Random Happenstance

From 1978, Kamandi #58, "Enter the Legionnaire!" Written by Jack C. Harris (with a thanks to Bob Rozakis), pencils by Dick Ayers, inks by Danny Bulanadi.

This was--perhaps not intentionally, or planned--the second-to-last issue for Kamandi, and this issue was a crossover with Karate Kid, which, like so many DC titles was being cancelled but still had to crossover anyway. (Usually, crossovers are meant to bring in readers, but counterintuitively, DC seems to have a lot of last issues trying to wrap up a series while also fulfilling some tie-in mandate.) The Legion of Super-Heroes Karate Kid, Val Armorr, had been trapped in the 20th century for some time; but he and his friend Iris Jacobs, aka 'Diamondeth,' are in the wrong future today, that of Kamandi and the world after the "Great Disaster." After a brief scuffle, Val and Kamandi have to team up, to try and free themselves from being trapped in movies, by lobster-men. Which is just the sort of thing that happened, in Kamandi's world!

With the help of Mylock Bloodstalker (and his faithful assistant Doile) the heroes manage to get free, by putting on a poor show until the lobster-men demand them replaced. They are all then picked up by the rest of Kamandi's supporting cast, in the alien Pyra's ship. Pyra explains to Val, while she had managed to turn Diamondeth back to human briefly, she had kind of freaked about the talking animals and aliens, and turned back; and now Pyra only had enough energy left to either return them to their own timeline, or turn Diamondeth back again. Somewhat surprisingly, Val opts to return, hoping the 30th Century might have a cure or treatment for Diamondeth. The Time Lord and Major Disaster, baddies from the Karate Kid series, watch over monitors as their foe eludes them, returning to his future. Iris/Diamondeth's story wasn't done: she would appear in Brave and the Bold #198, of all places; but she may have been in for some disappointment: she had maybe thought Val came back for her, but he was just inviting her to his wedding, to Princess Projectra. (Because I read the Legion mostly as digest reprints, before the start of the reprints of the Baxter series, I don't think I read any with Karate Kid until just before his death, in LOSH #4.)

Pyra and the others--she was kind of ramrodding things here, since she was trying to save her own people--push on towards "the Vortex--the power source of the Great Disaster that almost destroyed the earth," only to find "the Wondrous Western Wall," which seemed to stretch on forever, and seems like a really Kirby bit even if he had left a ways back. The next issue blurb for #59 also teases the return of OMAC, but does it in a way that makes it seem like he would be part of the storyline, not just a back-up feature!