Superboy # 213 Starring ther Legion of Super-Heroes "Trapped to Live Free to die!"

Trapped to Live Free to Die! Art: Mike Grell & Bill Draut, Story: Jim Shooter

Timber Wolf answering a faint distress signal lands his Legion Cruiser on Nolor IV, a waterless, barren world. Leaving the ship he activates the automatic sentinel system and goes off to look for the source of the signal. He finds the ship and a bald man trapped under a console. He lifts the console and the Man knocks him out with an energy charged mace. The man is the old Legion villain Black Mace, and he is going to leave Timber Wolf stranded on the barren world while he takes the Legion Cruiser. Taking Timber Wolf's flight ring so that the wolf cannot signal his fellow heroes, Black Mace starts to leave when Timber Wolf stops him, by telling him that the Legion craft have auto defenses programmed only to respond to Legionnaires. Mace remembers that he heard about a mug who tried to steal a Legion ship and got hung up by automatic defenses. He takes the Wolf with him but warns him that he turned his mace up to full power and one dose and poof, Timber Wolf would just be ashes. The door to the ship automatically opens when the pair approach. Inside Mace has Timber wolf sit in the pilot chair but the ship reacts just as Timber Wolf hoped. It treats him as an unauthorized pilot and trapped the Legionnaire in an Plastie globe. Every power systems in the ship shut down. Black Mace pissed off that Timber Wolf made a fool out of him, uses his mace and smashes the globe. But it does not shatter the globe but it weakens it enough so that Timber wolf can break free and use his speed strength and agility against Black Mace. But the Mace fights back and the two goes back and forth, Timber Wolf picks up the Mace's weapon and uses it against him but Black Mace's suit was insulated. Just as Black Mace is going for a killing blow Timber Wold activates the flight ring that Mace is wearing so it lifts him up and smacks him into the ceiling. Recovering his ring and turning off the ship defense Timber Wolf retrains the criminal and takes off, thinking that all Black Mace need to steal the ship was the Ring any one trying to fly the ship with out one is considered an intruder, Not even a Legionnaire can fly the ship without a ring.

Roll Call:

• Timber Wolf

Villain:

• Black Mace

Legion Equipment:

• Legion Cruiser
• Flight Ring

Notes:
Page 1:

• Timber Wolf references his time at Legion Academy before he became a Member of the team.

Page 2:

• Black Mace 1st appeared in Adventure Comics 374.
• Jim Shooter reminds us that bald men are evil.

Page 3:

• Timber Wolf cons Black Mace into taking him with him.
• Timber wolf is channeling his inner John Travolta, (a boy in the plastic bubble reference)

Page 5:

• Black Mace and Timber wolf go toe to toe.

Page 6:

• Timber wolf activates the flight ring and sends mace flying.

Another issue where the single hero back up is better than the main story. This is the first story where we have a 2nd artist credited, Bill Draut, I assume that he is Inking the story but the credits do not list who does what. Timber Wolf vs the Black Mace today would be a multiple page fight but here Shooter and Grell show the fight in about a page and a half of action. Not looking forward to Superboy 214 which is why after the next blog posts Member Profile on Ultra Boy I am taking a short break from this title to do a Two part story from Adventure comics, featuring Mordru the merciless.