Week of 21 July 2010

(SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers. Don't read it before you've read the comics.)

 LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #3 (9/10)
"Earth-Man's Choice"

ROLL CALL:


Brainiac 5, Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Earth-Man, Element Lad, Invisible Kid (Jacques), Lightning Lad, Lightning Lass, Phantom Girl, Saturn Girl, Sensor Girl, Shadow Lass, Sun Boy, Tellus, Tyroc, Ultra Boy, Wildfire; also Aven, Saturn Queen

CUTE BOYS: Brainy, Dirk (looking stunning in his full-page appearance), Gim, Jacques, Jan, Jo, Rokk, Tyroc

Two covers this time, and Legion completists will want both.

There are three plotlines, plus two setups for the future.

Earth-Man is driven by the Green Lantern Ring to rescue sapient insects on the planet Ozifer. He is assisted by a mission team led by Sun Boy. Disgusted, Earth-Man gives up the Power Ring (or does he?)

A mission team led by Sensor Girl defeats Saturn Queen in the wreckage of Titan.

Lightning Lad and Lightning Lass retrieve Saturn Girl from her stalled time bubble. The three of them follow Imra's telepathic image to the planet Avalon, where they meet a big surprise.

Meanwhile, in a Titanian refugee camp, Aven comforts Doctor Li (who was one of the scientists responsible for destroying Titan...although that fact is not common knowledge yet).

And remember that ship full of Durlans? Seems they are on a mission to avenge the death of R.J. Brande.

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS:

Titan and the Lanothians: Saturn Queen says that her ancestors left Earth for Titan long ago, and she refers to a time "before we went to Titan and met the Lanothians." That removes the question of why the current Titanians seem to be human. Presumably the Lantohians somehow gave telepathic powers to Saturn Queen's ancestors (or perhaps there was interbreeding). One obvious question: are there any Lanothians left in Legion times? (Or were there, before Titan blew up?)

Tyroc and Marzal: Saturn Queen says to Tyroc: "You took your people away from Earth when they didn't understand Marzal." In classic continuity, Marzal was an island which existed in another dimension and appeared on Earth for a few years every two centuries. It was settled by African slaves who revolted on a slave ship in the 1700s. It appears that the current version of Marzal may have a different (and possibly more interesting) story.

Green Lantern Earth-Man: The Power Ring transforms Earth-Man into a Green Lantern complete with a green-and-white version of his costume (which also recalls Rond Vidar's Green Lantern uniform).

Avalon: Avalon is a medieval world once dominated by Mordru (under the rather transparent alias "Lord Romdur"). It appeared in Legion of Super-Heroes #276 (8/1981) "Lord Romdur's Castle," and again briefly in the Great Darkness Saga. It was a world with great untapped magical potential, which Mordru sought to exploit and Darkseid also took advantage of. Lightning Lad says, of Avalon, "It was during my term as Legion Leader..." Oddly enough, Lightning Lad was not among the team on Avalon in LSH #276, although we can probably assume that he saw mission monitor tapes.

Aven gets a first name in this issue: Preem. This is probably a reference to Preem Palver, a character in Isaac Asimov's novel Second Foundation.

Around Saturn, Tellus weakens Saturn Girl's hold on Brainy and Tyroc, while Sensor Girl seems to remove everyone but Saturn Queen from their perception, so that they attack Saturn Queen. I love Jeckie's line: "The temerity of this commoner to call herself a Queen." Jeckie should know, being Queen of Orando.

Incidentally, it is only within the last few years that I came to realize that all of the original (adult) Legion of Super-Villains used titles that meant "leader": Saturn Queen, Lightning Lord, Cosmic King, Sun Emperor, and Chameleon Chief.

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