SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #246

As my family would go shopping around town, I would occasionally get momentary access to spinner racks and other shelf spaces that I couldn’t get to on a regular basis. And in most of those instances, these trips revealed comic books that I wanted to buy. Such was the case with this issue of SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES. I had purchased and read the prior issue some time earlier, but coming across a copy of this earlier issue still on sale someplace, I figured that I might as well read the first half of the story told in that later issue. So I picked it up. I believe this book came from a 7-11 that was across the street from a Kentucky Fried Chicken that we patronized for lunch that day.

Like the following issue, this one contained two stories. As Mark Waid explained in the comments on #247, this was due to the change in page count from the DC Explosion to the DC Implosion. Stories that had been written and drawn as book-length thrillers for the Explosion size didn’t fit into the truncated space allowed in the 40 cent editions, and so they had to be either heavily edited or broken in two in order to use the material. In this case, the second story in this issue is one of the so-afflicted tales, broken in half with a bit of editing done to it in order to get it into the allotted space. Accordingly, this issue opens with a 14-page story that had been commissioned at that length, and that determined how many pages would be left over for a portion of the split tale.

The opening story was plotted by Paul Levitz and scripted by Len Wein, and was done in part to clean up a dangling plot thread from Karate Kid’s short-lived solo title which had ended a little while before. Both stories in this issue were illustrated by Joe Staton, whose work I always found very appealing, though the choice of inker could sometimes have a detrimental effect on his work. In this lead-off tale, he’s inked by Dick Giordano, who does a nice job with it. Anyway, the story opens with a team of Legionnaires seeking out Karate Kid on Mercury, where they’ve heard that he checked into a Medivac-Lab where incurable diseases are treated. Fearing the worst, the Legionnaires are relieved when Karate Kid appears, telling them that the person so stricken was Iris Jacobs from the Twentieth Century, who would transform into the homicidal Diamondeth until 30th Century science cured her of her condition.

While the Legion is there, Dr. Zebx asks for their assistance with another problem: the personnel of the Medivac unit has been disappearing. Staging a stake-out the Legionnaires are surprised by and fight off an invading robot that turns out to simply be an explorer droid created to survey the surface of Mercury. What’s worse, while the battle was going on, more people have disappeared. At this point, the temperature-sensitive Shadow Lass feels a sudden chill, and this gives Chameleon Boy a clue as to what is actually going on. He has the Legion and the lead Doctors from the Medivac Unit fly to the warmest spot on mercury aboard a Legion Cruiser. But the cruiser begins to melt under the intense heat, causing everybody to have to bail out from it.

Cham has talked his theory over with Sun Boy, and it’s at this point that Dirk Morgna comes to the fore. He uses his control of heat and light to make contact with the indigenous life forms of Mercury, the Thermoids, creatures made of sentient immaterial molecules. Those people who disappeared were accidentally incinerated by contact with a random Thermoid who happened to pass through where they were standing. Now, how nobody noticed these creatures for however long it too to establish and staff and build the reputation of the Medivac-Lab is a bit of a mystery, but the resolution here is that sun Boy is able to communicate using his powers and lets the Thermoids know what they’ve been unintentionally doing. And consequently, Medivac will need to be relocated to some other inhabitable world. But at least no more people will disappear and die.

The back-up story was entirely written by Wein and illustrated by Staton with Murphy Anderson inking. It opens with the world of Corvan IV sending delegates to the United Planet to negotiate that world’s entrance into the United Planets. The Legion is on hand to provide security–but they are stunned when the delegates turn out to be Mano and the Persuader, two members of the notorious Fatal Five, resolute enemies of the Legionnaires and wanted intergalactic criminals. Wasting no time, the Legion team leaps to the attack, and are held off by the two villains. But at a pause in the battle, the Persuader offers the fallen Superboy a hand up, and the devious duo proclaim that they are here legitimately, to speak on behalf of Corvan IV.

Mano and the Persuader surrender themselves to the authorities until the legitimacy of their claims can be verified. To this purpose, the Legion squad is dispatched as envoys to Corvan IV. On the planet, the other three members of the Five, Tharok, Validus and the Emerald Empress give the Legion members a tour of that world, showcasing how they’ve improved the lives of the inhabitants whom they’ve introduced to higher technology. But the Legion see this as a bad thing. They feel that the people of Corvan IV are suffering from culture shock, from being delivered too many advances in too short of a time, and they therefore reject the plea for United Planets membership. Accordingly, the Fatal Five (well, three) attack, and swiftly take down all of the Legionnaires save Superboy, who is held at bay by the Emerald Empress’ cosmic eye. Element Lad encases the Eye in Inertron to hold it momentarily, giving Superboy the moment he needs to race away from the planet to safety. As the issue comes to its To Be Continued end, Superboy vows to contact the rest of the Legion and return to vanquish the Fatal Five and save his captured comrades. And we all know how that worked out in #247 a month later.

BHOC: SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #247