Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #317 (Part 1) (1984)
plot by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen
dialogue by Mindy Newell
pencils and cover by Terry Shoemaker
The resurrection of the first Invisible Kid has been waiting for a resolution for a long time. Will the conclusion deliver?
Wildfire has been teleported back to the dream dimension he left in issue #299… except THIS time he doesn’t transform back into a human. The poor guy just can’t catch a break!
The second Invisible Kid is the whole reason why Wildfire had to leave this dimension the first time, so he has reasons to hold a grudge… but Wildfire still saves him from some weird energy tentacles.
After all the trouble Invisible Kid II went through to help his predecessor, now he’s convinced the original Invisible Kid isn’t who he seems.
Wildfire isn’t particularly interested, because he can finally be human again!
Except, as I said, Wildfire just can’t catch a break: the original Invisible Kid turns out to be some kind of nightmare demon.
The two Legionnaires flee from the nightmare monster…
…aaaaand they fail miserably.
Okay, here’s the solution to the mystery: the nightmare demon was brought into the regular universe by the Negaton Bomb™ at the end of the Omen storyline, disguising himself as the original Invisible Kid because he wanted to trick both Legionnaires back into his dimension.
That’s all well and good, but… he says he didn’t really need Invisible Kid II to bring both to his dimension, so what exactly was the point of disguising himself as the original Invisible Kid to lure his successor here? Couldn’t he just bring them back immediately!?
In any case, Wildfire is giving into despair: leaving this dimension means losing his humanity once more. So basically Invisible Kid II has traded one suicidal Legionnaire for another.
This time Invisible Kid II doesn’t play the “this realm is just an illusion”. I would’ve gone with the “you’ll just be tortured for eternity by a nightmare demon” angle.
Yeah I’m sure Wildfire would’ve been angry at some point anyway.
Since this is a dream dimension, Invisible Kid II’s plan is to just dream the Legion to rescue them.
This leads both Legionnaires back to reality, where they pay their respects to the original Invisible Kid.
In other plots, Duo Damsel is having a really hard time accepting the fact that Brainiac 5 transformed Computo into the Legion’s butler.
Shvaughn Erin is on a top-secret mission for the Science Police teaming up with Dev-Em, of all people.
So now we have a potential love triangle between Svaughn, Element Lad and Dev-Em.
You would expect that a time-displaced Kryptonian who does secret missions would be more involved with the plots! He shows up so rarely that I often forget he’s around.
Isn’t that right, mysterious mystery guy who is monitoring the Legion?
Yeah I’m sure this “Monitor” guy won’t be important later.
Legion significance: 0/10
Despite the demon swearing revenge over the Legion, he won’t show up again.
Silver Age-ness: 3/10
There is SOME Silver Age in defeating the bad guy by dreaming a victory.
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
Bah. Talk about a dud. After such a long buildup, we get an extremely generic story about a demon. It feels like Levitz just got bored with this plot and just decided to close it as fast as possible, because there’s basically nothing about the original Invisible Kid here despite spending a lot of time developing his depression in the previous issues. The demon is the definition of a stock villain, and as I said if he had the power to bring anyone into his domain why go through all the trouble!?
For once, the subplots are far more interesting even if they’re barely a page each.
We are legion
19 active Legionnaires
9 reserve members
9 deceased members
3 resigned members
1 honorary member
41 people have been members
41 people have been rejected
If I recall correctly, it was Giffen who inserted Lyle into the conclusion of issue # 310, completely unplanned and without discussing it with Levitz first. This explains why it took Levitz so long to do anything with the resurrected Invisible Kid and why he was in such a hurry to dispose of the plot.
A wasted opportunity! None of the other Legionnaires seemed to care that their old friend and comrade had come back to life.
On a personal note, Invisible Kid’s death was one of the first comic book deaths I ever read, and the bittersweet ending has stayed with me. I had mixed feelings about his return, but I’m glad it turned out to be a hoax. Resurrecting characters tends to cheapen the impact of the original story.