FATAL FIVE VS THE LEGION OF SUPERHEROES

For this weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog we’ll take a look at the early stories of the Legion of Superheroes’ archenemies the Fatal Five. For my recent review of 1970s Legion tales click HERE.

ADVENTURE COMICS VOL 1 #352 (January 1967)

Title: The Fatal Five

Legion Roster: Superboy, Cosmic Boy, Princess Projectra, Sun Boy and Ferro Lad

Villains: The Fatal Five (Emerald Empress, Tharok, Validus, the Persuader and Mano)

Synopsis: In the 30th Century, a space entity called the Sun Eater devours a star, causing the destruction of all life on the planet that orbited it. The Science Police had charted the Sun Eater’s path and warn Earth that its sun is next on the menu for the being.

The only Legion of Superhero members that are not already away on missions are Cosmic Boy, Ferro Lad, Sun Boy, Princess Projectra and Superboy. With a mere two days before the Sun Eater arrives to feed on Earth’s sun, the Legionnaires convince the United Planets to let them recruit the Fatal Five, the collective nickname for the most dangerous criminals in the universe.

The Fatal Five are Tharok, a cyborg whose cybernetic brain makes him more intelligent than Brainiac 5; Validus, a huge purple monstrosity whose insanity drives it to perpetual violence; the Emerald Empress, evil ruler of an entire planet whose populace recently won a war to overthrow her; the Persuader, a killer and plunderer whose armor and Atomic Axe make him unstoppable; and Mano, a mutant whose hand wields energies so powerful that the hand destroyed his entire home planet.

With the Legion and Fatal Five assembled, the ten figures prepare to face the approaching Sun Eater.

ADVENTURE COMICS Vol 1 #353 (February 1967)

Title: The Doomed Legionnaire

Legion Roster: Superboy, Cosmic Boy, Princess Projectra, Sun Boy and Ferro Lad

Synopsis: Tharok’s genius lets him devise high-tech chambers in which all the Legionnaires and the Fatal Five members can temporarily increase their powers many times over. It is hoped that this will allow the ten of them to destroy the Sun Eater.

Tharok surreptitiously uses Validus’ time in the chamber to take control of the creature’s mind, making the immeasurably powerful Validus his lackey.

The superpowered figures clash with the approaching Sun Eater, but even with their powers amplified they are still not powerful enough to defeat the cloud-being. Tharok’s cyborg instruments have been evaluating data all through the battle, and this enables him to devise an Absorbatron Bomb capable of destroying the Sun Eater.

The complication is that whoever uses the Absorbatron Bomb on the cloud being will also die. Superboy volunteers to be the sacrificial Legionnaire, but Ferro Lad beats him to it. The Fatal Five then take advantage of the heroes’ grief over Ferro Lad’s heroic death to attack them and announce their plan to take over the universe.

Amid the cosmic energies unleashed during the clash, the Fatal Five disappear, and the Legion wonders if they were destroyed or were involuntarily teleported away.

Days later, when all the other Legionnaires are back from their respective missions, the full roster holds a funeral for Ferro Lad and buries him on the planet Shanghalla. Other Legionnaires who die in the future, like Invisible Kid, Chemical King, Reflecto, Shadow Lass, Quantum Queen, etc, are also buried there.  

ADVENTURE COMICS Vol 1 #365 (February 1968)

Title: Escape of the Fatal Five

Legion Roster: Shadow Lass, Karate Kid, Brianiac 5, Cosmic Boy and Superboy

Synopsis: The United Planets has the Legion of Superheroes accept Shadow Lass as their newest member. She was the superheroine guardian of her homeworld Talok VIII. While she was off on a mission, the planet turned warlike during her absence and has become an aggressor world intent on conquest.

The Legionnaires leave their HQ in 30th Century Metropolis and fly to Talok VIII to investigate. They fight their way past high-tech defenses and death traps and learn that the Fatal Five are responsible for Talok VIII’s changes.

The villains had wound up in a dimensional warp during their previous clash with the Legion, then used an interdimensional window to escape to Talok VIII. Tharok created a mind control device which enslaved the planet’s population, turning it into a base for the Fatal Five’s plans for an intergalactic empire.

For the cliffhanger ending, the quintet of villains escape on a spaceship, leaving the Legionnaires behind, surrounded by the planetwide army of Talok VIII.

ADVENTURE COMICS Vol 1 # #366 (March 1968)

Title: The Fight for the Championship of the Universe

Synopsis: While the Legionnaires battle the untold numbers of Talok VIII’s armies, the Fatal Five move on to the next phase of their plan. They go to Earth and fight their way past all of the United Planets’ defenses and take over the President’s Palace and the Military Center. 

The Fatal Five thus obtain two of the three fobs/ keys to the Universal Weapons Control Panel. That panel will give the villains remote control of the high-tech weapons of every single member world in the United Planets.

Learning that the third and final fob/ key for that control panel is locked inside the Legion of Superheroes headquarters in Metropolis, the Fatal Five rush there, only to meet resistance from the Legionnaires they left behind on Talok VIII. It turns out the Legion members managed to find and destroy Tharok’s mind control device.

They then had Talok VIII keep it a secret that they had survived, and they raced back to Earth to prepare for the Fatal Five’s next maneuver. In the destructive battle that ensues between the two superteams, Legion headquarters is irreparably damaged.

Before either team can win out, the United Planets fleet of starships arrives on the scene to help the Legion. The Fatal Five hijack a Legion ship and fly off, losing all pursuit. Our heroes have a new HQ built in their next issue. 

ADVENTURE COMICS Vol 1 # #378 (March 1969)

Title: Twelve Hours to Live

Synopsis: While the Fatal Five remain in hiding, refining their plans for conquest, back at Legion Headquarters Brainiac 5 celebrates his birthday with Superboy, Duo Damsel, Karate Kid and Princess Projectra. 

Villains slip rakurga poison into the kono juice that the celebrating heroes are drinking. Brainiac 5 does an intense study and learns there is no cure for such poisoning. They will all die in twelve hours.

Each of the five dying Legionnaires try to come to terms with their imminent deaths in their own way. Karate Kid resolves to die heroically, in battle.

He uses the Science Police computers to locate the likely hideout of the Fatal Five, then uses an experimental Warp Ship to arrive there in a short time. Karate Kid pushes himself to his limits, suicidally taking on the quintet of villains single-handed.

The Kid is about to fall to Validus when destruction caused by the battle makes the Fatal Five’s hideout spaceship explode. The villains escape in a spare spaceship and the Science Police find the barely alive Karate Kid amid the wreckage.

Brainiac 5 at last remembers that the Legion’s ultimate boring deus ex machina – the Miracle Machine – can save them from the rakurga poisoning.  

SUPERBOY Vol 1 #190 (September 1972)

Title: Murder the Leader

Legion Roster: Phantom Girl, Mon-El, Invisible Kid, Dream Girl, Chemical King, Ultra Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Shadow Lass and Bouncing Boy

Synopsis: Mon-El’s term as leader of the Legion of Superheroes has come to an end. The other members have been voting on a new leader and the two remaining candidates are Saturn Girl and Mon-El, each of whom has experience leading the Legion.

Mon-El privately confides in Saturn Girl about some doubts he’s had about his leadership recently. The Fatal Five interfere with the process via Tharok’s teleportation technology. A battle unfolds on a deserted planetoid, but in the end our heroes prevail and Mon-El gets his confidence back. 

SUPERBOY Vol 1 #198 (October 1973)

Title: The Fatal Five Who Twisted Time

Legion Roster: Superboy, Brainiac 5, Karate Kid, Shrinking Violet, Element Lad, Chameleon Boy, Princess Projectra, Mon-El, Colossal Boy, Chemical King

Synopsis: When the Fatal Five steal a two-component Time Sorter from a heavily guarded installation, Mon-El suspects that the villains may use the device to travel back to when Clark Kent still lived in Smallville as Superboy.

He sends Brainiac 5, Karate Kid, Chameleon Boy, Princess Projectra and Element Lad back to 20th Century Smallville in a Legion Time Bubble. They are to warn Superboy and recruit him into the search for the Fatal Five.

The Emerald Empress and the Persuader attack Clark Kent and Lana Lang at a carnival. Clark becomes Superboy and is defeated by the villains and rendered comatose inside what the Emerald Empress causes to look like a statue dedicated to Superboy.

The time traveling Legionnaires realize they are too late and battle the two members of the Fatal Five. Back in 30th Century Metropolis, Mon-El and the others try piecing together what the Fatal Five’s plan may be when they AND their headquarters simply fade away.

Tharok, Validus and Mano arrive on the spot to gloat at the empty lot which now stands where the Legion HQ once stood. Tharok boasts that he and his teammates installed the second of the Time Sorter components at the Legion building just as Persuader and the Empress hid theirs in 20th Century Smallville.

The Fatal Five are trying to make it so that Superboy disappeared in the 20th Century and the future Legion of Superheroes was never formed. After 24 hours the changes they inflicted will be permanent. The handful of Legionnaires in Smallville race against time to find the 20th Century component of the Time Sorter.

Chameleon Boy impersonates Mano, claiming to have been sent back from the 30th Century by Tharok to see if the two Fatal Five members in Smallville needed help. Princess Projectra creates an illusion of Validus, too, making the Emerald Empress and Persuader think that the four of them can now wipe out our heroes.

Chameleon Boy and the Princess reveal their deceptions as Brainiac 5, Karate Kid and Element Lad find the hidden component of the Time Sorter and destroy it. This undoes the Fatal Five’s plan but since they and the Legionnaires were at the center of this reshuffling of time they all remember what happened.

Brainiac 5 and the rest of the 20th Century away team return to the 30th Century where their HQ is just fine and the other Legionnaires all exist.

NOTE: Considering that Lana Lang sometimes served with the Legion of Superheroes as Insect Queen it’s a shame they didn’t have her, too, take part in fighting the Fatal Five. 

LEGION OF SUPERHEROES Vol 1 #219 (September 1976)

Title: The Plunder Ploy of the Fatal Five

Legion Roster: Colossal Boy, Lightning Lad, Sun Boy, Brainiac 5, Superboy, Light Lass, Duplicate Boy, Saturn Girl, Ultra Boy and Shrinking Violet

Villains: The Fatal Five (Tharok, Validus, Emerald Empress, Mano and the Persuader)

NOTE: The Fatal Five are the Legion’s deadliest recurring foes.

Synopsis: When the Fatal Five are stealing micro-circuits from Imsk, the home planet of the superheroine Shrinking Violet, Duplicate Boy is left near death from the battle. While Saturn Girl tries to use her psionic powers to enter his unconscious mind and activate his healing powers the other Legionnaires resume their battle with the villains across the universe.

Near the planet Rerel, the Legion fails to stop the Fatal Five from stealing that world’s most up to date technology for making androids, complete with synthetic flesh. At the six-mooned planet Cyrem, the villains defeat the Legion when they try stopping the Fatal Five from literally breaking off half of that planet and escaping with it.

The quintet also succeeds in stealing poison gases from the planet Zeffro, leaving our heroes to regroup and ponder why the Fatal Five have stolen such disparate items. Brainiac 5 eventually deduces where the Fatal Five are hiding and what their plan is.

He directs the Legionnaires in action as they find the moon-sized planetoid that the villains have sculpted the stolen half of Cyrem into, complete with the seas full of enormous subaquatic creatures from the now-depopulated planet.

Thousands of androids have been created by Tharok to serve as peasants and a new royal court for the Emerald Empress, the poison gasses have allowed Tharok to terraform part of this new planetoid into an area in which Mano can breathe without equipment, since that part of the planet’s atmosphere is now like the villain’s homeworld.

The enormous fish creatures serve numerous purposes, including letting the Persuader indulge his lust for hunting and killing. Validus, of course, is mindless without Tharok’s control and wants nothing, and Tharok himself tries to use synthetic skin to make a flawless disguise for himself.

In the final battle, Emerald Empress, Mano and the Persuader are defeated and captured, but Tharok and Validus escape. Saturn Girl’s efforts succeed in healing Duplicate Boy.

LEGION OF SUPERHEROES Vol 1 #231 (September 1977)

Title: A Day in the Death of a World

Legion Roster: Sun Boy, Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Superboy, Element Lad, Ultra Boy, Saturn Girl, Colossal Boy, Brainiac 5, Princess Projectra and Karate Kid

Villains: The Fatal Five

Synopsis: The Legion of Superheroes is working day and night to pull off an evacuation of all life on the planet Mordan before its sun goes nova. Princess Projectra and Karate Kid get captured by the Fatal Five who, for unknown reasons, are apparently trying to prevent Mordan’s population from being taken to safety.

On that planet, Ultra Boy, Mon-El and Superboy are pushing their powers to the utmost to construct evacuation spaceships. Colossal Boy, Saturn Girl and Shadow Lass are rounding up Mordanites and transporting them to the departure zone.

In space, Sun Boy, Element Lad and Brainiac 5 are probing Mordan’s sun to see why it is prematurely going nova and hopefully delay that disaster as a minimum. Soon the Fatal Five are forced to come out into the open and try to stop the Legion’s evacuation efforts, leading to long, destructive battles on Mordan’s surface and around its dying sun.  

Around the sun, the Emerald Empress and her Emerald Eye of Ekron attack Sun Boy, Brainiac 5 and Element Lad. Tharok remains on his impregnable spaceship with the captive Karate Kid and Princess Projectra.

On Mordan’s surface, Validus, Mano and the Persuader, as always wielding his Atomic Axe, ambush Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Superboy, Ultra Boy, Saturn Girl and Colossal Boy. The battles rage on and on, losing precious time needed for the evacuation. 

Tharok loses patience with his teammates’ ability to kill the Legionnaires and broadcasts holograms of himself to both battle locations, around the sun and on the surface. The cyborg does a Villain Rant, demanding that the Legion stop trying to evacuate the planet, or he will kill the two Legionnaires in his custody.

He also boasts about his team’s plan: Tharok planted a device in Mordan’s sun to accelerate its life cycle to make it go nova. The Fatal Five want this to happen with as many life forms as possible left on the planet.

The reason? Tharok discovered that the Mordanites and their world contain unique chemical properties which, when exposed to the energy of a sun going nova, will transform the entire population into pure energite, the most valuable substance in the 30th Century’s universe.

The Fatal Five will quickly steal away with the entire planet’s transmuted life forms before they suffer destruction and will possess enough wealth in energite to buy whole solar systems for themselves. Naturally, the Legionnaires refuse to stop fighting just to spare the lives of the two hostages and they resume their battle with the Fatal Five.

Eventually, the villains win and leave the Legion in a defeated heap on Mordan, then return to Tharok’s ship to subdue Karate Kid and Princess Projectra, who just escaped from their cells.

With our heroes tipped off about the details of the Fatal Five’s plan thanks to Tharok’s foolish Villain Rant, Brainiac 5 is able to devise a battle plan to defeat the villains. All the team members work together, and in the end they are able to free Tharok’s hostages, capture the Fatal Five and buy enough time to complete the evacuation of Mordan.

The Fatal Five seem to perish in the destruction of Tharok’s spaceship, but the Legionnaires aren’t counting on it.

NOTE: In my opinion, this Mordan tale was the best Fatal Five story ever.

LEGION OF SUPERHEROES Vol 1 #246 (December 1978)

Title: A World for the Winning

Legion Roster: Element Lad, Colossal Boy, Superboy, Shadow Lass, Sun Boy, Karate Kid, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy

Synopsis: Corvan IV, a planet with a formerly primitive society has suddenly become high-tech enough to merit requesting membership in the United Planets. The Legion learns that the Fatal Five have set themselves up as gods on Corvan IV ever since they teleported away from their exploding spaceship at the end of their previous battle with our heroes.

The Fatal Five, worshipped by the population of Corvan IV, shepherded them from their primitive culture up to 30th Century tech standards in an alarmingly short time. The villains want United Planets membership so they can openly operate from Corvan IV with diplomatic immunity.

The Legion inspection of the planet reveals monumental culture shock, with the Corvanites reeling and bewildered by their new high-tech existence which makes them dependent on their “gods” the Fatal Five. When the Legion recommends against United Planets membership, the Fatal Five revert to form and attack our heroes. Element Lad and Colossal Boy are captured.

LEGION OF SUPERHEROES Vol 1 #247 (January 1979)

Title: Savage Sanctuary

Synopsis: The Legion members and the Fatal Five battle it out on Corvan IV, further panicking the inhabitants. At length the Corvanites plead with both teams to simply leave their planet in peace while they try to cope with their lost innocence and disrupted societal evolution.

The Fatal Five acknowledge that, with the United Planets not granting membership to Corvan IV, there is no point in continuing the destructive battle since they will not have political asylum on that planet. They depart to resume their activities elsewhere in the universe, leaving the Legionnaires grateful just to be alive.

The overly cartoonish art used to depict the Corvanites tended to distract from this story. 

FOR THE LEGION OF SUPERHEROES TEAMING UP WITH THE JUSTICE SOCIETY AND JUSTICE LEAGUE CLICK HERE.

FOR JUSTICE LEAGUE AND JUSTICE SOCIETY CROSSOVERS CLICK HERE.