Thursday, November 11, 2010

This seems familiar somehow...


Familiar, yes, and not just for Superboy One Million's OMAC hairdo, either. (In fact, I was mildly dismayed to realize, I think I own more comics with Superboy One Million, than I do with OMAC.)

Set in the 853rd Century (I believe because, if it stayed on a monthly schedule, Action Comics would hit issue #1,000,000 then) the galaxy is protected by 24 Justice Legions. Justice Legion A is the big guns, the futuristic JLA; Justice Legion Z based on the Super-Pets. Somewhere in the middle, is Justice Legion S, made up of clones of Superboy. With OMAC hair, for some reason.

Even though it would've had to have been undisturbed for 83,000 years, Superboy One Million is looking for the JLA's Fortress of Solitude. When it's pointed out a team can't very well have a headquarters for aloneness, S-Boy admits he could be wrong here. But, he does find something interesting, frozen in the ice...the Guardian. The "real one," although that doesn't necessarily tell you if they mean the original, or one of the first clones of Jim Harper.

Admittedly, I'd rather have a sidekick named Trixie than Bucky. S-Boy's been trying to figure out what happened when Justice Legion A went back to the 20th century, since now it's looking like the JLA's gone rogue. Guardian, however, can't remember; so Millionex (an upgrade version of Dubbilex) uses his "temporal telepathy" to show his memories. At the past's Project: Cadmus, Guardian and new agent Superboy are showing around new scientist Serling Roquette; and Guardian is dismayed to see Dabney Donovan, one of DC's maddest mad scientists, is being kept anywhere near Cadmus. Those concerns are tabled, when they, and most everyone else on the planet, are suddenly infected with the mysterious Hourman virus.

Later, Superboy meets the Superman of the 853rd century, who uses his "super-e.s.p." to show him hints of his future, namely a bunch of things that would happen in upcoming issues. But, with Superman-A pushing forward, and Millionex pushing back, they open a time rift that nearly swallows Superboy. The future Superboy uses the power of the eye (which looks a lot like OMAC's Brother Eye) to feed power to the original, helping him save himself. Millionex can't see what else happened then, but Guardian remembers meeting the future Superman at Cadmus, where he would get the tech to try and fight the Hourman virus. (And in a subplot for future issues, Guardian is pushing against the notion that Cadmus should reveal it's secrets to the world.)

From Superboy #1,000,000, "OMAC: One Million and Counting!" 'Story program and graphic assists' by Karl Kesel, 'graphic template' by Tom Grummett.

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