Tales of the Legion of Super-heroes #318 & 319
December 1984 & January 1985
Cover art by: Terry Shoemaker & Karl Kesel
Story: Shadows of Future Past (318) & If Memory Should Fail (319)
Writer: Paul Levitz
Pencils: Terry Shoemaker
Inks: Karl Kesel
Shadow Lass & Mon-El venture off to Shady's home planet of Talok VIII when she doesn't hear from her cousin Grev. Dream Girl makes them go alone since the team is so short handed. Shadow Lass was right in being alarmed as Lady Memory is trying to take over the planet and has hired the Persuader to help her. They have already captured Grev, and are leading a bunch of rebels in a civil war. Lady Memory wants to return to the old ways in which her ancestors were in charge, and there were human sacrifices and such.
Our pair of heroes show up, and Mon-El begins to make short work of the rebels. Everything is going swimmingly until Lady Memory touches him, and floods Mon with all of his memories he has suppressed from his Phantom Zone years. He flies off crazed.
Well since the duo haven't reported in Dream Girl sends Timber Wolf, Star Boy, and Colossal Boy to check up on them. On their screen they see Shady is about to get executed, and they also spot the insane Mon-El flying near. Star Boy uses his powers to capture Mon-El. Saturn Girl isn't able to help him so far away, but does give them idea that could help Mon-El.
Shadow Lass gets a reprieve ,sort of, as Lady Memory wants to kill her personally, and the Persuader cuts her bonds. We get a really good fight scene between the two. Once Shady gets the upper hand Memory uses her powers on her, and Shadow Lass retreats into her darkness. Memory chides her for being a coward, and her memories will defeat her. Shadow Lass comes out of the darkness swinging, and knocks Lady Memory out.
The Persuader sees the tide is turning and begins to swing his Atomic Ax at Grev. Mon-El flies in saving the day. The Persuader and some rebels are no match at all against 5 Legionnaires and the rest of the fighting forces of Talok VIII.
Man, this was a great 2 parter. Not just the main story, but the way Paul Levitz weaves different subplots in and out. He really accomplishes it with a deft hand. Dream Girl trying to figure out how to handle such a low membership. Brainy and Dawnstar attempting to find the missing Legionnaires. Dev-Em infiltrating the Dark Circle. GiGi meeting up with Colossal Boy (in the first part). Just a lot going on that you don't find today.
I still really enjoy the art team of Terry Shoemaker & Karl Kesel.
My favorite bit: The Persuader is able to continually cut through Shadow Lass's shadow, so she just shoot the darkness directly into the eye slits of his mask, thus completely incapacitating him.
One last point for clarity. Dan Jurgens and Karl Kesel did the cover art on issue 319 (not shown)
Replies
Enjoyed the LSH reviews, Travis. Looking forward to where you go next.
Oh, yeah, I just reread these. Shoemaker/Kesel I think is my favorite unheralded Legion art team. A short run, but incredible stuff. Jurgens and even George Tuska fared well under Kesel's inks, too, during this period.
Thanks, John!
Rob, I think you just pointed out what a great inker Karl Kesel is. Come to think of it I generally enjoy the art on books he is on. I agree though the Shoemaker?kesel team is really good. There is a touch of "cartoon" to it, but not too much that makes it really enjoyable.
Travis, did you say on FB this was your last LSH review for a while? I thought you said that. I was selfishly hoping you would tackle the Baxter series at some point.
I agree Kesel is a great inker. He did good work here, and a few years after that as Byrne's inker on Superman. He never seems to overpower the pencils, just compliment really well. I've also enjoyed the relatively few times he's written something; one particular favorite being the 1998 Fantastic Four Annual.
I remember thinking these were a really engaging story with interesting characters and wasn't this around the time of 2 LSH titles and a 'missing' group etc...I was beginning to wonder that with so much depth in this story that they must have been lining up Talok VIII for another spinoff series....maybe with Shady ...and therefore Mon-El and so on....ah happy dreams.
John, I would love to look at the Baxter series as that was my Legion, but this project is about books I bought and never read. Back in junior and senior high I would re-read that series about once a year. Although going back and doing an overall review would be fun as I have almost the entire series. It is certainly something to ponder.
Richard, you are right about there being 2 Legion series, for a year until Tales became a reprint of the Baxter series.