Superboy v1 200

Superboy v1 #200 Preboot » Pre-Crisis Story title The Legionnaire Bride of Starfinger Previous story Superboy v1 199 (backup story): The Impossible Target Next story Superboy v1 201: The Betrayer from Beyond Publication date October 18, 1973 Cover date February 1974 Creators Writer(s) Cary Bates Penciller(s) Dave Cockrum Inker(s) Dave Cockrum Letterer(s) Ben Oda Colourist(s) Unknown Editor(s) Murray Boltinoff Cover artist(s) Nick Cardy

The Legionnaire Bride of Starfinger

Synopsis

At Legion Headquarters, Bouncing Boy learns that he has permanently lost his bouncing power and must resign from the Legion. Wandering the headquarters, he contemplates that the hardest part is that he will rarely get to see his girlfriend, Duo Damsel. He catches up with her after she has just returned from a space mission, and proposes marriage. Duo Damsel accepts, even though doing so means she will have to leave the Legion, as well. Their joy is cut short, however, when she realizes she has also lost her power and can no longer separate into two bodies.

Part 2: This Wife is Condemned

Brainiac 5 discovers that the reason for Duo Damsel’s loss of power is that she and her twin have already separated. Duo Damsel does not remember doing so, but, using a memory-prober, Brainy uncovers the truth: On her recent mission, one of her two selves watched helplessly as the other was spirited away by a giant, teleporting, dragon-like bird. Traumatized by the incident, the remaining twin blotted the incident out of her mind. She also returned to Legion Headquarters in secret to don a spare two-color costume so no one would suspect the truth. Telling Duo Damsel that her twin is lost for good, Brainy says she must put it behind her and prepare for her new, married life.

The next morning, the entire team gathers in three cruisers, except for Mon-El and Shadow Lass, who remain on duty at headquarters. The Legionnaires travel to Nix Olympica, a Martian resort, where the wedding ceremony is performed with nearly fifty guests in attendance. But just as Bouncing Boy is about to kiss the bride, she begins to glow and collapses. Brainiac 5 uses a medical scanner to discover that Duo Damsel is dying. Then, Starfinger – an old Legion enemy – appears. He carries Duo Damsel’s missing twin and announces that both twins will die unless the Legionnaires turn the bride over to him.

Part 3: The Secret of the Starfinger Split

Against Bouncing Boy’s wishes, Superboy carries his unconscious bride to a rendezvous with Starfinger. The villain knocks Superboy out of the sky with a red sun ray projected from his fingertips, then escapes with both twins.

Starfinger reminisces that it was he who sent the dragon bird, Warxi, to kidnap Duo Damsel on her last mission; as the bird managed to grab only one twin, Starfinger had taken the precaution of exposing them to poisonous gas to ensure that they would die if separated for long. Returning to his headquarters (a large spaceship that resembles his costume), he reveals that his purpose is to learn the secret of Duo Damsel’s power so he can divide himself into innumerable duplicates in order to rule the galaxy.

Meanwhile, a small task force of Legionnaires assembles. Saturn Girl uses her telepathy to tune into discs of Duo Damsel’s brainwave patterns and leads Brainiac 5, Cosmic Boy, and Superboy to her location. As they approach Starfinger’s spaceship, Saturn Girl picks up the villain’s thoughts and learns that he is about to create his first duplicate. Hearing this, Superboy suddenly speeds off.

Inside his spaceship, Starfinger uses a molecular ray on himself. A second Starfinger appears, but as the villain gloats over his success, the doppelgänger attacks him and knocks him out. The second Starfinger emerges from the spaceship carrying both Duo Damsel twins. Cosmic Boy magnetically destroys the duplicate’s costume, revealing that the duplicate is really Superboy. The teen of steel had flown back to Legion Headquarters and donned a replica of Starfinger’s costume in order to fool the villain.

Warxi, the dragon bird, appears and grabs Starfinger’s spaceship, then teleports away with the villain inside. However, Brainiac 5 is able to rejoin Duo Damsel’s two selves to each other and revive them before the poison proves fatal.

At Legion Headquarters, Mon-El and Shadow Lass decide to invite Superboy back as a full-time Legionnaire to replace one of the departing members. Unknown to them, a mysterious energy being watches and plans to fill the other slot.

Roll Call

Legionnaires

Feature roles:

• Brainiac 5
• Bouncing Boy (loses his power, marries Duo Damsel, and leaves the Legion in this story)
• Cosmic Boy
• Duo Damsel (marries Bouncing Boy and leaves the Legion in this story)
• Saturn Girl
• Superboy (Honorary)

Supporting roles:

• Mon-El
• Shadow Lass

Cameos:

• Chameleon Boy
• Chemical King
• Colossal Boy
• Dream Girl
• Element Lad
• Invisible Kid
• Karate Kid
• Light Lass
• Lightning Lad
• Matter-Eater Lad
• PhantomGirl
• Princess Projectra
• Shrinking Violet
• Star Boy
• Sun Boy
• Supergirl
• Timber Wolf
• Ultra Boy

Villains

• Starfinger

Supporting Characters

• ERG-1 (unidentified; as a disembodied energy form)

Wedding guests -- cameos only:

• Legion of Substitute Heroes
  • Chlorophyll Kid
  • Color Kid
  • Fire Lad
  • Night Girl
  • Polar Boy
  • Stone Boy
• Legion Reservists
  • Kid Psycho
  • Rond Vidar
• Heroes of Lallor
  • Duplicate Boy
  • Evolvo Lad
  • Gas Girl
  • Life Lass
• The Wanderers
  • Celebrand
  • Dartalg
  • Elvo
  • Immorto
  • Ornitho
  • Psyche
  • Quantum Queen
• Tornado Twins
  • Dawn Allen
  • Don Allen

Other Characters

• An unnamed priest

Planets and Settings

• Nix Olympica, Mars
• Metro-Center of Metropolis
• Metropolis Extraterrestrial Botanical Gardens

Technology, Gadgets and Other Neat Stuff

• The Legion's Visitape Library
• Brainiac 5's memory-prober

Alien Wildlife

• Warxi (Starfinger’s dragon-like bird)
• Eaglox birds (“sacred symbols” of the United Planets; only two exist)

Notes

Errors and Oddities

• One of the unexplained mysteries of this story is why, with almost fifty heroes present, the Legion chooses to send only four of its members after Starfinger.
• It is never explained how Bouncing Boy lost his power this time. The first time he lost it (in Adventure Comics # 321), it was the result of stepping in front of a shrinking ray.
• Superboy mis-remembers the Legion’s previous encounter with Starfinger (in Adventure Comics # 335 and 336). In that story, Dr. Lars Hanscom had no powers himself, but brainwashed Lightning Lad into masquerading as the villain and modified his artificial arm.

Easter Eggs

• J’Onn J'Onzz, the Manhunter from Mars, and Tars Tarkas of Barsoon (a character from John Carter, Warlord of Mars) also attend the wedding.
• Two nods to Star Trek:
  • Mr. Spock appears outside the Metro-Center (page 5, panel 1).
  • The “nerve-press” Brainy uses to render Bouncing Boy unconscious is remarkably similar to the Vulcan neck pinch, though applied to the temple instead of the neck.

First appearances

This issue marks the first appearance of the following characters and key Legion story elements:

• Light Lass’s dark blue costume

Other

• The date given for Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel’s wedding is October 28, 2973. While topical years must not be taken literally in Legion adventures, the month and day could be taken as “real”.

Reprints

The Legionnaire Bride of Starfinger has been reprinted in the following: