This was around the point where I dropped off in my brief dalliance with SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES after following it again for a few issues. Somehow, the future time period and the stakes therein didn’t speak to me, and the odd schizophrenic conflict between the futuristic environment and the more dated aspects of the series (including the code-names) prevented me from signing on board on a regular basis. I’d continue to dip my toe into the world of the Legion from time to time, but it was still a few years off that I really began to read the series with any regularity.
This issue rather famously carries the pseudonymous credit of Steve Apollo on story and pencils. The reason for this is that this issue’s tale, like the one in the previous issue, had begun life as an oversized special dedicated to wrapping up the plot threads left over from an earlier story in which it had been revealed that there was a secret menace lurking within the ranks of the Legion. However, by the time that story was close to being finished, there wasn’t anyplace for such a story to fit–it was too long. So it was broken in half to run across two issues of the main title. In doing so, editor Jack C. Harris was obligated to add some material (such as the new splash page above), and scripter Paul Levitz also had to adjust some details to make the story fit into the continuity of that moment. These changes weren’t to creator Jim Starlin’s liking, and so he requested that his name be removed from the published story. Steve Apollo was his facetious pseudonym.
We pick up where we left off last time, with the Legion having discovered that the malefactor in their midst who framed Ultra Boy for murder is Brianiac 5, who has gone mad. What’s more, he’s created a titanically powerful entity, Omega, which is even now on a course to annihilate Earth. Despite the best efforts of the various Legionnaires, nothing that they come up with seems capable of stopping Omega or diverting his course, and the clock is ticking. Brainiac 5 wants to be giving control of the entire United Planets, or else he’ll let Omega destroy Earth. The Legionnaires try some more, which forms the backbone of a protracted action sequence at this point, but all of their mighty powers prove ineffective against Omega.
With no other course open to them, Legion leader Wildfire is being pressured by some of his teammates to use the Miracle Machine, an all-powerful device left in the Legion’s care by the powerful alien race the Controllers. But it’s so powerful, able to turn thought into reality, that Wildfire is hesitant to use it for fear that they will somehow make things worse or obliterate the universe. Instead, Wildfire accedes to Brainiac 5’s demands, placing him in charge of the Legion despite the fact that he’s clearly out of his mind. Brainy has a plan to defeat Omega, though–and it requires the services of retired legionnaire Matter-Eater Lad.
While Matter-Eater Lad is summoned, the rest of the Legion fights a delaying action to try to slow Omega down as he approaches Earth and heads for Legion headquarters. Princess Projectra casts an illusion of a second Omega, which confuses the true Omega for an instance, giving Karate Kid the moment he needs to strike. But even the Kid’s ability to find an opponent’s weak spot isn’t enough to put him down. As Omega breaches the inner chamber, Wildfire has ordered the Legionnaires to evacuate the building, and he opens his visor wide, releasing all of his anti-Energy at once in a colossal explosion that destroys the whole of Legion headquarters. It’s pretty awesome. But Omega is still unaffected.
Now, the only one left to confront Omega is Brainiac 5, but Brainy isn’t even slightly worried. Omega reveals that Brainy created him with the Miracle Machine, and he now intends to use the device to destroy everything. But Brainy tells him that he’s too late, and Omega’s power begins to falter, the entity dwindling away to nothingness. Brainiac 5, you see, has had Matter-Eater Lad digest the Miracle Machine, destroying the source of Omega’s existence. Unfortunately, Matter-Eater-Lad is driven insane by the alien energies he’s forced to consume, but Brainy sees this as a small price to pay for becoming ruler of the cosmos.
Of course, the Legion turns Brainiac 5 over to the medics in the hopes that his insanity can be treated and cured. And that’s about where this issue wraps up, with Superboy and a restored Wildfire talking about the situation. The United Planets was already considering making the Legion move its activities off-world, and the destruction to Metropolis caused in Omega’s attack are sure to increase that sentiment. And the team’s HQ is in rubble anyway, so they don’t really have anyplace to hang their hat in the meantime. But if nothing else, that lingering mystery about the person who framed Ultra Boy has finally been cleared up after hovering in the background for months, so now the storylines can move forward.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
Kind of a typically “Gordian” Starlin story: what do you the Cosmic Cube for? (To wish to be made God.) How do you deal with an indestructible, all-powerful machine> (Eat it.)
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Was it the DC Implosion that let to whatever oversized book this story was originally intended for to no longer be available?
I believe that another reason Jim Starlin took his name off this story was that he drew the layouts specifically with Josef Rubinstein in mind to do the finishes, and Starlin was therefore unhappy that Dave Hunt was providing the finished artwork.
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“So it was broken in half to run across two issues of the main title. In doing so, editor Jack C. Harris was obligated to add some material (such as the new splash page above), and scripter Paul Levitz also had to adjust some details to make the story fit into the continuity of that moment.”
Also, since the story was something like 64 pages long and was being squeezed into two issues, somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 pages were simply discarded.
Had someone saved copies of those pages, by now DC would have had Joe Rubinstein finish them, Paul script them, and it would have been released in hardcover with a reprint of issue 239 as a prologue, as LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES: THE LOST ADVENTURE.
But if this is where you dropped out of LEGION, it was a good spot to pick. Until Paul Levitz returns (with Giffen and Broderick), the book is largely being done by competent creators who would largely rather be doing something else.
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After a long stretch of random creators, Levitz showed the perks of having one person directing a series for a long stretch of time (along with his co-creators, of course).
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The interregnum between the first Levitz run and the Levitz/Giffen run wasn’t all that random — there were mainly two writers, and two artists, both in sequence.
The problem was that Gerry, Roy and Joe Staton weren’t terribly interested in the Legion — they were just doing the book to meet their contractual quotas, and were happy to move on to other stuff when it opened up.
In Jimmy Janes’s case, I don’t know if he had any special love for the Legion — his art looked very Marvel-fueled, like his ideal series would have been FANTASTIC FOUR — but since it’s the only sustained comics work he did, it’s hard to say.
Levitz clearly cared, and Giffen dug into the series fast and hard, making it very much “his” book, so you had two committed creators. Later on, Lightle and LaRocque seemed like they were engaged and interested. As did Terry Shoemaker, and it’s a shame they lost him to Marvel so fast. It would have been terrific if he could have had a long run.
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That’s a fair assessment. I think I was compounding LSH with JLA which did indeed bounce between writers in the interregnum between Wein and Englehart — at the time both books felt similarly adrift.
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Not quite at the same time — the Wein-Englehart interregnum was 1975-1977, and the Levitz-Levitz interregnum was 1978-1982 — but I’d definitely agree that JLA felt directionless. LEGION felt, at least to me, like it had a direction, that stuff was moving and developing and characters were engaged in more than just missions — but it just wasn’t all that good.
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This was awesome. How they handled the fallout? Not so much. Brainy got the lamest ‘cure’ ever and no consequences. Tenzil could have been given a new power set and returned but no. I guess he just excreted what he ate and returned to status quo.
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Hmm, I guess what we need now is a comic to explore Bismollian excretory processes! Or more likely, just eliminate (heh) the problem by saying that their systems convert anything unusable into pure energy.
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Yes, that was a feeble wrap-up of the hanging plot thread with Brainy.
Of course the list of heroes who did something awful/insane and suffered no consequences is er, legion.
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I have to admit, I thought it was a very clever (and darkly funny) twist that the Legionnaire with the goofiest super-power was the only one who could save the day. Reminds me of the old story where Color Kid of the Legion Substitutes resolved a crisis by turning Green Kryptonite into Blue K.
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I’ve said before, Matter-Eater Lad really buries the lede with his powers. I think he’d get more respect if he went by something kewl like “Destructo-Jawz”, and left the digestion aspect as an offhand secondary power. Also be a bit grittier “You wouldn’t want to be around me when I’m … hungry”.
I’ve always thought Color Kid is way underrated. As you note, he can transform Green K. Thus, he can neutralize one of the few vulnerabilities of one of the Legion’s most powerful members. That’s respectable by itself. Any opponent with a goggles or a visor can have their vision impeded by making that black (if he gets nasty, he could do it to their corneas). If he can change the color of the air, and I don’t see any reason he shouldn’t be able to do that, he basically can create smokescreens and Shadow Lass type effects. I wonder if he can depower Kryptonians and Daxamities by changing the yellow sunlight in a local area to red sunlight. Just being a little creative should make him formidable.
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Most of the original Subs would have made great Legionnaires, with the exception of the only one offered membership in the original run.
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I wonder if this were the first metaphorical lynchings of Miracle Machine creator, Jim Shooter?
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Seems more like Starlin doing a self-parody: Tenzil defeating Omega by eating the Miracle Machine is reminiscent of Mar-Vell defeating Thanos by smashing the Cosmic Cube.
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I’m pretty certain it was after he quit Captain Marvel over a promise of a steady inker was promised so maybe the second?
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Although, Roy Thomas was still EIC then.
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This story was published in 1979, and plotted and drawn at some point in 1978. Since Jim only became EIC in 1978, and Starlin did a number of projects during his era, including THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN MARVEL and DREADSTAR, I think probably not.
Jim didn’t really start chasing people off until 1980. And I don’t remember Starlin ever having a problem with him offhand, but if he did it wouldn’t have been that early.
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One complaint I’d make about Levitz & Giffen’s long and lauded LSH run is their underuse of Matter-Eater Lad. The ‘Five Years Later’ series gave him some very amusing appearances.
I think it was Levitz who suggested that Bismollian society, where people are *drafted* into politics, could hardly throw up worse leaders and legislators than Earth’s voluntary participation! For some reason this observation occurs to me more and more nowadays…
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