Following on from the tremendous success of the live-action (though completely imaginary) Legion of Super-Heroes TV series Season One, the relevant network immediately orders a second season and expands its episode count from 8 to 12 episodes. As the writing team gets underway, they realize the story they want to tell is too big to fit into just 12 episodes, and ask their distribution platform to increase the count to 15. This is agreed upon, and Season Two of Legion of Super-Heroes debuts!
Of course, the network is also nervous that the showrunners are over-estimating viewer patience with their longer-form storytelling, and hope that people still enjoy it. To help address this, the decision is to split the season into two parts, with the sort of “mid-year” break that has become more and more common recently.
For “What is this?” and a Season One summary, see here. For more about the Legion itself see here, or here…
Anyway…
Legion of Super-Heroes – Season Two
Episode 1
The second season begins with Lightning Lad (Garth Ranzz) and Cosmic Boy (Rokk Krinn) meeting with Brainiac 5 (Querl Dox, sometimes called “Brainy” by others), who is squirreled away in his lab, examining data related to Lightning Lad’s resurrection. He surmises that the time-energy released by the Time Trapper struck Lightning Lad’s corpse and interacted with his body chemistry in a way that revived him, concluding it was a unique and fortunate accident, and not evidence of anything more sinister.
Garth is relieved, and he and Cosmic Boy leave to return to the main meeting hall of the headquarters because the Legionnaires are about to vote for a new leader. Brainy is surprised but uninterested–he did not know it there was an election and is only vaguely aware there’s a leader at all, so long as he’s allowed to carry on his research, which he sees is primary contribution to the team.
After Garth and Rokk leave, he returns to his current project–with the help of his talking computer, Computo (whose interface is a floating, talking globe), he is following up Superboy’s report of seeing a familiar figure during his exposure to the time-stream.
In the hall, the rest of the Legion is present, voting on a new leader. This includes Saturn Girl (Imra Ardeen), Triad (Luornu Durgo), Phantom Girl (Tinya Wazzo), Chameleon (Reep Daggle), Invisible Kid (Lyle Norg), Colossal Boy (Gim Allon), Ultra Boy (Jo Nah), Sun Boy (Dirk Morgna), Shrinking Violet (Salu Digby), Bouncing Boy (Chuck Taine), Element Lad and Lightning Lass (Ayla Ranzz).
Cosmic Boy is stepping down as leader because he believes it’s time for someone else to take the position. The Legion has never done this before so they aren’t really sure if they should be “campaigning” or not, but Colossal Boy decides to do so, nonetheless. He says he was appointed leader before, and that was a mistake, but now he’s grown and is ready to serve again. Some of his teammates aren’t so sure. The Legion vote, and Saturn Girl is elected, with Colossal Boy coming in second, and thus appointed to be the leader’s Deputy.
Saturn Girl turns her attention to the matters that are at hand, which include a recent increase in theft and other organized crime across the United Planets (the network of a hundred or so affiliated worlds, including many of the Legion’s homeworlds, whose government is based on earth, which serves as its capital)
There are rumors of dangerous fugitives hiding on a UP world called Zuun. Triad leads a team to investigate, with Element Lad and Lightning Lass. They go to Zuun using he local Stargate (a local space-born facility which is part of a network of about twelve similar units which allow for for near-instantaneous travel to different parts of the United Planets in properly equipped spaceships).
As they are leaving, Star Boy (Thom Kallor) arrives.
He goes to Legion HQ, having been encouraged by Bouncing Boy to join once he’d recovered from his injuries. As before, he has lost the vast majority of great powers, but seems to have retained the ability to influence gravity–making things heavier or lighter. On the basis of this, he applies to join, as he has recently been replaced as the champion of his homeworld Xanthu by a showboat called Atmos. A quorum of present member votes to accept him, with Ultra Boy vouching for his courage. Bouncing Boy is assigned to orientate Star Boy, and supervise him undertaking basic Legion training.
Triad’s team arrives on Zuun and investigates the reports of villains hiding there with some recently stolen goods. They trace the criminals to the circus, of all places. Ayla Ranzz (Lightning Lass) is shocked to see that one of them is actually her older brother Mekt, who also has lightning powers. Mekt disappeared from the Ranzz family farm years prior, and now he’s making money as a criminal, partnered with someone who calls himself Echo who has sonic powers. A fight breaks out. Mekt is bitter at his siblings (something Ayla blames on him not having a twin, an abnormal situation for her planet) and is ruthless in his attack.
On earth, Garth meanwhile approaches Imra to take her out to dinner. They have always been attracted to each other, and Garth does not want to waste the opportunity afforded by his unexpected second chance. But, Saturn Girl is reluctant–being leader of the Legion requires all of her concentration, and she thinks they just need to take it slow for now. Garth is disappointed, but before it can be discussed further, an alarm goes off–there is an attack on the Metropolis spaceport! Colossal Boy leads a team to respond.
Meanwhile, R.J. Brande, the Legion’s rich financier, visits the HQ. He seems bored, and wants to listen to stories from the team. He engages Chameleon in conversation–Chameleon’s language skills are improving but he still needs practice, something that R.J. is happy to provide.
Back on Zuun, the villains escape after Echo frees some circus animals from their cages. The Legion then have their hands full trying to protect civilians from danger. Triad is injured in the process.
The Legion are suddenly assisted by an acrobatic youth with enhanced strength and speed, who shows up out of nowhere and helps the team, in particular saving Ayla’s life. She gratefully asks for her rescuers name, but he just looks at her confused and scared, and then quickly retreats away.
Episode 2
Colossal Boy and his team, including Shrinking Violet, Sun Boy and Chameleon, respond to an attack on the Metropolis spaceport. The culprit is Kranyak, a terrorist whom the Legion fought in the past. The Legion is able to repel Kranyak and even capture a couple of his men…but they are both killed by small explosive implants before they can be questioned. In the course of the battle, we see that Colossal Boy is attracted to Shrinking Violet–indeed, he has a huge crush on her. Her feelings are unclear.
Meanwhile on Zuun, Lightning Lass pursues her mysterious rescuer, but he evades her with his incredible speed and agility without speaking a word. While Element Lad tends to the injured Triad, Lightning Lass investigating the location where the villains were hiding, and finds evidence that links them to a lab elsewhere on Zuun, owned by one Dr. Mar Londo.
Element Lad contacts Saturn Girl and updates her. Learning of Mekt Ranzz’s involvement, Lightning Lad insists on reinforcing his sister. Saturn Girl allows him to go, accompanied by Cosmic Boy.
Triad is hospitalized, while Lightning Lass and Element Lad investigate the lab of Dr. Londo. There they meet a young man claiming to be Londo’s son Brin, who says the super-powered youth that the team met earlier is android Karth Arn, a creation of Dr. Londo’s who turned on his creator and killed him. As Lightning Lass and Element Lad ponder the connection that the android has with the super-powered villains, Brin reveals that they were hired by the android from off-world to steal materials that he desperately needed to power himself. The Legionnaire’s arrival must have interrupted this transaction, but no doubt they will make another attempt. The heroes leave, confused that Karth Arn’s behavior seems so far off from Brin’s report.
Back on earth, the Legionnaire’s realize that Kranyak was after a shipment of a powerful explosive–obviously part of furthering his terrorist activities. They learn there is a second shipment coming into another spaceport, in Shanghai. Colossal Boy, Sun Boy and Shrinking Violet are all sent to prevent a theft. They arrive just in time, and after a fierce battle are able to capture Kranyak. Colossal Boy is disappointed as he realizes Shrinking Violet is not only oblivious to his feelings, but is actually attracted to the more show-boating Sun Boy.
Saturn Girl interrogates Kranyak and attempts to read his mind to find out if he is connected to the strange crime wave that has been happening across the United Planets.
On Zuun, Element Lad and Lightning Lass figure out a way to track Mekt (his energy signature being so similar to Ayla’s), and are surprised to find that he and Echo are near Londo’s laboratory.
Element Lad goes straight to the lab to warn Brin Londo, while Lightning Lass searches the area. Brin seems strangely exhausted, but reluctant to reveal to Element Lad the reasons for this.
Meanwhile, Lightning Lass finds Karth Arn hiding nearby, watching the lab. She attempts to apprehend him, but he protests his innocence. Just then, Mekt and Echo arrive and go to the lab. Once there, Brin teams up with them to attack Element Lad, restraining him. Ayla sees this, and realizes that they’ve been lied to.
Karth Arn explains that he apparently malfunctioned and killed his creator, Mar Londo, but he has no memory of it as his mind was wiped by Brin afterwards. He then discovered that the young Londo had hired the super-villains to steal some precious materials, and so Karth Arn made his own efforts to figure out what was going on and prevent trouble.
Brin Londo takes the stolen goods that the villains have brought him and uses them to revitalize himself, insisting he needs to do this before paying the villains for their work. Element Lad realizes the truth: the young man they know as Brin Londo is the real android Karth Arn. At this point, Lightning Lass and the real Brin Londo break in to rescue him. A fierce battle breaks out, but the heroes are outclassed…until Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy arrive to help.
Mekt retreats with a spaceship, with Garth giving chase. Ayla and Cosmic Boy beat Echo, and rescue Element Lad. Meanwhile, Brin Londo fights and beats Karth Arn. After the battle is over, Brin pieces together the truth: his father had performed experiments which imbued him with special powers, but android servant Karth Arn had grown jealous of this. He killed Mar Londo and attacked his son with a weapon that erased his memory, and then took the opportunity to swap identities as a way of humiliating him. He tried to use Brin to steal the materials he needed to survive, but when Brin proved too honest, he contacted the off-world villains.
Echo refuses to give any information, but the Legionnaires are able to determine that Karth Arn had hired him and Mekt by sending a signal along a certain spatial frequency. They relay that information back to earth, and Saturn Girl realizes this is what she needs to make sense out of what she learned from Kranyak. It turns out both groups of criminals received information through the same planete…a mysterious place called Khann.
Episode 3
Saturn Girl realizes that Planet Khann is being used as a “brain trust” of sorts of galactic criminals, helping them to strategically plan their crimes. She concocts an elaborate plan to position Ultra Boy as criminal called Rann Varal, so he’ll be welcomed onto Khann. Saturn Girl herself also goes undercover as Ultra Boy’s girlfriend. They arrive there, pretending to be on the run from other Legionnaires.
Meanwhile, Lightning Lad confronts his brother on a moon of Zuun. Over the course of their battle, we learn more about how Garth has been looking for Mekt ever since he left home years earlier. Mekt believes that the Legion’s mission is foolish and that there is nothing better to do with their powers than to profit as much as possible. He intends to position himself as a powerful force in the = underworld, and decides he will call himself Lightning Lord. In the end, Mekt gets the drop on Garth, but finds that he cannot bring himself to kill his brother. He does escape, though, leaving Garth angry and humiliated.
Saturn Girl’s espionage mission is a success, and Ultra Boy and his “girlfriend” are able to go to Khann, which has also become a safe haven for criminals. His reputation as a criminal mastermind is so well-established that he is invited to visit the “inner circle” on Khann, for which he must leave Saturn Girl behind in their room.
Ultra Boy discovers that the leaders of Khann are a literal circle of disembodied brains–the Brain Lord of Khann!
The Brain-Lords reveal they know who he is, and attack him with an army of soldier. At first, Ultra Boy is powerful enough to make short work of these thugs, but the Brain Lords somehow know he is vulnerable to certain forms of radiation, and disable him. Meanwhile, Saturn Girl is drugged and captured. It turns out the Brain Lords allowed them to come because they intend to forcibly remove Saturn Girl’s powerful brain and make it to join their gestalt, which would grow their might.
Meanwhile, Garth rejoins his sister and the other Legionnaires on Zuun, and they prepare to head home with the recovering Triad. Ayla Ranzz bids farewell to Brin Londo, and there is evident attraction between them. Cosmic Boy invites Brin to come to earth with them. Brin has no more family on Zuun, and is still struggling to regain his memory, and Cosmic Boy feels he may find a home with the Legion. Brin declines for the moment, but says he will consider it.
Meanwhile, Star Boy trains with Bouncing Boy. On a break, they talk about Star Boy’s determination to re-establish himself as a hero with his only remaining power, and his hope to one day reclaim his role as Xanthu’s planetary defender.
Ultra Boy is on the verge of having his body killed by the Brain Lords when his companions reveal themselves–it turns out that Chameleon and Invisible Kid have both been secretly accompanying their teammates, as part of Saturn Girl’s plan. They free both Ultra Boy and Saturn Girl. While the boys fight against the soldiers, Saturn Girl overpowers the lead Brain, making startling (though unspoken at this point) discoveries.
With the Brain Lords defeated and the galactic crime wave they were orchestrating curtailed, Saturn Girl’s team returns to earth, at the same time as the team from Zuun. Everyone recovers from their wounds. Bouncing Boy recommends Star Boy begin active duty with the Legion.
Later, Saturn Girl privately speaks to Brainiac 5 (still in the midst of his experiments with Computo). In her ordeal on Khann, she learned that the Brain Lord’s have had access to inside knowledge and secrets about the Legion–and is concerned there is an information leak or even a traitor. She is taking the risk to trust Brainiac 5 (whom she trusts, partly because she feels he would not see any advantage in betraying the team), in order to get help figuring out what is going on.
Episode 4
Saturn Girl and Colossal Boy attend a regular briefing with the Science Police, which includes rumors of aggressive activities from the neighbouring galactic power, the Khudish Empire, which may impact earth–obviously, a government matter, but one the police and the Legion want to be aware of.
Returning to Legion HQ, it’s time for try-outs for new members of the team.
This is something Saturn Girl had quietly initiated in the past couple of weeks, feeling the team needs to be stronger. She tells Bouncing Boy she wants any new members trained up to function as Legionnaires as quickly as possible. Chuck is disappointed–he feels he’s being sidelined from the team in order to train, rather than taking part in missions, but Saturn Girl says that she needs everyone functioning where they are strongest. Chuck reluctantly agrees.
The entirety of the full-time Legion members are present for the tryouts (ie Superboy, a part-time member, is not), except for Triad, who is still recovering, and Brainiac 5, who can’t be bothered.
Several new members are very promising and are invited to become full-time Legionnaires:
• Princess Projectra – Actual royalty from a somewhat backwater world, who can generate realistic illusions. Princes Projectra is her real name and title.
• Ferro Lad (Andrew Nolan) – A mutant with the ability to turn his body into living iron. Ferro Lad wears a mask because his face is hideously deformed.
• Nemesis Kid (Hart Druiter) – A young man whose body adapts to enemies who are threatening him, giving him the necessary power to defeat his foes
• Karate Kid (Val Armor) – A self-taught master of hand-to-hand combat whose skills are so great that they earn him membership on the team.
But others are tested but rejected:
• Polar Boy – A youth who can generate extreme cold. Though powerful, he lacks controlled, as his cold power impacts everyone around him. He is seen as not versatile enough for the team.
• Night Girl – A woman with great super-strength, but only in the absence of daylight or other forms of solar radiation. She is seen as too vulnerable to join the team.
• Matter-Eater Lad – A young man who can eat and digest anything, extremely quickly. He is seen as a bit too weak and silly for the team.
After the tryouts are over, Polar Boy commiserates with some of the other rejected applicants. Triad arrives encourages them not to give up. Polar Boy then gathers some of these “rejects” together with a proposal–they continue to practice and train together as a group, to help prepare them to eventually join the team.
A minor mission comes across the Monitor board, where some animals have escaped from a space zoo. Colossal Boy and Bouncing Boy lead the new Legionnaires on a mission to test their readiness. The new team acquit themselves well, and bond as teammates.
However, in the middle of this, there is an emergency message from the United Planets–an advanced squadron of warships from Khund space has been detected, approaching the earth!
Episode 5
The Legion meet with the United Planets council at the capital in Metropolis. Following the information they gather there, the Legion splits into two teams. One accompanies a UP Fleet to confront the Khund ships, to find out what their intentions are. The rest stay on earth, to protect a series of “fusion powerspheres” that are situated around the planet. These devices together create a defensive energy shield around the earth that helps to repel unwanted invaders. There is concern that advanced Khund agents will attempt to sabotage the powerspheres.
Saturn Girl leads the space-bound team, along with Star Boy, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Ultra Boy, Element Lad, Invisible Kid, Phantom Girl, Shrinking Violet and Brainiac 5. Colossal Boy, meanwhile, takes charge of the earth-bound Legionnaires, including all of the new members. Their “training” is skipped because of this new crisis. Colossal Boy assigns the Legionnaires to pair up to guard the four powerspheres, each located in a different cities around the earth.
The pairs are Colossal Boy & Princess Projectra (Berlin), Ferro Lad & Lightning Lass (Hanoi), Karate Kid & Chameleon (Mexico City), and Sun Boy & Nemesis Kid (Johannesburg); meanwhile Triad and Bouncing Boy remain at headquarters to man the Mission Monitor Board. At headquarters, Triad shares her frustrations with the limitations of her powers, blaming that for the fact she ended up hurt on Zuun. Chuck understands her feelings, but works to lighten the mood and cheer her up.
Traveling through the Stargate to the Khund fleet, Saturn Girl quietly confers with Brainiac 5. He’s realized that she brought in new Legionnaires to to have teammates who are unlikely to have been involved with the Brain Lords of Khann. On top of that, she conducted low-level telepathic scans upon them during their try-out to find out if there was anything suspicious about them, with all four of the new members passing. Garth enters during this conversation, and Saturn Girl quickly goes quiet about the situation, frustrating him.
On earth, the Legion’s caution proves well-founded, with a small Khund raiding party attacking the powersphere in Hanoi, guarded by Ferro Lad and Lightning Lass. The powersphere sustains damage, but the Legionnaires are able to fend off the attackers. They alert the others, who go to a stage of heightened alertness, and are supported by Science Police officers for extra security.
Saturn Girl and the UP fleet make contact with the Khunds, demanding to know what they are doing. The Khund commander, Garlak, insists the Legion and the United Planets have no complaint against them–they’ve violated no treaty and made no aggressive moves. Indeed, the Khund fleet is actually smaller than it appeared–just two warships and a few smaller vessels. Nonetheless, UP Ambassador Relnic insists that any movement of Khund forces this close to earth is by definition an aggressive move, but Garlak denies it.
Saturn Girl attempts to probe Garlak’s mind secretly but is unable to learn anything. The UP ships attempt to contact earth but find to their communications seem to be jammed.
On earth, Sun Boy furiously defends his powersphere while Nemesis Kid pursues some fleeing Khund saboteurs, but unfortunately loses them in the chase.
In Mexico, Karate Kid patrols the exterior of the powersphere while Chameleon stays in the control room with the engineers who are monitoring it. This includes R.J. Brande, who takes the opportunity to bond with the Legionnaire. Suddenly, the powersphere is attacked, with no warning coming from Karate Kid who was keeping watch. The powersphere is destroyed by the Khunds, who then retreat. Chameleon finds Karate Kid knocked unconscious, claiming to have been taken by surprise…but Chameleon is suspicious. There’s no evidence of any Khund weapons or presence. Could it be that the newcomer hero is a traitor?
Earth’s military tries to find a way to keep their failing defensive energy shield running. Meanwhile, Bouncing Boy and Triad, at the Headquarters, try to figure out how the Khund agents arrived in the first place. They eventually determine that they arrived in small ships equipped with a special cloaking technology that they have not encountered before. This tech is also jamming communications between earth and off-world, but now that they know about it they are able to break through and contact their ships.
Saturn Girl receives the message from Triad, and realizes that this same tech is being used to block her own telepathic powers. At this moment, the Legion cruiser is rocked by an explosion. Knowing that they are exposed, the Khunds have started attacking the United Planets ships, and the battle is on…
Episode 6
Saturn Girl’s team fights back furiously against the Khunds, but refuse to kill, something that is a fundamental rule for the team. Instead they focus on disabling the enemy ships. Soon, however, the UP Fleet, which is much larger than the Khund squadron, win a victory, and the Khunds retreat. Saturn Girl, however, feels the whole thing was too easy, and begin to fear that the fleet has been lured away from earth on purpose.
Meanwhile on earth, the military has worked out they can use an older, energy relay station outside of Rio de Janiero to temporarily substitute for the destroyed powersphere and keep the energy shield stable…providing no other powerspheres are lost.
Meanwhile, Karate Kid recovers from his wounding, but finds himself questioned by Chameleon, who is still suspicious. Karate Kid believes he was attacked by a human, not a Khund.
At Legion HQ, Triad sees on the Monitor Board that Nemesis Kid is heading toward the Rio energy station at that moment. Contacting him, he says he’s realized that this station is unguarded, and he decided he needed to get their as quickly as possible. Hearing of this, Karate Kid decides to join him, since he no longer has a sphere to protect.
The Khund saboteurs attack the powersphere being guarded by Princess Projectra and Colossal Boy. Together they are able to not only defend the powersphere successfully, but to capture the saboteurs.
Learning of Chameleon’s suspicions, Colossal Boy decides to follow Karate Kid to Rio.
When Colossal Boy arrives in Rio, he finds the relay station already damaged, and finds Karate Kid and Nemesis Kid in the middle of a fight. Both insist that they found the other damaging the station. Colossal Boy tries to break up the fight, but not knowing which one he can trust, he lies and announces that repair crews have already gotten the relay station fixed. This spurs the real traitor back into action: Nemesis Kid suddenly attempts to fly back to the station to finish destroying it.
Meanwhile, the shield is beginning to fail. The larger Khundish fleet is revealed to be close to earth, having also been hidden by the cloaking technology, and led by a different warlord.
Nemesis Kid faces off with Karate Kid and Colossal Boy. Karate Kid, already injured, is quickly incapacitated. Colossal Boy grows to gigantic size but in an epic battle, is still defeated by the seemingly unbeatable Nemesis Kid.
Bouncing Boy and Triad–suspicious of Nemesis Kid’s earlier story–arrive in Rio to effect repairs. They also alert the other Legionnaires about Nemesis Kid, and Bouncing Boy orders some to help them while others prepare to defend the earth. Triad heroically fights Nemesis Kid–using a special fighting style uniquely designed around her power to split into three people–to hold him off while Bouncing Boy effects the repairs.
Chuck is partially successful, and as a result, only a small part of the energy shield becomes de-powered. The Khunds maneuver their ships there to attack, but find themselves resisted by a contingent of earth’s defense fleet that stayed behind, and by Legionnaires Sun Boy, Ferro Lad, Chameleon and Lightning Lass. It’s a small defending force, but because the energy shield is mostly intact, the Legionnaires are quite effective.
On earth, Triad is vastly out-powered by Nemesis Kid, who boasts of the ease with which he was able to infiltrate the Legion, for the exact purpose of sabotaging earth’s defenses in order to make it vulnerable to Khund attack. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Nemesis Kid is confronted by none other than Superboy, who taunts him for thinking he’s actually the most powerful guy around.
Nemesis Kid becomes focused on Superboy, and allows his power to take hold in order to adapt to defeating his enemy. He does…and suddenly finds Princess Projectra’s illusion of Superboy quickly dissipating in front of him. He is startled and confused, having expected power of a different level to start flowing through him.
Before he can recover, Karate Kid, who has woken up, easily knocks him unconscious.
Bouncing Boy finishes repairing the relay station and the defense shield reactivates. At the same time, Saturn Girl’s team and the majority of earth’s fleet finally return from the diversion they were sent on, and deal the main Khund fleet a critical blow. The Khunds retreat, and the Legionnaires celebrate.
Saturn Girl is concerned, however–she failed to detect Nemesis Kid’s imminent betrayal, because of his cloaking technology of the Khund’s. What else has she missed, she wonders? Who else could be hiding something from her? As she voices these concerns, Garth realizes that she’s actually performed these sorts of scans on all of the Legionnaires, not just the new ones.
Episode 7
The Legion is honored by the United Planets for their role in defending in the earth. However, privately, Garth confronts Imra about what he’s realized–she’s actually scanned all the Legionnaires recently, to determine their trustworthiness. Why has she done this? What gives her the right? She defends her actions, while refusing to expand upon them. The fact that she’s the Leader gives her the right, and he needs to trust her. But Garth is not satisfied.
Garth and Imra’s argument is interrupted by a schedule meeting of the entire Legion. At this meeting, Saturn Girl adds her commendations to the team for their bravery in the recent crisis. Turning to new business, she is told that there are several new applicants for the team that need evaluating. Saturn Girl assigns a committee led by Colossal Boy to review the applicants and to submit likely candidates at the next meeting. Annoyed, Colossal Boy picks Lightning Lass and Ultra Boy to review these hopefuls.
In the meantime, the three new Legionnaires (Karate Kid, Ferro Lad and Princess Projectra) are ordered to report for Legion training by Bouncing Boy. They think this is silly, since they have already served as active members. But Bouncing Boy says this doesn’t change their active member status, it just means they are taking the opportunity to better prepare them for future missions.
Meanwhile, the Science Police call the Legion asking for assistance with a case on the Planet Mardru, where a vault was broken into by melting into it. Sun Boy is assigned to have a look because of the similarity with his powers, and Triad and Shrinking Violet are chosen to go with him. They travel to Mardu using the local Stargate. Shrinking Violet, in particular, is excited to be working with Sun Boy, with whom she’s a bit smitten. However, she is disappointed when it turns out that they are working with science police officer Gigi Cusimano, an attractive young woman with whom Sun Boy begins to flirt.
The meeting over, Imra continues to talk to Garth, and eventually convinces him that it’s not the right time for a full disclosure. But she agrees that it will eventually come. For the moment, she must finish what she is doing, for the sake of the Legion and for the sake of the galaxy. Reluctantly, Garth agrees to not push the issue.
Colossal Boy and his committee find most of the prospective members are not suitable Legionnaires. They include Chlorophyll Kid (makes plants grow fast), Color Kid (temporarily changes the color of objects), Stone Boy (turns to stone, but can only move very slooowly in that form) and Spider-Girl (has prehensile, but difficult to control, hair). Afterwards, the rejected hopefuls commiserate with each other–all are disappointed, but Spider-Girl is angry and storms away in a fit.
Later, the others are approached by a stranger. This turns out to be Polar Boy, who has an offer to make to them.
The only applicant that the team feels they can recommend is actually Brin Londo, who now calls himself Timber Wolf, and has come to earth to take the Legion up on its offer. The committee is impressed by his display of power and of course Lightning Lass is excited to see him again.
Sun Boy and his squad investigate the crime, and discover it is the work of Zaxton Regulus, a disgruntled scientist who used to work for Sun Boy’s father. When his was blamed for a fatal accident at work, he lost his job and sought revenge against his employer by attempting to murder his son. However, his efforts only resulted in young Dirk Morgna gaining the power that allowed him to become Sun Boy.
Since then, Regulus has used artificial means to give himself similar abilities, and is now stealing the material he needs to further his illegal experiments. Sun Boy and the others track him down only to realize they’ve been lured into a trap. Regulus imprisons Triad, Shrinking Violet and Officer Cusimano, and then steps forward to kill Sun Boy.
Meanwhile, Brainiac 5 interrupts Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl’s conversation, and announces that there is a project that demands their attention. To explain, he brings in an unexpected visitor: Superboy.
Episode 8
Superboy has arrived from the past because Brainiac 5 is ready to help rescue the figure that he recognized in the time-stream previously: a powerful youth known to him as Mon-El.
Meanwhile, Shrinking Violet is able to use her powers to escape Regulus’ trap, and assist Sun Boy, giving him the opportunity to fight back. A furious battle ensues which is only stopped when Regulus threatens Officer Cusimano. As Sun Boy works to protect the Science Police officer, Regulus escapes.
Back at HQ, Superboy tells his story to the Legionnaires present. Two years ago (from his perspective) a cross-dimensional ship unexpectedly “crash-materialized” on earth, with its lone inhabitant proving to be a boy only a bit older than him, who had lost his memory. However, he had powers similar to Superboy’s and a star chart that had belonged to Superboy’s father, Jor-El. Superboy wondered if this man might even be a brother to him, but even if not, they became like brothers. The young man took on the name Mon-El, after the Kryptonian word for “brother” and after Superboy’s Kryptonian name. Mon-El briefly become a terrific hero on earth, and was even stronger and more powerful than Superboy.
However, in the course of things, Mon-El contracted a form of lead poisoning, which proved to be devastating for him. In the agony of his sickness, his memory returned–he was really Lar Gand, from the reclusive planet Daxam, who left to go exploring in the dimensional jump-ship. His first visit brought him to Krypton shortly before its destruction. He acquired the map from Jor-El, who warned him to leave as quickly as possible.
On his next jump, the ship malfunctioned and threw him through time to Superboy’s time which such force that he lost his memory. His physiology being similar to Kryptonians, he gained his powers once was on earth, but with a different weakness. However, he never had a real brother, and had been honored that Superboy looked to him like one.
Desperate to save his new friend’s life, Superboy had tried to repair the jump-ship, and to use to send Mon-El back to Daxam to be helped by his own people. However, the repairs were unsuccessful and in another explosion Mon-El had disappeared into a dimensional void. Superboy assumed he was dead until he caught a glimpse of him during the incident with the Time Trapper. Brainiac 5 had been working ever since to find this time-lost man and bring him back. Brainiac 5 developed a plan about how this might be done, but with the help of Computo, he saw he was on the wrong path. Now, he and Computo have figured it out, and they are ready to institute their plan. The Legion overall agree that this is a worthy task and commit themselves to helping.
Once this is decided, Colossal Boy interrupts Saturn Girl to introduce her to Timber Wolf. She tells him that they will have to postpone making a decision on his membership until this rescue mission is over, but in the meantime he can join Bouncing Boy’s training exercises.
Sun Boy, Gigi and the other Legionnaires attempt to track down Regulus, which brings them back at one point to Sun Boy’s father and his company. Shrinking Violet comes to realize that a lot of Dirk’s flirty personality comes from the terrible example set to him by his father, and comes to feel sorry for him and gets past her infatuation. Thanks to information they gather on this mission, the team is able to track down Regulus to his hiding place, and successfully apprehend him.
While final preparations are being made to recover Mon-El, Saturn Girl receives a visitor: Nura Nal, the precognative who predicted Lightning Lad’s death. Saturn Girl is concerned to see her. Colossal Boy is suspicious of her claims to be able to see the future, but Star Boy just finds he’s a bit gob-smacked by her beauty.
Nura shares that in recent weeks, she’s had increasingly disturbing dreams (where her abilities primarily manifest) of a cataclysmic attack which will change the shape of the earth, the Legion and even the entire galaxy, forever. Saturn Girl suggests that this could have been fulfilled with the Khunds recently, but Nura insists that her dreams have remained even after they were defeated, but that also the focus of the warning is not an entire race…but rather one, single individual. He is coming, her dream is telling her. He is coming soon. And he is angry…so angry that perhaps no one will survive.
Meanwhile, Brainiac 5 and Superboy, with help from others, run their experiment. With Computo running a hundred million calculations per second, a vortex is opened into the dimensional void, and Mon-El is traced. A figure appears in the void, blurry and indestinct. Using his great power, Superboy reaches through a takes hold of the figure and pulls him through.
However, the weakened and confused figure is not Mon-El at all, but an older man with long white hair. When asked his name, he looks at them with barely concealed malevolence, and whispers, “Mordru.”
To Be Continued!
Coming soon, in the second part of Season Two…
Blue Towel Productions 