Legion of Super-Heroes vol4 #68 (1995)
plot by Tom Peyer & Tom McCraw
dialogue by Mark Waid
pencils by Lee Moder
cover by Alan Davis
You have Alan Davis on the cover and this is the subject?
I don’t think I want to know if he requested it.
We return to the planet where Tangleweb led the Legion, who have to deal with his relatives.
First superhero lesson, Kinetix: don’t hide behind your teammate whose power is becoming intangible.
A power that Andromed would very much like to have right now.
She might be invulnerable, but the TransSuit™ that she needs to avoid lead poisoning isn’t.
The mission isn’t going that great, unless you’re into this sort of thing: no judging.
Well, I might judge you A LITTLE.
The Legionnaires who survived the attack and are learning more about the place.
Cosmic Boy will prove to be a fantastic leader, but he still makes a few idiotic mistakes… like having a teammate who doesn’t speak Interlac and nobody to translate for him.
Thankfully charades are a universal language.
They basically just discovered Tangleweb’s origin: he’s not a monster and he’s not a typical example of his race. He was mutated by some tech he recovered.
Andromeda is doing everything she possibly can to be disliked by every member of the team.
Meanwhile Invisible Kid goes to rescue those who didn’t make it.
Once free, Cosmic Boy immobilizes Tangleweb to allow Spark to zap him.
For a moment I thought that the reason Invisible Kid was certain he was going to be crucial in the mission was because he deduced Tangleweb eats brains to become smarter… but no, he learns it from Chameleon after he learned it from the other insect people.
After more insect aliens show up, Andromeda pulls her weight by throwing them into space.
For the wrong reasons, but hey, baby steps.
And the whole reason why Invisible Kid disobeyed orders, the reason why he was absolutely certain he HAD to be part of the mission was… no reason at all.
OH COME ON, you’re better than this, Reboot!!!
That was the last appearance of Tangleweb, and a redemption for Leviathan because he was the one to push Andromeda to conquer her fears.
I really don’t feel the connection to the death of Kid Quantum.
In other plots, Saturn Girl is comforting Triad in a scene set before she has fully recovered from Legionnaires #24. There’s quite some differences of opinion on how to lead the team.
And also something ominous is about to be awakened on Durla.
Legion significance: 0/10
A conclusion to the storyline of Tangleweb. Despite the death of Kid Quantum having an impact, his killer is barely a footnote. That last teaser on Durla will lead to important stuff, but as a teaser it can be skipped.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
The alien that became Tangleweb discovering by chance that it can become stronger and smarter by eating spaceships and brains is tangentially a bit Silver Age.
Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
It’s not a BAD story, but it’s still disappointing. There would be interesting stuff to explore with Tangleweb, but the comic only paints him in the broadest strokes possible.
I’ve already mentioned how disappointing Invisible Kid’s subplot is, but for all the talk about Leviathan’s mistakes as a leader… Cosmic Boy might not have gotten a teammate killed, but his handling of this mission was TERRIBLE.
Who did it better?
No direct parallel comes to mind.
We are legion
- 13 active Legionnaires (4 volunteers, 9 drafted)
- 1 resigned member
- 1 deceased member
- 15 people have been members
- 2 Legion leaders (Leviathan, Cosmic Boy)
- 2 members have been rejected
Interesting letters: we have an entire page by new assistant editor Mike McAvennie giving his perspective on the 5YL era and on the Reboot itself.
And he starts with a criticism of the 5YL that I spent a reeeally long time hammering: how it was almost completely inaccessible.
Not only this was 100% my experience the first time I read the 5YL era… it was ALSO the same exact experience when I reviewed it after reviewing every single prior Legion story in the preceding four years!!!
I find it truly absurd that LEGIONNAIRES (the book starring younger versions of the heroes with barely no recollection of older stories) was supposed to be the title for diehard Legion fans and NOT the other book (which starred the older heroes who did go through those old stories).
If this idea had any chance to work… BIG IF… shouldn’t it have been the other way around???
I find it fascinating that this is the first time since Mort Weisinger that the Legion and Superman are under the same editor (!!!).
You’d expect this would lead to more interactions, but quite the opposite: the Legion will BARELY interact with the Superman books at all for quite a while.
