Legion of Super-Heroes v3 #4 (1984)
written by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen
pencils by Steve Lightle
cover by Keith Giffen
One of the best Volume 3 covers. Simple yet very effective.
The Legion of Super-Villains has captured eight heroes, but there is dissatisfaction among the members because they had the chance to capture almost the entire Legion of Super-Heroes.
Honestly I don’t get why Nemesis Kid did exactly that. Now he decides to send some LSV members to take care of the remaining Legionnaires, with Lightning Lord and Sun Emperor being his most devoted supporter.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these two are amont the craziest members.
Brainiac 5 has figured out how the LSV managed to teleport the entire planet of Orando to another dimension, but he can’t quite lead the Legion to them… yet.
Notice that the Legion things that the LSV is responsible for the disappearance of Wildfire; it’s a nice detail, because there’s no what they could know it was caused by completely unrelated events happening in “Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes”. They could’ve placed an editor’s note there, though.
Back to Orando, Light Lass has survived the beating she took from her brother Lightning Lord.
Her powers are still telepathically blocked, but at least her hands are free now!
She runs into the other Legionnaires being trapped in the dungeon, starting with Karate Kid.
Unlike the others, he doesn’t have any superpowers… he’s just really, REALLY good at fighting.
To the point of being able to break through machine by sheer willpower and pure badassery!
While he frees the other Legionnaires, Light Lass is ready for some payback.
Or should I say… LIGHTNING Lass!!!
Yep! TWENTY YEARS after Adventure Comics #317, she gets her original powers back!
Most of the rest of the issue is dedicated to the rematch between the two Legions.
I will cover the lesser fights first because they’re far less consequential and then go back to THE fight this is remembered for.
Weird that Element Lad and Cosmic King face each other so rarely, isn’t it? They basically have the same power.
This is a great showcase of Lightle’s talents: the focus is the fight between Ultra Boy and the Daxamite kid Ol-Vir, but in the background you can see various other fights!
It really helps to give this a more epic scope without diluting the bigger moments.
But the main event is the fight between Karate Kid and Nemesis Kid. Not only this goes aaaaaaall the way back to their first appearance in Adventure Comics #346, but it’s a fascinating concept.
The man who can fight better than anyone else against the man who cannot lose a fight.
It’s a very visceral and personal fight.
But Nemesis Kid’s power is to naturally have a counter for anything so…
It’s true that Nemesis Kid has never been defeated in a one-on-one fight before. The only real exception is Duo Damsel defeating him in Adventure Comics #372, but she was using both her bodies.
Projectra comes to her husband’s help, but it’s not like her power is particularly useful here.
As if things weren’t personal enough before!
For such a historically important Legion villain, Nemesis Kid has less than twenty appearances (and that’s counting continuity inserts!), but this storyline establishes him a one of the major threats.
This is also one of the most brutal fights in comics, period.
AND KARATE KID STILL BEATS HIM!!!
Yeah it’s pretty clear that he would’ve had the chance to take down Karate Kid for good… if he didn’t have a mission to fulfill.
And that is how Karate Kid dies. As a hero saving Orando.
Although why exactly did HE fly into the Powersphere™ to blow it up, when the invulnerable Ultra Boy would’ve been perfectly available?
The two issues are inseparable, so I’m reviewing them together. However I have to reference the letters page, which include a tribute to Karate Kid and a shout-out to Jim Shooter.
Keith Giffen famously hated Karate Kid with passion (though I don’t know why); from the tribute, however, you can see Levitz had a lot of respect for the character.
Legion of Super-Heroes v3 #5 (1984)
written by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen
pencils by Steve Lightle
cover by Keith Giffen
Another strong contender for the best cover of this period.
This is just awesome!
As if the cover wasn’t enough, this is a MAJOR showcase of Projectra.
This also continues to be a showcase for Lightning Lass, with her crazy brother insisting to be the one to fight her.
Also apparently electricity can block fire, heat vision and transmutation.
Sounds legit.
Every fight between the siblings before this series has been a SERIOUS disappointment. Will they FINALLY manage to make the fight interesting!?
It’s disappointingly brief, but let’s just say THEY DID.
The rest of the LSV is taken care of by none other than Element Lad.
It’s easy to forget sometimes, but he’s ridiculously overpowered when writtern right.
Much like last time, I will first talk about the lesser fights. Which are a lot of fun!
Magno Lad versus Chameleon Boy is particularly funny.
Almost as much as watching Shrinking Violet pummel Micro Lad AGAIN.
Phantom Girl even takes care of Zymyr, which might be the only time a Gil’disphapn has a physical fight of any kind.
THE event of the issue, however, is unquestionably the rematch between Projectra and Nemesis Kid.
Much like her late husband, she shouldn’t have any chance in this fight.
His mistake, however, was to only adapt to her power to create illusions.
He didn’t consider the fact that she’s strong enough, and mad enough, to SNAP HIS NECK WITH HER BARE HANDS.
BAD. FREAKING. ##S.
Moving the the epilogue, Lightle gives us this GORGEOUS splash page that brings back the awesome Giffen designs from Projectra’s coronation.
Note that, beneath Karate Kid’s funeral pyre, the corpse of Nemesis Kid is left to feed the dogs.
And so Projectra officially resigns from the Legion, with Orando leaving the United Planets as well.
Orando leaves SO permanently that they stay in the other universe.
You may remember several Legionnaires were left behind in the regular universe; now most of them are being recalled back to Earth for an unrelated emergency.
This leaves behind Brainiac 5 still trying to figure out how to find Orando, Mon-El and Shadow Lass to handle the LSV in case they come back, and Sun Boy to goof off.
This proves to be useful when they catch some of the escaped LSV members.
On one hand, it’s a bit of a disappointment to see Brainiac 5 unable to figure out how a piece of technology works. On the other hand this plot thread will bring back the Controllers… I don’t recall if a direct link will be made, but I would buy Brainy having trouble with Controller technology.
The LSV gets the last laugh, because they manage to exile some of the Orando Legionnaires for a while thanks to Esper Lass tampering with the technology.
In the very last page, once everything on Orando has settled, one of the guards finds the mangled corpse of Nemesis Kid and wonders… was this worth it?
Legion significance: 10/10
This sets the stage for pretty much half of the rest of the series.
It’s obviously a MAJOR step for Projectra, who will be seen again as REDACTED (please no spoilers for potential new readers!)
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
DEFINITELY NOT.
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
This is a divisive moment for the Legion fandom, and it’s not hard to see why. It is a very dark and violent turn for the series, though I would argue this is FAR less dark and gratuitous to what will happen during the Five Year Later era. While some do call Karate Kid’s death as gratuitous as well, I actually think it’s very well executed (pun not intended).
It’s not entirely without flaws; it would’ve benefitted for making a little more clear why Karate Kid is the one to sacrifice himself when there are other Legionnaires around who are not severely wounded and who have a better shot at surviving. Involving only a limited number of Legionnaires, while helping raise the stakes, is still a missed opportunity.
Having said that… man are these fights great! One one hand, having Nemesis Kid lose two one-on-one fights might feel a bit cheaper… but if you think about it, they both make perfect sense.
His counter to Karate Kid was just to make himself a better fighter, but A) he didn’t account for Karate Kid to get better within the fight B) he’s already defeated enemies WAY stronger than him.
And of course his downfall was to consider Projectra as a threat only because of her powers.
We will see her again in a very unexpected way, but if this had been her last appearance, it would’ve been a great if tragic way to end her journey.
We are legion
Lots of changes, including some housecleaning to the list.
Projectra was already counted under “resigned”, so she doesn’t change the count.
Both Karate Kid and Nemesis Kid (the latter being the only expelled member) are moved to the deceased list. Lightning Lass will still need a couple issue before officially rejoining, so for the time being she’s still counted as a reserve.
I’m also moving Superboy back to the reserves. I’ve counted him as an active member for a while, but the next few issues make it abundantly clear that he should be counted as a reserve.
So the official count as of now is:
19 active Legionnaires
9 reserve members
9 deceased members
3 resigned members (Command Kid, Tyroc and Projectra)
1 honorary member (Rond Vidar)
41 people have been members
41 people have been rejected
The way I interpreted Karate Kid’s suicide run on the powersphere is that Nemesis Kid had already done enough damage to be fatal to Karate Kid, Karate Kid knew it, and it was only sheer willpower that was keeping him going (he said it was “too late for me, but not for Orando”).
He was the ultimate warrior. He knew that the best move he could make in the time he had left was to blow up the powersphere, so he did it without hesitation.
True, Ultra Boy might have done it, but he did have an insane Daxamite on his hands.
I was going to say the same exact thing, so I’m going to provide a different observation:
One thing I love about Lightle’s art is that, while everyone and everything is beautiful (like Perez, but more idealistic), he textures it with real-world tangibility. You can see it in the way he draws the fabrics of the costumes. In the first panel Mon-el and Shady are in the foreground – you can see his Cavilesque body, but he wears quite a formal costume. And yeah, if I had a cape, you’d probably see me holding it that way too. With Sunboy, farther back, you see a more traditional superhero costume, showing off his bod’, but his six-pac and guns don’t look like they’re painted on, like many artists do today. The inking helps here, too. Who was it?
I noticed Karate Kid’s insignia changed from a palm to the yin Yang sign.
Was Pharrox’s death on panel?
Unless that is the point, Nemesis Kid is the “dog” placed at Karate Kid’s feet as in a Viking funeral.
Val was the only one available who could destroy the powersphere. As George noted, the other Legionnaires were occupied, and it is implied if not directly stated that KK and PP’s confrontation with Nemesis Kid took place some distance from the other fights.
This was truly a groundbreaking story. I did not fully appreciate its impact at the time. There was a lot of graphic violence in comics during that period, so it seemed like the Legion was following a trend instead of setting a new one. Taken on it’s own merits, I agree that the violence fits the story and that Nemesis Kid’s downfall is brilliantly handled. Projectra truly becomes a badass at this point. In some ways, I wish this had been her final appearance. By executing Nemesis Kid, she reclaims her birthright as a ruler and puts the safety of her world and people first, as a monarch must. In doing so, she sacrifices her fellowship with the Legion, but it’s a noble and worthy sacrifice.
Out of all of Val Armorr’s deaths, this is certainly the best one. My problem with it is that blowing up the powersphere doesn’t accomplish anything. I get that Val has taken a fatal series of blows and only sheer willpower is holding him back from death. He only has enough time left to do one last heroic thing. But blowing up the powersphere, while dramatic, does nothing. Queen Projectra is still able to finish moving Orando out of the universe.
I guess it’s better to go down with fireworks and end up a burnt offering than it is to end up as raw doggy chow.
What Val did gave her the choice to move Orando back to its original location. Her decision to do otherwise does not mean nothing was accomplished. Orando is rid of the LSV and free to chart its own course.
Fat lot of good it did Karate Kid to be Paul Levitz’s favorite Legionnaire, when he was clearly Keith Giffen’s least favorite. Seems Giffen trumps Levitz.
It never really occurred to me before, but the darkness of this storyline kind of ran parallel to the darkness of the initial Baxter Teen Titans storyline, where Raven turns all Trigonny and stuff. Given that baxter Titans and Legion were launched together with the Direct Market in mind, you have to wonder if that was a command from above for the two titles.
Such a great story arc for the Legion. And the story in which Jeckie returns is one of my all, all, all-time favourites.