Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #325 (1985)
by Paul Levitz (plot), Mindy Newell (dialogue) & Dan Jurgens (pencils)
This is the last issue of “Tales” with new material, before it moves to reprinting older stories.
Which I guess is why the cover is a group shot that doesn’t have anything to do with the story.
This is the conclusion of the long-running Dev-Em plot. The Dark Circle has kidnapped and cloned him, with the original being on the brink of death thanks to Kryptonite poisoning.
Mon-El is typically the voice of reason in these situations, but I guess Kryptonite poisoning cuts a little too close to his own experience with lead poisoning.
And he’s VERY effective: not only he recovers Dev-Em’s body from the ship, but he brings him and the rest of the Legionnaires out of the way by accelerating past the speed of light.
Science Police officer GiGi Cusimano isn’t exactly Dev-Em’s greatest fan right now, thinking he was the one to ravage an entire planet, but the Legion convinces her to help.
Since Mon-El seems to know a great deal about Kryptonite poisoning, Ultra Boy asks him why he’s so familiar with this. You would expect an explanation linked to his friendship with Superboy, but nope!
Mon-El drops a bombshell: Daxamites and Kryptonians are related.
Which might shock nobody, since it’s so obvious… but this is the first time I see such a statement in a Legion story. I don’t think this was clearly spelled out in any story before; perhaps some letters page?
Ultra Boy then asks the OTHER question on everyone’s mind: which one is the colony and which one the original?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Daxamites consider themselves the parent world. I’m fairly certain that in more recent continuities it’s the other way around.
That’s all well and good for Dev-Em, but there are still five fully powered Kryptonians running around working for the Dark Circle.
If you’re wondering why Dev-Em never joined the Legion, apparently he’s not too fond of sublots.
Also, that is one awful costume.
Checking with the Dark Circle, turns out that the Ontiir who died in issue 315 was only a clone.
The Legion crashes the Dark Legion’s base, and Ontiir is not the only familiar face: apparently White Witch knows its latest leader.
The Legion no-killing rule also applies to clones. Good to see they’re not coming up with vague excuses like Superman often did with stuff like Bizarros not counting because they’re not organic.
So how’s the Legion going to handle the clones? By having White Witch weave a spell that FUSES THEM WITH THE ORIGINAL.
Now all that’s left is dealing with the Dark Circle itself.
Not a big deal.
The Dark Circle members are arrested, including Ontiir after he theatens the United Planets.
Okay that’s pretty funny.
Then the leader kills himself, which causes all the other Dev-Em clones remaining on other planets to drop dead.
So, uhm, that just happened. This might’ve gone somewhere if “Tales” continued, but as far as I know we never learn who that guy was or why he knew the White Witch.
In the end, GiGi adds Dev-Em to the list of superheroes she flirts with…
…and Blok watches tapes of old Legion adventures with White Witch.
Weirdly enough, this is when the founders break the fourth wall to explain to the readers that the series is moving to reprints.
Well that was random.
Legion significance: 6/10
The ending of the Dev-Em plot, which doesn’t seem to go anywhere. But it’s an official confirmation that Kryptonians and Daxamites are related, which is HUGE news.
If it turns out that it was already said in a story (not in a letters page), then I’ll lower this one to a 2/10.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
White Witch’s spell that merges Dev-Em with his clones is a bit random.
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
Well that was a bunch of nothing. Technically speaking there’s nothing wrong with the story… it’s just a very bland conclusion, to the point that I’m wondering if Levitz lost all interest a while ago and was just going through the motions.
I mean we’re dealing with the Dark Circle having access to a potentially limitless number of Kryptonites! Granted that’s not on the level of Darkseid controlling all of Daxam, but that’s still a big deal! Instead the Legion seems to treat this as a very routine mission.
And what was the point of bringing back Ontiir only to have him play such a small role?
We are legion
19 active Legionnaires
8 reserve members
10 deceased members