Bill Draut – The Stop Button

Jim Shooter 1, Cary Bates 2 (script)

Mike Grell (artist 1, pencils 2)

Bill Draut (inks 2)

Ben Oda 1, Joe Letterese 2 (letters

Jack C. Harris (assistant editor)

Murray Boltinoff (editor)

Ah, yes, the valiant superheroes of the future… who are willing to sacrifice a little kid’s life because they don’t like him. Well, not all of them, but definitely Wildfire and maybe Karate Kid. Thank goodness Superboy (with his forty-five-year-old Grell features) is there to remind them they’re not supposed to let innocent people die just because they’re unpleasant.

The Legion’s on an automated factory planet. The planet’s been attacking ships trying to land, including one after the Legion arrives. Superboy saves the ship’s pilot before the planet’s lasers zap it. Turns out the pilot is an obnoxious little kid (who barely seems aware of the Legion, which ought to be interesting but isn’t), son of the planet’s owner.

Too bad the villain turns out to be a fired overseer who hates the planet’s owner and would kill the kid at the first opportunity. So Superboy does his best to try to keep the kid safe, even as the kid thinks the heroes are just trying to cramp his style. Wildfire takes a different approach—let the kid die so the Legion can escape.

Maybe if writer Jim Shooter had a better moral compass, the story would read better; as is, the reader’s supposed to identify with Wildfire but eventually agree with Superboy, who’s actually not showing all his cards. So… the needs of the few only outweigh the needs of the many when you’re playing with marked cards.

At the very least, there are a couple okay big action splashes from Mike Grell. They’re usually cushioned with some strangely distorted human faces or whatever’s going on with Wildfire’s helmet, but there are at least a couple okay visual moments.

The backup—Grell on pencils, Cary Bates writing, Bill Draut on inks—is about Brainiac-5 trying to help Shrinking Violet with a mental health issue. She’s just had a nasty near accident with another Legionnaire in the gym—she almost got stomped on—and now she can’t shrink any more. Brainy ignores Saturn Girl’s “professional” psychiatric advice on how to deal with it and pushes forward with an extreme treatment.

It’s a terribly plotted story—the first few pages are all talking heads about Violet’s problems (talking about her, she’s not conscious for it because she’s so near her mental breaking point), then there’s some setup of Brainy’s treatment idea. But then the actual action of the story is barely a page and a half, and it’s… about getting stuck in a big ball of wire.

Once again, Brainiac-5 doesn’t seem very smart at all.

Overall, however, the issue’s nowhere near as bad as its creators can get. Unless, of course, you want your superheroes helping people instead of pushing them under busses.

Jim Shooter (script)

Mike Grell (artist 1, pencils 2)

Bill Draut (inks 2)

Jack C. Harris (assistant editor)

Murray Boltinoff (editor)

Despite a poor opening, the feature’s not terrible. I mean, Mike Grell’s mid-forties-looking Superboy is always a thing, but otherwise—besides the incessant bickering between the Legionnaires—it’s an okay story. Once you get past Superboy’s introduction to the story, which is thankfully the worst Jim Shooter exposition we get in the whole story.

The introduction promises Ultra Boy cracking under the pressures of being a superhero, but it’s actually something tied to a very specific trauma for Ultra Boy. The resolution to it entirely invalidates the introduction teaser, but whatever. It could be much worse.

The Legion’s hanging out at headquarters when someone breaks in, getting past all their advanced defenses. It’s the best thief in the galaxy; come to tell the Legion he’s going to steal their miracle machine. Brainiac-5 accuses the thief of being a liar because Brainy’s never heard of him.

The thief points out he’s never been arrested or caught because he’s the best, so how would Brainiac-5 have heard of him? Brainiac-5, being written by a Jim Shooter-level intelligence, has no rejoinder.

The thief transports out or whatever, promising to return, and the Legion has a fit about what to do next. They take a vote on destroying the machine, only to discover they can’t destroy it anyway; it’s too well-built. So they up the defenses and stand guard.

We still haven’t had Ultra Boy cracking under pressure, by the way. We’ve got to wait for them to try to track the thief down, running into a space dinosaur instead, and Ultra Boy hates space dinosaurs. Good thing the comic’s called Superboy and Superboy can see across the universe.

There’s nothing particularly good about the story, but there’s also nothing particularly bad—Shooter made it through a whole story without any sexism—and while Grell’s going to Grell, maybe it’s worn me down by now.

The backup’s similarly indistinctly “not terrible.” Also not at all good. Shooter scripts, Grell’s on art with Bill Draut. Is Grell better with someone else inking? Not really. Draut makes the lines bolder, which isn’t really Grell’s problem. None of the body work is improved.

On a solo mission, Timber Wolf answers a distress call, but something else may be going on. To survive, Timber Wolf will have to use his smarts and knowledge of the Legion policy and procedure handbook.

So many thought balloons from Timber Wolf. None of them thoughtful, but also none of them filled with the character’s usually sexism.

The comic’s not so much not bad as inoffensive. It’s still not anything good, but inoffensive is a good start.