Insist on the Planetary Chance Machine; harder to cheat that.

We've mentioned Chemical King before, a Legionnaire probably, sadly, best known for dying. I still think he got killed because his powers--speeding up or slowing down chemical reactions--involved more thought and research to write. Today, the Legion avenges him: from 1977, Superboy #229, "Hunt for a Hero-Killer" Written by Paul Levitz, pencils by James Sherman, inks by Jack Abel.

Previously, Deregon, the governor of Australia, had declared war on earth; as part of a conspiracy with "the dreaded Dark Circle." Chemical King had sacrificed himself, to get through a radioactive force sphere that even Superboy couldn't stop, preventing World War VII. Deregon was on the run, and current leader (and crabby jerk) Wildfire announces that five Legionnaires would be picked, randomly, by "brownian motion," since all 23 active members had volunteered. The "randomly" picked team includes Wildfire, tracker Dawnstar, Timber Wolf (who had known Chemical King longest) and heavyweights Superboy and Mon-El. Founding member Saturn Girl doesn't buy it, and claims it was also a break from tradition--yeah, Wildfire doesn't care, it's time to take the Dark Circle apart. The five attack the Circle's base, destroying tons of drone fighters.

Returning to earth, the founders--Saturn Girl and her husband Lightning Lad, and Cosmic Boy--visit a theme park, with Cosmic Boy's girlfriend Night Girl of the Substitute Heroes. They get a message relayed from headquarters, from the President of earth, saying Deregon was still on earth; and Saturn Girl wonders if she wasn't subconsciously seeking him out. She scowls down a Science Police officer, for not coming to them, because the Legion would avenge their own. (They even send Night Girl home, since she wasn't a member.) Deregon was hiding out at the park, not just from the Legion, but from the Dark Circle, since he had failed them. Fleeing blindly, he falls into a drainage ditch, and wallows in chemical waste.

The five away Legionnaires are teleported home--there were transporter-like devices in the series, sometimes? When convenient, like now. Cosmic Boy laments the Legion's code against killing, since Deregon deserved it; and Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad consider they probably would've changed a few things if they had written today, as opposed to when they were teenagers: I think married Legionnaires couldn't serve? Or non-teenagers? Amendments might have been coming. 

The Planetary Chance Machine was from a much earlier Legion story--Adventure Comics #319, "The Legion's Suicide Squad!" and also appeared in the classic Legion of Substitute Heroes Special. Little model planets were mounted on a spinning base, and when a planet would fall off, whoever gets beaned by it was picked. It is the doofiest damn thing ever, but probably should have been made by Wham-O in the sixties, even if it was obviously hideously unsafe. Feel like Wildfire wouldn't have been able to cheat that one.