The LSV destroys Colu and Comet Queen becomes a tragic hero. And we get some actual Legion teamwork! Let's take a look at Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 6) #13 & Adventure Comics #527

Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 6) #13

Welcome back - I hope everyone's had a great week and is ready to continue our deep dive into the Legion versus the Legion of Super-Villains. To recap, the LSV is on Colu and trying to figure out where a planet they want to destroy is located. That's all you need to know...

"False Hopes" is brought to you by writer Paul Levitz and artists Yildiray Cinar and Jonathan Glapion.

We begin on the 1,000 Mirror Lake on Colu, where Element Lad is facing off against Immortus. We finally get a little background into our villain. He was built on Zuun and has a body of self-regenerating inertron. Jan can't take handle this new threat. As he puts it, Immortus is generating inertron faster than he can stop him. So he generates oxygen and white phosporus and creates a big explosion.

That's just like high school chemistry class!

Immortus magically disappears and a bleeding Jan tells Invisible Kid (who I guess was hiding this whole time) that they need to call in help.

Element Lad, literally one of the most powerful Legionnaires and someone who can transmute any element into another, cannot figure out how to beat someone who can generate inertron naturally. Wouldn't it be nice if the villains won because they were actually good with their powers and not because Levitz has to write the Legionnaires as incompetent buffoons?

Elsewhere on Colu, Timber Wolf smacks Earth-Man back to consciousness (he and Brainiac 5 were mind-controlled by Saturn Queen last issue) and tells him to use the powers he "borrowed" last issue to wake Brainy up so they can crack his security codes and call for help. Yep, in true Brainy mode, he made sure no one else could do anything without him.

Can't any Legionnaire use their flight ring to call for help? Does it make any sense that only Brainy can call for help? And from only his flight ring?

Unfortunately, Earth-Man doesn't have any more psychic power left, so he absorbs Brainy's intelligence, figures out how to break his codes, and calls for help.

Here's a crazy thought - Kurt starts using Brainy's 12th-level intelligence and is immediately flooded with the understanding that his own xenophobic beliefs are logically stupid and don't stand up to the slightest scrutiny. Wouldn't that be a great way to slowly turn his character face?

Somewhere off Colu, Saturn Queen smacks Questor (the evil Coluan) around, angry that his calculations have taken them off their path. They teleported last issue and they're not where she expected to be. She doesn't believe they've reached the "immortal world of the wise" and takes her frustrations out on him. Their teleporter, Zymyr, wonders if they should head back. Instead, Saturn Queen calls out to the blue flame for help.

It's no longer a blue baby - the blue flame now looks like a pre-teen. They tell Saturn Queen to bring them the LSV's Seeker. They'll strengthen his flames to lead you where they want to go. And once they've destroyed these four planets, the galactic civilization will fall.

Back on Colu, Polar Boy, Quislet, and Shadow Lass are tasked with saving as many Coluans as they can. While Quislet saves some people, Tasmia and Brek talk about how weird he is and how the LSV has destroyed a beautiful planet.

Which is when Sun Killer arrives, blasts Polar Boy, and poses dramatically.

The trio take Sun Killer out in less than two pages, using teamwork and showing off their considerable skill. Okay, so they can show the Legion as an effective collection of super-heroes. Why did it take so long to do it?

I spoke too soon. While Earth-Man and Timber Wolf are standing on the top of a building, Brin's struck by a boomerang and knocked out... Hmm... super speed... almost invulnerable... boomerang thrown by Orion, the Hunter, who doesn't have super strength or speed... <loud sigh>

Instead of fighting, Orion offers Earth-Man an option. Saturn Queen realized that Earth-Man's more like them than a Legionnaire, so they offer him a prize if he betrays the Legion. Earth-Man can take over Earth if he joins their side.

Tellus and Gates have finally arrived, just in time to save Brainiac 5. Too bad it's too late to face off against Saturn Queen, which was the whole plan all along. I'm not sure why you wouldn't just bring Tellus into any situation where you thought you'd face Saturn Queen, and have Gates ready to teleport him away, but I'm obviously not as smart as Brainiac 5.

Once Brainy gets his mind back, he starts searching through the records and discovers that a Coluan was searching for the "world of the wise." Gates says that his people have the same legend. And as he's talking, Tellus recognizes an image from Gates' mind that matches an image he saw in Professor Li's mind. Gee, wouldn't it have been great if Brainy has listened to her last issue and not just left her back on Earth?

Back at Legion HQ, a returning Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, Mon-El, Cosmic Boy, and Dawnstar compare notes to try to figure out what Saturn Queen is planning. They're still not certain what this new LSV wants to accomplish or, honestly, who's a member. If only they had some sort of inter-galactic communication devices that could allow them to relay information.

We all know that I can't resist re-writing these stories, so here's my latest suggestion: Wouldn't it have been great if Saturn Queen has a secret LSV member that they broke out of Takron-Galtos and was just waiting in the background? And that's a surprise twist as this story continues? I mean, it's set up for it, but they're just not delivering.

Dream Girl shows up and she and Mon-El talk about Star Boy, who's still recovering.

Oh, and I should mention that the artwork just took a dramatic turn for the worse. If you had told me the entire art team changed, I'd believe you.

Wildfire and Ultra Boy have arrived on Colu and are just in time to save Element Lad from Immortus. Invisible Kid is, you guessed it, just standing there and doing nothing. There's lots of fighting, the Legion looks like they're going to defeat another member of the LSV, and Zymyr arrives to warp them all away. Even Sun Killer is dragged to safety by Questor.

We need a dramatic ending, so here we go: Professor Li and Dream Girl are talking as they watch the energies being drained from Star Boy. Nura foresaw Li and Thom holding hands with incredible energies around them. She asks for the professor's help.

But Li says: "There are consequences more important than his life, or yours... and perhaps the way to avoid disaster... will be for your companion to join me in sacrifice... but first, we must stop draining his energies..."

This is called foreshadowing...

As insane as this sounds, the two pages where three Legionnaires work together to take down a villain was almost enough to make the entire book worth reading. I've been waiting for this for 13 issues and we finally get it.

Aside from that, this one's pretty forgettable. Much like last issue, not much happens and we're just building towards the finale. Which is, stunningly enough, 3 issues away. 

 

Adventure Comics #527

I think last week was one of the most commented-on columns I've written in a while and it's all tied to the XS backup. There are a lot of XS fans out there and I'm one of them, so it was nice to see that I wasn't the only one who was irritated (I could use stronger words) by the way she was handled in this series.

Is it too much to have the creative team respect the reboot Legionnaires? Apparently so.

"A Comet's Tale" is written by Paul Levitz, pencilled by Geraldo Borges, and inked by Marlo Alquiza. Great. I've been eagerly awaiting a Comet Queen story... (heavy sarcasm...)

Glorith is meditating and sending a magical message to her friend, Harlak, who's back on The Sorcerer's World. And no, in case you're asking, I have no idea why Harlak is written in lower case. Maybe they just didn't notice it was a proper noun. Editorial doesn't seem to be noticing much.

As she hovers over the roof of the Legion Academy, Comet Queen flies in and immediately fills the blissful silence with lots of chatter. Glorith makes the mistake of asking how Comet Queen, or Grava, has seen so much of the universe... which leads to Comet Queen's origin story.

We flash back to her childhood, where she dreams of outer space and the Legionnaires - specifically, Bouncing Boy. She jokes about how she'd like to get rid of Duplicate Girl and hug Chuck forever. Glorith has no response.

As someone who's long argued that Chuck should leave Luornu because of all the crap she's done to him, I think a Chuck/Grava romance would be pure insanity and I'm all for it.

After failing at almost everything in school, except flying, Grava grabbed a space ship and flew into a comet's tail, hoping to gain super powers and become a Legionnaire.

And that's how she became Comet Queen. She spent her time as the hero of her home world, Extal, and the far spiral. Then Bouncing Boy showed up on Qual-III. She threw herself at him and he, of course, rejected her. But that's how she ended up in the Academy. We all saw this in Legion of Super-Heroes (vol 3) #11. 

The sun rises, so they have to rush off to class. Comet Queen reveals that she has already graduated from the Academy but came back. She says that "it's kinda teary," but can't tell Glorith what happened because classes have started.

They end up in some kind of Danger Room, using their flight rings to get through a torrent of lasers. Glorith struggles at the beginning and, when Gravity Kid helps, he explains that the lasers get closer as the exercise goes on. He gets blasted, Dragonwing tells her to get out of the way, and Comet Queen wants to race her.

Once again, teamwork is completely ignored and I'd argue that this is horrible teaching on the part of Night Girl. Just throwing a student into a course, at full speed, without any prior training?

Night Girl figures they did "not bad," but criticizes Variable Lad's costume as he tries to stop it from smoking.

Comet Queen takes Glorith to a section of the Academy where they have pictures of every Legionnaire. It's time for her to explain why she's graduated but is also back in the classes.

We flash back to her graduation as she stands there beside Shadow Kid (Shadow Lass' brother) and Mandalla. Shadow Kid headed back to Talok VIII to serve as planetary champion. Mandalla, who has the power to create hallucinatory thought spheres, joined the Science Police. Comet Queen got to join the Substitute Heroes.

She did lots of stuff, saved a kid, guarded things, but she wasn't where she wanted to be. And when Titan exploded, she went to help the Legion protect all the ships from hitting the huge rocks that used to be the planet.

Which was when she ran into Saturn Queen. She had already taken over the minds of Ultra Boy and Brainiac 5. Jo grabbed Comet Queen and Saturn Queen commented that this hero was a fool. "And fools can be fun."

Saturn Queen wiped her memory and brought her back to being a baby. Tellus had to reconnect her mind and try to bring back her memories. But he could only do so much. So she's back in the Academy, relearning everything, and loving her time there.

Wow... so that's... far darker than I was expecting...

Even with the big reveal at the end that Glorith has no idea how she developed her magic powers, it's nothing compared to this story. I'm not saying that I want to see more Comet Queen, but this story did do a good job of cementing Saturn Queen as the baddest villain in the universe.

If only there had been one moment in the original story, which wasn't so long ago, that made this feel like something more than a throwaway idea. If Levitz had planned all this out, wouldn't it have been great to actually show it when it happened?

Just imagine how more impactful it would've been to show the Legion and the Subs trying to help around Titan when Saturn Queen shows up. And then show a mind-controlled Ultra Boy grab Comet Queen and assist in her losing her memories.

We could have Jo feeling guilty about what happened, even though he had nothing to do with it. We could have the Legion shocked and stunned by this horrible attack. And you could have Cosmic Boy's complete reticence at adding another Legionnaire, especially one from the Academy, make sense. Heck, you could've tied this to him breaking up with Night Girl and pushing her to the Academy to protect her.

Unfortunately, we get none of this.

Please let me know what you thought of these two stories. Are you a fan of Comet Queen? Is anyone aside from Levitz himself?

More podcast news! The latest episode hits today! It's the Planetary Chance Machine episode and we let random chance decide which planets we're going to talk about. If you want to learn more about places like Nullport and Trom, this is the episode for you!

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