Comic Book / Escape of the Fatal Five

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Escape of the Fatal Five! is a Legion of Super-Heroes storyarc published in Adventure Comics #365-366 (February-March, 1968). Jim Shooter wrote the plot and sketched the layouts which were penciled by Curt Swan. It was the proper introduction of Shadow Lass, who had previously made a cameo appearance in The Adult Legion.

Four Legionnaires -Superboy, Cosmic Boy, Brainiac 5 and Karate Kid- have been summoned by the United Planets to discuss planet Talok VIII's overnight transformation from a peaceful, prosperous trading planet to a brutal, warmongering world. Any attempt to communicate with the Talokites is useless because Talok's new warlords sealed off the planet six months ago, blasting to pieces any ship which attempts to land or leave Talok. Their ban includes Talok's main heroine herself, Shadow Lass, who was almost blown up when she was returning home from a mission.

The Legion agrees to investigate the situation, and the UP delegate proposes to take the Legionnaires to Talok using a stealth ship and drop them on the Great Desert surrounding Talok's capital city. From there, Shadow Lass can guide them through the desert and help them avoid Talokain patrols and infiltrate the citadel to take Talok's new masters out.

Several days later, five young heroes land on the Great Desert and slowly make their way to the citadel, but their path is blocked by a fortified wall full of well-armed guards. The Legionnaires don't dare to give away their presence, so they decide to take the long way around to reach the nearest pass, facing the dangers of the desert. Unbeknownst to the team, they are being monitored at all times by Talok's new mysterious ruler, who has predicted their arrival down to the landing spot and is ensuring that nobody and nothing interferes with their walk through the desert.

Several days later, the group arrive in the city and sneak into the central fortress at night. They are lurking around the palace when each of them is suddenly teleported to a different death trap, tailored to counteract their specific powers and abilities.

Tropes:

• Aborted Arc: One scene hints that Shadow Lass joined the team because she has a crush on Brainiac, who in turn is attracted to her, and both of them are completely oblivious to each other's feelings. This subplot was never followed upon, and in the next story arcs Shadow Lass began a romance with Mon-El whereas Brainiac 5 remained permanently stuck on Supergirl.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: After taking over the command and military centers of the United Planets, the Fatal Five attempt to break into the Legion Headquarters. Although the Legionnaires manage to drive the villains back, their base becomes destroyed.
• Antagonist Title: The story is named after a super-villain team.
• Antimatter: After getting suddenly turned into a military dictatorship, planet Talok VIII begins testing forbidden anti-tron bombs in space, which generate an anti-matter fallout which endagers Talok's neighbor worlds.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: At one point, the five-storeys-high, three-fingered, transparent-skulled, eyeless Validus rampages across Metropolis, punching holes in buildings, stomping on cars and terrifying passerbies.
• Beneath Notice: In order to cross enemy territory undetected, five Legionnaires disguise themselves as Yakka-Mahor, a tribe of mountain people who live in the mountains of planet Talok VIII and are regarded as simple-minded, inferior hillbillies. Thus, they are able to make their way through the Citadel unbothered.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Tharok builds a machine to brainwash the whole population of Talok VIII into serving him and attacking the Legion. When his machine gets smashed, the Talokite soldiers become frozen on the spot.
• Breaking the Bonds: Superboy is trapped in a tiny metal sphere which is slowly shrinking and crushing him. Superboy manages to break free by using all his super-strength to shatter his prison.
• Captain Obvious: Right after the Legion landing on Talok VIII, Brainiac 5 remarks they have landed:
  Brainiac 5: We've landed!
  Cosmic Boy: Clever deduction, Sherlock!
• The Cavalry: The Fatal Five seem to have defeated the Legion when a space fleet of the United Planets appear, forcing the villain team to flee.
• Combat by Champion: The conflict between the Legion and the Fatal Five ends with the former challenging the latter to a winner-takes-all duel, pitting our Legionnaires plus Shadow Lass against the Fatal Five. Despite their powers the Legion is being defeated when the cavalry appears in the form of the United Planets' space armada.
• Covers Always Lie: The cover of the final issue has Superboy and Validus fighting in a boxing ring as the Legion and the Fatal Five watch. In the actual issue, Superboy and Validus fight on the streets of Metropolis as the remaining heroes and villains are busy fighting each other.
• Crossing the Desert: The Legionnaires want to infiltrate Talok VIII's capital city, but their route is blocked by a huge fortified wall, so they must take a detour across the desert. Their journey lasts several days, crawling through rocky dunes wearing camouflage cloaks to prevent detection, suffering starvation, thirst and heat until they arrive at a steep mountain pass.
• Designated Girl Fight: When five Legionnaires engage the Fatal Five, Shadow Lass and Emerald Empress, Both groups' only female members, ignore all potential male adversaries and zero in on each other.
• Giant Flyer: As they are trekking through the rocky, bare mountains of Talok VIII, the five Legionnaires are ambushed by a flock of predatory, green-feathered Death-birds, so massive that they can carry one human in one claw.
• Giant Foot of Stomping: During the final battle, Superboy is crushed by Validus' massive foot.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: Shadow Lass, the heroine of planet Talok VIII, is a beautiful, blue-skinned woman, clad in skimpy black leotards and a cape.
• Hollywood Mirage: Invoked. While crossing the thirsty Talokite desert on foot, the Legionnaires spot an oasis. Shadow Lass mumbles it must be a mirage, as said oasis isn't on the maps, but the team checks it is real.
• Homebase: The Legion's original Legion Club-House was a rocket-shaped, multi-storied base before being destroyed by the Fatal Five. Many years later, in Superboy (1949) #211, the Legion's old Club-House was reappropriated and repaired by the Legion of Substitute Heroes.
• It's Raining Men: Five Legionnaires infiltrate Talok VIII to overthrow a dictatorship by parachuting onto the planet, using anti-gravity parachutes, from a spaceship.
• Kneel Before Zod: When fighting to the Persuader, Cosmic Boy falls on all fours after getting a brutal punch to his stomach. Smugly, the Persuader demands that Cosmic Boy crawls before him.
• Kryptonite Is Everywhere: As a measure of security against Superboy, the warlords of Talok VIII have stockpiled Kryptonite, even though it should be incredibly hard to find thousand years after the demise of Krypton.
• Life-Giving Oasis: While crossing the harsh desert, the Legionnaires spot an oasis, and stop to drink and rest, taking advantage of the cover of the bushes to remain hidden from enemy patrols.
• Lured into a Trap: The Fatal Five take over Talok VIII and turn the planet into a dictatorship, expecting to bait the Legion of Super-Heroes into trying to free the planet. The Legionnaires infiltrate Talok, cross a desert, sneak into the Citadel, unaware that they have been constantly monitored and their route has been pre-programmed, and then they are imprisoned and power-drained.
• Never Accepted in His Hometown: Downplayed. Shadow Lass is the heroine of planet Talok VIII. When she is coming back home after a mission, she narrowly avoids being blasted to pieces by her own people. However, their hostility is caused by some unknown party taking over the planet and turning it into a military dictatorship.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Five Legionnaires are tricked by the Fatal Five into powering up a machine to break the dimensional barrier which had kept them trapped in a pocket universe since the battle against the Sun-Eater.
• No Honor Among Thieves: Although the Fatal Five are allegedly a team, they would turn against each other in one second if their leader Tharok hadn't put Validus, the mightiest being in the galaxy, under his control. Even with that menace hanging over their heads, the Persuader and Mano are constantly at each other's throats.
• Numbered Homeworld: The Legion travels to planet Talok VIII.
• Prison Dimension: The Fatal Five had remained imprisoned in a pocket universe since The Death of Ferro Lad, when they were were blasted into another dimension by the clash between Validus' psy-bolts and the Persuader's axe.
• Puny Parachute: Five Legionnaires use parachutes which are around three-four meters in diameter to land on planet Talok VIII. Justified, since their parachutes are equipped with anti-gravity technology to slow their fall down.
• Sadistic Choice: The Fatal Five have taken over the United Planets's central government and accessed to the Universal Weapons Control Panel, which controls every weapon of every planet in the U.P. However, they need three keys to unlock the panel, and one of them is kept by the Legion. Since they are unable to break into the Legion's HQ, the Fatal Five threaten to destroy Metropolis unless the Legion surrenders the key: in other words, the Legion has to choose between condemning fifteen million people to death or three hundred billion people to slavery.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The eponymous villains, who had been trapped in a pocket dimensi n at the end of The Death of Ferro Lad, manage to syphon off the energy from several Legionnaires to break the barrier separating them from the real world.
• Sinister Surveillance: Despite their best efforts to be stealthy, every movement of the Legion has been carefully monitored by the villains since their landing on Talok, and they are actually being led around.
• Spoiler Cover: The identity of the villain who had taken Talok VIII and was monitoring the Legion was supposed to be a mystery which was spoiled by the very title flashing on the first issue's cover.
• Tailor-Made Prison: Five Legionnaires are captured by the titular villains and put in cells designed specifically for them: Karate Kid is imprisoned inside a giant, hollow, unbreakable diamond; Cosmic Boy is locked up in a narrow hallway where non-magnetic big metal balls fly through the air at high speed; Superboy is put inside a narrow, increasingly-shrinking sphere; Brainiac 5 is teleported into a room where spiked walls are closing in, and he cannot use his force field; finally, Shadow Lass is imprisoned in a chamber of glowing panels where she cannot generate shadows. Subverted, as their prisons are intentionally designed with a weak point in order to drain their powers when they manage to break free.
• Take a Third Option: The Fatal Five threaten to destroy Metropolis if the Legion fails to surrender the key which controls the U.P. Weaponry. Acting leader Superboy refuses to let Metropolis die or hand over the galaxy to the Five, so he challenges the Fatal Five to a winner-takes-all fight. Believing the four Legionnaires cannot win, the Fatal Five accept.
• Tap on the Head: When fighting Emerald Empress, Shadow Lass knocks the villainess out with a punch to the jaw.
• Tempting Fate: When the Legion is ambushed by hundreds of Talokite soldiers armed with bladed weapons and shields, Shadow Lass warns them against believing their weapons are harmless. Karate Kid scoffs at those old relics being dangerous, tries to crush one shield to pieces and almost gets his hand crushed. Angry, Superboy suggests his partner listen to Shadow Lass, who being a Talokite could guess her countrymen are using modernized versions of ancient weapons.
• There Was a Door: Tharok bursts into the United Planets Presidential Palace by blasting a hole in the ceiling. Meanwhile, the Persuader hacks a hole into the army headquarters' doors.
• Unwitting Pawn: Five Legionnaires land on Talok to stop whoever took over the world, unaware that they have been baited by the Big Bad, who wanted them to come to drain their powers and break out of his dimensional prison.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: The Fatal Five have almost defeated the Legion when reinforcements of the United Planets show up. Not even the five super-criminals can fight one whole armada, so they steal a Legion ship and flee.
• The Walls Are Closing In: Brainiac 5 is teleported by the villains into a room where the spiked walls are slowly closing in, which wouldn't be an issue if his force-field generator wasn't broken. To make matters worse, a high-pitched siren and flashing lights make it impossible to focus. Even so, Brainiac manages to build a mini-disintegrator ray using parts of his force-field belt and blast a hole in one wall.
• We Need a Distraction: While three of the Fatal Five wreak havoc across Metropolis, drawing every police and soldier on duty, Tharok and the Persuader break into the unguarded United Planets' Presidential Palace and army headquarters, capturing the President and take over the place.
• Your Size May Vary: Validus is always large, but he has gone from twice larger than a human in his first appearance to as tall as a building. His height may even vary from one panel to the next.