Superboy's Legion

Superboy's Legion
Publication information
Publisher	Elseworlds (DC Comics)
Format	Mini-series
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	2001
Number of issues	2
Main character(s)	Superboy Legion of Super-Heroes Fatal Five Lex Luthor
Creative team
Writer(s)	Mark Farmer
Penciller(s)	Alan Davis
Inker(s)	Mark Farner
Letterer(s)	Pat Prentice
Colorist(s)	Richard Horie Tanya Horie
Editor(s)	Mike McAvennie

Superboy's Legion is a two-issue mini-series, published by DC Comics in 2001 under the Elseworlds banner. It was written and inked by Mark Farmer, with pencils by Alan Davis.

The series is a tale about if baby Kal-El, the last survivor of the doomed planet Krypton, had been raised in the 30th Century. The story uses elements from the Silver Age of comic books, most notably from the original Legion of Super-Heroes series.

Characters

• Superboy
• Saturn Girl
• Cosmic Boy
• Sun Boy: Dirk Morgna is the son of industrialist Derek Morgna, and has the ability to generate heat. He is best friends with Gim Allon.
• Colossal Boy: Gim Allon gained the ability to grow the size of a giant when he came in contact with a radioactive meteor. He is best friends with Dirk Morgna.
• Element Lad: Jan Arrah of the planet Trom can transmute any substance. An acolyte of the Krilli religion, Jan only uses his powers in a passive way, although he will use them aggressively if the situation calls for it.
• Shrinking Violet: Salu Digby of the planet Imsk can shrink down to any size while still retaining her original mass.
• Bouncing Boy: Chuck Taine of the planet Earth can inflate his body like a balloon. Chuck tried out with his friends Val Armorr (Karate Kid), and Andrew Nolan (Ferro Lad), but only Chuck made the cut.
• Shadow Lass: Tasmia Mallor, a native of Tallok VIII, she has the ability to manipulate and create darkness.
• Star Boy: Thom Kallor is the last survivor of the planet Xanthu. He draws his power from the stars and can increase mass and gravity.
• Ultra Boy: Jo Nah of Rimbor has multiple powers, but he can only use one of them at a time.
• Phantom Girl: Tinya Wazzo is the princess of Bgztl and can make herself intangible.
• Chameleon Boy: Reep Daggle is a member of the shape-shifting Durlan race and can transform into anyone or anything.
• The Fatal Five: Emerald Empress, Validus, Mano, Persuader, and Tharok.
• R.J. Brande
• Lex Luthor

Various other Legion characters seen during the story are Triplicate Girl, Tellus, Karate Kid, Ferro Lad, Wildfire, Dream Girl, and the Legion of Substitute Heroes (composed of Night Girl, Fire Lad, Stone Boy, Chlorophyll Kid, and Polar Boy).

Plot

In the year 2987, R.J. Brande, the galaxies' richest man and head of Brande Industries, discovers a lifepod in the asteroid belt. Inside the lifepod lies a baby boy, Kal-El of Krypton. Kal-El's rocket was set on a course for the planet Earth in the 20th century moments before Krypton's explosion, but it crashed into an asteroid and has remained there for approximately a thousand years. Fourteen years later, in 3001, Kal-El becomes Kal Brande. R.J. Brande adopted the young boy and raised him as his own child. Kal has gained superpowers due to the effects of the Radiation from Earth's sun. Kal calls himself Superboy, inspired by legends of heroes from the 20th century, and attempts to use his powers to help people.

Every planet in the Milky Way Galaxy is protected and watched over by the Science Police, who are guided by the computer Universo. In the eyes of the science police, Kal is a misfit because he damages public property and makes unregistered flights into space via his powers. The police threaten R.J to control Kal's behavior or his business will be disconnected from all utility and power sources. After a heated argument between Superboy and R.J, Superboy flies off into space to the former location of Krypton. He witnesses a member of the Green Lantern Corps fighting against a Khund space vessel and helps the Lantern, known as Talu-Katu. Talu-Katu reveals that the Green Lantern Corps protects all sectors of space that are not under police protection, but their resources are limited. Superboy forms the idea to form his own group.

Meanwhile, on the luxury space cruiser Lystrata, crew members and a young couple Imra Ardeen of Saturn's moon Titan and Rokk Krinn of the planet Braal, defend the ship against an energy called a blister beast. Imra is a Psychic and Rokk has magnetic abilities, and the two are helped by Superboy. The trio form a team called Superboy's Legion. Imra calls herself Saturn Girl, and Rokk calls himself Cosmic Boy. They hold televised tryouts, covered by young reporter Lois Olsen, for more members on Titan. They induct best friends Dirk Morgna (Sun Boy) and Gim Allon (Colossal Boy) of Earth, Salu Digby (Shrinking Violet) of Imsk, Chuck Taine (Bouncing Boy) of Earth, Jan Arrah (Element Lad) of Trom, and Tasmia Mallor (Shadow Lass) of Tallok VIII. Superboy meets Lois and a spark seems to form between the two after the tryouts. When news comes of a giant asteroid about to collide with planet Rimbor, "the planet everyone gave up on", the Legion sets out to save the planet.

On Rimbor, word of the asteroid's collision has caused mass hysteria. Jo Nah (Ultra Boy) and his girlfriend, princess Tinya Wazzo (Phantom Girl) of the planet Bgztl, plan to destroy the asteroid with a bomb until discovering Reep Daggle (Chameleon Boy), a Durlan shape-shifter sent by Tinya's mother, Winema, to watch over Tinya. The two decide to use Reep to help stop the asteroid by turning him into a spaceship. As the Legion heads for Rimbor, they are contacted by Lyle Norg (Invisible Kid) of Earth, and Querl Dox (Brainiac 5) of the planet Colu. They inform the Legion that Superboy's plan to smash the asteroid will fail because the asteroid is too large. They Legion calls in Thom Kallor (Star Boy), the last survivor of the planet Xanthu, who uses his gravity powers to increase Superboy's mass to stop the asteroid. Superboy shatters the asteroid, and the Legion collects the fragments.

The Legion is attacked by the Fatal Five, five of the most dangerous criminals in the galaxy; and the ones responsible for Xanthu's destruction. Emerald Empress gains an advantage over Superboy with her powerful talisman, the Emerald Eye, due to his weakness against magic. Mano, a mutant born with an anti-matter touch, burns Star Boy's face. Cosmic Boy has his right arm cut off by the Persuader's atomic axe, and Colossal Boy is killed in battle with the giant Validus. When the Five leave, they take Brainiac 5 back to their base under orders from their leader, Lex Luthor.

Superboy is met on Rimbor by Garth Ranzz (Lightning Lad), his sister Ayla (Light Lass) and their friend Sensor joined the Legion after watching the initial tryouts on Omninet. Superboy is not sure he wants to do any more good after getting Colossal Boy killed. Starboy encourages Superboy to rescue Brainiac 5, not to prove himself or avenge anyone, but because it is the right thing to do.

The rescue party arrive at Colu, but the planet is now visible and is being accessed by the computers in Luthor's ship. Luthor sics the Fatal Five on the heroes to avoid interference. Superboy and the Legion arrive and incapacitate the majority of the villains. Sensor mind controls the Emerald Empress into believing her Eye has been destroyed, Tinya and Reep trick and knock out Mano and the Persuader; and Sun Boy uses his rage at Colossal Boy's death to stop Validus.

On Earth, Saturn Girl senses a malevolent presence inside the Universo computer and attempts to find it, but Leeto orders the Science Police to gun her down. The Science Police realize Leeto is paranoid and they see that Saturn Girl is their only hope as Universo starts to crash. Saturn Girl discovers the evil presence is diverting Universo's power to Colu. Luthor becomes aware of the interference and snaps the Emerald Empress out of Sensor's illusion to stop Saturn Girl. The Empress blows up Invisible Kid's ship before she leaves as Bouncing Boy prevents his friends crashing into Colu. The Emerald Empress arrives on Earth and traps Saturn Girl and the others, ruining any chance they had of fixing Universo. When Ferro Lad learns the Eye's powers are magical, he uses his power to turn into iron to incapacitate it, while Karate Kid uses his knowledge of pressure points to knock out the Empress. Saturn Girl then befriends the Eye and convinces it to serve as Universo's replacement.

On Colu, Superboy rescues Brainiac 5 from Luthor's ship, but Luthor has transferred his mind into an indestructible robot and continues to hack into Colu. After being rescued from Tharok by the Legion, Superboy engages Luthor, who reveals he has been watching Superboy and planned to transfer his mind into Superboy's body to achieve immortality. The Legion severs his link to Colu, and Brainiac 5 forces Luthor to face the truth - that Luthor is in a dead body hidden in the depths of the Universo computer and he is a Hologram. Luthor decides to blow his robot body up and destroy Colu. Superboy and Jo Nah are able to remove Luthor from the planet before he explodes and save Colu. The Coluans teleport the Legion's friends and RJ Brande to Colu and Superboy makes up with his adoptive father.

The Legion become the official heroes of the newly formed United Planets and Superboy, handing over leadership of the Legion to Ultra Boy, renames himself Kal-El and starts dating Lois Olsen.

See also

• List of Elseworlds publications

References

• Superboy's Legion at the Grand Comics Database
• Superboy's Legion at the Comic Book DB

Category:2001 comic debuts Category:Legion of Super-Heroes titles Category:Superman titles