Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977) #242

Once again, the feature story opens with Wildfire being a jerk. Last issue, he was going to let a Science Police officer die because her spaceship wasn’t well-maintained, and this issue, he’s going off on a fascist rant. At least it’s less life-threatening this time. It’d also be less striking if his girlfriend, Dawnstar, didn’t demand absolute loyalty to the Legion leader from her teammates. There’s a definite fash vibe to the story, which just increases later, with even Superboy lashing out.

Wildfire and Dawnstar are on the Weber’s World team, Superboy’s on the Earth defense team. The former’s supposed to be protecting a galactic peace summit, but the other power hasn’t arrived, and there are already terror attacks against the good guy negotiators. A confounding, frustrating situation, so it’s good the other heroes on the mission—Ultra Boy and Mon-El—frequently ignore Wildfire’s directions and, in fact, do save people’s lives. While writer Paul Levitz will focus on the Earth-bound story arc, the Weber’s World story has a lot of kick to it. Partially because of the intergalactic intrigue stuff, partially because it gives penciller James Sherman a chance to draw a future city planet, and it’s gorgeous.

Sherman, ably inked by Bob McLeod, turns in a sumptuous piece of work here. Every element—faces, figures, backgrounds—invites intentional inspection. Especially the facial expressions; Sherman’s got these big expressive eyes and intense detail. And those expressions get dark, too. Devastated at the loss of life during space-based warfare Superboy is one thing, but potentially genocidal Superboy is a whole other. Sherman and McLeod make both happen.

Great art. If there’s better future space teen superhero art, I can’t wait to see it someday.

Anyway.

Back on Earth, it’s not the other power from the negotiations attacking (those are the Dominators), but rather the Khunds. The Khunds appear to be a human colony gone nasty, and they’ve launched a drone ship attack on Earth. Earth’s not ready for it. Wildfire’s not there to say it’s because the Science Police are bad at their job, but it sure seems like they could be better prepared (more on Science Police preparations in the backup, it turns out).

Brainiac 5 pisses everyone off, telling them there’s no way to win the battle for Earth. They need to retreat and regroup. Deputy leader Element Lad isn’t listening to any of that quitter talk, so he ships Brainy off to Weber’s World (with no presence in the rest of this issue) and forms a strike force to go take out the leader of the Khunds. The team consists of Element Lad, Colossal Boy, Sun Boy, and Superboy. They’re going to the capital city, populated mostly by civilians.

Element Lad’s going to take it to eleven and threaten painful murder, while Superboy’s not going to promote truth, justice, and that stuff.

All that anger gives way to Levitz revealing—or at least establishing—the villains, and setting up for next issue.

It’s excellent comics.

Then there’s the backup, which does indeed involve the Science Police (more, actually, since they don’t have any character-level presence in the feature). The Legion’s “prettiest” members are out for a night on the town when some criminals hijack the levitating restaurant. The Science Police are having their annual award dinner and are the perfect target. As long as the criminals have the brass held hostage, the rank and file won’t stop them from looting all the fancy shops of future Metropolis.

It’s a sizable, fourteen-page backup from writer Paul Kupperberg (with a Levitz plot), penciller Arvell Jones, and inker Danny Bulandi. The Legionnaire team is Dream Girl, Shadow Lass, Princess Projectra, and Light Lass. They immediately take on the criminals, only to discover the hostage part of the equation, and are captured.

Except they’re not, because Princess Projectra has projecting-hallucination powers, and so does maybe Dream Girl? It’s the traditional Legionnaires’ powers equation with a distinctive setting. They’re in the “civilian” future city, and while Jones doesn’t go for Sherman’s detail, he does lean into the scenery. The art’s got a lot of personality.

The story has the Legionnaires splitting up to stop various heists, which are very similar to those in the modern day, and each learning a clue to unlock the third act. It’s straightforward, solid superhero stuff, not superlative like the feature, but a nice, sturdy way to round out the issue.