One day in 20th century Smallville, Lana Lang surrounded by friends and Family blows out the candles on a birthday. On of the attendance is Clark Kent secretly Superboy. As Clark hands Lana a present she bemoans to herself that it was foolish to hope that Superboy would remember her birthday with all the things on his mind. Later that night Lana is laying on her bead reading when Superboy appears sitting on her window sill. Superboy is there to give Lana his present, a trip to the 30th century to attend a Meeting of the Legion of Super-heroes. After telling her parents where she is going , Lana lets Superboy wrap his indestructible cape around her body to protect her from the time stream. The pair leave the time stream above Legion headquarters in 30th century Metropolis. Just being Superboy's girl friend is usually not enough to get someone into a Legion meeting but Lana is also a Member of the Legion Reserve in her Identity of Insect Queen. Using her Bio Ring Insect queen can duplicate the abilities of any insect. Lana and Superboy are greeted by a very glum looking group of Legion Members. Shrinking Violet, Wildfire, and Karate Kid tell them that the monthly meeting and all other activities were suspended until further notice, that they are in the midst of a real crisis. They show the Superboy and Lana the communications room that look like an Ion Tornado went through there. Wildfire explains that it took five of them to overcome the culprit before he wrecked the Citadel. They tell Superboy that they have the person responsible locked up in the Triple security cell and to be prepared for a shock. Superboy uses his x-ray vision to look into the cell and sees a crazed looking Ultra boy being restrained by an electronic straight jacket.
In the meeting room Legion Leader Mon-El and Chief scientist and all around smart guy Brainiac-5 fill Lana and Superboy on what is going on. They ran every test on Ultra Boy and still do not know what made him go insane. Superboy volunteers to go into the cell and see if he can get through to Ultra Boy. Brainiac-5 warns Superboy that Jo Nah, Ultra Boy has all of the powers that he has, but can only use them one at a time, and that the madness has boosted his strength so that Ultra boy is stronger that Superboy or Mon-El. Superboy goes into the triple security cell any ways. Ultra Boy breaks out of his electronic straight jacket and attacks the teen of steel. Superboy holds his off but Ultra boy grabs Superboy's cape and ties him up and is applying enough pressure to knock Superboy out. Outside the cell Lana is sensing something is wrong and has Mon-El open the door and pull the unconscious lad out of the cell. Shadow Lass, Mon-El and Lana stand watch as Superboy regains consciousness. They hand him his cape, still tied in a knot. Known of the heroes could figure out how to untie the knot. Superboy tells them it is a special not that Ultra-Boy taught him and unties it as Brainy rushes into the room. Brainiac says he has found the cause of Jo's maniacal rages. He ties the virus back thousands of years and equates it to demonic possession. He tells every one that experiments done in the 27th century proved that these fits were brought on by a virus. The only cure is water form the oceans of a twin ringed plant thousands of light years away. It is decided that either Superboy or Mon-El have to go because they are the fastest. Superboy volunteers stating that the Legion can not afford to be without it's leader. After getting the star coordinates Superboy takes off and the team tells him that they will take care of Ultra boy and Lana as well. As soon as Superboy is out of sight Mon-El forcibly grabs Lana, she tells him to let her go, but Shadow lass tells her that they are "taking care" of her like they promised. At the same time Brainiac-5 and Karate Kid enter the cell to find a sane Ultra Boy. Ultra Boy asks if it is time for another shot of the madness drug, that they have been giving him. Brainiac-5 tells him that now that Superboy is off on a wild goose chase that can proceed with their real plan. They escort him out into the hall, and Jo pleads with them to let him help them. He reflects that the last few days have been a nightmare, every Legionnaire expect him has gone crazy. Still weak from the drugs he tries to make a break for it and knocks Brainiac-5 down but gets taken out easily by Karate Kid.
Ultra Boy comes to tied to a post next to Lana. Mon-El flies down and ask if they have any last words before the firing squad arrives. He tells them that the "Master" had decreed that they must die. Jo because he was immune to the masters control and Lana because she is not a true Legionnaire.
Mon-El puts on special glasses on Ultra Boy so that he emits Ultra Vision so that he cannot use his ultra-invulnerability. Shadow Lass, Karate Kid, Brainiac-5 and Wild Fire are the firing squad. Mon-El gives the command and they blast Ultra boy and Lana. The 5 heroes leave the lifeless duo and return to the secret project that the master wants finished before Superboy returns.
 |
| Lana as insect queen |
Bits of Legionnaire Business"
Roll Call:
- Superboy
- Ultra Boy (Jo Nah)
- Mon-El (Leader)
- Wildfire
- Shadow Lass
- Shrinking Violet
- Karate Kid
- Brainiac-5
- Insect Queen (reserve member)
- Court yard
- Communications room
- Triple security cell
- Meeting room
- unnamed medical room
- Hanger
- Store room
- Blaster
- Medical equipment
- Jo's straight jacket
Page 2
- Lana's birthday cake has 17 candles, so she is either 16 or 17, (one to grow on)
- Mike Grell draws Lana's mom to look like a milf. The look on Pete Ross's face is "Lana's mom has got it going on."
- Superboy shows up at Lana window like a kryptonian stalker.
- Lana's parents were okay with there teenage daughter going off to the 30th century with a guy who's real name they do not know.
- When they show the time stream there are little blocks showing different years the first one shown is 1956. We can guess if that is the year the 20th century part of the story take place in, and that Lana is just turning 16, which means that in modern times (1974) Lana is 34 years old and so is Superman.
- A weak Ultra Boy takes out Brainiac-5 easily but Karate Kid wipes the floor with him.
- The blast that the Legion execution squad fires destroys the post but not the clothes on Lana and Ultra boy. Dam comics code!
- Jo says the knot came from his home planet of Nimbor. Jo is from Rimbor. This was the first time I ever noticed this mistake, I must of read this book over a dozen times over the decades and never saw it, but reading it a 3:00 in the morning to get ready for this post I saw it. I then took out my copy of Legion archives number 11 and found that they fixed it in the archives addition.
- Lana changes into her Insect queen costume. Where did she keep it, she is not caring a bag and while the body suit would of fit under her clothes, where did the mask, wings and ring come from?
- Great Mike Grell drawing of Lana as a Spider woman.
- Who the hell is the "Master". He is immortal from a race we have never heard of before or since. His back story is never mentioned and he does not appear ever again.
Besides the Villain my only real nick pick with this story is that it is explains that because of there power level the master could not control Superboy or Ultra Boy, what about Mon-El. He has the same powers as Superboy and given that he is older and a little bigger he could be even stronger than Superboy, but he is shown to be firmly under the Masters control. The only thing I could think of is that he could only control one hero with that power level and he chose Mon-El because he is more powerful than Ultra boy and could not risk taking Superboy out of the Time stream to father his new race of slaves.
That's it until next time when we will do a Member profile on Superboy.
No comments:
Post a Comment