Superboy #201 or Why I Love the 70s LSH

[tpsreports]

So I stopped by a comic store that was clearing out some old Superboys for $1 each. How could I resist?


We begin with three would-be Legionnaires waiting to show their stuff.


But first Superboy has to tell them that being a Legionnaire means being willing to sacrifice your life by recounting the story of Erg/Wildfire.


Of course he doesn't know Erg/Wildfire survived as disembodied energy, who now is hanging around Legion Headquarters trying to get his containment suit back.

Meanwhile the potential members demonstrate their powers. First up Applicant Number One, come on Star Boy you couldn't bother to learn Porcupine Pete's name?


Rejected! Superboy sure uses a lot of exclamation points. Meanwhile Erg/Wildfire has decided to use his power to control minds to get back into his containment suit. Wildfire sure had a lot of powers back then. Meanwhile Star Boy volunteers to work with Applicant Number Two, Infectious Lass. Notice he learned her name.


Infectious Lass is rejected and Erg/Wildfire concludes that the Legion Flight Rings are preventing his never before seen power to control minds.

The next applicant is Molecular Master. Erg/Wildfire realizes he doesn't have a flight ring so tries to control his mind only to discover that Molecular Master is an android. Using his never before seen power to analyze computer data, Wildfire discovers Molecular Master is at Legion Headquarters to steal the Miracle Machine. They really shouldn't leave that thing lying around.


Erg/Wildfire uses the Miracle Machine to get access to his containment suit and defeats Molecular Master who has poisoned the other Legionnaires. He then uses the Miracle Machine to revive the Legionnaires and enjoys freaking them out with his return from the dead.


Seriously this is why I love 70s comics. This thing has everything. Superboy being a dick. The Subs. Androids. What more could you ask for?


http://bizarrojimmyolsen.blogspot.com/

Comments

[cainofdreaming]

So, they protect the costume with a force field but not the deus ex machina? That's some priority failure.

[starwolf_oakley]

When I see "choke" spelled out like that I have a vague memory of the Mark Hamil Joker actually saying "choke" at one point.

"Maybe even... Choke! Sob! ...Me!".

[icon_uk]

It's the fact that "choke" is said by an energy being, who doesn't even HAVE a throat, occupying the body of an android, that adds that extra frisson of "Hunh?"

[razsolo]

yanno, this paired with the storyline where he totally failed to keep a humanoid body after Quislet taught him totally makes me think Wildfire has some MAJOR self-esteem issues goin on.....

[junipepper]

Ah, one from my early days as a comics reader! I love this. I mean, really, why would anyone worry over a person who calls herself "Infectious Lass?" How were they to know she might make someone ill?

lol

[icon_uk]

Maybe they thought she had an infections giggle?

[auggie18]

Oh yeah, why you want Infectious Lass on your team? Obviously nobody in the Legion read/saw War of the Worlds.

Plus, "oh no, she did exactly what she said would, REJECTED."

Oh Legion, I love your ways.

[crinos]

To be fair, she kinda almost kill Star Boy, so that might have hurt her chances.

Besides, I doubt the Legion wants a teammate who is, in essence, a walking biological weapon. Doubt that would play well in the press, plus one stray shot in a fire fight and little timmy has the bubonic plague.

Of course I'm just playing devil's advocate here. INFECTIOUS LASS FOR THE LEGION!

[cainofdreaming]

Little Timmy really should stop playing in firefights. In hindsight the well might have been the safest place for him.

[crinos]

Yeah, he's a nice kid, but he just attracts trouble doesn't he?

[blunderbuss]

Did she? From the look of it all she did was give him a bad case of the flu, which would hardly be lethal in the futuristic setting.

And besides, I'm not sure you can wag your finger at a lady who uses germs considering what the other members can be capable of. One of the Legionnaires is Chemical King - wouldn't he be a chemical weapon?

[crinos]

Like I said, playing devil's advocate. I'm just trying to think of the Legion's justification.

Besides, disregarding my theory, she did definitely demonstrate she doesn't have complete control over her powers. That seems to be a common thread regarding Legion rejects: Either they have weak or impractical powers (Like Night Lass, Stone Boy, Color Kid or Chlorophyll Kid), or they have useful powers which they have trouble aiming/ controlling (Porcupine Pete, Fire Lad, Infectious Lass, Polar Boy.)

[randyripoff]

I'm pretty sure that Polar Boy and Fire Lad had control over their powers. I always figured he was rejected because they just didn't like him much. Same reason Bouncing Boy was inducted--he doesn't have the best power, but we really like him.

[crinos]

Well, I can't speak for Polar Boy, but I do recall reading that Fire Lad was a terrible shot with his powers, and so he was rejected for all the potential destruction he might cause (According to Wikipedia, Polar Boy was rejected because its felt his powers would be a hindrance to fighting crime.)

[randyripoff]

The Legionnaires told Polar Boy that they feared him losing control of his powers, but there was never any indicationthat he didn't have control of them., just that the Legion didn't want him.

[icon_uk]

I think that Fire Lad being a bad shot was retconned in later, especially when they started playing the Legion of Substitute Heroes for laughs more than anything else.

[icon_uk]

Originally, Polar Boy was rejected for a particularly poor reason, since it seemed to be based on a hypothetical situation that would be true of ANY Legionnaire, especially the one who's a walking solar flare.

[randyripoff]

Exactly. The only thing I can think of is that the 14-18 year olds in the group just didn't like Brek very much, at least not at that time.

Of course, these stories were written in the early 1960's, so that plays into a lot of it too.

[icon_uk]

Given how fast she was able to induce full blown stomach flu, I do wonder how long Star Boy would have survived if she hadn't realised what she'd done and stopped in time, ordinary medical treatment (even 30th cnetury levels) might not get there fast enough.

And that was "just" flu, imagine what she could with gangrene or some of the nastier necrotising fasciitis bacteria.

Chemical King's powers were the (IMHO rather fascinating, but then I do love the oddball powers) ability to catalyse chemical reactions, to speed them up or slow them down as he chose, so he's not really a chemical weapon in the sense I think you mean. Element Lad would be even riskier IMHO, since he could turn oxygen to chlorine, or sand into uranium etc...

[icon_uk]

With her powers under control she'd be very effective, but otherwise she's more like a Liability Lass

[razsolo]

Now I want there to be a Liability Lass who just goes around joining villain teams on the Legion's behalf so their evil plots always suffer a completely unanticipated setback for no particular reason all the time....

[junipepper]

lol

[icon_uk]

Funnily enough, the Legion already HAS someone with that powerset, meet Calamity King... though I like your idea as to how best to use him! :)

[featheredserpent]

A distant descendant of Major Disaster, perhaps?

[icon_uk]

"Son, there's no easy way to say this, but your birth was an accident.. of course, in this family, that's really the only way it EVER happens"

[blunderbuss]

Yeah, that really confused me. Oh no, she easily defeated an opponent with a wave of her hand! GET OUT.

[bruinsfan]

"The true test of a Legionnaire is being willing to sacrifice one's life at a moment's notice. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go splash around in the sun's corona since I'm invulnerable!"

[aravis]

This... Might be the first comic book I ever read (or that I am at least aware that I read). Being a kid, wisiting my grandma, who kept a stash of comics for me. This, or possibly another legion story, which ended with something like Brainiac 5 saying that something was "thought energy" (translating back from Swedish, not sure what the original English was), and Superboy saying all legionnaries should use their thoughts to redirect it at the villain. Was from the same run, I'm sure.

In other words... Oh my god, this brought back so many memories it's scary. Literally, one of my very earliest memories of comics, or memories AT ALL, from a time when I could barely read. *sniffles* LONG LIVE THE LEGION!

[tpsreports]

Yeah I have much the same story. I spent every summer at my grandparents and my uncles had a box of well worn comics from 40s-70s. I think the first comic I ever read was Action 370. Not a dream, not an imaginary story, it was Superman's Lost Century.

[silverzeo]

Wait... they put a dead Comrade's suit in a impenetrable force-field but put the machine that literally makes one's imagination into a reality... in a glass case?

[icon_uk]

I rather like the idea his anti-energy form was susceptible to the domestic dust-repelling force field they put on the trophy.

And, in fairness, the Miracle Machine was locked away in their arsenal, the Erg-1 suit was in a public accesible area and they might be plagued with souvenir collectors.

[randyripoff]

To be fair, they were a bunch of teenagers. They were bound to make some mistakes in judgment.

[featheredserpent]

The costumes! The *hair*! I love it!

Seriously, Colossal Boy, what's the eagle medallion for? And the gravity belt?

[wizardru]

Dave Cockrum at his ever-loving BEST.


...dang, now I miss Dave Cockrum again. :(

[monkey12]

Who's the green-skinned girl with the cape in the last panel, and why is she amazed by Erg's junk?

[icon_uk]

That's blue skin rather than green because she's Tasmia Mallor, aka Shadow Lass, long standing member of the Legion, and has Mon-El as her boyfriend.

[pallas_athena]

I sincerely hope you got more of these old issues and will post scans from them here! I really enjoyed this one-- old Legion stories are so lovely.