Legion of Super-Heroes #286

Legion of Super-Heroes #286 (1982)
“Old Friends, New Relatives And Other Corpses!” by Paul Levitz & Pat Broderick
“A Crown for the Princess” by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen

With the Great Darkness Saga approaching next issue, perhaps it’s fitting to have a story that revolves around the power of the Sun.

We begin with the Legionnaires in their down time, playing some futuristic volleyball in their underwear. That’s something we rarely got to see and that will be a regular occurrence in the Levitz run.
I mean the Legionnaires in their down time, not in their underwear playing volleyball.

They agreed to play without using their powers, but… Dawnstar has wings as part of her regular anatomy: it’s not a superpower, shouldn’t she be allowed to fly?

And of course Superboy has to fly by to be a boyscout, because who else could play the role?

It’s only now that the regular series does SOMETHING with the fact that R.J.Brande was revealed to be the father of Chameleon Boy. That was published a year before but it hasn’t meant anything so far.

It’s a good chance to develop both characters, and it’s quite well done.

Brande also vows to take a more active role from now on. Also you might have noticed he keeps saying “by Ymir”… does he think he’s Odin?

Brande was already a likeable character, but admittedly he never got much to do (other than being declared bankrupt like twice a month) and he was rather one-dimensional. That’s slowly changing.

But the main event is going to be a rematch between the Legion and Doctor Regulus, as you already knew from the cover.
At least he’s genre-savvy enough to realize that he’s been too much of a drama queen!

This time he takes control of Brande’s main laboratory, on his own private world.
If you think about it that makes sense: Brande’s whole deal is that he makes money by creating stars, and Regulus gets his powers from the stars. It’s a wonder the connection wasn’t made earlier!

Though I’m not sure WHERE Brande’s world is, because apparently if the lab explodes the chain reaction can reach Earth in minutes!? WHAT!?

As ludicrous as THAT is, this has made Regulus a real powerhouse. And it might get even worse.

His attack knocks out all the Legionnaires… except Phantom Girl who is quite hilariously very pragmatic about the whole situation, and Sun Boy who is basically immune to his powers.

I still find it kind of weird that Sun Boy is the only Legionnaire with a personal nemesis (other than Superboy, but he doesn’t count). Nobody else in the team has a villain like that.

Despite being a legitimate threat, however, Regulus is no physical match for Sun Boy.

Except Regulus plans to have the last laugh: the lab will detonate on its own, so he can just leave the battlefield and absorb the energy of the Sun exploding.

Except, of course, SOMEONE knows how to switch off the thing: R.J.Brande.

So Superboy is going inside the main reactor to work on it, with Saturn Girl providing information straight from Brande’s mind.

Which is kind of a dumb move: Superboy is vulnerable to the red sun radiation while Sun Boy is RIGHT THERE. In fact, Sun Boy saves the day once Superboy is knocked out.

Since during this Dawnstar was tracking down Regulus, it doesn’t take much to defeat him once the reactor is off.

A happy ending, right? Well… I’ve kept for last the subplot that is going to have the largest impact BY FAR: Chameleon Boy deciding to go to the Khund planet.

Lightning Lad is already angry that Chameleon Boy left Brande’s planetoid without permission. Just wait until he finds out what a colossally stupid idea it was to go to the Khund world!!!

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Moving on to the second story, which begins with a STUNNING splash page!!!

This is about Princess Projectra, or rather at this point… Queen Projectra.
Kind of loses something without the alliteration, isn’t it?

Not only Projectra is mourning her father who JUST died, but there’s also the problem of being a reigning monarch while being in a superhero team.
Black Panther struggles with it, and he lives on the same planet of his team!
It’s a great little moment for Karate Kid as well.

Plus Projectra is a twenty-something girl with magic powers who has adventures in space, so it’s only natural that her medieval planet has a different idea on WHO should inherit the throne.

 

Karate Kid naturally wants to deal with this idiot, but Projectra explains that her society follows different rules.

Someone is going to seriously regret agreeing to this duel…

…specifically, Projectra!

Yeah, Projectra really didn’t think this through. Not to say she should’ve anticipated her cousin would have a magic anti-illusion helmet, but she DID rely too much on her illusions.

Well surely Karate Kid will defeat this guy, right?

And so we end with a cliffhanger that will be resolved next issue.

There’s a special issue after this one, which closes the era. Because from issue #286… the Great Darkness Saga begins!!!

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Legion significance
First story: 6/10
Not much for the main story, but Chameleon Boy’s mission is reeeeally going to screw up a lot of people
Projectra story: 8/10
It’s more the storyline as a whole rather than this specific issue, but as you might imagine her becoming queen is A LOT.

Silver Age-ness
First story: 2/10
The absolutely broken sense of scale. Seriously, where the heck is Brande’s word?
Projectra story: 0/10
The villain having the magic helmet fits the fantasy setting, so not really.

Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
Both stories are excellent. Great dialogue, great artwork (the Projectra story in particular is GORGEOUS), great character development… I can make some nitpicks about how the Legion handles the Regulus plan, but you can really republish this today.

We are legion
23 active Legionnaires
4 reserve members
1 honorary member (Rond Vidar)
1 on sick leave (Matter-Eater Lad)