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    Superboy #21

    Superboy » Superboy #21 - Future Tense, Part 1 of 3: Making History! released by DC Comics on November 1995.

    Short summary describing this issue.

    Future Tense, Part 1 of 3: Making History! last edited by Darkside_of_the_Sun on 10/06/18 01:28PM View full history

    The intergalactic police force from the future, the Legion of Super-Heroes, have traveled back in time to find their friend Valor, and only Superboy can help them!

    Superboy is late for a history test (due to his previous adventure) and mentions to Hillary that he doesn’t need to study for tests since Cadmus implanted knowledge in him. This is a plot point in that this issue is the first where he mentions that school has moved past his implanted knowledge, “way past” in fact, since his friend mentions it was one of the easiest tests she’d had. The Legionnaires, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Brainiac, Triad and Chameleon arrive somewhere in Hawaii looking for their teammate Mon-El who SB trapped in the stasis zone (to save him from lead poisoning in issue 19). Saturn Girl realizes their teammate XS is missing. Brainiac tells them she must be lost in the time stream but they could look for her later. Roxy Leech is secretly studying for a test to join the police. A transformed Chameleon breaks through their house, the Compound and SB has a brief confrontation with the Legion since he doesn’t understand their language even though they try to reach out to him. All dialogue between Legion members during this fight is written in “interlac”, the Legion’s common language and an interlac alphabet is provided in the back of the issue. Saturn Girl mentions SB’s thought patterns are different from theirs, this could be due to the difference in time or race or something unique about Superboy’s mind. Brainiac solves the problem with ear telepathic plugs (although Dubbilex later manages to create a telepathic link which Saturn Girl failed at). He takes the Legionnaires to STAR labs and they try to re build the device that sent Mon-El to the stasis zone and they all (the Legionnaires and Superboy) get zapped away. The issue ends with Knockout moving in to the Compound.

    The translation of Interlac dialog is as follows

    Page 10

    • Cosmic Boy: - Should have seen it coming, I have point!
    • Braniac: - Be glad this isn’t 1950‘s, it was customary to nuke large Xenomorphs at that time.
    • Saturn Girl: - Oh,.. I’m sure that’ll make Cham feel a lot better

    Page 11 (panel 1)

    • Cos:- No Superboy! Friends! We’re frie—

    (panel 4)

    • All right. We’ll play this your way SB! But Magna-Ball champions always play to win.

    Page 12 (panel 2)

    • Brainy: - Finally! Hold him while I put in the ear telepathic plug.

    (panel 3)

    • Calm down SB I’m not performing a lobotomy, and I doubt it would change you very much if I did.

    Page 13 (panel 1)

    • Triad:- I’ve got him!
    • Cos:- Saturn Girl! Now! While he’s—
    • Sat:- --Distracted? Yes. I’m already establishing a mental link…but his thought patterns are..so different from ours!

    Page 14

    • This is ridiculous! It must be the 20 century ‘fight-then-team-up’ syndrome I’ve read about!

    Translation was published under "Kid Stuff", the fanmail section, in part 3 of Losin' It (issue #27)

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