Superboy # 212 Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes, "A Death Stroke at Dawn"

"A Death stroke at Dawn" Art: Mike Grell, Story Jim Shooter.
Late night in 30th Century Metropolis, Shadow Lass flies powered by her Legion Flight Ring towards the Legion Citadel. When she see light in an abandoned monorail terminal. Shady peers through a high window she sees a fallen Night Girl from the Substitute heroes in a Bright room trapped by Crafty Colson and his gang. Night Girl has super strength only at night or in deep shadow, in bright light she is normal. Shadow lass uses her powers to create darkness to black out the room. Whit her strength returning she avoids the attack by the thug called Hunk. She then knocks all 3 of the criminals to the ground. One of the men named Gunner from the planet Ankar who can see in the dark fires his weapon at Shadow Lass but Night Girl steps in her way and takes the blast. Fearing that Legionnaires might be on the way the three thugs high tail it out of there. The Gang believing that Night Girl is dead think that her boy friend Cosmic boy might come after them deiced to go after him first. Back at the monorail terminal Night girl begins to stir her powerful body only stunned. The two heroines thank each other and Night Girl explains that she was tracking the gang after they looted the satellite warehouse orbiting mars and followed them here, but Colson turned on the lights and trapped her. Shadow Lass chastise Night Girl to mixing it up with vicious thugs where all they have to do is turn on a light switch to weaken her. Night Girl tells Shadow Lass the story of how her Father a Scientist developed a ray  that would give her Super Strength. Being stronger than everyone made her lonely so she went to earth to join the Legion of Super-Heroes, but because she was from a planet of complete darkness she discovered on earth that her powers did not work under bright light and she was Rejected. She then joined the Legion of Substitute heroes and after that fell in love with Cosmic Boy. But today Cosmic Boy broke up with her. He was tired of Night Girl risking her live with her weakness and when she breaks a date on his night off he breaks up with her. After telling the story Night Girl leaves to trace Colson with a miniature mento track that will pick up his trail. Meanwhile Cosmic boy is on a date with a blond air head named Sinde. Thinking of Night Girl he ends the date early and brings the girl home. Later moments before dawn Cosmic boy heads home and is ambushed by Colson and his thugs, Gunner is about to shoot him with a plastic pistol but as the soon rises Night Girl flies into them knocking them down. With the gang distracted Cosmic boy is able to get the upper hand and beats the crap out of the thugs. He then makes up with Night Girl and offers to take her out on a date, in the day time of course, when he knows she cannot resist him.

Bits of Legionnaire Business
Roll Call:

• Shadow Lass
• Cosmic Boy

Subs

• Night Girl

Legion Equipment

• Flight ring

Notes
Page 1:

• Shadow Lass flying around metropolis at night. If she did not walk in when she did I am certain that the "Crafty" Colson gang would of done Night Girl.
• I like Night Girl's costume, Keep this in your head for about 5 issue's another character has a similar one.

Page 2:

• Shadow Lass turns out the lights and the bad guy just happens to have a guy that can see in the dark.

Page 3:

• Night Girl jumps in front of the blast in a very heroic move.

Page 5:

• We get Night Girl's Origin, nothing that long time fans did not already know.

Page 6:

• Cosmic Boy breaks up with Night Girl just because she does not have time for him, and then he mentions her weakness, I think he just was pissed that he was not getting any that night.
• But it does not take long for Cos to hook up with Sinde.

Page 7:

• Am I the only one that thinks Cos got a piece of Sinde when he dropped her off?
• Night Girl saves her butt head boyfriend just as she loses her powers.

Page 8:

• Cos takes care of the thugs and finally he will get his from Night Girl.

Okay, what I get from this is Cos is a Horny bastard. Night Girl does not have time for him so He hooks up with Sinde. He finishes with her, does the Hero bit and then flies off with Night Girl. Way to go Cos. Jokes aside, this is a well done short story, Night girl gets a little fleshed out, no that is not a joke about her costume. I wish that future writers teamed Night Girl and Shadow Lass together, there powers work well together and would help counter the fact that Night Girl can be defeated by a light bulb. The bad guys were generic thugs but not every story needs Universo or Modru, some times you want to slow it down a little and show that the Legion goes after every day crooks as well.

Next time: One of the more forgettable stories from this error Superboy 213 The Jaws of Fear. Or Ultra boy goes nuts against a space lizard.
  PS, I think after I cover both Stories in 213 and the member profile I have in the works, We take a step back for a couple of Post and cover my favorite story from the Adventure Comics Run, The story that introduces Modru the merciless. Leave a comment if you want to see that.

Superboy # 211 Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes "The Legion's lost Home"

"The Legion's Lost Home"  Story: Cary Bates, Art: Mike Grell

Years ago, the Legion, consisting of Brainiac-5, Shadow Lass, Cosmic Boy and Superboy, watch as their damaged original clubhouse is taken away. They talk about the new Headquarters they are about to built and about how much they will miss the old clubhouse. Cut to today and Canaveral graveyard, located some miles from Metropolis, we see the wreck club house amongst the junk. A guard recognizes Shadow Lass and cosmic boy  landing by the club house. They give the guard a story about how they have to look for a missing weapon from the Legion arsenal. The guard lets the famous hero go about unescorted. The pair enter the headquarters reminiscing about the past. Lights come on powered by the old atomic generators, they head for the Legion's security chambers and Cosmic boy uses a weapon to melt the security bars. He then uses a crow bar to remove a metal plate and retrieve the flawless pyram jewel where he stashed it years ago. Shadow Lass swoons over the jewel and the two plan to leave when they are interrupted. The teen turns out to be Stone boy of the Legion of Substitute heroes. They attack the hero but he uses his powers to turn himself to stone. Cosmic Boy's gun has no effect on him. They head out side when they are attacked by plants under the control of Chlorophyll Kid. Cosmic Boy goes to fire his gun again and he his stop by Fire Lad's flaming breath.

Who are Stone Boy, Chlorophyll Kid and Fire Lad, you ask? They are members of the Legion of Substitute heroes. A good of former Legion applicants who were rejected that formed together to become their own back up squad for the main team.
  They wrap up the pair and it turns out that Cosmic Boy and Shadow Lass, are really 2 impostors wearing costumes. The fake Cosmic boy hid the Pyram Jewel in the detention center years ago and they dressed like the heroes so that they could move about unnoticed. The Subs were at the junk yard to pick up the headquarters, it seems that the Legion has given building to the lesser known heroes to use as their new headquarters.

Bits of Legionnaire Business
Roll Call (all in flashback)

• Cosmic Boy
• Shadow Lass
• Superboy
• Brainiac-5

Legion of Substitute heroes

• Chlorophyll Kid
• Fire Lad
• Stone Boy

Notes:
Page 1:

• Shadow Lass says she is going to hate to see the old clubhouse go. Now at this point she has been a member of the team for a bout five minutes. She Joined the group around the time of the building's destruction.

Page 2:

• The junkyard that the headquarters is left in also has the U.S.S. Enterprise and the Jupiter II along with other space vehicles.

Page 4:

• The fake Cosmic Boy's says he spent enough time around the Legion Security Chamber to know the lay out in his sleep, the reason why is because he was locked up in it.
• My first hint that something was not right was when Cosmic Boy used a weapon to open the cell, the real Cosmic Boy would of been able to use his powers to do that.

Page 5

• Nice use of the Subs, Later uses of the team would make them a joke but they are used well hear.

Okay story not one of my favorites, but I am not going to pick it apart. The Subs appearance was good to see, I know we won't see the whole team again for a while but we will see a member next issue.
Next Time: The first story of Superboy # 212