Element Lad and Star Boy stop by a top secret research facility to visit Brainiac 5, thinking how happy the reclusive young scientist will be to see his friends after what we presume must be weeks of hard work in the lab. Instead of being happy, however, Brainy is furious at the interruption. Wild-eyed, he tells his friends to go away and not come back. He’s not even moved that Proty II has disguised himself as a piece of lab equipment just because he likes being near Brainy. (I guess an ordered mind is soothing to a telepathic animal.) All Brainy cares about is his crucial project—an ambulatory super computer. Continue reading →

John Forte’s final Legion adventure, capping more than three years of faithful service to the team, evokes a story from early in writer Edmond Hamilton’s career. That story, “The Conquest of Two Worlds,” tells the tale of human colonization of Mars and Jupiter. That colonization is carried out much the way the colonizations of many lands on Earth were—by driving natives off their lands, killing them liberally to make room for humans. One of the three men who bravely explores and conquers these new worlds develops sympathy for the natives, and helps first the Martians, then the Jovians. He dies for his trouble.

Like that turncoat, Beast Boy of Lallor, a mutant hated and feared, like his mutant counterparts over at Marvel, turns on humanity and does his part to help exotic animals in space. The Legion is alerted that animals on a hunting preserve planet are displaying intelligence, using strategy and teamwork to battle hunters. It’s not a very nice planet. Humanity attempted to colonize it many times, failing each time. Now they keep one, small city going to host hunters who come to capture the beasts of the planet.

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At long last, the Time Trapper! This guy was set up months ago, but has only been teased thus far. Now we see him in all his glory, living in a post-nuclear holocaust world in the far future. He’s a tyrant who apparently rules with an iron fist. As one of his slave-vassals observes, “When the master laughs, the universe trembles.” He meets with a beautiful woman named Glorith of Balduur, who is set to do his bidding in the past and end the Legion of Super-Heroes forever.

It’s yet to be explained, in the course of all these stories where he’s been mentioned, how the Legion first encountered the Time Trapper, and why they, out of all the heroes of history, would be a target for him. It would not be explained for a long time to come. Readers presumably were to accept that he was the villain and they were the heroes, so of course they were after each other.

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With Chameleon Boy, Shrinking Violet and Triplicate Girl appearing in this issue, 18 of the 19 Legionnaires have joined the battle with Starfinger. Only Supergirl is excluded, and she often was. But one of the Seven Wonders of the 30^th Century, threatened last issue by Starfinger, reminds us of her, if our memory goes back that far.

The Global Tunnel parallels one dug by Supergirl in her first (unsuccessful) bid to join the Legion. This time, Hamilton introduces the idea of how fragile such a structure could be.

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