Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #4 – “Secrets Within the Star” – Paul Levitz/Barry Kitson, Bruce Patterson/Romeo Tanghal
This one starts with Dawnstar using her homing power to lead the members of the Legion Espionage Squad (Phantom Girl, Shrinking Violet, and invisible Kid) to Chameleon Boy, who infiltrated Starfinger’s criminal organization a while back. Phantom Girl found Cham while he was undercover, but backed off when he told her to. Now she’s feeling guilty and figures he might be in trouble. She’s right, Cham has been captured (along with Colossal Boy, who infiltrated Starfinger’s set-up on his own). Chameleon Boy is being held in a
cage with electrical crystals that zap him whenever he tries to get out. He finally mimics the form of the crystals themselves and gets out, which is weird because I always thought he could only turn himself into living things, not inanimate objects. He finds himself inside an asteroid that’s otherwise empty, but he’s happy to see Phantom Girl phase in, led there by Dawnstar’s power. But when Phantom Girl tries to use her Legion Flight Ring to signal the others, it sets off a booby trap and the asteroid explodes. Thanks to Cham’s warning, Phantom Girl becomes intangible just in time, and Cham morphs into a dust mote to 
ride out the explosion. In a secret base on Mars, Starfinger tortures Colossal Boy and reveals why he has it in for this particular Legionnaire: Starfinger is actually Char Burrane, who Colossal Boy captured back when he was a Science Police cadet (as we saw in issue 39). Starfinger tells his captive how he soon broke out of prison and accidentally found the ring he now wears, which contained Starlight and Starbright, the two hot “genies” who helped him build his criminal empire. Now Starfinger wants to take down the Legion and figures Colossal Boy will be the perfect bait to draw them there. He’s right … Dawnstar tracks Colossal Boy to Mars and Invisible kid finds a way into
Starfinger’s hideout (since Phantom Girl is still half out-of-it from the explosion). Invisible Kid finds his teammate, but naturally Starfinger is waiting for him. Starfinger gets a surprise of his own when Shrinking Violet pops up and decks him, having ridden in at tiny size on Invisible Kid’s back. Violet and Invisible Kid didn’t wear their Rings for fear of triggering another trap, so they have to fight their way through some guards to a comm to summon help. Starfinger busts in just as Colossal Boy passes out from his injuries, leaving Violet and Invisible Kid to fight Starfinger’s minions (and Starlight and Starbright). Dawnstar shows up to 
help, knocking Starfinger out by smashing him through the wall. She’s followed by a contingent of Science Police, who pound Starfinger’s thugs. Turns out Colossal Boy sent a signal to the Science Police as well as Legion headquarters. Starfinger recovers and blasts everyone, but before he can take off, Violet jumps him. That gives the Science Police time to blast Starfinger and his two space molls. Starfinger tries to escape by retreating into his ring again, but Violet figures it out and the ring is taken to Science Police headquarters and put in a stasis box. (Violet is shown to be feeling kind of inadequate because her powers aren’t much use for fighting, so it’s nice to see her kicking some ass, and figuring out Starfinger’s escape plan in the end.) Starfinger figures the
stasis imprisonment is his opportunity to make bigger and better plans, not just to rule a criminal empire, but to take over the galaxy itself. There’s a back-up story about Dream Girl and Atmos on a luxury pleasure cruise that follows the sunrise in orbit around Earth. Dream Girl knows Atmos isn’t her kind of guy (and doesn’t even like him all that much), but she can’t seem to help herself, almost like she’s compelled to be near him. She does recommend against him being allowed to join the Legion, but when he asks her to come back to Xanthu with him, she agrees … but still isn’t sure why.
New Teen Titans Anual #4 – “Whom the Gods Would Destroy” – Marv Wolfman/Eduardo Barreto, Gordon Purcell, Colleen Doran, Kelley Jones, Ty Templeton, Michael Collins, Paris Cullins/Romeo Tanghal, Mike Chen, Dick Giordano, Karl Kesel, Rick Magyar, Dennis Janke
This one starts with a meeting of the Titans where they all talk about vivid recurring nightmares they’ve been having lately. Nightwing thinks that’s too much of a coincidence and asks them for details, so Changeling goes first. His nightmare was about his old Doom Patrol teammates (including the dead
ones) telling him he’s useless and might as well be dead. Besides the Doom Patrol, there’s another figure in Changeling’s dream, a freaky-looking guy in a Tom Wolfe-style white suit. We see that same guy (who’s called Muse) hooked up to a bunch of machines in a condemned building in Manhattan; obviously the machines are amplifying whatever weird power he has and causing the Titans’ nightmares. We get a flashback showing that Muse was hired by the Children of the Sun to get revenge on the Titans for their interference with Vicki Grant and Chris Powell in issue 46. Back at Titans’ Tower, Cyborg 
tells about his dream, where Muse was running a junk shop and selling off parts of Cyborg’s disassembled body. The customer was Jericho, who confirms he had the exact same dream. They decide to check their files for anyone who can affect dreams, but get a shock when they see Muse’s face on one of their monitors. Starfire tells them about her nightmare, which had to do with giving in to her bloodlust in battle. First she killed her sister in combat (and was congratulated by Muse), which drove Nightwing away from her. Then she wasted a whole of ships and slaughtered the slavers who once bought and sold her. Starfire says her dream freaked her out, but he doesn’t
feel guilty because the people she killed deserved to die. Nightwing speculates that her response to the dream might be pre-programmed just like the actual events, but Starfire isn’t so sure. Raven recounts her nightmare, which was a bit different because she sensed it coming and used her empathic powers to retreat to a more pleasant dream. But Muse followed and attacked her, so she destroyed him with fire, which still bothers her since she considers herself a pacifist. Starfire suggests a connection between them, since all their dreams are similar and Raven tells them to think about the fear they 
felt so she can trace the common threads. But Muse senses what they’re doing and brings them to his sanctuary, where he turns into a giant tentacle monster and attacks. They fight it but Raven realizes it’s just more of Muse’s trickery, projecting the weirdness in his own head into theirs. Starfire blasts Muse (which makes him laugh like a maniac) and Raven tells everyone to get out. They flee the building just before it blows up and wonder if this counts as a victory. Raven says it does because Muse took them to the edge of death, but by fighting back they refused to allow him to control their thoughts and feelings. The Children of the Sun realize their ploy failed, but can’t figure out why Muse is
laughing his ass off. From Muse’s perspective, he won because Starfire used her power to kill him, just like she killed people in her nightmare. We won’t see Muse again, but the Children of the Sun will be back. There’s a goofy back-up story (by Wolfman and Chuck Fiala) that gives us a tour of Titans’ Tower conducted by an anthropomorphized version of the Tower itself. It’s all played for laughs, but most of the jokes are just stupid. There are a few good ones: the sexy receptionist Darlene; the Tower getting attacked by Genericus the Planet-Eater; the look at the Titans’ bedrooms; and the running gag of how everyone hates Danny Chase, obviously prompted by fan complaints about the character.