrarian society.
The Fatal Five escape and agree to never ever speak of this embarrassment again.
Moving to the second story: it’s election time again!
A surprising amount of Legion stories are about elections.
But surely Brainiac 5 will have more important things to care about once Wildfire explodes!
Or not.
To be fair, Wildfire explodes every other day.
I respect the effort Paul Levitz puts into avoiding at all costs using Tyroc in a story.
At least SOMEONE is still thinking about the explosion.
This is a fine moment to look for easter eggs, but I’m more distracted by the fact that the Trophy Room has Computo in there.
Someone really, REALLY doesn’t want the election to take place.
A nice moment of down time with the Legion. I always liked those moments.
Fun fact: Brainiac 5 can talk faster than he can move his hands to his belt. (WTF!?)
Does Dawnstar vote last by chance, or do the Legionnaires vote in the order they joined the team?
And the one sabotaging the election turns out to be… come on, I’ve been telling you for years he’s The Worst, what did you expect?
But this time it was just harmless fun, in honor of the anniversary of the first Legion story.
And so we end with the revelation that the next Legion leader is going to be the only one who hasn’t been campaigning.
I wonder how the Legionnaires voted: the only vote we are explicitly told in this story is Shadow Lass for Brainiac 5.
Who’s betting that only Wildfire voted for Wildfire?
Legion significance
First story: 0/10
The Fatal Five would really, REALLY want us to forget this story exists.
Second story: 8/10
Believe it or not, this election is going to be VERY important for two Legionnaires.
Silver Age-ness
First story: 6/10
Sudden Kryptonite in outer space!
Second story: 2/10
Mostly references to older and much sillier stories.
Does it stand the test of time?
First story: 0/10
This suuuuucked. It will be blasted by the readers in the letters page, and for good reason!
Second story: 8/10
A regular reminder that this is not the same as a quality score. It just means that if you replace the atrocious artwork with something better this could easily be reprinted in any other Legion era.
We are legion
23 Legionnaires
6 reserve members