The end of the Lightning Saga in JLA #10 and... Whatever happened to Karate Kid and Triplicate Girl? I read... shudder... parts of Countdown!!

Justice League of America #10

It's the final chapter of the Lightning Saga, so let's recap to begin.

The seven Legionnaires in the 31st Century (Starman (Boy), Karate Kid, Dream Girl, Wildfire, Timber Wolf, Dawnstar, and Sensor Girl) have come back from the future and brought with them lightning rods to bring back to life the Last Legionnaire. Superman's waxed poetic about how much the Legion means to him. The JLA and JSA have done a great job standing around and not really doing much of anything.

The plan for the Legion? To recreate that epic (and, to me, horrible) moment when they held lightning rods up to the sky, saved the life of Lightning Lad, and lost Proty forever.

I'm guessing this story will end with the death of one of these Legionnaires.

"The Villain is the Hero in his Own Story" is written by Brad Metzler with pencils by Ed Benes and inks by Sandra Hope.

We begin in Suicide Swamp, where the JLA and JSA have just figured out that Sensor Girl used her powers to trick them all into thinking they were fighting Computo. They've been tricked, and Superman takes it the worst.

The Legion have scattered around the Earth, taking their positions in different cities and waiting for the lightning to strike. Thom lets us know that Karate Kid died as well and came back. So does this mean they've used this lightning trick twice already? And who sacrificed themselves then?

Dream Girl is standing in a part in Keystone City, three minutes from impact, and the Flash approaches. He talks about how the Legion isn't going to pull off what they have planned. I'm honestly not sure how anyone in the JLA or JSA would have a clue about what the Legion has planned. I mean, they know they have lightning rods and they know what the Legion does with them. Anything else? Is there plan just to stop them from being struck by lightning? Also, considering Superman waxed poetically about how the Legion was so close that they were willing to die to save Lightning Lad, would the JSA and JLA not trust that they're making the same kind of sacrifice?

Dream Girl points out that even though they might not get away with it, her job might be to stall the one person who's fast enough to stop what's happening. The Flash's line:

We fought Hitler, Sweetie. 

Ugh.

But he does rightly point out that he's not the fastest member of these teams. As JLA and JSA members meet up with Legionnaires, it's Superman who faces Sensor Girl. And he's annoyed.

He scans her body to ensure that she's not an illusion. Even her two hearts... not sure when that was introduced but we learn something new, right?

She outlines the plan - they're all volunteers, ready to sacrifice to bring "him" back. Jeckie is crying and that's how Superman knows she's real. He communicates this to Black Canary through a camera that's somehow watching him.

They all try to talk the Legionnaires out of making this sacrifice and we get yet another moment of "this is 31st Century science so it doesn't make sense." Or as I like to call it: "this was a stupid Silver Age story that we have to try to logically explain 40 years later."

But there are two unaccounted-for Legionnaires. Where are Starman and Karate Kid? Mr. Terrific and Batman rush to the upper level Wayne Manor and Bats feels a horrible sense of dread. As does Green Lantern, who's in a laboratory with Timber Wolf.

They've been in these places before. For Batman, it's the last time he saw the Barry Allen Flash, begging for help, during the first Crisis. For Green Lantern, it's the lab where Barry was splashed with chemicals that were struck by lightning.

They're not bringing back Lightning Lad. They're bringing back someone else. We knew that, of course. So if they know the Legion is bringing back Barry Allen, would they still want to stop them?

The flight rings create force shields to protect the Legionnaires as they each hold up their lightning rods. Which kinda goes against the whole plan, doesn't it? Mr. Terrific built an override into the rings (no idea how or when) but it doesn't work. Dream Girl looks over at the Flash and says:

Wait - did you actually think our rings weren't self-repairing? I don't care who you've fought, Sweetie. You've never faced Brainiac 5.

We're now nine seconds to impact. Dawnstar says, "Drake... goodbye, my love." Wildfire says he loves her too. Timber Wolf says, "I'm coming, Ayla." Wait... does that mean she's dead? I mean, he does assume he's going to die, right?

Most importantly, Starman points out Karate Kid's power - he can find the weakness in anything. He found the tracer on his costume and got rid of it. That's why he's free. And he's also taken down his shield... while he waits in Blue Valley, USA.

As the lightning approaches him, Karate Kid says, "Lightning Lad."

And is consumed by a ball of energy. Sensor Girl is on her knees, praying for Val to answer her as she fades away. The rest of the Legionnaires fade out as well, teleporting somewhere.

Who did the Legion bring back? Wally West. And his wife, Linda, and his kids.

Val's alive, stepping out of the crater, and fades away as well. He tells Superman that he'll understand some day. Timber Wolf tells Green Lantern that he won't be alone.

The only one not fading? Starman. Who takes off his ring because Dream Girl told him to.

The Legionnaires have transported to the Fortress of Solitude, where the gate to the future awaits them. Wildfire and Sensor Girl help a stunned Karate Kid as the others enter. But before Val can return to the 31st Century, another Legionnaire (no idea who) stands in a different portal and tells him he can't go back. Brainy told him not to. Karate Kid's mission is just beginning.

So Sensor Girl watches him stay in the 21st Century as her portal closes.

We get a nice reunion between Wally, Red Arrow, and Green Lantern.

Then we move to the future, where Wildfire and Brainiac 5 talk about what happened. Brainy is surprised that it was Wally West and his family. He was expecting someone else. As was Batman.

Superman is still pissed and wants to talk to Starman.

Somewhere, Karate Kid and someone only seen in silhouette (who's female, unlike the person who told him to stay before) talk about how the countdown begins. Val lets her know how he survived - he ducked.

Finally, Brainy lets everyone know that all he cares about is that we got who we wanted... and it looks like there's a face in the lightning rod. But they didn't get who they wanted, did they? Didn't they want Barry?

 

I wish I could say that this ending made any sense to me. But it didn't. But that's probably because I don't know why it's so critically important for the Flash to come back, even if it's not Barry Allen. Or why the Legion would do this. Or, if Karate Kid knew where the lightning was going to strike, why didn't the rest of them? Or, if Karate Kid knew he was being tracked, why didn't the rest of them? Or, if Wildfire knew what was going to happen because he was in Red Tornado's old body (which makes even less sense to me), why he didn't claim Blue Valley because, you know, he's not human and the lightning strike wouldn't have killed him?

What would've made sense? If the Legion had come back to bring Supergirl back to life. Or if they pulled XS out of the speed force. Or Barry Allen's kids, Don and Dawn. Or any character that had even a tiny connection to the Legion.

The only great thing about this story for me is the fact that the Legion was five steps ahead of the JLA and JSA for the entire story and we got to see just how impressive they are. If only DC kept going with that.

 

In case you were wondering, Mark Waid and Barry Kitson finished their run on Legion of Super-Heroes just as this story was being printed, so I don't think there's any question of the connection here. Would you be happy if your rebooted Legion was being completely ignored by the best-selling team book at DC?

Or would you be happy if Geoff Johns and Brad Metzler wrote a better Legion story in five issues than you had... well... ever...?

I'm not going to defend either side here. I don't know why DC would go with a retroboot Legion when you're in the middle of the best-selling Legion run you've seen in a decade. And I don't know why Waid and Kitson would just walk away unless they knew this was the death knell of their book, no matter what they did.

I do know that I loved seeing the Legion being treated as a serious, kick-ass team that got respect from the JLA and JSA. For all this story's flaws (and there are many), they got that part right.

 

Countdown #5

You may ask why I'm doing this. Why am I diving headfirst into a year-long weekly crossover event?

Am I a masochist? Probably.

However, I'm not enough of a masochist to read every issue of Countdown. Even I have limits. The only positive for me is that, usually, Karate Kid and Triplicate Girl only appear in about 2 or 3 pages each issue, so it's easy to skip everything else.

But I've been puzzling over a couple of questions recently and they're both connected to Karate Kid and Triplicate Girl/Duo Damsel. What happened to them at the end of Jim Shooter's run on Legion of Super-Heroes? Why did Karate Kid stay behind at the end of the Lightning Saga? Was the mysterious person who joined him in the past Duo Damsel?

I also just recorded a podcast all about Triplicate Girl, so I'm a little curious about what happened to her in this story. 

I also think there's an even bigger question: Did DC have any clue what they were doing at the time?

Here's the timeline:

May 2007: 51 begins, starting the DC universe on the past towards Final Crisis.

June 2007: The Lightning Saga crossover begins in Justice League of America

August 2008: Legion of Super-Heroes #43 shows the Threeboot Legion's Karate Kid and Triplicate Girl disappear in a glowing ball of light, never to be seen again

Keep these dates in mind - this will become important as we go through the insanity...

In Countdown #42, Karate Kid sneaks up behind Batman and tells him that the Legion is returning to the 31st Century and he was honored to fight such skilled martial artist. Batman acts like a jerk, claiming that there's no way Karate Kid would beat him in a fight again. Karate Kid flies away in anger and Batman lets loose a sarcastic comment: "Did you expect a sidekick job?" Yep, always great to see one of your keystone characters look like a sore loser.

It also completely misses what happened at the end of the Lightning Saga. Was no one reading this? Did the editors not talk to each other?

In Countdown #41, they redo the ending of JLA #10, but this time we see that it's Triplicate Girl who's joining Karate Kid in the past. Only she's called Una now. Which leads to many, many questions:

• If Karate Kid is calling her Triplicate Girl, does this mean she never lost a body fighting Computo? Which is impossible, of course, because we saw that happen during the Lightning Saga?
• Or does this mean that they saved her third body somehow? Was it another lightning bolt?
• And if she's Una, does this mean this is only one of her bodies? Or have the other two died and Karate Kid didn't know?
• Una is also wearing her Duo Damsel costume, but with a purple body suit. Are they saying this is what Triplicate Girl wore, too? 
• Is there anyone in DC editorial who's trying to make sense of this?

Wow! Issue #39 has Karate Kid on the cover! Will he actually get to do something?

Karate Kid is the only character mentioned in the Countdown text - why not Una? Is it because they know no one will know who she is?

Anyway, the two of them break into Oracle's house and go up against her security system. Val breaks everything he touches, saves Una (why, of all the Legionnaires, is she with him?) and Oracle reveals that there's a security breach and people are finding out the secret identities of every super-hero.

As Oracle tries to stop the Calculator in issue #38, Val and Una just stand there and watch. Also, no one told the artist of this issue what Karate Kid's costume looks like so he now has a normal golf collar.

Karate Kid reveals that he's dying.

So, in issue #37, Oracle whips up an amazing super-MRI machine and checks him over. She can't identify the virus. It's either alien in origin or from the future.

Una is stunned - she says that the Great Disaster is coming. Oracle gives them info on Elias Orr, a genius in bio-engineering and the two Legionnaires head off to get Val cured.

Or, you know, they could contact the future and head back to be cured by 31st Century medicine. More questions:

• Why did Brainiac 5 keep Karate Kid in the past? If this is the first sign of the Great Disaster, and Brainy knew that, does that make him responsible for whatever horrible thing is going to happen?
• Why would Karate Kid go to Oracle if he has a medical problem? Why not a doctor? Even a super doctor?
• I'm starting to see Keith Giffen's name coming up in the credits. Is he going to be responsible for killing Karate Kid again?

I'm going to jump ahead a bit to issue #30 - Karate Kid and Una eventually meet up with Buddy Blank and he takes them to the Brother Eye. The Eye scans him and says that Val is infected with the Omac Viral Infection. It's terminal. It also says that the Great Disaster is coming.

Brother Eye goes a little crazy from the loneliness and wants everyone to stay with him. So, even though the most logical thing to do with someone who'd carrying a virus that is the cause of the Great Disaster would be to quarantine them... we're going with this. Karate Kid gets blasted... yep, he gets one page this issue.

In issue #29, released December 2007, Brother Eye tells them that a similar virus is stored beneath Bludhaven. So he lets them go to find a sample that might help them make an antidote.

I'm going to jump a lot here because, to be blunt, I really don't care and I hate this story more than I thought I would. I'm trying to imagine how angry I'd be if I started reading this, and was actually paying for each issue, and considering that Karate Kid is one of my favorite Legionnaires and he's essentially been turned into a walking bag of disease, I don't know when I would've dropped this book.

If you bought this whole series when it came out, I salute your optimism, patience, and desire for a complete story.

We get to issue #12 - Karate Kid (who's much sicker), Una, Buddy Blank, and his grandson are under some sort of dome in Bludhaven. Omac is here as well and is ready to kill everyone except Blank and the child. There's a huge explosion...

In issue #11, Karate Kid and Una are wandering through a tunnel after they were transported by Brother Eye. But where are they? Somewhere, and Karate Kid is  suddenly healthy enough to beat up one of the guards. They figure out they're on Apokolips (no idea how) and Brother Eye is trying to assimilate the whole planet. Karate Kid says they need to keep moving because they don't want Brother Eye to assimilate him while he's carrying the virus.

Which leads to the obvious question of why send him to Apokolips when he had Karate Kid on Earth and could've assimilated him there?

Suddenly, Una turns into an Omac.

Issue #10 (April 2008) - the fight begins and we learn Brother Eye can't assimilate Val. So he wants to terminate him. Jason Todd shows up (as Red Robin, I think) and wants to kill Una/Omac. Karate Kid wants to save her so Todd just leaves him to die. Una/Omac grabs Karate Kid, knocks him out, and takes him away for an autopsy.

Sorry, is Jason Todd supposed to be a hero? I'm guessing not.

Issue #9 - Una/Omac is scanning Karate Kid and discovers that his organs are deteriorating because of something called the Morticoccus Virus. So it's not the Omac Virus? His infection level is at 80% - does that mean 80% of his body is infected? How is he not dead already? The Atom leaps into action, saving Karate Kid from being cut open, and realizes that he's the carrier of the virus. And Brother Eye has it as well.

Green Lantern (the Kyle Rayner variety) grabs Una/Omac in a bubble and then Brother Eye Boom Tubes all the heroes (and there are a lot) somewhere else and they're surrounded by Omacs.

The Piper uses his powers to blow up the planet, Una is freed, Karate Kid disappears, and there's more trouble coming.

Issue #8 - Nope, Karate Kid is on a floating table (thanks Green Lantern) with Una and the rest of the heroes. The heroes argue about whether he should die or not because of the disease but Una wants him saved. They can't bring him to Earth because the disease will kill everyone. What will they do?

The Atom seems to be the only smart one - if Karate Kid can literally kill everyone, why would you risk it and take him to Earth? The virus could mutate and become unstoppable. But since we have a bunch of heroes, they need to save him.

I'd argue right now that Karate Kid himself would tell them to let him die, for no other reason than we've seen him sacrifice himself before.

Which is when the Monitor teleports everyone back to Earth anyway. So the whole argument was moot. Una still wants him to see a doctor and the Atom is still talking about letting him die to save the world.

Issue #7 - As a Legion fan, reading a story where Karate Kid is just lying on a slab, blood on his chest, while Una cries about it is really not something I'm enjoying at all. This entire issue is everyone talking about how they need to save Val, or maybe they don't, and how they're heroes so their job is to save him, so they break into Cadmus and Karate Kid dies anyway. Ugh.

Issue #6 - This entire issue is told from Buddy Blank's point of view... not that this helps.

Karate Kid is dead, but there's something living inside him. So they put him into stasis. Una's crying, acting like Val's her boyfriend. Man, wouldn't this story have been so much better if it had been Val and Projectra? I still can't figure out why they have Una here.

Even though Karate Kid is carrying a fatal virus, they're still performing an autopsy, or research, on him and remove his spine. Dumb question - should they not destroy the body and kill the virus?

The virus, however, had come alive and was now a big earthworm-looking thing. The heroes start fighting against it and can't stop it. The Atom tries to get them to contain every virus particle but it's impossible.

I know they have to make a virus more visually exciting... but an earthworm?

They keep Karate Kid's body on stasis (amazing that when it escaped into the facility and grew into some huge thing it didn't cause any damage to the body) and Una just stared at him. She later admits to Buddy that she used to watch him all the time and he never knew.

Wow... I know someone at DC hates Bouncing Boy, but really? You really have to reveal that one of Chuck's wives has been in love with Karate Kid and split from the rest of her bodies to go and be with him in the 21st Century?

Una, being the scientific expert that she is, finally reveals to everyone that the reason why the virus is impossible to stop is because Karate Kid is from the 31st Century so the nanites within his blood allowed the virus to mutate.

Buddy decides to leave the lab to try to find his daughter and grandson. Una wants to go with him - there's nothing for her at the lab. So they head off into Metropolis.

Issue #5 (May 2008) - Buddy and Una are in Metropolis, trying to get to his family. He's still narrating and we have some very nice Jim Starlin pencils here, so I'm hoping to enjoy a little bit of this story.

They're immediately attacked and Una uses her martial arts skills, taught to her by Val, to get them through the crowds and feral humans. They get to the right apartment and his grandson is there. His daughter was infected but the boy hid.

They're attacked by a dog and rats and Una valiantly fights them off. They rush to the roof of the apartment building to be attacked by Buddy's daughter. Una saves them from her as well, all while fighting off the rats.

Una gives Buddy her flight ring as she collapses under the rat attack. Buddy grabs his grandson and flies off into the night. Yep, one of Triplicate Girl's bodies was just killed by hundreds of feral rats.

Months later, in August 2008, two completely different versions of the characters, in a different universe, disappear because DC told Jim Shooter he couldn't use Val and Luornu anymore. I'm guessing that DC didn't want to confuse their readers with two different versions of the characters floating around (something they didn't care about with the Lightning Saga) or they just wanted to piss off Shooter.

 

So for those of you wondering what happened to Karate Kid and Triplicate Girl, they die horrible deaths in the 21st Century.

What a waste of two great Legionnaires. 

I need a drink.

 

Okay. That was... bad. All levels of bad. Irritatingly bad. Please don't ever read these issues. None of it made sense.

If you want a palate-cleansing focus on something good, the Long Live the Legion podcast focuses on Triplicate Girl/Triad/Duo Damsel this week and we don't even mention this waste of paper and time.

 

What did you think about Countdown? Or the Lightning Saga? Please share your thoughts on Reddit.

Until next week...