Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #28 (1992)
written by Tom & Mary Bierbaum
pencils by Jason Pearson
breakdowns by Keith Giffen
cover by Al Gordon
The cover really showcases what it must feel like being a Sun Boy fan reading this story.
Be warned that I have some VERY strong and potentially controversial opinions on this issue, even more so than the rest of the 5YL era.
The issue is not just a spotlight on Sun Boy, but it goes into detail about his past: right from the beginning, we have an extended flashback showing his childhood.
A big part of it is the fact that his father was, to put it bluntly, kind of a monster.
His mother is not particularly better, basically ignoring him to focus on her social life.
But his father is really the focus, being shown to be a lecherous womanizer who only focuses on looking strong.
He’s also kind of responsible for Sun Boy’s eventual origin, making the leader of a research team without barely any qualifications.
Not content with that, Sun Boy also kind of creates his own nemesis, belittling Doctor Regulus.
Who was only complaining about this nepo baby being put in charge.
I cannot believe this comic is making me sympathize with Regulus.
I don’t think that was intentional. But this comic really, really, REALLY wants you to hate Sun Boy’s father.
The idea is that Sun Boy will turn out to become a sex-obsessed a-hole because his father tried molding him into a copy of himself.
Including sending him to a brothel.
You can read this scene in different ways, roughly in order of how likely they are:
A) he lost his virginity to a shapeshifting prostitute who changed into his mom
B) since these are his memories while he’s severely wounded (as we’ll see later), he’s remembering the time he lost his virginity and thinking about his mom
C) he lost his virginity to a prostitute while thinking about his mom
D) he lost his virginity to a prostitute while feeling he’s as guilty as his father was when cheating on his mom
And I’m guessing he’s too distracted at work, causing the nuclear accident?
I honestly have no idea: this is IMMEDIATELY after the prostitute scene.
I didn’t skip anything.
Or it could be Regulus willingly sabotaging it, considering he’s shown locking Sun Boy in the nuclear chamber on purpose. Regulus’s hatred for Sun Boy makes little sense here: yes there’s resentment about being belittled, but to the point of murdering his own scientific team!?
Given how much the Bierbaums were obsessed with following the original continuity, it’s impressive how much they retcon with this entire premise.
The first good look at Sun Boy’s origin story was Adventure Comics 348 where yes, his father WAS the one in charge of the atomic plant, but Sun Boy was just there after school: he certainly wasn’t the leader of a research team.
In fact, the only role his father plays in that story is firing Regulus after his failed experiment kills someone.
In THAT story, it makes sense that Regulus blames Sun Boy for ruining his career AND it makes sense to lock him in the reactor: at that point Regulus has already left the company and is murdering him in a way that could potentially be passed for an accident.
In the new version we don’t even SEE Sun Boy interrupting Regulus’s work!!!
We then have a pretty neat juxtaposition of Sun Boy taking the Legion pledge with him fantasizing about having his revenge against Regulus…
…or if WOULD be neat if it didn’t degenerate into a dark murder gorefest.
Alright, I guess I should address what is my potentially controversial opinion of this story.
To me, this is COMPLETE character assassination for Sun Boy.
Because for some reason, the Bierbaums seem to think Sun Boy has always been the scum of the Galaxy and portray him in the worst possible interpretation.
I’ve often seen people excuse this by saying that Levitz already turned him into a sleazeball during his run, but that’s just simply not true.
Take for example Tales Of The Legion Of Super-Heroes #320: in that story, he’s shown to be full of himself…
…but he confronts Sun Boy because he thinks he’s cheating on his wife with GiGi Cusimano.
And it’s eventually revealed to be GiGi’s way of getting back at him for treating her like his side chick, ending her with having a date with fellow Science Police officer Dvron.
Why do I bring back that story, which honestly wasn’t even that great?
Because this one re-interprets it as a far more mean-spirited affair, while also juxtaposing it with Sun Boy’s horrible hallucinations.
In fact, this story recontextualizes Sun Boy into having a sort of inferiority and persecution complex, as if the rest of the Legion were out to get him.
Not to mention being a glory hound. Yes Sun Boy has always loved being in the spotlight, but since when he’s EVER been THIS obsessed!?
We then move to scenes taking place DURING the five year gap, when Sun Boy was apparently the leader for a while.
This is a VERY rare glimpse into the gap, allowing us to see a bunch of Legionnaires resigning.
Appreciate the last decent look at classic Dream Girl, because by the time she shows up in Volume 4 she’s going to be quite different.
Also, Pearson is going even further with the fanservice because holy crap, those are some massive United Planets.
We also have what is possibly the ONLY on-panel confirmation that Crystal Kid was a member during the gap, and the fact that Element Lad returned to his older costume.
Plus a VERY rare look at Kent Shakespeare in his costume (which he totally stole from Star Boy), and the most baffling gap membership: Echo.
I have absolutely no idea WHY AND HOW they put Echo in there. You might have forgotten him, but he’s from Adventure Comics #355 where he was a member of the Legion of Super-Villains… and I’m not even sure HOW that fits into the pre-Crisis continuity, considering HE WAS FROM THE ADULT LEGION ERA.
Of course we can’t stop reconnecting the story to Sun Boy’s daddy issues, or to his guilt of having caused the death of a woman. Who, I remind you, WASN’T EVEN IN THE ORIGINAL STORY.
Despite redeeming the Substitute Heroes, this era STILL treats Polar Boy as an absolute joke.
The “Black Dawn” is an incredibly important event that happened during the gap and that plays a big part into the dissolution of the team, which is why we won’t get clues about WHAT IT WAS until much later in the era.
And again with hating costumes for no reason.
I’m sure this was intended as the culmination of Sun Boy having been corrupted by his father.
To me, it comes across as the comic yelling at the reader for ever liking something the writers don’t.
After leaving the Legion, Sun Boy is apparently hated by the general public because… uhm… I’m guessing because of the smear campaign that Earth’s government ran against the Legion, something that was discussed IN THE TEXT PAGES… OVER TWENTY-FIVE ISSUES AGO.
He’s rescued by Shvaughn Erin who offers to help…
…but we can’t pass on the opportunity to show Sun Boy as the absolute worst person ever, so he’s STILL mad at her for dumb reasons.
He then meets Circe, ending up sleeping with her only when she’s cosplaying.
And THAT is why Sun Boy ended up selling Earth to the Dominators, folks.
Because he wanted to sleep with his teammates and show he was a winner.
He does show the slightest bit of a spine during the Volume 4 events, but not enough to actually stop being a Dominator puppet.
This turns him into the most hated man on Earth…
…and when the Moon is blown up, he’s completely broken.
This does seem to shake him a little, putting on his costume in an admittedly well-played splash page… but it’s dirty and ill-fitting, kind of a parody of his old self.
You would expect this to be a chance for him to redeem himself…
…but we can’t have THAT, because when the PowerSpheres™ explode in the SECOND global disaster of the day… Sun Boy suffers a fate worse than death.
This was… months ago, I presume? And Sun Boy HAS BEEN SCREAMING IN PAIN THE ENTIRE TIME.
This is what happens in the 5YL era if the writers don’t like you.
You could end up as a screaming living corpse who knows nothing but eternal suffering.
The Grid: 23 pages out of 24. Notably, 20 of these are IN A ROW.
0 pages without a grid
1 splash page
0 text pages
Legion significance: -20/10
On a “normal” scale, this would be something around a 4/10 because of the glimpse at the gap and because Sun Boy’s fate will be significant.
However, I reserve negative scores for this category when the story absolutely breaks the established canon or characterization… and I believe the latter fits for Sun Boy.
He was a bit of a womanizer with a big ego, yes, but this turned into a sex addict with the pathological need to be a winner at all costs… and I’m sorry but this doesn’t feel like Sun Boy to me, AT ALL. To work with this we should at least have had Sun Boy push to become the Legion leader, but has he ever been a candidate for any election?
He’s stripped of any redeeming quality, everything in his life is re-interpreted in the worst possible light, and it remains a long-lasting stain on his character.
There are Legion fans that TO THIS DAY have an intense hatred for him AND who misremember him as always having been scum.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
I don’t give negative scores for this category, but perhaps I should.
Depression scale: ∞ / 10
I don’t ever want to look at this issue ever again in my life.
Does it stand the test of time? -30/10
On a technical standpoint, this would be a relatively solid 7/10… the objective is to deliver a gut punch to the reader, and Pearson’s artwork really compliments the horror.
However, this is ALSO a category where negative scores are assigned to stories with horrible messages or damaging characterization… and I believe this completely ruins Sun Boy.
The damage extends further than the original, because while the SW6 Sun
Boy is not this extreme, this characterization will reflect on him.
It’s also probably a MAJOR factor in Sun Boy skipping the vast majority of the Reboot, not to mention the fact that MOST versions of Sun Boy are eventually killed off in horrific ways.
This also makes the Legion story with the lowest score, overtaking Superboy #215.
And to think that Sun Boy used to be one of the members given the most focus early in his career, even as far as being the only Legionnaire (besides Superboy) with his own personal nemesis mostly unrelated to the rest of the Legion.
I can totally see why people could like or even love this story, and I probably would if it was about a relatively new character.
But to do this character assassination to a hero who at this point had been around for 31 years… to me, this came across as insultingly mean-spirited.
We are legion
31 active Legionnaires
3 reserve members
32 resigned members
11 deceased members
77 people have been members
62 people have been rejected
Interesting letters: in a letter that I’m cutting for brevity, after a praise of the writing of the Quiet Darkness, Michael bring up a valid point regarding the new uniforms.
According to the response, the reaction to the new uniforms was pretty negative… but not universal, as apparently the old costumes were considered “garish” by some.
Elizabeth brings up a point I’ve made a couple times about Shadow Lass: she doesn’t seem to be able to exist independently of Mon-El anymore.
And I’m guessing the Bierbaums don’t think it’s a bad thing?
Imagine trying to argue against the idea that 5YL has a fascination with killing characters.
I could understand reviewing Dirk’s womanizing in the context of him actually being severely insecure. His conquests make him feel like a winner and his insecurities make him unable to commit to relationships. This, of course, exaggerates his insecurities to an extreme.
I’m surprised there aren’t any references to Adventure Comics #318. His tyranny then was blamed on space fatigue but it’s one of the few parts of his backstory that could fit into this new characterization of him as being driven by severe insecurity.
By itself, this is a powerful story. It just doesn’t work as Dirk’s story. Dirk was a hero. At the very least, Dirk’s story would have had him absorbing the blast from the destruction of the fusion powersphere, dying heroically while saving the crowd surrounding him. This story has him simply standing there and sentences him to living death. It’s not enough that they keep killing our heroes. They don’t get heroic deaths, and with this retcon, Dirk never had a heroic life at all.
Good point about Adventure # 318. It supports the events of # 28 nicely.
In my post, I suggested that # 28 depicts events through Dirk’s highly subjective and distorted interpretations. Whatever heroic acts he performed (and he performed plenty), perhaps he never truly saw himself as a hero. Sad, but possible.
Sun Boy was one of my original five favorite Legionnaires, but I didn’t have a problem with how he was depicted here. There are a couple of reasons for this. I had given up on 5YL early in the run and only returned to it around #38, so I experienced Dirk’s fate in hindsight. Also, I’d seen enough real-life heroes revealed to have feet of clay, so I accepted the idea that each of us has a darker side that, given enough license (or excuses), can overtake whatever good impulses we try to cultivate.
The review raises valid points. Dirk was never portrayed as grandstanding or ambitious. (When he took over as deputy leader in Superboy # 208, he was uncomfortable in the role.) And he was concerned about his friend Colossal Boy’s marriage. I don’t know if it’s necessary to reconcile these depictions with what we see in # 28. The issue is presented through Dirk’s subjective interpretations. One of the highlights to me is that the artwork relies on gross exaggerations to show Dirk’s perceptions. For example, when the Legionnaires resign, the physical arrangements are exactly the same, with each Legionnaire standing behind Dirk in a dark, featureless environment while he bitterly looks down. This is meant, I think, to capture his emotional state rather than depict events as they actually happened. (Also, note that Polar Boy is wearing his Silver Age costume when he wore completely different outfits as a Legionnaire. This suggests that Dirk saw Brek as a naive and silly sidekick.) So, I think it’s fair to say that Dirk has edited out events that do not fit the victim narrative he has chosen to believe about himself.
Dirk’s failed redemption arc is open to interpretation. The panels of him listening to the news reports do not let us in on his inner thoughts, but the same facial expression is used–a haunted, lost expression disconnected from the events we are hearing. I’ve always thought that he put on the Sun Boy costume again not out of a genuine desire to help people but out of a last-ditch effort to look good, to reclaim the heroic status he once had. Because his motives were not pure, the story seems to suggest, he failed.
Soldiers, police officers, firemen, and others experience horrific mutilations. Many learn to rise above their fates, turn to a higher power, or view their sacrifices as worthwhile. Dirk does not do this. He can only scream at a fate he feels to be unfair after a life spent viewing himself as a victim of other people’s treatment. That’s what I think the story is trying to say. It goes beyond what superhero stories typically try to do with their characters. Perhaps it might have been better to attempt this with a new character, but our long history with Sun Boy forces us to examine his experiences in a different way. A gut punch, yes, but perhaps also a way of challenging our perceptions of heroes.
What I most liked about this story was the deliberately cartoonish aspects to the artwork, which made it clear Giffen and Pearson were aiming for a kind of expressionism since this story this was all in Dirk’s mind–this was how Dirk saw himself. The creepy floating oversized leering smiles superimposed over characters’ faces in many panels are such a Giffen trademark at this point in his career that clearly this was all mostly his idea.
There are some details in this i really love, such as when Circe dresses up as the various female Legionnaires wants to have sex with and they’re all the ones he most have found the most impossible to attain in real life: Dawnstar because of her standoffishness, the White Witch because of her shyness and gentleness, Shadow Lass and Phantom Girl because they were seriously paired off already with some of the most powerful male Legionnaires and because they often clashed with him because of his womanizing. I also liked the weirdness of the erotic outfits Giffen and Pearson gives for Circe in these cosplay guises (whoever dreamed of Shady wearing such an outfit, much less Mysa?).
But I agree overall this story didn’t work in the end because it does not accord well with what we had known previously of Dirk’s origins or his character. It may be that it was intended to show how lowly Dirk thought of himself by this point since he had sold out the Earth to the Dominators and was responsible for countless deaths (the fact of which also may be why the creative team decided to consign him to such an unheroic and hideously tormented ending), but it did seem like the Bierbaums and Giffen–whose plotting I would imagine is actually key to this issue–were out to get him.