One of the good things about DC comics in the early to mid-1970’s were the backup stories that appeared in many of their books. In many cases these strips were better than the main feature which made it worth picking up a title that on the face of it, I would not normally purchase. One such title was Superboy which in the early 1970s featured the occasional tale of my then favourite team the Legion of Super-Heroes. The LSH had been appearing in Superboy since issue 172 and with issue 197 the popularity of the strip justifiably resulted in the comics title being changed to “Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes".
It was with issue 195 of Superboy that my favourite Legion strip appeared an 8 page tale entitled “ The one-shot hero!” written by Cary Bates with art by the wonderful Dave Cockrum. The story revolves around a new candidate for the Legion called ERG-1 (Energy Release Generator - 1) a teen who was converted into pure energy which he stores in a containment suit. But he also has a secret power which he refuses to show to the rest of the Legion members thereby resulting in him being turned down for membership.
ERG-1’s secret power was that he could deliver a high powered energy blast but he could only use this once before (seemingly ) dooming himself. In the story ERG-1 despite being rejected for membership to the Legion responds to an emergency that the other Legion members are unable to halt and saves Colossal Boy from certain death by using his power blast thereby dooming himself. Of course that wasn’t the end of ERG-1 as the character was so popular that ERG-1 returned from the “dead” under the name of Wildfire to become one of the Legions most popular members.
I was probably about seven years old when I walked into my local newsagents in Cambuslang (near Glasgow) with my pocket money firmly he...
Following on from my last post featuring some of my favourite Marvel comic book covers from 1973, I thought I would show some of DC's ...
Nearly a half-century on I still consider 1973 to be the year that cemented my destiny in becoming a lifetime comic book fan. It was a yea...
I'm not sure why, but I could never really warm to the Legion. I've got a couple of DC Archive volumes which I've never read, plus maybe one or two issues of the regular title, but I don't feel the need to add any more to my collection. Maybe I'm missing out, but they never really grabbed me for some unknown reason.
ReplyDeleteHi Kid, I was a really big Legion fan as a teenager I just loved the whole idea of all these super powered kids (some with admittedly daft powers ) saving the Universe. It was also (imho) the closest strip that DC got to replicating Marvels writing style with stories which regularly featured soap opera elements of teen romance and tragedy that Stan himself would have been proud of. When Mike Grell took over the art chores in the mid 1970’s I really became a bit of a Legion geek. Grell’s style positively reeked of the 1970s which should have been a bit of a drawback as he was drawing characters from the far flung future in 1970’s flares and hairstyles, but for some reason it worked (to me at least) and seemed futuristic. Hope things are less hectic for you.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love this tale, one of my favourite 1970s DC back-up stories. Then again, I love all Dave Cockrum LSH tales. Come to think of it, I love all Superboy stories from this era, as well.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting, I can post comments on here when I use the Chromium browser but not when I use Chrome. I shall have to look into this and see if there's a reason.
ReplyDeleteHi Steve, I have no idea why there are issues posting here maybe I have clicked the wrong button on Blogger when I set it up (I will check that) but thanks for persevering with your message. I agree with you 100% Dave Cockrum was an excellent artists on the Legion (well on everything he did). I always thought his art on this strip was so dynamic in the way he drew ERG-1’s power blast and then showing his empty containment suit. I think he only surpassed his work on this tale with issue 200 and the marriage of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel. I must have spent hours poring over that splash page where all the LSH members were drawn attending the wedding just trying to name them all - you know that geeky fanboy stuff we used to do 😊 .
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