Week of 1 December 2010

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

ADVENTURE 521 (2011/02)
"The Summons of the Ring"


ROLL CALL:

Chemical King (memorial statue), Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Dawnstar, Dream Girl, Earth-Man, Element Lad, Ferr Lad (memorial statue), Invisible Kid (Jacques), Invisible Kid (Lyle), Karate Kid (Val) (memorial statue), Mon-El, Phantom Girl, Polar Boy, Quislet, Shadow Lass, Sun Boy, Tellus, Tyroc, Wildfire, Dyogene

CUTE BOYS: Brek, Dirk, Gim, Jacques, Jan, Lar, Rokk

Dyogene shows up at Legion HQ in order to examine the Legionnaires to choose a new Green Lantern. Meanwhile, a team deals with the aftermath of an earthquake in east-central Africa. Dawnstar and Wildfire determine that the quake was caused by something emerging from Olduvai Gorge. The mysterious thing speeds off into space, blasting Drake and Dawny when they try to follow. Mon-El accepts a power ring from Dyogene dons a cool Green Lantern suit, and flies off into next issue.

BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS:

Shady is (deservedly, IMHO) pissed that Dyogene passed her over for the power ring.

Symbols on the mission monitor board show the following groups:

• Element Lad, Invisible Kid, Sun Boy, Tellus
• Timber Wolf, Tyroc, Ultra Boy (still guarding the U.P. Council?)
• Dawnstar, Wildfire (in space, blasted by a thing)
• Brianiac 5, Chameleon Boy (on Naltor with Dr. Li)
• Earth-Man (blank symbol), Shadow Lass (outside HQ)
• Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl (on leave)
• Lightning Lass, Shrinking Violet (gone to Imsk)

Not appearing on the board, but present, are Colossal Boy, Dream Girl, Mon-El, Phantom Girl, Polar Boy, and Quislet.

Mon-El says to Dyogene, "I...I'm not what you think..." Huh? I'm guessing that we'll come back to this at some point.

Wildfire's containment suit now contains an emergency beacon that triggers in case of system failure. A wise addition, considering how often Drake's suit gets blasted open.

The contrast between Sodam Yat and Mon-El is an interesting one. Both have survived the past thousand years: Mon in the Phantom Zone, Sodam Yat preserved by the power of the Ring. Sodam seems to be broken and despairing; Mon-El is powerful and a symbol of hope. Both are potentially the most powerful beings in the universe.

CHRONICLER'S ERROR?:

Element Lad stops a fire by turning the oxygen in the air to xenon, then back to oxygen before trapped students can choke. I suspect that there would be enough heat left for the fires to start back up when oxygen was restored -- but I'm wiling to give Jan this one.


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