Mon-El will eventually get his own series in 1992, but before that he has a lot of cameos.
Superman v2 #65 (1992)
by Dan Jurgens
The first batch of cameos comes courtesy of a crossover between the various Superman titles, “Panic in the sky”.
Superman assembles an army of superheroes to stop the incoming invasion from Warworld and a plot by Brainiac, and Mon-El is among the heroes.
Mon-El doesn’t a speaking line and doesn’t show in any other panel.
You can see why I’m skipping through most of the event.
Adventures of Superman #488 (1992)
by Jerry Ordway & Tom Grummett
A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo among the swarm of heroes. Still no speaking line.
Action Comics #675 (1992)
by Roger Stern & Bob McLeod
If the plot requires characters to speak Kryptonian, you’d expect it would be the perfect moment to use Mon-El… but no, the role goes to Fire.
Still no speaking lines; not only Mon-El is EASILY taken out by a mind-controlled Guy Garner…
…but he also ends up being Brainiac’s puppet.
Superman: the Man of Steel #10 (1992)
by Louise Simonson & Jon Bogdanove
As you might have guessed, still no lines.
Even mind-controlled, Mon-El should be MUCH of a bigger threat to Superman! But he’s just cannon fodder.
Superman v2 #66 (1992)
by Dan Jurgens
After being freed from mind control, Mon-El finally has a few lines!
Hey at least he’s TRYING to further the plot, suggesting a line of attack.
Incidentally, he hasn’t been introduced in any way: if you were reading just the Superman books, you would have no idea about who this guy was. Unless if you recalled the L.E.G.I.O.N. guy he met once, and who had a completely different look.
Adventures of Superman #489 (1992)
by Jerry Ordway & Tom Grummett
The heroes (and Deathstroke for some reason) return to Earth, where it might shock you to learn Mon-El has no other panels.
Well… that was a complete waste of cameos.
Despite the title of this post, however, the next cameos is NOT from Mon-El.
Armageddon: Inferno #1 (1992)
written by John Ostrander
pencils by lots of people
cover by Michael Netzer
There are five pencilers in this: Luke McDonnell, Tom Mandrake, Michael Netzer, Art Adams and Walt Simonson. Despite the latter two, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of this miniseries.
The Legion pages are by Tom Mandrake.
Waverider is checking the timestream to find heroes he can recruit, picking up Ultra Boy.
Unless post-Crisis Batman met Cosmic Boy during the Legends event, which I don’t believe he did, this was his first interaction with a Legionnaire.
I don’t care all that much about the story itself, but I have to say this is a MUCH better cameo than those Mon-El ones. Because the story takes the slightest effort to actually introduce the character!
Both Ultra Boy and Batman have little idea of what is actually going on.
Ultra Boy basically vanishes from the rest of the miniseries.
Armageddon: Inferno #3 (1992)
written by John Ostrander
pencils by Art Adams
No direct Legion connection, but a rare acknowledgement of Superman failing to save the Moon.
Eclipso: The Darknes Within #1 (1992)
written by Keith Giffen & Robert Loren Fleming
pencils and cover by Bart Sears
Back to disappointing Mon-El cameos during 1992 crossovers, we have The Darkness Within.
Notice Giffen writing: he was EVERYWHERE in this period.
Mon-El is back in space, where he finds Eclipso’s weird space palace.
I’ve never really cared for Eclipso, but this is a pretty good villain reveal.
Eclipso’s power rapidly overwhelms Mon-El, who gets his body taken over by the villain.
Eclipso even considers him more powerful than Superman. It certainly didn’t feel like that during their previous encounter.
Despite having Mon-El under his control, Eclipso keeps him on the bench.
Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #1 (1992)
by Robert Loren Fleming & Chris Wozniak
Still on the bench.
Superman vol2 Annual #4 (1992)
by Robert Loren Fleming & Scott Benefiel
What was the point of starting the event with Eclipso controlling Mon-El if HE NEVER USES HIM???
Justice League America Annual #6 (1992)
by Dan Mishkin & Dave Cockrum
This is particularly insulting to have DAVE COCKRUM at pencils and not giving the Legion character anything to do!!!
Superman is not a fan of this incarnation of the Justice League, by the way.
An opinion shared by Wonder Woman.
Green Arrow Annual #5 (1992)
by Sarah Byam & Trevor von Eeden
As Eclipso keeps possessing more and more heroes and supporting characters, Mon-El is STILL NOT DOING ANYTHING.
Hawkworld Annual vol2 #3 (1992)
by John Ostrander & Luke McDonnell
Eclipso is supposed to be this unbelievably dangerous villain, and yet he keeps a hero supposed stronger than Superman and under his total control STANDING FROZEN IN PLACE THE ENTIRE TIME.
Until he wants to have a chat. Please note that Mon-El has NOTHING TO DO with the fight against Hawman in this story.
Adventures of Superman Annual #4 (1992)
by Robert Loren Fleming & Bob McLeod
Mon-El becomes even more irrelevant once Eclipso controls Superman.
In fact he has Superman do his dirty work and still NOT USING MON-EL.
Eventually Superman is freed by the combined effort of the Justice League, Hawkman and L.E.G.I.O.N.
If only this entire time Eclipso had control of an equally powerful individual who could have prevented them from freeing Superman in the first place.
Eclipso: The Darknes Within #2 (1992)
written by Keith Giffen & Robert Loren Fleming
pencils and cover by Bart Sears
After all that build-up, will Mon-El’s involvement actually matter?
The heroes are going to attack Eclipso’s palace on the Moon, where he has his own set of mind-controlled heroes. And he FINALLY decides to use Mon-El.
You could have just unleashed Mon-El from the start, Eclipso. Just saying.
The heroes still reach Eclipso’s palace, and we reach the moment you’ve been waiting for: the Superman vs Mon-El fight.
And you could easily swap Mon-E with any other super-strong hero.
Eventually Superman wins. But not by using his wits, that would be too interesting; just brute strength is enough.
Remember that this is Mon-El BEFORE he joins the Legion, so he should be around 18 years old. But the way he’s drawn makes it a bit weird that Superman calls him “boy” when they look the same age.
Mon-El does get to play the hero at the end, because once he’s free from mind control he attacks Eclipso and delivers the final blow.
This is supposedly the inspiration for Mon-El taking the name Valor.
I should point out that this is the final appearance of this version of Starman, who dies in battle against Eclipso.
His death mostly sticks; he shows up in the series of the 1994 Starman, but it’s the end of his career as a regular hero until a different version of the same character is resurrected in 2016.
Legion significance: 0/10
I can’t believe I have to ask this again but WHY IS MON-EL IN THIS???
Technically speaking the Eclipso saga has a bit of relevance because Mon-El’s series that will be launched later the same year is kind of a spin-off of this… except Mon-El DOESN’T DO ANYTHING most of the time!!!
Silver Age-ness: N/A
Does it stand the test of time? N/A
Not a real review so no real scores… but this was quite disappointing.
“Panic in the sky” has a few good moments here and there but it’s way too crowded.
“Armageddon: Inferno” has good artwork but the story is very hard to follow.
“Eclipso: The Darkness Within” is one of the worst crossovers I’ve ever tried to read. Emphasis on “tried”: I found most of it to be barely coherent.
In general, I think those cameos did a real disservice to Mon-El. He doesn’t do anything despite being hyped by other characters… if you don’t know his past, it would be too easy with any reader unfamiliar with him to just think “he’s a boring Superman ripoff”.