"Last Fight for a Legionnaire" Art by Mike Grell, Story by Jim Shooter.
30th century Metropolis, Nolan Plaza the home of the Legion of Super-heroes, a hopeful young man enters the building. A little later the same man walks out rejected. Rejected and angry, the man uses his powers to lift the Iron statue of Ferro Lad the deceased Legionnaire and fling int the sky. Just then in his head a voice tells him to put the statue down. He is unable to resist and returns it gently to its pedestal. He is commanded to turn around and he does seeing 5 young people. It turns out the other 5 were also rejected from the Legion. A scantly clad brunette woman tells him it was her esp powers that made him put the statue back. A very healthy Blond flirts with him, while the 3 males toss around compliments, the young man Magno lad agrees to join with them on their plan to get even with six legionnaires. Meanwhile on a distant planet a man called Tribune is giving a mission to an Agent Bek. Bek tells him that their target will not come willingly but Tribune reminds him that no one is above the law not even a Legionnaire. Bek will do every thing necessary to bring the chosen to the selection board, even if the entire Legion stands in his way.
Shrinking Violet, Chameleon Boy, Matter Eater Lad, Cosmic Boy and Phantom Girl respond to a telepathic summons they thought was from Saturn Girl, but She did not send it, she received one herself. The Message was sent by Meta Ulnoor, Esper Lass. It turns out that the six young people from earlier are from the same Planets as the six Legionnaires, and they were rejected because they had the same power as the Legion Members. The rejects want to challenge the Legion to prove that they deserve a shot, but the Legion will not play along. But the Fight gets started when Magno Lad, Kort Grezz from Cosmic boy's home planet of Braal uses his magnetic powers to fling cosmic boy up against the wall. Quickly the other five rejects go up against their own counter parts. Esper Lass is blasting Saturn Girl with her Psychic powers. Solon Garga who is from Phantom girl's Dimensional world of Bgztl wants to be known as Phantom Lad is using his phantom powers against Phantom Girl. Smaller than what can normally be seen Shrinking Violet is losing to Micro Lad, Lalo Muldron. Chameleon Kid, Toog Lintens smacks Chameleon boy, telling him that he is stronger than him know matter what form they are in. Calorie Queen, Tary Loy the daughter of Bismoll's most brilliant scientist. All bismollians can consume enormous quantities of any type of matter. Their bodies are like nuclear furnaces anything they eat is changed to energy. Excess energy usually escapes through their pores. Calorie Queen's Father discovered a way to divert some of that excess energy to her muscle to make her as strong as three men. She uses that strength to beat the crap out of Matter Eater Lad. Just as the rejects are wiping the floor with the Legionnaires, Superboy comes into the room and sees that his friends are getting punked,uses his super cape to wrap up the six intruders and deposit them outside. The beaten heroes are snippy at Superboy and go outside to the fallen rejects and tells them if that they are still game they will settle this tomorrow morning alone. The rejects accept and the Legionnaires tell Superboy to mind his own business and that they will take care of it.
At the Metropolis space port the President greets agent Bek and asks if they can bypass his mission. Bek tells him that by the laws of his planet there will be one less Legionnaire by this time tomorrow.
The next Morning in Nolan plaza the 12 teens square off against each other with Superboy and Karate Kid watching. They start to approach each other when Matter Eater Lad runs away into the opposite direction. His teammates thinks he is running away but he runs to the flag pole and bites it down so it hits Calorie Queen and he ties her up with the Legion Flag. She cries for Magno-Boy's help but he is trying to hurl a monument at Cosmic Boy but it turns out that the monument is actually Chameleon Boy who punches him in the jaw. Phantom Lad stays solid and runs at Phantom lady but a minuscule Shrinking Violet grows and cold cocks him. Phantom girl phases behind Micro Lad an lets him have it. Cosmic boy has Esper Lass spinning magnetizing the iron in her amazing body. Saturn girl uses her telepathic powers to find Chameleon Kid hiding as a tree and directs Matter Eater Lad to use his powers but the kid gives up. The rejects surrender and the team gloats that they win using team work. The heroes are patting each other on the back when Agent Bek arrives and hands Matter Eater Lad a draft notice from his home planet of Bismoll. Bismoll does not have an Army but they draft thier candidates for polical office and he has been chosen to run for representative. Having no choice Matter Eater Lad leaves but his parting thought is that they should give Calorie Queen another shot.
Bits of Legionnaire Buisness
Roll Call:
- Cosmic Boy
- Saturn Girl
- Phantom Girl
- Chameleon Boy
- Shrinking Violet
- Matter Eater Lad
- Superboy
- Karate Kid
- Magno Lad
- Calorie Queen
- Esper Lass
- Phantom Lad
- Micro Lad
- Chameleon Kid
- Matter Eater Lad leaves the team and goes into public office, as predictied in Adventure comics 354.
Cover:
- Great drawing of the rejects standing over the fallen heroes damanding to take thier place in the Legion. This is repeated on the Splash page but I perfer the cover image.
- How many statures of Ferro Lad are there? There is one inside the headquaters and another outside in Nolan plazza, which is named after him. I think there is also one in place where they have him burried.
- Magno Lad uses his powers but is mind control by his soon to be new partner, a great way to start a relation ship.
- Calorie Queen is hitting on Magno Boy.
- Agent Bek gets his assignment but does not like it.
- The rejects whine about not being accepted on the team because they have the same powers as the Legion members.
- While it is not said it seems that Legion Policy is first come first served.
- The Rejects wipe the floor with the more experinced Legion members.
- Superboy buts in and saves the day and his ungreatful teammates tell him to mind his own business.
- The president makes a cameo greeting Agent Bek. You would thing that the head of a plantary government would have better things to do than to greet a process server.
- Matter Eater Lad runs away.
- We see a bad depiction of Matter Eater Lad's powers and some Bondage fun with Calorie Queen.
- This was suspose to be a one on one battle but the Legion cheats and double teams thier opponents.
- Matter Eater Lad is drafted, and asks that Calorie Queen be given a shot at taking his place, but that never happens.
I might of said this before but this is one of my favorite storys from this time, it is just fun. We find out that other people with the same powers try to join and are not given a chance. I do not like spoiling upcoming events but it takes about 8 years to find out that 5 of the 6 rejects become villains, one of who is responsible for for having a Legion Member impersonated and mind probed. I like the costumes on Calorie Queen and Esper Lass, not sure how she fights in that get up. I do not like Phantom Lad's costome at all. The teams reaction to Superboy's interference is a little harsh but it makes the story fun to see that the all powerfull heroes a pissed off at being beaten up.
I own both the original issue and the Archive additon but until I was re reading them for this blog did I notice that there was an extra page in the Archive. Between pages 7 and eight there is a page of Karate kid giving a pep talk to Matter eater Lad. I belive it was cut for length, but glad they included in the archive. This was a good send off to Matter Eater Lad, a hero that was never used that much or well. Writer Jim Shooter dropped a hint on the last Panel that we might see Calorie Queen back as a member or a canadate but it is never pickup again. We do not see Calorie Queen again until the 5 year gap Legion by Keith Giffen. I think some interesting things could of been down with her. Being a former foe of the Legion and then joining the team and maybe having some of the members not trust her or just not get along. The do some of this with a future member down the road.
Next time
Member Profile: Matter Eater Lad.
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