Legion of Super-Heroes v3 #3 (1984)
by Paul Levitz & Steve Lightle
cover by Keith Giffen
This is the debut of Steve Lightle as the Legion’s artist.
Despite his importance to the franchise, he only penciled 12 issues of Volume 3 but will remain as the main cover artist until the end of the series.
He tragically passed away in 2021 because of Covid.
The Legion is regrouping on Orando to fight the Legion of Super-Villains, which has taken it as its new base. The fact that they stole Earth’s planetary shield and various Powerspheres™ is part of a big plan… which apparently is too complex for Timber Wolf.
Sometimes I wonder if my ideas about Phantom Girl’s attitude are all in my head, and then she confirms them.
Once again, the LSV’s teleporting technology proves to be their greatest asset.
This saga has less subplots than the typical Levitz rate, but Cosmic Boy’s unease with the current leadership is going to come up again.
His criticism is valid, but Element Lad doesn’t have much of a choice.
Don’t feel bad for Element Lad having leadership troubles. He’s got other things going for him.
You regular reminder that the Substitute Heroes are, in fact, quite awesome.
This will lead to an issue of Tales Of The Legion about them.
Going back to Orando, we’re going to concentrate on Light Lass. After discovering that Karate Kid and Projectra are not in the best shape.
Speaking of Light Lass, this is a great moment for her.
It’s not easy to look like a badass despite doing absolutely nothing, but she makes it work!
Unfortunately, as badass as she is, she’s still without powers and her brother is still nuts.
Star Boy and Dream Girl have also arrived on Orando, and she’s the one to confront Hunter.
That is, in fact, the best possible reaction to meeting Hunter.
Dream Girl is here to remind us of the vision she had a few issues ago: a Legionnaire is about to die.
She survives this encounter with Silver Slasher, but I don’t think we learn HOW.
While this is going on, the LSV leader is taking care of equipping Orando with its own shield, linked up to the stolen Powerspheres™.
Said leader turns out to be Nemesis Kid. The hints were pretty blatant: not only there was a mention of the leader having been a Legionnaire, but… well the LSV already includes like 95% of all Legion villains, the list was getting shorter.
Can you believe we haven’t seen him since the atrocious Karate Kid #1 ?
Despite being VERY important in the Legion history, Nemesis Kid has surprisingly few appearances.
Next we have a big dumb fight between the two Legions, beautifully shown by Lightle across multiple full-page spreads.
If I’m not mistaken, this was just his second story at DC and only the third he published!!!
I’m not posting the full pages because there’s SO much in there!
This is all FANTASTIC, but I do have one nitpick… why exactly is Blok not affected by telepathy again?
Also I wonder if Lightle slipped a reference to the Thing to see if Marvel was interested.
The fight is cut short by the LSV teleporting everyone…
…as in, TELEPORTING THE PLANET OUTSIDE THE UNIVERSE!!!
I’m not entirely sure why Nemesis Kid captured only SOME of the Legionnaires during this, since he had the perfect opportunity to kidnap all of them.
In other plots, R.J.Brande (we haven’t seen him in a while!) meets with Colossal Boy’s mother, discussing her resignation from being President of Earth.
Well. I never pictured Brande as a tax cheater.
And finally we have the three founders discussing the current and future Legion.
The Legion sure is going to need some new members, because in addition to the various people who left… Dream Girl was right: a Legionnaire WILL die next issue.
(no spoilers in the comments for potential new readers, thanks)
Legion significance: 8/10
This is mostly setup for next two issues, but they’re SO important that it reflects on this one.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
The entire planet is teleported to another dimension!!!
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Classic superhero fun. My only complains are that the Legion is a little too gullible and passive, and with so many characters most of them don’t get much to do.
We are legion
20 active Legionnaires
8 reserve members
1 honorary member (Rond Vidar)
41 people have been members
I didn’t remember that Lightle drew only 12 issues! Also didn’t know that it was almost his first published work, wow.
But I very much remember PG’s uppity attitude with Brin (“gently PG”, haha) and that first *spark* of fire from Ayla. Good character stuff.
Just wanna say I enjoy your write-ups so much – all of them, of course, but especially the Legion ones.
If Lightle only did 12 issues, then I must say that his presence certainly exceeded his output. I wish this could have been a double issue, packed with spreads of heroes and villains during it out.