Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #246
Time for another re-read of a classic Legion of Super-Heroes tale. So, what do you do in the aftermath of the Earthwar? Enjoy! :)
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #246
December, 1978
"Will The Last One To Leave Mercury Please Close The Planet?"
Script: Len Wein
Plot: Paul Levitz
Penciller: Joe Staton
Inker: Dick Giordano
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colourist: Glynis Wein
Cover: Mike Grell (signed)
Editors: Jack C. Harris & Allen Milgrom
Mission Monitor Board:
Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy, Shadow Lass, Chameleon Boy, Sun Boy, Karate Kid
Guest Star:
Iris Jacobs; Diamondeth (flashback only)
Opposition:
Patients at Medivac-Lab; The Thermoids
Synopsis:
At Medivac-Lab on Mercury, where the terminally ill from throughout the galaxy come in the hope of being diagnosed and cured, Lightning Lad leads a team of Legionnaires (himself, Cosmic Boy, Shadow Lass, Chameleon Boy and Sun Boy) to check up on Karate Kid. The latter had left a cryptic vid-tape message at Legion Headquarters saying that he was heading there, the 30th Century version of Johns Hopkins. When they finally find and meet up with him, however, Karate Kid tells them that there is nothing wrong with him; he came to cure Iris Jacobs of her state of being Diamondeth. The five other Legionnaires are totally relieved, as Karate Kid excuses himself, saying he has to take Iris back to the 20th Century and then go have a long talk with Princess Projectra's father, King Voxv of Orando.
After he leaves, the five Legionnaires have a good laugh about the matter, Chameleon Boy saying "there's nothing a little trip to Mercury to waste an afternoon." However, First Doctor Zebyx, the acting Supervisor of Medivac, says that perhaps their trip has not been a total waste. He tells the Legionnaires that each night for the past several weeks, staff members and patients have been disappearing with no explanation. Although the Science Police have investigated, they could not find anything, and so the Legion agrees to stay the night and see what they can find out.
That night, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy are on guard duty when they hear someone scream. They quickly go to the Research Lab from whence the scream came, and making their way through the locked door by force, battle a massive robot that turns out to be immune to both their powers. However, Cosmic Boy brings the ceiling down on it, and takes out the robot. It turns out to be an explorer-droid, specially designed to survey Mercury's molten surface. However, the technician who was on duty in the research lab, Doctor X'yxl, is nowhere to be found. Elsewhere, in their quarters on Medivac, Sun Boy, Chameleon Boy and Shadow Lass (all wearing civilian togs) are talking about the situation. Sun Boy says he wishes that Brainiac 5 were there, as Shadow Lass adds that he'd solve the problem very quickly. However, Chameleon Boy says they can't always rely on their resident super-genius for solutions to problems, and Shady agrees with him.
The next day, Medivac and the Legionnaires report to the Science Police about the latest disappearance, and the answer is anything but routine - Medivac is to be evacuated! As the Legionnaires help the staff pack and move various crates, Doctor Zebyx says that it is not the Legionnaires' fault; the S.P. had told them that if another disappearance occurred, this would be the outcome. Shadow Lass notices a disruption in the computerized climate control, and feels cold, and after Sun Boy warms her up, Chameleon Boy has a theory, which he and Sun Boy go to investigate on the Legion Cruiser. Chameleon Boy has Sun Boy use his powers to heat some pseudoplasm, and it reacts as Chameleon Boy expected it to, though he won't explain to Sun Boy. Chameleon and Sun Boy return to the others, where Cosmic Boy, Shadow Lass and Lightning Lad are recapturing an Arcturian blobeast test animal. Cosmic Boy wonders why he was perspiring the night before, as the climate control system of Medivac should have prevented that, and Cham says he thinks he knows the answer.
Doctor Zebyx and the Legionnaires board the Legion cruiser, and travel to the hottest part of the planet. There, the hull of the ship breaks apart due to the heat and stress, and the five Legionnaires and Zebyx abandon the ship, wearing thermo-suits. Even the thermo-suits can't keep them comfortable in the blistering heat, and the shadow-bred Shadow Lass collapses unconscious, though her last words to Doctor Zebyx and the others are that she trusts Chameleon Boy with her life.
Chameleon Boy tells Sun Boy that it's all up to him, and as the Legionnaires continue to struggle through the crystalline terrain until at last even Chameleon Boy succumbs to the heat, Sun Boy finally makes contact, and the Legionnaires and Doctor Zebyx vanish from the heat ravaged crystalline area...
...to reappear some distance away where the temperatures are more comfortable. Sun Boy explains that he managed to communicate with the Thermoids, Mercury's only native life-form. They had been trying to communicate with the people at Medivac, but were inadvertently destroying people in their attempts. Due to his special physiology, Dirk was able to withstand their heat communications, and it was the Thermoids who managed to transport the group to safety.
Some time later, a second Legion cruiser and a Science Police vessel (with the evacuees from Medivac) depart Mercury, the Medivac lab to be relocated on an uninhabitable world, where they can continue to pursue their work. Shadow Lass comments that perhaps before they do that, they should try to discover all the forms that life can take.
Commentary:
This story is one that is all right and has decent artwork. The basic premise of the story is pretty good, with the Legionnaires following Karate Kid to Medivac as they are worried about him, and then dealing with the problem of the disappearing patients and staff. But from there the plot falls apart somewhat for two reasons in my mind.
First of all, to be honest, the science in the fiction here is terrible. To start with, Medivac is set up on the hottest planet in the Solar system? Who the heck would have approved that? And how exactly does the heat damage the Legion cruiser, taking it down, but not the thermo-suits being worn? Let's see, according to my research, metal begins to melt at 1,500 degrees C, but cloth burns at 210 degrees C...yeah, something wrong here... Now obviously we are not talking steel and cotton here, but the idea seems to be right: if the Legionnaires leave their cruiser, they should have been killed. And while I can understand Sun Boy not needing the thermo-suit because of the heat, how exactly was he breathing in the inferno of Mercury? Just...sloppy science.
The second problem with the story is the somewhat lacking characterization. While I liked how the Legion rushed to follow Karate Kid and check up on him, where was Princess Projectra in all this? Did she know what he was doing, and leave him to it? I mean, you would think that if you were concerned about a guy, you'd ask his girlfriend if she knew anything, and then you'd expect her to have wanted to go with them to check up on him. However, the way Chameleon Boy kept the information about the Thermoids secret was worse, to be honest. There was absolutely no reason not to tell the others what he was investigating; in fact, he nearly killed them all by not talking. While I understand that Cham tends to be secretive, given his shape-shifting nature and being head of the LSH Espionage Squad (something that was made abundantly clear in the latest framing of Ultra Boy for murder tale (see Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #239)), this type of "drama" really doesn't work or fit the Legion. I also thought that Sun Boy wishing Brainiac 5 had been there to help them solve the problem and Shadow Lass's reaction to that were interesting, given what lies ahead for our green-skinned Legionnaire, but I didn't feel that it fit either of the two characters' personalities; both Sun Boy and Shadow Lass are capable, stubborn individuals in their own right, but Cham was right in that one can't rely on Brainy all the time to get them out of messes and solve problems for them.
And what's the whole deal with the fact there's no explanation of why the Thermoids just started trying to communicate now, after several years of ignoring the hospital facility completely.
One thing that I really liked was that Lightning Lad was acting like a leader in this story. This leads me to believe that the story was written after the last Legion leader election with the fans, but was published before the election story (which will occur in the next issue).
Art-wise, the story is okay, but nothing spectacular. Dick Giordano does a good job inking Joe Staton's pencils this issue, making things pretty easy on the eyes. Staton's backgrounds are somewhat lacking in the Medivac scenes, but the scenes on the crystalline surface of Mercury do bring across the oppressive, extreme heat and the brightness. So in that sense, a decent job of it.
Final Notes:
This issue clears up the last plot thread left dangling from the Karate Kid series, namely the metamorphosis of Iris Jacobs into Diamondeth. She is cured in this story, and Karate Kid promises to return her to the 20th Century immediately...
Iris Jacobs first became Diamondeth in Karate Kid Vol 1 #14, due to the machinations of the Lord of Time...
The second story this issue is this one...
"A World For the Winning!"
Writer: Len Wein
Penciller: Joe Staton
Inker: Murphy Anderson
Letterer: Todd Klein
Colourist: Glynis Wein
Cover: na
Editors: Allen Milgrom & Jack C. Harris
Mission Monitor Board:
Colossal Boy, Superboy, Element Lad
Opposition:
The Fatal Five (The Persuader, Mano, Tharok, The Emerald Empress, Validus)
Synopsis:
At Metropolis Spaceport, a large crowd gathers to welcome the delegates of Corvan IV, a distant and isolated world seeking admission into the United Planets. Among the crowd are three members of the Legion of Super-Heroes - Colossal Boy, Element Lad and Superboy - who drew the boring assignment because all their teammates are on deep-space missions. However, when the ship lands and the delegates emerge, the Legionnaires are horrified to see Mano and The Persuader of the Fatal Five emerge!
The three Legionnaires leap to the attack. The Persuader cuts the force of gravity from under Colossal Boy, propelling him upwards. Mano negates the inertron cage that Element Lad surrounds him in. The Persuader then negates the yellow sun rays that give Superboy his powers, and the Teen of Steel goes down. However, instead of delivering the killing blow, The Persuader helps Superboy to his feet. The Persuader explains that the Fatal Five *are* the delegats from Corvan IV. After their last encounter with the Legion, Tharok teleported the five off the exploding ship. They wandered space for some time, eventually coming upon Corvan IV where the inhabitants worshipped them as gods. They have found fulfillment there, helping the Corvanians progress well, and that progress will be well rewarded if they are allowed to join the United Planets. The President of the United Planets comes up to them, saying that while their plea is touching, the U.P. would have to send representatives to Corvan IV to see what the situation truly is. The Persuader agrees, and states that he and Mano will remain on Earth as proof of the Fatal Five's good intentions. The President decides to send the Legionnaires to Corvan IV to investigate.
Arriving on Corvan IV, the three Legionnaires are met by Tharok, The Emerald Empress, Validus, and an exuberant crowd of the native Corvanians. The proud Fatal Five show the Legionnaires around, but when the tour is over, the Legionnaires tell them that the Fatal Five have done a wonderful job, but have tried to hard to modernize the Corvanians. Tharok loses his temper, and orders the Legionnaires to be killed. While Element Lad delays them momentarily, The Emerald Empress has the Eye take out Superboy, Tharok defeats Element Lad before he can render his robotic half inert, and Validus uses a brain-bolt to take down Colossal Boy. In a desperate bid, Element Lad encases the Emerald Eye in inertron, and while it attempts to blast free, he convinces Superboy to get out of there. The Teen of Steel takes off, leaving the planet and vowing to return with reinforcements. The story continues next issue.
Commentary:
This back-up tale for the issue is a story that has a decent premise, but to be honest, is let down by some inconsistencies. Len Wein gives us a story with an interesting premise to it: Delegates from Corvan IV arrive on Earth, and the Legionnaires are shocked to find they are two members of the Fatal Five, Mano and the Persuader. From there, the story devolves somewhat, the Legionnaires automatically going to the attack because the two villains must be up to no good. If the President of the United Planets knew that the delegates were going to be Mano and The Persuader, why didn't he tell the Legion ahead of time? And if he didn't know, which is unclear to me, then the dispatching of the three Legionnaires he had on hand was a bit rushed and a decision in poor taste, given the Legion's attitude towards the Fatal Five and vice versa. When the Legionnaires travel to Corvan IV, I thought it a bit odd that they didn't check in with their teammates, to let them know where they were going. Some shoddy writing, to be honest.
That said, the notion that the Fatal Five just wants to settle down and retire on Corvan IV is a good one, and goes back to their appearance in Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #219, in which they just wanted to be left alone in peace so that they could pursue their own interests. However, given the events of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #231, I find it difficult to believe that the United Planets would have even agreed to this delegate business and plea to join the U.P.. I mean, heck, Mano himself is a mass murderer with billions of people having been killed when he destroyed his homeworld of Angtu. So why didn't the Fatal Five just stay hidden, quietly, on Corvan IV until they were ready with their next galaxy-wide scheme?
The artwork in this story is pretty decent, with Murphy Anderson's inks giving some life to Joe Staton's pencil work. The Fatal Five look pretty good in this tale, and The Persuader's axe work is all the more impressive for the purple lightning-like effect that emanates from it as he swings the deadly weapon. I do find that Element Lad's jaw looks weird at times when Staton pencils it, but that problem doesn't seem to arise in this story. The differences between the Corvanians' level of technology and the technology that the Fatal Five (presumably mostly of Tharok's design and influence?) is highlighted in the one-page of page 6 in the story, and is one of the tale's brighter spots for me.
Sadly, this story (as well as the lead tale) gives me the impression that the current creators, in this case Len Wein (who wrote both stories), has little experience or knowledge of the characters. I also suspect that this is partially influence by Jack C. Harris taking over the editorial duties on the Legion effective this issue. How this all shapes up will be seen in the future tales in the series.
Final Notes:
The Fatal Five last appeared in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #231...
There is no reason given why the planet Corvan IV would want (or need) to join the United Planets in this story.
Overall Final Notes:
This is the last cover Mike Grell drew for Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes. He returned as guest penciller only one more time...
This issue of the title does not have a letters column. I believe this was due to the length of the two stories, 14 pages and 9 pages respectively, leaving no room for a letters column, but may also have been due to the changing of the guard on the Legion comic...
This is the last issue edited by Allen Milgrom. Because of the DC Implosion, he was let go and replaced by Jack C. Harris.
Next Issue: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #247
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #246
December, 1978
"Will The Last One To Leave Mercury Please Close The Planet?"
Script: Len Wein
Plot: Paul Levitz
Penciller: Joe Staton
Inker: Dick Giordano
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colourist: Glynis Wein
Cover: Mike Grell (signed)
Editors: Jack C. Harris & Allen Milgrom
Mission Monitor Board:
Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy, Shadow Lass, Chameleon Boy, Sun Boy, Karate Kid
Guest Star:
Iris Jacobs; Diamondeth (flashback only)
Opposition:
Patients at Medivac-Lab; The Thermoids
Synopsis:
At Medivac-Lab on Mercury, where the terminally ill from throughout the galaxy come in the hope of being diagnosed and cured, Lightning Lad leads a team of Legionnaires (himself, Cosmic Boy, Shadow Lass, Chameleon Boy and Sun Boy) to check up on Karate Kid. The latter had left a cryptic vid-tape message at Legion Headquarters saying that he was heading there, the 30th Century version of Johns Hopkins. When they finally find and meet up with him, however, Karate Kid tells them that there is nothing wrong with him; he came to cure Iris Jacobs of her state of being Diamondeth. The five other Legionnaires are totally relieved, as Karate Kid excuses himself, saying he has to take Iris back to the 20th Century and then go have a long talk with Princess Projectra's father, King Voxv of Orando.
After he leaves, the five Legionnaires have a good laugh about the matter, Chameleon Boy saying "there's nothing a little trip to Mercury to waste an afternoon." However, First Doctor Zebyx, the acting Supervisor of Medivac, says that perhaps their trip has not been a total waste. He tells the Legionnaires that each night for the past several weeks, staff members and patients have been disappearing with no explanation. Although the Science Police have investigated, they could not find anything, and so the Legion agrees to stay the night and see what they can find out.
That night, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy are on guard duty when they hear someone scream. They quickly go to the Research Lab from whence the scream came, and making their way through the locked door by force, battle a massive robot that turns out to be immune to both their powers. However, Cosmic Boy brings the ceiling down on it, and takes out the robot. It turns out to be an explorer-droid, specially designed to survey Mercury's molten surface. However, the technician who was on duty in the research lab, Doctor X'yxl, is nowhere to be found. Elsewhere, in their quarters on Medivac, Sun Boy, Chameleon Boy and Shadow Lass (all wearing civilian togs) are talking about the situation. Sun Boy says he wishes that Brainiac 5 were there, as Shadow Lass adds that he'd solve the problem very quickly. However, Chameleon Boy says they can't always rely on their resident super-genius for solutions to problems, and Shady agrees with him.
The next day, Medivac and the Legionnaires report to the Science Police about the latest disappearance, and the answer is anything but routine - Medivac is to be evacuated! As the Legionnaires help the staff pack and move various crates, Doctor Zebyx says that it is not the Legionnaires' fault; the S.P. had told them that if another disappearance occurred, this would be the outcome. Shadow Lass notices a disruption in the computerized climate control, and feels cold, and after Sun Boy warms her up, Chameleon Boy has a theory, which he and Sun Boy go to investigate on the Legion Cruiser. Chameleon Boy has Sun Boy use his powers to heat some pseudoplasm, and it reacts as Chameleon Boy expected it to, though he won't explain to Sun Boy. Chameleon and Sun Boy return to the others, where Cosmic Boy, Shadow Lass and Lightning Lad are recapturing an Arcturian blobeast test animal. Cosmic Boy wonders why he was perspiring the night before, as the climate control system of Medivac should have prevented that, and Cham says he thinks he knows the answer.
Doctor Zebyx and the Legionnaires board the Legion cruiser, and travel to the hottest part of the planet. There, the hull of the ship breaks apart due to the heat and stress, and the five Legionnaires and Zebyx abandon the ship, wearing thermo-suits. Even the thermo-suits can't keep them comfortable in the blistering heat, and the shadow-bred Shadow Lass collapses unconscious, though her last words to Doctor Zebyx and the others are that she trusts Chameleon Boy with her life.
Chameleon Boy tells Sun Boy that it's all up to him, and as the Legionnaires continue to struggle through the crystalline terrain until at last even Chameleon Boy succumbs to the heat, Sun Boy finally makes contact, and the Legionnaires and Doctor Zebyx vanish from the heat ravaged crystalline area...
...to reappear some distance away where the temperatures are more comfortable. Sun Boy explains that he managed to communicate with the Thermoids, Mercury's only native life-form. They had been trying to communicate with the people at Medivac, but were inadvertently destroying people in their attempts. Due to his special physiology, Dirk was able to withstand their heat communications, and it was the Thermoids who managed to transport the group to safety.
Some time later, a second Legion cruiser and a Science Police vessel (with the evacuees from Medivac) depart Mercury, the Medivac lab to be relocated on an uninhabitable world, where they can continue to pursue their work. Shadow Lass comments that perhaps before they do that, they should try to discover all the forms that life can take.
Commentary:
This story is one that is all right and has decent artwork. The basic premise of the story is pretty good, with the Legionnaires following Karate Kid to Medivac as they are worried about him, and then dealing with the problem of the disappearing patients and staff. But from there the plot falls apart somewhat for two reasons in my mind.
First of all, to be honest, the science in the fiction here is terrible. To start with, Medivac is set up on the hottest planet in the Solar system? Who the heck would have approved that? And how exactly does the heat damage the Legion cruiser, taking it down, but not the thermo-suits being worn? Let's see, according to my research, metal begins to melt at 1,500 degrees C, but cloth burns at 210 degrees C...yeah, something wrong here... Now obviously we are not talking steel and cotton here, but the idea seems to be right: if the Legionnaires leave their cruiser, they should have been killed. And while I can understand Sun Boy not needing the thermo-suit because of the heat, how exactly was he breathing in the inferno of Mercury? Just...sloppy science.
The second problem with the story is the somewhat lacking characterization. While I liked how the Legion rushed to follow Karate Kid and check up on him, where was Princess Projectra in all this? Did she know what he was doing, and leave him to it? I mean, you would think that if you were concerned about a guy, you'd ask his girlfriend if she knew anything, and then you'd expect her to have wanted to go with them to check up on him. However, the way Chameleon Boy kept the information about the Thermoids secret was worse, to be honest. There was absolutely no reason not to tell the others what he was investigating; in fact, he nearly killed them all by not talking. While I understand that Cham tends to be secretive, given his shape-shifting nature and being head of the LSH Espionage Squad (something that was made abundantly clear in the latest framing of Ultra Boy for murder tale (see Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #239)), this type of "drama" really doesn't work or fit the Legion. I also thought that Sun Boy wishing Brainiac 5 had been there to help them solve the problem and Shadow Lass's reaction to that were interesting, given what lies ahead for our green-skinned Legionnaire, but I didn't feel that it fit either of the two characters' personalities; both Sun Boy and Shadow Lass are capable, stubborn individuals in their own right, but Cham was right in that one can't rely on Brainy all the time to get them out of messes and solve problems for them.
And what's the whole deal with the fact there's no explanation of why the Thermoids just started trying to communicate now, after several years of ignoring the hospital facility completely.
One thing that I really liked was that Lightning Lad was acting like a leader in this story. This leads me to believe that the story was written after the last Legion leader election with the fans, but was published before the election story (which will occur in the next issue).
Art-wise, the story is okay, but nothing spectacular. Dick Giordano does a good job inking Joe Staton's pencils this issue, making things pretty easy on the eyes. Staton's backgrounds are somewhat lacking in the Medivac scenes, but the scenes on the crystalline surface of Mercury do bring across the oppressive, extreme heat and the brightness. So in that sense, a decent job of it.
Final Notes:
This issue clears up the last plot thread left dangling from the Karate Kid series, namely the metamorphosis of Iris Jacobs into Diamondeth. She is cured in this story, and Karate Kid promises to return her to the 20th Century immediately...
Iris Jacobs first became Diamondeth in Karate Kid Vol 1 #14, due to the machinations of the Lord of Time...
The second story this issue is this one...
"A World For the Winning!"
Writer: Len Wein
Penciller: Joe Staton
Inker: Murphy Anderson
Letterer: Todd Klein
Colourist: Glynis Wein
Cover: na
Editors: Allen Milgrom & Jack C. Harris
Mission Monitor Board:
Colossal Boy, Superboy, Element Lad
Opposition:
The Fatal Five (The Persuader, Mano, Tharok, The Emerald Empress, Validus)
Synopsis:
At Metropolis Spaceport, a large crowd gathers to welcome the delegates of Corvan IV, a distant and isolated world seeking admission into the United Planets. Among the crowd are three members of the Legion of Super-Heroes - Colossal Boy, Element Lad and Superboy - who drew the boring assignment because all their teammates are on deep-space missions. However, when the ship lands and the delegates emerge, the Legionnaires are horrified to see Mano and The Persuader of the Fatal Five emerge!
The three Legionnaires leap to the attack. The Persuader cuts the force of gravity from under Colossal Boy, propelling him upwards. Mano negates the inertron cage that Element Lad surrounds him in. The Persuader then negates the yellow sun rays that give Superboy his powers, and the Teen of Steel goes down. However, instead of delivering the killing blow, The Persuader helps Superboy to his feet. The Persuader explains that the Fatal Five *are* the delegats from Corvan IV. After their last encounter with the Legion, Tharok teleported the five off the exploding ship. They wandered space for some time, eventually coming upon Corvan IV where the inhabitants worshipped them as gods. They have found fulfillment there, helping the Corvanians progress well, and that progress will be well rewarded if they are allowed to join the United Planets. The President of the United Planets comes up to them, saying that while their plea is touching, the U.P. would have to send representatives to Corvan IV to see what the situation truly is. The Persuader agrees, and states that he and Mano will remain on Earth as proof of the Fatal Five's good intentions. The President decides to send the Legionnaires to Corvan IV to investigate.
Arriving on Corvan IV, the three Legionnaires are met by Tharok, The Emerald Empress, Validus, and an exuberant crowd of the native Corvanians. The proud Fatal Five show the Legionnaires around, but when the tour is over, the Legionnaires tell them that the Fatal Five have done a wonderful job, but have tried to hard to modernize the Corvanians. Tharok loses his temper, and orders the Legionnaires to be killed. While Element Lad delays them momentarily, The Emerald Empress has the Eye take out Superboy, Tharok defeats Element Lad before he can render his robotic half inert, and Validus uses a brain-bolt to take down Colossal Boy. In a desperate bid, Element Lad encases the Emerald Eye in inertron, and while it attempts to blast free, he convinces Superboy to get out of there. The Teen of Steel takes off, leaving the planet and vowing to return with reinforcements. The story continues next issue.
Commentary:
This back-up tale for the issue is a story that has a decent premise, but to be honest, is let down by some inconsistencies. Len Wein gives us a story with an interesting premise to it: Delegates from Corvan IV arrive on Earth, and the Legionnaires are shocked to find they are two members of the Fatal Five, Mano and the Persuader. From there, the story devolves somewhat, the Legionnaires automatically going to the attack because the two villains must be up to no good. If the President of the United Planets knew that the delegates were going to be Mano and The Persuader, why didn't he tell the Legion ahead of time? And if he didn't know, which is unclear to me, then the dispatching of the three Legionnaires he had on hand was a bit rushed and a decision in poor taste, given the Legion's attitude towards the Fatal Five and vice versa. When the Legionnaires travel to Corvan IV, I thought it a bit odd that they didn't check in with their teammates, to let them know where they were going. Some shoddy writing, to be honest.
That said, the notion that the Fatal Five just wants to settle down and retire on Corvan IV is a good one, and goes back to their appearance in Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #219, in which they just wanted to be left alone in peace so that they could pursue their own interests. However, given the events of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #231, I find it difficult to believe that the United Planets would have even agreed to this delegate business and plea to join the U.P.. I mean, heck, Mano himself is a mass murderer with billions of people having been killed when he destroyed his homeworld of Angtu. So why didn't the Fatal Five just stay hidden, quietly, on Corvan IV until they were ready with their next galaxy-wide scheme?
The artwork in this story is pretty decent, with Murphy Anderson's inks giving some life to Joe Staton's pencil work. The Fatal Five look pretty good in this tale, and The Persuader's axe work is all the more impressive for the purple lightning-like effect that emanates from it as he swings the deadly weapon. I do find that Element Lad's jaw looks weird at times when Staton pencils it, but that problem doesn't seem to arise in this story. The differences between the Corvanians' level of technology and the technology that the Fatal Five (presumably mostly of Tharok's design and influence?) is highlighted in the one-page of page 6 in the story, and is one of the tale's brighter spots for me.
Sadly, this story (as well as the lead tale) gives me the impression that the current creators, in this case Len Wein (who wrote both stories), has little experience or knowledge of the characters. I also suspect that this is partially influence by Jack C. Harris taking over the editorial duties on the Legion effective this issue. How this all shapes up will be seen in the future tales in the series.
Final Notes:
The Fatal Five last appeared in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #231...
There is no reason given why the planet Corvan IV would want (or need) to join the United Planets in this story.
Overall Final Notes:
This is the last cover Mike Grell drew for Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes. He returned as guest penciller only one more time...
This issue of the title does not have a letters column. I believe this was due to the length of the two stories, 14 pages and 9 pages respectively, leaving no room for a letters column, but may also have been due to the changing of the guard on the Legion comic...
This is the last issue edited by Allen Milgrom. Because of the DC Implosion, he was let go and replaced by Jack C. Harris.
Next Issue: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #247