Comics Reviews: Legion of Super-Heroes 53, New Titans 50, Suicide Squad 20

Legion of Super-Heroes #53 – “Hunters and Hunted” – Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen/Mike DeCarlo

Last issue, Magnetic Kid, Lighning Lass, and Tellus went to Braal (Magnetic Kid’s home planet) to help figure out what was causing some unnatural earthquakes. They uncovered a rogue Gil’dishpan named Hywyndr who was using his powers to create the quakes. This issue starts with the trio searching for Hywyndr and walking into an ambush. Back at Legion headquarters on Earth, Polar Boy, Element Lad, and Timber Wolf are setting up a new automated medi-lab, since Brainiac 5 has left the team to go back to Colu. Polar Boy worries about the team being spread too thin (especially since Blok seems to be AWOL) and Colossal Boy is anxious to finish healing and get back to active duty. On Daxam, Shadow Lass prepares (against medical advice) to take Mon-El somewhere else to get help healing for the terrible injuries he sustained fighting Time Trapper. On Braal, Hywyndr uses his elemental powers to batter the Legionnaires. Before he can bury them, Lightning Lass gets pissed off about being called a lesser life-form and goes after him. Hywyndr retreats, leaving the Legionnaires to search for him again. Heading away from Braal, Mon-El and Shadow Lass are attacked by a Khund ship, hoping to get revenge for Mon-El’s defeat of them. Unfortunately, Mon-El can barely move, let alone fight, so it’s up to Shady to find a way to fight off the attackers. On Braal, the Legionnaires discuss how to find Hywyndr and Magnetic Kid doesn’t want to call for back-up as a matter of pride. It kinda seems like Lightning Lass is putting the moves on him (which is weird since I’m pretty sure she and Shrinking Violet are a couple at this point), but Magnetic Kid is oblivious to her attentions. He does figure out a way to find Hywyndr, at least. In space, Shadow Lass uses her powers to darken the bridge of the Khund ship and rams the Legion Cruiser into it. She guides Mon-El to use his heat vision, blasting through both hulls and crippling the Khund ship so they can escape. On Braal, the Legionnaires track Hywyndr using disturbances in the natural weather patterns and take him aboard their Cruiser. Once he’s above the atmosphere, his element-controlling powers no longer work and Lightning Lass blasts him. On the prison planet Labyrinth, a new prisoner (Garak of the Glow) arrives to be placed into suspended animation. But nobody knows the Emerald Eye of Ekron is above the planet, watching and waiting.

New Titans #50 – “Home Again” – Marv Wolfman/George Perez/Bob McLeod

As I’m sure you noticed, this is the first issue to be titled New Titans instead of New Teen Titans, and it kicks off the Who Is Donna Troy? storyline (which is a 5-part story, despite what this issue’s cover says). In post-Crisis canon, Wonder Woman didn’t appear in Man’s World until just after the Crisis, which means she couldn’t have saved Donna from the fire and raised her among the Amazons. So they had to come up with a new origin for Wonder Girl and this is it … although I think this one gets changed multiple times in the future, so don’t get too used to it. It starts with a strange woman in a cloak gleaning information about Donna Troy is various places: the Evans house in suburbia, the photo studio where she works, and even Donna’s apartment. At Titans’ Tower, the team returns from an extended sojourn and Danny Chase is there to greet them (although he pisses them off by remotely controlling the jet and bringing it in for a landing). He shows them a weird glowing ball he found and Raven says she senses danger from it. Her instincts are right, as the ball morphs into some kind of dimensional warp and a bunch of alien-looking monsters pour out. Donna is blasted right away and the Titans fight back but have trouble with their monstrous foes. They get help from a woman who suddenly appears and drives the creatures back through the warp, turning it into a ball again. The woman insists on talking to Donna, but Donna’s in bad shape and Raven has to pull her back from the brink of death. The woman finally talks to Donna, communing with her on a spiritual level while the others just watch. She shows Donna that most of the memories she had after the fire that killed her mother are false; Donna wasn’t rescued by Wonder Woman or raised in an orphanage, she was taken somewhere else and those memories were implanted in her mind when she returned to Earth. Her first real memory after the fire is of becoming Wonder Girl, joining the original Teen Titans, and being a superhero. I guess this is establishing what’s considered canon in post-Crisis history and it seems like most of Donna’s life as Wonder Girl is still true. She served with the Titans, roomed with Sharon, became a photographer, and joined the New Teen Titans (and yes, her marriage to Terry Long is still canon … sorry to all the Terry-haters out there). While relating all this, the mystery woman has turned from being young into an old hag who’s close to death. (Her young form actually looks a bit like Donna to me, although nobody in the story remarks on that.) The old woman uses some of her power to restore the damaged headquarters and tells Donna she’s actually Phoebe, one of the Titans of Myth. It seems the Titans are dying and only Donna can save them.

Suicide Squad #20 – “Practice to Deceive” – John Ostrander/Luke McDonnell/Bob Lewis

This one starts with Captain Boomerang disguised as Mirror Master looking for some tourists to rob. Boomerang has been using the Mirror Master guise for a while to satisfy his itch for crime without violating the “no criminal activity” agreement he made with Amanda Waller when he joined Suicide Squad. But this time, his plan goes wrong, as the “tourists” he jumps turn out to be undercover cops. Things go from bad to worse when Manhunter shows up to grab Mirror Master. (This is the Mark Shaw Manhunter, who had his own title at the time; gotta love that cross-promotion!) Manhunter delivers “Mirror Master” to Belle Rêve and Boomerang is freaking out. But Waller seems to think he really is Mirror Master and offers him the same deal as any criminal: work with the Suicide Squad and get time off their sentence. Boomerang has no choice but to play along, so he agrees to the offer and is fitted with an explosive bracelet to keep him from running away during a mission. Waller has a mission on tap and sends someone to find Captain Boomerang, which makes him nervous all over again. The mission is against a local crime cartel called the Loa, who use voodoo terminology for their organization. (The leader is called Damballah.) Manhunter opts out, saying he’s heard of the Loa and doesn’t want to mess with them. Waller is getting impatient with Boomerang’s absence, so he sneaks into his own quarters as Mirror Master and changes into civilian clothes, wrapping a cast around his forearm to hide the explosive bracelet. He tells Waller he can’t throw boomerangs with a broken arm and will have to sit out this mission, but she says they need everyone they can get and that he has to come. He says he has some business to take care of first and convinces her to let him meet the others later instead of leaving with them. He changes back to Mirror Master to go on the mission and is forced to switch back and forth between the two identities to keep up the charade. They engage with the Loa, but things go wrong very quickly, with Nemesis and Flag being turned into zombies. As boomerang runs around, changing costumes and trying to warn the others, his teammates succumb to the power of Bocor, becoming zombies one by one until Boomerang is the only one left. He begs for mercy, but it turns out the whole thing was a scam to uncover his double life (with Bronze Tiger playing Bocor). Waller tells Boomerang he can either move into Belle Rêve and go on every mission she gives him or be prosecuted by the law and end up in a regular prison cell. Boomerang agrees, but harbours hope that he’ll find a way to get back at Waller and the others. They get a report of Mirror Master committing crimes in Seattle and Boomerang swears it wasn’t him … which is true, it’s a new version of Mirror Master that was introduced around this time. There’s an epilogue where we see that the LOA criminal organization actually does exist (with the letters standing for Louisiana Ordnance Association) and is led by a businessman named Damballah, which maybe explains how Manhunter had heard of them.