Legion of Super-Heroes #302 (1983)
by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen
It’s about time Lightning Lad’s brother gets something to do, other than being a rather generic supervillain.
We begin with Timber Wolf and Blok reacting to last issue’s news about the upcoming marriage of Projectra and Karate Kid. Unfortunately for us, it’s set a couple of issue after this one.
(also, note the increased use of the symbols to indicate how the sub-groups are set up)
Unfortunately for them SUDDEN LIGHTNING SUPERVILLAIN!!!
This is indeed Lightning Lord, who proves himself way too dangerous for Dawnstar to face him alone.
Not that Timber Wolf has any more success.
Since he doesn’t find his brother at Legion HQ, Lightning Lord looks for him at the Medicus One satellite. Where he and Saturn Girl are obviously talking to their doctor, the always awesome Gym’ll.
We’re not told exactly why, but you can probably read between the lines.
Uh. And here I thought Dr. Gym’ll was Methodist.
Lightning Lord zaps Saturn Girl right in front of her husband, which is… not exactly a smart move on his part.
You can never have too much Gym’ll.
SHOCKINGLY, a fight in a space station is not a smart move either.
Good thing that by the 30th century a space walk is a cakewalk.
Also, since Earth is now protected by a physical barrier (SOMEHOW), we can have a fight in space without needing to fly!
This environment highlights my main complaint about the new Shadow Lass complain: since it’s all black and her powers center around darkness, when she’s in space you can barely see her!
Which makes total sense in-story, but come on.
But the REAL fight is of course between the two lighning brothers… which means the total lack of characterization for Lightning Lord is pretty evident.
He’ll be a fascinating bastard in Volume 3, but I find his original pre-Crisis version to be quite boring. He seems to be evil for evil’s sake.
Fittingly, it’s Saturn Girl to deliver the final blow.
In the B plot, other Legionnaires are investigating what Ontiir is doing in the reconstructed Weber’s World.
And in case you forgot what Weber’s World is:
Ontiir is actually working for the Emerald Empress this time.
Up to this point, Emerald Empress has been confined exclusively to Fatal Five plots. She’ll get several chances to shine on her own.
And the Legionnaires fall right into her trap.
In the C plot, another batch of Legionnaires is helping the reconstruction of Daxam after Darkseid turned it into a giant stone head.
Understandably, Mon-El is not exactly cheery.
Wildfire stops the meeting to inform the team about the news of the upcoming wedding, but good luck keeping it a surprise with Dream Girl around.
To say that Dream Girl is a very hands-off Legion leader is an understatement. It’s true that Lightning Lord hasn’t been particularly impressive so far, and it’s good that she trusts her team, but maybe check with HQ to make sure everything’s okay!?
In the D plot (this is a Levitz series after all), Gigi Cusimano is helping Shvaughn Erin and Element Lad in an investigation that will become important later.
Legion of Super-Heroes #303 (1983)
by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen
Out of the many subplots, it’s the Emeral Empress one that gets promoted to title story first.
Emerald Empress is at the height of her power. She’s even able to crush Sun Boy’s jaw with her bare hands!!!
Interestingly, she doesn’t seem to know who Supergirl is. Which checks out since Supergirl wasn’t a regular member by the time the Empress showed up… but you would think the entire 30th century would know who she is, considering how much they worship Superman.
In case you were wondering if Ontiir was brainwashed… no, he’s just an a##hole.
She condemns the Legionnairs to be killed by a fire squad (!!!), but Supergirl’s quick thinking saves the day.
In the middle of all this the Empress also became the leader of the Dark Circle, but it’s not like they’re important right now.
Well at least someone’s having fun with this!
The team is eager to fight, but Brainiac 5’s priority is to first figure out why the Empress wanted to steal a satellite full of bureoucrats. Taking hostages would be too pedestrian for her!
At first I thought this meant Emerald Empress re-invented Warworld (which has been a thing since 1980), but it’s not exactly that.
This is where this plot collides with the subplot about Gigi Cusimano’s investigation…
…I mean, LITERALLY almost collide!
Dream Girl is informed about this, and as much as she trusts Brainiac 5 she decides to send some backup.
Ultra Boy is NOT happy about this, and I kind of agree… I’m pretty sure Wildfire is not as fast as he is (and the Legionnaires are explicitly under their own power here), so sidelining Ultra Boy doesn’t make much sense.
Star Boy thinks this is the most hilarious thing ever.
Hmmmm. What a completely unimportant detail to draw attention to for no particular reason.
Since Supergirl is on the team, Brainiac 5 asks her to stop the artificial planet from crashing… but when she tries pushing against it, all she does is carve a tunnel.
I love this, as it’s a relatively realistic consequence… but we do have the problem that Supergirl HAS been shown to be able to move planets before.
Since it’s an artificial planet, maybe there’s something in the way it’s build that prevents this from working.
Brainy’s solution is to ask Supergirl to KNOCK THE PLANET OFF-COURSE.
The effect on the base is quite funny.
Actually, Empress, I’m pretty sure Supergirl is always expecting Kryptonite, since it’s the most abundant element in 20th century Earth.
The Empress, on the other hand, didn’t expect a Not Vulcan Nerve Pinch.
Sending backup turned out to be completely unnecessary.
And so we end with a couple of epilogues. The first one is a teaser of the upcoming wedding.
Got to love the detail of the regular guy sweeping the floor.
And finally, Brainiac 5 crashing the hopes of any shipper.
Legion significance: 4/10
The new Emerald Empress attitude will carry over and the subplots will eventually matter, but not that much here.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Moving planets the old-fashioned way doesn’t work.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
In my opinion Levitz is getting better at juggling multiple concurrent subplots without having the story meander too much. There are a few minor hiccups, though.
I still fail to find anything interesting in this version of Lightning Lord, and while the Empress story is good there are a lot comments about Brainiac 5 getting sloppy that seemed very forced to me… he didn’t come off to be particularly distracted by Supergirl’s presence.
We are legion
22 active Legionnaires
8 reserve members
1 honorary member (Rond Vidar)
41 people have been members
Did Giffen add an Infantino scene from Kara’s series when Emerald Empress was torturing her?
I think we’re at the Eve where Giffen’s artwork begins changing (for the worse IMO).
Neat little thing I found in the letters section of #303 is that a young Fabian Nicieza (who would write a bunch of X-Men comics in the 90s) sent in a question asking if there was going to be a Legion graphic novel.
Nice catch! Here it is: