Superboy # 220 Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes " Dream Girl's Living Nightmare"

"Dream Girl's Living Nightmare" Story: Cary Bates, Art: Mike Grell & Bob Wiacek

Legion Cruiser Lx-811 is en route to earth from a mission in another Galaxy, carrying Chameleon Boy, Brainiac-5 and a sleeping Dream Girl. Dream Girl awakes with an orgasm like scream telling them to stop the cruiser and that they must not go any further. Dream Girl dreamed of the beloved Primor of Demeros II on his way to deliver an important address is killed. They pull into orbit of Demeros and Dream Girl tells them that she did not see the murderer but she does remember that the murder weapon has 3 circles. Brainiac and Chameleon argue, Brainy says they can't stop it, Dream Girl's predictions always come true. But Chameleon wants to try anyway. They get some information on the Primor and Chameleon gets Brainy to lend him his force-field belt. Chameleon puts on the belt and morphs into a duplicate of the Primor. Cham thinks that he can go to Demeros and have the blasts bounce off the force field belt and that will match Dream Girl's Vision. In the Studio the Primor is about to give his address, Cham is stopped by guards but he now understands the dream but they won't let go. The three circles that Dream Girl saw were the Visi camera and the camera operator turns it on the Primor and he fires and the Primor is dead. Cham breaks free of the guards and finds that the dead Primor is not the man he is disguised of but another. The Real Primor appears and tells Cham it was a ruthless dictator who proclaimed himself the new Primor locking the old one away. Cham turns back to his normal self and flies away thinking that Brainiac was right there are some forces in the universe not even a Legionnaire should tamper with.

Roll Call:
Chameleon Boy
Brainiac-5
Dream Girl
Another quick back up story not much to give page by page notes on. The art as always was great Dream Girl look hot as hell and the Primor that Cham morphed into look good. Nice way to show that Dream Girl's powers don't always show what she thinks it shows, but this point has been made several time, but I liked it anyway.

Next time: The first appearance of our favorite Bondage couple Gimbor and Charma.

Superboy # 218 Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes



"The Secret Villain the world Never Knew" Story Cary Bates' Art: Mike Grell
  We see three rejected applicants leaving the Legion Citadel. Infectious Lass (first applied in Superboy # 201) complains that she found away to make her disease inducing power even stronger than before, she can now even cause epidemics, and they still do not want her. Quake Kid starts hitting on her offering her a ride in his Retro-Jetter when Infectious Lass's powers go out of control and makes him sick. Quake and Infectious leave arguing while the thrid reject stands there and thinks. "No wonder they were rejected... But I thought for sure I'd pass the membership tests! Instead they told me my special power is too limited." The disappointed stanger thought to himself.
 Above the dejected applicants a new candidate arrives in a pne man ship. In the citadel, Brainiac-5 is showing Colossal boy, Element Lad and Light Lass how Tryroc came to be a Legion applicant. Brainiac-5 tells them that Tyroc passed all of their qualification tests and all that is left is his offical induction ceremony. Out of nowhere a sound that the 3 Legionnaires have never heard before. "Oyuuuuuu" it sounds again and the Legion's newest partner teleports into the building. Tyroc gives Brainiac a hip hand shake and tells him he has park his cruiser on the roof with all of his personal belongings on board because this time he is here to stay. (yeah, sure) Just as Brainiac is about to introduce Tyroc to some of his new teammates they see a man in a strange costume burn through the view screen. The man is called Zoraz and he appears to be an old foe of the Legion. The four Legionnaires attack with Tyroc hanging back. One by one he use the teams own powers against them. Colossal boy grows out of control and cracks his head on the ceiling. Light Lass is made weightless. Element Lad has the air around him turn to ammonia and he is chocking. Brainiac is unable to think straight, he claims Zoraz is telepathing millions of wild thoughts into his brain. Zoraz turns his attention to Tyroc and before he could do anything, Tyroc unleashes a blood curdling scream that cause an explosion around Zoraz. But Zoraz absorbs the force of the blast with out even feeling it just like a blazing sun can soak up the engergy of an atomic bomb. (this is straight out of the comic I could not make this up.) Tyroc prepares for a more drastic yell when an ear splitting siren goes off. Zoraz has blasted the alarm control with fire making the alarm go off. With the decibels levels increasing Tyroc uses his power to make the alarm explod. By the time Cosmic Boy and Superboy arrive Zoraz is gone. They help their fallen comardes to the infirmary and Superboy tells Tyroc they will be okay in a couple of days, Zoraz had depleted there energy. Superboy and Cosmic boy take Tyroc down to the legion Cell Bank and explain that Zoraz stole cells from every Legionnaire's compartment. Which after analyzing he develop the means to turn the Legion's own powers against them. They think that Zoraz is still in the building the Legion will make sure that someone is always on guard but Tyroc is the only member that can stand up to him since he does not have his genetic code. Later Tyroc and Shrikning Violet patrol the halls while they are being spied on by some one in the ventilation shaft.  Dream Girl and Star Boy are making out in the hallway while Cosmic Boy and Sun Boy spy on them via the Legion's monitors. Just as Cosmic Boy is about to turn the monitor off Zoraz appears attacking Dream Girl and Starboy. Zoraz smashes a wall, Star Boy uses his powers to make things super heavy on Zoraz but it is turned back on Star Boy and he falls through the floor. Dream Girl's power is turned on her and she is having a nightmare in her own head. Tyroc arrives and uses his powers to make Zoraz spin, but he manuvers like a top and Tyroc has to follow him into the Gymnasium. Tyroc flies in and Zoraz uses Super-Breath to extract all of the air from the room creating a vacuum. Since sound doesn't travel in a vacuum Tyroc's super voice will not have any effect on him. Suffocating Tyroc activates his Legion Flight Ring, grabs a barbell and flies straight through the wall and into the fresh air. Crawling to his feet Tyroc is joined by Cosmic Boy and Sun Boy who arrived just in time to find an empty Gym. Not sure how Zoraz escaped the locked room but the pair of late arriving heroes vow to search every inch of the area after they get Tyroc to the infirmary. Inside the ceiling an unknown person hides and says that after seeing Tyroc in action twice he now knows how to defeat him. That night Tyroc is sleeping in his new Quarters when Superboy comes on the communication system and wakes him up, ordering him to report to the briefing room on the double. When he arrives Tyroc is startled to see the Legionnaires that Zoraz defeated standing around hale and healthy. Superboy asks Tyroc to look at the visi-tape that they made of Tyroc's first encounter with Zoraz. He watches to the end when Zoraz removes his helment toe reveal that it was Sun Boy in the costume. He then watches the 2nd fight and at the end it is revealed it is Superboy in the costume. Tyroc is pissed and wants to know what kind of freaky put on is this. Brainiac and Superboy explains that it was Tyroc's final test. They had to know how he would respond  to severe stress so they invented their own villain. They made up the bit with the genetic codes, each Legionnaire made it appeare that their own powers were going out of control. All of the other things that Zoraz did were done by either Superboy or Sun Boy. Just then Zoraz enters the room and Tyroc tells Sun Boy he knows it is him, but this time it is not. The man in Zoraz costume removes the helment to revel the Legion Reject from earlier. The reject was upset that they told him that his unusual power wasn't important enough for a Legionnaire, rejecting him and accepting Tyroc. He decided to prove his value by sneaking into the citadel, waiting till he could go into action, hiding out in the same ventilation shafts "Zoraz" was suppose to be using. The reject contiues to explain that he watched Tyroc in action and waited till he could grab the Zoraz uniform and now it was time for him to prove that he is better than Tyroc. Superboy charges at him but the reject using Sun Boy's powers glows with the energy of a red sun causing Superboy to lose his powers. Note: when Superboy nears the rays of a red sun he becomes an ordinary mortal!
 The reject then using Superboy's own strength smash the former teen of steel into the wall. Brainiac tells Tyroc that the reject is called Absorbancy Boy and that he can absorb residue energy left behind by super powers. Since he is wearing the same uniform that Sun Boy and Superboy wore it has given him their powers. Absorbancy Boy challenges Tyroc to a fight to see who is better qualified to be the next Legionnaire. Brainiac cautions Tyroc saying he is just as formidable as Superboy.
 Tyroc faces his foe and Absorbancy Boy taunts the dark hero. Tyroc explains that he is using  a yell at an ultra high frequency that only Superboy's hearing can pick up.  Absorbency Boy is not impressed but when Tyroc unleashes the yell Absorbancy boy grabs his ears and falls to the ground even through nobody else heard a sound. Tyroc easily incapacitate the villain and explains that he figured AB would be inexperienced with Super Hearing and turn it on at full  strength allowing Tyroc's ultrasonic cry to almost deafen him. Once Absorbency Boy is taken away they get on to the log awaited formal induction ceremony where Tyroc is officially sworn in as a full fledged member of the greatest fighting group in the galaxy The Legion of Super-Heroes.

Roll Call

• Brainiac-5
• Colossal Boy
• Element Lad
• Light Lass
• Cosmic Boy
• Superboy
• Shrinking Violet
• Dream Girl
• Star Boy
• Sun Boy
• Tyroc
• The other members of the Legion in the back ground.

Legion Equipment

• Flight Ring

Rooms in the Headquarters.

• Infirmary
• briefing room
• Monitor room
• Cell Bank
• Gymnasium
• Tyroc's Quarters

Villain

• Absorbancy Boy

Guest Star

• Infectious Lass

Notes:
Page 2:

• Nice call back to Superboy #201 with the use of Infectious Lass

Page 3:

• Tyroc arrives in his own personal Cruiser
• Brainiac-5 briefing members that missed issue 216

Page 4:

• Tyroc Teleports in to nice effect.
• Brainiac-5 thinks he is hip the way he shakes Tyroc's hand.

Page 5:

• "Zoraz" burns his way into the room and easily defeats four Legionnaires.

Page 6

• Tyroc stands by while a villain takes out his new partners.

Page7:

• "Zoraz" burns the control box, is any one seeing a pattern here?
• "Arrrhh!" Yell from Tyroc causes thing to explode

Page 8:

• Superboy and Cosmic Boy arrive Late, this will happen again with Legionnaires showing up after Tyroc had faced the bad guy.
• We see the 4 Legionnaires that were defeated by Zoraz lying in sick bay.
• They show Tyroc the Legion Cell Bank last seen in Superboy 206.

Page 9:

• We have a mystery man hiding out in the ventilation shaft.

Page 10:

• Star Boy and Dream Girl making out in the hallway.
• Cosmic Boy and Sun Boy watching them make out on the monitor.
• There is probably a few sex visi-tapes floating around the 30th century starring Dream Girl.

Page 11:

• Tyroc to the rescue.
• Zoraz using super strength.
• ZZZRRUGHHHH! make you spin round round like record baby.

Page 12:

• Zoraz sucking all of the air out of the room with Super breath. Hmmm

Page 13:

• Sun Boy and Cosmic Boy are a day late and a dollar short, or since this is the 30th century a credit Short.
• Superboy wakes Tyroc out of a sound sleep.
• Tyroc goes to the briefing room to see the injured Legionnaires up and around.

Page 14.

• Tyroc should be pissed to find out he was part of a fraternity prank.

Page 15:

• A 3rd person puts on the Zoraz suit, that thing must reek.
• How many Legion Rejects turn into villains. This Guy, all of the Legion rejects in 212. I believe radiation Roy and Spider-Girl. I will have to do more research but there has to be close to a dozen.

Page 16:

• Absorbancy Boy, his name is Absorbancy Boy, Cary, you are better writer than that your flash stories prove that, wait you came up with Big Sir, never mind.

Page 17:

• Tyroc tricks Absorbancy Boy into using Super Hearing to take him out.
• Tyroc get sworn into the Legion, this being the first of many stories of him with the team. Maybe not.

Notes:
Great Story until the end, have to use Super hearing to have the guy take himself out seems a bit anti climatic. But the build up to the reveal of Zoraz being Superboy and Sun Boy was good. I like that they played a prank on Tyroc similar to the one Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy and Lightning Boy I mean Lad, played on Superboy in Adventure 247.
 Good use of Infectious Lass even if it is only for a couple of panels, I always like when we can call back to passed issues. Absorbancy Boy is a little dumb but I will forgive it knowing now what Geoff Johns will turn him into.

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Next Time Karate Kid 3, Oh Boy

 

Superboy 203 Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes

Superboy # 203 Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes, "Massacre by Remote Control."
Cover date: July-Aug. 1974, Cover cost .20 Cents, Story: Cary Bates, Art: Mike Grell.
It is dark when 4 black clad individuals approach the wall of the Legion Citadel. Each member of the foursome dressed from head to toe in black spandex, the only identifying marking is a roman numeral on the chest of each of them. A man with the numeral "I" smashes through the wall. In a monitor room else where in the headquarters an alarm goes off. Mon-El tells Sun boy to alert the others.
Number I tells his group to split up and that they only need one of them to get through to accomplish their mission. Number one enters the building through a ventilation duct. A shapely woman with "III" on her chest comments to the man marked with "IV" that no one will expect an invasion from underground. IV touches the ground and an electrical burst digs a whole in the ground. Number II says he will make his own entrance using his special power to turn a section of the wall into sand.
Deep within the ventilation shaft number I is almost home free when a flash of light blinds him, he loses his grip and falls to the floor, and to the feet of Sun boy the legionnaire who generates awesome amounts of light and heat. In the lowermost level of the fortress another electrical burst clears the way for  III and IV. Mon-El who is as powerful as Superboy was patrolling the level , uses his super strong and elastic cape to to tie the couple up. The final intruder successfully penetrates the Legions Museum. He takes a small microscopic fuse from a hidden pocket and counts backwards from 5. When he reaches 0 and infra red glow encases the entire edifice. Superboy tells Sun Boy to search every chamber while he heads to the museum. The last man in black tells Superboy he is too late and that he knows what the infra-red effect meant. It meant that number II won and the legion lost. The man in black removes his mask to reveal that he is Element Lad the legionnaire who can transform one element into another by his sheer will power. Superboy congratulates Jan on winning the practice drill, and if this was for real an intruder could detonate a bomb instead of a harmless infra-red cocoon. The pair continues to talk when the other three members of Element Lad's squad enters sans their masks. Karate Kid aka I, Lightning Lad, II, and III the beautiful Phantom Girl. Mon-El enters the room mad as hell demanding to know where the member who was suppose to be on duty in the museum is. Invisible kids materializes in front of the group and collapses to the the ground.
   Mon-El rushes Lyle Norg the Invisible kid to the Legion's advanced medical Lab where Brainiac-5 gives a quick examine. The Legion's super genius finds that Lyle is suffering from shock, and states that something must of happened to him while he was invisible. Brainiac-5 uses the Mento-Scanner to probe the memory cells of his patient. On the screen it shows Lyle's recent memories, It shows an invisible world and Lyle meeting with a beautiful ghostly woman named Myla. Myla tells the invisible kid something but all of a sudden the screen explodes. At the same time the mento-screen violently shatters, Invisible kid wakes up with memory of what happens, he drops the subject and leaves the medical lab.Brainiac-5 deduces that what ever Myla told the kid was so startling it sent him into sudden shock, a shock so severe his brain jolted the scanner with an overload. Brainiac-5 diagnoses that the kid is suffering from hysterical amnesia and does not remember what Myla told him that sent him into shock. The next day Invisible kid is back in the museum talking to Phantom Girl. The kid shows Phantom girl how he sees the invisible world of Myla, and that soon he is going to ask her to marry him and come to our world. Throughout the last couple of days the separated parts of Tharoks electronic brain reassemble itself. That night A scream goes out through the headquarters. It is coming from Dream Girl's quarters, her powers gave her a dream of Validus attacking the legion. The only person that could order the mindless Validus is Tharok the Leader of the Fatal Five. Tharok is millions of miles away in a space prison. Saturn girl is picking up thought waves from Tharok summoning Validus. Superboy takes off to check out the space prison while Mon-El puts the headquarters on Red Alert.
 Soon on Space Prison complex x33, the warden tells the boy of steel that Tharok is not behind the attack on the legion, Tharok who had been injured in a recent battle with the Legion, (some of his brain components dislodged and are now in Legion custody,) is going through emergency surgery to keep his robot half from breaking down.
   Invisible Kids is back on duty in the museum and Brainiac-5, Sun boy and Phantom Girl are in the main control room. They noticed a large blip on the radar, and a smaller blip coming to intercept it. The large blip turns out to be Validus and the smaller blip is Superboy. As Superboy attacks the giant sized monsters he thinks to himself that he knows what is behind the attack. Superboy is stunned by an energy charge and is thrown earthward and crashes through the roof of the Legion's headquarters.
 Before the team can come to the aid of their fallen comrade Validus smashes through the wall. Karate Kid and Sun Boy try and hold off Validus while Phantom Girl and Brainiac-5 go and alert the others. Validus makes short work of Sun Boy and Karate Kid and continues on deeper into the headquarters. Phantom girl tries to warn Invisible Kid in the museum but he is no where around. Else where Mon-El tries to stop Validus but is stop by near lethal energy bolts. At the same time an invisible Invisible kid has figured out that Tharoks brain component are still active and is signaling Validus. Just before he can dismantle the brain  Validus bursts into the room and picks up invisible kid while the kids holds the glowing brain in his hand. As Validus squeezes the life out the Kid, Lyle cracks the brain in his hand. Moments later the mindless Validus no longer controlled by the brain components flees the citadel unaware of the havoc he had wrought. The team burst into the museum to see Lyle's lifeless body. Myla appears in her ghostly form and tells them that she is from a dimension of the dead and somehow Lyle could journey there while still alive. She told lLyle that she was dead and that what sent him into shock. But now that he his no longer living she will take good care of him in her world. The team is sad for losing a comrade but happy to know that Myla and Invisible Kid will be together for Eternity.

Bits of Legionnaire Business:
ROLL CALL:

• Mon-El (Leader)
• Superboy
• Phantom Girl
• Invisible Kid (Lyle Norg)
• Sun Boy
• Element Lad (Jan Arrah)
• Karate Kid
• Lightning Lad
• Brainiac-5
• Dream Girl
• Saturn Girl

 Places in the Headquarters

• Legion Museum
• Advanced Medical Lab
• Dream Girl's Quarters
• Main Control Room

Legion Equipment

• Mento-Scanner
• Radar

Planets visited:

• Space Prison x33

Inappropriate use to the word Space.

• Space Prison.

Notes:
This has to be the longest synopsis I have written yet, this is a full length 21 page story. The issue really gives Mike Grell a great start to his run as Legion penciller. Nice to see the Legion testing their readiness against an attack, but I wonder why they did not test any of their security devices? Except for Phantom Girl you can tell by the use of powers which of the Legion are in the black suits. As I mentioned a previous blog, Bates teams up Lightning lad and Phantom girl again, still not sure if he was planning to make them a romantic item. I question when Mon-El ties up the disguised Lightning Lad and Phantom girl why Phantom girl did not use her powers to escape, she was not shown using her powers at all in this issue. I liked seeing the statue of Ferro Lad in the museum. The Mindless Validus is a great foe to put against the team, he beats them easily. Validus is a foe that should only be able to be stopped by teamwork of some of the more powerful members. I like that they do not stop him, it shows how unstoppable he really is. Once a gain we get Dream girl in her night gown, not a complaint.

Dream girl's appearance is short and is only there to tell the team about Validus. she only is shown in two panels. Which is the same as Saturn girl.
    We see parts of Tharok's robotic brain that came loose in their last adventure against him. Huh? Last time we saw Tharok he was locked in the Legion's brig with out any of the team laying a hand on him. This might of happened in one of the many untold tales that pop up from time to time.
 Okay again we combined the word space with another to get a useless term: Space Prison. So far in our coverage we got Space prison and Space Passport.
   I do not feel bad about the death of Invisible Kid, this was the best he was used in years and he was not a well drawn out characters, but at this time who was?

Invisible Kid RIP.


Lyle Norg Born: ? Died: 2974

 



Next Time Member Profile: Invisible Kid

Member Profile: Dream Girl

Real name: Nura Nal

Home Planet: Naltor

Height: 5'9"

Weight: 1251 lbs

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Platinum

Powers: to see into the Future 

Known relatives: Mysa Nal (sister) Kiwa Nal (Mother)

1st appearance: Adventure comics 317

created by: Edmond Hamilton and artist John Forte

Notes:

Nura Nal was born on Naltor and like all members of her race she has the ability to see into the future, with her powers being stronger than most Naltorians. Her sister is Mysa Nal the White Witch. Her vision is open to interpretation, sometimes the outcome of her vision is not what she expects since most times she is seeing only a small portion of what is to come.
Nura joined the Legion on false pretenses; she saw members being killed and joined to save them but what she really saw were androids being destroyed. She left the Team and joined the Legion of Substitute Heroes. She rejoined the Team with her Long time boyfriend Starboy, during a time when Superboy and Supergirl had leave the team for a short time. She has a birth mark on her face the shape of a star, not sure if this is real or something she had down in honor of her lover Starboy.

Next Time: Superboy 202 Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes