Week of 6 July 2011

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

First, apologies for being so late. It's been awfully hectic around here lately. Now on to the comic:

ADVENTURE #528 (2011/09)
"Graduation Day"


ROLL CALL:

Bouncing Boy, Chemical King (memorial statue), Duplicate Girl, Ferro Lad (memorial statue), Invisible Kid (Lyle) (memorial statue), Karate Kid (Val) (memorial statue), Kid Psycho (memorial statue), Night Girl, Chemical Kid, Comet Queen, Crystal Kid, Dragonwing, Glorith, Gravity Kid, Lamprey, Nightwind, Power Boy, Proty I (memorial statue), Variable Lad, Cosmic King

CUTE BOYS: Bob, Chuck, Hadru, Special Mention for Jed & Tel


It's Graduation Day, and Lamprey is off to the S.P. outpost on Houp, while Power Boy, Nightwind, and Crystal Kid are off to the new S.P. special squad Takron-Galtos. Gravity Kid is upset; he and Jed have a tender farewell scene that confirms the two of them as a couple.

Meanwhile, a shadowy figure sneaks into Legion Headquarters, in service of Saturn Queen and armed with codes to deactivated all the alarms. It turns out to be Cosmic King.

Back at the Academy, Bouncing Boy, Duplicate Damsel, and Night Girl detect an ambiguous Headquarters alarm, and head off to investigate. They are followed by Comiet Queen, Chemical Kid, and Dragonwing.

In a nightmarish sequence in the Hall of Dead Heroes, the three Legionnaires are attacked by the HQ defenses, and then face Cosmic King himself. He gets the better of them, then turns to face the newly-arrived trio from the Academy.

All in all, a fun issue with plenty of action. The scene between Jed and Tel is sweet, although it would have been nicer to see them kiss. Oh, well, progress is progress, I suppose.


BITS OF LEGIONNAIRE BUSINESS:

Houp, Lamprey's next post may be a misspelling of "Huop," an energy world inhabited by energy beings. The world was first mentioned in Adventure #377 (Feb 1969). It makes sense for Lamprey, with her electrical powers, to be assigned to an energy world.

Cosmic King has not really appeared much in action against this Legion. He was always more an Adult Legion villain. (Of course, the Retro Legion is pretty much an adult Legion, aren't they?) Unless I'm mistaken, this may be the first time he's been written by Paul Levitz. Anyone know for sure?

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