Steven Howell Wilson's Blog, page 21

Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Read – “The Weirdo Legionniare!” (Adventure Comics #341, February, 1966)

The second part of the Computo crisis seems to be a tale in search of a marketing ploy. On the cover is depicted “Colossal Boy’s One-Man War!”—a scene of CB apparently killing Sun Boy and Star Boy, and declaring that the entire Legion will die next. On the inside splash, we’re told it’s the tale of “The Weirdo Legionnaire!” although “Colossal Boy’s One Man War!” is again referenced.

I can hear the conversation now:

“Ed! Or Jerry! Whoever’s closest! Look at Curt’s amazing cover of Colossal Boy...

Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Read – “Computo The Conqueror!” (Adventure Comics #340,

Element Lad and Star Boy stop by a top secret research facility to visit Brainiac 5, thinking how happy the reclusive young scientist will be to see his friends after what we presume must be weeks of hard work in the lab. Instead of being happy, however, Brainy is furious at the interruption. Wild-eyed, he tells his friends to go away and not come back. He’s not even moved that Proty II has disguised himself as a piece of lab equipment just because he likes being near Brainy. (I guess an orde...

Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Read – “The Menace of Beast Boy!” (Adventure Comics #339, December, 1965)

John Forte’s final Legion adventure, capping more than three years of faithful service to the team, evokes a story from early in writer Edmond Hamilton’s career. That story, “The Conquest of Two Worlds,” tells the tale of human colonization of Mars and Jupiter. That colonization is carried out much the way the colonizations of many lands on Earth were—by driving natives off their lands, killing them liberally to make room for humans. One of the three men who bravely explores and conquers thes...

The Colonel’s Plan – The Blue Bathroom – Part 5

September 22, 2017

Dear Daddy –

The bathroom is a big project. Its floor is down. Its outlets are partially wired. I furred out (is that the right spelling?) the opening above the now-installed shower walls, so that backing board for the tile would both fasten to the studs and slip down over the lip at the top of the fiberglass walls. How does one make furring strips—pieces of wood that are used to fill what would otherwise be a gap between a finished surface and the rough wall? You had obvio...

“The Sacrifice of Kid Psycho!” (Superboy #125, December, 1965)

This is another of Otto Binder’s very few Legion entries, and, surprisingly, it does not feature Lana Lang at all. Odd, since Binder seemed to have an affection for the trouble-making redhead.

A young man in a turban and jumpsuit shows up at Kent’s General Store, asking Clark if he can supply Superboy’s home address. Clark explains that nobody knows that, and wonders if this strangely garbed young visitor is from some foreign land. He doesn’t have time to call ICE, however, because an emergen...

Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Read – “The Menace of the Sinister Super-Babies” (Adventure Comics #338, November, 1965)

At long last, the Time Trapper! This guy was set up months ago, but has only been teased thus far. Now we see him in all his glory, living in a post-nuclear holocaust world in the far future. He’s a tyrant who apparently rules with an iron fist. As one of his slave-vassals observes, “When the master laughs, the universe trembles.” He meets with a beautiful woman named Glorith of Balduur, who is set to do his bidding in the past and end the Legion of Super-Heroes forever.

It’s yet to be explai...

Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Read – “The Weddings That Wrecked The Legion!” (Adventure Comics #337, October, 1965)

So here we have the first story where romance comes out of the closet—heterosexual romance, at least. Any other kind would wait another three decades to surface in these pages. We knew that Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl would eventually get married. We knew that Phantom Girl had a “thing” for Ultra Boy, but it hadn’t been referenced since that one issue where it was established. This is the first time that the four characters came right out and admitted their attraction to each other, and rev...

Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Read – “The Insect Queen of Smallville” (Superboy #124, October, 1965)

I’ve already reviewed this story just recently, but that was before I started the Legion re-read. So, in addition to linking the original review of that issue of Superboy (which I had just happened to pick up at a dollar sale, if memory serves), here’s a few thoughts.

This is one of Legion co-creator Otto Binder’s few stories to be found in a Legion collection. In addition to this, he wrote only “The Sacrifice of Kid Psycho,” which I’ll be talking about in a few days, the first appearance of...

Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Read – “The True Identity of Starfinger” (Adventure Comics #336,

With Chameleon Boy, Shrinking Violet and Triplicate Girl appearing in this issue, 18 of the 19 Legionnaires have joined the battle with Starfinger. Only Supergirl is excluded, and she often was. But one of the Seven Wonders of the 30th Century, threatened last issue by Starfinger, reminds us of her, if our memory goes back that far.

The Global Tunnel parallels one dug by Supergirl in her first (unsuccessful) bid to join the Legion. This time, Hamilton introduces the idea of how fragile such a...

Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Read: “Starfinger!” (Adventure Comics #335, August, 1965)

And Happy Birthday to me! Actually, this issue would have hit the stands a couple of months before I was born, but it does carry my birth month and year, so I guess Starfinger is officially my Legion spirit guide.

With this issue we begin what I would call the first true Legion epic. Yes, we’ve had a two-part story before, but the Dynamo Boy affair was so disjointed, and its second part featured so few Legionnaires, that it only counts as the comic book equivalent of what on TV would be calle...