Best of DC #24 (1982)
by Paul Levitz & Carmine Infantino
cover by Ernie Colon
“Best of DC” was mostly a reprint book, but there’s some new material here.
Some of the reprinted stories really are the best: among others it reprints “The Ghost Of Ferro Lad” from Adventure Comics #357, which is among the very best Legion stories ever!
But if you thought Carmine Infantino’s artwork on Supergirl was awful, this is MUCH WORSE.
The story begins with Colossal Boy’s mother, who you might recall was elected President of Earth, giving a medal to the Legion.
Apparently there isn’t much security around the President, because a guy just shoots her! It might be because she’s next to a Legionnaire, or because Infantino barely draws any backgrounds.
She doesn’t die; instead she’s transformed into glass AGAIN, because this is the premise for a reprint of Adventure Comics #371 where the same thing happened.
You have to love Wildfire’s reaction here.
After the Adventure Comics #371 reprint (that was Chemical King’s first appearance, to give you an idea of how much time has passed), the criminal is taken into custody by the Science Police.
Only female officers show up; I guess Infantino didn’t want to draw more than one design.
Think I’m being too hard on Infantino? This is just awful!
The story is a real snooze, but there’s one interesting bit of meta-commentary: Colossal Boy complaining about the Legion still using paper.
The Legion’s future has always looked somewhat old-fashioned, but soon after this story was published the series begins to show more futuristic environments. Probably because Keith Giffen will be the regular artist, but it’s funny to see a possible in-universe justification for the change!
Wildfire is left on Earth to guard Colossal Boy’s mother; I guess Karate Kid as well, but weirdly he never gets named in this story. Colossal Boy instead goes on a hunt for Tarik The Mute together with Sun Boy.
It’s easy to forget since they haven’t been well developed yet, but these two are among the longest serving Legionnaires!
After a pretty unremarkable investigation, the two heroes find Tarik… who has died behind the scenes, presumably from natural causes.
Yeah why don’t they ask Brainiac 5 if he knows how to cure Colossal Boy’s mom? At least give it a try!!!
Except Colossal Boy then remembers that Tarik The Mute had a talking android working for him, so he goes back to the person who told him Tarik was dead… and discovers he’s no person.
Honestly this would’ve been a great mystery if A) we knew Sun Boy was making the room uncomfortably hot B) everything didn’t look like crap.
They find the cure for the mother from the android’s database, and we get a genuinely wholesome ending.
Kind of a waste of 15 pages, though. Honestly they could’ve just reprinted the original story.
Bonus: all the active Legionnaires get a brief bio and nice artwork by George Perez.
Some of these include brand new costumes that will debut shortly!
I’m not a big fan of Blok’s new look, making him seem like a reject from a fantasy series. Plus does he really need the chains!?
Cosmic Boy is FINALLY getting rid of his awful 70s costume for the classic 80s version. Nearly all his future costumes will be at least partially influenced by this one.
Weirdly enough, Shadow Lass is shown with a custom that she will wear much later.
I really like this one, but I can see why it’s less used than the bikini version: she already uses darkness as her main power, an all-black costume is too difficult to see in an action scene.
It’s probably secondary to the possibility of drawing a sexy blue skinned woman in a bikini, but it’s a valid reason!
Mind you, these are not worn in-story so they don’t count for the Legion Awards of the era.
Legion significance: 0/10
Yawn.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Despite taking direct inspiration from a Silver Age story.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
Harmless fluff. It’s not a bad story, just a wholly unnecessary one that has atrocious artwork. There really isn’t much else to say about it.
We are legion
23 active Legionnaires
4 reserve members
1 honorary member (Rond Vidar)
1 on sick leave (Matter-Eater Lad)
Did Blok ever wear that costume?
As for Cosmic Boy, they didn’t get rid of his costume so much as they just added more clothing.