Longbox Review

Here’s a comic chosen at random from my collection.

Adventure Comics #369 by Jim Shooter, Curt Swan, Jack Abel, Gaspar Saladino, Charlotte Jetter, and Neal Adams

I first read this story in Limited Collectors’ Editions (the tabloid comics DC Comics put out in the mid to late 1970s) #C-49. It was probably one of the first Legion comics I read (after Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #254 and DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #8) and what a whopper! Mordru escapes his prison and some Legion members go on the run to the past, specifically Smallville in Superboy’s time. They take on alternate identities and even fight crime, all while trying to evade Mordru’s gaze, but the issue ends with their efforts foiled. What happens next?!

I like how the story starts in media res and then we get a flashback explaining what happened, along with nearly three pages of back story in case you didn’t know who Mordru is and his impact on the Legion (hint: he’s one bad mutha!). What I really enjoy about this issue is watching the Legionnaires infiltrate Smallville residents’ homes — it was a simpler time when someone’s word was enough for you to be welcome, even if they were lying to your face. There’s also Shadow Lass in white skin makeup again (I wonder if readers of this issue thought this is where she might perish?) and Duo Damsel flirting with Superboy (she really settled for Bouncing Boy, huh?). And it is Lana Lang who betrays them all!

If you haven’t read this story and you’re curious, you can find it in the aforementioned Limited Collectors’ Edition, in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 8, or on the DC Universe app.