One of the most endlessly fascinating individuals to join the Legion of Super-Heroes, over the years, was one "Brin Londo"... a.k.a., Timber Wolf.

Long, looooonnnnnnng before anyone working the Marvel Comics side o' the street thought about adding a surly, sulky, quasi-feral malcontent to the ranks of one of their "franchise" super-hero teams... writer Edmond Hamilton and penciler John Forte gave us undisputed COOL MOMENT THE TENTH: "Here, Boy! Fetch! Fetch the Stick, Now! That's a Good Boy -- !!" (a.k.a., "The Lone Wolf Legionnaire"; ADVENTURE COMICS #327). [See picture, below]

What rendered this particular character so especially appealing to LEGION aficionados, over the ensuing years -- and made said character such a durable storytelling "engine" in the service of countless plot arcs -- was the signal notion that he went through his existence entire harboring the gravest, most soul-deadening doubts, re: his own essential humanity. Even after changing his code name, years later, to Timber Wolf... he remained the tormented and existential "loner" within the larger ongoing LEGION team dynamic, overall.

Later on -- when a still-teenaged himself Jim Shooter assumed the writing chores for the title (he was thirteen years old, at the time.) (That's right: I said thirteen friggin' years old -- !!) -- the young scrivener introduced no fewer than four new Legionnaires in the course of his very first storytelling salvo: Ferro Lad; Karate Kid; Nemesis Kid; and (I swear to God; I'm not making this one up) Princess Projectra. [See cover reproduction, at the top of this page]

This led to any number of indispensable "cool moments," in turn... such as COOL MOMENT THE ELEVENTH: "... Step Outside and Say That, Mister Big-Deal Tough Guy...!" (a.k.a., "One of Us Is a Traitor!"; ADVENTURE COMICS #346).

Sensing that the seated Legionnaires in attendance during his "audition" for team membership seemed staggeringly unimpressed by his claims to have mastered the arcane secrets of "super-karate" (which, you've got to admit, isn't all that unreasonable a stance to take, at first blush; I mean... "super- karate"...?), the impetuous "Val Armorr" (i.e., Karate Kid challenges no less of a powerhouse than Superboy, his own blue bad self, to a little "rumble"... mano y mano.

He didn't win that particular shoving match, of course... but: "... anyone who can give me that kind of tussle belongs in the Legion!" (Superboy, page 12)

However: the real he-man "tough guy" to enter the team's ranks that day -- for my money, at any rate -- was the hideously scarred "Andrew Nolan" (i.e., Ferro Lad).

Other Legionnaires had fallen in the line of duty, by this point -- by the truckloads, for pity's sake! -- but: none so, I think, more nobly... or tragically.

Let's start with COOL MOMENT NUMBER TWELVE: "... Well... Geez... It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time...!" (a.k.a., "To Save a Galaxy!"; ADVENTURE COMICS #352). [See cover reproduction, below], and see how this particular "bit" played itself out.

A gargantuan mass of (quasi-)sentient super-heated plasma by the fearsome name of "The Sun-Eater"-- having earned that particularly creepy cognomen by dint of its pronounced tendency to, y'know, "eat" suns, and stuff -- is making an inexorable bee-line straight towards our own galaxy's lifestar.

This, of course, is A Very Bad Thing, indeed. The Sun-Eater -- in all the countless centuries it's been meandering its way from star-system to star-system, munching merrily away and (in so doing) dooming thousands of planetary civilizations to horrible, freezing mass extinction -- has never, ever been successfully thwarted; detoured; or even decently delayed. It's too damned big to push aside, and (from all indications) nowhere near sentient enough to be "reasoned" with... whether by means of telepathy, or what-have-you.

What it is, is: the biggest, most dangerous "cow" ever to wander from its allotted field, in search of newer, greener grazing pastures.

Even as (collectively) awe-inspiringly powerful as they are... the Legionnaires know that they have no... bloody... chance... WHAT. SO. EVER of stopping this elemental death avatar.

Not all by themselves, anyway.

However: it isn't just the super-heroes of our galaxy whose lives are imperiled by the coming of said menace, of course.

The Legionnaires enlist the aid of the five deadliest, most universally loathed (and loathsome) super-villains in the galaxy, in their increasingly desperate attempt(s) to beef up the power within their ranks for what will be (inevitably) a full-fledged, do-or-die showdown versus the unfathomable creature. Those five were:

Mano: ...whose very touch was so mind- bogglingly destructive, it could shatter an entire planet ;

Emerald Empress: ...whose mystical "Emerald Eye" totem -- a large-ish, floating, green-glowing orb -- could (and did) do practically anything its materialistic mistress asked of it;

Persuader: ...whose glowing "atomic axe" could slice through anything... and I mean A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G. Metal; diamond; force fields; gravity; LIGHT... you name it;

Tharok: ...a half-human cyborg whose intellect and cunning rivaled that of Brainiac V, himself; and whose inhuman cruelty was on a par with that of Torquemada... or the Marquis DeSade; and --

Validus: ... a monstrous, rage-fueled colossus; only dimly aware (at best) of his surroundings and situation, at any given moment... and more powerful than the rest of the Legion put together.

Ten points for the super-teens having their hearts in the right place, surely... but: minus ten thousand for not being savvy enough to foresee the obvious end-result of assembling five such amoral sociopaths together for any reason; for any length of time.

Thus was created -- by the Legionnaires themselves, mind -- The Fatal Five.

Don't let the little contretemps detailed in the page above fool you for one nano- second; this cheery little clan of cold-blooded killers was a going concern before you could say: "... on the other hand... maybe we really shouldn't leave all five of these nastybad nutbars in the same room together for more than thirty seconds, come to think."

In any event: said assemblage didn't help the Legionnaires one whit. Even with the added puissance of the Fatal Five yoked in tandem to their not-inconsiderable own... the Legion got its collective butt well and truly kicked by the Sun-Eater.

Kicked HARD.

You really owe it to yourselves to seek this story out, be it as "back issues" or in reprint format. It is -- quite simply -- the most one-sided butt-whipping in all of recorded comics history. Really and truly.

Good News/Bad News Time. The good news is: ultimately, the super-genius twosome of Brainiac V and Tharok manage to an explosive device with a payload so unimaginably destructive, it is all but guaranteed to reduce even the vast and (hitherto) unstoppable Sun-Eater to a few harmless wisps of free-floating atoms.

The bad news, however, is: said doomsday device is only certain to achieve the desired result if "activated" dead center INSIDE of the Sun-Eater.

... and that, of course, brings us to COOL MOMENT (UNLUCKY) THIRTEENTH: " 'Tis a Far, Far Better Thing I Do Now Than I Have Ever Done Befoaaaaaiiiiiieeeee -- !!" (a.k.a., "The Doomed Legionnairee"; ADVENTURE COMICS #353).

The noble Ferro Lad grabs the anti-Sun Eater mega-warhead; utilizes his mutant ability to transform his body into solid iron... and plunges headlong directly INTO the very "heart" of the implacable star-creature.

The bomb detonates.

The Sun-Eater... is destroyed.

... and -- just like that -- the single most discussed; debated; and deconstructed "death scene" in the entirety of the adventure comics genre secured its rightful place in history.

An appropriate enough juncture, I think, at which to observe the requisite moment of silence.

We'll pick up right here, next week, for the concluding chapters in our LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES history.

Legion of Super-Heroes (History): PAGE ONE

Legion of Super-Heroes (History): PAGE TWO

Legion of Super-Heroes (History): PAGE FOUR
Legion of Super-Heroes (History): PAGE FIVE