SUPERBOY 206 (1975)
by Cary Bates & Mike Grell
cover by Nick Cardy
Invisible Kid died three issues ago and they’re already teasing his return.
We begin with Superboy being called to demolish an old Smallville building.
I’ve said it before: nobody draws capes like Mike Grell.
Before he can actually do anything, someone else demolishes the building.
Much to Superboy’s surprise, this is Ferro Lad.
Superboy is so shocked by this that he doesn’t stop Ferro Lad from flying away (presumably using his Legion ring).
The next day, as he walks to school with Lana Lang… wait a minute, that’s not Lana!
Clark Kent is talking to different girl!? That NEVER happens in Superboy comics!!!
Then a skydiver who is about crash in front of the school (WTF!?) is saved by an invisible force.
The fact that this is Invisible Kid would’ve been a surprise, if it wasn’t for the cover!
Superboy lets him go too (OH COME ON!!!), and he’s so shocked by the sudden appearance of two dead friends that he talks to himself in the basement.
This is… weird. Why does Superboy immediately jumps to the conclusion that they are ghosts when they could EASILY just have traveled to the 20th century from a moment BEFORE their death!?
Especially since, once they show up in his basement, his x-ray vision confirms they are alive.
Other weird stuff: they don’t want Superboy to contact the Legion, and they specifically came back in time because they want him to check if they are still out of commission… because they have been inactive since their deaths.
Which is fine for Ferro Lad, but again, Invisible Kid died THREE ISSUES AGO.
But that’ll have to wait because Superboy has finally upgraded the way he’s summoned, from a lamp in his room to a lightbulb in his basement.
Kind of sounds like a step backwards, Supes!
And the emergency is this… thing.
That robot might look goofy, but it can emit a weird energy that puts down Superboy with extreme ease.
Invisible Kid distracts the robot while Ferro Lad deals the final blow.
This proves that both former Legionnaires are ready to join the team again!
Or not. They die immediately after they set foot in the 30th century.
Okay, so… what just happened?
It’s time to play our favorite game: “Guess the random twist!”.
What were Ferro Lad and Invisible Kid?
A) Time doubles created by the Time Trapper
B) Shapeshifters who wanted to infiltrate the Legion
C) Clones created to replace the originals
D) Robots built to replace the originals
E) Telepathic illusions
Legion hardcore fans will recognize that ALL given options have been used over the years as an excuse to bring up a fake copy of a Legionnaire.
But this time the correct answer is…
That’s right: Brainiac 5 keeps biological samples of ALL Legionnaires and is working to perfect the process to BASICALLY CURE DEATH.
Well at least they inform Superboy by giving him a call.
Wait wait wait… you have a time phone!? They why do you waste time with action figures and lamps when you have to call Superboy!?
Moving to the second story, featuring Princess Projectra.
She’s going back to her planet to recover from a recent bout of Rigel Fever, and thanks to her illusion powers we get the only glimpse we will ever get of her mother.
She’s having some relationship problems with Karate Kid.
As she flies back to her planet on the Enterprise the Legion Cruiser, we get the first introduction of the cutthroat version of Orando that basically replaces the initial fairy tale version.
Case in point, as soon as lands she has to fight for her life!
Turns out the king has been overthrown by this guy who doesn’t even get a name, and who is working for “The Morgu”.
What is The Morgu, exactly? THIS THING:
Unfortunately her illusion powers don’t seem to work on The Morgu, so she has to be saved by Karate Kid.
Who then proceeds to slap her around!
Surprise: Projectra never reached her planet!
Yep! Turns out that she hasn’t fully recovered from the Rigel Fever yet, and created an illusion that covered the entire planet!
Still, something doesn’t add up.
The Morgu is the only thing we have seen that is actually real, and it gives Karate Kid yet another occasion to look completely useless.
I’m fine with the princess being the one to save him, but Karate Kid has been quite disappointing lately.
Even the last loose point (we never saw Karate Kid follow her after she took off at the beginning of the story) gets addressed.
And so we end with Projectra doing her best to upstage Dream Girl in the fanservice category.
Nice try Princess, but we all know Dream Girl is the uncontested queen of that category.
Historical significance
First story: 0/10
The idea of resurrecting dead members using clones won’t be brought up again.
Second story: 0/10
It’s the first glimpse of the more gritty version of Orando, but it’s easily skippable.
Silver Age-ness
First story: 8/10
The complete and utter disregard for any kind of moral implication about what the Legion just did practically screams Silver Age!
Second story: 2/10
We’re not told what the Rigel Fever actually does, but if it makes magical illusion powers work overtime it’s definitely a bit Silver Age-y.
Does it stand the test of time?
First story: 2/10
It’s a neat concept, but it’s completely wasted here. The fact that nobody seems to care all that much that two clearly sentient clones just died doesn’t help. Even the action is underwhelming!
Second story: 6/10
Harmless. For a 7 page story it does its work.
We are legion
23 Legionnaires
4 reserve members: Kid Psycho, Insect Queen, Duo Damsel, Supergirl
3 honorary members: Elastic Lad, Pete Ross, Rond Vidar, Bouncing Boy
1 resigned member: Command Kid
1 expelled member: Nemesis Kid
3 deceased members: Dynamo Boy, Ferro Lad, Invisible Kid
How much Legion is too much?
The total number of characters who have been members is 36.
Interesting letters: fittingly considering the first story, we have the fan reaction to the death of Invisible Kid.
If the published letters were representative, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive.
Weirdly enough, while in this period the Marvel-DC rivalry was mostly in good fun, apparently someone was taking issue with it.
Sales figures for 1975 are hard to come by, but according to my best reasearch Superman was still selling 297,000 copies a month against the 273,000 copies a month of Amazing Spider-Man… but Batman was only selling 154,000 so it’s not like DC was doing all that great.
(to be fair, the 70s were hard on both companies)