Thursday, October 25, 2012

Superboy # 211 Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes

SUPERBOY # 211 Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes. Cover date: Sept 1975, Cover Price .25 cents. First Story: "The Ultimate Revenge" Art: Mike Grell, Story: Jim Shooter.
 A small space craft flies through the vast emptiness of space. The pilot is looking for a place called Haven, when a hidden door opens in the middle of space. The craft lands and out comes Roxxas, he is greeted by the Havenmastter Gorra. Haven is a refuge for the most wanted men in the universe.  It is hidden in the outermost reaches of the Galaxy invisible to all who gaze at it. The refuge is invisible and transparent to radar. Roxxas escaped takron galtos the prison planet over a year ago. Gorra asks when he had been hiding, a very disturbed Roxxas answers the last place anyone would look for him, but he had to leave it he could not stand it there any longer. Roxxas tells how he had a ship stashed on the prison planet and he fake an injury to break out of the infirmary. Gorra is showing Roxxas around when one of the walls breaks open and the Legion of Super-Heroes arrive. While haven is invisible from our side of the galaxy it is visible from the other side. Star boy, Light Lass, Chemical King and Element lad take out the villains. During the fight Roxxas escapes to his ship but not before Element Lad spots him and hesitates giving Roxxas the opportunity to rocket away.
The team leave the Science Police to wrap up and return to Legion Headquarters on earth. Sun Boy takes the Auto-Log tape of the mission and puts the foursome on leave.
 Star Boy is excited and asks Element Lad if he is going to visit his parents. Star Boy did not know that Jan Arrah, Element Lad's parents and the whole population of his planet Trom were murdered. He then tells his origin story. " Trom was a small, barren radioactive planet, there was only one Valley where the radiation level was low enough for life to exist. A side effect of this is that the people of Trom developed the power to transform any element to any other element. The four million people of Trom lived a peaceful life, until they were visited by a fleet of space-pirates led by the villain Roxxas. Roxxas wanted the people of Trom to use there powers for his benefit. They refused and were ready to defend themselves but roxxas rained Photon Torpedoes on the valley. The Tromites had no defense against energy weapons their power only affected matter. Roxxas's men pursued the few survivors through the ruins, gunning them down in cold blood. Jan was the only one who escaped, after finding a spaceship that survived the holocaust, and that was when he joined the Legion and helped capture Roxxas. A grim faced Element lad makes his leave saying he has a cruiser warming up on the flight deck. At the same time in the computer room Sun Boy is running the tape of of the raid on Haven when Superboy arrives from the past. He shows Superboy the scene of Roxxas escaping. He tells Superboy that none of the Legionnaires with Jan were involved with Roxxas' capture but he recognizes him instantly. They look at the Legion locator's board and see that Element Lad blasted off with no destination stated. Superboy and Sun boy think that Element Lad has gone after Roxxas so they gather the Light Lass, Star Boy and Chemical King and take off in a 2nd cruiser.
  At the same time Element Lad is talking to the Science Police and they tell him that under Hypnosis Gorra said that Roxxas's hideout is the last place anyone would look for it. That was enough information for Element Lad and he heads for Trom. Superboy is tracking with his telescopic vision and watches him land on Trom, but they are about 3 hours behind.
  Once on Trom Element Lad searches for Roxxas, through the ruins. Roxxas sees him and recognize that it is the one surviving Trommite. Roxxas steps out of the shadows and faces Jan. Element lad uses his powers to turn all metal on the villain to gas. Jan pulls out a Death Ray Gun and aims it at Roxxas, he is about to fire when the Legion shows up. They tell him to turn Roxxas over to justice. But Jan says he is the law and it is his right to execute him. Star boy explains that he once killed a man in self defense and was kick out of the Legion for a while, and that Legionnaires do not kill. So Element Lad resigns. As he fires his weapon Superboy is about to stop him at super speed but Chemical King stops him and the weapon fires. Roxxas slumps to the ground and the others berate Jan. Superboy who has had enough of Chemical Kings shit, picks him up and is about to toss him into the sun, when element lad breaks down regretting what he did. Chemical King free of Superboy picks up the Death ray gun and holds it to his own head and fires, the same glowing beam comes out but it does not harm the Legionnaire. King explains that he used is power to deteriorate the Quasi batter in the gun, it only had enough power to throw a light beam. He also used his power to slow down Roxxas' metabolism so he appeared to be dead. Just then Roxxas gets up and is raving about how he is being haunted by the souls of the trommites who he killed and begs for them to kill him. Jan see that Letting him live with his madness is the ultimate revenge.

Bits of Legionnaire Business
Roll Call:
  • Element Lad (Jan Arrah)
  • Star Boy
  • Chemical King
  • Light Lass
  • Sun Boy
  • Superboy
  • Brainiac-5 (flashback)
Villain
  • Roxxas
Rooms in the headquarters
  • Computer Room
Legion Equipment
  • Legion Cruisers
  • Death Ray gun
  • Auto Log Tape
  • Legion space suits
Notes:
Page 3:
  • Legion breaks into haven, it looks like from the outside wall, but know one is sucked into space.
Page 4:
  • Haven is invisible from one side of the galaxy but it is visible from the other, not sure how that works.
Page 5:
  • Last time we saw Light Lass she was a blonde now she is has orange/red hair.
Page 6:
  • Star boy and Element Lad has been team mates for years but he never heard his origin story before, I find that hard to believe.
Page 7:
  • Superboy does not show up until page 7 of his own comic book.
Page 8:
  • Legion Locator board shows Cosmic Boy on Kathoon, keep that in mind for next issues back up, I might call back to this.
  • Gorra being interrogated under Hypno-Prisms, I wonder when they stopped using Miranda rights in the 30th century.
Page 10:
  • Flash back to when Star Boy Killed a guy who had a crush on Dream girl.
  • Chemical king should be dead for jumping in front of a moving Superboy.
Page 11:
  • Superboy looks like he is going punch Chemical King into orbit.
  • last panel of page, Chemical King is doing the most useful thing he has ever done as a Legionnaire.
Very good story tieing in Element Lad's Origin, which has not been mentioned since he first appeared back in the sixties. Not much character development being done at this time but Shooter has a good handle on the Team.

Next time: Member Profile on Element Lad

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