by Russell & Siskoid
Real Name: Graah
Super-Power(s): Cast darkness; the power is temporary
Planet of Origin: Murra
Planet of Origin: Murra
Relationship to Legion: Villain; temporary Legionnaire
Legion Log
When super-powered agents from an unknown world decided to invade Earth, their preliminary step was to plant monitoring devices in the Legion clubhouse in order to learn of Earth's defenses. However, their actions alerted Saturn Girl, who with Brainiac 5 came up with a plan to draw the unknown forces out into the open. Saturn Girl and three other Legionnaires faked quitting the Legion, opening spots for these super-powered spies to take their places. Blackout Boy was one of the three spies who joined the Legion at this time.
The scientists on Murra had developed a machine that could create "super power pills" that when swallowed, gave the person temporary super-powers such as super-strength, invisibility, shape-changing, and mental telepathy. The three spies Aarl, Xaxan, and Graah took a supply of these pills with them to Earth, so that the Legion initially thought that each had incredible super-powers.
In order to infiltrate the Legion, the three spies then each took specifically designed pills to give them a unique super-power. Graah took a pill that allowed him to cast wide fields of darkness. He called himself Blackout Boy. He and his cohorts were successfully inducted into the Legion.
Blackout Boy and the other two spies made it look like they were attacked and injured by the invasion's spies. This was a ruse so that they would be brought back to the Legion clubhouse. They immediately knocked out their escorting Legionnaires in order to ransack the place. When they found what they thought were confidential documents regarding Earth's defenses, they returned to their natural Murran identities and left Earth. However, as soon as they escaped back to Murra the Legion then had a known destination, and followed them. The Legion made quick work of the super-power pills, the machinery, and the Murran invasion force.
Blackout Boy's real name was not used in the actual story. In the original story Blackout Boy was shown as a Caucasian. Reprints, starting with Adventure Comics #411, re-colored him as having yellow skin. That is the version that appears in Who's Who in the Legion (shown above).
The Murran spies did not appear during the Reboot or the Threeboot.
After Infinite Crisis, Blackout Boy's original history has presumably been more or less restored.
Only Blackout Boy story:
Adventure Comics #337
(reprinted in Adventure Comics #411, The Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 4
and Showcases Presents: The Legion Vol. 2)
Blackout Boy's one and done appearance
(reprinted in Adventure Comics #411, The Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 4
and Showcases Presents: The Legion Vol. 2)
The Spies of Murra hold a special place in my heart, not just because they had cool fake powers, and so much potential (did they even show up again?), but they were also in one of the first Legion stories I ever read.
ReplyDeleteI love the way the one guy thinks; "We'll keep guarding our thoughts..Protty II is telepathic."...right in front of Protty II! Cool teamwork at the end with Superboy, Brainiac 5 and Element Lad.
ReplyDeleteThe panels shown are from the reprint in ADVENTURE #411. In the original, the three Murran spies all used different face make-up and wore monochromatic costumes. Blackout Boy wore an all-blue ensemble.
ReplyDelete