Mordru will return to the Legion in a big way, but before that let’s have a look at a couple of his appearances set in the 20th century.
Superman #213 (1969)
by Cary Bates & Curt Swan
Many thanks to reader Bryant Alexander in the comments to World’s Finest #172 for pointing out I missed this (sort of) cameo!
For reference, this has the same publishing month of Adventure Comics #376.
It’s a story about Superman announcing that since he’s in “grave danger”, he’s leaving his most prized possessions to mankind.
There are at the very least three Silver Age stories that deal with Superman’s last will and testament. For a guy who is basically invincible, he sure does think a lot about dying.
Also: the rarely used Supermanium™ is totally a thing, dating back to 1949 and therefore predating Inertron by several years.
The story is mostly about Lex Luthor scheming to access the contents of the vault.
With a plan that of course involves killing Superman with Kryptonite.
Lex DOES open the vault…
…but *shocker* he didn’t actually kill Superman.
At this point you might be wondering: what the heck does this have to do with Mordru and the Legion? Well, Superman explains that he first encountered the vault in space…
…and discovered this is actually a magic vault sent back in time by Mordru!
So if the whole reason for helping Lex open the vault to free Superman, who was locked inside… who was the Superman faking his death?
It was actually Brainiac 5 from the Adult Legion in disguise!!!
From a modern perspective, there’s a lot to unpack on that panel.
This was published YEARS before the White Witch was a regular Legion recurring character: by that point she had showed up only a couple of times, as Dream Girl’s sister.
So this marks the first time we learn she will eventually join the Legion, even though this is the Adult Legion. I wonder if this influenced Levitz’s decision to have her join the team.
But also, since this is the Brainiac 5 from the Adult Legion… he knows Supergirl dies young, right?
That was hardly the only connection Mordru has with the 20th century. Not just because he already went there in his first story, but because of the main topic of this review… the series that explored how Mordru was already around in the 20th century!
Kind of.
And it happened, of all places, on the pages of Amethyst: DC’s very own Magical Girl.
I admit my ignorance about Amethyst: I know basically nothing about her.
She’s been namedropped a lot of times, and when she was launched in the 80s she was supposed to become a big star. Although honestly I never really cared for her… I’m not a huge fan of fantasy in general, and her stories didn’t appeal to me.
Surprisingly she has ties to the Legion, even if I don’t think she ever meets them: her first appearance was published in Legion of Super-Heroes #298, and more importantly… you’ll see.
Amethyst Princess of Gemworld v3 #1 (1987)
written by Keith Giffen & Mindy Newell
pencils by Esteban Maroto
This is Amethyst’s THIRD series, and it’s no wonder the Legion connection shows up here.
Keith Giffen hopefully needs no introduction, but you may recall Mindy Newell co-wrote several issues of Tales Of The Legion.
This 4-issues miniseries is WEIRD. To be perfectly honest, I don’t think I understood a tenth of it… it’s a surprisingly dense plot. Although it might be my disinterest in classic fantasy.
So I apologize in advance for the absolute crap of a job I’m about to do discussing this series.
We’re in a magical dimension, where we come across the statue of a girl.
Who is connected to Amethyst, who I guess died in the previous series?
And who may be reborn here? Or resurrected?
Also, there sure is a lot of trippy imagery throughout this series.
Yeah the artwork in this book is absolutely gorgeous when it comes to weird imagery.
Too bad I have no idea of what’s going on. Again, this is most likely my fault.
Although having characters named Turquoise or Opal show up and be clearly important for this universe without giving me any hint of what they are is not helping me.
One of the characters where I know why they’ll become important is Wrynn, a magician who is introduced doing… whatever the heck this is.
Okay, evil magic apprentice who wants to become a powerful evil wizard. Finally something I can understand!
Eventually Amethyst is reborn. I would do the usual gag about censoring her body, but the comic does it for me!
Would it help if I did drugs before reading this?
But back to Wrynn: he’s powered up by this, uhm, I think it’s a gem demon of some sort?
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the secret origin of Mordru.
Amethyst Princess of Gemworld v3 #2 (1987)
written by Keith Giffen & Mindy Newell
pencils by Esteban Maroto
I have to wonder who was more confused.
Amethyst readers having no idea about who Mordru is?
Legion readers having no idea about who Amethyst is?
This must be one of the most unnecessary bad guy backstories EVER.
Instead of being an evil sorcerer who went mad with power and tried to conquer the universe, Mordru was a guy we BARELY saw who then changed his name to become an evil sorcerer?
Another reason why I might be having such a hard time connecting with this series is that Amethyst’s role seems to be comprised of one of these:
A) being a statue
B) posing for the camera
C) waxing poetically about something, causing magic stuff to happen
D) being described by a bystander in vague poetic terms
After a bunch of stuff I don’t understand and can’t describe (once again, sorry for the crap job I’m doing), Amethyst finally confronts Mordru.
Okay if I read this correctly… BIG “if”… Mordru is not exactly Wrynn.
He’s the sum of Wrynn and the corruption of his soul created by the influence of the Lord Of Chaos, DC’s vaguely-defined evil gods? Maybe?
Ah, well, that clears up any doubts about what this incarnation of Amethyst is. I mean you couldn’t make this any more obvious.
Amethyst is powered by the Lords Of Order, and she might even be one of them.
These guys are REALLY powerful, and so if she is one of them that gives a bit of credit to Mordru being her opposite…
…but with all due respect to Amethyst fans: Mordru being one of her villains is quite a step backwards for him.
Okay if you’re going to use psychology to defeat Mordru: he already has a well-established phobia against being buried alive. The fact that it’s his only weakness is one of his gimmicks!
So why in the name of Chaos would you make up that he used to fear horses!?!?!?
I still don’t get the relationship between Mordru and Wrynn. Is Mordru some magic entity possessing Wrynn? Is he his evil side?
Yes, Mordru, you CLEARLY won that fight. Sure.
Round 2, with Amethyst following Mordru into his lair.
And AGAIN kicking his butt.
And that would be the end of it, if the demon didn’t show up with a civilian hostage.
Amethyst Princess of Gemworld v3 #3 (1988)
written by Keith Giffen & Mindy Newell
pencils by Esteban Maroto
This blond guy is Wrynn’s brother. I would tell you if he’s important or not if I understood the story.
Is Amethyst’s power just posing for the cameras?
The civilian hostage, Emmy, is really Princess Emerald… because of course she is… and she’s possessed by the Lords of Chaos to fight Amethyst.
I think.
Mordru, how many times in a row do you want to lose?
Luckily for Mordru, he’s not going to fight Amethyst but his brother.
Or Wrynn’s brother.
But Amethyst separates Mordru and Wrynn? Uh?
So Wrynn asks his brother to kill him…
…except Mordru regains control, killing the brother first.
This angers Amethyst so much that she frees Emmy from whatever demon was possessing her.
So Mordru has murdered the brother of his former identity, who we barely saw for a couple of issues and has not been mentioned once in the 20 years of the character’s publishing history.
What a monster.
Amethyst Princess of Gemworld v3 #4 (1988)
written by Keith Giffen & Mindy Newell
pencils by Esteban Maroto
Let’s finish this embarrassment of a non-review.
Mordru is being judged by the lords of Gemworld for his crimes.
He’s condemned, but then Amethyst shows up in his cell.
At this point she has repaired all the damage Mordru has done to Gemworld, but she can’t resurrect his brother.
And so Amethyst decides to curse him.
So THAT is now the origin of Mordru’s weakness to burial?
That’s lame, but at the very least she has a truly badass curse.
As for what happens to Amethyst in the rest of the issue… I give up.
But we FINALLY have something I can understand, and it’s a bombshell.
Because we learn that in the next 1,000 years Gemworld will become Sorcerer’s World!!!
Which… doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, since Sorcerer’s World had already been established as being the planet Zerox from Action Comics #301 from 1963 in stories set in the 20th century.
But we finally, FINALLY end by reconnecting this to White Witch.
No scores this time. Words cannot express just how lost I am.
One final time, my most sincere apologies for being unable to do a proper review.
As a final note: ultimately this is not going to matter, because Mordru will get completely different origins. So maybe I wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand anything from this series!
I once read Amethyst when I was younger. It was the original series, and while I can barely remember anything about it, I’m pretty sure it made more sense than this insanity.
I guess I know why Mordru’s design changes so radically near the end of the 5YL era. Not much else, though.
Are you going to cover Mordru’s appearances in JSA?
Possibly when the Legion retrospective reaches those years.
The original Amethyst maxi-series was a fun fantasy, but the world building was rather simplistic. Twelve royal houses have twelve magic gemstones. Dark Opal rules over all the other houses. Amy Winston, age 12, is hidden away on Earth and is really Princess Amethyst, although she doesn’t know it. Because Earth and Gemworld are in different temporal zones, traveling to Gemworld ages Amy to womanhood and returning to Earth reverts her to a preteen.
Amethyst was only meant to be 12 issues. They were a fun read. But then DC granted Amethyst an unlimited series, which meandered aimlessly. Like too many series before it, it suffered from plot escalation. Every threat had to be exponentially greater than the one before.
Then Giffen arrived and changed everything to make the series more adult. Amethyst wasn’t just a magical princess, she was secretly always a Champion of Order. Her opponents were Flaw and the Child, agents of Chaos. Flaw, the gem demon in your review, is the incarnation of every flawed gem in Gemworld. Long story short, Amy ends up sacrificing her mortal life (never finishing school, never actually growing up, never marrying…) and becomes the protective spirit of Gemworld.
This miniseries was basically Gemworld: the Next Generation, featuring the offsprings of the previous series’ characters. I can’t imagine it making much sense to a newcomer to the series, and Amy’s character no longer has any character.
Amethyst does meet the Legion during the 5YL era, possessing legionnaire Kono during a major dustup with Mordru.
Amethyst has since been rebooted several times, none of which have stuck.
To the best of my (very flawed) understanding, the second Amethyst series was concurrent with Crisis. At one point during Crisis Amethyst is blinded and rescued by Doctor Fate, who recognizes her as somehow tied to the Lords of Order. The two of them then appear in Amethyst’s series, where Doctor Fate is all “I can’t be here helping you when you are destined to achieve greatness” and leaves.
By this point there had been a considerable level of shift in environment, if not in genre, in Amethyst’s stories. As Bryant Alexander points out above, the first series, while high fantasy, had very limited worldbuilding, with very few significant characters that were not members of one the twelve houses named after gems. There was a running subplot about Amethyst attempting to balance her dual life as a 13 years old girl living with her adoptive parents on Earth with that of a 20 years old literal magical princess, which I assume had been let go before or during that second series.
Late in that second series Amethyst acquires a pair of new enemies: a previously unmentioned Lord of Chaos named “Child” and its servant “Flaw”. They make a few appearances elsewhere, although it will be quite a few years later.
The way I see it, they were effectively the gateway to connect both Amethyst and Mordru to the Lords of Order and Chaos that are so central to Doctor Fate, while this third series connects both to the Sorcerer’s World of Legion stories.
Incidentally, the first Amethyst series was a very disturbing read, at least for me. It suffered from very bad tone wiplash, switching from rather childlike “magical princess” to scenes of torture or worse with no warning. I can’t for the life of me make a guess about the intended readership of that series.