Legion of Super-Heroes v3 #56 (1989)
written by Paul Levitz
pencils by Eduardo Barredo
cover by Steve Lighle
Blok sure took his time, but his plot finally develops. Kind of.
He’s been taken prisoner by The Inquisitor, but after trying for so long to escape he’s lost hope.
And he’s leaking some sort of energy… he should get that checked out.
Speaking of The Inquisitor, turns out the reason he’s after Blok is that he wants to find out the secret of immortality.
Speaking of which: we know from other series that Blok’s race ages, or at the very least they develop… but do we know for certain that they can die from old age alone?
Since they’re basically living rocks, I wouldn’t be surprised if they could live indefinitely.
We’ll get back to Blok later.
The rest of the Legion is looking for Emerald Empress, with even Dawnstar admitting she’s not useful.
Hey lady, that’s MY job!
But eventually they do find her base, which is not exactly hard to see.
But this time she’s NOT sending the eye itself to fight, instead creating an army of green minions.
I’m a bit torn about all these abilities… on one hand it’s a reasonable development for a magic-themed supervillain, but on the other this is making her Evil Green Lantern which is WAY less unique.
But we also keep track of Shadow Lass, who is still trying to find anyone who could cure Mon-El.
There’s something sketchy about the doctor working on a cure…
…especially when the patient disappears.
She follows Mon-El into the portal, and this is when we reconnect to the Blok plot because The Inquisitor is behind this as well.
I’m with The Inquisitor here: why would kidnapping Mon-El help him in his quest to become immortal? The only reason Mon-El survived a thousand years is that he was trapped in the Phantom Zone, what “clue” could be bring?
I don’t know if we should interpret the comment that something mysterious is keeping Mon-El alive as a reference to his love for Shadow Lass, or if it’s a hint to what we’ll discover about him in the early Volume 4.
And then Blok stumbles into this sub-plot when he punches the walls of HIS prison!
Blok’s design has gone completely off the rails at this point!
And I know it’s acknowledged in the story, but it’s still an awful design.
The captive Legionnaires finally escape, with Mon-El helping.
The Inquisitor decides to call it quits. We’ll see him again next issue.
Blok has come to the realization that he’s never going to get a decent plot again.
Or ANY plots, really.
You’d expect Shadow Lass to return to the Legion after this, but she’s still out.
This is why I’ve been considering her as a resigned member.
In other plots, Lighting Lass is hitting on Magnetic Kid even harder.
She’s rejected SO hard that this turns her attention back to Shrinking Violet.
Did he just scare the straight out of her?
Also Chief Zendak is removed from his position of head of the Science Police.
I like Zendak as a character, but it’s not like the Science Police was exactly efficient under his leadership.
Legion significance: 0/10
The Inquisitor is related to the other plots, as we’ll see next issue, but just barely.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
Not as bleak as previous issues, but this is a nothing plot. We don’t learn anything new about Blok, the Inquisitor looks cool but doesn’t really do anything, and the action is barely there.
Poor Blok deserved way, WAY better than this.
We are legion
18 active Legionnaires
7 reserve members
6 resigned members
2 on sick leave
12 deceased members
Interesting letters: there you go, an official answer to my doubts about Mon-El’s powers. Although some of you in the comments already pointed this out.
It is impossible to take a villain seriously once they’ve disappeared with a “pop” sound effect even once. Your career is effectively over at that point. Not even Victor von Doom could make an exit like that dignified.