Superboy v4 #18 (1995)
by Karl Kesel & Tom Grummett
While the Legion was busy dealing with the White Triangle, a major Legion player was introduced somewhere else.
The setup is in the last page of the previous issue, where Superboy’s manager Rex gets a shady deal to have the teen fight another powerhouse.
We actually meet him in issue 18, but he doesn’t even know his own name. He’ll go by Champion for a while, which is honestly a better codename than the last time we met him in the retrospective.
This is actually Mon-El, the Valor of the 5YL era… kind of? We’ll discuss the details later.
This is our first proper introduction to the post-Crisis Superboy, back when he still had a personality and Geoff Johns had yet to turn him into the most generic teen character ever by sucking the fun out of the character retcon him into being the hybrid clone of Superman and Lex Luthor… back in this 1995, he was JUST an imperfect clone of Superman with slightly different powers.
Superboy also used to have an interesting supporting cast, back when he was handled by writers who can actually write regular people based in Hawaii.
It won’t have much impact on THIS story, but since we’ll meet them later when Superboy meets the Legion: in addition the sketchy manager Rex we have his daughter Roxy and journalist Tana Moon.
Which is actually this Superboy’s original love interest… I’m guessing he inherited Clark’s fondness for tough journalists.
Somewhat awkwardly, considering that Superboy was physically 16 years old and Tana is at the very least around 23 if we’re generous.
Also Superboy inherited Dubbilex, who we already saw in Jimmy Olsen, as a mentor.
I wasn’t even a huge fan of the Superboy series, but the stark difference between his original status quo and what he became later is just unfair.
But the main event is, what else, a Big Dumb Teen Fight.
Superboy is at a big disadvantage here, because he doesn’t really have Superman’s powers.
Instead, all of his abilities are various applications of Tactile Telekinesis.
Don’t worry if you’re not familiar for what that means. Superboy will explain it about once per issue.
Young Justice was especially good at making fun of his tendency to over-explain his power.
Superboy’s biggest advantage, however, is that Champion is dying.
The fight doesn’t end in this issue, because it’s interrupted by Knockout.
Who was also another love interest for Superboy. Are we sure he didn’t inherit some of Spider-Man’s genes?
Superboy v4 #19 (1995)
by Karl Kesel & Tom Grummett
Note that there were no hints that Champion is Mon-El, unless you had read the Valor series.
Which, considering how it ended, I would imagine did not include a lot of people.
Knockout is a former member of the Fatal Furies from Apokolips, although I don’t think we were aware of that at this point. So of course she’s not the most diplomatic person ever.
Superboy has a huge ego and he’s a showboat, but he’s still a hero: he’s not going to let Knockout attack Champion when he’s sick.
Before Superboy can fight Knockout, someone finally shows up to explain what’s going on.
The ship has been looking for him the whole time, but it was slowed down by the cameras recording the fight.
This is the closest we get to learn exactly where Mon-El is coming from.
So let’s try to figure out WHEN this reconnects to his personal history, which isn’t simple.
Continuity troubles with the Valor series? You don’t say!
We know that Mon-El’s membership in L.E.G.I.O.N. is still part of the Reboot continuity, because the main series directly referenced it.
Exactly WHEN Mon-El was poisoned wasn’t clear in the original continuity. He learns it in Valor #12, but the actual moment could have been at any point in his personal history after he left L.E.G.I.O.N.
However, I don’t think that the events of Valor #12 are still part of the Reboot continuity for several reasons.
The biggest one is that it’s the issue where he meets Glorith in disguise…
…but even if Zero Hour removed her from continuity, I don’t think would still make sense to include Valor #12.
Because THAT story features Mon-El going to meet Vril Dox to help his fluctuating powers, whereas in the Superboy series Mon-El still wants to see Dox after he’s been stranded on Earth.
It wouldn’t make much sense to have Mon-El visit Dox, come to Earth, and then immediately ranting about wanting to see Dox again. Technically speaking he could have forgotten their meeting, since he had amnesia for a bit, but the spaceship has no such excuse.
In fact, considering that in the Superboy story the ship has the shape it gained in Valor #11, it makes WAY more sense that it’s the connecting point.
So from the Mon-El perspective, this is the most logical series of events:
1) Valor #1 to #11 happen
2) instead of meeting Glorith and Dox like he did in Valor #12, Mon-El goes straight to Earth
3) the events of Superboy #18-19 happen
However, since nothing from the following Valor issues is canon anymore, it means that Mon-El doesn’t really get the chance to establish the colonies of the planets that will give birth to the Legion future.
If we remove the time travel shenanigans of the later Valor issues, does it mean that the events of Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #2 are still canon by just removing Glorith showing up at the end?
It would make the most sense… but there’s a problem with that. That issue was set AFTER the events of the main Valor series!
And having gone through the trouble of reviewing the entire Valor series… I really don’t see HOW you could possibly place these events there.
A) Valor #1-2 are set on Earth.
B) Valor #2 to 4 are set immediately afterwards and all of Mon-El’s time is dedicated to fighting Lobo and L.E.G.I.O.N.
C) Valor #5 picks up when #4 left, and Mon-El finds himself imprisoned without powers.
D) Valor #6 to 8 have him either in prison or fighting to escape.
The first time there’s SOME time between issues is between #8 and #9, but I have a REALLY hard time that Mon-El manages to create his own legend in those issues…
…plus the depowered Green Lantern he rescued was there the whole time. Even if he doesn’t learn her true identity until Valor #10, it’s still set immediately after #9.
I’m guessing that AT SOME POINT he actually did what makes him famous for a millennium, but good luck finding that moment in the Valor series!!!
What were we talking about again?
While Superboy and Knockout fight the Army that has showed up, Mon-El gets a costume change.
This is the end of Mon-El’s sassy spaceship.
So long, you were occasionally almost interesting.
Since asking Vril Dox to help is no longer feasible, Superboy brings Mon-El to S.T.A.R. Labs.
He’s here because the Phantom Zone is not yet a thing in post-Crisis continuity, but they have the closest thing.
S.T.A.R. Labs is currently in possession of the Stasis Zone Projector™ that Superboy confiscated a couple of issues earlier from minor supervillain Loophole…
…but it’s ultimately the creation of an even more minor villain, the Technician.
It’s absolutely WILD that the entire reason post-Crisis Mon-El is in the Legion is the invention of a guy who has a grand total of FOUR appearances!!!
More importantly, I believe this is the first post-Crisis appearance of an old acquaintance of this site: good old Professor Potter!!!
Good thing that nobody around here knows what disasters Professor Potter was responsible for before Crisis, so they just let him and Superboy keep the portal around…
…to allow Mon-El to stay in temporal stasis.
Told you we should have been suspicious of Professor Potter.
And that’s basically the full extent of Superboy’s interaction with Mon-El… until the upcoming Legion team-up.
So in essence, this is the whole origin of the Reboot Mon-El:
1) his father dies on Earth during Invasion
2) he joins L.E.G.I.O.N. for maybe a few weeks
3) he has pointless interactions with the New Gods and fights Superman
4) he has pointless interactions with Starman and the Justice League
5) he becomes a pawn of Eclipso
6) Lex Luthor gives him a ship to explore the universe
7) he spends time in a space prison
8) he kind of saves one planet in Valor #9
9) ???????????
10) after his powers go haywire in Valor #10-11, he goes to Earth
11) he meets Superboy
12) he’s sent to the Not Legally The Phantom Zone
13) ??????????
14) the 30th century worships him as a god who populated the Galaxy
Legion significance: 8/10
You’d think this would be higher, but honestly the specifics of exactly what Mon-El did before his exile aren’t all that important.
Silver Age-ness: 3/10
The “misunderstanding fight” is more of a Marvel trope than a DC one, but it’s still Silver Age.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
If it wasn’t clear from my review and my snark, I’m way more of a fan of the 90s Superboy than his later development. Honestly this is an underappreciated series: Kesel does an amazing job with writing and characterization, and Tom Grummett is THE Superboy artist.
Despite that, these two issues are saddled with being the continuation of a complete mess of a dead series, and it’s probably not allowed to go into the specifics because of the sheer number of retcons surrounding Mon-El.
Even for Legion completionists, stick to the later stories that are proper tie-ins.
That being said, the series as a whole is highly recommended.
Who did it better?
Superboy #89 is on a whole other level compared to this. The original Superboy spends enough time with Mon-El to REALLY sell why he would consider him a brother!
By contrast the 90s Superboy spends… what, an hour with him? Maybe?
The Reboot version is not complicated by the fact that the original Superboy WAS responsible for poisoning Mon-El… but it complicates absolutely everything else.
Quick question: are you planning on covering 3-d man in the hero origins retrospective?
I wasn’t until you mentioned him… I’ll see if there’s enough interesting material to cover.
I agree that the preboot origin of Mon-El was better than this contrived and convoluted . . . . something.
The original story had its share of contrivances, but it dispensed with them in the span of one story. As you point out, it’s the brotherly relationship between Superboy and Mon that matters. Their relationship continued throughout the preboot and became one of the reasons why Mon-El ermerged as one of my favorite characters. He had all of Superboy’s powers but was more modest, mature, and self-effacing. He was the sort of big brother figure anyone would like to have or to be.
I did appreciate the “seeder of worlds” mythology and the complications it gave Mon when he eventually wound up in the 30th century. The essence of his character was preserved while his interactions with other Legionnaires changed. Mon didn’t like being a Jesus figure any more than preboot Mon was comfortable being leader. Both managed their circumstances as best they could.
The stories leading up to his arrival in the 30th century are aspects I’ve chosen to ignore. I don’t need them to understand who the character is or why he matters.
In the rebuilt continuity following Zero Hour, Valor’s world-seeding stage could have happened during time periods 3 and 4 in your summary above. He was clearly acting on an interplanetary scale in that silly Starman story.
Mon-El’s present-day adventures will only keep getting more convoluted. Current issues of Justice League Unlimited have him serving as the Phantom Zone Warden… which is light years better than the Bendis Boot, which made him a Superman descendant unconnected to any previous continuities (and the father of at least three children that none of the Legion ladies he was coupling with knew about).
I miss everything Karl Kesel worked on. The 90’s were a grim time, but Conner Kent was a fun character. They’re trying to make him fun again in current books, but they seem to have no idea what to do with him.
I still feel ambivalent about this story, due to no fault of its own.
Mon-El is a great character, an aspirational figure. But the “Valor” series was such a disaster that Karl Kesel may have had no better option than simply point out the basics and make Lar available for Legion use again while explicitly glossing over the fine points of whatever may have happened to him recently.
It is a shame, but there were no good options after that pointless series.
Kesel’s Superboy is indeed a nice character, all the more so for this grim time period. The tactile telekinesis bit was a nice bit of humor, and the power itself was reliable and consistently useful. I’m fairly sure it comes from John Byrne pointing out in Fantastic Four and in his early Superman work that much of what appears to be physical strength in Superman must be actually telekinesis.
Come to think of it, I’m not sure any of that survived to the current continuity. Even Kon-El himself seems to have generic Kryptonian powers now.
I do trust ol’ Prof. Potter!
It was clearly Jimmy Olsen, off scene, who touched something!!!!!!!!
Also: guys, let’s just reintroduce a clone of Mon-El, it will be always less complicated!