Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Reading the Legion: Archives Volume 12

215/Final Eclipse

I was thinking that the blacked-out Dirk reminded me of Negative Man from the Doom Patrol.

When I was a kid, I was looking forward to this issue because Dirk, one of my favorite Legionnaires, was featured. But other than looking dangerously awesome in his eclipsed form, he doesn't do anything except unwittingly endanger everyone. Bad Dirk. Bad Cary.

Speaking of Cary Bates, he takes the lead story for the first time since 208. However, as thoth said, it's not a very memorable story. It relies on another patented Bates plot twist, but I agree that this one is a bit more effective in that it rests on not one but two Bgztlians, er, phantoms possessing bodies of Legionnaires.

It's not clear to me why one phantom caused Dirk's power to go haywire while the other had no effect whatsoever on Jan. For that matter, it's not clear why Gmya Wazzo was able to break free from Dirk's body when Tinya was threatened. Phantom adrenaline, I suppose.

Brainy must have borrowed the sidearm Imra used back in Adventure 304--a convenient weapon she, too, had no reason to wear. In fact, that's the real purpose of Imra's visit to the medlab--to retrieve her firearm and admonish Brainy to ask before borrowing.

But it's easy to poke holes in Bates stories (far, far too easy). I'm glad thoth pointed out some of the positives, such as the effect of the Legion cruiser shifting dimensions and the dramatic destruction of said cruiser. I also appreciated how Tinya outwitted the assassin by turning solid just as he fired his phantom rifle. She should have told her overbearing brother to get lost. Maybe she did, as we never (to my knowledge) saw him again.

Superboy & the LSH #215

The first story actually has a lot to like and I enjoyed the clever little plot which allowed a creative team to at last focus on Bygtzl and the concept of the power to go immaterial by entering another plane. Bates is at his most clever here with the bait & switch, and it works perfectly for a half length story.

I also immensely enjoyed the appearance of Gyma Wazzo, who looks incredibly dashing and is a wonderfully sweet and protective older brother to his famous sister. It almost feels like there should be an adventure or detective strip featuring Gyma Wazzo on Bygtzl!

I thought the Legionnaires were used nicely too with each one playing a part designed for them (save perhaps Superboy, who was contractually obligated to appear).

-------

Meanwhile, the back up is the infamous Slap Story, and that one panel kind of sucks all the joy and seriousness out of the story. It's way over the top and ridiculous and makes Cos look terrible (and Ayla too). Comics of the 70's and 80's, however, are littered with heroes slapping women: from the famous Hank Pym story to the never talked about Thor slapping Sif or Peter slapping Mary Jane and a host of others. Thankfully that trope is no longer acceptable to creators.

Dismissing that sequence, there's actually a lot to like here: Cos acting incredibly brave and clever; Jo making a tough, brash leadership decision; Legionnaires jokingly joshing Cos for being useless; the Empress heading off on her own. And best of all, continued use of the flight ring doing more than making the Legionnaires fly.

The stupid panel with the Empress getting knocked down by the door is also a bit dumb however. It goes to show how two blunders can forever derail a story.

Clearly, Tinya and I are far more appreciative of Gyma than the rest of you fine fellows!

215/Hero Who Wouldn't Fight

Like Cobie said, there is a lot this story has to offer which, unfortunately, is overshadowed by the slap (and by the debut of Cos' bustier).

The tension is ramped up when Jo is given an impossible choice: let the Empress escape of allow Cos to die. He makes the only choice a leader can make and, fortunately, it pays off.

Speaking of which, Sarya reveals herself to be a villain who honors her word. I wish this trait had been developed in subsequent stories--perhaps the Legionnaires could have referred back to this story to appeal to her sense of story.

I also admired the introduction of the Braalian no-powers tradition. Religion had not been addressed before in a Legion comic, yet this tradition is described as "sacred." It is such a serious part of Braalian culture that Cos and his family will be dishonored for generations if he does not observe it. When I was a child and raised Catholic, I was taught something similar about observing Lent and not eating meat on Fridays. There's no logic behind such beliefs, but they form an integral part of how certain people are taught to relate to God and/or their culture. (In fact, we see this play out today in the claims of Islamic jihadists, abortion rights activists, and others who take extreme actions in the name of their religion). Shooter does not take a stand on this tradition, but he does use it to show how devout Cos is.

Cos manages to save his friends while keeping his observance intact, but one wonders why the Legion brought a member who couldn't use his powers on a mission in the first place.

As for Sarya's defeat, I don't mind her being taken out of a swinging door. It was rather amusing to see how far the mighty can fall.

Things I didn't like (in addition to the slap and the bustier, which, though some fans like it, looks ridiculous to me):
--Star Trek transporters. Really? This is where homage turns into lazy writing.
--Colossal Boy's new costume: Grell's inferior take on Cockrum's striking design.
--Again, a number of Legionnaires (Garth, Shady, Dirk, and Gim) appear but don't do anything of note.

Cobie: Charter member of the Gmya* Wazzo fan club.


*That's how it's spelled throughout the story save in one panel.

The Phantom Detectives Issue #1

Cast
Gyma (not short for Gymima and he has a manly 'tache to prove it)
Tinya (Dimensionally famous do gooder)

Page 1
Interior of Noirish detective agency. Wispy cigar smoke fades in and out of dimensional space to give it an ethereal quality of Phantom World.

Gyma: I forbid you to take on this case Tinya. It's too dangerous!
Tinya: But Gyma, I've battled Mordru, Computo and the Legion of Super Villains!
Gyma: You mean you helped the likes of Superboy and Mon El. Men who are only a manly 'tache away from being true heroes.
Tinya: ...and Jo.
Gyma: Who? Sounds like the name of some degenerate Rimborian that the family would disown you for even knowing.
Tinya: ...um...and I did not just help out!
Gyma: No the case of the Ghostly Phantom of Phantom World is not something you can be allowed to risk yourself in. I forbid it. And my foot is going down...look...>soft thump as foot goes down<
Tinya: ...but...but Gyma... waaaait a minute...why am I even listening to this? I'm not someone who gets thrown around like a girl in a Cosmic Boy back up story. Why do people even come into this agency? Me Who protects this dimension? Me
Gyma: I'm only doing it because I know what's best for you...
Tinya: Oh stop getting Bates and Shooter to do your dialogue you misogynistic twerp. I quit! And one side of your 'tache is longer than the other.
Gyma: >gasps and throws hands up to cover 'tache.<

Next Month:
Facing hard times, Gyma gets another career in "Up the Wazzo"

213, "Jaws of Fear", is another story, much like 211's Element Lad spotlight, that I commend for utilizing a little of the Legion's backstory to tell a story that is richer than just another standalone. You have both the return of the Miracle Machine and a callback to Jo's origin to connect it with earlier stories.

Of course, the Miracle Machine is one of the few plot devices that has recurred several times since its inception...admittedly to some disdain among our fandom. But it does make perfect sense that malevolent forces would desire to possess it.

It's funny, though. As I don't know exactly when the MM meets its ignominious end, I was a bit apprehensive when the Legionnaires decide they must destroy it. Would Tenzil be brought in to have his moment so soon after being drafted away from the group? But no--false alarm! :whew:

The other, more ingenious device Shooter used was to have Jo panic when faced with a similar monster to the one who engulfed him years earlier and that accidentally imbued him with his ultra energy. It was a very nice moment for him to freak out and endanger his teammates one moment and then see him willing to sacrifice himself for them after overcoming his fear the next.

The story idea itself was pretty nifty. Master thief Benn Paras challenges the Legion by declaring his intent to steal their most dangerous possession. The outcome was slightly disappointing because I'd really like to learn more about how he accomplishes his feats and see how the Legion overcomes him. So while the MM serves as a perfect object to covet and protect, by its nature, it also provides some deus ex machina as it does whenever it appears in a story. (It's kind of amusing that Benn is relaxing with his shoes off when the rug is pulled from beneath him, though! )

Overall, an above average story still that would've been pedestrian without the added element of Jo's fear playing into it. Sometimes, a little humanity can go a long way in a story to make it better.

Bonus point: Did anyone else notice the top panel of the Legionnaires arguing at their conference table resembled Da Vinci's The Last Supper slightly? (I haven't read your comments on this issue yet, so forgiveness if you did! )


"Trapped to Live--Free to Die!" wasn't a bad little backup. There was a nice nod to past stories by featuring a lesser known villain who had only appeared once before. Both stories were written by Shooter, though, so he'd be more likely to remember his own characters.

I don't know if I liked the plot device that the key to circumventing the ship's defense systems was the wearing of a flight ring. That could certainly be exploited by anyone able to somehow steal one from a Legionnaire.

But it's nice that it was Brin's quick thinking and not his brute force that got him out of this. He gets a bad, somewhat deserved rep as a lunkhead, so it's good to see a story where that isn't the case.

Good catch! I'd never noticed this before.

Yes! This needs to be a bits thread stat!!!

You sir, are one brillaint and hilarious sonuvabastich!

No I didn't. I had wondered about the heated nature of their cosmic decision making and why they seemed to be close to the level of argument we'd see in #300 when they dropped the code v killing. Now I know why. Thanks Lardy!

It's the payoff from that line about Sun Boy's powers having changed his molecular structure, I think. That stays in my mind as I was wondering about Dirk being a 30th century version of Firestorm in his Fire Elemental days.

Sun Boy: Super Blushing is not a power the Legion can use! REJECTED!...and kick Polar Boy on the way out would you?

Double Header: Hey! Even we have some standards in the Subs! REJECTED!
Double Header Other Head: DOUBLY REJECTED!

So here I am. A proud supporter of the Legion of Super Pets as Litter Tray Cleaner Kid. And it's all thanks to Cobie unleashing my hidden blushing powers and getting me to follow my dreams. Thanks Cobie. Thanks a bunch.

#215 – The Hero Who Wouldn’t Fight

Ayla: Cosmic Boy…Help Us! We’re being cut to ribbons!
Rokk: I…can’t Light Lass! I must find the rest of my costume before I get arrested for indecency or freeze to death.

Gim’s new costume seems to be a little light on material too. But considering the skimpy female costumes, fair’s fair.

The little splash panel captures the pivotal moment of the story. Will Cosmic Boy choose to follow his beliefs even if it costs him the lives of his friends?

The answer is a heroic no. Rokk will try to save them at the cost of his own life. Well, I say heroic but I’ll come back to that. But inside the story, it’s a heroic choice. Grell captures a combination of resignation and determination in Rokk really well, as he walks to the teleporters.

Rokk’s rescue of his friends is tidy. He uses a combination of stealth, surprise and ingenuity with his flight ring to get his friends free. Jo’s Ultra Invulnerability would have saved him, so Cos jumping in front of the shell may seem a little needless. Jo was certainly using full power a moment later, but perhaps Rokk felt that their powers would still be drained.

The plot needs Rokk to stand alone to overcome a very personal dilemma. Which is probably why he didn’t avail himself of some of the Legion’s armoury of weapons that appears in other stories when the plot needs them. It’s one man and his will. Even the flight ring is an extension of that will.

The Emerald Empress comes across very well, keeping that long standing tradition of strong Fatal Five appearances. She’s very powerful on her own. Her plan fails only through bad luck and she shows that she has honour of her own when a deal is struck. Her goal of more immediate power is what has set her apart from her colleagues. That’s a nice difference of views between herself and Tharok. You can see similar frustrations against the planning Brainy and the more impulsive Legionnaires on the other side in a number of tales.

There’s the clichéd containment cubes. They work only form the inside allowing anyone to break them outside. Or they only drain specific powers or work only against certain energy types etc etc. Who makes these things and why do criminals keep using whoever it is?

Cham’s infiltration is another Espionage Squad reminder. It’s a nice scene giving him his moment of guile before it’s shown just how outclassed he is. I get the feeling Cham gets caught as often as he succeeds in these things.

So there are good points, and it’s a shame the whole things crashes down, the moment that Rokk hits Ayla.

When I started reading it, I was wondering if Ayla was in a hysterical state. It’s something of a cliché to shock a person by slapping them. See Airplane.

But that’s not what happens. Ayla isn’t hysterical at all. She’s bloody angry. In her view nothing should prevent Rokk saving his friends and colleagues. She begs Rokk for help, argues her view and gets hit for doing so. Rokk can’t argue his point. He’s not mature enough to be able to do that. At the first challenge to those views, he sulks. Then he gets angry and then he hits.

What makes it even worse, is that while Rokk walks away with that stoic Grell posture, Ayla blames herself. She feels responsible for Rokk’s actions.

You can transport that attitude from Shooter’s Cosmic Boy here, to his Karate Kid, or his Timberwolf or his Wildfire in other stories. This is what he thinks men should be like. Determined, following a personal code of honour and stoically aloof. Except that they are nothing of the sort. Instead they come across as immature loners with abusive emotional issues who would fail to sustain any kind of meaningful relationship. Children in men’s bodies.

That's quite a heavy analysis of Shooter's portrayal of men, thoth. We tend to be so focused on how he portrays women that we overlook the problem that his men also have issues. I think you're right about his portrayal of the male Legionnaires as arrested emotionally.

It would have been nice if he had depicted at least some healthy and positive relationships, but he minimizes the established Legion couples (Garth and Imra, Nura and Thom, and even Jo and Tinya, who rarely appear together in stories) during his run.

The most positive male character we have is Superboy, who is often presented as a paragon of virtue. He doesn't appear to have any close friendships with the Legionnaires, except Mon-El, who has not played an active role in any of Shooter's stories so far (and, as I recall, remains largely off-panel until well into Levitz's run).

It's highly ironic that these traits of Shooters' Legionnaires work against the camaraderie and young friendships many of us associate with the Legion.

By the way, it must be said that Shooter wasn't alone in his depiction of men as stoic, aloof loners who were tough with women as well as with men. The most popular actors during this time included Clint Eastwood ("Dirty Harry") and Charles Bronson ("Death Wish").

Yeah, it certainly comes across that way. There was a Dirty Harry movie on the other night. I rolled my eyes after a few minutes at his personality. It's just as well that the plot has these guys being right every time. Every villain falls die to their unwavering loner focus. But now imagine that they're as fallible as everyone else. And they have those personalities.

There does seem to be a popular toleration if not down right promotion of such attitudes then. Dirty Harry also reminds me of Westerns generally and there must be loads of similar examples in literature, comics and film.

Which I don't feel is any excuse. You make your own choices. I'm not keen on things like "well, he/she was just reflecting the times" but I'd not like to tar someone, in this case Shooter, with a particular brush either. I prefer to just comment on how the stories come across rather than infer traits onto someone. It's not as though I'm a huge student of his work or life. Even then...



Oddly enough, I was thinking of that relative earnest purity of the Adventure Legion while I was writing the back up review.

While it's good to have a diverse range of personalities to play with, it can be a trap if the writer doesn't have the skill to portray them well enough. Here we have a certain stoic loner trend in the blokes, that isn't very mature. Poor Ayla has got the brunt of it from Brin and Rokk, while others have put up with it elsewhere. But, as you mention, there's no real relationship such as Garth/ Imra or Lu/Chuck to show that the writers have the skill to show us different personalities.

Hang on, I've just realised that Brainy probably set himself up as Jesus in that last supper pic.

In Querl we trust? Wildfire as Judas?

Speaking of the Adventure run, it's interesting to note that Shooter initiated the Lu/Chuck romance. He also had Shady make a play for Brainy before choosing Mon-El, and wrote one of the most poignant scenes, during the Mordru story, of Lu pining for Superboy. There were also scenes of Jo and Tinya and Val and Jeckie expressing their affection for one another. This suggests he did understand the dynamics of relationships, at least on a high school level.

It must also be pointed out that he had much more story room to work with in Adventure and an editor who was probably more receptive (or even insistent) on such character development. Boltinoff, Shooter has said, kept rewriting his stories or cutting pages, necessitating shorthand characterizations, no doubt. I agree that this doesn't excuse anything, but it may offer an alternative explanation as to why Shooter's '70s run turned out the way it did.

Good points HWW. Nice to get a bit more balance in there.

Well, if anyone on the team was going to have a god complex, it would be Querl... although it ended up being Jan. Or Rokk as the Trapper or... >Phhhht< there goes my deflating point

As Morrison mapped the JLA onto a pantheon, I'm surprised no one has mapped some personalities onto the Legion from the painting.

After I posted yesterday, I was making coffee it hit me (in a revelation soert of way rather than a Krinn slap sort of way) that Ayla didn't go back with Rokk! Why the heck not?

She's a trained Legionnaire. She knows the layout of the place, at least as far as the trap, and she's the one who could actually use her powers.

Because it would have interfered with Rokk's loner routine. Bah!

Why not call in Superboy or Mon El? Bah!

Rokk simply shouldn't have been on the mission. Since the Legion doesn't allow people without powers (except Batman) or those with mechanically generated powers (say only a flight ring) then he should have been benched, more thoroughly than being allowed to go, but stay on the cruiser.

I've always wondered if there isn't actually a bit of misguided feminism at the heart of that Rokk/Ayla scene.

She's actually being pretty nasty about his desire to try to preserve his deeply held cultural beliefs and the honor of his family. If it was a guy saying those kinds of things to him, and Rokk socked him for it, I'm not sure anyone would bat an eye. But in the enlightened future where men and women are equal, why should the fact that it is a woman saying it make any difference?

I'd think he was a tool either way, if that's the only reaction that he has when he's challenged on something.

Yes. The story is built on a very shaky premise, and, without that premise, the whole house of cards comes a-tumblin'.

Good points. I mentioned something similar over on the Archives 11 re-read thread. (This going back and forth is making me dizzy, but in a good way. ) It's worth noticing that Ayla is not a peach in this scene. That doesn't justify being slapped, but she knew which buttons to push.



Agreed.

Awww... I hadn't read that post, but you do make basically the same point!

No sweat. Great minds, er, Modest Brain Globes and all that.

Society puts a more negative connotation on a physical reaction, even amongst equals, even of minor effect, than most other reactions but it often is the least damaging. For a comic book, it takes the fewest panels. I would have liked to see Ayla sock him back, they get pulled apart and then the conflict is dealt with. That was a very key missing component of the scene.

Yes, I also feel we're putting our spin on the female-male aspects like we would big vs. small. These are super beings. Whose reaction is sexist, the character's or ours if we react a certain way because he hit a "female?"

As far as the "tool" part, I think it's just as complicated. In THIS place we try to teach the kids that the strong find other ways but then we know the kids have to go home where the neighborhood has another interpretation. HERE, you'd better have a snarky response and be able to back it up if the other can't handle it or you're "weak." You're prey. You are much more likely to get back on good terms after a physical response than a facebook one.

Rokk's failure was in countering words with physical, like with unlike.


In a more corporate world or for that matter, any cliquey kind of place, it's about the politics. A more damaging and cowardly response, my opinion, is somehow respected more than a directly physical or verbal one. BUT, you'd better be prepared for it or you're "prey."