The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #277
Continuing on with the re-reads of the classic Legion of Super-Heroes stories. This time out, the return of Grimbor the Chainsman, and a turning point for the Legion creative team... Enjoy! :)
The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #277
July, 1981
"The Man Who Chained the Earth!"
Writer: Roy Thomas
Plotter: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Jimmy Janes
Inker: Frank Chiaramonte
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colourist: Gene D'Angelo
Cover: George Perez
Editor: Mike W. Barr
Mission Monitor Board:
Phantom Girl, Karate Kid, Timber Wolf, Cosmic Boy, Light Lass, Brainiac 5, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Wildfire, Blok, Shadow Lass, Mon-El, Princess Projectra, Mon-El, Star Boy, Element Lad, Colossal Boy
Guest Stars:
Duo Damsel, Bouncing Boy; Reflecto; Earth President Marte Allon
Supporting Cast:
Ultra Boy (in dream sequence); Charma (flashback)
Opposition:
Grimbor the Chainsman; Seaweed creature
Synopsis:
On Earth, a group of Legionnaires (Cosmic Boy, Phantom Girl, Light Lass, Karate Kid and Timber Wolf) have come on a rescue mission to save a cargo-craft in the Pacific Ocean before it sinks down into the Marianas Trench. Using their powers, Cosmic Boy and Light Lass attempt to keep the cargo-craft afloat, but something in the water keeps trying to pull it down. Timber Wolf and Karate Kid help to rescue the crew, Dromedanian camel men from a desert world who can't swim, while Phantom Girl phases through the ship down to the underside of the vessel. She sees that the ship's cargo is gone, and finds there's a seaweed creature that is pulling the vessel down. Tinya turns semi-solid to start cutting and getting rid of the tentacles, but one strand grabs her and before she can go immaterial, hammers her into the vessel, knocking her out.
On the surface, Light Lass tells Timber Wolf and Karate Kid that she's worried about Phantom Girl, who hasn't come up yet. Before they can act, another flying figure suddenly arrives on the scene. A red-haired young man clad in a yellow and orange suit with a cape dives out of the sky, crashing through the cargo ship to find and save Phantom Girl. Phantom Girl, succumbing to the rapture of the deep, dreams that she is with Ultra Boy, whom everyone believes to be dead, but regains her senses when the red-headed figure kisses her; he has actually given her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Holding Tinya, the red-headed figure races for the surface, going past the finally arrived Timber Wolf and Karate Kid, and flies off with her. Timber Wolf and Karate Kid manage to free the cargo-craft from the seaweed, and the cargo-craft buoys itself up. Cosmic Boy and Light Lass are unable to stop the figure flying off with Phantom Girl, as they have to deal with the upward heaving cargo vessel, which will potentially swamp the life-floats on which the Legionnaires have gotten the Dromedanians. Light Lass makes them lighter than air, and the life-floats rise up out of harm's way.
The red-headed young man arrives with Phantom Girl at Legion Headquarters, where Brainiac 5 is on monitor duty. He activates the alarm, and rouses Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Duo Damsel, Bouncing Boy, and the exercising Wildfire and Blok. They race outside, and confront the red-headed figure. Phantom Girl comes around, and tells them that they should leave him alone as she thinks he saved her. Brainiac 5 confirms that Tinya is fine. The red-haired young man tells them his name is Reflecto, and explains what happened and how he rescued Tinya. Cosmic Boy, Karate Kid and the rest of his team arrive back at Legion HQ, along with the Dromedanian crew of the cargo-craft, confirming Reflecto's story, though Wildfire is still suspicious and somewhat hot-headed.
With Karate Kid's encouragement, the captain of the cargo-craft, Captain Baktra, tells the assembled Legionnaires what happened. A small, unmarked ship intersected with his vessel and "anchored" itself to the cargo craft. This scrambled the cargo ship's hovercraft engines, knocking it off balance, which caused it to start sinking. The small craft used an anti-gravity tractor beam to steal the cargo aboard the ship, and then once it had what it wanted, released the cargo craft from the anchor chain. At the same time, it fired an eerie beam of some sort that struck the seaweed at the ocean's bottom, causing it to mutate into a dangerous threat. from that point forward, the Dromedanians were too busy trying to survive to pay attention where the small craft fled to. When asked, Baktra tells the Legionnaires that they don't know what the cargo was, as it was kept secret even from them. The Science Police, along with their medical personnel, arrive at the scene. The Legionnaires notice that Reflecto has disappeared, having left while Baktra told his tale.
As the Legionnaire head back inside their headquarters, Wildfire confronts Lightning Lad about letting Reflecto go, but the Legion leader says they had no grounds to detain him. Wildfire question's Garth's leadership, and Lightning Lad says that he's not been a very good leader, citing that they've lost Ultra Boy, Brainiac 5 was framed for murder, the Legion parents were almost killed by Dagon the Avenger, and they had to team up with the Fatal Five to stop the Dark Man - not exactly a spotless record. But he knows what he intends to do about it. Once inside, Lightning Lad announces that once the current crisis has been resolved, he is stepping down as Legion leader. This comes as a surprise to Saturn Girl. The Legionnaires begin to discuss Lightning Lad's concerns and what will happen next.
Elsewhere, at the North Pole, Grimbor the Chainsman is testing a new thermanacle trap, activated by body heat, using a polar bear as the test subject. He orders that the bear be added to his private zoo, until such time as he tires of it and has it destroyed, and his minions obey. Once inside his ice castle, Grimbor looks at an image of Charma, saying that what he's about to do is for her, since it was the Legion who caused her death when they captured her and Earth executed her by imprisoning her with those who "hated her" - and now he will make both the Legion and Earth pay for what they did. Grimbor then activates a series of satellites that are in synchronized orbit above Earth. Once the satellites are activated, enormous energy "chains" appear in the stratosphere.
A shuttle that is heading from lunar orbit back to Earth cannot avoid the energy chains when they appear, and is destroyed. Several passengers and crew are killed before the Science Police are able to rescue them. At the Spaceport General in Metropolis, the order is given to ground all aircraft and space vessels. Other Science Police officers head up to investigate in ships, and although they are aware of what they are facing, their ship also collides with the energy chains, which appear able to move freely when an object approaches them.
At the Earth Council, the holographic form of Grimbor appears before President Marte Allon (who seems to have anticipated this exact thing happening) and the Councillors. The obviously mad Grimbor tells the Council that in exchange for freeing Earth of the light chains, he wants amnesty for past actions, to be given full authority as dictator of Earth, and the Legion of Super-Heroes turned over to him for his personal disposal. Needless to say, the Earth Council refuses to accede to his demands, and Grimbor gives them 24 hours, saying they'll feel differently when Earth tries to get by without the food that the colony worlds provide.
The Earth Council contacts the Legion for help. They are still discussing Lightning Lad's resignation as Legion leader, and Wildfire tells him that they don't "change horses in mid-starstream." When asked what the plan is, Lightning Lad tells them. Karate Kid and Princess Projectra will hold down the fort at Legion HQ. He assigns Saturn Girl, Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Light Lass and Timber Wolf to accompany him and check out the energy chains in space. Blok, Cosmic Boy, Phantom Girl, Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy will try to find out what equipment Grimbor stole from the cargo-craft earlier. The rest of the Legionnaires present - Star Boy, Colossal Boy, and Element Lad - will act as Legion liasion to the Earth Council, this despite Colossal Boy's misgivings given his recent problems with his mom, the President of Earth.
As the Legionnaires fly off on their missions, Reflecto is seen loitering about outside. Seeing Phantom Girl in one of the groups of Legionnaires departing, he flies off after her. As Karate Kid and Princess Projectra head back inside to monitor duty, the former spots Reflecto going after her. While Karate Kid has his reservations about the matter, Princess Projectra suggests that since he save her once before, perhaps Reflecto is feeling protective of her. The story continues in the next issue.
Commentary:
This issue marks a turning point for the Legion of Super-Heroes. First, the Legion gets a new "permanent" writer in terms of the legendary Roy Thomas. He was coming off some extensive experience at Marvel with large casts such as The Avengers and The Invaders, so the expectation that he would be able to handle the large cast of the Legion was there. Second, the Legion got a new editor in Mike W. Barr, who replaced Jack C. Harris, and who made his mark in this issue right away with footnotes about previous stories at points.
The story is the first part of the "Reflecto" series. The basic premise of the story is a good one, with Grimbor seeking revenge on both the Legion and Earth, whom he blamed for the death of his lover, Charma. "Chaining" the world as he does here is a great idea, and has a lot of potential, and very much fits Grimbor's modus operandi. The story itself is well plotted, though I have to wonder who is responsible for most of that, given that Gerry Conway is listed as the Plotter this issue, so I wonder how much of that was also Roy Thomas. However, the dialogue is all Thomas in this one, and it's easy to see that he grasps the differences between the Legionnaires both in terms of their powers and their personalities. There is some wonderful dialogue in the story, notably Phantom Girl's opening bit about being dog-tired after the mission to Avalon (in the previous issue); Timber Wolf's sense of self when he tells Light Lass they've forgotten about Phantom Girl during the hectic process of loading the life-floats (nice term, that!); Brainiac 5's emotional response to the arrival of Reflecto with Phantom Girl at Legion HQ; Karate Kid's defending of Reflecto's actions, and almost a sense of debt for saving Phantom Girl; Wildfire's hot-tempered nature and argument with Lightning Lad, not to mention his surprise at Lightning Lad's decision before they go into the meeting; Garth's leadership when the crisis of Grimbor's energy chains comes to the Legion's attention; and finally, Reflecto's stoic nature and seemingly "do the right thing" attitude. It's a real joy to read the story from that sense, as the Legionnaires come across with personality and individuality that has been lacking in Gerry Conway's tales of late, other than some stereotypical behaviour on the part of certain Legionnaires.
The story itself moves along at a good clip, the different scenes sliding along with each other quite nicely. The use of the smaller groups of Legionnaires to handle different parts of the story was nicely handled, and the different teams are good combinations of Legionnaires that made for some good interactions. The teams that Lightning Lad assigns to the different tasks - checking out the energy chains, liasing with the Earth Council, and finding out what the cargo was aboard the ship at sea - are pretty good as well, and should be interesting to watch in the next issue of the story. The return of Grimbor is a good idea and would have been a nice surprise, if the title of the story hadn't given this away. Roy Thomas gives Grimbor a solid personal motive for doing what he's doing here, his love of the dead Charma twisted into a revenge scheme, and given his past performance against the Legion, he's certainly capable of making life dangerous and hard for them. We'll see if that lives up to its promise in the second part of the story.
Insofar as Lightning Lad announcing he wants to resign the Legion leadership, in the middle of a crisis no less, I was a bit surprised. I hope that he changes his mind, as to be honest, I don't think that Garth's done a bad job as leader, but have to wonder if there's something else (psychological) going on. It feels in many ways that Garth hasn't really been Legion leader for that long, and yet his run as of this issue has already lasted 35 issues, the longest run in Legion history with Mon-El holding the previous record at 32 issues. If Lightning Lad does resign, of course, part of the real interest will be who is chosen as the next Legion leader.
The artwork this issue has its ups and downs. As I said, "chaining" the world as Grimbor does here is a great idea, has a lot of potential, and could have been visually impactful, but is let down by Jimmy Janes's pencils here. The chains are meant to be "light chains" but to be honest, the illustrations of them on pages 20 and 21 are just not...good. They come across as way too mundane in appearance and feel. The artwork in the rest of the book is adequate, Frank Chiarmonte doing a decent job with the inking of Janes's pencils, and making the story eminently readable and visually striking at times. That said, this would have been the perfect story to redesign Grimbor's look somewhat to something a bit more practical. I mean, if one is going to live at the North Pole, surely a more practical outfit would have been in order.
The mystery of Reflecto gets off to a great start with the image on the cover of an almost messianic entity bearing Phantom Girl down to Legion HQ. Great visual by George Perez on this masterful cover. It is clear that the "dream" sequence of Phantom Girl kissing Ultra Boy is meant to make the reader think that Reflecto has something to do with Jo Nah. That said, it's important to remember that Reflecto first appeared in the Adult Legion story in Adventure Comics Vol 1 #354, in which his memorial statue is seen. It is said that "he was killed in a duel with the Molecule Master", but who knows what the case might be here. And another precedent for this story's mysterious heroic figure is the Unknown Legionnaire from way back in Adventure Comics Vol 1 #334, who was revealed to be Supergirl. But it does raise the question: What is Reflecto "reflecting"? Hmm...
Final Notes:
This issue is notable for several reasons. First, this issue is the debut of new Legion editor Mike W. Barr, who replaces Jack C. Harris. Harris was the assistant editor under previous editor Murray Boltinoff, so had been involved wih the Legion for more than five years...
Second, this issue marks the debut of writer Roy Thomas, who moved over to DC from Marvel in early 1981...
Thirdly, this issue is the first issue of the Legion of Super-Heroes title with a cover illustrated by ultra-talented George Perez. He had recently come over to DC Comics from Marvel. Perez had already pencilled the cover of Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #268 (the story with Doctor Mayavale), but this was his first fully illustrated cover...
While Dream Girl and Shrinking Violet are listed in the Roll Call at the top of the splash page, they do not appear in the issue at all. Star Boy and Element Lad, also listed in the Roll Call do appear, but have no lines. Shadow Lass is not listed in the Roll Call, but clearly does appear in the story...
Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy are listed in the Roll Call, although we are never told that they have officially returned to active duty. Thus, I've chosen to continue to list them as Guest Stars...
Brainiac 5 appears and checks on Phantom Girl, then is not seen again for the rest of the story. He does not go out on any of the missions, nor does he stay on monitor duty...
Reflecto first appeared in the Adult Legion story in Adventure Comics Vol 1 #354, in which his memorial statue is seen. It is said that "he was killed in a duel with the Molecule Master."...
Grimbor the Chainsman first appeared in Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #221, in which he was accompanied by his accomplice and partner, Charma. Grimbor next appeared in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #240, in which he sought revenge on the Legion for the death of Charma in prison...
On page 24, Lightning Lad assigns a team consisting of Phantom Girl, Cosmic Boy, Blok, Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy to find out what equipment Grimbor stole from the cargo-craft earlier, even though there is no direct link that it was Grimbor who did so...
This story is the first to feature the Dromedanian camel-man species from the arid world Dromedan. It will not be their last appearance by a long shot, as one of their species shows up again in The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #285.
Next Issue: The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #278
The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #277
July, 1981
"The Man Who Chained the Earth!"
Writer: Roy Thomas
Plotter: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Jimmy Janes
Inker: Frank Chiaramonte
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colourist: Gene D'Angelo
Cover: George Perez
Editor: Mike W. Barr
Mission Monitor Board:
Phantom Girl, Karate Kid, Timber Wolf, Cosmic Boy, Light Lass, Brainiac 5, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Wildfire, Blok, Shadow Lass, Mon-El, Princess Projectra, Mon-El, Star Boy, Element Lad, Colossal Boy
Guest Stars:
Duo Damsel, Bouncing Boy; Reflecto; Earth President Marte Allon
Supporting Cast:
Ultra Boy (in dream sequence); Charma (flashback)
Opposition:
Grimbor the Chainsman; Seaweed creature
Synopsis:
On Earth, a group of Legionnaires (Cosmic Boy, Phantom Girl, Light Lass, Karate Kid and Timber Wolf) have come on a rescue mission to save a cargo-craft in the Pacific Ocean before it sinks down into the Marianas Trench. Using their powers, Cosmic Boy and Light Lass attempt to keep the cargo-craft afloat, but something in the water keeps trying to pull it down. Timber Wolf and Karate Kid help to rescue the crew, Dromedanian camel men from a desert world who can't swim, while Phantom Girl phases through the ship down to the underside of the vessel. She sees that the ship's cargo is gone, and finds there's a seaweed creature that is pulling the vessel down. Tinya turns semi-solid to start cutting and getting rid of the tentacles, but one strand grabs her and before she can go immaterial, hammers her into the vessel, knocking her out.
On the surface, Light Lass tells Timber Wolf and Karate Kid that she's worried about Phantom Girl, who hasn't come up yet. Before they can act, another flying figure suddenly arrives on the scene. A red-haired young man clad in a yellow and orange suit with a cape dives out of the sky, crashing through the cargo ship to find and save Phantom Girl. Phantom Girl, succumbing to the rapture of the deep, dreams that she is with Ultra Boy, whom everyone believes to be dead, but regains her senses when the red-headed figure kisses her; he has actually given her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Holding Tinya, the red-headed figure races for the surface, going past the finally arrived Timber Wolf and Karate Kid, and flies off with her. Timber Wolf and Karate Kid manage to free the cargo-craft from the seaweed, and the cargo-craft buoys itself up. Cosmic Boy and Light Lass are unable to stop the figure flying off with Phantom Girl, as they have to deal with the upward heaving cargo vessel, which will potentially swamp the life-floats on which the Legionnaires have gotten the Dromedanians. Light Lass makes them lighter than air, and the life-floats rise up out of harm's way.
The red-headed young man arrives with Phantom Girl at Legion Headquarters, where Brainiac 5 is on monitor duty. He activates the alarm, and rouses Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Duo Damsel, Bouncing Boy, and the exercising Wildfire and Blok. They race outside, and confront the red-headed figure. Phantom Girl comes around, and tells them that they should leave him alone as she thinks he saved her. Brainiac 5 confirms that Tinya is fine. The red-haired young man tells them his name is Reflecto, and explains what happened and how he rescued Tinya. Cosmic Boy, Karate Kid and the rest of his team arrive back at Legion HQ, along with the Dromedanian crew of the cargo-craft, confirming Reflecto's story, though Wildfire is still suspicious and somewhat hot-headed.
With Karate Kid's encouragement, the captain of the cargo-craft, Captain Baktra, tells the assembled Legionnaires what happened. A small, unmarked ship intersected with his vessel and "anchored" itself to the cargo craft. This scrambled the cargo ship's hovercraft engines, knocking it off balance, which caused it to start sinking. The small craft used an anti-gravity tractor beam to steal the cargo aboard the ship, and then once it had what it wanted, released the cargo craft from the anchor chain. At the same time, it fired an eerie beam of some sort that struck the seaweed at the ocean's bottom, causing it to mutate into a dangerous threat. from that point forward, the Dromedanians were too busy trying to survive to pay attention where the small craft fled to. When asked, Baktra tells the Legionnaires that they don't know what the cargo was, as it was kept secret even from them. The Science Police, along with their medical personnel, arrive at the scene. The Legionnaires notice that Reflecto has disappeared, having left while Baktra told his tale.
As the Legionnaire head back inside their headquarters, Wildfire confronts Lightning Lad about letting Reflecto go, but the Legion leader says they had no grounds to detain him. Wildfire question's Garth's leadership, and Lightning Lad says that he's not been a very good leader, citing that they've lost Ultra Boy, Brainiac 5 was framed for murder, the Legion parents were almost killed by Dagon the Avenger, and they had to team up with the Fatal Five to stop the Dark Man - not exactly a spotless record. But he knows what he intends to do about it. Once inside, Lightning Lad announces that once the current crisis has been resolved, he is stepping down as Legion leader. This comes as a surprise to Saturn Girl. The Legionnaires begin to discuss Lightning Lad's concerns and what will happen next.
Elsewhere, at the North Pole, Grimbor the Chainsman is testing a new thermanacle trap, activated by body heat, using a polar bear as the test subject. He orders that the bear be added to his private zoo, until such time as he tires of it and has it destroyed, and his minions obey. Once inside his ice castle, Grimbor looks at an image of Charma, saying that what he's about to do is for her, since it was the Legion who caused her death when they captured her and Earth executed her by imprisoning her with those who "hated her" - and now he will make both the Legion and Earth pay for what they did. Grimbor then activates a series of satellites that are in synchronized orbit above Earth. Once the satellites are activated, enormous energy "chains" appear in the stratosphere.
A shuttle that is heading from lunar orbit back to Earth cannot avoid the energy chains when they appear, and is destroyed. Several passengers and crew are killed before the Science Police are able to rescue them. At the Spaceport General in Metropolis, the order is given to ground all aircraft and space vessels. Other Science Police officers head up to investigate in ships, and although they are aware of what they are facing, their ship also collides with the energy chains, which appear able to move freely when an object approaches them.
At the Earth Council, the holographic form of Grimbor appears before President Marte Allon (who seems to have anticipated this exact thing happening) and the Councillors. The obviously mad Grimbor tells the Council that in exchange for freeing Earth of the light chains, he wants amnesty for past actions, to be given full authority as dictator of Earth, and the Legion of Super-Heroes turned over to him for his personal disposal. Needless to say, the Earth Council refuses to accede to his demands, and Grimbor gives them 24 hours, saying they'll feel differently when Earth tries to get by without the food that the colony worlds provide.
The Earth Council contacts the Legion for help. They are still discussing Lightning Lad's resignation as Legion leader, and Wildfire tells him that they don't "change horses in mid-starstream." When asked what the plan is, Lightning Lad tells them. Karate Kid and Princess Projectra will hold down the fort at Legion HQ. He assigns Saturn Girl, Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Light Lass and Timber Wolf to accompany him and check out the energy chains in space. Blok, Cosmic Boy, Phantom Girl, Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy will try to find out what equipment Grimbor stole from the cargo-craft earlier. The rest of the Legionnaires present - Star Boy, Colossal Boy, and Element Lad - will act as Legion liasion to the Earth Council, this despite Colossal Boy's misgivings given his recent problems with his mom, the President of Earth.
As the Legionnaires fly off on their missions, Reflecto is seen loitering about outside. Seeing Phantom Girl in one of the groups of Legionnaires departing, he flies off after her. As Karate Kid and Princess Projectra head back inside to monitor duty, the former spots Reflecto going after her. While Karate Kid has his reservations about the matter, Princess Projectra suggests that since he save her once before, perhaps Reflecto is feeling protective of her. The story continues in the next issue.
Commentary:
This issue marks a turning point for the Legion of Super-Heroes. First, the Legion gets a new "permanent" writer in terms of the legendary Roy Thomas. He was coming off some extensive experience at Marvel with large casts such as The Avengers and The Invaders, so the expectation that he would be able to handle the large cast of the Legion was there. Second, the Legion got a new editor in Mike W. Barr, who replaced Jack C. Harris, and who made his mark in this issue right away with footnotes about previous stories at points.
The story is the first part of the "Reflecto" series. The basic premise of the story is a good one, with Grimbor seeking revenge on both the Legion and Earth, whom he blamed for the death of his lover, Charma. "Chaining" the world as he does here is a great idea, and has a lot of potential, and very much fits Grimbor's modus operandi. The story itself is well plotted, though I have to wonder who is responsible for most of that, given that Gerry Conway is listed as the Plotter this issue, so I wonder how much of that was also Roy Thomas. However, the dialogue is all Thomas in this one, and it's easy to see that he grasps the differences between the Legionnaires both in terms of their powers and their personalities. There is some wonderful dialogue in the story, notably Phantom Girl's opening bit about being dog-tired after the mission to Avalon (in the previous issue); Timber Wolf's sense of self when he tells Light Lass they've forgotten about Phantom Girl during the hectic process of loading the life-floats (nice term, that!); Brainiac 5's emotional response to the arrival of Reflecto with Phantom Girl at Legion HQ; Karate Kid's defending of Reflecto's actions, and almost a sense of debt for saving Phantom Girl; Wildfire's hot-tempered nature and argument with Lightning Lad, not to mention his surprise at Lightning Lad's decision before they go into the meeting; Garth's leadership when the crisis of Grimbor's energy chains comes to the Legion's attention; and finally, Reflecto's stoic nature and seemingly "do the right thing" attitude. It's a real joy to read the story from that sense, as the Legionnaires come across with personality and individuality that has been lacking in Gerry Conway's tales of late, other than some stereotypical behaviour on the part of certain Legionnaires.
The story itself moves along at a good clip, the different scenes sliding along with each other quite nicely. The use of the smaller groups of Legionnaires to handle different parts of the story was nicely handled, and the different teams are good combinations of Legionnaires that made for some good interactions. The teams that Lightning Lad assigns to the different tasks - checking out the energy chains, liasing with the Earth Council, and finding out what the cargo was aboard the ship at sea - are pretty good as well, and should be interesting to watch in the next issue of the story. The return of Grimbor is a good idea and would have been a nice surprise, if the title of the story hadn't given this away. Roy Thomas gives Grimbor a solid personal motive for doing what he's doing here, his love of the dead Charma twisted into a revenge scheme, and given his past performance against the Legion, he's certainly capable of making life dangerous and hard for them. We'll see if that lives up to its promise in the second part of the story.
Insofar as Lightning Lad announcing he wants to resign the Legion leadership, in the middle of a crisis no less, I was a bit surprised. I hope that he changes his mind, as to be honest, I don't think that Garth's done a bad job as leader, but have to wonder if there's something else (psychological) going on. It feels in many ways that Garth hasn't really been Legion leader for that long, and yet his run as of this issue has already lasted 35 issues, the longest run in Legion history with Mon-El holding the previous record at 32 issues. If Lightning Lad does resign, of course, part of the real interest will be who is chosen as the next Legion leader.
The artwork this issue has its ups and downs. As I said, "chaining" the world as Grimbor does here is a great idea, has a lot of potential, and could have been visually impactful, but is let down by Jimmy Janes's pencils here. The chains are meant to be "light chains" but to be honest, the illustrations of them on pages 20 and 21 are just not...good. They come across as way too mundane in appearance and feel. The artwork in the rest of the book is adequate, Frank Chiarmonte doing a decent job with the inking of Janes's pencils, and making the story eminently readable and visually striking at times. That said, this would have been the perfect story to redesign Grimbor's look somewhat to something a bit more practical. I mean, if one is going to live at the North Pole, surely a more practical outfit would have been in order.
The mystery of Reflecto gets off to a great start with the image on the cover of an almost messianic entity bearing Phantom Girl down to Legion HQ. Great visual by George Perez on this masterful cover. It is clear that the "dream" sequence of Phantom Girl kissing Ultra Boy is meant to make the reader think that Reflecto has something to do with Jo Nah. That said, it's important to remember that Reflecto first appeared in the Adult Legion story in Adventure Comics Vol 1 #354, in which his memorial statue is seen. It is said that "he was killed in a duel with the Molecule Master", but who knows what the case might be here. And another precedent for this story's mysterious heroic figure is the Unknown Legionnaire from way back in Adventure Comics Vol 1 #334, who was revealed to be Supergirl. But it does raise the question: What is Reflecto "reflecting"? Hmm...
Final Notes:
This issue is notable for several reasons. First, this issue is the debut of new Legion editor Mike W. Barr, who replaces Jack C. Harris. Harris was the assistant editor under previous editor Murray Boltinoff, so had been involved wih the Legion for more than five years...
Second, this issue marks the debut of writer Roy Thomas, who moved over to DC from Marvel in early 1981...
Thirdly, this issue is the first issue of the Legion of Super-Heroes title with a cover illustrated by ultra-talented George Perez. He had recently come over to DC Comics from Marvel. Perez had already pencilled the cover of Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #268 (the story with Doctor Mayavale), but this was his first fully illustrated cover...
While Dream Girl and Shrinking Violet are listed in the Roll Call at the top of the splash page, they do not appear in the issue at all. Star Boy and Element Lad, also listed in the Roll Call do appear, but have no lines. Shadow Lass is not listed in the Roll Call, but clearly does appear in the story...
Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy are listed in the Roll Call, although we are never told that they have officially returned to active duty. Thus, I've chosen to continue to list them as Guest Stars...
Brainiac 5 appears and checks on Phantom Girl, then is not seen again for the rest of the story. He does not go out on any of the missions, nor does he stay on monitor duty...
Reflecto first appeared in the Adult Legion story in Adventure Comics Vol 1 #354, in which his memorial statue is seen. It is said that "he was killed in a duel with the Molecule Master."...
Grimbor the Chainsman first appeared in Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #221, in which he was accompanied by his accomplice and partner, Charma. Grimbor next appeared in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 1 #240, in which he sought revenge on the Legion for the death of Charma in prison...
On page 24, Lightning Lad assigns a team consisting of Phantom Girl, Cosmic Boy, Blok, Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy to find out what equipment Grimbor stole from the cargo-craft earlier, even though there is no direct link that it was Grimbor who did so...
This story is the first to feature the Dromedanian camel-man species from the arid world Dromedan. It will not be their last appearance by a long shot, as one of their species shows up again in The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #285.
Next Issue: The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 #278