Superboy #200
Published and © by DC, January-February 1974
Title: “The Legionnaire Bride of Starfinger”
Synopsis: Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel’s wedding is interrupted by Starfinger – who has plans of his own for the bride!
Writer: Cary Bates
Artist: Dave Cockrum
Review: Not even an incredibly lame villain – and Starfinger is plenty lame! – can mess up this fine wedding issue. Writer Cary Bates displays an increasingly sharp understanding of the Legion characters, and does a nice job allowing them to grow. His Legionnaires are growing up, a fact that helps set this series apart from many books of its time. On the art front, Dave Cockrum turns in his best issue to date, especially on the full-page splash of the wedding (which should have been allowed a two-page spread!)
Grade: B+
Second opinion: “The Dave Cockrum art is excellent.” – Martin Lock, Comic Media News #10, December 1973 …“A visually stunning tale with cameos from just about everybody the Legionnaires had ever met.” – Howard Stangroom, Comics Unlimited #39, September 1976 … “200’s wedding was an early pinnacle … Recommended.” – The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide (second edition), 2003
Cool factor: This wedding splash by Dave Cockrum is beautiful.
Not-so-cool factor: The ol’ “devoted wife” marriage mores feel awfully dated in the 30th century.
Notable: Marriage of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel. … In a 1998 interview in Comic Book Artist #6, Dave Cockrum said he left Superboy because DC refused to return the original art for the wedding splash page from this issue. Given what he went on to do – co-create the “All-New, All Different” X-Men for Marvel, with some characters he had been planning to use in the Legion – this has to rank as one of the greatest “what if?” moments of the Bronze Age.
Collector’s note: According to MyComicShop.com, there is a Mark Jewelers variant of this issue.
Character quotable: “And so, before all the stars in the universe, Luornu Durgo and Chuck Taine … I proclaim thee man and wife!” – Unnamed wedding officiant, decked out in his finest Cockrum dress wear
Editor’s note: This review was originally published by Comics Bronze Age on Jan. 14, 2010.
