Superboy 202 Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes



Superboy 202 Cover date May June 1964; Cover Price .60 cents. First Story, "Lost a million Miles from home" Story: Cary Bates, Pencils: Dave Cockrum, Inks: Mike Grell.
 Zooming through deep space in a legion cruiser Shrinking Violet and Colossal Boy watch a visi-tape of their latest adventure on Alpha-4, when their cruiser loses all power. Checking the systems they cannot find what is wrong, Violet bemoans that their powers are usless. Colossal boy dons a protective suit and goes out side to see if he can find out what is wrong. Inside Violet is happy when the power comes back on and figures that Colossal boy must of fixed the ship. Colossal boy, aka Gim Allon reenters the ship and the power does off again. Violet deduces that Gim is the problem and explains to him about the ship gaining and loses power depending if he is on the ship or not. After Violet runs some Physio scans, Gim says they have know alternative and both of them don space suits. Flying through space using their flight rings and communicating with the use of telepathic ear plugs. They find an asteroid near the ship and Colossal boy tells violet to go back to the ship and go get help. Violet tells him that it is a million mile trip and even going at top speed it will take some time. As soon as Violet leaves Colossal boy is being covered by the mineral creature that he thought was an asteroid. He tries to send out a telepathic call for help but Violet must be out of range. He says he could save himself if he uses his powers to grow but it would destroy his suit so either way he is done for. Back on the ship Violet is sure that something on Alpha-4 is the cause to their problems.

Watching the visi-tape again she see an enlarged Gim slap his neck like something has hit him. changing angles she sees a sniper taking a shot at him. Violet backtracks to where she left Gim and she does not see him. She senses a weak thought coming from a rock. Violet pushes the rock into her ship and just before he suffocates Gim enlarges and burst through the rock. Gim looks around for Violet and can not see her. From his neck she grows until she can fit in the plam of his hand and explains that he was shot with a dart that when he returned to normal size shrunk to microscopic size and was responsible for there power problems. They destroyed the dart and resumed their journey back to earth.

Bits of Legionnarie Buisness:

Roll Call:

• Colossal Boy (Gim Allon)
• Shrinking Violet (Salu Digby)

Legion Equipment Used:

• Flight Rings
• Telepathic ear plugs
• Legion curiser

 Planets Visited:
Alpha-4

 Notes:
 Nice two member lead story, builds on the friendship of Shrinking Violet and Colossal Boy. As a kid when I read this story I new that Violet had a boy friend but I thought their was more to thier relationship, re-reading this I find that it was in my head not on the page.
Superboy 202 was the first issue that Mike Grell did art on, he is credited as Inker and this helps the already great art of Dave Cockrum. Grell takes over as Penciller next issue and is one of my favorite artist ever.
 The story shows us Violet and Colossal Boy returning from a mission on alpha-4 and the two working together to solve thier problem of being stuck in space. Bates for the 2nd issue in a row shows us a female character that wines that her power is not helpful but then showing  us that the character and her powers belong in the Legion. I have a problem with the fact that they show us the ship is only on emergancy power but they can run the Physio scanner. The only reasoning I can give is that it is medical equipment. They show protective suits that they wear in space with bubble helments. Colossal Boys has his regular gloves and boots, Violet's does not. All in all another good issue in the Bates run.

Next time: the 2nd story from 202 "The wrath of the Devil fish."