Best of DC #24
Best of DC #24
Cover Credits
Artist: Ernie Colon

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Title: "The Ghost of Ferro Lad"
Pages: 22

Feature(s):
Legion of Super-Heroes (of Earth-1)

Writer: James Shooter
Penciller: Curt Swan
Inker: George Klein

Reprinted From:
Adventure Comics #357 (1967)

Feature Character(s)

Supporting Character(s)

Villain(s)

Synopsis:
The four Legionnaires who fought alongside Ferro Lad against the Sun-Eater, Superboy, Cosmic Boy, Sun Boy, and Princess Projectra, place a wreath at his memorial on Shanghalla, the cemetery satellite, then return to Earth, each obsessed with his memory. Meanwhile, a strange object from space pierces the walls of the Legion Clubhouse, and implants itself in the master control panel.

That night, the four heroes battle an unseen foe who causes nearly every object in the Clubhouse to attack them. After the barrage ends, a message burned in the wall indicates that Ferro Lad's ghost is haunting them, and Brainiac 5 and Saturn Girl, enroute to a law-enforcement convention on another planet, are summoned back to the Clubhouse to hear this news.

The ghost reappears to the foursome later that night and attacks, while Brainiac 5 attempts in vain to detect it with his equipment. When Saturn Girl tries to sense it with her powers, it shocks her into unconsciousness. The ghost departs after destroying Ferro Lad's belongings, and Brainiac 5 is as perplexed as the others.

After putting Saturn Girl in the care of doctors, the other Legionnaires hold a seance, with Princess Projectra as the medium, in an attempt to contact Ferro Lad's ghost. The ghost appears, and orders the Legion to disband, which they do. Superboy is about to return to the 20th century, when a ray suddenly teleports him before an alien called a Controller, who uses his mental powers to hold the Boy of Steel motionless.

The Controller explains that he had been sent to the Legion's universe as one of a number of his race ordered to police his sector and prevent intergalactic war. His weapon for this task was the Sun-Eater, and when the other Controllers were recalled, he alone refused to return. Instead, he tried to use the Sun-Eater to conquer the universe.

Because Ferro Lad's sacrifice ruined that scheme, he posed as the dead Legionnaire's ghost, and caused the earlier events. As he prepares to destroy Superboy, the Legionnaire's flight ring is activated by an unseen force, summonning his comrades, who arrive to save him. The Controller eludes capture and almost kills the Legionnaires, but suffers the alien equivalent of a heart attack and dies, when something unknown frightens him to death.

The Legionnaires, their morale restored, prepare to leave and wonder how Superboy could have contacted them. One possible answer: Ferro Lad's real ghost, which seems to follow them down a corridor.

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