Adventure Comics #378 (On Sale: January 28, 1969) has a Legion of Super-Heroes cover by Neal Adams."Twelve Hours to Live" is by Jim Shooter, Winslow Mortimer and Jack Abel. At a celebration of Brainiac 5's birthday, five Legionnaires are poisoned. Brainiac 5 analyzes the poison and determines that it will kill each of them in twelve hours. Brainiac 5 uses the time to find a cure. Superboy returns to the 20th century and attempts to stay busy. Duo Damsel returns home to visit her parents for the last time. Karate Kid tracks down the Fatal Five on a suicide mission. Projectra mopes around the city until she meets Myron Marks, who lifts her spirits.
As the twelve hour period comes to an end, the poisoned Legionnaires return to headquarters. Brainiac 5 admits that he could not find an antidote. The Legionnaires then compose a will, before each succumbs to the effects of the poison. Brainiac 5 makes one last effort to save them using the Miracle Machine, but he runs out of time. When all the Legionnaires fall unconscious, their killer gloats over his victory. Reprinted in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 9 HC.
Edited by Mort Weisinger.
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2 comments:
I loved this story. It was contemplative and introspective and Shooter showed once again what what a master of character nuance he was (and at such a young age!). Also, the story took a very unexpected turn in part 2 (next issue) and featured a whole different set of characters (Legionnaires, antagonists, etc.) What a shame the Legion lost their slot in Adventure a mere few issues later and were reduced to a few pages at the back of Action.
For some reason I don;t remember many of the Legion stories from the Shooter era. I remember the death of Ferro Lad and I remember the Adult Legion stories, but that is about it. The cast was so big that I never felt I knew enough about each character to care, but I remember being disappointed when they got the boot from Adventure.
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