"The Legion Chain Gang"
Editor: Mort Weisinger Writer: Jim Shooter Art: Curt Swan (pencils); George Klein (inks)
Previously, in Adventure Comics # 359:
After dealing with a rash of galactic emergencies which called the entire Legion into space, the super-teens return to Earth to discover that their organisation has been outlawed by the United Planets at the urging of new President of Earth Kandro Boltax. When nine Legionnaires act to save lives in a monorail disaster, they are arrested for violating the anti-Legion law, convicted, and sentenced to the prison planetoid, Takron-Galtos. After learning that the Super-Hero Club's sponsor has turned against them and that their very parents are spying on them, the remaining Legionnaires become fugitives, hiding from the sinister conspiracy determined to destroy them.
And now . . .
For hours, the eight wanted Legionnaires have plodded through the bowels of Metropolis' sewer system. Though the lead pipes of the system have protected the Legion members from the authorities' sophisticated detection systems, it won't be long before the Science Patrol search parties, with their sensor autodogs, will pick up their spoor. The super-teens wander through the subterranean catacombs, so deep that some of the tunnels date back to the twentieth century.
Without sleep, without food, they're on the verge of exhaustion. So, no surprise that Chameleon Boy stumbles over his own feet. When he thrusts his hand out to a structural column to stay his fall, he unknowingly activates a concealed switch---and a hidden door in the column slides open! Behind the panel lies a passage, one that gradually slopes upward. Why not, shrug the Legionnaires, and they decide to see where it goes.
Half an hour later, the super-teens arrive in an amazing stronghold---a completely equipt scientific laboratory! "Living quarters . . . vehicles for transportation . . . also weapons!" gasps Star Boy.
"Judging by the building materials," notes Invisible Kid, the second-smartest guy in the room, "this place was constructed in the mid-1900's . . . " He and the smartest guy in the room, Brainiac 5, reach the same conclusion.
"It's one of Luthor's Lairs," Brainy deduces. The Legionnaires---and long-time fans of Mort Weisinger's Superman stories---are aware that Superman's arch-enemy had several such hideouts secreted away for his use. Ol' Lex didn't leave a thing to chance. Among the sophisticated devices the Legion finds are a food synthesiser and a clothing duplicator. The youngsters eagerly prepare meals and replicate their costumes.
Best of all are the beds they discover. The Legionnaires grab some badly needed hours of sleep. Once the group is well-fed and rested, though, Invisible Kid gets back down to cases---their guerilla warfare against the Boltax government. The first order of business is to beef up their ranks with a jailbreak. Cosmic Boy, Sun Boy, Lightning Lad, and Duo Damsel are locked up in the Metropolis Jail. The others gather around Invisible Kid as he outlines his plan for springing their four teammates.
The scene shifts to Earth's Presidential Palace, as Kandro Boltax churns in frustration over the authorities' failure to apprehend the fugitive Legionnaires. Still, he has duties which to attend. First, he receives a report from Brugol, the warden of Takron-Galtos, informing the Earth president of the measures used to restrain the nine inmate Legionnaires. "No one can escape!" Brugol assures him.
Boltax's next action is more mysterious. After ensuring that he is not to be disturbed, the man opens a concealed portal in his office, revealing a hidden room. Within the chamber sits a teen-age boy beneath the glare of a ceiling lamp. When Boltax talks to him, we learn he is the man's son.
In his first sign of humanity since he assumed office, Boltax addresses the boy plaintively. But the youngster refuses to speak.
"Answer me! What do you want of me, son?" pleads Boltax. "I've conquered a world . . . a universe . . . for you! I don't want to keep you confined here . . . but I can't chance you ruining my life's dream!"
The boy ignores his father. Bitterly, Boltax storms out, re-securing the secret door. The instant he's alone, the youngster retrieves a sliver of metal from a hiding place and goes to work on the screws of a ventilator screen.
That night, after curfew, seven of the fugitive Legionnaires wait in hiding outside of the Metropolis Jail. The eighth, Chameleon Boy, is already inside the citadel, using his disguise power to impersonate the deputy warden. Accessing the intake files, Cham learns the cellblock locations of their imprisoned colleagues and relays that information to Invisible Kid, via hand-held radio.
The guerilla Legionnaires make their move. Invisible Kid and Karate Kid take out the guards stationed in front of the main gates. Though the portals are constructed of nigh-impenetrable durlamite, Karate Kid smashes them down with one blow, and the super-teens swarm into the complex. Under the glare of the tower searchlights, the Legionnaires battle the jailhouse guards. Grabbing the fallen guards' rifles, Invisible Kid and Brainiac 5 and Shrinking Violet shoot out the revealing floodlights.
Darkness descends on the jail, and under its mantle, Star Boy and Phantom Girl act. Star Boy uses his mass-induction power to collapse the wall of the cellblock holding Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad and Sun Boy. Meanwhile, Phantom Girl walks through the walls of Duo Damsel's cell and uses a bottle of powerful acid to dissolve the bars of the cell door.
With the powers of the freed Legionnaires added to their force, the super-teens have no problem fleeing into the shadows of the alleys outside the jail. Their escape is ensured when Chameleon Boy arrives, with their flight rings, liberated from the warden's office.
Safely back in the Luthor's Lair, the enthused Legionnaires plot their next move.
"Next, we'll spring Superboy and the others from Takron-Galtos . . . right, Kid?" proposes Star Boy.
Wrong! "That's the move the police will expect!" says Invisible Kid.
It's time to tackle the heart of the matter and find out how the minds of everyone on Earth are being controlled. As leader of the Legion Espionage Squad, Chameleon Boy takes charge, and in a plan worthy of Dan Briggs or Jim Phelps, he describes exactly how they're going to do that.
The following morning, Duo Damsel, disguised as a courier, delivers a diplomatic message to President Boltax. Boltax sets the envelope on his I'll-get-to-it-when-I feel-like-it pile. He doesn't see Shrinking Violet slip out of the envelope. She takes a perch on the fold of Boltax's collar.
Meanwhile, Duo Damsel divides into her two selves. One departs the Presidential Palace in order for the gate guards to record her departure. The other D.D. prowls Boltax's private offices and discovers his personal safe. With a special tool provided by Brainiac 5, she jimmies the safe and examines the documents within.
Outside, Lightning Lad, in civilian garb, strolls by the fenced grounds of the executive mansion. Inside the fence, a couple of gardener robots tend the shrubbery of the lawn. With a quick gesture, L.L. casts a couple of mild-voltage bolts at the robots, just enough to incapacitate them. The groundskeeper calls for a repairman.
Shortly, two robot maintenance workers arrive. One of them carries a large box, which the gate guards examine. Satisfied that it contains nothing but tools and replacement parts, the guards admit the two repairmen. Inside their truck, Brainiac 5 breathes a sigh of relief to Invisible Kid that the guards did not detect that the maintenance men were actually a disguised Chameleon Boy and Karate Kid.
"Now all we can do is hope for results!" says Invisible Kid.
However, as the rest of the morning plods along, neither Shrinking Violet, nor Duo Damsel, discover anything revealing. President Boltax has done nothing but routine paperwork, and the documents in his safe provide nothing in the way of a clue.
Violet's interest is piqued when Boltax checks his watch, then rises. He heads directly for a blank wall in his office, leading Vi to wonder if there's a concealed door. But, before her curiosity can be satisfied, Boltax glances into the anteroom storing his personal safe and spots Duo Damsel.
"You! Stop!" cries Boltax.
D.D. ducks into a ventilator shaft, while the miniature Violet slides off her perch and flies out an open window.
As Boltax alerts the guards, Duo Damsel slips out a window onto the lawn, where "robot repairmen" Chameleon Boy and Karate Kid are waiting for her. They hide her in the false bottom of their toolbox, then carry it to the front gate.
"We have to take some of these units back to the shop," explains the disguised Cham. "Can we go?"
I guess it's all right, decides the gate sentry, and allows them to leave. Unfortunately, they've barely reached their truck when one of the savvier guards arrives to expose them as Legionnaires. The robot maintenance vehicle takes to the air, but immediately, two police ships are hot on their trail. The police craft have the fleeing Legionnaires in the cross-hairs of their blasters.
But they never get the chance to fire. Overhead, a flyer drops down, and its two passengers, Cosmic Boy and Star Boy, disable the police ships with their super-powers.
Returning to the safety of their temporary base, the dejected Legionnaires realise that all their planning and effort resulted in was a big handful of air. They found no evidence showing that President Boltax was influencing the minds of the people.
"Well, group, we had our chance," bemoans Cosmic Boy, "and we flubbed it!"
The two top minds, Brainiac 5 and Invisible Kid, decide to apply a little logic to the situation. The only way to affect every mind on Earth would be through some medium through which everybody had to come into contact. They tick off the possibilities: the air . . . food . . . water . . . high-frequency communication waves. But it's Bouncing Boy who puts his finger on the most likely culprit.
"Boltax's first project was a worldwide water plant!" B.B. points out. "Let's get a sample of the water!"
They proceed to do just that. Brainiac 5 analyses it in Lex Luthor's super-scientific lab and---aha!
The water contains minute traces of a powerful hypno-chemical which, over time, has a cumulative effect on people's minds. It takes several days to do so, and the Legion hasn't been back on Earth long enough for it to affect them, yet.
Brainy then earns his Legion standing by taking only an hour or so to perfect a total antidote to the hypno-chemical. The antidote is so potent that mere contact with a person's skin will be enough to neutralise the mind-controlling drug.
The main reservoir for the water purification plant is in Metropolis. To-morrow, determines Invisible Kid, they'll sneak into the reservoir and pour in the antidote.
INTERLUDE.
The next morning, on the prison planetoid Takron-Galtos, the inmate Legionnaires have been doing some planning of their own. The super-heroes' lack of resistance has lulled their warders into becoming careless---and now, it's time to act!
Matter-Eater Lad chews through his shackles, while Element Lad turns his to neon gas. After which, the boy from Trom turns his power on the bonds restraining Superboy and Mon-El and Ultra Boy, transmuting the chains to tin. Colossal Boy simply grows out of his leg irons, shattering them.
In short order, the super-teens overcome Warden Brugol and his guards. And then, they free the imprisoned distaff Legionnaires.
END OF INTERLUDE.
That same day, back in Metropolis, Invisible Kid and his fugitive teammates lurk outside the gates to the main reservoir of the worldwide water purification plant. But, whatever their plan is, it's tossed into the dumper by the unannounced arrival of Kandro Boltax, making an inspexion tour of the facilities. The Earth President's limousine is surrounded by enough presidential guards and Science Police to fight off a small invasion force of Khunds.
A covert infiltration of the plant now impossible, Invisible Kid decides to get to the main water source by making a head-on assault. (Frankly, to my military mind, it's a rash decision. There's no reason the Legionnaires couldn't delay a few hours, for Boltax to complete his inspexion, or wait until that evening, or even the next day. But the story needed to go out on a bang.)
The Legion attacks. But President Boltax was expecting just that sort of thing. The shells of the jet cars in his motorcade separate, revealing small tanks, armed to the teeth. Quickly, the ambush turns into a fight for the Legionnaires' lives!
The grim battle still serves the super-teens' purpose as a distraction. Unnoticed, Brainiac 5 slips into the basin of the main reservoir and prepares to pour his antidote into the waters. However, before Brainy can do so, an alert plant guard clouts him unconscious with the butt of his rifle.
This is witnessed by a shadowy figure.
Outside, the Legionnaires are taking the worst of it. Star Boy and Shrinking Violet are injured, and the others are being pushed back. But their chance for salvation appears when President Boltax emerges on an observation platform.
Sun Boy flares in a solar burst of light, momentarily blinding their opponents. The remaining Legionnaires fly up to the platform and grab Boltax. They threaten the President of Earth: tell your forces to stand down---or else!
But Boltax is aware of the Legion code against killing and knows it's a hollow threat. He orders his men to take out the Legionnaires.
But as the hostile troops surge toward the surounded heroes, an explosion erupts from the top of one of the near-by water towers, sending a deluge of water pouring down on them. Evidently, Brainiac 5 came through, after all.
For a few tense moments, the drenched guards draw their weapons and continue to advance on the Legionnaires. But then, they seize Kandro Boltax harshly. "Boltax! You controlled our minds!" growls one of the armed men. "You're the enemy here!"
The Legionnaires mop their brows in relief. "Good ol' Brainy! He saved our skins!" says Phantom Girl.
"But I didn't do it!" counters Brainiac 5, running up. "I've been unconscious all this time!"
Then---who . . . ?
A teen-age boy steps out of the shadows, the same boy we saw confined in the hidden room behind President Boltax's office.
"I did it, Cosmic Boy!" declares the youth. "I found Brainiac 5's antidote and poured it in the water! Then I blew up the water tank above those guards!"
Most of the Legionnaires stare at the youngster as a stranger. But Brainiac 5 and Chameleon Boy recognise him . . .
He's Rond Vidar---the young scientific genius who saved the Legion's bacon once before, back in Adventure Comics # 349 (Oct., 1966). That's when the super-teens ran up against the villain Universo, master of hypnosis, and discovered that Vidar was Universo's son.
Suddenly, everything makes sense. Cosmic Boy removes the lifelike mask from their prisoner to reveal---Universo!
As the guards march Universo off to the local Science Police lock-up, in true Scooby-Doo style, Rond Vidar explains his father's plot:
After escaping from prison, Universo kidnapped the real Vice President Boltax and impersonated him. The villain then arranged the emergencies which drew all of the Legion off Earth. He also set up the "accident" which killed the President of Earth.
As Boltax, Universo succeeded to the presidency and pushed through his first act, the establishment of the global water purification plant, and through this, he tainted the water it processed with a hypno-chemical. Over the next few days, the effects of the drug gradually made the people of Earth susceptible to Universo's mental control. The representatives of the United Planets, stationed on Earth, fell under his spell, as well, making it easy for "President Boltax" to outlaw the Legion and declare their activities illegal.
Universo was forced to imprison his own son, for Rond had inherited his father's immunity to hypnosis, and the villain couldn't risk the boy tipping off the Legion to his evil machinations. Fortunately, Vidar managed to escape, and he rushed to the water purification plant, to sabotage it. He saw Brainiac 5 stopped from pouring the antidote into the main reservoir and did the job for him.
After the real Kandro Boltax is located, he reverses all of the anti-Legion efforts and puts the Super-Hero Club back in business. As the youngsters reclaim their clubhouse, they are overjoyed to see the arrival of Superboy, Mon-El, and the rest of the Legionnaires who had been imprisoned on Takron-Galtos.
"Brugol and his guards," reports the Boy of Steel, "are in the hands of the Science Police!"
There's more good news: Princess Projectra has recovered from her brain-injury.
Now, only one last bit of business from this affair remains. Invisible Kid steps forward.
"I propose that we confer honorary membership on the lad who has twice, through his courageous acts, saved the Legion and the Earth . . . "
* * * * *
The most formidable aspect of the story presented by Jim Shooter in Adventure Comics # 359-60 is that it's a threat that the Legion can't just punch its way out of.
In the previous two-part Legion tales which included the entire membership---Adventure Comics # 335-6 (Starfinger), # 340-1 (Computo the Conqueror), and # 350-1 (Evillo)---the heroes outmuscled, zapped with their super-powers, or came up with a sophisticated device to get out of trouble. But, here, they were confronted by the government which didn't attack them physically but used the law to erode the Legion's existence. And the harder the Legionnaires tried to climb out of their situation, the deeper the roots of the efforts against them went.
Shooter did a masterly job of tightening this noose. Initially, the returning Legion members react with surprise, then shock as the components of their operations---their cruisers, their headquarters, their connexions to the United Planets---are incrementally taken away. Their very existence as an organisation has been eliminated---not by an arch-villain, but by an act of legislature by the government.
This is unfamiliar territory for the law-abiding super-heroes, and Shooter depicted their growing confusion realistically. Even after they begin to develop suspicions, it's difficult for the Legionnaires to accept that a sinister agency is behind the structure of authority---a structure of which the Legion has been part---turning against them. It's only after the youngsters discover that their own parents are working against them that they force themselves into believing an evil conspiracy is at foot.
To level the playing field, Shooter got rid of the team's mightiest members, the ones who could most readily discover the truth and put a stop to it, early on. Even after the arrests of those Legionnaires for saving lives and their draconian conviction and sentencing, Invisible Kid and the others still can't quite bring themselves to defy the law. They insist on pursuing legitimate methods of fighting back---until they discover that there are no legitimate methods left.
R. J. Brande has turned against them. Their families have turned against them. And the Legion's one source of political strength, Princess Projectra (whose royal influence I bet most readers forgot about), falls in a rumble with a street gang. (The plot never specifies this but isn't too much of a stretch to believe that Universo hypnotised those hoodlums into attacking the Legion to get the princess out of the way.)
By the time we get to the end of the first half, more Legionnaires have been imprisoned, and remaining ones have been declared enemies of the state, with a ten-million-dollar bounty on their heads. They take to the sewers of Metropolis in a fervent attempt to avoid capture.
Once again, Jim Shooter demonstrates his keen knowledge of story structure. Adventure Comics # 359 ends at the apex of the mounting action. After inexorably ratcheting the tension, Shooter puts his heroes at their nadir, with no way out.
That's before he introduces, in the next issue, an unlikely circumstance which shifts the falling action in favour of Our Heroes. I'm talking about the Legionnaires' accidental discovery of one of Luthor's Lairs. For Chameleon Boy to just happen to trip and just happen to prevent his fall by activating the lair's secret entrance is wildly improbable.
Adventure fans always enjoyed when bits of DC business from the 1960's popped up in Legion stories, such as Dev-Em or the Batcave. Those things reminded us that the Legion of the far-flung future was, indeed, connected to the present-day DC universe. And that's why the readers gave the one-in-a-million chance that the fugitive Legionnaires would find a still-operative Luthor's Lair a pass. At least, I did.
Shooter provided another subtle callback to the '60's in his sequence showing the Legion infiltrating the Presidential Palace. It evoked the popular television programme Mission: Impossible. It was cleverly done, employing common tactics from the TV series, like the phoney repairmen and the false-bottomed toolbox.
Mort Weisinger had referenced the Legion Espionage Squad in text pieces (Adventure Comics # 329 [Feb., 1965]) and in Legion Outpost columns (Adventure Comics # 347 [Aug., 1966]), but this is the first time we actually see the Squad in action. Nicely, it gives two of the lesser-powered Legionnaires, Duo Damsel and Shrinking Violet, a star turn.
Beyond echoing Bruce Geller, Jim Shooter had also created a mystery for the Legion, and the readers, to solve: why had the government and public turned against the Super-Hero Club, and who was behind it?
Shooter introduced a vital clue early on, by establishing that Boltax's first success as President of Earth was seeing to the construction of a global water purification plant. Savvier readers to-day would spot the trope of Chekov's Gun right off. But, back in '67, it probably didn't get noticed much, so casually was it slipped into the narrative.
The big tip-off, of course, was the scene showing "Boltax" pleading with his son. But only a die-hard Legion maven would've been able to piece it together. It was partly obfuscated by Swan and Klein's rendering of Rond Vidar. If a reader was sharp enough to catch it, there's a subtle difference in his facial features from how he was depicted in Adventure Comics # 349. That might've been enough to throw off any amateur detectives into identifying this lad as Universo's son.
Artists can sometimes inadvertently foul the readers' chances of catching a key moment in a comic-book plot. In "Lois Lane's Secret Romance", from Lois Lane # 14 (Jan., 1960), Superman is tipped to the fact that Supergirl is playing matchmaker for him and Lois when a Batwoman costume sent to Lois by "Batman" has a bat-insignia on the cape. As the Man of Steel informs his cousin, Batwoman "never puts an insignia on the back of her cloak! So, I knew something was amiss!"
He's right, of course, but it's likely many, if not most, readers saw no significance in the bat-emblem on Batwoman's cape. They would've attributed it to a stylistic choice by artist Kurt Schaffenberger, who was unfamiliar with the character. Just as the first time that Curt Swan drew Lightning Lad without the cummerbund he wore under his belt, the readers didn't think, "Aha! This Lightning Lad must be an impostor!"
There is much to applaud in this two-part thriller. (Obviously---otherwise why would I be writing it up as a forgotten gem?) The conspiracy to eliminate the Legion of Super-Heroes is a novel approach from the usual super-villain trying to wipe the team off the face of the Earth. And Shooter sprinkled enough clues for a sharp-eyed fan with a good memory to figure out what was back of it.
Every Legionnaire enjoyed time on the stage. Some more than others, but each got a moment to stand out.
And then there's the mark of a memorable Legion story: actual change. Granted, the induction of Rond Vidar as the Legion's third honorary member isn't a big one. But it becomes a permanent entry in all future "Origins and Powers of the Legion of Super-Heroes" features and text pieces.
More notable was the introduction of Kandro Boltax. Previously, the President of Earth had been a supernumerary character, rarely mentioned and even more rarely seen. But President Boltax---the real one---would go on to become a minor recurring figure in Legion tales, most prominently in Adventure Comics # 361 and # 368.
The unknown nature of the menace threatening the Legion of Super-Heroes was this two-parter's most gripping and novel element.
It was also its worst flaw.
When the main character is a hero of Superman's many capabilities, or worse yet, a team of heroes with those nigh-ultimate powers, then it's impossible for a writer to craft a truly impenetrable mystery. There are just too many ways to defeat it. Two cases in point come to mind.
Action Comics # 371 (Jan., 1969) kicks off a multi-issue quest for Superman when he is accidentally exposed to an amnesia ray from an alien computer. He is left with the knowledge that he is Superman, but he has forgotten most of the incidental details of his life, including the location of his Fortress of Solitude. Most critically, he no longer remembers anything of his Clark Kent identity. He spends three more issues trying to learn his civilian identity.
It's a entertaining tale in the fact that circumstances cause the Man of Steel to believe that his other self is, variously, the President of the U.S., a masked wrestler, and a wanted crime boss, before he stumbles upon the truth. The thing is---with his super-powers, Superman could've learnt he was Clark Kent in any of a half-dozen ways as soon as he realised his problem. By travelling back in time or overtaking light rays in space and viewing the events immediately before. Or by contacting the Justice League (true, he didn't remember that he was a member of the JLA, but a super-vision scan of newspaper records would inform him of that) and explaining his problem. "If any of you know my secret identity, please contact me privately and inform me." He could also contact Supergirl the same way.
A more futile attempt to deliver a "baffling" mystery occurs when the Justice League and the Justice Society work to solve the murder of Mister Terrific, in JLA # 171-2 (Oct. and Nov., 1979). Seriously, Mr. Terrific is killed on page eleven of the first issue---and his murderer should've been identified no later than page fourteen. Easy, when you have three super-speedsters, two power-ring wielders, and at least one magician, all capable of piercing the veil of time and learning what happened. Not to mention the Earth-One Hawkman's absorbascon, which would've revealed the who and how behind Mr. Terrific's murder.
It's difficult to take such "mysteries" seriously when the reader can figure out ways to solve them in five minutes.
Adventure Comics # 359-60 suffers from the same ill. There's no logical reason why, after being bailed out of Metropolis Jail for violating curfew, Superboy couldn't have super-sped back in time ten days or so, and as an invisible phantom, witnessed the events that had taken place on Earth during the Legion's absence. A little further snooping would've uncovered Universo's machinations back of it.
O.K., maybe the Boy of Steel was too noble and law-abiding to violate the anti-Legion restrictions. There's still Mon-El and Supergirl. Particularly, Supergirl, who was perfectly willing to defy the judge's ban against using her super-powers to return to her own era. A quick stop in the Legion's recent past, and she would've solved the mystery.
Also, there's the business of the Legionnaires confined to Takron-Galtos. These included the mightiest members of the team, and despite the green kryptonite and the lead, they could've escaped at any time, to return to Earth and help their buddies. It took them only one page to do so in Adventure # 360, and I couldn't help wondering what took them so long.
Jim Shooter crafted such an intricate and gripping predicament for Our Heroes that I enjoyed it on a visceral level. I just wish that he'd found a way to plug the plot holes that my intellectual self kept pointing out.
Replies
Espionage Squad, right?
Espionage Squad---right! Correxion made. Thanks for spotting that!
It really did bother me that the Legion found a fully operating and CLEAN Luthor's Lair after a millennium. And that the entrance wasn't completely covered up or why it was never discovered.
It would be like when the Legion visited the Batcave and Sun Boy and Matter Eater Lad had jumped into the Batmobile and immediately drove off after ten centuries!
The most glaring mistake, to me anyway, was that when the Legion returned to Earth, why didn't Boltax arrange to give them higher doses of the hypno-chemical and control them? That particular danger was never explored. Imagine one of them suddenly spouting off pro-Boltax sentiments!
And none of the Legionnaires even tried to contact their home worlds. It would have been nice to see some resistance from the other UP worlds!
I don't know contacting their home worlds would have helped. It's not as if Universo was, say, targeting Durlans or Carggites. Then again, losing the UP's premiere super-team might have upset the rest of the galaxy.
While their home worlds were unlikely to have much influence on Earth politics, just because the Legion was made illegal on Earth doesn't mean they couldn't have been offered a headquarters and such on Cargg or Winath, so the UP could keep its premiere super-team, even if there Earth no longer enjoyed their protection.
A fair point. As the UP Council and a lot of delegates are on Earth, I think I vaguely assumed this was covered by Boltax' policies — but reading the Commander's recounting, it isn't, is it?
Minor point, pissed as Universo is with his son, he chooses to keep him alive rather than eliminate him as an insider threat and he genuinely wants to get him on Team Universo. It doesn't make him good or a good dad, but does make him more than just a mustache twirling villain.
If this had been a Marvel comic, this is probably the way the story would've gone---and Stan Lee would've spread it out over three or four issues. The Legion would relocate to, say, WInath (a good choice, because its people don't have a special ability which would be a super-power by Earth standards, and because two Legionnaires come from that world). But there'd be equipment problems, as WInath's gross global product doesn't come anywhere near R. J. Brande's deep pockets. And now, politically, many member worlds of the U.P. are turning against the Earth, potentially putting the Legion in a situation in which it has to take aggressive action against its old home world.
That's the kind of stuff Lee would crank out---but I'm just as happy that it didn't happen that way.
"The plot never specifies this but isn't too much of a stretch to believe that Universo hypnotised those hoodlums into attacking the Legion to get the princess out of the way." Yeah, I've always taken that as a given.
Did not realize this was the debut of the Espionage Squad in action. Having an incomplete run of LSH stories when this came out, I assumed from the text pieces you mention that it appeared in stories I hadn't read.
While it's true they could easily solve the crime with super-speed or time travel, that's true of any mystery they (or Superman, or Flash) ever encounter. So I just accept it as part of the illogic built into the DC Universe (unless someday I come up with a head canon rationalization).
Good part two, commander.
Thank you for your kind words, sir. As to:
While it's true they could easily solve the crime with super-speed or time travel, that's true of any mystery they (or Superman, or Flash) ever encounter. So I just accept it as part of the illogic built into the DC Universe (unless someday I come up with a head canon rationalization).
Granted, there should be no mystery as to the fates of the Earth-One versions of Judge Crater, Amelia Earhart, Ambrose Bierce, or Jimmy Hoffa. Nor, for that matter, should there be any unsolved murders in Metropolis. Yet, I'm good with the idea that Superman or the Flash or the Green Lantern doesn't jump back through time regularly to get information.
Where it becomes a problem for me is when a story is touted as a tremendous mystery, such as in the cases of Superman seeking his civilian identity or the JLA/JSA solving Mr. Terrific's murder. Particulaly, the latter, in which the covers of both issues practically screamed "Look what a baffling situation we have here!". If the writer is going to try to sell me on a mystery for his heroes, it falls apart when I can think of a half-dozen different ways it can be solved before breakfast.
Fair point, Commander.
I recall some people made fun of Tuatara of the Global Guardians for having a power that was useless in combat. As if time vision wouldn't be extremely valuable, as you say, in investigating crimes. Though I imagine the smarter Kiwi criminals had found ways to work around it.
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