Sunday, February 9, 2014

From the Vault: Adventure Comics # 332





       The comic starts with a giant space monster attacking a ship. The creature shaped like a whale soon eats the cargo of ore and the crew on lifeboats end out a distress call. Nearby, returning from a one man mission Lighting Lad hears it and thinks they have to be exaggerating. He soon gets to the lifeboats and calls the space guard. The crew tell him the creature has headed for a nearby red asteroid.








        Lighting Lad soon arrives and is shocked to see the size of the creature. He sees it devouring metal from a nearby mine. Lighting Lad tries to use his Lighting power on it at the stun setting. However, the lighting reflects back tinged with poison and hits him in the arm. The creature speeds away. Lighting Lad tires to follow but begins to lose consciousnesses. But sets the automatic pilot to head back to the Legion clubhouse.
        Later, at the clubhouse they find him and see his hand is poisoned. Brainiac 5 says they need to work fast to save his arm and get Dr. Landphier expert on space-dwelling creatures. The doctor says that Lighting Lad arm has to come off or it will kill him. Later he wakes up and sees that he now has a metal arm. Saturn Girl says he will learn to use the robot arm like his old one. Lighting Lad says he will get revenge and kill the creature. Saturn Girl is shocked and says they must not kill it and that Superboy has gone to stop it. Nearby to Brainiac Saturn Girl says that Lighting Lad has become grim and brooding. Brainiac wonders if he has had a concussion. But says he will forget about it once Superboy is done. Superboy soon comes to the monster but is forced to flee as it gives off kryptionite radiations.    
       Back at the clubhouse Superboy tells of his failure and that Mon-El would have done it but that he is away. he wonders what its origin is. Dr. Landphier can't say but likes it to moby dick that destroyed Earth shipping far in the past and lead to a story about it. The beast is now called the super-moby dick. Son on a newscast they see that the government is offering 50,000 to anyone to stop the beast. Mercenaries see this and decide they an handle it and set out to stop him. They place metal bars in a meteor field and hid their
ships.




       Soon the moby dick comes and the ships spring their trap of a net on it. It fails and they flee as it nearly wrecks their ships. Back on Earth the doctor says he must go as its their responsibility. Brainiac 5 thinks this strange. Suddenly, Sun Boy comes up saying that he found a note from Ultra Boy saying that he went off to face the moby dock alone. Ultra Boy soon gets to the monster. He switches to Super-strength and tires to fight back.
        He fights it and is nearly stopped by the beating of its wings. He than is swallowed by it but luckily manages to switch to invulnerability. Inside the mouth he is reminded of how he got his powers from a similar thing. However, their is no shop to save him so he bangs his flightlight on one of its teeth. As a result of this it lets him out and he heads back to warm the Legion.
        They soon hear Ultra Boys report and state that their going after moby dick and that Brainiac 5 will be in command. A voice says no and that he will command. It is Lighting Lad. Saturn Girl wonders if he is fit for it. he says yes and uses a clause in the Legion Constitution which allows a person best knowing the danger to take command. Superboy says he has every-right despite not being normal. Lighting Lad soon orders them to blast off. It blasts off with some feeling grim and worried. Soon Brainiac 5 comes up to set the course and is told by Lighting Lad he does not too as he has it it under control. After this Lighting Lad woes to get revenge and they he will kill it.

    


             Soon on the path Lighting Lad hears that Moby Dick has been spotted near the asteroid Thanar. He sets course for it.
             Down below they worry about Lighting Lad how mentally unstable he has become. Superboy also worried tries to get Colossal Boy involved so that the Legion code is not broken. The Doctor below also thinks how this is his fault. Superboy and Colossal Boy leave the ship by the emergency airlock. They soon get to Thanar and Superboy sees it is attacking the mineral people who live on it. Below the people freak out.
             Superboy lands away from the creature and leaves to handle part of a plan. Colossal Boy than grows large and goes and fights the monster. He gets its attention and leads it to mountains away from the city. As they near where Superboy is we see that he has created a trap door and that Colossal Boy is to lead it to their and soon does.




          It fails at the last minute thanks to Lighting Lad showing up in the Legion ship. The ship almost crashes but Superboy saves it in the last minute. Lighting Lad gets out and is angry at the them and says their punishment will come later. Later on the ship Brainiac 5 and Saturn Girl see Dr. Lanphier coming out of Lighting Lad cabin but Saturn Girl due to them both closing their minds is unable to hear them.
         Soon Lighting Lad gets Ultra Boy to keep piloting and heads somewhere. Soon Saturn Girl sees Lighting Lad and the doctor doing something to his new arm. Soon Lighting Lad heads to the bridge to be informed that the creature has gone to the world of a hundred moons. Soon they land and head to a rocky atcrop. Lighting Lad than tries to use his new powerful arm. Saturn Girl wants him stopped.
         Superboy steps in front of the blast. However, the monster begins to try and get Superboy. Dr. Lanphier tries to save Superboy. To save the day the Legion force the monster to flee. They soon see that the doctor has been knocked out. Lighting Lad has ultra Boy take him back to Earth. They than head off to get the whale.

 


         However, the crew till him they are holding a meeting to strip him of command. During the meeting Lighting Lad escapes in a small ship and follows the moby dick. Soon he arrives at the world of the dead robots. He soon comes to the whale and plans to fight. However, it wrecks his ship and he barely gets his flight ring on.
         He is soon on the ground. Just as the Legion arrives Lighting Lad fries his more powerful lighting at it. The Legion thinks he has killed it. It has not as they land and see that in fact it is shrinking to a small size. Lighting Lad at this it was his plan as science had made it so big. He is also fine now as his concussion effects disappeared after Thanar.




         It seems that Dr. Lemphier was experimenting on the creature and used negative force to increase it in size. It destroyed his lab and it heads out to space. After that he tells Lighting Lad his secret on the ship. To stop it he had to keep acting evil. They visited the Dr in the hospital. The comic ends with a person telling Lighting Lad that it may soon be possible to grow a new arm for Lighting Lad a few years down the road.

Comments

This issue was not bad. A bit of a sci-fi take on moby-dick. Lighting Lad losing his arm is likely the best remembered part of it. The story itself is not bad and a good amount of Legion members are used. I also find the idea of the affects of the concussion interesting. The artwork for this issue given from when it is from is also not bad. It has gotten significantly better compared to when the Legion first appeared.

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