Legion of Super-Heroes v3 #41 (1987)
by Paul Levitz & Greg LaRoque
cover by Steve Lightle
Second time in a row where Starfinger is a giant and that doesn’t happen in the comic itself.
Speaking of Starfinger, this time he’s sent his goons to attack Mars.
They’re not exactly a threat to the Legion.
But Starfinger is so hard to find that even Dawnstar’s powers are of little use.
When I say it like that it SOUNDS impressive, but really, how many times has Dawnstar been useful in this series? Like twice, tops?
Levitz, I know you created the character, but repeating that Dawnstar is awesome does not make it so until you give her something useful to do.
Which you DID back in the day, so it’s not like you don’t know how!
Instead he has White Witch come up with something cool: a spell to trace Starfinger based the fact that him choosing his own name is very important.
That is LITERALLY magical thinking, so it fits perfectly.
Speaking of things that USED to sound cool: White Witch standing up to Mordru.
If we were talking about Mordru in his first story, that would absolutely certify her as a badass!
The Mordru that we’ve had in the past years… not that impressive.
We also follow another batch of Legionnaires dealing with an art thief who is also working with Starfinger.
He has goons of his own, but it’s not a particularly exciting action scene.
However Wildfire is acting up, EVEN BY WILDFIRE STANDARDS.
Eventually the Legion manages to find the location of Starfinger’s base through a complex power interaction between Sensor Girl and White Witch.
Legion magic ladies for the win!
Alright, so far I haven’t found Starfinger to be particularly appealing. But at the very least he has excellent taste in evil lairs: his base is INSIDE A STAR.
This is also where we meet Starfinger’s henchwomen: Starlight and Starbright.
Dawnstar, that is the most pathetic attempt to make it sound like you’re useful I’ve ever heard.
I don’t know whether the fact that the FIRST thing the team’s resident tracker asks is “where’s the target?” is funny or sad.
If you ever have trouble remembering which one is Starlight and which one is Starbright, here’s the trick.
Starbright has lighter hair because her power involves creating bright light, and Starlight is the dark haired one because her power has nothing to do with light.
Wait, what?
By far THE most important moment of the issue is when Starfinger injures Colossal Boy.
You’d be excused to think this is nothing… several Legionnaires have recovered from seemingly worse attacks… but make no mistake: this moment will influence Colossal Boy’s entire career for the rest of this continuity.
This gets Wildfire SO mad that he’s willing to blow up the entire base JUST to get Starfinger!!!
But once the entire Legion gets involved… it’s not an even fight.
Well… MOST of the Legion. Brainiac 5 is busy preparing for a much better storyline.
The Legion doesn’t get a clear win: Starfinger blows up his own base.
Guys, if Dawnstar says she can’t find Starfinger, I think we can trust her.
After all she hasn’t missed her target since… uhm… when was the last time she did find a target again?
Starfinger is, in fact, still alive. He’ll be back in a few issues.
In other plots: ah, the time-honored tradition of having superheroes in a superhero team complain about “monitor duty”.
Am I the only one who’s always thought the concept was more than a little ridiculous?
Yeah why IS Timber Wolf being wasted here? To be honest I had COMPLETELY forgotten that he inherited Karate Kid’s fortune!
That happened before we learned Sensor Girl was Projectra, and yet we haven’t had a single scene exploring the fact that Timber Wolf inherited her dead husband’s money!
Come on Timber Wolf, GET YOUR OWN SUBPLOT ALREADY!!!
And unfortunately we also have the continuation of the Wildfire-Dawnstar soap opera.
God is she frustrating!!! If she’s not into him, can’t she just SAY it!?
No, we have to get through MULTIPLE ISSUES of her going “oh I’m not ready to be around you and I’m not even try to explain why or how in any meaningful way”.
I’m reading this on a digital copy so I can’t throw away the book whenever these scenes come up, but she is SO frustrating I just might throw away my screen.
Legion significance: 9/10
Absolutely essential for Colossal Boy.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
Starfinger is still over the top enough.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
It’s fine, but surprisingly light in substance. The earlier stories did a better job at hyping Starfinger as this massive threat, but up close he’s not that impressive.
We are legion
24 active Legionnaires
6 reserve members
12 deceased members
Interesting letters: that’s actually a clever suggestion on how to improve the votes for the Legion’s leader.
In case you had questions on how Timber Wolf still has that money.
Wildfire really does need his containment suit for more than just fashion sense. Without it, he’s barely contained.
Starfinger having his base inside a star is further evidence that Levitz was treating him as a Bond villain.
Starfinger’s ring floating through the wreckage is some really cool imagery.
You sure gave Dawny a brutal beat down here. You were pounding her like you were a possessed combination of The Simpsons Comic Book Guy and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog 😂😂🤣🤣 The funniest part was when you initially launched your attack , I was prepared to get all but hurt and show you lash out in indignant geek rage. Full Gretta Thunberg “How DARE you” and everything….and then you actually started making headway in advancing your case😂🤣🤣🤣😂 Anyway, irreverent humor aside , I would say that (somewhat counterintuitively) that Drake and Dawnys fiery, freakish and enduring love is retrospectively the bigger continuity legacy than Colossal Boy getting sucker zapped, but I’m hella old. How old? I’ll tell you whipper snappers like this…I have seen Nirvana and The Ramones live and bought the Giffen/Levitz LSH off the spinner rack in grade school, which is why I vividly remember Colossal Boy having a much more interesting and traumatic experience when he was dating Violet, an act of D bagery which triggered Duplicate Boy to just show up at their romantic vacation spot and just start violently beating the crap outta him right in front of the resort and majestically snow covered mountains in the background 🤣😂😂So I’m pretty sure if that memory has stuck with me for several decades just as a result of READING it, I would have to imagine the effects for CB were much more… impactful 😉 So what, ultimately happened with Dawnys totally irrational girl emotion (I presume that no female would have any interest in being here, so I am at toxic ease) driven drama?